Requiem For A Paintbrush

  Oh Paintbrush, I knew you well.  You were such a loyal, hardworking paintbrush.  You were 3 inches wide (I mistakenly said you were a 2 inch) and were very useful when it came to gesso-ing canvases. In fact, that is how we first met. You were a class-required purchase, and on sale with the employee discount at Hobby Lobby. I was taught how to build and gesso canvases, with you at my side.  You were quick to learn as well, and applied a smooth, even coat to every canvas placed in front of you.

But you quickly picked up more than that. For any large area that needed a good blending, you were there. You were the king of skies, merging the purples to the blues, to the whites.  They always turned out smooth, as if pulled from the sky itself.

You were not daunted by the size of a canvas, in fact, the bigger canvas, the better. Large work spaces were your forte.  You were not cowed by the fine detail from the small, itty bitty liner brushes; they could fill in the flower petals in the fine field you could create.  There had to be you, before there was them.

You wore your dried paint and gesso marks well.  It showed your character, the number of pieces you assisted on.  And you always owned the gesso.  I had to look today, for a brush to take on your duties. This new brush was also on sale, though not on employee discount. Those days are passed.  This brush will be adequate, but not the same. It will not have the handling ease you possessed, or the thickness of bristles.  They just don't make brushes like you anymore.  But it was those very bristles that did you in. I wish I could glue them back!

Good Paintbrushes don't die. They simply loose their bristles.

Latest Works

While I've been so busy, lately, I have managed to churn out a few new pieces. Without further (FURTHER) adieu:

 This lil happy piece is called "You Can't Do That On Television."  It was actually painted last fall, ...but... I wasn't able to finish it until this spring. It needed a healthy coat of spray gloss, that, with the winter being the winter, could quickly become an unhealthy coat of spray gloss--not just for my own oxygen consumption, but because I've found that when you use aerosols under certain temperatures, they tend to make little bubbles as they dry. Not cool for the amount of work I put into it...so I waited. Anyway, it's my crumpled paper technique AND it just sold today! Woot!

 This agitated fellow is "Aviator." Kind of a take on the Red Baron, or of fighter pilots of old. I explored a new (for me) technique here: I made a stencil, painted the background, then the fill in colors for his hat, skin, scarf and goggles, then laid the stencil over to make any black lines with aerosol (actually the black is appliance spray paint, interesting texture/sheen). I'm currently using this same technique on a companion  piece to this one, tentatively called "Autopilot."

 This one is "Faith 7," named for the Mercury capsule of the space program. I saw the real thing hanging at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and took an AWESOME pic of it (it's on my facebook if you really want to see the original). This is my pop art-stylized way of portraying it. I'm digging the style, it may reappear.

This one is called "Re-Entry" and is of Apollo 17, you know, re-entering our atmosphere.  Again, seen at the JSC in Houston, and, again, in a broader pop art manner. And if you look reeeeally closely in the background (though you can see it easily in real life), you can see my fleck-art stars.  White paint. Randomly applied. I likes it.

And now for the second wave of Mee-bas!

The red/green/blue one is "Mee-ba 5.0," the pink/navy/yellow one is "Mee-ba 6.0," and the white/grey/black one below is "Mee-ba 4.0."  The first three Mee-bas were sold, and my mommy suggested I make some more Mee-bas. She even suggested the white/grey/black color combination, but later claimed to like the RGB one better. They vary in size, as Mee-bas do, and are sold seperate and as a set. Mee-bas are actually really fun to paint, and I see a really large one down the pipe somewhere. You know, after I clean all the other stuff off my plate!

That's about it for now, back to work on "Autopilot" and other plate-fillers. I've finished painting my new wall at the Art Bank and get to hang my work there tomorrow. AND I have the sniffles. NOOOO!!! I am NOT catching a summer cold! Just sayin'. I have too much work to do!

Gallery News

I've had quite a bit on my plate lately, both art-wise, and non-art wise, so I apologize for the absence.
I'll just talk about the art-wise here.

