Standing Like A Stone Wall.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a painting hanging At Punkrockfish Gallery in Ocean City MD. A good friend (and a hell of a good tattooer at Black Cobra in MD) Little Chico invited me to be a part of his show titled 8x10.

As you may be able to guess the only real requirement for the work, is that it fit into the 8" x 10" size requirement. There is a newspaper article about the show and about Chico here... Having the freedom of subject matter allowed me to put the time into an idea i had been kicking around for a bit. I have been on a bit of an American Civil War kick lately and wanted to do a piece about the great Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. I had recently finished reading/listening to a brilliantly written bio about him called "Standing Like a Stone Wall" by James Robertson. In the book Mr. Robertson gets fairly descriptive in Stonewall's personality and history. Jackson was an eccentric to say the least.

To do a painting of him, it was impossible to simply choose one or two key elements of his life to focus on. Instead I tried to focus on various stages of his life, and tried to use imagery to point out some of the occurrences and traits that i thought defined him as a man and as a General. With his unwavering faith in God's will to his brilliance and bravery on the battlefield, it is easy to miss the more bizarre and quirky parts of what made him the man he was. For instance: He would hold his hand up, palm facing forward, at random points during the day weather he was in the middle of a battle or not. He would do so either in prayer (as he was commonly heard mumbling to himself), or because he insisted that one of his arms was actually heaver than the other and he wanted to get the blood to flow out of the raised arm to balance himself out. I could go on and on but have not the time to explain it all. A few folks have specifically questioned why in the painting he has a Northern Pike draped across his lap. The short version of that image is: As a child Thomas was paid .50 by a local townsman for each pike he caught that was 12" or larger. One day he caught one that was at least 36" and as he carried the massive fish through town, another shopkeeper offered Thomas $1 for the fish. When Thomas declined the man offered $1.25. Thomas declined again explaining the fish was owed to the other fellow at the agreed price of .50 and if he himself wanted a taste of that fish, it could be had through the other gentleman. When Thomas got to his destination he was offered an extra .50 because the fish was so big. Thomas said the original agreed price was all he would accept. He was sure the man had paid full price for a few fish that fell short of the 12" mark, and he was grateful for that kindness.  

Anyhow, I can nerd out all night but i doubt most of you care enough for me to bother. If you are truly interested drop me a line and i will explain further what all of the silliness in the painting represents. As for the painting itself, it is mostly done as an ink wash painting on stained hot press watercolor paper. the highlights and limited color were added at the end with colored pencil. It is an approach to painting I've been working out for a bit now and I'm slowly getting more and more comfortable with it.

Here is the finished piece. Click on it to see it larger. It is set at 72 dpi so it can be viewed reasonably clear, but i am making prints available, so if  you really want to see the detail you could always contact me and ill happily trade you $40 for a limited Giclee. haha sorry for the shameless promotion but i gotta pay for more firewood.
If you got this far, thanks for caring enough!!
Scott

Chicamauga

So I finally got this painting done, and shipped of to Safwan in Montreal. I had a bit of a hold up so I could get prints made and wanted to be sure they came out well before shipping off the original artwork. I had posted some of these shots and mentioned this painting in previous posts, but I will post them again for the context of this posting.

The painting itself is called “Chicamauga”. It is based on the short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce. (Here is a link to the complete story) He had written a couple dozen short stories based loosely and directly on events of the civil war. I plan to do at least two more paintings from his stories as soon as I can get a better grip on my time. All of his stories are graphic and usually full of very dark irony. Perfectly suited to base some illustrations on.

There are a few things I will be working on for shows in the near future, so this series may have to be shelved until I can get the time to focus on it. It’s a little disappointing, as I don’t usually have the fire under my ass as hot as it has been working on this. That said, it is hard to complain about having a few shows and an entry into a book to work some paintings up for. I’ll of course write more on those projects, as they get finished.

The last few images are some vinyl stickers that I’m printing for the Lehigh valley convention this weekend. Let me know what ya think of them… or any of the silliness I post up here for that matter. It’s always nice to get some feedback. Let’s me know if things are interesting to anyone but me. hahaha

If I get the time I plan to post some other recent tattoo photos. I have a ton of drawing to do for this week though, so it may get put off another day or two.

I hope this finds you all well, and maybe ill see you up at the convention!
Scott

This is the machine Safwan made for me. I use it damn near every tattoo I do!

This was the start of the inkwash. Stained paper with tea and peat ink. Black is Talens.

Here is the finished product! I went in to establish a little more depth with acrylic outlines.

What does an idea look like?

