New Studio Space

Over the the past month I have been settling into my new studio space, also known as me bedroom in JP. I know some people would consider this a mistake, but it has really allowed me to set things up exactly how I want them and means that my paintings are an ever present part of my life. It also allows me to work whenever its convent, instead of having to plan for the long trek out to my old studio in Southie. So let me give you the grand tour.

Here is a shot showing the work table and desk I built along with the wall I paint on. You can also see my finished work hanging from the ceiling and the rainbow foam floor pads I've put down for extra comfy painting.


This is a closer shot of my table. On the right is my desk with my laptop raised up to eye level and a big clear work space. On the left is my glass pallet with cover (opened in this shot) which helps hold in fumes. Bellow my pallet is storage for paint and brushes, and bellow that are a lot of art books.
The first shot shows how nice and tight I've fit my bed in right against my table. And then above the bed you can see my projector on the book shelf I built which the second shot give a more complete picture of.

So that's where I now live and work, now to do something with it.

I have a new blog and website, find them here: aaronmsegal.com

Winter Break

So now that I'm back in Portland for the holidays I'm finally getting some time to relax, play wii, go skiing, and hang out with long missed family and friends, which has all been awesome. I've also been slowly cleaning out the basement so I have a real studio space this summer; And I've been working on a new website that will have galleries of my work, an artist statement and resume, ways to contact me and a new blog of what I'm up to, which means this blog will soon be coming to an end.

Six Semesters Down, One To Go

I finished out this fall semester in a very busy, but good state. 18 credits is a lot during finals, especially with 4 studio classes and a real nasty final in art history. Ultimately everything came together nicely and I ended up with some nice final projects and a solid final review.

In Drawing into Print my final consisted of a series of three etchings called Marching On, which deals with the concepts of before, during, and after, moments of conflict. I also chose to manufacture a wooden box to hold the prints.

MARCHING ON

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Etching, with its reliance on dark obsessive line work has a lot of interesting things to contribute to my work, and after after struggling with printmaking all semester this final has made me excited to continue next semester when I take beginning etching. I should also say that Goya's and Kiki Smith's prints were influential in this series and in my enjoyment of printmaking as a whole.

In Digital Drawing we completed two smaller projects for our final. First I made a few new digital works, this time incorporating images from my paintings. This was particularly interesting because I could completely rearrange the narratives and color schemes. I think further mixing of digital techniques will become very important in the my development of both medias.POLITICS

Second I made another short animated film. In this film a I tried to create a more complicated scene both technically, in that characters changed scale and interacted with the environment , and in narrative, in that the film has multiple characters interacting in different ways, and it has a surprise ending.

ROBO INVASION

Finally in my review for painting I put up all my paintings and drawings, including a few new ones I don't have images of yet, some of my prints, and I even showed a couple films. Our visiting reviewers were, John Baker, Nancy Davies, and Laurel Sparks. Overall my crit went very well, people were obviously into the work and interested in spending some time with it, which is always my main goal and is always nice to see. Most people seemed interested in the conceptual issues of my work and the ways I went about framing and composing the narratives, though there was some discussion of enlarging my scope to an actual societal scale instead of focussing on just one or two figures. This is a good point, but I wouldn't want to lose the relatable human element of the works as they are now. I want viewers to be able to interact with the pieces on a personal level, imagining themselves in the paintings. One thing people thought would help draw viewers in was my use of color being both candy coated and neon. This was nice to hear since I feel like I've been struggling with color, but I still think I need more complex combinations and diverse use of tertiary colors. The main suggestion for improvement was that my paint should get physically thinker and more active in-order for it to operate in the same way that my narratives and colors are. I have some mixed feelings about this because a lot of my inspiration comes from art that strictly controls its materials, like comic books, cartoons, and Japanese wood blocks. That being said I defiantly think I need to experiment with it, trying to find finesse in excess. Time to go look at Guston and Basquiat.

Show Posters

Here are the flyers for Erin and my show. The name of the show is Double Doubler and the closing reception is on November 26th, starting at 6:30. The show is hung in the installation station on the 2nd floor of the Kennedy building at MassArt from November 18th to December 1st. Everybody come see it!

Hung A Show

For the next two weeks My friend Erin and I have a show up in the installation station on the second floor of the Kennedy building. We spent all morning Sunday setting it up and it looks really great. It is nice to see your work in a properly cleaned and lit space, and its made me even more excited about my paintings as whole.

Painting Process

TWICE IN A LIFETIME

This is most recently completed paintings. This painting may be the point I want the color to go to, but I feel like something is still unresolved in the paint-job. Overall I like this piece a lot. The three pictures show different steps in the process of making this painting.

Finished My Big Painting

CALL ME

This weekend I took the time to finally complete The large painting I started over two months ago. I like the finished product, but I've changed several things in the way i go about making paintings since starting this piece and I don't think it still reflects what Ik want my paintings to be.

Color Trials

TOO MUCH TIME

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

SPEAK TO ME BABE

These are three painting I finished over the weekend. I was really trying to push the color in them to pop and reflect the intensity and bizarreness of the concepts and narrative. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, but I think I could push the color even farther and also be a little more purposeful with my mark making.

I'm on YouTube

In Digital Drawing Fred had us make a series of short films from our work in Photo shop. I chose to create several short animated films and have now uploaded them to my YouTube account. Making these pieces was hard work, but also a lot of fun, and got me back to one of my first serious artistic mediums when I was taking Animation for young people with Sharon. WARNING these films are more graphic and stupid then most of my other work, enjoy.