Thinking About My Art

The Experience of Vermont Studio Center, Part II

J.T. — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:47:04 +0000

I apologize for the delay in publishing the second part of my Vermont Studio Center experience. A week ago today my wife and I had to put down our wonderful cat, Maisy. She had suffered a stroke the week before and was unable to recover. We miss her terribly.

OK, back to the residency experience…

The Studio

Once registration was complete, I was taken to my studio in the Schultz Sculpture Studio building. My studio was located on the first floor just steps away from the shop area. If I am being honest, I was a bit disappointed in the size and finish of my studio. I found it to be a little on the small side and a bit dirty. However, I think I felt this way because of how spoiled I am with my at-home studio space. Based on the feedback from other residents, these studios are pretty nice to compared to what they’ve used in the past. I later discovered that the studio spaces on the second floor of Schultz are quite a bit larger than the one I had. I guess I was unlucky in being assigned the smaller space, though it was nice to be close to the equipment.

Once familiar with the facilities, I began unloading my car. I had packed everything I could possibly think of because I wasn’t sure how accessible supplies would be. My aching back hardly made itself known during the excitement of prepping my studio space. I carried some 50+ plywood panels through the snow into the studio. I carried my paints, clear coat, framing clamps, etc. I was just excited to get started.

I set about organizing the studio. Once everything was in order (or ordered enough), I got straight to work. I worked up until dinner time and afterward I returned to my studio. I probably worked until 1am the first night. That’s quite late for me.

The rest of the first week followed a similar trajectory. I got to the studio at about 9am and finished up between midnight and 1am. My only breaks were for meals, work study and other programs. Although I wasn’t overly impressed with the facilities at first, they were certainly conducive to working, and work hard I did.

The Room

At some point on the first day, I was taken to the house where I would be staying, Bradley House. I was shown to my room on the second floor. I guess I can say it was adequate. It was not luxurious accommodations but you wouldn’t want that anyway… you want to be in the studio. Well, I guess there are times when more luxury would have been welcome, but we’ll get to that later.

My room was a bit of the small size. It had a closet, twin bed, vintage dresser and a chair. The colors used to paint the room were not chosen by a colorist. I thought that they were “oops” colors from the local hardware store, but later discovered they were not and that a movement was underway to change the colors. While I might prefer the serenity of beige, I certainly don’t begrudge VSC for the paint in the houses. After all, the purpose of the residency is to make art, and it is successful in facilitating that.

Although each resident gets their own room, they do have to share a bathroom. For me, I shared the bathroom with three other guys. The bathroom was adequate although the lack of a shower head caused water pressure to be intense. Think acupuncture.

I should note that during my first week at VSC, I never saw a single housemate. Occasionally I heard a door open or shut, but I never actually saw someone. This illustrates just how varied people’s schedules were.

The Back

I’ve already talked a great deal about the art I made while in residency. A consequence to the productivity in the studio was that my back injury got worse and worse each day. Standing on my feet for 12+ hours a day turned out to be a bad thing for allowing my back to heal. As the first week progressed, it became more and more difficult to bend, lift, stand up and sleep. To give a sense of the pain, when I would have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it would take up to 15 minutes to get out of bed. Every strategy I used for getting up would cause severe pain. Eventually, I would just push through the pain. It was that or wet the bed.

By Thursday my productivity and happiness began to decline. I decided that I couldn’t work like that for the entire month. I found a chiropractor in a nearby town and saw him on Friday. By this point my back was severely curved and I limped noticeably. The chiropractor tried several treatments and finally said the words I dreaded most: BED REST. In order for the injury to stop progressing, the chiropractor said I really needed two days of bed rest. How miserable! I knew, though, that sacrificing two days to bed rest would likely make the remaining three weeks much more productive. I drove back to my house, went to my room, and laid down. Other than meals, I stayed in bed for two days. It was awful. No TV. No internet connection other than through my phone. I tried watching DVDs on my laptop, napping, etc, to pass the time. By Saturday night I called my wife and told her I wasn’t feeling any better. I told her that if I didn’t feel better when I woke up on Sunday that I wanted her to come get me. I refused to stay in Vermont for three more weeks in such agonizing pain.

