Preparing for Battle

This is my basement.  I'm gesso-ing on a beer pong table.   hahaha

I've been preparing for battle for the past two days now.  I stretched all of these yesterday in my basement, and then gave them two coats of acrylic gesso.  I got up at 8AM today to give them another coat before I sand them down, and then give them another coat or two and sand again, and repeat as necessary.  I am terrified of canvas rot (I don't know if this is a technical term... when the oil paint soaks through the gesso and destroys the canvas and the painting).  I take gesso-ing very seriously.  I started using Rabbit Skin Glue and probably like it more than acrylic, but since I had a tub of acrylic gesso, I just went for it.

Burlap.

I stretched two surfaces of burlap, one over a frame, and the other over a bad panel that I originally had made for egg tempera painting.  I'm hoping I fall in love with painting on burlap, since it's a lot cheaper than regular canvas...

Other People's Love Letters

The Borders is closing downtown in Center City.  R.I.P.  I went in there looking for "The Alchemist", but no bueno.  So instead, I ended up getting Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See... and I got it 60% off too!  It's too cute... except for the sad ones.  Bahah... Those are not cute at all.

WIP picture of the accordion book, Inside All of Us...  2010.  Uban.

I'm going to post the finished book next.  I didn't notice this, but it's pretty cool since I have another painting in there, which actually is of the corner of the room.  See here.  I spy... a bologna sandwich!  Just kidding.

Tea Stained: WIP photos

Work in progress pictures.  2010.  Uban.

I'm always interested in the way ideas come to be, and how many times an idea can be recycled...

These WIP pictures were taken while I was working on an assignment last semester.  I tea-stained photocopies of my journals, sketchbooks, illustrations, and other assignments.  Then I had to devise a method of drying them... which ended up being me running a few yards of satin ribbon across my open closet and using clothespins.

The final tea-stain of the first WIP image was used to create this pop-up book.  The same imagery was used for this under-painting.

Work in progress pictures.  2010.  Uban.

This hasn't turned into anything else yet... But it started off as a poem that I had originally posted in my Myspace (ahahha!) blog at the time.

(Oct. 9, 2009 @ 8.19PM)

we stand still
without ground, or legs, or feet
denying any assumed gravity
because we've come to learn, that
anyone who doesn't already understand
doesn't know what it means to float.

Two songs stuck in my head...  I'm scattered.

Fabolous -- "You Be Killin Em"

Mumford and Sons -- "White Blank Page"