As the 12th in the series is done, I can now say this is the first deliberate, concerted series I’ve done in about 25 years. People who follow my blog will know I’m anti-signature style, and tend to rebel against myself as soon as I place restrictions on what I can do next. This combo makes it really hard for me to go through with any kind of a series.
However, the parameters of this one are broad and appealing enough that I don’t feel my imagination is circumscribed or that I’ve consigned my self to the labor of executing at least partially preconceived pieces. The mystery of not knowing what is next, around the next bend, keeps me going.
I’ll make a separate post about the series so far, and some attempt at the dreaded act of self-promotion. I think a video would work best.
The series is not over. Part of the great appeal of generating these quicker images is that I can make up for lost time. And yesterday 30 seemed like the magic number when perhaps something good will happen: an artistic breakthrough, or perhaps some well-deserved token of recognition from the art world. More likely, I came up with that number because it gives me a good amount of time to work before I might get discouraged by lack of interest the world shows for my art, and before picking myself up again, and continuing knowing there’s always something else up my sleeve that even I don’t know about.
What will the next dozen images look like? I have no idea. Some themes are cropping up, such as mini-psychological dramas with two personages, probably the minimum needed to symbolize human conflict, communication, and communion. Cyclopes are in this season, as are monsters and aliens in general. This reminds me – I was watching an interview with the painter, Daniel Richter, and he was talking about a series he was working on, and he used a very similar approach to mine here. He made them without a preconceived idea, just by putting paint on the canvas and looking at it and seeing what developed. I’m quite sure tons of artists use this technique, and I used it for a series of 12 acrylic paintings decades ago. But the results are exceedingly different. Mine has monsters, aliens, and one-eyed creatures. That just reflects my history, and in particular a fascination with creatures going back to my early childhood.
If you are interested in this series, check back in a few days, at which time I should have a post and/or a video explaining it and discussing each of the pieces briefly.
Here’s all 12 pieces in the series so far in a slideshow.
Or, if you prefer, you can see them in a click-through gallery:
To see other posts about other pieces in this series, go here.
Thanks for checking out my art and my blog. Check back in a few days to see what’s next.
~ Ends
And if you like my art and art criticism, and would like to see me keep working, please consider making a very small donation. Through Patreon, you can give $1 (or more) per significant new work I produce, and cap it at a maximum of $1 a month. Ah, if only I could amass a few hundred dollars per month this way, I could focus entirely on my art. See how it works here.
Or go directly to my account.
Or you can make a small, one time donation to help me keep on making art and blogging (and restore my faith in humanity simultaneously).
Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 