Studio Mayhem!  I have been amassing a bunch of images of the studio and works in progress.  Some of these are from, or for, specific pieces.  Others are either just shots of the general chaos in my studio, or they are images of 'stuff' that I am working on -but they aren't intended for a specific piece (at least not yet).  This batch of images will have about as much continuity as a 'greatest hits album' from Stinky Stan and Barking Spiders, without any hits....

This first batch is just general shots of the studio.  You can see the start of a piece with the working title 'Squishy Rumba', along with some stacks of older pieces.

Here is the very start of 'Squishy Rumba'.  The lettered area is being added to an older unfinished/unsuccessful canvas that has some fragments of an old billboard I snagged on the ground near the train tracks in Texas (actually, it was lodged in a mass of thorn bushes and took me nearly an hour of 'laceration and puncture-wound-arific goodness' to extract it from the bushes and drag it up to a parking lot. -a story I may expand on in a later post if more of that billboard material surfaces on any future pieces).

'Squishy Rumba' may find its way into the 'Merican-Tastic!' show.  I really haven't set the roster yet for what pieces are going in and which ones will be left behind.  I will probably determine which pieces I can (and want to) finish in time for the show within the next month.  I like to keep the window of 'studio play' open as long as possible.  At some point however, I have to switch gears in the studio and focus much more on production/completion.

A shot from my 'Red Room' (the origin of the red and black room might be the topic for a future post, just to let you know in advance, it won't be 'work safe'...).  You can see the three panels for Tragicomedy in Three Parts, the accompanying 'narrative panels', and the start of another piece 'Mine and Yours'.

A thin slice of mayhem!  Some narrative panels for Los Reyes (a piece that survived New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina and is going to be reworked/repainted for 'Merican-Tastic!') in the top picture, and then just a mountain of tools and quasi-useful crap on my work bench.  At least the majority of my tools are neatly hung up on the peg board?

The start of a mask for a piece called 'Divided By' and some ceramic hands/wrists that are being resurrected into some kind of sculpture.  In general, I use a defunct piece/board as an impromptu desk on top of some stacked 5-gallon pickle buckets.  I can assemble it, disassemble it, and move it around fairly easily.

This is an earlier shot of the legs/base for Twinkie the Kid.  Hanging in front of it is a small building on sticks/stilts.  If you look closely at 'the building' you can see a small batch of ceramic bricks which have been liquid nailed to the side.  I spent considerable time back in 2006 making (and firing) a box full of earthen ware bricks.  I will stick the on various projects (both Painted Constructions and Sculptural Works) when they become insolent and need to receive a brick-based smiting!

More shots of a stack of older pieces, and then a few of stretching some canvases.

A short while ago we had a dusting of snow.  I try to make time at least once per Winter to watch the snow fall on the downtown.  Somehow, sitting in the uncompromising warmth of studio steam heat while watching it snow doesn't make Winter seems some horrible (just barely).

Snow -just enough to aesthetically pleasing, yet not enough to have to perform any manual labor removing it.

Finally, a few update shots on Twinkie the Kid!  Now you can rest easy....

I should be able to get a skin on him this week and the start attaching the eyes and mouth.

I am in the process of starting some carvings and also repainting a couple of older carvings.  I will have images of those for my next post.