Summer's End

I took a break from producing the Tier 3 perks of my crowd funding initiative, which I have decided to launch in the spring of next year; there are too many events going on between now and December.

Perhaps it is the time of year, but lately I have been thinking about the colors of events in time. This paintings a visual poem about summer's passing into autumn, the green giving way to shades of gold and rust and the hues in between.


The painting had a trying start: I attempted using an abstract drawing I composed three years ago as my subject: I'll never do that again! I plan on having at least one other painting completed in time for my 15 November Studio Exhibition, one of which I will raffle off.

Details

Title: Summer's End
Acrylic, oil, interference and textile on canvas
72.5 cm x 90 cm (unframed)
Close-ups of the work to the right

IndieGoGo Tier 3 Perk

Made tremendous progress on Saturday 27 September on the Tier 3 perks for my IndieGoGo crowd funding project thanks to 선도 and 영화... 감사합니다! Our subject (one of my favorites) are the urban canyons of my neighborhood Hannam-dong, We're taking the landscape and distributing it over 12 16 cm x 16 cm canvases which will be painted using my mixed-media technique.

On Saturday, we managed to draw and paint all but two. The next step will be to identify the areas were the textures will be built up prior to the oil paint layer.

Tomorrow is a day off from work to celebrate "Hangul Proclamation Day; plan on getting past the textural enhancements process with all 12 canvas. I would like to use the following week to add the oil and interference layers.

Not sure what subject I am gong to use for the Tier 4 image, which will be nine 16 cm x 20 cm canvases.  I am leaning to something more presentational, but I might produce another urban landscape; chime in at any time. Suggestions are always welcome here!

선도 [Sonny]

I finished the portrait last Sunday 21 September. 선도 [Sonny] is a big departure.

Top, the finished portrait. Second down, the composition overall, with basic colors blocked. Middle, acrylics with texture enhancements. Bottom close-up. Completed the painting with oil and interference overlays.
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Wasn't able to update this blog or create another entry this week because creating the Tier 3  Perks for my indiegogo crowd funding effort as required all my time this week!

Re-exploring a portrait was a result of seeing the Edvard Munch Exhibit here in Seoul beginning of August inspired me to again explore figurative subjects.  I'd like to do a complete figure, modestly posed: more Renoir than Munch. Probably not going to be able to start on that until after the crowd funding initiative is competed though. I have a Tier 4 perk which will take some effort to produce: next blog read all about it.

Reflection 23 - Week Two: Finished

Reflection 23 110cm X 90cm acrylic, oil, textile, interference and phosphoresce on canvas

Completed Reflection 23 last night. Weather impacted the drying time of the oil layers that are the base for the final application of interference pigments. I may do yet one more version of this painting for myself, but not until I finish The Muse.* Still need to sign and date the work and send it out to the framers

Below, a close up of the work. As mentioned in my previous article, with this particular work I used modeling paste to give the appearance that the supplemental textile was being extruded from the base canvas.

Reflection 23 - Week One

Reflection 17

I started this painting a week ago. It is called Reflection 23, and like it's predecessor, Reflection 17 it ostensibly uses the ocean as a subject.

The Edvard Munch exhibit reminded me that artists can "version"; i.e. The Scream. (Makes me wonder sometimes if Vincent would have painted another Starry Night had he not shot himself.)  In part, this second version is a request: I gave Reflection 17 to Seon-Doh's parents as a gift. But she liked the painting asked me to paint her a  Reflection. So I decided to paint her a larger version using the Sulu Sea as my inspiration for this new work Reflection 23.*

The first week was spent working on the substrate; the Topolism base technique. The method has evolved: I use modeling paste in places to give the appearance that the additional substrates are "growing" out of the canvas base. I began by laying down the wave shapes using phosphorescent blue and green, which following the acrylic application  has become subtle, but discernible. This was followed with applying the elemental water shapes using various tightly defined textiles, and concluded with a spot paste application.

The work in it's first week of progress.

*we spent our first honeymoon in Boracay and the water was magnificent even if the coral reefs were not.

Unknown Legend

Need to rent some space in a gallery in Insadong or in Hongdae to continue my promotion. Targeting the right gallery has become my immediate focus. Gana Gallery in Insadong is expensive: between $5000-$7000 per week depending on the time of year with Fall to Christmas being the most expensive. Ironic to me because that is just about the worst time of year to go trudging around Seoul unless freezing temperature and biting wind are appealing.

