Grant Wiggins

My objectives for last week have been completed, albeit a couple of days late. With the goal of submitting new pieces to an upcoming juried show, I just completed two “full-scale” renderings of smaller studies.

Today I finished Civvik, and on Friday I put the finishing touches on Circuit. Both are 30 inches square and 4 inches deep. The original studies were 10 inches square and 1.5 inches deep.

The new version of Civvik is actually a reworking of the original. I fixed the curves in the stripes, and the top-most white stripe doesn’t spill over the top edge of the canvas. The white stripes are centered upon the horizontal axis.

Details aside, quite a bit of motoring took place to get these done within 10 days. But now I’m ready to start a series of paintings on paper. I am convinced that this is way to go for the near term. At 60 cents per sheet, I can’t go wrong. Paper is the fastest, easiest way to get ideas out and test them. Assembling stretcher bars and stretching canvas takes too long to get ramped up—something I’m not in the mood for.

So we’ll see how the next few days will shake out. Hopefully I’ll have a lot to upload soon.

Otherwise, I just returned my interlibrary loan copy of Paul Klee’s The Thinking Eye. A compilation of Klee’s notebooks, this brilliant book is one page of sketches after another. Klee explores his philosophy of line and form, and how line becomes form, in an almost mystical way. Definitely a book worth checking out. Amazon has it used for $300. But I think I’ll have to sign it out again instead.

Images of a new set of small, “study” paintings I have made over the past two weeks are now online on my flickr page. Here are two examples of what you’ll see there:

There 1, 2008.
Acrylic on canvas. 10 inches square.

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Angular, 2008.
Acrylic on canvas. 10 inches square.

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Best,
— Grant Wiggins

After going on an early rampage into my new series of paintings inspired by randomness, I hit a creative wall last Friday afternoon. Instead of finishing a maximalist painting (titled Retroactive Psychology)—I was adding a plaid pattern to the top third of it—I felt utterly compelled to paint a minimalist design I conjured up in July 2007, but shelved.

Rather than slog through what I was working on, I abruptly resolved to stop what I was doing and switch things up. So, Saturday morning, I started the painting you see below, which I finished this morning. My thinking was this: If I’m not enjoying making something, it will show.

Above: Cirrex (tentative title), based on a minimalist design I created more than a year ago, proving how ideas and inspiration can resurface later on.

This new minimalist art work is 30 inches square and acrylic on canvas, as is everything I paint. However, I do not yet know what I am going to call it. Names batted around include Cirrex, Corpex, Xorpec, Xorpekt—but nothing really sticks. Cirrex is the leading candidate, though.

The question from here: What to work on next? I feel more inspired to paint another minimalist design from summer ’07 than I do the random series painting. Does it matter?

I’m already behind in the timetable I outlined for my random series, although I know I’ll come back to it. Also, there’s a lot of work to do in my backyard garden—building raised planting beds, etc. Growing things is becoming more interesting to me. There is no reason to stress about things.

Wishing you happiness and the causes of happiness,

—Grant Wiggins

Here for you is some fresh-off-the-griddle goodness, my latest paintings in the Süfnex series. Just put the finishing touches on them, as a matter of fact.

Left to right: Süfnex Seibu 4, Süfnex Solaris, and Süfnex Seibu 3. I painted them Sunday (Apr 27) through this evening (Apr 29) … in about 54 hours.

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Each of these recent explorations of minimal art measures 10 inches square and is acrylic on canvas, as usual.

Keeping the creative energies going, flowing through my speakers over the past couple of days have been these remarkable recordings:

Dandelion Gum by Black Moth Super Rainbow. Utterly phenomenal!

Pop Artificiel by Lassigue Bendthaus … which was brought on by the aforementioned album.

Also, I am reading Minimalism: Origins by Edward Strickland … a very well-written survey of how minimal art, music, etc. came about in the United States in the mid-20th century. I also have my hands on a pile of CSS books, because I’m getting ready to redesign wiggz.com. The functionality will remain the same … just need to start making it look a bit jazzier.

Other from that, things are going well. Can’t wait to cook up more new designs and paintings soon. Until then, I wish you happiness and the causes of happiness.

— Grant Wiggins

Here are pics of the latest in the Space Loop series of modern paintings, produced on Thursday, April 10 and Friday, April 11.

SL0612D30 (30 inches square; acrylic on canvas)

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SL0612CX10 (10 inches square; acrylic on canvas)

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The chartreuse piece is an alternate design of the Space Loop series, as noted in my previous post. Felt like I had to paint it anyway, if only as an experiment. It’s now available for sale in the online art store.

Since then, I have been developing a new set of sketches involving a painting I made four years ago, called Süfnex. I look forward to revealing those sketches within the next few days.

I’ve also been brainstorming titles for new work, whether they’re prints, paintings, etc. Some names: Phratophir, Biyuvial, Ostroddol, Etcholxen, Exubeix. There are others, but I will spare you of them! The Basque language is particularly fascinating, and ripe with points of inspiration, as demonstrated by the newspaper Berria.

Otherwise, I have been doing quite a bit of gardening lately, before the Arizona sun increases the degree of difficulty on such activity. Gardening is much like painting, I have found, because it’s very meditative. I started a compost pile in late December, and I look forward to starting a raised garden this summer.

On that note, I wish you happiness and causes of happiness. Thank you for reading.

— Grant Wiggins

This afternoon, my first Space Loop painting evolved out of concept form, into canvas form:

I am encouraged by this afternoon’s result. I look forward to continuing the series in the near future.

I have to admit that spent a seemingly ridiculous amount of time trying to get the stripes “right” for this series. Hours adjusting the curves, undoing those adjustments, bending the curves some more, comparing them to the original sketch, measuring the distances between stripes, rethinking all of my edits, starting over, etc.

After arriving at two designs, all of the editing came down to one big “hunch,” to borrow a term used by Frederick Hammersley, one of my favorite painters. One composition looked more dynamic. But the other composition looked slightly antisocial, but in a good way. I chose the former.

Can you notice the difference?

What is the difference? Decide for yourself. Left to right are original sketch (December 2006), the more “dynamic” version (from three weeks ago) and a “rethinking” of that version (from last night).

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As I was going through this process, I was reminded of the saying “Too much tuning, not enough music.”

I do find myself deliberating, wondering, and doubting my designs perhaps a bit too much. However, I am trying to be more mindful of overthinking my designs. I have to be able to cut off my thought process and say “Time’s up. What’s your decision?” That’s where the hunch comes in.

Anyway, today was a great day. Beautiful weather and good music. Among the many albums on the stereo today were:

Animism by Expo 70 (mind-blowing space/ethereal/droning/classification-defying stuff)

Back from the Futer by Aavikko (brilliant 8-bit Casio tunes from Finland)

Affenstunde by Popol Vuh (a classic from the dawn of the digital era)

I highly recommend any of these albums. On that note, I am heading back to the easel. Thank you for reading.

— Grant Wiggins