Sunday morning finally came and when I opened my eyes I had a strange sensation. The pain had significantly declined. I was actually on the mend. Although I had to be very careful doing my everyday activities, I could go back to work. Five to ten minutes working followed by five to ten minutes sitting. Still, I was back to work!

With the worst of the pain behind me, I was determined to make the most of my remaining time in Vermont.

[to be continued]

The Experience of Vermont Studio Center, Part I

J.T. — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:26:36 +0000

I’ve written a great deal about the work I made while at VSC. Without a doubt, the month of January was the most artistically productive time of my life. Remember, I was able to complete 43 works in 24 days, and this only counts the work I felt was worthy of hanging on the studio wall. It still amazes me that I was able to finish so much.

But what was my time at VSC like? Well, let me ramble my way through describing it for you. It all starts well before I departed on January 2…

Pre-VSC

Once I received my acceptance letter from VSC, I knew I only had a few months to prepare. I began to formulate an elaborate plan for the work I would make in Vermont (recall the story of how the paintings evolved) and gathering the materials needed. I wasn’t sure what would be readily available in Johnson, VT, so I acquired all of the plywood panels I would need, as well as all the other necessary studio materials. I wanted to be able to get to work right away in the studio so I prepped some 50+ panels (cutting, sanding, finishing, etc) prior to leaving. I felt like I was pretty well-covered from a supply standpoint.

At some point after the acceptance letter came, Tracy Helgeson (an online art buddy) and I figured out we would be going to VSC at the same time. Tracy had been to VSC in the winter before and warned me about how cold and snowy it could be. She encouraged me to purchase UnderArmor ColdGear and so I did. I bought sweatshirts, heavy socks, gloves, hats, etc. I was prepared for the cold! Additionally, I stressed out over what car to drive and finally settled on my Nissan Maxima, front-wheel drive being the deciding factor. It needed new tires so I stressed about which type to get. I finally settled on highly rated all-season tires. I felt somewhat ready for the weather, though I remained worried about driving conditions.

Another concern for me prior to leaving was that I injured my back in mid-December while playing basketball. It was a fairly serious injury that caused a lot of discomfort, but fortunately it began to get better the week before I left. I worried about the long drive and having to unload my car once there. A hurt back would be no good during a residency.

The Drive

Stacey and I loaded the majority of my stuff the night before I left. On Saturday morning we awoke early and finished packing the car. I was sad to leave my wife but excited for the adventures ahead. The forecast looked good and my back felt loose. On the road I go!

The drive was uneventful. I headed north at a good clip and stopped only twice during the 10-hour drive. This was probably a bad decision. Sometime during the second half of the drive I noticed that my back was tightening up. I didn’t worry too much about because I thought it could rest once I arrived. I didn’t see a single flake of snow until I hit Vermont. It was dark at this point and I only had an hour or two to go. The roads became mildly slick and GPS took me on some country roads. I held up traffic on those two-lane roads but hoped my Virginia license plates would buy me some latitude from the more experienced Vermont drivers. With an hour to go my back was hurting so bad that it became difficult to push the clutch. I just wanted to make it to the hotel.

The arrival time at VSC is Sunday afternoon. Due to timing, I opted to stay in the nearby town of Burlington, VT, for Saturday night and drive the remining hour on Sunday. As I pulled into my hotel, the snow was falling hard. Accumulation may have been 3″ or so. I limped into the lobby and talked to the young guy behind the desk. He said that the forecast was for a total of 6-10″ of snow overnight and that by morning the roads would be clear. I went to my room, an awful room at that, and settled in. I ordered a pizza and watched basketball. I called my wife and assured her I was safe. Eventually, I went to sleep.

When I awoke the next morning I wanted to see how the snow looked outside. I opened the straight-from-the-70’s curtains and tried to focus my eyes. All I could see was white. I looked down and noticed a sign, but it confused me. This was a standard sized sign that stood maybe four feet off the ground. However, the snow came up to just a few inches below it. Maybe it’s a strange short sign, I thought. Knowing I would need to brush off my car, I got dressed and went outside. Barely anything moved. Why? Because Burlington had just experience a freak record-breaking snowfall. I eventually heard the final total was 33″. Um… over night! Just what my stiff, aching back needed.

