So it is safe to say that I was already extremely honored to be accepted to this show once I realized how long it has been going on and the amazing quality of the work that is accepted. So you can imagine my excitement and disbelief when I received an email two days before the show telling me one of my paintings ("Desert Walkers") was awarded 1st place! The reception for this show was amazing for many reasons but certain highlights for me were the comments and feedback I got from viewers of my paintings. The people at this show were very comfortable speaking to artists and this made me very happy to listen to feedback and also explain my own thoughts. The comments that really stuck out to me were ones that compared my paintings to recent world events. One viewer compared "Desert Walkers" to the Syrian refugee crisis and the long and hard journeys many refugees are forced to take. Another viewer looked at "Cloaked" and saw the oppression of the native American people and their often unheard voices. These types of comments really stuck out to me because I didn't think of these themes and concepts when I was making these pieces. Not that this is a bad thing of course but I found it interesting that when a person can craft an image in just the right way the work takes on a life of its own and it is really out of the makers control. My girlfriend and I discussed this after the show and realized that I approach the creation of my paintings with a certain amount of innocence and vulnerability and this allows my personal emotions and thoughts to bleed naturally into the work.
Accepted to the Own an Original Show!
I'm very excited to announce that I two of my oil paintings have been accepted to this show in November! (Cloaked and Desert Walkers) These great shows in Denver have proved to be excellent ways to gain exposure as an artist and meet other interesting artists and people. I have been humbled by many of these shows because I tend to have much less experience than other participants but in a way this fact gives me confidence in my work and my enthusiasm.
In my opinion the two pieces that were selected (Cloaked and Desert Walkers) make an interesting pair because the styles are very different aesthetically but the overall mood and emotion are similar and build on each other. I have realized recently that most of my work deals with the concept of isolation in a very neutral sense. My pieces do not show isolation as negative or positive but more contemplative and essential for the human mind.
Final Product
I finished my commissioned piece and the results are great! This piece was for a very kind family who wanted a family portrait in the style of my previous robot paintings and I was very happy create this work for them. The family sent me some photos of them so I could adapt their physical traits to the stylized robots. I also wanted they robots to be emerged in a dynamic Colorado landscape so used Raspberry Mountain as the background. This piece was a joy to work on and the family was pleased :)
Commission and Show
I am currently finishing up a commissioned piece for nice man who liked my Robot Father and Son piece at Little Machine Brewery. He requested a sort of family portrait but with each family member as a robot. I loved this idea from the start and have really enjoyed working on the piece.
I just recently had two of my paintings accepted to the Lone Tree Art Expo! The pieces were Rain Squall and Fracture. I spent a few hours painting the sides of these pieces so that they are show ready and look extra professional :)