Thursday Challenge: Big -

"So Big the Sky II"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

It's time for Thursday Challenge again. If I'd had my wits about me, I could've used this image for big, the theme for this week. In some ways, I'm kind of glad , otherwise I may have continued to pass this particular piece by. I'll be posting the first version of this at No Matter What Shape-The Archive and you can see that one here if you have an extra minute or two.

Disintegration Collaboration Project -

"Stimulus Package I (Before & After View)"
digital photographic composite by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

For those of you who may have missed yesterdays post of my final documentation of "Stimulus Package I" at No Matter What Shape - The Archive, here's a before and after composite. We now know that the next step in the Disintegration Collaboration is to take what's left of our individual projects and create something new. I've already begun playing around with the photographic record with an eye toward creating a limited edition portfolio of digital prints, more composites and who-knows-what 3D object will escape from the studio.

Thursday Challenge: Windows and Doors -

"Red Shift"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to see full size -

It's that time of the week to participate in Thursday Challenge and the theme windows and doors. I fell in love with this version (I have two more) even though, perhaps especially because, the windows and doors kind of disappeared. I've posted a b&w version at No Matter What Shape - The Archive so you can see that I actually did follow the suggested possibilities. A bit of a double entendre also exists ... as the old agrarian way of life slips steadily into the past and as the fading red paint of the barn grows fainter with each passing season, there's a thread that connects physics to this piece in more ways than one. Yes. Really. Look it up!

Revisiting Kings Court Cube -

"One View From the Cube"
manipulated digital video still by Mick Mather

Sorry to post and run but I have an entire day of absolutely nothing planned. On my way to the sofa and front room windows I will say that this post is a manipulated still from the short video I posted of the Kings Court Cube at No Matter What Shape - The Archive almost two months ago.

Making hay while the sun shines -

"Study #2 for Sky Box I"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

I've pressed forward with another land art project called Sky Box I that can currently be seen at No Matter What Shape - The Archive, my other blog. I've mentioned it briefly here as well, along with another study for the documentation; but, things have changed a little bit. For one thing, it's completed and, for another, the longevity of this 1-foot square box is suspect. Be that as it may, Sky Box II is already being planned and, in the spring, I believe that Flower Box will be added to my list. This 1-inch square box, as yet an indistinct plan, is expected to surround a wildflower next May. This doesn't presuppose the building of Ice Box and/or Snow Cube should proper conditions occur this winter. Hmm, busy, busy me!

Land Art Project -

"Kings Court Cube"

land art sculpture by Mick Mather

I finished the project today. If you want to see the daily progress of this land art construction, you'll find it here at No Matter What Shape - The Archive. I took some documentary video footage again but, dang! ... it came out worse than the original one! If I can carve out a little time to do some editing, I might come up with another short movie to post, eventually. I had to cut back on the original concept of filling the cube with colorful leaves but I have another idea if the structure of stacked and woven twigs and branches survives the winter. There's a bit of work involved and, for now, I'm all in with no thoughts of continuing this project for a while. I'll create Sky Box before the weather turns too miserable and then tackle those parts of the new idea that can be done, left to winter over with final considerations and further work in the spring. For now, enjoy this if you can.

Thursday Challenge: Photography -

"Watching the Detectives"
digital collage by Mick Mather

This week, Thursday Challenge offers us the theme of photography. Not long ago I was working with a terrific group of teenagers on a public art project who managed to design, assemble and site a sculpture in less than 3 weeks time. Part of that effort required documenting as much activity as possible and there were multiple cameras in operation during each creative session. Coleen, a professional photographer with a studio at The Gear Factory where all of this was taking place, appeared one day and offered to shoot a few rolls of film with her big, honkin' rig. Tonight's post is based on two of the photo's I managed to take of her at work after collaging, manipulating and layering as I am wont to do. You can see the sculpture here at No Matter What Shape - The Archive.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse IX"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

To celebrate the hanging of images 1 thru 8 in The Birdhouse Series I thought I might post this newly created image. Eleven works from The Toys Series were also hung today at The Weiskotten Gallery and I have to admit that the show looks bright and happy. Just right for the beginning of summer! I should also like you to make a note that I've posted an alternate version of this at my other blog, No Matter What Shape - The Archive. Have a peek if you're interested, I'm on my way out to have a little Irish Whiskey along with a few glasses of red wine as a chaser.