I walked past what I figured were stranded motorists and went to the front desk to borrow a snow shovel. The young lady informed me that they didn’t have one. I wondered just how many people were in on this joke at my expense and asked her if she was certain that in Burlington, VT, they did not have a snow shovel. She left the desk and eventually returned, snow shovel in hand. My sore back and I proceeded to go to the car and begin shoveling it out. Sometime later, the job was done. I returned the elusive snow shovel to the desk and went back to the room. I had to make a decision. Do I brave it and get in the car and hit the road, or do I wait? A rare impulsive urge hit me and I decided to drive. Once in the car I floored it to break through the un-plowed parts of the parking lots. The roads were passable, but barely.

An hour-long drive to Johnson took me two, but my brand new tires performed well. I never went faster than 30mph because my directions were in on the joke too and sent me down curvy country roads. With white knuckles and an angry back, I pulled into the parking lot at VSC. I was safe. I made it. And I was still excited to get to work. Take me to my studio!!

[to be continued]

New Paintings

J.T. — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:09:42 +0000

I still plan to write more about my time at VSC, but I wanted to interrupt the flow of posts with a quickie sharing the first new paintings I’ve made since being back home. As you can probably tell, I decided to pick up right where I left off. These paintings are slightly larger (16″ x 16″) and in general the color of the larger forms and the pinstripe are bolder. Here they are:

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

I apologize for the red tint to this image that seems to appear on PCs. Anyone know what causes this? I don’t see it on my Mac and I don’t know how to get rid of it.

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Also of note is that I have uploaded a new section to my Web site for some of the new paintings I’ve been working on. I’ve received some wonderful feedback about these works and feel they merit inclusion on the site. You can see the new painting section by clicking here.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to look at my work and welcome any feedback you may have.

Rob Hitzig Visits My VSC Studio

J.T. — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:52:46 +0000

While in Vermont for my residency, fellow artist Rob Hitzig visited my studio to see my work in person. Prior to his visit he had only seen jpegs of the new wood panels I’ve been doing. Walking around them in person proved to be a much different experience. He was kind enough to write about the work.

My favorite line from his post is the last one: “It is too easy to do too much and with this work, being caught by surprise is what sets it apart.”

Unfortunately, it’s that “surprise” that I am unable to convey in jpegs.

Vermont Studio Center, Part VI

J.T. — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:17:57 +0000

As mentioned in the last post, a fellow resident, Baltimore-based Kim Manfredi, gave me an idea for a painting that piqued my interest. She responded to the works where the applied paint looked like bands of tape with an idea along the lines of “what if the wood was the ‘tape’ and the paint was the ‘wood’?” I’m not sure if these six paintings are what she had in mind, but it’s what I did with her prompting. Here they are:

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Interacting with the other residents and visiting artists at VSC is one of the primary reasons I wanted to do the residency. We exchanged lots of ideas over the four-week duration and some were good, others were bad. Recognizing and pursuing a good idea is a quick path to making better work. As soon as Kim passed along this idea, I knew it had merit and I had to pursue it. Although it required very quick work, late nights and early mornings, I was able to finish these pieces in time for the open studios. I am extremely excited about this work and of all the paintings I made in Vermont, I feel this direction has the most potential for future development. In fact, new versions of this work will be what I pursue first now that I’m home. We’ll see where it leads.

This post is the last of work made while in Vermont. In total, there were 43 new pieces made in approximately 24 working days. In my next posts I will discuss more about the actual experience of being at the Vermont Studio Center. I hope it’s obvious, but it was a fantastic experience.

Thanks for looking!

Vermont Studio Center, Part V

J.T. — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:43:46 +0000

As discussed in the last post, I finally began to feel somewhat more confident making paintings. I took that confidence and moved forward to make some larger paintings. I also felt more experimental with color and let myself branch away from the mucky colors that got me started on the right track. Below are images of the seven larger paintings I made towards the end of my residency.

