Signs and Buildings. Buildings and Signs.

As things unfolded, and as other things outright unraveled, I decided to increase the robusticity (a derivative of robusto, so just cool your jets) of the installation for Dutiful Citizen.  That basically meant I had to go into overdrive to finish what buildings and signs I have started (for a different show/project) in time for the show.

The studio, which could rarely be described as being clean, looked like the staging area for some kind of D-Day invasion if Dr. Seuss was the five-star general in charge.

A pretty straight forward process really.  I build the shells out of cardboard.  Cover the outside with fabric. Paint the fabric to stiffen it up.  Fill the insides with expanding spray foam. Jam a stick into the foam while it is still goey/sticky (and boy is it sticky....). Do a little extra fabric work to secure the stick(s), and then finish the surface (either with paint and/or Spackle and paint).

Here are some buildings at the: 'fill-with-foam-and-jam-a-stick-into-them-stage' (highly technical stuff).

After a couple of primed layers, it's time to add a dark base color.

The signs receive the same treatment.

They are 'finished off' with a thinly applied coat of gray paint which shows off the texture of all of the bricks, and fabric used to make the building.

Here are a few shots from Dutiful Citizen.....

...Some of the stick structure in front of Domain....

...Buildings, Signs, the sculpture Trojan Horse, and the wall pieces Swan Dive Bomber, and Tower Of Janus in the background....

...Part of Trojan Horse and a sign in front of Mr. Falcon Finds A Stranger In The Alps....

...The masks on top of Trojan Horse in the foreground with Carnival peeking out from behind....

...A staircase leading to the newest piece in Dutiful Citizen, The Transitive Property Of Yesterday...

...And the Man.  Chuck Morris.  Should I say 'Jute Master Chuck'?  'Jute Master C'?  This guy spent nearly 10 hours (not a typo) binding all of the joints with Jute.  I must give a profound and heart-felt 'thank you' to Chuck Morris for all of his help in setting-up Dutiful Citizen.  I am pleased to also thank Wayne Frantzen, and Steve Saller for all of their tireless help in making this show happen.  Thank you, gentlemen.

Next time we'll take a behind-the-scenes peek at what it took to hang my painted constructions.

Reworking An Old Piece For Dutiful Citizen

While visiting the Portrait of Maquoketa show at The Figge Art Museum recently, I met the artist Rose Frantzen (a link to some of her work HERE!).  She struck up a conversation with me, and much to my surprise (and delight), we sat and spoke (while she painted) for over 4 hours in the museum.

Rose, and her husband, Charles Morris (check out some of his work HERE!) are based out of Maquoketa, Iowa.  They have opened up the MAE (Maquoketa Art Experience) as a gallery, studio, performance and learning center. Check them out (HERE)!  The day that I was chatting with Rose, Charles was busily working on something else in the museum but frequently popped in and out of the conversation.

Just a few days ago, Charles called me up and invited me to have a show out at The Maquoketa Art Experience in May.  At that moment, the show Dutiful Citizen was born......

Since the show is only about a month away, it is unlikely that I will be able to have more than a couple of new works created.  However, it is an excellent excuse to finally go back and repaint an old piece that I felt was never quite right.  That's where Transaction comes into the picture.

Here is Transaction (without its carved frame attached) as it came out of 'the vault'.  

Transaction originally appeared in a show called PLAY at Quad City Arts back in 2010.  Here are a few detail shots.

Some carved wood and mixed media relief elements.

The color scheme clearly needs to be more vibrant and dynamic.  Right now the colors are dull and interact with each other in a lackluster fashion.

Two pirates.  A round Lego-head pirate and the 'Do-You-Have-What-It-Takes-To-Be-An-Artist-Pirate'.

The Lego-head pirate originally was a much brighter yellow (kind of a 'Canary Yellow'), that I am going to return to.  I am also going to light up the background of the 'talk bubble'.  Based on those two colors, I'm going to go back and rework the piece.

One of the interesting byproducts of how a paint (a combination of a flat serigraph and a paint-by-numbers approach) is that all of my shapes have a dark outline/border.  This makes it relatively easy to go into Photoshop and 'pour' different colors into the piece and see how they look.  It's not the same as actually applying paint, but in a few minutes, I can get a rough idea of how some potential different color schemes will interact with each other.

I've already replaced the yellow and a couple other colors, but here are a few examples of color tests just on the outline of the large ship.  Pink-ish.

Bright green.

and a burnt orange color.

The opening reception for Dutiful Citizen will be from 5-7pm on Friday, May 3rd at The Maquoketa Art Experience in Maquoketa, Iowa.  (124 South Main, Maquoketa, Iowa.).

 In the next post, we'll see how the new color scheme(s) unfold.....