I haven’t had much of a chance to blog away here. There has been plenty to go on about, but by the time I get the chance to get into it.. It somehow looses it's excitement and I eventually get on to other things. The main downside to having the attention span of a goldfish

At any rate, the mere fact that I haven’t blogged in a while isn’t my only reason for posting on here. I was planning to post some recent photos of work in progress, and some shots from trips out with Holly and the Hoss.

Before I get to those though, I wanted to repost this rather long quote I copied. It is from a book by Peter London called “No More Secondhand Art” I really know nothing about the author (though I will be looking into more about him now) The quote is really pretty amazing as it pertains to a large problem within the tattoo community. The concept is of course not new, but the tendency of tattooers to simply copy other artists work is maddening. I find it interesting that Mr London has identified and attacks the same problem within the painting/fine art world. So here is his quote, and if you are an artist of any sort it is worth reading… and if you are a tattooer, read it and really give it some thought.

”Of course technique is important; so are principles of design. But you already know this. You also know what it takes to acquire these traits; long, hard work. Do you want to draw like Rembrandt or Degas? Simple! Just draw ten hours a day, six days a week for forty years. That’s how they did it. Ready for that? How did Monet paint those densely woven symphonies of strokes of light, weaving that luminescent Japanese bridge over the swarming lily pond? First he excavated a huge hole, then diverted a river to fill the hole, planted it with lily pads, then built a Japanese bridge over the whole thing, all at vast expense. Then he bought a boat, made a floating studio out of it and for twelve hours a day, for over twenty years, he paddled around that pond, and painted and painted until his eyes glazed over. If you want to make stuff that has Monet’s charm ...have Monet’s passion, devotion, largess, sacrifice.

The techniques of Monet or Degas can be copied; their principles of design are not obscure, they can be learned. If you want them for yourself, you can have them for a price. And the price is dearer than you may think. Not only will you have to put in at least as much time as they did in developing these same skills, all your living days, but the real price you will have paid is that you will have succeeded in becoming them, and will have missed becoming you.

Monet’s technique and principles of design are Monet. They were created by him so that he could portray what he alone was seeing and thinking and feeling. These are not simply techniques or principles of design. They are conceptions of the world. Monet had to create his own repertoire of techniques and principles of design because he could not portray through the prevailing means what he alone was seeing and feeling. You can’t have his technique or apply his principles of design without becoming him.

Better to raise the questions Monet did than to mimic his responses. What are his questions, the task he set himself? They are remarkably similar to the questions any artist, any creative person, any awake person asks.  What is that damn thing out there? What does an idea look like? How can I give form to a feeling? How does this whole mess fit together? How can I speak about the thing no longer there? The thing not here yet? Why am I moved like this by mere daylight, by nightfall? Is there a truth here, or merely beauty? Does this line have integrity, or is it guile? What have I made up, what have I observed? Of all the things I can do, what shall I do, what should I do? Will I ever get it right?

Your particular techniques and your principles of design will be derived from your struggle with these questions. Monet did it. Rembrandt did it. So did Bellini, Breughel, Bosch, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Byron, Bartok, Berlioz, Bernstein, Brubeck, Basie, Balanchine, Beckett, Bergman, Beckmann, Berryman, Borges, Bellows, Baldwin. You get the picture.

All creative journeys begin with a challenge to introspection, to fathom not only what’s out there , but what’s in here. They are invitations to original response. 
 

Ok so here are the Photos... as if this weren't long enough huh? haha sorry

The first few shots are the start of a sleeve. We wanted to get this part first as the girl will be the primary foreground image. The rest will fall into place behind her.

Next is a section of a coverup I have been working on. It will represent death/disease. The funny part of the cover-up is that I did the original tattoo we figured at least 16 years ago. HAHA If anyone is going to cover my work, im glad i got the chance.

Yet another cover-up in progress.

Here are a pair of tattoos I was able to start and finish in one sitting. I'm grateful as hell for the chance to work on the large and involved pieces, but it sure is nice to start and finish a piece in one sitting now and then. And for the record, both are on the same gal. They were done 2 weeks apart.

Last but not least, here are some shots from the few times lately Holly Hoss and I have been able to get out and about.

 I hope you are well.
-Scott

Monuments and Rollercoasters

I mentioned earlier that I was going to post photos from my actual camera as most of the other shots from my trip were from my phone. Most of the Shots are from the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. Photos really dont do justice to the scope of this place. 2 1/2 hours of walking around and we still didn't see the entire thing. The carnival photos came from a small one set up in a park across from where we stayed. It is pretty rad that they keep it going through the winter months.
Ok I'll quit yammering... Here's the photos


PS. DON'T FORGET YOU CAN CLICK THE PHOTOS TO SEE THEM BIGGER!