Hoffmandu replaces Mouth of Jay.

My previous blog consisted of a number of portfolios of my work, sorted by theme. This time around will be more discursive. Posts will replace portfolios for the most part.

This is a picture of my grandson washing the van. The boy serves notice that Hoffmandu will be heavily into what matters to me – no, not the vehicle.

Within this last year I have been experimenting with various forms of plastic sheet, available from a store in town.

This is definitely a “coulda had” situation as the store has been in business  since forever, and the materials I have discovered there have answered a number of requirements going back over the years.  I have found myself seduced by a range of colors, transparencies, finishes and working qualities.

Over the last few years I have been exploring the potential of chains as artistically expressive. I am the proud possessor of a collection of linked items made mostly of wood. Clear plexiglass and something called expanded PVC  has introduced a new element to these efforts.

Linked gender symbols.  Varnished cut wood, 2008

When visiting for the holidays, son Bret commented on a painting languishing in the basement.  He saw virtue where I had seen frustration, and I have been prompted by his reaction to take another poke at it.

For starters this is a piece in foam board and carries the image of a park walkway with fencing and the occasional tree or two – all in snow. The original photograph was taken in a black and white format with no middle tones. I then enlongated the image.  This then was projected on the foam board, selectively painted in and the surface modulated with a hot air gun.

I had gotten as far as a kind of  dark brown and black application of paint in the features over a sort of yellow snow effect when I rescued it from the basement for a second go.  I decided to be more painterly and try to introduce some atmosphere.  This led to the first example shown above.  I then continued to alter the distribution of emphases somewhat. It certainly felt as though I was moving things around.  But, in this next image, one can see but little change. It didn’t improve by much, but then again, it wasn’t much damaged either.

I will continue to add to this post as further alterations arise.

Some years ago I worked briefly for a sign company as a salesman.

The bus station downtown was an eyesore with a sign that had undergone unsightly modifications and then left to rot. Any number of sign companies had come forward with proposals to restore the sign, but all were beyond the Greyhound company budget. I pitched for the job and the detailing department came up with an attractive bid. Unfortunately, permitting for the job was held up in city hall after approval by Greyhound, and I wasn’t around for the actual work.

The sign is an important part of the overall art deco design of the station and clad in enameled steel. It was anticipated that the renovation of the sign would involve a re-cladding in aluminum. Any suggestion of using fresh enameled steel was dismissed as too expensive.

I decided to test that assumption and found a company that did steel enameling work and which had an oven large enough to handle the job. It turned out that their price for fabricating the replacement cladding was less than that of aluminum.

So today the Station’s facade has been returned to a close approximation of original and I can take some credit for making that possible.

Some time back, in the heat of my infatuation with Adobe Illustrator, I did a short series of transformations. I would start with small groups of somethings: letters, names, some geometry, and then run them through the program. I liked the resulting patterns – especially those evocative of vegetation, and tried turning them into paintings. The project started out fast but then bogged down as I had little feeling for an end result. Was I looking for an exercise in technique? Maybe use the figured foam with some varnish thrown in? Was something symbolic lurking within – something that would guide my approach? Was the computer input enriching, or another stumbling block? I dug in and tried a number of approaches, most of which I discarded.

I finally ended up with these: a flowing effect and an exercise in utter simplicity.

Varnish on figured foam

If things seem sparse and partial, that’s because they are. Hoffmandu will load up for sure, but deliberately.

These are the folks who will show up in this category.

Jo. We’ve been married, yo these last forty years.

Matt. The eldest son and his better half, Shannon.

Jasmine. Matt and Shannon’s eldest child.

Wolfgang. Matt and Shannon’s second.

Vladimir. Matt and Shannon’s youngest.

Adam. Our second son and Wendy, his significant other.

Bret. Our youngest son and his better half, Elizabeth