Hey Look! I have a shop!

Okay, I didn't use Matt's idea: the shop is just called Miro Roi cards & art. I only have a couple things up at the moment, but I'm working on getting more together.

My biggest problem - for the blog and now for the store - seems to be getting decent pictures of my work.

Here's a couple new paintings: Tommy pauses before entering his apartment building, and a diagram of my understanding of how petitionary prayer works.

Shop Name Contest!

Well, not really a contest, but I'd like some feedback.

The email I use for this blog is "MiroRoi(at)gmail.com" (long story, not important), and I was thinking of using it for my shop name. It's unique, and it links back to my primary cartoon character. I keep hesitating, though; any thoughts about the name, or suggestions for an alternative?

In any case, before I start selling paintings, I'm going to put some cards out there to get a sense of selling things online. These are some of the designs I've got so far: hand painted, blank inside, various sizes. (I'm working on an owl too. Julie likes owls.) Feedback on the cards would also be helpful.

It also occurred to me that I could sell the panels I've been painting on: 24"x24" 1/4 luaun, backed with a cradle made of 1"x2" select pine to prevent warping, all primed. The only things like that on Etsy are pretty small, and I've really enjoyed having a larger surface to work on.

I still have to put The Hand away when I go to bed, though.

If Mechthild is my Monday name...

...then this must be Susana.

This is the same painting in progression - monochromatic underpainting, again about halfway through, and then the final version. Mostly acrylic, but I just can't keep my hands off whatever is near, so it has this and that in it as well.

In other news, I've attempted to put some panels for painting for sale on craigslist. The ones I've finished are 24" square, with a 2" cradle on the back to keep them from warping; primed front and back, with the edges finished. The ad hasn't shown up yet, so I may have done something wrong.

At some point, I'm going to put some of my paintings for sale on Etsy.com - some of the work there is pretty good. I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime if you see anything on here you like, let me know - it could be yours!

As far as the other kind of painting is going, the only news is that my boss has been cited for Nonpoint Source Water Pollution, a class three misdemeanor, and his accountant burned down last week.

No actual work, though.

Duck Duck Goose

A Second Cup

I started reading Gordon Kaufman's An Essay on Theological Method again yesterday; an interesting contrast with Rudolph Bultmann's Jesus and the Word.

Also an interesting contrast with David Jensen's In the Company of Others, which my local book group has been reading on my recommendation.

Well, I recommended that we read it; I'm not sure who has actually done the reading. Are all book groups like this? Not that they haven't been reading: several of the people wanted to talk about another book which they had read (but I had not), Pema Chödrön's Taking the Leap.

I have since read the first chapter, and I'm not terribly impressed. I'd much rather re-read Joko Beck's Everyday Zen.

None of which has to do with the picture here, except that coffee was consumed during the reading of all these various books.

Two paintings

Um, not a whole lot to say today.

Both of these are mixed media pictures based on photos: the cormorant picture from a photo taken by Greg Rogers, a friend living in Florida; the old men sitting on a stone wall... from a book I found in the college library, written in French, with many black and white photos.

Hand

Since I'm not painting (houses), I'm painting (my hand).

As with the Cup, as well as the picture below ("Ohne Titel"), this was painted on a 2' x 2' birch panel, the hand in acrylic and the background in acrylic and semi-gloss latex.

I'll take a better picture later, but this gives you a sense of what I've been working on.

Painting for a New Year...

...even though I finished it at the end of last year. I continue to be amused that the most difficult part seems to be getting a halfway decent picture of what I've painted. I've tried to resist any digital "fixing" beyond adjusting the color, and for this one I haven't even done that. I like the overexposed/supersaturated look that direct sunlight seems to give with my camera, but while you a get a good sense of the color (maybe too good--the blue in the upper left hand corner tends to blend pretty well into the black background), you lose some of the details (the brushwork on the dove, for instance).

Jennifer still likes the cup better, so I've also added a new picture of that.

Last post of the year, perhaps

Link, just to be pedantic.

