things happening in the studio...

What in the works? What's happening in the studio? Stuff. Several things going on in this first photo below. The picture on the left has been through several incarnations, and I still have no idea where its going. You can see a close up of part of it below. Sort of demonic looking angel creature with rays of light emanating from its head. Demonic angel. Haha. I guess that's an oxymoron. If you believe in demons, then you already know they are angels. In the middle, a collaboration I am doing with Elli Gotzi. Not quite done, and not sure I like where I am going with it. But, skunk. Of course, on the right, a crazy fly with weird things happening in the background. Faahhhh. Upper right, bird/bat thing I started about 12 years ago. Its watercolor and ink on Claybord. 

fly and things

part of painting/drawing deal from left side of above photo

On this table (photo below), a new watercolor ink thing in the same style and color as my recently finished "Convergence" piece. Above and partially covered by that piece is a spray paint/acrylic paint beginning. Hopefully, something will come out of it! 

take a walk on the weird side

elephant man? just started

More or less finished this largish fish painting. Its 2 X 4 feet, acrylic paint, spray paint, and housepaint on primed masonite. Why? Because, I love dem fishes man. They are so weird. Right? Manic fish painting. 

Fish, 2 X 4 feet, acrylic on wood

Another photo of the same image. Notice the colored pencil portrait on the wall
that I did of Joseph (did this about 5 years ago)

Joseph has stuff going on as well. Because, that's what we do man. Yeah. he likes the collage action. Also, drawing weird stuff. Combine the two, and play some crazy music, and you start to enter the mind of Joseph the strange singing running boy who paints weird things and writes stories about the unknown and obscure.

painting/collage that Joseph is working on

The piece below (by Joseph) is a pretty interesting image. The colored pastel picture is matted with a hand painted matte. I say hand painted, but its not just paint. Raised areas were created with Elmer's glue. Gives this matte a unique effect. 

One of Joseph's pastel pictures with a handpainted matte

First step to something new, primed some wood. About ready for a second coat. These are Joseph's, but its not an uncommon scene for me either.

primed birch plywood, have to wait to see what he comes up with

New Art from Joe, "Cancer"

I just finished a new painting/drawing.  It is entitled "Cancer".  I started the piece by applying watercolor washes to a piece of cold press illustration board, the nice thick stuff. Then, started adding detail with a Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pen. Came back with some colored pencil, and some more pen. The picture was originally 24 X 30 inches, but I did not like some areas, so cropped it to the final size of 15 X 15 inches. This may sound crazy, but it was not really unusual for me, as I have done this same thing many times. Sometimes, the entire image just does not work for me, but there may be something salvageable. Anyway, in this case, I thought it was appropriate that I cut away a large portion of a drawing called Cancer. To me, this was similar to the way in which we often try to treat cancer, continuously cutting it away, but often not getting it all. Maybe this was a dark topic, I don't know. Many people tell me that my art is dark, but I don't usually feel that way about it. However, this one is not really happy and is about the insidious growth of cancer both physically in our bodies and metaphorically in our society.

Cancer, by Joe MacGown

Some people have told me that they think the "growths" in this image look rather happy, instead of appearing to be devious, insidious, angry creatures. Now that I think about it, if cancer could be personified, would that being (or creature) feel bad about doing what it does? Probably not. Do parasites feel bad about feeding on something that nourishes them? Do they feel at all? We as humans often eat meat, and even express feelings of happiness when devouring a juicy steak. Does that mean we are bad people? Or, does that simply mean we are doing what is natural to us. So, if cancer cells were thoughtful living creatures, why not show them as being happy, or show them with various mixed emotions.  I was not feeling particularly unhappy when drawing this. And, I was not thinking about cancer at the time I was drawing this. However, after I was about halfway through, it suddenly came to me that this could be interpreted as a a cancerous type growth. In fact, the way this drawing spread across the board was cancer-like in its movement. For us humans, as the recipient of a cancerous growth, there can be no worse form of pervasive evil. Cancer strikes down the weak to the strong, with no rhyme or reason. My father died of cancer a few years ago. He lived with me at the time, and I saw first hand what it does to a person. Interestingly, he was an artist, scientist, and musician. Even at the end, he was taking cells from his body to examine under a high powered compound microscope in vain attempts to find some answer.  I guess in the end, this image should be perceived as slightly dark, at least from our human vantage point.

An earlier state of Cancer, before I had cut and cropped large areas away.