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

#1 shown above is clearly an outlier in the work I made in Vermont. While it is loosely responsive to the wood grain, the black form is more independent than anything else I had made to that point. When I look back on the use of black, I believe I was thinking about the work of Don Voisine. It just so happens that a painting of his is on the wall behind me now as I write this in our family room. I really like the way this piece turned out. It’s one of my favorites from VSC.

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

#4 above was picked out by one of the visiting artists as definitely their favorite piece in my studio. While I think it is interesting, and I am pleased by the color, it’s not my favorite. Regardless, it’s fascinating to me just how different people’s tastes can be.

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

In #5, I wanted to pay special attention to how I worked with the edge of the plywood panel. In all of the pieces, the paint continues over the edge of the support. In this piece, I wanted there to be a specific event on the edge of the panel. As you can see in the second image, the form comes to a point on the edge.

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
24″ x 24″ x 1″
2010

Once #7 above was completed, I was almost to the end of my residency. I was mentally and physically exhausted. However, I got a burst of energy from an idea of one of my fellow residents and with less than two days remaining I decided to create six new and very different paintings. I will share those in the next post.

Thanks for looking!

Vermont Studio Center, Part IV

J.T. — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:53:05 +0000

As discussed in my previous post, it took about 2.5 weeks in residency before I started feel like I was getting a grasp on the painting I wanted to accomplish. My approach for doing these paintings evolved over and over again. One visiting artist told me that she really appreciated how willing I was to follow the path provided by the work itself. I really believe that one must follow where the work leads as you never know where it will lead and it beats trying to force something that just isn’t working.

These next images I’m going to share are for work that I felt become more consistently successful. I began to figure out how to apply paint evenly across a large surface. I learned how to get the hard edges I wanted. And I learned how to compose the image so that the color and wood grain worked in tandem. The next batch of images is below:

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#1 is the first piece I made where I used Tracy Helgeson’s feedback, both in terms of simplifying the composition and also using mucky colors. I was happy with the result and Tracy was too. We worked out a trade and now this piece is in her personal art collection.

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#3 above is the first piece where I took the strategy to have the paint follow on a specific grain line in the wood. In other words, I counted out from the “center” of the grain five rings. I then applied the paint right on that fifth ring. This allowed the paint to truly “work” with the wood and also gave the paint a more organic feel. I liked this solution and leveraged it many times. It reminded me of my approach to an older piece, Shadow.

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #4, there were two areas where I was able to leverage the woodgrain to define where the paint would be applied.

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #5, I am working with the grain, but not being defined by the grain. Both ways of working interested me and I was intrigued by how each approach felt similar yet different at the same time.

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #8
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#8 is clearly a bit of an outlier in this group. Here I wanted to use the color form to impose more upon the wood. I’m still thinking about the wood grain and about what I want to be visible, but I let myself be less organic than before. As a result, I think this piece may have more tension than the others and that may be something to further explore in the future.

Not Yet Titled #9
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

By the time I completed #9 and #10 above, I felt that I had a pretty solid grasp on the technical aspects of these paintings and I also could allow myself to be more experimental with color. I felt these last two pieces were well-done and that I could then tackle the larger panels I had been saving up. In the next post I’ll share the six 16″ x 16″ maple panels I completed and another that was 24″ x 24.” For me, things started to get much more exciting at this point.

Vermont Studio Center, Part III

J.T. — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:44:13 +0000

Before I left for VSC, I decided that I wanted to spend the majority of my time experimenting with painting on plywood. I came up with a set of rules for myself to follow and prepped about 20 pieces of maple and walnut plywood to work with. I often work in a rule-based manner and I was excited about the rules for these paintings:

Paint a number of lines on the panel equal to the size of the panel (i.e. for a 12″ x 12″ panel, paint 12 lines of color… for 16″ x 16,” paint 16 lines)
The lines can be in any color or width and at any angle
Once all lines have been painted, drill holes into panels so that the holes and lines work together

As I began working in this direction I quickly discovered that my plan was flawed. Fellow resident, Tracy Helgeson, helped me understand the problem by pointing out that not only was painting fairly new to me, but in this work I was trying to work with three dimensions (the panel), woodgrain (color and composition), color (the paint), and holes. In other words, I was taking on more than I could realistically handle and as a result I was becoming frustrated with the work as a whole. She made the suggestion that I simplify. I took her advice and things began to go much better.