Softly, as in a morning sunrise

Ever wonder what to do with the ubiquitous cardboard inserts that Amazon shipments have inside their boxes?

(The title of the portrait of Mr. Miro comes from a song on this album.)

Pop

I haven't been painting houses this week; mostly I've been looking for a job in Syracuse.

Also, I've been painting various pictures, and it occurred to me that although I have assumed that I could do something largish because of my (ahem) artistic experience combined with my practical experience painting houses. I've never tried it before, though.

You may recognize the cup from a picture I posted earlier this week; that one was done with acrylics on a 9 1/2" x 12 1/2" piece of paper, whereas this (mostly) latex on a 2' x 2' birch panel. That seems true enough to Pop principles - simple and familiar image, taken out of context and enlarged, using commercial media. Not really that large compared to a lot of Pop art, but it's much larger than anything else I've painted in a long time.

Now, if I could just focus my obsessiveness on something more productive...

01/02/10 Update: here's the "better picture," and I decided to leave both up so you can get a sense of the picture:

Another in the series, such as it is.

More pictures

In addition to painting (that is, when I'm not house painting), I'm also working to get better photographs of my pictures. (Also, looking for jobs in Syracuse, NY, writing an introduction to informal fallacies, playing with Hank, etc.)

Anyhow, I didn't paint all of these today, but the photos came out better than those I'd taken before. Which is not to say that they couldn't be better, but the lighting is good and they weren't taken with a cell phone camera. More to follow!

And another

At some point I intend to post some more cartoons, but this is what I've been working on today.

Finally!

I haven't finished any cartoons in a long, long time - I've been jotting down ideas and sometimes sketching them out, but haven't gotten to the point of inking them. But I have been painting.

Friday painting - not this Friday but last

After posting pictures of last weekend's paintings, I realized that I could also post pictures of what I paint during the week as well. This is the sign for Towers Mall (no big surprise), and Dante and I painted both the white support structure, and the gray around the letters.

The last picture is of Dante, who normally isn't a raccoon.

When I was a kid, I would occasionally hear about someone who had immigrated to the United States, usually as a refugee, who had been a doctor in his or her home country, who is now working as a janitor here. I always thought that would be horrible, and couldn't understand how people could do that. I'm not quite in the same position, but I have a glimpse. Sometimes I wallow in self-pity, but for the most part I just deal with it, happy to have a job, particularly since it doesn't seem as though I can find a job that pays better than painting houses.

Sunday painting

I did this very quickly, but I like it.

Saturday Painting

I still can't get the color quite right, but at least these were taken with an actual camera, rather than a cell phone.


The picture on the right was done first, with the idea that it would be the foundation for a more elaborate painting. However, I liked the way it came out, so I did a second version using the same image. The one on the right is watercolor pencils, the one on the left watercolor pencils along with acrylics and watercolors (for those of you following along at home).

Voice in the wilderness

Well, not so much the wilderness as the rapidly developing shores of Smith Mountain Lake--and I'm not there, but was there earlier today painting a dock. Some people have too much money, but for the time being I'm happy to take just a little bit of it in order to make them happy. Correction: sate their need to keep up with the Joneses. Their anxiety is reduced, temporarily, but spending money doesn't make them happy. It almost makes me want to take Paul's advice and go get a PsyD so I could tell them that to their faces while taking even more of their money.

What I really wanted to write today was that I gave another sermon at Eldorado a couple weeks ago, but probably won't post it. It wasn't one of my best, and I'm not sure that even my best sermons are necessarily worth posting (although I'm willing to post because I don't think anyone would plagiarize me). The thing that struck me, though, was that they missed the point of the sermon, which was about being obedient to God--maybe not the best topic for Unitarian Universalists. But the story I used was 1 Samuel 15, and they were too distracted by God's ordering Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites.

Maybe I should have used Genesis 22 instead.

Labor Day Weekend

I don't really have anything to say at the moment, but thought you might like some cartoons.
(Yes, they were taken with a cell phone camera.)