The San Dimas Festival of Arts

I visited an art show this weekend -- one that I've participated in once in a while. It used to be the San Dimas Festival of Western Arts San Dimas, CA, but they decided to broaden the scope of the artwork they present, with the only twist: it has to have a California connection. Something about what's here today or in history, whether landscapes, buildings, people, activities et al.

It's always fun to visit this show. While I always see works that don't fit into the classical genre that I love, there is some nice work here. It was also an opportunity to visit friends I never see unless I visit this show, and I squeezed in a little networking, too.

I hope the show went well for everyone. As with many shows and artists in the continuing recession that just won't go away, the Festival's sales have been down. Such a shame -- it's a nice show that deserves to be around for a long time.

More Microbial Surrealism

I'm slowly but surely adding to my portfolio of surrealism paintings based on things I've seen under various types of microscopes. (Being a microbiologist has its benefits!)

A Quarter Past Tomorrow        20" x 24" / 51cm x 61cm

 A Quarter Past Tomorrow shows the sporulating structures and threadlike hyphae ("hy-phee") of one of the common green bread molds -- Aspergillus glaucus. My intent was not to make a scientific illustration, but to produce a work of fine art in the tradition of French surrealist Yves Tanguy.

Also, surrounding the mold are small golden-yellow spheres. These are the bacteria species, Staphylococcus aureus, the cause of the MRSA infections that becoming increasingly common. I considered making the Staph much bigger, but in the end, I decided to keep things approximately to scale -- and bacteria are much smaller than fungal growth.

The green balls that form the sprays on the ends of the vertical growths are reproductive spores. If you've ever watched mold growing, you'd see it starts out as a white, cottony mass, then it turns fuzzy and green. The spores are what gives mold its color.

Aspergillus species are normally benign unless your immune system is down and you inhale lots of spores (which are all around us). Then it can cause a pretty nasty infection in the lungs and even disseminate to other parts of the body.

That concludes today's microbiology lecture. Enjoy the painting. More to come, possibly with greater liberties taken when I present these mysteriously beautiful organisms.

Finally, I'll be creating a website soon just for the surreal works (with links back and forth to my western landscapes site). The new site isn't created yet, but the URL is www.SurrealMark.com. I'll let you know when it's up and if I'll be offering these paintings online, or if the site will be strictly a portfolio with information on where to acquire the art.


 

Dreams and Surrealism

I was always fascinated by the following painting by Salvador Dali:

Suburbs of a Paranoiac Critical Town Afternoon on the Outskirts of European History, Salvador Dali, 1936

Lots of fun stuff going on in this image!

But with all the neat things happening here, the image of the gal with a bunch of grapes fascinates me the most:

Funny -- she looks like people I see in my dreams. Not that she necessarily resembles them or that the dream peeps are offering grapes. But she has an other-worldly look, like she's talking to the viewer, except that we can't hear her. And why is she standing there, holding out a bunch of grapes? I suppose only Dali would know, and I don't know if he ever said; if he didn't, it's too late now.

I'm kinda thinking...I'd like to make some paintings that look like I've illustrated things out of my dreams. They almost always have people in them, although the faces are often obscured. Lots of space, lots of people, just going about their business.

Except in a dream that recurs every so often. I'll go outside, not realizing I'm wearing only my underpants (so far, I've never gone out naked), and nobody notices. Until I notice it, then everybody else notices it, too, and they turn and stare at me -- and by then, I've moved away from my door and can't just run back inside. And I'm all embarrassed...

I'm not into dream interpretation, so I don't know if it means anything or not. But I do get a kick out of the images the subconscious manufactures. They're almost, but not quite, realistic. But the UNreal parts are what I enjoy!

Sometimes, too, my dreams disturb me after I wake up. Nothing nightmarish about them, but I feel unsettled.

Don't know what it all means. But good surrealism reminds me of dream imagery (Dali seemed to be the best at it), and that's what I love the most about this genre!

Lights in the Darkness: Fluorescent Paints

Every so often, I get these ideas for things I could try that might broaden my appeal as an artist to more collectors. The latest thought: blacklight paintings.

Photo by http://www.visualbliss.co.uk/UVPaint.htm (Colorful, huh?)

I've actually messed around with blacklight paintings years ago, in the early 1970s, I'd say. In fact, my first "real" painting was an apocalyptic vision with a setting sun. The painting was done in traditional acrylic paints, but the sun was finished in fluorescent red -- I wanted the sun to "pop." (I think I still have this painting, stashed away in a box in the garage).

Then I did a series of paintings in which I mixed fluorescent blue with normal white paint. I used this for sky color -- in normal room lighting, the sky was light blue, but under a UV lamp, the sky glowed a dark blue, muted by the non-fluorescent white that was added to the ultraviolet-sensitive blue. Thus, the paintings were "2-in-1" -- daytime scenes under room lights, nighttime scenes by blacklight.

