Mark and I are all set-up at the residency in Iceland.  We’re getting time to make work, get out and about in Reykjavík, read, do yoga, and rest.  We have a great set-up this time, with our own little apartment inside the larger shared residency apartment. Here are some images from my studio:

And there’s the same amazing view, this time with snow and with different light:

It makes a big difference to have a good camera this time.  I was able to get decent shots out the windows with my point-and-shoot in June, but now I have a better digital camera with a much more accurate zoom lens.  Behold:

Thursday, I’m hopping aboard the Wolverine from Ann Arbor to Chicago to see and stay with some good friends. Friday,  I’m giving a lecture on my work (details below) at Northeastern Illinois University.  It’s also the last day the show will be up, so come out if you can!

That afternoon, I board a plane to Toronto to meet Mark and Chris and Mary for Halloween weekend, Canada style.

Then Mark and I get on another couple of planes to head to Iceland again for the month of November.  It will be a whirlwind, but needless to say, we’re a little excited.  I’ll work on some ideas I have had bouncing around in my head and Mark will get his own studio to work on some music projects.  Speaking of which, he has a new album out.  Everything about it is AMAZING.  Here is a link to his new website. Have a look and listen.

Talk details:

Friday, October 29

11 a.m.

Northeastern Illinois University, Fine Arts Center, FA 252

Directions to the talk.

Also, here is a Chicago Tribune review of the show.

Bon voyage!

I am comfortably set up at the Philadelphia Art Hotel, run by two fantastic people, artists Zak Starer and Krista Peel. Here’s a great article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the residency. I also have become fast friends with my co-residents Danielle Rante and her dog Kanga.

After running around town for two days exploring the Kensington neighborhood in which the PAH is situated, getting groceries and visiting the Reading Terminal Market, dropping my work of at Pterodactyl for my upcoming show, and generally recovering from the 11- hour drive, I have gotten to make some work. Here are some scenes from my urban studio:

I’ll post some work soon. I need to get to more making first. Aaaand a parting shot of my new best friend who keeps me company in the studio while I work (that’s my chair, by the way).

More time in the studio = another finished painting. Now I need to figure out how to wrangle these three (and the rest of my schtufz) into the van for the drive to Philly.  I head out Sunday and hope to stop in Pittsburgh to see some museums en route.

I have been painting a lot lately and it feels great.  I used to be a painter exclusively and have come around to working in a variety of approaches and media depending upon what I want the outcome to be.  But painting  my first love and when I engage in it, it just feels right and it pretty much consumes me.  I like the work I am making and am rather curious about it, as each piece is feeling like a discovery.

I have found that reading about painting and art in general gets me psyched up to be in the studio.  I recently read Lives of the Artists by Calvin Tomkins,  Inside the Painter’s Studio by Joe Fig and am currently reading The Daily Practice of Painting by Gerhard Richter and Mirror-Travels: Robert Smithson and History by Jennifer L. Roberts.

I am reinstalled in my Ypsi studio for the time being until August when I head to Philly for another residency.  After working small in Iceland, it feels great to be working large again!  I love having the sea glass and ceramic in the studio and keep arranging it in different ways.  Now to keep from melting…

with the goal I set for myself: twelve blue drawings while in Iceland.  Now for some last minute projects… and packing all possible fun into my last weekend here.

Here are the drawings I have made so far, all of them gouache and ink on paper (some with cut-outs):

These are just Photoshop-tweaked snapshots.  I’ll post better images to my website eventually.  I am having a lot of fun with mapping and engaging negative space.  I’m excited to see where this all leads…

I am completely inspired by the variety of blues in the landscape in Iceland. The fact that three of these images were taken from my studio window is a testament to my good fortune at having been granted this residency…