Category: Process

galvanized steel before and after rusting

How to Rust Galvanized Steel

Many of the rusty looking assemblage elements that I add to my art actually start out as clean pieces of metal. I love to incorporate tie plates and nail plates that are used in construction, but in most cases this type of steel has a galvanized finish to prevent them from rusting. Through a variety […]

Read more
Spring EO2

Spring EO2

11″ x 9″ | mixed media with assemblage on plywood | 2015 | SOLD This little guy was created in conjunction with a special project I was invited to take part in by Seth Apter. Seth is a mixed media artist from NYC that I stumbled across online some time ago. One of his many talents […]

Read more

Using Bench Cookies to Prop up Work

Every so often I work on a piece of plywood or MDF that I haven’t cradled in the back. This can make it somewhat of a challenge when I need to attach hardware or drill through it for my various assemblage elements. Because these panels aren’t too thick, whatever I screw in will typically break through to the […]

Read more

Getting Stencils to Stay in Place

I’ve been using a lot of stencils lately for getting the letters, numbers, or words onto my paintings. Most of the stencils I make are done on a heavier stock paper, so there’s already some rigidity there which helps when working with them. But in order to get my stencils to stay put while I’m […]

Read more

DIY Gridwall for Art Fair Tent

I needed a way to hang my paintings within the space of my tent at the upcoming Riverside Festival of the Arts. Instead of buying gridwall panels I decided to make my own. My version of gridwall is a 48″ wide by 84″ tall panel with 6″x12″ grid spacing. Here’s how I did it…

You need at least seven 1x2x8 lengths of pine. I was making a lot of these so I just get them in the bundles of eight at Home Depot.

IMG_2289

Find your two straightest pieces and set them aside. These are going to be your side legs.

IMG_2290

Now find two more. These will be cut down and used for the three vertical supports within the center of the panel.

Read more

Highlights of the Process for Making ‘Pull Here’

Lately, most all of my paintings start with an object or set of objects that I use to form the basis of the piece. In the case of ‘Pull Here‘, it started with this- a door pull from Home Depot:

door pull

This grabbed my attention and I immediately saw it in use with some markings or instructions, and so the words Pull Here immediately came to mind.

The piece is on a 24″ square panel (luan plywood with some 1×2 cribbing). This was going to give me the depth I needed to seat the door pull hardware. Like I often do, the panel is primed, and then a layer of joint compound was applied. Masking tape helps define the horizontal region toward the bottom and provides me with some depth when layering on the compound.  Read more