Illustration Friday: Fierce -

"Fierce"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Once again I find the theme at Illustration Friday somewhat difficult. This week the word is fierce and I'm beginning to think that this much difficulty so many weeks in a row may actually just be me. Well, whichever way the wind is blowing, the fires out west are what collectively inform tonight's piece. I have another version of this that I like better, because of it's JMW Turner aura, but this one is somewhat smoother and less harsh to one's delicate sensibilities in view of such things as destructive fires. At the same time I have to wonder if the rougher image might be more effective. Even though torn, all is well and I've posted it here at No Matter What Shape - The Archive.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse II"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by Lelainia N. Lloyd -

As I mentioned last week, here's the second image from a new group of work now known as The Birdhouse Series. I suppose that spring is a fitting time for such an auspicious beginning and, once again, my many thanks to Lelainia N. Lloyd at Tattered Edge for allowing me to manipulate a beuatiful photograph of one of her own birdhouses. This is a radical treatment come to that and here's a link to the original at No Matter What Shape - The Archive just to give you an idea of what that means. :)

Illustration Friday: Fail -

"Portentous Occurrence at the Business School Graduation"

digital collage by Mick Mather

I couldn't make up my mind regarding the two ideas that I had for fail, the weekly theme at Illustration Friday. So, I'm posting the alternative version at No Matter What Shape - The Archive and you can see it here. While the personal tragedy that's part of this piece is not a laughing matter, I couldn't resist going down that dank alley of dark comedy. Given the broadcast media feeding frenzy over the current recession, to the point of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, the parallels with Black Tuesday in October 1929 seem apropos. As I recall, there were more than a few historians brave enough to say that the hands-off policy of Herbert Hoover was quite likely to have worked, thereby shortening that troublesome recession that, instead, grew out of control to become what we now call The Great Depression that lasted through to the entrance of the United States into World War II. Is history about to repeat itself?

The "Career Day" sketch -

"Mick's Glasses II"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

As I mention in a little more detail at No Matter What Shape-The Archive, this image is the result of a gestural sketch accomplished at a Career Dar presentation at Henninger High School last week. For those of you out there with something to share in the field of arts & culture, I might suggest that working artists who have the capacity to make a presentation at such an event is one way to stop the bleeding of constant and continuing cuts to the arts in our schools. At the very least, it's a way to insert an awareness to the arts and how they relate to the real world beyond the misinterpreted concept that it's a frill.

The Toast Series -

"Toast #7"
monotype by Mick Mather

As promised, here's one of the monotype prints from The Toast Series. As you may recall, this came about as a direct result of The Telephone Series - another example of which can be seen here at No Mather What Shape - The Archive. Basically, each telephone began as a shape that looked like a piece of bread and, after finishing all 26 telephones, I began to fiddle. Soon the layers began looking more like slices of toasted bread and a series was born! Once again, each image is iconic in nature - the toast posted here being the most stylized. They were fun to do but, since I continued using telephone book pages for the most part, I'm dissatisfied with them. There's another grouping of experimental, trial runs done on a variety of other papers that I was even less satisfied with and I may revisit these somewhere down the road. More to come ... eventually.

Promise made, promise kept -

"No Waitin' G #3"
digitally manipulated stressed paper collage by Mick Mather

The early bird gets the worm as they say and if you happened to visit No Matter What Shape last night or earlier today, you already got a peek at the original scan of this stressed paper piece. I promised to post this slightly manipulated version so, here it is. The other wee mystery alluded to here is just how drastic some filters can be when taken to extreme limits. That said, this was supposed to wrap everything up and yet, this isn't the end of it. I have three more versions of this to post at some point in the future when I'll need something already in the can and ready to go. Hmm, more promises to keep. :)

To what purpose?

