The Bats North by North

New assemblage and throwing some bowls

I've been working on this assemblage for  awhile now and I think its completed. I was thinking that I could embellish it more but I don't want it to be about excess or just going overboard for the sake of it, I believe in a bit of restraint,  I had to tell myself repeatedly to not go Baroque on it.
This assemblage touches on the subject of aging and coming to terms with it spiritually, physically and mentally. I'm over 50 years old and its a time as the noted Mythologist, Joseph Campbell, says "not of achievement but of realization"  A transition into assimilating the choices we've made, where we've been and where we are going.

I have also been fired up to throw clay again on the wheel and start altering the wheel thrown bowls. I watched a wonderful inspiring 30 minute documentary on Lee Kang Hyo, a potter from Korea https://youtu.be/ayDjp4yvF3o?list=PLw5HG1BBLUD-0xdwZYaXb0xV6Qt7PQzcQ
I'm rusty, but I am going to persist, be in the moment and I hope to make a few good bowls in the future!

Photomontage new works

 These are still works in progress, I'm going to have to sit on this one for awhile to see where the narrative can take this image.   The size is 13" x 5" and utilized 7 separate pieces to make up this image. Hand cut with xacto blade and glue stick.

I believe this one is complete and I titled it - Charon lunching by the river.

The size is 8"x11" and has 10 separate pieces making up this one. xacto blade and glue stick are the tools I used.

This one is an alternate version of a past work using the same text. Trying to poetically illustrate that

in the end its our humanity that connects us all, there are seemingly endless ways to connect with each other and the earth we live on for the short time we are here. I believe it's our shared humanity that is our immortality.

 

 

 

NEW! Live album on Cleopatra Records Christian Death Halloween 1981

Here is another new Christian Death album released yesterday on Cleopatra Records with one of my photographs on the cover! Thanks for the opportunity Matt Green.  Rozz Williams and Rikk Agnew brewing up some amazing tunes. Limited edition purple vinyl reissue of the earliest known recording of this legendary gothic death rock band fronted by the inimitable Rozz Williams performing an entrancing live set on Halloween. See the link below

 Cleopatra Records release Christian Death Halloween 1981



                                     Cleopatra Records release Christian Death Halloween 1981


                                                                                   

Mnemonic Devices

I'm going through more of my photos that I snapped of bands from way back and came across these images of the band Mnemonic Devices performing at the Cuckoos Nest or maybe it was the Concert Factory as it was known after the Cuckoos Nest...I cant remember. We saw them a few times performing and really enjoyed their use of the violin onstage.  Their album Playing on the Dark keys on Bemisbrain Records was always on the turntable......Bemisbrain Records also put out the GREAT Hell comes to your house album which introduced me to Christian Death and the Super Heroines.

  

Kutiman - Inner Galactic Lovers (Kutiman mixes Fiverr)

Photomontage some new ones

 

Standing in the dirt, grounded.

 The starless sky betrays light beyond the frenzy of wings that circle and dive

 

Photomontage 7 pieces and some pencil make up this image

                                  The moat is deep and brims with all the fears you bring to it
                                                     Photomontage 9 pieces make up this image

 

 

                                           Photomontage 5 pieces make up this image

David Sylvian ~ Ancient Evening 1985

Jennifer and I saw him in concert 27 years ago during the In Praise of Shamans tour definitely one of the best 20 shows ever.

Photomontage at the begining of summer

And one final photomontage that has 20 separate pieces making up this image. It's 14" x 13"

unfinished collage 16 pieces scissors/x-acto-gluestick-magazines

11x 14 .........Trying to exploit every inch of this ...........don't want to overwork it!
probably about 4 hours of work and 25 magazines and 16 separate pieces make up this image

Newfangled Collage.......Using the the house as a metaphor for self

I've recently completed three collages that make use of the idea that the house is a reflection of the self. They are settings for the ordinary and extraordinary dramas of our existence, it is where these extremes come together and create a unique space.  Generally we consider the geographical area, environment, size and shape, the layout of the habitat before we decide to settle and occupy a house. We call the space we live in our home, a private space that reflects our ideals and souls. These homes provide protection from the elements, we have babies there, we grow up there, we laugh ,cry scream, we get sick there, and sometimes we die there.  We start to believe that our home is the center of the universe, but the house, like ourselves is transitory, it ages and needs repairing and after awhile disintegrates or is torn down to make way for new homes.   They say that our eyes are windows to the soul,  the windows of our homes that separate our private space from the public space act like magnifying glasses bringing into view the dark night of the soul.  I used 10 separate pieces for this image and some pencil drawing.


I like this one with the persons legs under the desk and building/house, it reminds me of the presence of whatever you might call God or Buddha or the Tao it also reminds me of the Wizard in Wizard of Oz. Its a house within a room of a house or our galaxy within the universe.

The text I wrote:  The narrow path that ambles between the border of night and day becoming a straight white line that I imagine dissipates with our final exhale.


This one I'm still working on.... the eyes dangling are windows or witnesses to someone desperately trying to hold onto what they believe to be their reality. Soon to be part of a river where one enters and exits a different person.... it flows eternally. I used 10 separate pieces for this one and some acrylic paint and ball point pen.

The text I wrote: On a journey for revelation I discovered traveling cant deliver you.. that horizon that appears simple and straight is as deceiving as any prophet.

This one is not complete yet tentatively titled Spirit house. I used 12 separate pieces for this and some felt tip pens and white pen.

Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinois

Dark Soul

This is a collage  inspired by my friend Fred Rodriguez who is a eclectic gregarious fun friend who loves every genre of music and is now digging deep into his goth tendencies

Latest Collage

 

This one is approximately 12" x 8" has  exactly 13 separate pieces that makeup this collage.

hand crafted in my space.

Cocteau Twins Throughout the dark months of April and May

3 new assemblage sculptures

                              I've been busy completing the detail work on two of these assemblages and the nutshell one came together pretty quickly! The one titled Hollow Hills has been a work in progress for about 9 months! Exploring different variations and trying to finish up the details which seem to take the longest! I'm not a fan of spelling out what specifically these works are about, but it's the usual themes I like to explore, life, death, spirituality, Buddhism.       

                                           Shadow play   
Height 23" x  Length 16" x Width 3" constructed with two boxes, glass, part of a trophy, old embossed newspaper, a fishing lure, string, a ceramic hand, collage, lettering, paint and put together with wood screws, bolts and gorilla glue.

                                                                     In a nutshell
Height 17" x Length 8" x Width 8 1/2" when its opened the length dimensions are 8" longer
constructed with an wooden nut that used to hold cutlery, resin casted birds, clock parts, earing, two lenses, metal cut from a cookie tray, cut up candy dish, water colors and acrylic for the painting designs and black matt paint for the exterior and held together with wood screws and gorilla glue.

                                             Hollow Hills
Height 36" x Length 17" x 5 1/2 " Constructed from part of an old cabinet, the body of a clock which need major reconstruction, brass chandelier arms, drink coasters, glass hands, rusted wolf, plastic bird painted gold,  a collage with some of my writing, small ravens mounted on wire, I painted the body black and gold leafed a detail on the front door. Put together with plenty of nails, screws glue.