Indiegogo makes most sense because it is an international crowd funding source and I believe that visual arts' know no boundaries. I am calling the project Unknown Legend— a term my wife coined for my artistic career.

Perks are going to be T-shirts, soft and hard cover catalogues of my paintings and sample canvases I create before I start on a project. They are textural sketches of the effect I want to achieve on the final canvas. I usually keep these and have made them gifts from time to time, so I am going to include a study canvas along with a t-shirt,  and hardcover catalogue as a perks for major contributors.

Need to finish off the comprehensive 2014 catalogue and come up with a "slogo" for the t-shirt, in addition to writing up the proposal that needs to make contributors reach for their PayPal by bullet point number two.

The Last Mask

Finished the last painting in the Modern Mask Series: Cheabol Son last night. I still need to sign and date the painting, but that will have to wait until some pigments dry.

The six mask paintings are based on Korean Mask Dance a significant cultural art form for  more than a thousand years that flourished in the Li Dynasty. In a nutshell, the Mask Dance was a means by which the underprivileged could vent against the higher born, including the monarchy itself.

I thought it would be interesting to use the Mask Dance (탈춤) as a vehicle for paintings of how a modern mask might look in conjunction with a contemporary story. The plot of the story, written by Seon Doh Kim,  deals largely with desire and the price of self-doubt with a representative Chaebol Family replacing the role of "higher borns."  To the right, the mask paintings in their order of completion, the plot of the dance.

Hannam Mask Dance (한남탈춤)

Young Salary Man and the Bride From the North are engaged. Young Salary Man is admitted to a Chaebol company after a fierce competition, where he meets his childhood friend, Chaebol Son. (They met at an international school before Young Salary Man's family business went bankrupt.) Young Salary Man is a newbie while Chaebol Son is already a department head (as he is the son of the Chaebol Chairman).

While Young Salary Man and Chaebol Son rekindle their friendship to some extent, Young Salary Man finds it difficult not to feel small around Cha
ebol Son. One day, Young Salary Man takes his wife-to-be to a company dinner where he introduces her to Chaebol Son.

Chaebol Son is struck by her “smashingness” and secretly starts to woo her behind his friend's back. He is confident she would have him as he had never failed with women before, what with his background and his charm. While the Bride is flattered, of course, she discourages him of his pursuit. However, when Young Salary Man finds out what had been going on, he finds himself in a fit of jealousy and a sense of inferiority. He starts to become suspicious of his lover, obsessing about her whereabouts.

Young Salary Man is continuously under stress at work, as he works alongside Chaebol Son, who keeps making snide remarks about his relationship with the Bride. The Bride feels Young Salary Man's distrust too, and the distance he is placing between them.

Meanwhile, it comes to the Chairman's attention that his son (Chaebol Son) is infatuated with a common woman with no significant background. As the Chairman sees the infatuation grow, he calls his son to his office to talk him out of it and eventually threatens to cut him off, as he had done with his daughter*, if he does not stop with this madness. The Chairman sends his people to the Bride as well, as he has done many times before with other women in Chaebol Son's life, to offer her money in exchange of his son's freedom. Appalled, the Bride rejects the money and makes it clear she has no intention of getting involved with Chaebol Son.

She rushes home to her dad, the Urban Old Man, to share her distress. Urban Old Man, who lost his job during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, is a wise man with an incisive perception of how the world is run. Seeing the mess her daughter has landed herself in, he goes to see Young Salary Man. Young Salary Man is desperately unhappy, convinced the Bride has betrayed him, and nothing Urban Old Man says convinces him otherwise. Urban Old Man looks through him, sees Young Salary Man's inferior complex eating at him and leaves him in his despair, knowing that the Bride deserves far better.

* The Chairman's daughter fell in love with an ordinary man, invoking the wrath of her father. He threatened her lover with everything he had, and when that did not work, cut his daughter off. She, who had never been a woman of strong character, was in a miserable state until she hung herself the night before the wedding.

 (The boldface is where Death makes his/her appearance.)

I am currently compiling the 2014 Catalogue of paintings which will include Hannam Mask Dance (한남탈춤)
in higher resolution in addition to closeups of the paintings.