Having fun with art history -

"Alberto's Perceived Memory of a Cube"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

So sorry to post and rush off again today ... I'm not really here, but at a meeting. The best possible kind, however, with old friends over cocktails. Either way, today's post has its roots in Alberto Giacometti, surrealism, the cubists, life drawing vs. drawing from memory and perceived realism. What I love about him was his ability early on, and all through his career, to think outside the box up to and including throwing away the box in order to invent his own way.

It's not about you -

"The Silver Tea Pot"
digital collage by Mick Mather

While playing around with the elements to this piece it struck me that the work is completely about the little silver teapot. There may be a story here but I'm off to handle a family matter today and have no time to tell it. Ta!

Back to basics -

"Late in the Day"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I've been immersed in a recent flurry of land art and installation art projects and proposals. I also have a maquette to build for "Trinity #2" in preparation for the Public Art Commission review in a few weeks while simultaneously attempting to complete the "Kings Court Cube". It's been rainy with enough fog to make things interesting and I took a short movie of it when I went out this morning to check its status ... with no ability to edit the thing (I don't have the proper software to do anything with it) I've post it at No Matter What Shape anyway. That said, it's been a comfort to be able to fall back upon old methods of working to accomplish some new work, such as today's post, in a relatively short space of time. Well, I'd better get back at it!

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not -

"Learning Curve"
digital collage by Mick Mather

" ... it was a dark and stormy night outside the lab. The professor's assistant - code name Miss Yellow - lounged passively in a hat. As the object of the experiment rolled slowly closer, it was apparent that the Artificial Intelligence parameters for learning and exhibiting emotional response were offering unexpected results! ... "

Illustration Friday: Packed -

"Packed"
digital collage by Mick Mather

We have a double entendre - one of my most favorite things - with packed, this week's theme at Illustration Friday. I have one foot out the door so forgive me if I post and run. Enjoy! :)

Thursday Challenge: Large -

"Large"
photograph by Mick Mather

The weekly theme at Thursday Challenge is "Large" with "Tall Things" as a sub-theme. I took this photograph of some rose hips earlier this week while working on the "Kings Court Cube". This particular dog rose was certainly a tall thing and the size of the various fruits imply a relative spectrum of size - from large to small.

Tracking and mapping time -

"A Time Machine Arrives at the Repair Shop"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I suppose this image would fit rather well at the Outer Dust Rings, one of my other blogs that I've had to let go fallow ... too much to do, too little time. I very much enjoyed doing those posts and probably have a nice little coffee table book in the offing if I can ever figure out just how I'd like to see it laid out. Anyway, for now, this piece is dedicated to a pair of very dear friends who took the time to let me know how much they enjoyed the ODR pieces, Mary Stebbins Taitt and Ranjit Bhatnagar - sorry that there's no story to go with this one but, as I was saying, there's just not enough time in my day!

NEW from The Selfportrait Series -

"Selfportrait of the Artist as a Silhouette"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

It's been a while since posting an image from this series and you may recall hearing similar sentiments on Saturday when speaking of the dry spell between images in The Mister Existence Series. I have another one ready too, but will wait until a day when I need to go to the well. I'm a bit tired and short on time since construction of the Kings Court Cube began today. You can have a sneak peek at the effort at No Matter What Shape.

More digital drawing -

"Searching the City for You"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

I'm still pursuing the digital drawing tools in my kit bag ... having a bit of fun, relaxing, allowing other projects to percolate while thus employed. The title comes from a dream I had last night - that city woman again - except for the fact that right outside her office was a horse farm. Well, must dash, these disparate images need investigation ... I think.

Autumn leaves are falling -

"Study for an Autumn Construction"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

There's a wealth of natural detritus spread along a footpath, a wooded trail, an unpaved access road, a slope, a hill and a few depressions not far from my front door. A few of these locations, as I've been quietly walking them, have begun to whisper their own ideas upon the wind. Mixed with my own, hazy details begin to take form and now this study. The piece is an intended cube that will be a square yard in size and comprised of natural materials, including the colorful leaves of Autumn as they appear, all knit together in layers or as a basket or, who knows. I'll document the piece when it's been built ... sometime within the next 2 months I should imagine. Wait for it!

NEW from The Mister Existence Series -

"Mister Existence Puts the Dog in His House"
digital collage by Mick Mather

While trolling through some old files I realized that I haven't done much with The Mister Existence Series for quite a while. What I enjoy most about doing works in a series is that intense passion for the new as a concept develops and riding that wave for as long as it lasts. Later, a piece is created here there and is assigned when there's a comfortable fit. At other times, like this post, a glimmer of connection has to be kneaded and pushed into shape. I like that part of the process too. Well, it appears that I have a busy weekend ahead since my granddaughter needs new sneakers. The shoe shopping does begin early, dunnit? So do me a favor and set out a fresh bowl of water for the dog in the morning won't you? Thanks! :)

Illustration Friday: Clique -

"Clique"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

The weekly theme at Illustration Friday is clique. As I was considering my options this digital drawing came to mind. I started it months ago and left it quite unfinished, until today when it all started to make perfect sense. I should say that, at first, I was going to offer up a black square. In the end, aside from being a difficult point to make, that would have been too minimal to suit even me - besides the fact that the white squares and black squares thing has been done before, I find the idea of ROY G BIV to be much more colorful, all inclusive and paradoxically elite at the same time.

