#203 Halloween 2013 / 2014

Some backlogged things:

Halloween pumpkin 2013:

Godzilla VS Hedorah

And Halloween costume 2014:

Made this during the summer when I had access to a lot of foam. And time.

I based my costume on the Fox from the Terrible Trio.

I made a last-minute Rilakkuma costume for a friend in my department.

As you can see, it's just a dressed-up dude in a mask.

We didn't want to cut holes in the Rilakkuma mask,

so I just cut a face into the back of it.

#174 Godzilla Mugs

Don't have ready access to a scanner 

so no Animalia drawing today, but here is this instead:

A series of mugs that I made last Summer while back in Kentucky.

I apparently forgot to post them to the blog.

Godzilla was first, and thus, the least refined in technique.

Also, the only one made without reference images.

Of course, Hedorah was next, seeing as he is my favorite Godzilla monster.

Gigan was next, another favorite. 

I chipped the tip of his left claw when glazing him though...

And the colors are a bit off.

Then Megalon. A fav as well, I think perhaps my fav during my childhood.

The two vinyl Godzilla figures I cherished the most growing up were

probably Megalon and Hedorah, though also maybe the original Mechagodzilla.

I debated making a Jet Jaguar to complete the Godzilla Vs. Megalon cast.

I ended up using some of my leftover clay to make 

a little Mothra tray, but I don't have an image.

In any case, pretty proud of how these turned out, 

even if some of the colors are a bit off.

EDIT:

Some of my Hedorah things.

#166 Silverpoint / Copperpoint

For a while now, I have been meaning to 

undertake some metalpoint drawings.

To this end I procured some copper wire from 

Home Depot, and some silver soldering wire from William Binnie.

Today, I visited the paper conservator at the National Gallery of Art

to talk about silverpoint, and she showed me a number of supports.

She then offered a few sheets of different prepared grounds to try out.

With these in hand, I then fashioned some electrical-taped tools

of which any prison-shank-aficionado would be proud.

The result:

Godzilla VS King Ghidorah (after Frans Post)

Here is Frans Post's original painting.

Vertical and Horizontal lines delineate different ground preparation.

The ground is bone ash and rabbit skin glue.

The right side of the page was dampened and rubbed with cheese cloth.

The middle horizontal third was burnished, and the

bottom third was sanded with pumice stone.

The dampening didn't seem to affect the surface too much,

but I found the burnished was easiest to work with.

The sky, background, and Godzilla are silverpoint.

The foreground and King Ghidorah are copperpoint.

When I was working, there was no visible difference in color

between the two, so I am interested to see how they age.

And here are the tools:

#163 James Harper Tribute

So, when I first moved to Dallas

I went to an estate sale with my girlfriend.

The deceased was one James Harper, and he was a painter.

For $20, we bought a painting that was a copy of a Frederic Remington,

which is in the collection of the Amon Carter museum in Fort Worth.

We also bought his monogrammed wine glasses.

So this beauty – complete with its built in light attached 

to the frame – hung in our living room for two years. 

In the background, there are some mountains
that kind of look like weird white pyramids, and
for a while I wanted to add UFOs coming out of them.
In retrospect, there were a number of other paintings
I wish I had purchased.

Anyways, something finally got added:

#161 Doodles

It's been a while.

Thesis is done, just finishing up papers.

Here are some doodles that I have done during class 

or in lectures over the course of the semester:

Left and Right: Class on Byzantine Icons / Lecture on Postcolonial Brazil

Class on Early Italian Ren

Lecture on arabic / latin vulgate bibles.

Lecture on WWII art restitution.

i might color the Bloch-Bauer at some point.

Byzantine Icons class.

Italian Ren Class. Torso Belvedere. 

Also, attempts at Animalia: the Possom. Might repost this as my Animalia entry.

Two lectures, one on German Lothar Baumgarten's kale landscapes;

another on Fred Harvey Girls. Look it up.

Byzantine Icons class.

Invented 17th century dress from memory.

St. George.

Hoping to return to Animals this summer.

#160 Gutai Card Box

Hey all. I made a print!

It is for the upcoming Gutai Group retrospective at the Guggenheim.

My good friend Seth Caplan works there and asked me to participate

in a recreation of the Gutai Card Box (1962), in which:

     "visitors were invited to deposit a ten-yen coin, and a Gutai member inside selected and presented through a slot a premade postcard-size work by a Gutai member in return. Gutai Card Box, conceived as a comment on increasing automation in society, sought to democratize art."

What better way to democratize art than with the
democratic medium of the print.

Anyways here is the print:

シラガ 対 ヨシハラ

(Shiraga VS. Yoshihara)

In the print, Kazuo Shiraga takes on Jiro Yoshihara.

Both were founding members of the Gutai Group.

Shiraga is known for his piece Challenging Mud (1955),

in which he put on a sort of diaper and rolled around in mud.

Yoshihara is known for his paintings of circles, probably meant to be donuts (right?).

Gutai Group was founded in 1954, ostensibly by Yoshihara and maybe

Shozo Shimamoto, who made paintings by throwing cans of paint

and by flailing his arms like those inflatable car dealership tube dancers.

1954 was also the year that Godzilla made his debut.

Godzilla was a giant monster produced by the nuclear
fallout from American bomb testing.

Ishiro Honda's classic featured the likes of Takashi Shimura,

one of Kurosawa's go to's, who had just starred in Ikiru a few year earlier.

Also, the score to Godzilla (by Akira Ifukube) is pretty amazing.
The theme is great by itself (the link is a medley, theme at start).
Also in the score, there is the strangely nationalistic
(for what nation?), almost Souza-esque Godzilla march.

