"The Lodge"

"The Lodge” (18x24”): Sneak peek at a new poster panel that’ll be tentpole/centerpiece for a few upcoming gigs + summer show. About once a year I’ll tackle a concept that requires sustained focus/multiple sessions to complete… comparatively rare to not be able to bang something out in one sitting (see "Yukon River Traffic Jam,""Hibernate With a Good Book," and also "The Many-storied Cabin" for example). Not to mention finally getting around to the, er, backlog of projects on the proverbial back burner after the first year of full-time teaching. The scale+ scope of this put many other things into proper perspective, as deadlines were missed for many competing interests, but it felt good to stick to my self-imposed priorities, even at the expense of a lot of missed activities – more of this in an extended rant/whine later, below the fold.

Speaking of linework, the inks used were 100% dip-pen (excepting Micron for the border + star-stippling): crow-quill, extra –fine and fine, plus Sennalier ink… sooo yummy and deliciously tactile afterwards to rub one's fingertips across the paper and feel the raised ink. Took approximately 50-hours total: a dozen hours each on coloring/digital editing + inking + penciling + plotting. You know it’s serious when the Prometheus Space Ambient Psychill Mix goes on heavy rotation.

As a side-note while working on this in the drawing studio up in the art department a fellow practitioner dropped by for a surprise visit and made an offhand comment about how awesome the inking was and that really made my day. That reminding me how much I work in relative isolation – with the exception of the cats, nobody usually sees the process (aside from occasional classroom demos, sketchbook doodling at the café, or posting concept sketches on social media). Plus shortly after that I also asked another different artist for advice on an aspect of the composition: specifically how to go about rendering the cut-away section and have it retain that look as opposed to looking like an actual opening into the wall of the lodge. Humbling: You’d think someone who dedicates a significant portion of every class each semester for years with hundreds of critiques spent training students on how to elicit objective feedback would remember to reach out for a fresh perspective but no. So this was another reminder to practice what I preach.

The answer was to keep the dashed line straightedge, aesthetically contrasted with the organic linework of the sticks. Also a lot will rely on coloring to further enhance that contrast and enhance depth. Another valuable example in how taking the time to do a full-sized rough on newsprint will really help clarify things and identify potential problem areas, even though it’s investing a lot of time + energy on preparatory work. Another example is in how one can see on the initial rough sketch idea was to meticulously and mathematically organize successively overlapping tiers of critters, which was junked after an hour of sketching through the preliminary design. Much better to mix it all up in a random jumble, almost stream of consciousness approach to penciling individual beavers.

Also the logistics of doing a piece this protracted was the relief at having at least one idea move off the back burner, lost amidst the stress and demands of full-time teaching. Oh and a perfect example of how there will come a time when you have to make the choice as an artist to either take advantage of the few beautiful stretches of gorgeous weather to go outside to play + spend quality time w/friends & loved ones + catch a concert or two by some favorite bands or new movie in the theater… or stay home and work instead. Might even mean a temporary disruption of the routine, like maybe only getting a few hours of sleep some nights. (Cue art teacher mode: “It’s called artWORK”). Might mean getting exhausted, angry and depressed at the overwhelming frustration at seeing long-held dreams slip ever farther out of reach because of the demands of being a grown-up.

I alluded to this earlier in this post about how viewing the smoking ruins of ones current wasteland of obligations through the screen of an obsessively consuming project will help prioritize things competing for time + attention. I was burnt out, depressed, and the stress was overwhelming what with all the work that I want to do that I didn’t have time for over the school year, and watching my dreams fade and goals slip farther away each passing year. First world problems to be sure, but it was an honest opportunity to trim the undergrowth and shake out what was really important. When you grow to resent friends and acquaintances for imposing assumptions and you have a sneaky suspicion that you are earning a fraction f what you should be, and if the money is actually good then it makes the guilt over failure to deliver even greater, which creates even more stress, and then you hate your jog, your work, and take out the frustrations on clients and the cycle begins anew. I (again) swore off any and all new commitments like saying no to freelance gigs, commissions, shows, residencies (again) aside from what was already in the production pipeline.

After finishing the inks (approx. 12-hours concept sketching + 12-hours penciling + 12-hours inking + 12-hours coloring) and getting an awesome, crisp full-sized high-resolution scan from the wizards down at Sate-Line Digital Printing, and a whole day staring at the preview image of the linework whilst potting the color scheme, I noticed how asymmetrical it is, as in, off-balance – slightly more room on the moon side of the composition, and now I can’t see anything BUT that whenever I look at it – can’t be unseen. Also after coloring it’s decidedly somewhat of a letdown, a little anticlimactic, as in there isn’t really all that many beavers. Of course that goes right out the window after hours and hours of wondering to oneself while laboriously, meticulously coloring in hundreds and hundreds of beaver buck teeth “why do I always do this to myself?” In fact that recurring wonderment is why I will always relate to the struggle of Beginning Drawing students, who all face their respective moments of truth while staring down a blank page. That simple act of perseverance is more often than not the determinate factor in any artist's "success." This private struggle is opposed to the meta-message with this piece itself, which stresses the value of community. And gnawing inner doubt.

It'll be on display the month of July for an upcoming "residency" at the Ester café "Flossie & May's," plus make it’s debut at my turn at the podium for the Discover Alaska lecture series – stay ‘tooned for posts about these special gigs and more. And as a little bit of a teaser here, this piece is part of a larger vision that involves the accumulation of thousands of drawings of beavers done over the years by random folks during the many classroom visits, workshops and shows I've done over decades now - hopefully culminating in a truly epic undertaking. And that ain't even counting the thousand-piece puzzle! Note: still counts as a "Nuggets" Sundays panel too... just added the caption "The Lodge."