Happy New Year and a new set almost finished....

The past few weeks have been slow with the holidays but none the less a new set of flags is almost complete. This set started off with the idea of printing one thousand Buddhas. This was inspired by my visit to Sanjūsangen-dō Temple in Kyoto. There are 1000 Buddha sculptures in this temple and vary slightly from one another. Origi9nal intents are designed to start taking on a life of their own and so this set has.

While in Cleveland I went to see a show at the marvelous Cleveland Museum of Art. And let me tell you. I have not been moved by art this way since grad school. I saw an exhibit on the Chinese artist Fu Baoshi. He was a traditional ink brush painter that also worked in conjunction with the newly formed government in 1949. His work provided alot of answers for the current work I am doing. Below is just one of his pieces.

 

 

These four pieces were started before my trip to Cleveland and stalled in the midway process. On my return I jumped in the next day shook them up a bit and boom. Artists, myself at the top of the list, get into their process a bit too much at times. And this was certainly my case. The image below is the first complete one and I am very excited with it.

 

I know... I need to get my photo skills down a bit better. I have started to let them take on more of a life of their own. These are going to be more banner like then the previous ones I have completed. They have moved away from Sanjūsangen-dō directly. The Buddhas in these pieces are two of the thousand from the temple. A few funny questions popped about my brain while working on these. The biggest one was... Is it o.k. with me that these are functioning pretty much as pretty landscapes. I have this knack for totally outwitting myself when it comes to these kind of questions and my art. I've seen a million pretty landscapes and even have been adverse to making any in the past. SO... yes, I am good with it. These are still contributing to the Velvet Pelican mission statement. And very honestly, I like it.

 

I have decided to keep working on the flags project. What I would love to do with this set is send them out away from the Boston area as a hole set. There are three in all. I would like for someone to take them to a location and document them for me. In the end result... keep them and send me a good set of photos. Curious? Contact me!

 

Over the next month I am going to start looking at further ways to expand and substantiate Velvet Pelican Projects. Perhaps some networking or road trips! Have a suggestion? Let me know.

 

Until next time.

Skinny Man in Japan Series.....

Here is something a bit different from the past few months and probably the first in a good long time... old fashioned prints on paper. I decided to take a break from the flags and go back to the basics for this set of prints. I found some great handmade paper, 10" x 10" and ran some screen prints on them. This set is called, "Skinny Man in Japan."

Please pardon the strange cuts on the paper. These are on handmade paper, which was a big draw. The initial premise is the same as the flags. Using the least amount of "parts" (images) to create a new scene. There were only 6 images placed on the screen. They are, of course, images from my first trip to Japan. Temples, buddhas, tanukiis, and large dense bamboo fields. This set has 14 finished prints in all and each one different. By printing the images over repeatedly in different sequences these thingees cam alive.

The first trip over in 2008 was a very confusing bewildering experience. None the less, a wonderful experience. Brian P. and I were there for a month with very little experience. We did not know the language, rented a house so we would have to commute to work, do our grocery shopping and some other adventures. This was our life for the month... and guide students around this new place witha bit of help from some great people. The idea of these images is to give that sense of what it was like. Is that Buddhist temple or Shinto Shrine? Is that dish soap or laundry detergent? What is that huge bell for? A tanuki!!!!! It was strange and wonderful and ????

Perhaps this is coming out of nostalgia, perhaps not. With each trip over it is always different. With this set I kept to the idea of a bit of humor and solitude and confusion. How on earth does one find a tanuki near a Buddhist temple. The large swaths of the bamboo landscape was and still is inspiring. In short these fine little prints recall that fun trip in 2008 and the weirdness of it all. I must say that it was fun to return to old fashioned prints on paper for a bit. So what should I do with these? I have no idea. Perhaps they will become funky postcard art? Eh? Maybe?

And yes, these were made in The Blue Think Box! Drop on by and see us at some point. It is turning into a very nice treasure. Having a good collaborative space has been well. Being able to drop in and see a few different faces and print at the same time has been good. drop by and see us some time at 29 Cabot Street. I think over the next few months I'll be considering how to expand Velvet Pelican Projects and the Blue Think Box. I'll tell you when I figure it out. Being a mid career artist is proving to be fun!

