Dream no.1

I've toyed with the idea of one of those painting-a-day blogs, but I'm not positive I could keep up. I mean, I do tend to crank them out about three or four a week, and if you count my job as a tattoo artist, I make several illustrations in skin each day. Call me a workaholic, or call me obsessed, don't call me lazy. I put out volumes of work. It was my years as a tattoo artist that taught me I could create at a steady pace. I learned to plan quickly, to create on demand, and eventually it became second nature for me to work that rapidly. Early in my career I did quite alot of repetative flash art, almost nothing but traditional themes in a forced style. Back then, a tattoo had to look like a tattoo... Eventually the minutia of creating quick cookie-cutter cliched designs for cold cash began to wear on me. I realized my life had no balance, constantly creating for other people's imaginations while neglecting my own artistic desires. After a few years of not picking up a brush, I resumed my painting and immediately found it was therapeutic. I began painting almost every night, only in the late hours when I was exhausted. I have always found sleep deprivation conducive to my painting techniques. It's those hours you force yourself to stay awake and alert that push you into the hypnogogic state where your mind shuts off and lets your eye and hand do the work. In the best of times, that dreaming mind will take over, that part of your brain that never sleeps, even when you do. At that point I'm practically dreaming onto my canvas, listening to my own subconscious encyclopedia ramble on with a paintbrush. And I love the rush. Unlike tattooing, my canvas has no limits to the imagery or styles I use. I don't have to be nearly as exacting and precise. In fact, I don't even have to paint a subject at all. I just do what that part of my mind orders me to. For me, it's hazy when I try to remember, I experience it like a dream. I just create. I create for me. And of course, for you.

Can I do one a day? We'll see. And if not, well I have hundreds more lying around to show off. I'll go ahead and kick this off with a few of my most recent pieces. This one I call 'The Drunken Revelers', done on paper with acrylics and colored inks. Almost all my work is done in acrylics, though I am fond of charcoal, and the program Artrage 2.5, a virtual art studio. Very fun to use.