1954 also saw the detonation of the American
thermonuclear hydrogen bomb test Castle-Bravo,
which – due to its unexpectedly large blast radius –
created nuclear fallout that resulted in the radiation poisoning
of a number of islanders and the Daigo Fukuryu Maru.

Here is an excerpt from the Gutai Manifesto:

          "Yet what is interesting in this respect is the novel beauty to be found in works of art and architecture of the past which have changed their appearance due to the damage of time or destruction by disasters in the course of the centuries. This is described as the beauty of decay, but is it not perhaps that beauty which material assumes when it is freed from artificial make-up and reveals its original characteristics? The fact that the ruins receive us warmly and kindly after all, and that they attract us with their cracks and flaking surfaces, could this not really be a sign of the material taking revenge, having recaptured its original life?"

To make culturally specific a misquote of Adorno:
How does a nation make art after Hiroshima?

Lots of Gutai work deals with ideas of negation, emptiness,
embodiment, violence, movement, the gesture, destruction,
and post-war (atomic age) apprehension.
Other non-Gutai Japanese artists were doing similar things.
Shomei Tomatsu was photographing objects from Hiroshima.
See also the ceramics of Kazuo Yagi:
Circle (1967) and Hekitai (Wall) (1963)
The texture of the ruptured ceramics reflect the effects of an atom bomb,
releasing the organic state of things. Glass bottles melt to amorphous blobs.
Compare it with the skin of Godzilla.

I am also reminded of the way Godzilla's trademark roar was created:

"The roar was present in the first Godzilla (1954) and was created by composer Akira Ifukube who produced the sound by rubbing a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass and then slowing down the playback."

There is something very Gutai about the image of 

Ifukube rubbing a resin glove on a loose double bass.

But back to Shiraga and Yoshihara.
Yoshihara's circle paintings encompass much of the
 ideas of negation and emptiness after the war.
In Yoshihara's Red Circle (1969), a reference to the Japanese flag –
and hence Japanese Nationalism – is explicit.
How does one be nationalistic in post-war Japan?
A hollow red circle.
And Shiraga flails in the mud.

#144 Relief Monsterrrr

Busting out some older stuff to keep posts regular.

Here's a little relief clay monster I made while I was home last year:

Glazes were limited to white, tan, brown, beige, gold, and a green,

so coloring got a little weird.

I had never done anything in relief before,

so I was thinking about the Gates of Paradise

(and the North Doors too, I actually like them more).

#143 Johnny Cash

Hey kids.

This past week I did a frame for the Johnny Cash Project.

Nick did one last year and someone reminded me that I wanted to do one too.

Before and after below:

That is the brush pointer on his ear.

For some reason, the aspect ratio of the image

changed between the two screenshots...

Anyways, you can see how the frame was drawn here.

Aight, later homies.

#135 It's Jesus's Birthday

Its Jesus's Birthday.

Honor him by voting for my brother, Ken,

in this nativity scene action figure contest.

Ken's is pretty obviously the best nativity scene.

I mean, Jesus is a facehugger hatching from an egg,

and the magi are all robots with pretty awesome gifts.

Right now, first place is an awful snoopy nativity. AWFUL.

Don't let this injustice stand, vote here.

You don't need to register and you can vote once per browser.

Voting ends tonight.

UPDATE: Ken won.

They sent him a Luke Cage/ Powerman double pack.

Swoop!

#95 Obamojira and other Economist doodles

What's this!? A non Animal post!?

Some doodles from work.

The result of free time and white out tape.

#83 The Gorilla

Animalia: Day 66

The Gorilla

These are pose sketches with a sketch of the head that I ended up

liking so much that I photoshopped it on to the final.

Also, these are drawn on scrap paper that came from my work;

this crazy guy sent us a 400 page fax of letters like this one.

filled with lots of racism and conspiracy theories.

My favorite:

Dear Sir,

There are one million atoms in a grain of sand.

Sincerely,

TWK

Anywayssssssss.

So I cheated a little bit (read: a lot-a-bit) on this one.

Found this image of the Chystler Building and

I altered it a little bit before tracing it.

Then I blurred and filtered it and set it behind the drawing as the background colors.

Also, obviously took inspiration from King Kong.

Maybe should have darkened the darks in the gorilla to match errthang else.

But either way, I'm sure this is a welcomed change from

the past few days of boring straight-forward pencil drawings.

Tomorrow: the Great White Shark

#14 SGC

So SGC was fun.

Here's the painting completed and framed.

I guess I'm happy with how it turned out?

Not sure how I feel about abandoning concept

in favor of convoluted art historical references?

Either way, the composition and what not is taken from

this Honthorst painting.

The characters are Baltan, Godzilla, and a Hopi Kachina doll.

I always loved Kachina dolls.

I made some when I was in 3rd-5th grade.

On to the next project I am way behind on:

Here is a sketch for the print I am doing for this show.

Nick and I are both doing stuff for it.

Again, not sure how I feel about just completely ripping off of Rembrandt

and replacing the symbolism with Pokeballs.

But you know, "Life is full of decisions,"

is what some old guy at the Metrolink told me

when I was deciding whether or not to get a 2 hour pass.

So who's your starter pokemon?

Mine was squirtle.

#13 SGC

Hey friends,

I am in St. Louis this week for SGC

and I have a painting in this show:

Show Me Your Tax Bracket

If you're in STL, come out and see

a wide range of work,

something for everyone.

Also, this was the first painting I have ever made,

so hopefully that went alright?

Heres a peek:

#4 Two Headed Monster Robot Fight

Finally, some pictures from the show.

The rest are on facebook.

I think its public?

I was planning on having some sort of order to these photos,

but the uploading 5 at a time and automatically putting

them all at the top threw me off.

So no order.

If you liked this

Go to Nick's blog and check out his stuff.

xoxo

jun.