In this post I want to share some of the first paintings I finished and talk about my struggles with them. Keep in mind that there were other pieces not even interesting to make it on the studio wall, much less to be shared here.

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

This first piece is the best example I have of the issues that arose when trying to talk my initial rules. I started by painting the blue, pink and gray lines. I had 9 more to paint per the rules, but based on where this piece was headed and where others had already failed, I abandoned the plan. I decided to paint the inside of the lines a solid white to give it some structure and weight. Then I drilled holes in a line that bisected the painted lines. These larger holes were meant to serve as the foundation for a larger form made of holes. However, I noticed two problems. One, the drilled holes weren’t perfect and some of the paint and plywood chipped out. Two, these first holes already started overwhelming the overall composition. Given all that, I decided to stop drilling holes and let the piece be complete at this stage. Although I would not have drilled the holes in this way if I had known this was the final composition, there was something about the piece that interested me. It stayed on the wall. Many visitors to my studio felt the same way, the piece wasn’t fully resolved – it wasn’t successful – but there was something intriguing about it. It was a start.

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
24″ x 24″ x 1″
2010

This larger piece followed the same path as #1 above. Here, I abandoned the lines after 4 (with 20 left to be painted according to the rules) and I also used white paint to fill in areas created by the lines. Based on prior experience drilling holes, I decided not to risk it at all with this piece. Instead, I opted to fill in the large wood area between the blue line and the dark purple with glossy clear coat. The rest of the piece is finished in matte. The glossy finish doesn’t play much of a role in the piece even when seen in person. Ultimately it’s more of a conceptual interaction. This work did provide one big advancement for me. This was the first time I painted lines that weren’t connected all the way across the surface (i.e. the blue and yellow lines). I was quite please with what happened in the lower left corner and this informed future pieces.

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

In #3 and #4 above, it would seem that I took a step backwards. Well, in a way I did. Remember Tracy’s advice to simplify the work? Both of these pieces were in very early stages when Tracy provided her feedback. While each piece should have had 16 lines, that rule was no longer driving my work in the studio. Instead, I thought about simplifying. #3 has a simple composition of four lines while #4 only has two. My final touches to these works was to use glossy clear coat to fill in the center form on #3 and the left and right sections of wood on #4.

The important things to take away from these in thinking about later pieces made at VSC are the pastel colors of #3 and the mucky colors of #4. These will reappear in future posts.

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #5 and #6 above, you can see how I altered my direction in the way I applied the paint to the panels. I was interested in the subtle organic curve to the paint in #4. I realized that the organic form worked better on the wood instead of the hard-edge lines. The hard-edge lines worked against the wood whereas the organic forms worked with the wood. My next decision was to cover the majority of the wood with paint. This allowed me to do two things. One, I reduced the impact of the wood grain on the overall composition (again, following the suggestion by Tracy to minimize the variables I had to deal with). Two, by selectively choosing what wood grain I allowed to be visible, I could focus the viewer’s attention on the most interesting wood grain. With these discoveries, I was once again excited about the paintings. I had something to work with now.

As part of this new work in painting, it was important to me to work with color. Though I had a big area of color in these paintings, I wanted do something more. I came up with the solution of using a pinstripe along the edge(s) of the larger color form. I liked that this created some depth to the composition and allowed up a dialog between colors.

Unfortunately, all was not well in these pieces. Given my inexperience painting, I didn’t know how to apply a solid area of color to the surface. The color is splotchy in both pieces and it’s a real detriment to the work. Fortunately, though, I was in the right place to learn how to fix it. A quick tutorial in using mediums as an extender to the paint and I was once again in business. The problems I encountered in #5 and #6 would be fixable in future pieces.

