Glad to see someone is out there trying to boost the social status of those of us who paint large … I just about dropped my coffee when I saw this sticker graffiti outside a local espresso joint.
Double Nude - acrylic and charcoal on muslin covered panels
I’m starting the year with a modest show of mildly immodest drawings done in the past year. These are hung at Lighthouse Roasters in upper Fremont in Seattle, a somewhat dingy neighborhood cafe with some of the best coffee in town and always my first stop in the morning. The impulse to show these was manifold – 1) My love sketches and drawings for their fresh line and gesture; 2) Working on life drawing has been a refreshing antidote to the dual effects of economic malaise and the constraints of my regular work; 3) The large amount of off-white ground that comprises much of these pieces reads well in the somewhat dimly lit environment of the Lighthouse.
Up for the month of January, no opening or event. Come for the coffee, stay for the nudes …
LightHouse Roasters – N. 43rd St. and Phinney Ave.
Man with Stick; pencil and acrylic wash
QFC - West Seattle garage - luminous tomatoes
The grey and dimly lit garage of a new urban supermarket proved to be an obstacle to gaining the amount of patrons that QFC had anticipated for the project. Asked to design and execute a program to make it more friendly and inviting we recommended lighting changes and the use of brightly painted produce on various perimeter walls and a row of columns that leads to the elevator bank.
While sometimes a printed product might be fitting, painting directly on the wall offered many advantages in this situation: flexibility, maximum color saturation, durability and the ability to work the designs around the frequent pipes, conduits, and other wall mounted objects on concrete surfaces that were often rough and pitted. This was old school and totally effective.
QFC West Seattle garage - fruit and vegetable columns
QFC West Seattle garage - watermelon wall
Cactus SLU tabletop detail #1
All four Cactus restaurants now have tabletops that I’ve painted with whimsical and macabre designs inspired by folk art, bold aztec patterns and the widely known loterîa card pictograms of Mexico. In each locale the tables appear differently, from the minimalist, subdued versions in Kirkland, to highly chromatic in Alki and Madison Park. Now in the newly opened location in Seattles South Lake Union district, the 30+ tables are mostly left natural with a brown stain and the painted designs appear more imbedded in the wood grain, which has been accentuated by a wire wheel.
When I first took these on seven years ago as they opened the Kirkland location, I had some trepidation about how a painted table would wear, what with the heavy use they were subjected to on a daily basis. Thanks in large part to the quality construction by Specialty Woods and the light but durable clear coats (Dalys CrystalFin Satin) on top of my work, they’ve held up well with just a little bit of minor touch-up over the years.
The is the only restaurant I know of where the tabletops have become emblematic of the locale. A fun project to work on.
Cactus tabletop #2 (detail)
Cactus tabletop #3 (detail)
Desperado - recycled wood, acrylic, brass brads, copper tacks and shell cartridges
As part of our work for the new Cactus restaurant in the Amazon Zone (Amazone?) of Seattles’ South Lake Union district, I just installed a new wood assemblage custom made for a wall niche along the corridor wall. Based on an image that was sourced by the Philip Christophides, architect of the project and partner at Arellano/Christophides, and was presented as a small, highly pixelated print. We discussed many ways to depict this type of portrait in the space and I landed on the idea of this rustic, wooden, and mosaiced technique as befitting the theme. The piece serves as a grizzled icon of both the desert high country and mid-century cinematic cowboy imagination.
The restaurant is the fourth for the Chatalus brothers, Marc and Bret, in the greater Seattle area. They held a private party there last night to get the kitchen up to speed and should open to the public by November 12.
Here is another snapshot, in the studio before delivery, showing truer color.
This is all recycled wood that I’ve ripped and hacked into pieces using a mini-sized japanese dovetail saw. It has an amazing presence and a pleasing mosaic quality that reveals itself to the viewer only as they get closer to it.