art and life

one of the things i've really enjoyed about where i'm living now is the opportunities i've had to work on art more. there's a balcony out back where i can dry my paintings, a huge table in the living room where i can perch over a canvas, with my colored pencils, acrylic gels, and paints, with the cd player easily within reach.

i've started buying old and poorly painted canvases at yard sales because it's cheaper than purchasing new ones and i don't have the tools to build my own. cover it over with gesso and it's ready to be a new creation, redeemed from past mistakes and well-intentioned ideas that didn't work the first time around.

i think that's been the biggest lesson for me in making art. when i was a kid i used to get frustrated when i'd mess up and i'd cross the entire thing out. or i'd try to copy people instead of developing my own style. what i'm doing probably isn't very original, but it works for me. i'm learning to work around my mistakes, cover over them, that nothing is hopeless and that nearly everything can be recycled.

i've got a couple of projects in the works right now... attempting to collage the scattered codes of our world into something meaningful, and another photo project to occupy myself along with our graffiti expeditions. i'm planning on documenting the various houses of worship in cleveland, whether that's the orthodox church domes along state road, the storefronts on cedar and denison, various temples and strange architecture.

sometimes the same photos of st theodosius or trinity cathedral get a little boring. i'm going to try not and let it be that way.

current painting music: john frusciante's solo work, the first three funkadelic albums, the essential alice in chains, common - like water for chocolate, martina topley-bird - quixotic, the twilight singers - powder burns