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #7, I was able to apply a solid area of green paint. Well, mostly solid… it was much better than #5 and #6. However, another problem I encountered in #5 and #6 was how to apply the pinstripe in a perfectly clean way. In #7, I tried a different solution of hand painting the pinstripe instead of taping it off. I thought this might continue the interest I had in using organic forms on the wood. Instead, I found the imperfect edges to be a major distraction. I would need to figure out how to get a perfectly edged pinstripe in the next paintings. In the next post we’ll see if I was able to solve that problem.

Thanks for looking!

Vermont Studio Center, Part II

J.T. — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:24:46 +0000

Before going to the Vermont Studio Center for a month long residency, I spent a great deal of time thinking about what I wanted to make while there. Ultimately I decided that I wanted to spend the month experimenting with paint on plywood, something that would be entirely new, challenging and exciting. Just prior to leaving I had begun new work with wood veneer and clear coat on birch plywood. I’ve discussed this work here before and as you know, I think it’s promising. Since I had a fair bit of materials available for that work, I decided to take it with me to Vermont and work on those pieces as a break from painting.

Ultimately, during the first few days in residency, I found myself very frustrated with the early progress in painting (to be discussed in a later post) and decided to switch gears focusing instead on the wood pieces. With each new wood piece completed, I became more excited. Before I knew it, I was deeply involved with the wood work, cranking out new pieces every day. Eventually I ran out of materials, but I am pleased with what I made. I’d like to share with you the completed wood pieces in the order that they were finished.

Not Yet Titled #1
Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Padauk, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Rosewood, Maple, Black Ash, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Rosewood, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Black Ash, Purpleheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Yellowheart, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
13″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7 resulted from a problem in the gluing up process. There ended up being a portion of the piece that was completely ruined. I cut out that section and settled on this configuration as an experiment. I thought that perhaps stacking the pieces would open a door for me, but so far, it has not.

Not Yet Titled #8
Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #9
Walnut, Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Padauk, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 11″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #11
Black Ash, Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #12
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 9″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #13
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 3″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #13 was made after it was requested by a new friend at VSC (I’ll eventually post something with links to these friends so that you can see their great work) to make them a piece out of any scraps I had. It was nice to work outside the square format and perhaps I’ll explore that further in the future.

…and then I was out of materials to make any more. Being forced to focus on the paintings really advanced them faster than I expected. The next post will be of the first few paintings I made in Vermont. You’ll see how quickly I was willing to abandon a path that was not promising in order to try something new.

Thanks for looking and, as always, I welcome your feedback.

Vermont Studio Center, Part I

J.T. — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:01:42 +0000

Well, I survived Vermont. As you know, I spent the month of January taking part in an artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. I lucked out since it was a very mild January. One day even hit 50 degrees! I’ll be writing several different posts describing my experience at VSC, but for now I’d like to share some images from the studio. The studio portrait was taken with four days remaining. The rest of the images were taken on the last day right before everything was packed away.

The studio portrait was taken by Howard Romero. Howard is working on an ongoging project where he photographs VSC residents in their studio.

The view from my studio window. There is a small river that was often frozen. The red building is the Barbara White Studio which houses painters, printmakers and photographers. I was in the Schultz Sculpture Studio.

The same window as above. These wood panel pieces are approximately 12″ x 12″.

Barbara White Studio can be seen in the window. Wood panel pieces with clear coating highlighted by window reflection.

More wood panel works.

Second window of studio. 12″ x 12″ installation of new paintings exploring variety of ideas and compositional approaches. Piece on the right is 16″ x 16″.

12″ x 12″ paintings on left. 16″ x 16″ paintings on the right. Mixture of maple and walnut supports.

Better view of 12″ x 12″ paintings. Individual formal studio shots will reveal color, texture and subtle details. Hopefully these images will be posted in the next week along with more discussion of the process resulting in this work.

Click for larger view. These paintings are 16″ x 16″. I completed two additional paintings measuring 24″ x 24″ that aren’t shown in the above images.

I hope this provides a glimpse into my productivity at VSC. I counted 42 completed pieces in 24 working days. I’ll eventually share them all with you. Please keep checking back for updates.