Insane Imaginings, Random Reveries & Other Creative Cogitation

In the midst of the Binary Birds series I was contacted out of the blue by an artist out of  Florida.  She commented on my painting Mother Night, which made me think about it some.  Since I am in the midst of my 100 Paintings projects I do not turn down any ideas that feed the muse.  So I revisited Mother Night this weekend while I was finishing hootsuite.

Both paintings had me in the night mode.  I am nocturnal.  I love the night, the stars, the moon, and the general quietude.  I am married to a morning person, so from about 8 PM to whenever I decide to rest, I get a big block of uninterrupted time; such a thing is precious to all artists-it allows you to get deep into your zone.

Mother Night's Embrace, by Jake Beckman. An abstract dragon unfurls its starry wings, embracing the moon. The negative space of the night sky forms the watchful eye of Mother Night.

I have been working in a square format for the last couple of paintings.  The NYC art show is coming up and the maximum dimensions of the works allowed are 25 x 25 inches, or other variant, so long as they do not occupy more than 50 x 25 inches.  25 x 25 is an odd size, but 24-inch square canvases are easy enough to come by. I don’t usually work in  a square format; I prefer rectangular canvases which lend themselves better to applying the golden section. So I embarked on a new version of Mother Night working in this alien square format.  After creating several sketches using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop, the image of the dragon creating negative space in the sky suggestive of an eye started to emerge.  Once I had that idea, everything sort of fell into place.

I think it is a such a cool idea I may have to explore it further. I love the images of the night, the moon and stars.  I also have an affinity for dragons and other flying critters as well.  And the idea of using negative space in this way also intrigues me some.

Mother Night’s Embrace clearly has nothing to do with the Binary Birds, but belongs to another series Abstract Concepts, so I have gone off the reservation for this one painting, and I hope you like it.

If you would like to purchase Mother Night’s Embrace, please see its page on my website; you can purchase it using Paypal.  Thanks for stopping by.

If you are in the New York City area between September 16 and September 30, 2010 – you can see Mother Night’s Embrace and a work from the Binary Birds series, hootsuite, at the Broadway Gallery, 473 Broadway in SOHO.  The Gallery is open Mon-Fri 10 AM-6 PM. The artists’ reception is from 3-6 PM Saturday September 25, 2010.  Looking forward to seeing you there. 

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

For a while I have been thinking Social Media Birds was not the best title, and then I am talking it over with someone at the Sunnyslope Artwalk and the phrase Binary Birds pops out.  At least its alliterative, so I think that is going to stick.

Technical difficulties distracted me from painting, as well as the end of tax season & some out of town company (which was fun, but not productive).  Then it was immediately back to doing Spring shows, but in Phoenix AZ USA it is starting to get pretty hot; yesterday was around 96 F & it was probably a lot warmer on the black top. I have one more show on May 20th, then nothing else scheduled until September in New York City.   Here is a picture of me schmoozing patrons at the Val Vista Lakes Community Market Saturday May 8, 2010.

Jake Beckman with patrons at the Val Vista Lakes Community Market May 8, 2010. Photo by Kristina Konen.

Yes, I am working it.  I used to say, “My art had better speak for itself, because I stink at it.” At this last show, one patron commented that I communicated my abstract subject matter very well. Even I can learn. 

I call my latest painting iPod Tweety.  It is such an obvious derivation I am surprised it did not occur to me immediately.   I think music sharing is one of the forerunners of social media.  Remember people creating and handing out CDs of their favorite tunes?  I know some people with hundreds of songs on their iPods, but these days an iPod is so much more than a music player, it’s and entertainment device,but my painting references the music usage.

iPod Tweety by Jake Beckman. One of Jake Beckman's signature Binary Birds dances to tunes on its iPod.

In addition to the title, iPod Tweety, which is the ASCII binary string at the extreme right, the code also reads: iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon, MP3, Zune, download, Songs from right to left and top to bottom.  When I debuted this work at the April Sunsets on the Plaza a young woman was pleading with her parents to buy it, but they did not relent so it is still available-for now.

For more details about iPod Tweety see  its art page at AKAJake.com.

What do you all think? Do you like it? Hate it? Think it’s derivative dreck or haute pop?  Inquisitive minds must know.  I have two more Binary Birds in the works.  Stay tuned.

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

This weekend, now nearly over is the big annual downtown Phoenix Art Show called Art Detour now in its 22 year.  The event kicks off with First Fridays, which has become the tail wagging the dog so to speak.  Although Art Detour was the big event for many years, the monthly party called First Friday receives a lot more attendance on the whole these days. I had planned to go to First Friday but just couldn’t make myself join the madhouse that event has become. It really doesn’t seem to be about art, but more about the party, which is fine – but not necessarily something I automatically think is a great idea on any given day.  But I still felt like I had to make it downtown at least once to see the people who routinely support me at the local art shows I do.  So I force myself to be a social animal and kicked myself out of my studio.

It was good to intersect with several people I had not seen in a while, but while the studios were open I think many artists/owners were absent & recuperating from the night before.  It was a quiet day to be about, but it was a clear-blue-sky bragging weather day in Phoenix AZ.   Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.  So, I didn’t just go to the studios but did a general walkabout in the downtown Phoenix area to investigate how the Convention Center remodel went, to see how the new ASU downtown campus came together and the overall progress of gentrification.  It appears gentrification was well underway but the recession has definitely halted things for now.  As for the art studios, some that were open before are closed now, some have changed hands, some have moved, and maybe there are a few new kids on the block as well.  The Art Detour Head Quarters was listed at the Phoenix Center for the Arts so I was expecting a pretty decent display there; in the old days it had a sample of art from all the participating galleries. Unfortunately this year it was literally a trolley stop with a few brochures – no art that I could see.  My overall impression of Art Detour on Saturday was underwhelmed. Anyway I took lots of pictures and edited them when I got home so you can check them out here if you like.

In the last few minutes I have receive a couple of tweets regarding this final day of Art Detour 22 1) Bring an Umbrella and 2) Greg Esser is promoting his new venture at Westwind Studios, 16th Street and Cypress. I didn’t make it over to Westwind yesterday; I wish Greg all the best.

So onto new art. While I was working on 2nd Story Job, which will be posted next, I did not have a second painting to parallel process in mind.  I got a piece of water color paper out, gesso-ed it on both sides then thoughtfully dripped, drooled and spattered paint on it while I waited for layers of paint to dry on 2nd Story Job.

As 2nd Story Job neared completion the abstract auxiliary work looked like this.

Born of Fire underpainting (by Jake Beckman)

The color gamut of this picture appears a little skewed toward the blue, and the range of the photo does not do the under-painting/background justice, but I think you can get an idea of how it looked.

I have been on a major bird kick for years and I often default to something related to that – in this case a bird-like dragon.  It took me a few minutes to sketch the critter out on to my canvas.    I did a glaze of manganese blue to fill in the bird-like dragon’s body for no other reason than I had a big glob of it on my wet pallet left over from previous Social Media Bird paintings and I intended to make the dragon dark.   I did not anticipate I would love the effect of the under-painting showing through, but I did.   I very carefully applied glazes of black to the serpent to define its structure while retaining as much of the transparency as was possible.

Detail of Born of Fire by Jake Beckman showing the underpainting revealed through the glaze

Born of Fire, by Jake Beckman, A dragon gazes skyward, oblivious to the fiery inferno that surrounds it.

So this results from me not having a plan when I start painting. What do you think?

Update: Details about Born of Fire, size etc., can be found on its art page at AKAJake.com

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.