That is us above. Oh yeah... another set of flags! Perhaps next time. And until next time....

The new flags and the Blue Think Box....

 Hello again and again. Here are pics of the finished new flag project. This will be the last flags... for a bit. I am pretty happy with this set. The difference being they were made during regular day light hours... WEIRD. I have not finished any projects before 7 a.m. for almost 15 years. It was a learning curve but it does seem to have some benefits. The early morning hours are now just spent with koans and hot tea.

 This is the front of the Blue Think Box with the new flags. They look weird there but I kind of like it. Working in a collaborative space has been interesting and challenging. All of the sudden there are people around at random times! And you talk to them while you work. I have never agreed with the artist in isolation and being a mad genius... bullshit I say. But it has been good to change up habits and be working with the others in the Blue Think Box. As this is something I have considered for years it is good to see it come alive. There are no written rules... just come down here and make. And that is exactly what is going on.....

For the next few projects I will be putting the flags away as not to develop a dependance on them. No thanks. Some small prints and some wood cuts in the near future. Many good fun to come. As a 40nothing. I won't be famous in the art world... nor want to be. I have decided this gives me lots of liscence to move forward. I guess I have caught the printmaking bug again.

That press there on the left... that is where the next project is coming out of. Of other interest to those of you in Beverly next weekend... the Blue Think Box will be open for the Art Walk thing.... 4-9 o Friday and 12-4 on Saturday! Come on by and meet a neat place.

Thanks all.... and until next time.....

The Blue Think Box and a new project....

Greetings All and Interested....

Since my last check in life has moved alonge weirdly but good. First off the new space is open and basically ready to go. After much distraction from work obligations and getting this off the ground we are basically moved in. My expectations are huge of myself and I am learning, that at times, they are uber human. All the well here is an inside look at the Blue Think Box.

A good Takache etching press, silkscreen printing area and a small letter press has been added. A few more odds and ends will be coming. As this is an idea I have betted around for years it is nice to see it coming to fruition. The next move is to start collaborating regularly again. One will be coming this winter with my pal Brian Pellinen on a Japanese wishes project. Thankfully he is much smarter in the liberal arts then I. Getting to mid life does that I guess.

So the last project mentioned bit the dust. I suppose one out of 8 or so is not so bad. I will have to persue the indoor rock garden soon... oh well. Above is the new project midway. At least a snippet of it. Now that I have much more time I am trying to expand upon what has been constructed since May. I should not expect success everytime but hey.... um... yeah. This one has the temple from Nara as well as many parts of the backwoods landscapes from Japan.

Here is the middle section. One of the things I am learning is that the least essential parts is what is needed to make this kind of work happen which makes it somewhat the harder to do... in my brain. It is hard to break from your basic training and make the honest work you want to.

This is the other corner. I hope to finish this one by Monday of next week. I would love to hear from folks who would like to collaborate on projects in the future. It need not be of the nature that I have presented here on the blog. Come on and email me, perhaps work at The Blue Box Think Tank and help put a dent in the world.

On a last note... I would still love to send out more flags to people who might want them. Perhaps you might want to install them as a complete string and dole them out as you see fit. I would love to hear from you. The idea is simple: find a good space, tie them up, document them, send me pics and give them away..... So there.....

Until next time.

And again....

First off let me apologize outright to the folks I planned to send off a large number of flags to. Now don't laugh but I lost my "Remember" book with all of the relative information. Yup. Lost what I was supposed to remember. Found it in a coat pocket last night by fluke. Stacy laughed at that one. I suppose I did too. Anyhow, I will put those out this week. So you should see them soon.

Perhaps you are wondering why I post this odd little blue building? Well... Stacy, I and a few others will be moving into this fine place to open a print shop studio kind of thing. We have talked about this for years. My friend Brian and I bumbled across it a few weeks back and thought... "Now this has potential." After a little digging and a couple of meetings we have decided to take it. Not very large at 435 square feet of space but the price is awesome.

View inside from the back door toward Cabot Street. The landlord is awesome and the interior is in good shape. The basement needs a bit of tidying but will make a good storage space. This little thing used to be a house about a hundred years ago. I have thought about this for years and here it goes. Very weird. Seems like such a grown up thing to do.

