Image of the Day - Hymn of the Rainbow Cathedral

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Name: Hymn of the Rainbow Cathedral
Completion: 80% complete
Materials: Mississippi River Driftwood & Wax
Size: 12" x 12" x 20" 

This piece is dedicated to those who have lost their life to AIDS and those who struggle with HIV still. 

We are In the Midst of an Artistic Revolution

It may not feel much like it when you sit in your quiet studio painting, but we are in the midst of an artistic revolution. I would go so far as to say titanic. We are in the midst of a titanic artistic revolution. A revolution as big as the revolution that brought about some of the worlds greatest art movements of the 18th and early 19th century.

We rarely see when we are in the midst of such momentous times until they pass us. But they are there nonetheless. All it takes is to look a bit closer at whats going on within the art world to shift our world.

Hymn of the Rainbow Cathedral - Artist Experiments With Depth

I am not sure I am naming this experiment properly. But with many of the experimental art pieces I create, I am often forced to create new terminology to accompany the experiment. So let me give you some context for where I am going on this.

I recently did a tutorial on overpainting photographs. One of the keys to this art form was to build up layers of paint between layers of polyurethane thus creating a 3 dimensional surface to the photo. The prototype had 13 layers of polyurethane and proved to be a very successful experiment.

Art is Like Real Estate or a Used Car

These days there are people out there that buy even the worst real estate on spec. This includes old dilapidated houses, condemned buildings and tenement slums. They then turn them around and make a profit on them. The same thing applies to old cars. How many of us have seen signs on corners that say "Will buy your old car for cash".

There is apparently money in these things. So, why aren't investors investing in artists? Flipping art for a profit could (if done right) become a very profitable business for investors. I know that some investors place their cash in expensive art that they know will appreciate in value. But what about Peggy Guggenheim who invested so wisely in so many unknown artists? Why isn't she a role model for a new system of investment?

Image of the Day - An Artists Studio Sign

There is a great story behind my just completed studio sign. The piece of art that I used for this has actually been used twice now in two different body art photo shoots. Measuring 6' x 2' it was too good to not keep reusing. Now it will go outside of the studio to act as my new sign and replace the one that was done on glass and shattered in a storm a few months back. This new one is built to last and should make an impression to passerby's. It can also be used at shows when I need handy advertising. Below are its previous incarnations. 

The Sixth Vision of the Revenant Cycle - Working Notes

The Revenant Cycle was created by Assimilation Artist Grey Cross. It is about the journeys of spirits between the physical and spiritual universes and what lies between those two universes. The art involved encompasses sculpture, paintings, body art and digital art. 

Each of the Revenant Cycles is the story about one being who is either alive, in spirit or in faerie form. Each Cycle tells the specific tale of that being through the art created. The art itself is a combination of three types of art, body painting, photography and digital surrealism. Models are painted by the artist, photographed and then the images are crafted through the artists digital studio to create surreal pieces of art.

There have been five previous Revenant Cycles done in the past year. This is the sixth in the series. This page shows some of the developmental and working notes involved in the Sixth Revenant Cycle and will also include the final work created for this Cycle. We look forward to your comments and questions. 

Welcome to the Revenant Cycle

Image of the Day - The Gods Paint the Days End

The original image for this shot was taken at dusk on Fat Tuesday of Mardi Gras 2016. A perfect night for the parade passing just out of sight below the image. 

The Lost Empire - Digital Art Tutorial

I often post tutorials for sculpture pieces, but rarely do I create one for digital art. But at the urging of those who are interested in the process, I've chosen the Lost Empire piece as a good example of the steps that it takes to go from a photograph to a final piece of digital art. 

The Lost Empire is part of my China Lights series. These were photos taken at the end of April 2016 of the China Lights exhibit in City Park, New Orleans. This amazing spectacle was already art, so the challenge of creating digital art was to bring it far enough away from the art it already was and take it to a new level where the original objects I photographed became something else entirely. 

Image of the Day - An Eternity of Light

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These Chinese lanterns seen at the China Lights Exhibition in City Park New Orleans reminded me so much of giant cosmic jelly fish, that I had to create a piece around it. Lanterns have always been a love of mine. On the island of my birth Martha's Vineyard there is a circular area filled with tiny brightly painted cottages. In the center is a giant open air tabernacle where Methodist preachers used to give sermons. Once a year all of the surrounding cottages put out thousands of Chinese lanterns and in the circle and tabernacle fill with people. Then at the appointed hour, all the lights in the area go off, street lights, emergency lights, etc. And with the flip of a switch a thousand lanterns suddenly come to light. It is truly a magical moment. This piece is created in remembrance to that moment.

This is part of a series of art based on the China Lights. 

Experimenting With Art Techniques - Overpainting Photographs

Its interesting what leads to a new art technique. I don't mean the development of something that will change the art field. I mean the personal development of skills and innovations that make each of us a unique artist. As an experimental artist I always watch these developments within myself and others with fascination.

Before I was a visual artist, I was a professional fashion photographer. So when I began my career as an artist it was always with the intention of keeping photography as one branch of whatever other art forms I might focus on.

Print of the Day - The Wisdom of the Past, Folly of the Future

Print of the Day - The Ghost Ship Elissa II

The Fine Points of Marketing Your Art - Tips on Naming Your Work

There are many phases that go into your creation of a specific piece of art. Many ideas, many emotions, many pieces that come together in the final work. But a potential buyer of that piece of art knows none of them. This is why its crucial that you do your homework on aspects of your art that are not as easy to see with the naked eye. 

Once a piece of art is finished, the details to marketing it are just as important. Here is one of the most important aspects of what I call the Post-Art Phase which should always be in place before the art is seen either live or online.

So lets examine the naming of a piece, the title, the label, etc.

Image of the Day - The Abbey Cemetery at Saint Kilden

This work in progress sculpture is modeled on abbey cemeteries across Ireland and Scotland. When complete it will be the second sculpture in the new "Eyes of the Dead" series. It is my theory that spirits and ghosts see the world in a different spectrum of light, one which creates an iridescent cascade of color across all that they see. These sculptures are built from the spirits perspective, not the living. Where we see an old cemetery, they see a shimmering dream world. 

Prints of the Day - Rise of the Dragon

The symbolism behind this piece represents the rise of China as a civilization and as a world power. It is both majestic and frightening in its power. The fact that you can see neither head nor tail of the Dragon is evidence that it can potentially overwhelm the world around it if the beast becomes angry.

This piece has deep meaning for me as the creator as I see a civilization vast in its art and beauty and frightening in its potential to do harm. The activist in me senses that art is one way to control the beast. Whether it will ever take its proper place as the wise ones rather than the tyrants, one can only wait and see.