Please Don't Swing From the Artwork (we know you'll want to...)

Detail of painting on day one (looking back)

 Getting ready for our 2 person, solo show at the Historic Dole mansion...It will be great to see so many pieces of the new artbox series all hung in one space!

Joe talked me into creating a large artbox painting (24"x24" compared to the 12"x12" pieces) to go with a 7 foot tall installation piece....but I hadn't been working long before I found that he "forgot" to leave room for the painting!

...so it seems that this may not be one of our collaborative pieces after all.

close to finished, now - just missing a leg bone

  Right now, he's having enough difficulty making it stable...He has some advice for opening night:

"It's tall, it's narrow -- so please don't swing the padlocks. I know it's so tempting..."

"large" 24"x24" artbox painting in the studio, day one

The odd thing (ok, one odd thing) about these two pieces is that Joe, who usually has his artwork "completed" in his head before he even starts to bring it to life, this time has been experimenting as he goes. This is a constant source of amusement for me, since I'm usually the one struggling with creative serendipity in my work.

This time, however, he's been burning and  "reburning" objects over and over again in near anguish, while I actually have a fully realized composition from the start, for once. (Not my usual intuitive approach at all! Typically, my pieces unfold before my eyes.) So far, my difficulties will rest in deciding if the figure should be 'less pretty' to fit the allegory, and capturing exact look I want...more on that later.... 

Hope you can come see the final results! Maybe I'll talk Joe into making a companion piece for this painting after all!


See the finished pieces here... 

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