Archive for March, 2008

Painting on a Friday afternoon

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Lots of cool art happened and good laughs were had on Friday when I paid a visit on my old friends Oliver and Spencer Hibert.

Because we don’t hang out nearly enough, we’ve decided to try to get together to paint / draw / doodle / hang out whenever convenient. I think I painted 12 hours on Friday: five before I went over to Spencer’s and seven when I was there.

One of the things I was working on was this pattern painting (shown at right), which is almost done. I had no plan for which color combination to use, so I laid out a few choices and had my friends choose for me. (Have to leave some room for randomness!)

Originally Oliver picked out orange, brown and light blue; but after I explained that I’ve used that combo far too many times, I switched it up to red, brown, and light blue. Long story short, it turned out to be an eyesore, in a good way.

spencer hibertoliver hibert
Spencer at left, Oliver at right, refusing to pose for the camera.

But it was really good to get caught up with Oliver and Spencer, bringing our energy together. Oliver and I have been through so much together — highs (Arizona Biennials) and lows (the disintegration of The TRA25 Capsule experiment) — and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Spencer better. Our work has evolved into very different spaces over the past two or three years, but we’ve only learned from that.

It was all high comedy, punctuated by pizza from Hungry Howie’s. (Q.: “What’s for dinner?” A.: “Any flyers with discounts hanging on the doorknob?”) Just kind of underscores how important it is for artists to have other artists as friends. Especially here in the outskirts of metropolitan Phoenix, where the culture for art is pretty … well … alienating.

One of the things we talked about was originality … how almost impossible it is to do something absolutely new anymore. Why burn yourself out trying to be new? Instead, just be yourself, and make what you like.

Can’t wait to get back together with them again, which may happen Tuesday evening.

— Grant Wiggins

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New set of fine art digital prints added to store

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

fine art digital prints
I took some time this afternoon to upload a new set of fine art digital prints to the online art shop. Some of the new prints are part of the Space Loops series I wrote about in my last post.

The store now has 14 prints and 6 paintings. As far as prints are concerned, I’ve tried to blend minimal “hard-edge” designs with the funkier stuff. Some prints are just ideas on paper; they may become paintings, they may not. Time will tell.

I’m enjoying making the prints — testing color combinations, giving designs a life beyond the screen. The process is liberating. Photographing them is a bit trickier, but I’m not giving up!

— Grant Wiggins

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Space loops: Inspired by space art

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I have my mind set on a new series of paintings, a series of “space loops.” The original concept for this series entered my mind in December 2006. I produced one study, but shelved the idea. The painting FF0000uturo took its place.

Now the loops are back. Below are just a few sketches. The color combinations are seemingly infinite. But that’s what makes this a series.

space art space art
space art space art
space art space art

As I think about it, the loops kind of remind me of the space colony illustrations that NASA produced in the 1970s, as shown at right. Those space art images captivated me as a kid! People living inside giant cellophane tires filled with synthetic rivers and forests … and weirdo architecture! But the space loop composition arose independently of those; I mean, I didn’t have them in mind as I was geeking out the sketches. Guess I’ve been carrying those glorious illustrations around in my unconscious for years.

On that note, speaking of loops, I bumped into a great-looking book last night titled I Am A Strange Loop, by Douglas Hofstadter. It’s exactly about what I’ve been studying lately: the notion of self. When we refer to ourselves as “I,” what do we mean?

Lastly, yesterday on Science Friday there was a panel discussion about utility-scale solar power projects in Nevada and Arizona, which have the potential to meet all of United States’ electricity needs. The idea is this: Utility companies would shoulder the burden of investing in, and producing, large-scale solar farms out in the desert — instead of homeowners having solar panels on their rooftops. The discussion of utility-scale solar was introduced as if it were such a novel, new idea. But this morning I bumped into a speech that Isaac Asimov wrote 30 years ago, titled “Our Future in the Cosmos: Space,” in which he wrote: “If we could get millions of photovoltaic cells (a kind of silicon cell that sets up a small electric current when exposed to light) and stretch them over half of Arizona (I only mention Arizona because there is usually a lot of sunshine there), we could perhaps supply enough energy for America’s needs.”

Amazing!

Wishing you happiness and the causes of happiness
— Grant Wiggins

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Art store now online

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

At long last, after an unintended two-month hiatus, I’m back at the blog. I can’t say that I’ve exactly enjoyed being away from it. After a couple of weeks, I really did start to miss posting updates on what I’m working on.

art store online
art store online
Two sketches from last weekend.

I stopped posting on accident, really, because I diverted my time toward figuring out how to make a proper art store online. After years of wanting to build an art store online, I finally committed to it; in fact, it was my New Year’s resolution.

It took a surprising amount of time to hash out the logistics. Then came the implementation; thankfully, I could rely on my friend Jason to configure the software and tie in the payment gateway — he made sure it worked. But I was not prepared for all of the fun with managing the “look and feel” of the store, from scratch. It made installing and integrating the blog software seem easy!

Anyway, I’m happy to be at this point, ready to pick up on where I was at before. I’m looking forward to getting back into the groove of sketching and painting and printing and writing and thinking — doing what I love to do, for no real reason, other than, as (I think) William Carlos Williams wrote, “I am obsessed with making.” (Was it Williams? I just searched for “I am obsessed with making” and saw loads of results involving lots of people who use the exact same phrase to express what they’re doing, which just shows how human it is to become obsessed with making!)

Speaking of making things, I can offer you the sketches of funkier designs I have in mind, shown above right, just to indicate what my brain’s been into lately. But I still can’t shake minimalism! Seems like the more elements I add to a sketch, the more intensity the overall design loses. But to try to make minimal compositions new? That’s a challenge I’ve thought about a lot lately. I can only leave that challenge unanswered — for now.

Thank you for reading.

Wishing you happiness and the causes of happiness,
— Grant Wiggins

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