This is the view back from the front of our tiny playground. We will be moving in on November 1. It is going to be nice to get the press and silkscreen stuffs out of the house. I think I'll turn my office into a small Japanese self contained house. None the less, I will post some pics on the cleaned up space soon. I think we'll call it "Barry the Mean Fish's Place." Ha! Really though I have no idea.

And Finally.... The last listed project is almost done. The above pic is a small section of it. This thing kind of grew a bit more then I planned. It is now 3 feet by 9 feet. Oops. I need to add a few more bits and tidy it up. I will most likely separate it into sections to make a long slew of flags. I hope to finish by November1 but I will get back to that in out next installment.

Bye.

So It Has Been a Couple of Weeks......

Greetings and fall is finally settling in. Life has been a bit odd but good and keeping me away from this blog. Getting used to a bit more downtime then I have been used to over the past five years has taken a bit more time then I accounted for. Trying to figure this out has consumed a couple of weeks. Being a "mid" career artist and restarting is very exciting and sort of like floating at the same time, None the less I am getting the lay of the land.  I will be shipping out a good chunk of flags this week; finally. It will be late this week so have a bit more patience please.

I have also been considering what project to run alongside the flag project. As winter and the cold months are upon us and I won't be able to work in my beloved rock gardens I came up with the above picture. I have decided to produce a large scale printed rock garden that is modular. The pic above is 60" x 80". Each piece is moveable. I have test drove a few models on the computer and will probably have to increase the size in the actual world. The projected finish date is mid November. In the mean time I will be looking for various indoor locations to temporarily install it.

I want to let people come into the space it is installed and allow them to compose with the printed rocks and make their own garden. At first I thought this was a bit cheesey. Then I wrapped my head around it and decided that it was a decent idea. I really don't want to wait until I'm 50 to decide the idea is good enough. I will post some actual prints of the piece as it goes. If you have a suggestion as to a where please drop me a line.

The plan for identifying a printmakiing studio space is getting closer. I hope that we are able to get situated within the next month. That is all for now.

Giant White Flags and new distribution.....

Distribution.... sounds so cold. Maybe, perhaps, let's just look at this as a new way of letting the general folks in the public have a few of these. I have some remnants and would like to start reaching to point further away then just the general vicinity I dwell in. This does not preclude it though. I'll dive into this idea a bit more later.

So the new flag set is done. I am not even going to bother trying to number them anymore. This set is simply called Giant White Flag Set 0911. I decided to return to the landscape format and raise the scale of the pieces.

As you can see from the above pic they are substantially larger. This set is made form two simple stencils on the screen. If you look very closely at the bottom center of the pic you can see the back of my Buddha guarding my household. Anyhow, I am very excited by how this set came out. Using the very minimum of stencils to create a large scale landscape was the primary mission. I was aiming to also create the view of the passing landscape in rural Japan that I saw while passing by on train. It is quite the impressive experience. The trees in the forest often look as thought they are the same size. I believe this might be due to how they grow into the hills and mountain side. As I am not the tree scientist type of guy I can only speculate.

This is a good look at the new set in mid production. Please pardon my use of the camera. I am not too photo smart and trying to learn how this new camera works. None the less, I believe I have the scale of the window down from the train in relation to the distance of the landscape. I am also trying to play more with the format of Japanese banners called nobori. They are often used in festivals and temples there. For as much patterning that happens here the semi-ordered layering brings the image to a place of stillness. I think I'll head down this road a bit more over the next few months.

So anyhow I would like to start getting these past the general Beverly MA. neighborhood. As I do not have the time or fiscal means to travel and install them around the country or the world I have an idea I'd like to try to explore. I have some pieces left from over the past summer, including this new set. I would love to see them get homes away and will ship them to you. A nice forested home is preferred but not necessary. Heck, I'll ship them to you. All I ask in return is that a good jpeg of their home is sent to me at velvetpelican@gmail.com so that I can post them here. My goal is not selfless promotion. It is to keep the the Velvet Pelican mission to help people remember a few moments of solitude for themselves or others. Heck if you want to go and hang them out in the public for the taking do it. Be sure to keep one for yourself. Be a part of the art practice yourself; even if you are not particularly artistic.

Don't be shy....

Coming up soon.... I/we are hunting down a locale to open a new printshop!!!!! Details to happen soon!