THE CULTURAL BOLSHEVIKS' ORDER OF BATTLE

Here is another new Entartete Kunst image. This one wasn't part of the original vision for the series but popped into my head after coming across the title while researching the concept of Entartete Kunst in the excellent book "Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany"(Stephanie Barron ed. 1991). The title, "The Cultural Bolsheviks' Order of Battle", like the previous post, comes from one of the slogans painted on the wall of the exhibit, deriding the art on display.

I took the idea of "the order of battle" pretty literally, representing it through the collage of Soviet-era military vehicles, the Mars symbolism, the left palm print representing the left hand path, the sharp shape language and the use of the colour red. The intravenous therapy suggests that this false world view is something that is not self-sustaining and generally unhealthy.

Again I've included a few detail shots.....mainly because Blogger sucks for viewing images. I'll be putting together a Flickr page in the near future for better viewing!

SPECTACTION

I'm going to be contributing a few pieces to the Spectaction Benefit Party. The other featured artists are great and all proceeds go to support Camp Goodtimes. The exhibit is on Dec.19th at District 319 here in Vancouver. It should be a good time so come out and support a The Canadian Cancer Society and their Camp Goodtimes Program. For more info go to The Arts Benevolence League.

NATURE AS SEEN BY SICK MINDS

It has been awhile since the last post. I had a busy fall with various side projects but they are pretty much all wrapped up (I haven't forgotten about your tat Doyle!), so hopefully I'll be able to settle down for the winter and create some more stuff for myself. We'll see how it goes.

This image has been trying to force it's way out of me for some time, as it was one of the first envisioned for this series. It speaks to the fact that even in the darkest, oppressive world-view there can be an element of hope, light and potential. The title is taken from one of the deriding slogans painted on the wall (largely referring to the work of Karl Schmidt-Rottlff), at the Enartete Kunst exhibit in Munich in 1937.

I've included a few detail shots as the image is large and a lot of the details get compressed for blog posting.

UNDERGANGENS ARKITEKTUR

Here is the latest Entartete Kunst image. I had this one in my head for awhile but I was at a loss for a title. Then I happened across Peter Cohen's excellent documentary "Architecture of Doom"on Google Video. The film argues that the driving force of Nazism was largley aesthetic, and the concept of Entartete Kunst is explained in some detail. Since the discriminating nature in this work is represented by structure, hard edges, and geometry, and since these forms played such a large roll in this image I thought the tilte would fit. Funny how you often stumble across something just when you need it.

I also included a detail image because these images are quite large, being 12"x20", or 12"x24" in most cases, and a lot of the detail is lost when crunching them down for blog posting.

ELF

Again it has been awhile since the last post. The summer here in Vancouver has been great, so I'm spending a lot more time enjoying the weather with the family, and a lot less time in front of the drawing table or the computer. With a couple more vacations coming up, and no end in sight of the good weather, this could be the last one for awhile. Enjoy!

HEXAGRAM prt.2

Been awhile since the last post. Sick kids, sick me, busy at work and lots of other stuff going on. Anyways, this is part two of the hexagram piece (see below), the earth and air aspects of the symbol. I had originally decided against creating these two images, and to focus on the water and fire aspects of the hexagram (again, see below), as they speak to the nature of creative inspiration, but then a project materialized (that I cannot mention at this time), that required me to move forward with these images.

STATE OF THE ART

The State of the Art show opened last Saturday up in Whistler at the Telus Conference Centre. The show is part of the Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival. Here are a few pics of most of the work that I displayed at the show. There is a lot of great work up there, so if your in Whistler between now and Sunday, go check it out.

The opening night party was a blast. Thanks to all my friends that came up from Vancouver to see the opening. Thanks to Rory Doyle for setting up my wall, and thanks to Max Jenke and Endeavor Snowboards for giving me a space at the show!

GICLEE

Here are a few shots of a couple of the giclees I had printed for the State of the Art show up in Whistler this past weekend.

Thanks to Richard Alm for doing a great job with these, and for sharing a few pearls of wisdom.

DICTA 1 & 2

Here are few screenprints that I created over the weekend. I used to screenprint in high school, and my friend Nigel and I had small t-shirt business back in the mid 90's, so it has been awhile to say the least. But it was a lot of fun and also quite frustrating at times since there is no undo button.

I screened acrylic onto digital prints of a pattern that I created in photoshop. I've included the original designs used to burn the screens.

The slogans come from original Entartete Kunst exhibit (Munich 1937), and speak to the discriminating judgments cast against that which we fear, or don't understand.

ZYDOKOMUNA

This was the first image created for the Entartete Kunst series. Entartete Kunst is german for "Degenerate Art", and was a term developed by Nazi theorists to describe most modern art, as they felt it was socially corruptive and Judeo-Bolshevist in nature.

I find these discriminating ideas absurd, but I have adopted the Judeo-Bolshevist theme in this work (the cosmonauts, the hexagram etc.) as a starting point to create these images. As mentioned in a previous post this project is about returning to a more expressive way of creating art (after 10 years as a production artist), and about overcoming my own discriminating views on expressive art.

Zydokomuna is a polish term for Judeo-Bolshevism.

As a disclaimer I'll add that I don't hold any fascist, racist, or anti-semitic views......if you don't believe me....well there's not much I can do about that.

PEACE

Taking the cosmonaut theme a little further, this one was inspired by various images of Russian space capsules. The name, Peace, is taken from the Russian space station Mir and speaks to the comfort and contentment that can be found in solitude.

DIAMOND

Last year I designed the graphics for Endeavor Snowboard Design's 09/10 Diamond Series. As a women's freeride board the graphic was meant to encompass the ideas of strength and beauty. The overall style (linework with "hits" of colour), was predetermined but I had complete control over the content. So I created a hand drawn visual collage constructed from elements that symbolized these two ideas in magick, mythology, and the Qabala.

Above is a shot of the preproduction model (thats why the graphic is a little off center), my final design sheet with the topsheet and the two bases as well as a sample of one of the clothing pieces created using the artwork.

This project was a blast. Big thanks to Max at Endeavor for giving me the opportunity and for keeping me on track with the base graphics! Thanks to Rory Doyle for setting the whole thing up! Photos courtesy of Endeavor Snowboard Design.

DESTRUDO

While not a favorite in the series, this one has some redeeming qualities. I thought palette, subject matter, text treatment and the depth worked well on this one.

THE HEXAGRAM

Here are a few more images from "Entartete Kunst". These two pieces are paired together and represent the two interlocking triangles of the hexagram, "The Chalice" (blue), and "The Blade" (red). The Chalice represents the aspiration of the artist, magician, etc., while the The Blade represents the inspiration that comes down from the Genius, Daemon, Holy Guardian Angel etc.

If you believe in any of that stuff.........

MILKCOW

After getting tired of Quarless's badgering, and the need to have some sort of online presence for promotional purposes I've started a blog.

For the time being posts will mainly consist of pieces from "Entartete Kunst", a personal project I'm using to explore a less structured, more expressive way of creating art (as opposed to my day to day job as a video game concept artist).

This image is the 2nd in the series, entitled "Milkcow".

Enjoy!