Six months and counting

My first blog post showed a photo of my work table.  This is how it looks today (just organized, of course).

It's been an incredible journey the last few months discovering so many talented artists, connecting with other art enthusiasts, and dialoguing with readers. When I first started blogging, I told myself to give it at least six months, and today marks the half year point.  Nearly 200 posts later,  I am just as compelled today to share art with others as the first day of starting Habit of Art.  My plan is to continue blogging about inspirational pieces as well as talk about my own experiences and progress as an artist.  The only thing that will change is the frequency of posts.  Instead of blogging every day, it will be about 3 - 4 times a week, so that I can focus more on creating art.

Thanks again to all of you who are reading Habit of Art!  Your encouraging words the past six months have meant so much!

Oh, and don't forget about the giveaway drawing tomorrow!  To enter a chance to win a mini notebook full of my drawings, go here. 

Portland/Brooklyn Artist Series, Week 6: Justin "Scrappers" Morrison

For our final week of the artist series, I interviewed Portland artist Justin "Scrappers" Morrison.  I first met Scrappers in my shop a while back.  He was writing for the Portland Mercury at the time, and now he is their Art Director.  His creative titles actually run the gamut from painter to cartographer to gallery director to even toymaker.  He spent 11 years studying photography, oceanography, and history at the college level, but eventually got his start in art on the sidewalk of Alberta Street during Portland's monthly art event, Last Thursday.  

How would you describe your work?

My work is stupid.  Stupid like the way a good tickle makes you feel.  I try to keep it stupid and style-free, so the execution doesn't get in the way of the message.  My work is about staying wild, being human animals, falling down, getting up, pushing each other to be better people, trouble-making, bio-regionalism, the west coast, beer, camping, nipples, and having fun.

photos: Anthony Georgis

What are the greatest challenges of being an artist today?

The internet.  If I post two pieces of art and people "favorite" one piece over the other, I'm going to make more pieces like the one people favored.  So avoiding the influences the internet can have on your own ideas and messages is really difficult.  The internet also makes it easy to feel famous and that shit makes people lazy one-trick ponies who are totally limited by style and expectation.  Maybe what I'm really getting at here is the influence art fans, art collectors, and art blog commenters have on artists.  It's the supply and demand relationship that's a challenge, your feedback (demand) affects my work (supply).  If you like it when I paint unicorns, I'm going to paint more unicorns even though I want to paint a tar pit eating a Scion.

What accomplishments/works of art are you most proud of?

My son Camper.  He's pure solid 100% wild human animal.  I've never been more proud of anything else.  I always wanted to be a dad, you can see it in my work if you look close enough.

All the men in my life have given me knives.  I don't know why. / I loved painting this beast, did it all for trade (fries for life).

Tell us about the biggest risk you have taken as an artist.

Every thing I make is a risk, or at least it should be.  I recently made a copy cat Chris Johanson painting and hung it in a show at Together Gallery. I even signed it Chris Johanson really big on the front.  Then I sold it for $25.  The risk there is in hoping that the art viewer will make the effort to consider the meaning of the piece.  "Why would Scrappers make a Chris Johanson painting?"  Mostly because you're not supposed to do shit like that.

I'm building an A-frame cabin in my back yard for Camper to play in.

What do you love most about Portland?

The Nature.  We have plenty of water, trees, food and all the other things that keep people living within Nature's reach.  This place isn't like LA in the sense that the city is on life support.  Environmentally speaking, this is a healthy place to live.

Campaign for the American Indian College Fund that Scrappers was part of. / A recent show at Gallery 1988.

What makes Portland such a great place for independent art?

We all keep each other motivated and inspire each other to make impossible ideas happen.

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In upcoming months, you can see Scrappers' art at Portland gallery Grass Hut and Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.  He has also been working on a large map project for Oregon Tourism.  See his illustrative maps of Oregon here. 

And be sure to check out Art Hound's interview with Brooklyn artist Kevin Cyr. 

Unique sketchbooks

While we're on the topic of sketchbooks, here are a few items I have been eying.

clockwise:
Death in Art journal, the time is now 
Bookcushion, fox & bear
Pocket Notebook Three Pack, Emily Martin (The Black Apple)
Handcrafted Blank Book, Wee Bindery

Giveaway: A Pocketbook Gallery!

There is much to celebrate in the next week and a half- the start of Spring, six months of blogging, and my birthday! It seems the perfect time to run another giveaway, and as mentioned in yesterday's post, up for grabs is a Pocketbook Gallery!  It's a little book full of original drawings and clippings of my sketches (31 to be exact). Some of the pages are perforated, so the art can easily be displayed or shared. See more pics on my Flickr page.

