transformations list

Aerosol spray can:
cylinder, tall, metallic,glossy ,smooth, under pressure, polychromatic, hand held, rattle, light weight
Functions:
Sprays paint, fumes, hissing, explosive, spills enamel dust everywhere, craft uses, various forms of art, huffing, spills paint, hazardous, disposable

Styrofoam Peanuts:
small, light, white or pink or blue or green, Styrofoam, organic shapes, porous, indented, static attraction, come in groups
Functions: cushions, packing, toys, hate that sound, padding, clouds, unnatural, warehouses, industrial, Christmas

Disposable Batteries:small, variable size, cylinder, thin, metal, small nipple on top,poison, glossy, wrapped, labels.
Functions: Projectile, toxic waste, store energy, space age, always die at the wrong time, power, blackout, expensive, piles of dead batteries.

Conceptual Art Questions

1. The viewer is an important element in conceptual art because conceptual art depends on the view to give it meaning. It is in the concept or idea that the meaning lies, not the form itself. The concept only exists in the mind of the viewer.

2. Mnay people find it hard to accept DuChamps Fountain as art because of the preconceived notions of what they are looking at, a toilet flipped on its side. They see only a toilet because that is what their mind tells them it is due to past experience. It is also hard for people to accept because Du Chanmp hasn't really created anything new. He has simply taken a "found" object and reinventing is context. Traditionally, people consider art as something created by someone.

3. DuChamp, with his readymades, is asking : "Could this be art?" or "Could this be accepted as art?" He is trying to get us to stretch our minds. His best posing of this question is the Fountain, as it is something usually thought of as necessary but repulsive and dirty, mass produced, with no unique beauty. Could this be art?

4. It is hard to categorize conceptual art because it lacks many of the featurs of traditional art such as form, color, value, etc. The meaning lies in the idea not the product, and traditional art the meaning is in the product.

Some shapy fun. This is done with all German Montana paint, except the orange. Still trying to master the art of line placement with the can. It is so much harder when I can't actually make contact with the surface. I love the opacity.

"my mind letting my arm make the decision" Elizabeth Murray on painting. invaluable words when it comes to spray painting large letters and characters.

Killer Idea

this is TIONALIEN

The process of painting over. Alien.

This is another thing I like about spray enamel. It is so opaque, it covers a lot. The reason I paint over so much is because I really can't save everything, so if I don't totally love something, I paint over it. I just don't have the room to store all these big ass boards. Not to mention trying to deal with them during a move.

Skulls

Here are some skulls and faces. You may recognize the female face from the last post. I just keep painting and painting over. I think I like these better without the black outlines.

TION CAMO

My wife hates this one. She says it is too camo-ish. She is right of course. Sometimes I just try to use up colors and practice. Unfortuantely old paint was cracking through the blue outline.

Tools of the Trade

Here is a small glimpse of my tools. See this and then multiply it time about 3 and you will have a sense of how many cans are floating around my garage. The things is, its not much compared to alot of other artists. The little baggies are filled with various tips that give different spray widths, from about a 3" radius to a line the width of a dime.
You may see some stencils. Formerly I vowed against stencils. I wanted to do everything freehand. I felt stencils were inhibiting, time consuming to construct and kind of confusing. I'm slowly trying to work them in here and there. It just gives me more options for effects. Pictured is a small canvas panel I was experimenting with the can lid as a stencil. It produced a sort of fish scale effect.

Metal Head

"SION" another alternative to "TION"

Some nonobjective stuff. I love the act of spraying paint.

"DIS" was going to be disc, but I ran outta room.

These are some prelims or the book project. I included the white arrow within the letters as an allusion to handwriting instruction manuals. Ultimately I felt the format was just not what I felt. I switched to canvas and a smaller scale.