We're all looking...

So, once again, I should wait to get a white-light photo of this piece... but I'm excited to share. Of course, I paint the edges... It's entitled, "We're all looking for inspiration: And an understanding of life's mysteries"

 

sketches

 Thought I would post a couple things I was playing with last night (as I continue to clean and re-organize some of my studio space). Not sure if anything will come of these, in terms of final pieces; but I like the looks of the one with the vintage tennis player in the religious hand and futuristic architecture background.

Tony Thompson/Steven Specht collaboration piece

 Was hoping to get this piece finished by week's end, and between yesterday and today, I was able to finalize this project. This first photo is the finished piece (as yet, untitled). I also included the many exploratory/experimental intermediate composition ideas I had, as I made my way through the creative process.

Collab

 It's been far too long since my last post (life has been weird). I am currently working on a new collaborative piece with my friend and fellow artist Tony Thompson. Here is the base image that he painted, on this beautiful scruffed-up substrate. I have been having a blast experimenting with various images. It's been fun, but at some point, I need to put SOMETHING down! Every new image with which I experiment, seems like the "latest and greatest". But I could go on almost forever with that approach. SO... I decided that I do want to give this a watery, sea-like lower portion. I FINALLY put that down on the outer and inner portion of the frame. The blue fish/water will continue on the face of the piece. I'm just trying to figure out the rest, so I know how far "up" I should put the water. When I finish the piece, I will share more of the intermediate experimental versions. For now, this is a bit of a teaser/trailer for what is to come. I remain excited to see the finished product!

Finished piece

I posted a preliminary sketch of this piece on January 17th. Today, I finished it. The tentative title is "Holding on" (but not sure yet). It's 7" x 7" (11" x 11" framed).

Ray Johnson influence

 I haven't bee spending a lot of time in the studio lately, as I have been focusing my efforts on my conference paper for the Southern Humanities Conference. The paper is entitled, "Ray Johnson as the embodiment of stream of consciousness". I think this quick "sketch" was influenced by Johnson's work. BTW, the upper panel is not a pornographic image, as it might appear. It's a cut piece from a Ben-Day dot photo of JFK. Last night, whilst laying in bed, I thought it might be an interesting nod to Ray Johnson, if I stamped this piece with "Collage by Ray Johnson", as he often did (now that would be funny).

This collage was actually created by Ray Johnson

quickie

Thought I would do a quick post this morning (partly, because I'm running a little late for my first day of classes). This is "just" a sketch; but I feel it has lots of potential (and I am really liking the saturation of colors, and black-and-white). I'm especially intrigued by the serendipitous way the shadow of the woman's arm looks like the shadow of the other element. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.