"The Purpose Driven Life"
digitally manipulated torn paper collage by Mick Mather

One of my favorite collage artists is Tammy, aka blondstrawberry. I don't believe there's a single work at her web site that didn't speak to me. Not only is each piece a superbly done visual masterpiece, her titles add volumes more information to those of us willing to sit and ponder the marriage for any length of time. As I was wandering through her body of work for a second dozen times I finally realized that here's a woman who enjoys the old fashioned, hand-written letter - putting an old school spin on hand held, I should like to point out, as regards the way such treasure is read. So, I wrote Tammy a letter, tipping in a torn paper collage to the middle of it. What you see here is the digitally manipulated result of the original that I've posted here.

Thursday Challenge: Black -

"Gatehouse at the Edge of the Black Forest"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by Ann Ballard -

For the theme of black at Thursday Challenge this week, I cropped a photograph taken by my good friend and poet, Ann Ballard ... you can see the original here along with a very succinct vision of how I've come to think about photography as a visual artist. I often get the feeling that I'm the odd man out at the photomeme sites I contribute to each week, even though I've made it a point to keep 99.9% of the posted work completely photography based. What I see that predominates, especially in digital photography, is a purist standard. There's nothing wrong with that in my humble opinion - unless it reaches the stage of an oppressive philosophy where there's no room for anything else - and thus whistle as I work happily away. I know there are a lot of other artists working the way I do and I'm always delighted to see that work, always delighted when it inches incrementally forward in acceptability. Still, there's barely a developed square foot in all of this worldwide acreage. Not a complaint there either, mind you, just an observation.

Thursday Challenge: Nature -

"Walk Out of the Darkness"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
photograph by Mick Mather

I posted this photograph a number of years ago and it's always been one of my favorites. Since it suits the theme - nature - at Thursday Challenge this week, I decided to use it again. It's the stark, sudden shift from dark to light that always speaks to me when I view this photograph and, as a boy who spent most summers in the woods, this is a comfortable and familiar sight for me. Just as an aside, I was torn between this image and another photograph of yet another tree. You can see it here at No Matter What Shape - The Archive.

Connections -

"Basic Series - A Square Peg and A Round Hole #5"

monotype by Mick Mather

I was noodling around with another image this morning that ended up as the weekly post at my Sci-Fi blog, Outer Dust Rings. As it happened, it turned into a revived, digital version of The Basic Series, which is actually an altered book project that became impossible for me to continue. More insight and a few more examples of these works-on-paper in book form can be found at No Matter What Shape - The Archive. As I contemplate moving forward with these works as digital paintings it seems like a good time to show this piece and take a peek back in time while looking to the future.

Illustration Friday: Hats -

"The Black Hats"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digital collage by Mick Mather

While I was finishing up this post for the theme of hats at Illustration Friday, I began to see this as part of The Trinity Series. As some of you may know, "Trinity" is a growing number of sculptures that I plan to fund, create and install somewhere in 2008 ... but, I digress. An old photograph of an old matchbook began to appear as little men wearing skullcaps. A different sort of head covering than might be expected but it suits me for the moment. I have quite a few versions of it and will post one or two alternates at No Matter What Shape - The Archive. I'm feeling a little dizzy, my stomach is upset and I need to lay down. I'm not complaining, mind you, I think the work week had some hidden stress that's only now reaching the surface. Hey, bartender! One scotch, one bourbon, one beer! Please. :)

Moody Monday: Wild -

"Wild"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- original photo by Terry Walter -

The annual visit from Aunt Terry also brought a bundle of terrific photographs taken on one of those Alaskan Cruises that have become so popular in the Era of Green. As I began looking through my files to address the theme of wild at Moody Monday this week I discovered this beautiful image of a decidedly wild hillside in Alaska. I could almost feel the spray from the mad, rushing riverlet charging down that steep slope. After running it through one of my old school filters the treatment itself began to take on that wild aspect as well. To get a better idea of what I mean, I've posted the original photograph at No Matter What Shape - The Archive. Gee, it seems like I've been doing that a lot lately ... but, I s'pose it is fitting that I offer another look. If interested, you can see it here.