Table of Contents: Artwork

Colonel Wilma Deering

> Sketchbook, Artwork

Colonel Wilma Deering — off duty, gouache on board, 9 x 6.5

So, on a lark I watched some episodes of the old 1979 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Man, what a glitter encrusted sci-fi glam delight! Most of the other shlock series of the era have aged poorly, revealing more artless clunk than period charm. Not here. There’s a grin-inducing disco exhuberance to the whole affair — a vision of the future that’s equal parts Saturday morning Sinbad, Star Wars, and the roller skate fantasia Xanadu. In reading up on the show, the oddest thing I came across was a terse but enthusiastic appreciation of the show by esteemed cultural critic and poet Clive James, “Battlestar Galactica (Thames), though glaringly a cheap Star Wars rip-off, looks better on the small screen than in the cinema. The best comic strip science fiction on television at the moment, however, is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (LWT). The hardware looks good and Wilma Deering looks simply sensational, like Wonder Woman with brains.” Amen, comrade. In commemoration, then, a quick three day sketch of the fetching Erin Grey  as the indefatigable Colonel Wilma Deering, off duty, of course.

 

 

Gear

Artwork

New painting, done at long last. Years ago I shot this photo of an assemblage of aviator equipment being sold at an open air flea market in Chicago. Painting it was sheer pleasure – I never tire of the dynamics of realist painting – it’s not a fetish for exactitude, or a rigorous transcription of the literal… buy vicodin in los angeles it’s really a long, slow, conjuring trick – figuring the right mix of fidelity and abstraction, layer by layer, teasing an image into focus. Such ace gear too, no? The rich burgundy wood of the table, the saturated yellow googles, old log books, binoculars and an old leather saddle bag.

Gear, gouache on board, 12″ x 9″

Active Ingredients

Artwork

Active Ingredients #1, #2, digital
Shot in the basement of an antique shop just north of Dagsboro, Delaware just about a year apart. The grease can was new. The moth crystals were gone. Wonder who bought the moth crystals…?

Egg Scale

Artwork

Egg Scale, Oakes Mfg Co, Tipton, IN., gouache on board, 9″ x 12″

New painting, at long last finally done, no thanks to a rudely tumultuous Fall. Feh, arggh!, hurm… goodbye to all that, etc…

Now then – back towards then end of the summer I spotted this odd counter-weighted armature thingy in an antique shop in Duanesburg, New York. It’s an egg scale – with the weight of one egg, it shows what a dozen of that size would weigh. I love how unwieldy it looks. Most scales have a straightforward, rational design that embodies the notion of balance, calibration and measurement. This scale seems jury rigged, off kilter and improvised – in contrast to the abstract, timeless, geometric purity of the egg that it actually measures.

Diorama

Artwork

Diorama, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, digital…

Terraform

Artwork

{RERUN: Originally aired Feb 28, 2009}
Terraform, collage on particle board, 19″x7,” 2009

Erotissimo

Artwork

New gouache, based on a still from the film Erotissimo – a swinging French pop satire on sex and advertising. I’ve been planning to paint something from the flick for ages – every scene is a perfect mod diorama. (amazing Flickr set here.) [larger image]

I got wind of it via the site World of Kane, a seemingly inexhaustible font of “retro eye candy for the eyes and ears impeccably by curated by Londoner Will Kane. Kane also DJs at a swinging occasional called the Stagnant Society, “a
cinematic banquet of salacious psychedelia, euphoric euro-jerk, polyester pop, & hysterical Hammond, accompanied by an array of atmospheric visuals and beautiful dresses…” Well put. Perfect description of his site as well.  I’ve gleaned a ton from Kane and a toast is richly deserved and long overdue. Visit often.