Thursday Challenge: Plants -

"Shade Trees of Saratoga"
photograph by Mick Mather

On the way back from Vermont a few weeks back, I stopped at one of the rest stops on the Northway near Saratoga Springs, New York. Since one of the sub-topics at this weeks Thursday Challenge is trees, I offer this. Sorry to rush off but I'm not actually here at the moment - I'm at The Orange Line Gallery for the opening of the "Life and the Traveler Show" where I'll be exhibiting a handful of pieces. If you're in town, the Opening Reception is at 305 Montgomery Street - 2nd Floor, from 5pm to 8pm as part of Third Thursday.

Walking a line -

"Searching for Richard Long"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

While my most recent reading materials have been about the pioneers of Land Art, Richard Long is on my favorites list. Not to be confused with Richard Long, who is himself often confused with Gig Young, it is the British artist that I speak of. It is his concept of walking the land and leaving marks along the way that appeals to me most, I think. As one afflicted with wanderlust, my fertile imagining of far away places was fueled with an interest in maps, adventuresome journeys and the pouring over of atlases, road maps, sea charts, tour maps, weather maps and ... well, you get the idea. This piece is dedicated to Mr. Long and, sorry to dash off, but the search is begun and the game is afoot!

Columns of light -

"Trees on a Slope Kissed by Sunbeams"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

When it comes to my digital drawings, like this one, I feel lost somewhere along the road between mystification and understanding. The only way to get control of things is to work at it and work at it often. Since I don't do it often enough, this particular journey is likely to be a long one. Tonight's post is a piece that I rather like but I couldn't think of a title for it until today. It was suggested by the background music in a new game, called drifts, that has me hooked. It's simple melody is sweet, lilting, passive, gently falling down and if rays of light have a sound this would be it. I know that the only way to hear this looping little ditty is to start the game but, I warn you, don't play it! If you do, you'll learn that the black hole of time exists for real, right there in that little game. I MEAN IT!!! I'M WARNING YOU!!!

Rain, rain, go away -

"Leighlund's Cairn - Another View"
stacked stone sculpture by Mick Mather

The introduction, "rain, rain, go away", is for Susupetal ... most of us who have the privilege to know her understand that she dislikes the coming of the Finnish Autumn, fraught with fog and gloom and rain. But I digress. We've had an extraordinarily wet, cool summer in this part of the world too. Lately, that fact has included a lot more rain - pushed north and east by the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico - that filled this little creek next to Leighlund's house. I took my camera over there yesterday to document the possible destruction of the piece but was rewarded with a perfectly brilliant, sunny day with our little cairn proudly standing its ground and diverting the stream. Next step will be to document the winds of autumn and the falling leaves that might just bury this little stand of stone.

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"A Little Girl and Her Picture Book"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

As it so often happens, I've gotten sidetracked from the collaborative project with my granddaughter, Leighlund Ruth Vincett. For the background info, have a peek at a number of posts you'll find here. Suffice it to say, while poking about this morning I found this unfinished piece ... well, it seemed unfinished until I studied it for a time. Now, having added a border and my digital signature, I offer it up. Enjoy.

One thing leads to another -

"The Cave of Ali Baba"
manipulated fractal flame collage by Mick Mather

I was just horsing around to tell the complete truth. Layering a few fractals and then running the result through the super secret array here at the Secret Visual Laboratory. After an hour or so the idea of a cave began to assert itself and I was quickly drawn to the tale of Ali Baba. Quite simple really, in the connectivity of thought at least.

Illustration Friday: Island -

"Island"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I had a lot of ways to go with Illustration Friday this week within the theme island. I don't mean to be brusque - since the real issue is me being dead-on-my-feet again - but have decided to go with this anatomical interpretation: A cluster of cells differing in structure or function from the cells constituting the surrounding tissue.

Thursday Challenge: School -

"School Bus"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

This week at Thursday Challenge the theme is school. I was very fortunate to have been able to walk to school for 9 out of 12 years. For most of us, we waited on the corner for a big yellow beast like this. :)

Let the girls sing -

"Girls Night Out"
digital collage by Mick Mather

The other evening I happened to notice a number of teenagers gathered in groups, bonding, chattering, discussing the first week back at school and already forming into cliques. Pretty much as I remember it when I was that age come to think of it. Well, except for the fact that today's teenagers seem to be growing up even faster than my own generation ... or does it just seem that way?