We've gotten the upstairs of the Art Bank ship-shape...Just in time for me to move downstairs! Woo! I'll miss the upstairs, I've worked hard, with many of my fellow artists, to make it a neat, nifty place to be, so by all means, still go up there to check it out!

I'll be busting my tushie, getting my section of wall fixed up this 'weekend,' so, hopefully, I'll have plenty of pics to share when it's all over and ready to go. I seriously can't wait for my 'weekend' now!

On the Muncie front, I've got an upcoming show there for July. (I know! I'm posting about it BEFORE it happens! What a shock!)  I'll be joining artists Zack Starkey and Sam Koch at the 111 Arts Gallery in downtown Muncie.  It's actually a tattoo parlor, so that's a pretty interesting change of setting.   Art can be shown in tons of off-the-beaten-path venues; so far I've shown in a library (Greenwood, my first), a pottery place, a high-end consignment shop, a hair salon, and now a tattoo parlor. Those besides the normal galleries or coffee shops you'd expect. I'll show anywhere they'll have me! I still haven't quite decided what pieces of my collection to take up there, but let's just say it won't be my traditional still lifes.  I'm seriously considering busting out the aerosols on plywood, just 'cause.  In any case, you'll have to come to Muncie on July's First Thursday (July 7th) and see! Oooo a surprise!

AND I'm now a member of IDADA , the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association. Yay! I've gone legit! Some of my work is now featured on my IDADA page and its a pretty cool benefit of showing at the Art Bank. Score!

AND I've just been invited (and just accepted the invitation) to join the White Pines Gallery, an online gallery that's based here in Indy. 

Site mistress, Sally Cunningham, visited the Art Bank for June's First Friday. We chatted a bit and she liked my art! I was invited to join, and she even gave me a lil write-up on her site's blog! (Scroll down to the Saturday, June 11, 2011 entry).  It was very much appreciated, and I hope White Pines will be a good online home for some more my art. Another thing I can't wait to set up. Heh, I'll probably do that this 'weekend' too, after I've turned my arms to jello prepping my wall at the Art Bank. When all you can do is rest your fingers at the keyboard, at least you can get some more work done!

AND...well...If there is an AND, I can't think of what that'd be right now. No new pics in this post, but some nifty links to check out.  And, while I'm expanding my online turf, my actual website, joyhernandez.com is still my home turf.  Well, that needs some big time updating, but hey. I'll add that to my list of stuff  I need to get done, you know, like all the goofy garden/yard projects I've been accomplishing. Hey, you never know, if my rock garden thing I'm building turns out like it currently looks in my head, I'll post some nifty pics of that too!

Cheers!

An Art Engagement

You miss quite a bit if you miss First Friday at the Art Bank. Lots of new art, fun artists, and wonderful art appreciators and...
This:

Bryan and Jennifer came to the Art Bank last October, for First Friday. It was their third date. It was also the night that he looked at her and knew he was going to marry her.  So he waited until June. He had his brother help him out, taking photos of Bryan holding up signs, asking Jen to marry him. They put the pictures together into one piece, Bryan painted on it a bit to give it a more artsy look, they added a frame and he rented a wall at the Art Bank, just for the night.

He then asked Jen to come with him on another date nite. They wandered the downstairs part of the gallery and eventually made their way to the upstairs. He had it all planned out: "What do you think of this one, Jen? What do you think of that one? What do you think of THIS ONE?"  And....

I happened to be on call, had my camera ready and positioned it in the far corner of the gallery room, for the best vantage point.  A downstairs artist agreed to give me the head's up when they arrived. Bryan gets down on one knee, and I start rolling. Next thing they know, I'm sticking a microphone in their face to get all the lovely details, while fellow artist Luis Medina is pointing out that Bryan successfully ruined it for all romantically-inclined men in the entire city: The bar has now been raised.

So yeah. First Friday at the Art Bank is a pretty hoppin' place.  Who knows? Next time, you might wander into an art wedding, on a night when you thought you'd just go check out some local art!