I was never interested in the psychedelic LSD look of blacklight posters of the late 60s/early 70s. I believe some serious art could be made with fluorescent paints. Except for one problem:

Fluorescent paint isn't archival. UV radiation breaks the chemical bonds that form the fluorescent minerals, resulting in products that don't light up under blacklight. I'm not sure the paints last very long even when exposed to daylight coming in through windows or artificial lights at night. I'd hate to invest a lot of time and effort into works that could fade or change color within just a few years.

So -- if I proceed with the bunch of fluorescent paints I ordered, I'll have to make sure the paintings I make are fast and easy to do and placed in inexpensive frames, so I won't need to ask a lot of money for the pieces. The artwork would be original "posters" that may not be around in 25 years (probably much less).

We'll see what I come up with!

Courthouse Wash -- for Now!

Courthouse Wash is the title of my latest painting. That is -- it's the title for now. I was hoping to name paintings with more romanticized, poetic titles rather than descriptive ones. So -- title is subject to change without notice!

The size is 18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm) and features a view in Arches National Park, UT in the late afternoon. Beautiful spot.

I'm not quite ready to sell this yet, at least not until I decide if I want to have prints made. It does appear on my website (which, of course, is either http://www.SouthwestSpaces.com or http://www.MarkJunge.com). Be sure and check it once in a while if you're interested in acquiring this piece.

Drawing (but NOT Quartering) Body Parts!

As you may or may not know, I offer a number of prints on Fine Art America. A few of them are of paintings I've done, but most are some of my many MANY photographs that I've played with a bit to make them look more like paintings.

And I'll have to admit -- I'm underwhelmed by the sales so far.

So...what to do, what to do?

Well, I'd like to be able to offer more prints of paintings, but frankly, I can't afford to pay for high-resolution digital images to be made of my artwork. And I don't have a large-format flatbed scanner.

My latest brainchild is to make some drawings of people, or at least parts of people, that I can scan on the equipment I do have. The drawings could be either in black-and-white, colored pencil, or -- more likely if I want color -- scanned as line drawings and then add color on the computer, so they'd be hybrid drawings + digital art.

These two drawings are details showing the joined hands of two young woman dancing. It's a subject that's near and dear to my heart since I've had a fetish for clasped hands and interlocked fingers (especially girls'/women's hands) for as far back as I can remember -- there's something terribly intimate and sexy about it. (I always loved the fact that in the many dance classes I've taken, many female students seemed to like holding MY hand(s) that way!)

I don't know if there's a market for this sort of thing or not. I've seen many art pieces in which the torso, heads and faces were executed in an artistic way. I'm thinking of other body parts besides hands, and...I dunno...maybe!

In addition, I understand there's a way to make the Fine Art America prints appear on my website. I'd like to figure out how to do that. It's hard to say if it would help, but I doubt it would hurt!

Once again -- stay tuned. Oh, and by the way -- my website URLs are SouthwestSpaces.com and MarkJunge.com.

Thoughts on Some Gallery Artists' Receptions

Last night I attended three art gallery receptions in Palm Springs, CA. One of those was for an artist I actually know; the other two I stumbled upon but decided to check 'em out.

The artist is Carrie Graber (www.CarrieGraber.com). She paints architectural details and interiors, often with a female in the scene who looks an awful lot like her. ☺

This is one of Carrie's paintings. It's realistic, yet she somehow achieved a look that would allow the piece to fit into contemporary homes or offices (unlike MY paintings, which are modeled after 19th century -- or older -- artwork). Most of her paintings seem very light and airy, even this nighttime scene. Her work is detailed but uncluttered which I believe is partly what gives her paintings that open look. They're quite pleasing to look at and would fit anywhere.

I noticed Carrie framed her paintings in a simple, natural-wood (pine? maple? ??) tone -- not a wide molding at all. I also noticed artwork in the other galleries I visited were framed the same way. And ANOTHER artist I know and like, Mary-Austin Klein (www.maryaustinklein.com), uses similar frames for HER pieces!

Clouds Over East Mojave             Mary-Austin Klein

(I love the zen-like feeling of Mary-Austin's art -- realistic, almost photographic; yet, uncluttered, lots of open space as with Carrie's work).

You can see the kind of molding I'm talking about here on Mary-Austin's paintings:

Again -- very simple, minimal blonde-colored wood molding. The grain is visible when you see it up-close.

All this made me think (OMG -- he's thinking!): is this a trend in framing contemporary art? Is this something I need to consider doing? And -- do I need to think about simplifying my painting and go for "zen realism"?

Don't know, don't know. I still love the works of the 19th century American Hudson River School painters and the drama they often portrayed. But I like Carrie's and Mary-Austin's look, too. And I'll bet they sell better in today's art-buying taste!

Some things I have to think about. (I should attend more gallery openings, too!)