Last post, I mentioned going to the Michigan Craft Beer Festival. At this festival, I did live painting for the Dark Horse Brewery. i told the owner, Aaron, if he brought something to paint on, he could keep it, so he brought a heavy ole door.

The first day (of the festival) was what I call "my sloppy phase". I just lay down a bunch of paint with a bunch of motion - worry less about colors. I ended up with a greyish-brown mess. This was a good phase for a beer fest.

On the second day, though, was what I call "my control phase". I lay down a bunch of lines again, inspired by the "groove" & "rhythm" of the first phase, but today I am controlled. I am QUITE concerned about colors and their balance in the piece. I paint on top of paint on top of paint, till I find that "JUST RIGHT" feel to a PIECE. Here is the finished piece in question...

I love me some Dark Horse. I am also doing a drawing that hopefully some day will be turned into a shirt or something. Enjoy...

& this is myself in my paint shirt. Not sure if I'll be able to wear it again, it is now SO caked in acrylic paint AKA plastic.

I haven't posted in forever & feel like I can maybe do that semi-regularly, nowadays. I've been pretty busy with art & work & girlfriend. I need to buckle down now & get some art cranked out. The summer fun is generally over (no more time off from work this summer, though, perhaps a few camping trips). This summer, I already went camping in Leelanau, MI for a few days (dunes, Lake Michigan, campfire races [3 days long], cider bar, winery, tom foolery), 4-day Electric Forest music festival near Rothbury, MI, as a a VIP guest of General Hydroponics & Luke Silverman (music, lasers, California friends, music, new friends, body painting, misters, dancing, dancing, bloody marys, new friends from Jackson & New Orleans, yes), 3-day Bliss Fest in the Petosky, MI-area (more music, more forest, Camp Speed Wagon, fun guys, Arrested Development, mucho drinko, much beauty to be had), & a 2 days Beer Festival in Ypsilanti, MI, as a brewery guest/VIP of Dark Horse Brewery (DH alone had 50ish beers on tap, painting a door for Aaron Morse & the DH nation, also did live painting with Unity Vibration Kombucha beer peoples, did some tee-shirts for them, got all painted up, look for future posts).

This first piece is a collaborative effort I did with a contemporary, Erik Steiger, on the banks of the N. Huron in Frog Island Park, on a log, passing the sketchbook back & forth over a time & over a few ciders. After this, I took it home & did all the blue ball-point work on it, to bring the figure out.

This, the second, piece was started at a poetry event, Madhouse Poetry Series, in Ypsilanti at the ugly Mug - After 2 hrs of laying down paint, mostly with fingers, behind awesome poets, I took it home & gave it a few lengthy touch-up sessions. Then it was finished. It is 4' x 4' & my apt doesn't really have all that much space for it, so it is, graciously, on loan to Jake & Liz. Someone at work said they saw it & thought it looked like me: something that just bursts into song & says off the wall shit - but still... they like it. So, I am happy.

This piece is 2 sessions of painting with my collaborator, Kate Reimer. We are not done yet, but we like it and the horn player is pretty sweet.

This is the tarp I painted on for General Hydroponics (on the condition, my buddy, Luke took it home with him to Portland). I titled it "Starring Kurt Russell As Pac-Man In Escape From Electric Forest". It is one of my favorites, currently.

This last picture is an AMAZING art piece from the first year I attended Burning Man. How imaginative ARE PEOPLE!? I love it.

The many faces of non-representational abstraction.

There is much control, on a sliding scale, to little control - from controlled tension to loose energy. It's all in a day's fun.

In defense of putzing around...

“If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle -- absolute busyness -- then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy -- and without consciousness.” -Gunter Grass.

So much of my art comes from a place of rest, of lollygagging & of a love that doesn't need or take effort in any currency.

{ Fair-Weather } by Big Sway

There is no fair-weather love
In nature, no fair weather...
In love, there is nowhere fairer
Than your heart's desire of
And not for

Care or despair, rebel
No rebellion is inclusive
No rebellion is merely personal
Though so conducive to propel all points
Onward, to be continued, dot dot dot...

There are no fair-weather dreams
In plain English, no free lunch...
In love, there is nowhere fairer
Than a non-dominant unswayed declaration of self
And a non-hypocritical acceptance - inequitable wealth
Of the kit 'n' caboodle
Sent to subjugate us all

Rebellion is slavery dressed to the T

Grace is the closest we've come to heaven

Lost 'n Found

Second piece is lost to Burning Man. One of many pieces lost due to boneheadedness. Broke my heart, but gotta move on. Picture by David Gilman of me selling my Valentine's outside the Tea Room Cafe here in Petaluma.

Rayturn Of The Mack

I'm back a bit now. New pieces coming soon. As for now, golden oldies...