High Contrast Grey.

Two days of work, although most of the detail flattens out into the dark and the dark doesn’t show any of its gradual changes… artist nitpicks. It seems to be coming along quicker than the last acrylic painting that I did. Which of course is always the fact with working on art. Well until the curve has been accomplished and then insert all the new ideas and techniques to slow it back down. ..The air here is really dry and my paints keep drying up quite fast no matter what I mix into them, so I have been experimenting with having the lid off of my kettle as I have the burner on low so that it will evaporate and add water to the air. It seems to be working, but it could all just be in my head. The more I work on this with all the blinds closed the more that I forget that there is snow everywhere outside and I almost trick myself into thinking that it might be nice out. I have been playing my music in the living room while painting and I can’t tell if the person who lives above

With the weather being the way that it has been lately I haven’t been wanting to leave the apartment much. I have been trying my best to keep myself busy without spending all my time on my computer. I really doubt that I will get all that I would like to get done this break, but I will at least try to do some things. This short thanksgiving break began rather horribly with first realizing that because of this snowstorm that has hit the northwest that my hopes of traveling to Seattle for a thanksgiving with my friends out there became rather impossible. This was then followed by the phone call from my family that the dog that my family has had since I was 8 had to be put down due to cancer. We saw it coming for a while now, but even still it is hard to realize that now when I go home he won’t be there. When ever I would leave my folk’s place to go back to school I would spend a little extra time with him knowing that it could be the last time I would see him. Since the weather h

My works in progress. I find myself working on them more than I should with my work load for university, but that just seems to be the way that life works. When you need to be doing something your desires transfix on things that are not necessary. I have come to points of frustration with both of them lately, but thankfully the frustration is just because of little questions as to color and style and not something that would be detrimental to the pieces. My usual way around these road blocks would be to start inking in what I have already colored, but at this point I am trying my best to not jump the gun and get as much as possible painted before the inking process. In part because I would like to see just how well my painting is becoming before I cheat by adding the detail with ink. What is really holding me back on the city painting is that I would like my cliché of having a character existing within the scene, but I am not sure what they should be doing. I have gone down

I have finally finished the painting for Amy. Or so I keep telling myself. Give it a little while and I will probably find something that I need to add. It never fails. One of the final things holding me back from calling this done was that I wanted to give Amy an chandelier earring like those that she wears so often and my idea for how to accomplish this was to use a gel pen that can go over the black ink that I had already laid for her hair. But of course I didn’t really want to spend the $2 or whatever it is for a purple gel pen, so I took the painting by Michaels and just used one there in the way that they have them out so that they can be tested. I felt quite clever about this technique of being a cheap artist using my surroundings to my benefit. Better to be clever than beautiful and even better to be clever to create something of beauty. My painting that I did last summer of Noir Marché is in a show at the moment at the university. The president of the university asked

I went out and found a new warmer scarf today since the weather has been turning and the beginning of snow has started to show up, although thankfully it has yet to stick or not melt immediately upon contact with the ground. I was looking for something that was a solid dark grey but was not having any luck, but then I found this scarf that is a combination of black and a dark tan that I thought paired the brown leather cap that I wear all the time very well. Read all of this as further procrastination. I have three assignments due tomorrow and I really just want to not do them and crawl into bed with a French film. Read this further as I need to brew a pot of black tea and just get to work, because it would seem that my sleep schedule is just not going to be anywhere near normal as we get closer and closer to the end of the semester.

The Dark Dreams people enlisted me to aid in taking some pictures for them that they could in turn use for promotion of their events in Missoula. This was supposed to be a boot licking S&M session with pseudo-military goths punishing the straight “normal” university student of Missoula. I think they turned out alright, although the dynamic of having four people was kind of hard to get to work without it seeming too forced (no pun intended). And once again I have found use for all the riding crops that I have my in possession.

The Yard Dogs @ The Top Hat, Missoula. Musical burlesque.

I stopped by the Badlander before the fashion show was to begin last night and became the unofficial photographer, sans Dane who just seems to be the unofficial photographer for everything in Missoula. Doing that after hitting up all the little galleries and whatnot on first Friday was slightly interesting. One very prominent factor and problem for me with first Friday is that I am never really sure how many glasses of mediocre wine I have had since I skip about so much. At least it probably helps with the frustration over the content of a lot of the art I see in Missoula. Boring Western art made even more boring by the fact that it floods everything. Although to contrast all that, the show at the Badlander has some pretty progressive and beautiful art about.

Butterflies. I followed them last night as they tried on outfits for a show they will be doing at the badlander to benefit the local homeless shelter. The outfits all seemed to have a pseudo-depression/flapper feel to them, which I found to be rather fun. Something to look forward to tonight.

While walking to the Butterfly after class yesterday I decided to take a new side street in may zig-zag wandering pattern, where I saw this flag waving proudly on the second story of this apartment building. I was hoping for a slight breeze to come along and open the flag just enough to better show off the hammer and sickle, so I stood across the street resting up against a telephone pole with my camera in hand, probably looking like quite the creeper. The breeze I wanted never came and it was right at the point when the sun is in the process of going down and starting to get darker/brighter at certain points (as seen in the photo and the lighting of the building). The other night I was walking home from the university after going to see a panel discussion on WWI. I had debated catching the drunk bus as it went through the university, but it never seems to be on time so I am never sure if I just missed it or if it is coming in just a bit. Anyways, public transportation complain

Missoula, Montana. Autumn [2010]. My view while walking from my apartment to downtown.

The morning can only be infinitely better when begun with a cup of tea. This morning I am having a cup of Earl la creme that I bought from a tea shop that my friends took me to one of the last times I made a trip over to Seattle. It has been too long since I have made it back home to Seattle. Less than a month now till Thanksgiving though, so if Snoqualmie pass isn’t being a bitch I hope to see it soon.

I took the after school middle school group that I have been teaching street art out to the local free wall today. I am not really sure if any of them incorporated what I have been trying to teach them, but they seemed to at least enjoy the freedom of doing whatever they wanted on the free wall. Out of this I did make a quick stencil of a rat to show them what stencils could do, which perhaps I will wander downtown later this week to leave little city rats about.