For a chance to win this unique gift, all you need to do is write a comment below on what has been your favorite post.  One name will be randomly drawn on Wednesday, March 24th at 9p PST.   The winner will be notified immediately after the drawing, so make sure there is a way for me to contact you via your blogger profile.  Oh, and I'll ship it to wherever you are in the world!  

Good luck, and I look forward to reading your comments!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Moodymama.  Your name was drawn as the winner of the pocketbook gallery giveaway!

Exploring new ideas

I'm a homebody, but my mind often thinks about lands elsewhere. A theme that I have been studying recently is exploration.  Two new pieces I added to my shop this week include arctic explorer and balloon race.  Both are mixed media works that embody this idea of adventure and exploration of different landscapes.  I'm curious and excited to see how this new theme will develop further in my work.  I already have some ideas for the next piece.  I'm thinking covered wagons. 

I have also been sketching a lot this week, which I'm happy about.  I'm actually putting together another pocketbook gallery that will be my next giveaway prize.  More on this tomorrow!

It's a small world indeed

Marie Watt, Marker: Complete, 2010

In recent months while searching for art on the internet, I have stumbled upon a few artists who attended the same university as I had two decades ago.  I find this to be quite coincidental, as the number of fine arts graduates is minimal.  In my graduating class alone, there were only nine studio art majors out of 400 undergraduates.  So I thought that I would display some Bearcat pride today, and feature the art of some of my fellow alumni. 

Marie Watt is a multi-dimensional artist who sculpts, prints, and sews.   Her current work is an exploration and historical study of wool blankets pertaining to indigenous people of the Northwest.  If you live in Portland, you can see her new works featured at PDX Comtemporary Art through March 27th.  

Watt, Marker: Axis Mundi, reclaimed wool and satin binding, 14.25" x 14.25", 2010.

This is one of my favorite pieces of hers. It's hand sewn! 

Watt, Custodian, reclaimed wool, 107" x 112.5", 2007.

I saw Adam Stennett's work on Artist A Day, a great website that features a different artist each day. The detail work in his paintings is pretty remarkable.  His photorealistic paintings have been displayed in various galleries and museums across the country and internationally.  He has a video installation, Mouse Swimming Overhead, showing in the Portland Art Museum through May 16th.  It's part of the exhibition DISQUIETED featuring some of the more prominent contemporary artists today. 

Stennett, Soothing Syrup with Two Poppies, oil on wood, 24" x 24", 2010.

Stennett, Underwater Mouse 1, oil on linen, 72" x 72", 2003.

I was browsing the artists featured in Sebastian Foster when I came across the works of Elizabeth Bauman.  Although she studied sculpture, she primarily paints now.  Her work is inspired by early American paintings and portrait photography. She is currently showing at Tilde in Portland. 

Bauman, The afternoon walk, acrylic, 12" x 12" panel, 2009.

Bauman, A cold day for a drive, arcylic, 8" x 16" panel, 2009.

Bauman, Lila and Fern on a holiday, acrylic, 10" x 10", 2009.

Animal portraits by Sharon Montrose

These animal portraits were taken by Los Angeles based photographer Sharon Montrose who has an uncanny ability to make you fall in love with animals.  Many of her pictures are of animals that are typically found in the wild.  I have to say that I'm totally smitten with the baby porcupine!  I have already named him Charlie. 

Dogs are also a popular subject in Montrose's photography, and she does such an amazing job capturing their personalities.  Here are a few of my favorites.

I laughed out loud when I saw the photo of the poodle!  Montrose's dog portraits are truly amusing and you can see more on her website.  She also sells prints of her work in her Animal Print Shop and Etsy.

My painting palettes

I picked up a porcelain palette this past week that I'm really excited about. It was an "as is" item at the art store because the lid had been broken and glued back together.  I wasn't really looking for a new palette, but when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my ink and watercolor works.  I have a terrible habit of squeezing more paint out of the tubes than necessary, and I figure the smaller wells would force me to conserve.

For oil painting, my palette needs are the other extreme.  I use palette knives when I work on larger oil paintings, so a flat and broad surface is preferable.  I purchased a glass palette many years ago that I find to be ideal.  I can quickly mix colors, and for cleanup, I just use a glass scraper on paint that has dried. 

The glass palette also fits nicely on top of this vintage rolling cart that I just found on craigslist.  The lady that I bought it from told me that the cart was from the mental institution where One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was filmed.  It even has an electrical outlet unit . . . I'd rather not think about what it was used for.