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse XV"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

I feel like I've been neglecting this particular series recently. I do enjoy creating them and now that I've completed this last one in the documentation files, perhaps it's time to get busy and do a few more. I'm sure I will, but not right away, the meeting schedule has fired up again and I'm already going to be out a few nights this week. Later ... I have a committee meeting to get to.

Something a little more manageable -

"Leighlund's Cairn"
stacked stone sculpture by Mick Mather

To make a long story short, my granddaughter and I spent a good bit of time in a dry stream bed yesterday. I began searching for stones to stack and had a fairly good start on a small cairn when Leighlund walked over to it and dismantled it with swift kick of a tiny, sneakered foot. After explaining what I was up to and after urging her to help - or build a cairn of her own - I began again. Once it was completed we sat with it for a while and pondered the good work. Soon enough, however, a slug caught her attention and the moment was not so much lost as replaced with a new adventure ... for her, how to get the slug into the house as a gift for her mommy; for me, how to leave it outside and to simply tell the tale of the little slimy critter instead. Anyway, another temporary piece on display until any number of catastrophes deign to visit and undo the work ... again! :)

Observing nature and a reinterpretation -

"Stream and Stones at High Water"
digitally manipulated fractal collage by Mick Mather

At this time of year, walking outside - or even just looking outside - to experience the air, light, heat, sun, rain and the changing of the season is a nice way to relax. Free flowing thought, influenced by the environment, flashes on and off with a variety of ideas and possibilities that will need to consider the sharp corners of recurring, urgent concepts that insist that I pursue them. For a number of years I've been interested in riparian restoration of a particular creek, my intervention being that of siting sculpture within the creek itself. Not a new idea, certainly, but one that continues to insert itself into my own consciousness. This post was created in response to much of this recent thinking.

Out in the open -

"Dining Al Fresco"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Sometimes, when a period of less strenuous activity is called for, I go back to old, familiar working methods. Last week I embarked on a handful of old school digital collage pieces using said tried and true methods. This is one of them.

Illustration Friday: Clutter -

"Clutter"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

The weekly theme is clutter over at Illustration Friday and, to be perfectly honest, I put mine behind closed doors! If you've fallen for that, I have some beach front property in the Nevada Desert to show you ... you might imagine that I'd be selling that, ahem, dirt cheap. Nope, bring a couple of credit cards along. Anyway, here's mud in yer eye.

Thursday Challenge: Tools -

"Walking Stick"
photograph by Mick Mather

Tools happens to be the theme at Thursday Challenge this week and I offer up a double entendre for you. Come now, think about it a minute. Who doesn't need a bit of propping up now and again, eh? :D

Red Zone -

"Seeing Red"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Since I'm still recovering from the weekend sculpture installation, as well as catching up on some other work upon my return, something short and sweet today.

NEW from The Trinity Series -

“Working Class Silence and Hope”
(Trinity #13 - Installed)
marble sculpture by Mick Mather

As those of you who have been following along already know, I spent much of this weekend at The Carving Studio & Sculpture Space in West Rutland, Vermont creating "Working Class Silence and Hope" (Trinity #13). This piece will be part of SculptFest08 with an opening Saturday, September 13th and the exhibition continuing through October 26th. This year's theme is "Human Interventions and the Industrial Landscape", curated by Carlos Dorrien, Sculpture Professor at Wellesley College. As can be seen, the piece is dry stacked marble on a large marble plinth. From the bottom of the base to the tallest column the work is 7-feet tall and 7-feet wide. Upon arrival at the site things began to vary a little bit from the original sketch when it became obvious to me that the columns needed to be separated from the industrial dock where the work is sited. The natural marble slab was the answer and this monster weighs in at almost 2 tons. The industrial surroundings, merging sharply with the natural environment along with shape of the plinth, further suggested an alternate arrangement of the columns - each measuring about 15" to 18" inches in diameter. When you consider that better than 60% of the marble pieces needed shaping before placement amid hordes of mosquitoes, black flies, midges, no seeums, bees and wasps, it was a major task of whack & stack to get this erected. While my body is bug-bit, sunburned, muscle and tendon stressed, I'm on the mend. Those physical issues fade in the shadow of accomplishment and, in a heartbeat, I would do this again ... just not for a little while. Okay?

Once again, out of the blue -

"In the Secret Coding Room"
digital collage by Mick Mather

For the life of me, sometimes, I don't know where the work comes from. Within the process of creation these works are often fueled by intuition, chance and happy accidents. I'm not very sorry to say that the joy of discovery is quite likely greater for me personally than it is for the patron who comes to the work with virgin eyes. That aside, I should be back from Vermont by now ... we'll talk soon.