
"Sargasso," April '08, acrylic on masonite, 2' x 2 '

"SOFAR Channel," May '08, acrylic on masonite, 2' x 2'

"Walls Impede My Progress," May '08, acrylic on masonite, 2' x 2'
These are mostly from late spring/early summer...
- Peter

hey y'all! sorry i haven't posted, but i have been working. i started a series of paintings inspired by a book of fabric patterns called "textile designs." i studied the book and translated it into paintings. the main shape in each piece became like figures for me.
they are oil on canvas. you can't really see the texture very well in the pictures, but the paint is thick and brushy. this piece is 8"x8."


these are both about 18"x24" (mostly) acrylic and oil (mostly in glazes and the thicker areas)on paper....i don't know what to do with them yet. i was thinking about making about 10 of these, each one with the weird smoke stack thingies in them...also i have an idea to get a big panel...wood or aluminum...doing another painting on that and then kind of collaging these onto the panel with maybe epoxy or something else. is there any other way you know of that i could collage these onto something bigger? could i use matte medium or something? the paper is bristol...pretty thick. has anyone painted on aluminum before? can you put nails through it to make a wood box behind it? any advice is much appreciated...i start work soon so unfortunately my output will be decreasing a little bit now...'twas a good summer.


So i guess what this series of painting is about, and probably what painting is about for me, is wandering, adventure, being lost. I always have this sinking feeling in the back of my mind or gut that I'm lost, that I don't know what I'm doing with my life, I don't know what life is about, I need to do something. A hole that I need to fill. I want my paintings to show this. When I start with a blank canvas first I make quick abstract image. In the image I always see a space so I fill it in at first in general and later obsessively, neo-baroquely. I wander these spaces trying to escape but every time I finish a painting it leaves me unsatisfied and I have to start over again. In a way I feel like i'm in Kierkegaard's first stage of life, the aesthetic, just trying to make the most badd ass painting possible. But I'm also trying to transcend this and wander into the ethical or, preferably, the religious, the spiritual. So sometimes painting for me is almost a sickness, an obsession. Something I have to do every day or I feel asphyxiated. But at the same time, I want painting to be more like a religion. I'm using painting in a way to try to wander out of painting and into something bigger. Like how Buddhists attach themselves to meditation and dharma in order to rid themselves of attachment.
I'm looking for the beauty in being lost. I'm trying to realize that I would not have started looking for this “thing” if I hadn't already found it. I'm born with this sickness that makes it hard for me to leave my easel and have a normal life and I'm using it to try to transform it into something else.
Stuff comes up and I get stuck on it like pyramids, multicolored berries, palm trees, water slides, tigers, blue birds and mostly the little guy. All this is to give a narrative continuity, to try to stick with a theme and see where it takes me.
purple slides 42"X40" oil on canvas
So that's what I have to say about this. Any comments (preferably things like...”you're full of shit and this is why” rather than “awesome, dude) are much appreciated. I've never taken any real art classes, just continuing ed ones...so I don't really know how to write about art or do critiques or anything.
Time Machine 34"X34" Oil on Canvas
Thanks for taking the time to read it and check out the newer paintings. I got two more I'll finish soon and post them up.
brrrrrrrrrrrradner

