It Might Have Been

Tonight I find myself thinking a lot about someone very special.   A wonderful woman.  This piece is just a reflection of what was on my mind.  I don't normally share personal reasons involved in a piece but maybe she'll figure it out and know I was thinking about her. 

It Might Have Been 7" x 5" Collage on Bristol Board



Two New Pieces

Two more of my quick and playful pieces.  I realize a lot of you may look at these and think "what's going on here" well these are explorative pieces.  I'm seeking ways to engauge the viewer and active the image and the text.  I'm hoping that the viewer sees the image and begins to ask questions about the text, and the images and how they relate to each other.  What's going on here?  There is a deeper concept, a concept that needs to be found by digging through layers of meaning.  I'll write more about this pursuit in the future, for now I just hope you enjoy the images and let them bounce around in your head for awhile. 

Attention 6.5" x 8" Collage on Bristol Board

Don't Overlook The Broken Sword 3.75" x 4" Collage on Bristol Board



Another New Playful Piece

Another new piece, I'm planning to make at least one of these simple pieces a day with the goal of using composition to explore ways to activate image and text. 

Tension and Anxiety 7" x 5.5" Collage on Bristol Board



Another Playful Piece

Again, playing with minimal and clean images, trying to be both playful and meaningful.  Enjoy.  Joe

Overnight Success 6" x 4" Collage on Bristol Board





Tumblr

The internet is a huge world that makes our physical world much, much smaller.  To strech myself out into new realms and hopefully get my work seen more often I've made a Tumblr page, I hope you'll all head over there and check it out and if you have a Tumblr as well then add me.  Thanks everyone, Joe  http://nordicsummit.tumblr.com/

And Now For Something Completely Different (Sort Of)

Here is another new piece in a style different from my past work.  I'm exploring new things, testing, poking around in my mind to find new ways to represent the world as I see it.  Lets see where all this eploration takes me. 

Sometimes A Rose 10" x 8" Collage on Dense Cardboard



Celebration

In light of the news of New York passing its bill to allow same sex marriage throughout their state and thus recognizing that people are not only equal but deserve equal rights I'm posting up a collage thats a bit differen't for me, much more simple, minimal and to the point.  It's a celebration and I hope people see it and feel the same way.  We live in a world were I hope to see in my life time the universal acceptance of same sex couples on a level above the personnal.  I hope states continue to take notice and follow the path clear by New York and the states before it.  Everyone deserves to be treated as equals.  I raise my cup in celebration.  I hope you'll do the same. 

I Wish You Were Gay 7" x 9" Collage on Canvas Paper

More New Collages

Here are three more collages I've done over the past week.  Enjoy!

Nature and Beauty 8" x 5" Acrlyic and Collage on Book Cover

Skull Stack 4" x 6" Acrylic and Collage on Canvas Board

New Faithful, Put Up Or Shut Up 5" x 8" Acrylic and Collage on Book Cover



Three New Collages

I hope everyone is doing well, update on the guitar is that the process has come along quite well and while I'm not sure if it will be finished by the end of this weekend it will certainly be finished by next weekend and I'll be posting lots of photos.  In the meantime I have dozens of pieces in the works and I've finished three to post this morning.  The first one, "Kid Games" uses some new techniques for me including the first use of a 3D element in my collages, something I think I'll be playing with more in my present works, also I had alot of trouble photographing it this morning so this photo isn't the best, I'll rephotograph it later and post better photos when I can.  The other two pieces I'm showing today are my smallest works to date at only 3.5" x 2.5"  As always I love to hear feedback and if your interesting in owning any of my works, owning a print of one of them (much cheaper but not as cool!) or you wish to commision a work from me you can contact me at Nordicsummit@gmail.com with any questions.  Enjoy your day! Joe

Kid Games 8" x 10" Acrylic, Collage and Assemblage on Canvas Board

Herald 2.5" x 3.5" Collage on Textured Paper

Decay 3.5" x 2.5" Collage on Matt Board



Guitar WIP

I'm hard at work trying to complete this guitar by the coming weekend but I wanted to stop in and post some work in progress photos.  The first one is what I would consider the 3rd step, in painting you would call it blocking in, basically I set up the inital value and color zones for the later work.  All the other photos represent the state I'm at now, which would be the 5th or 6th step.  Getting pretty close to how I want the front now, I intend to ad in more warm values to create some organic stripes in the composition to pull things together better.  I love feedback so feel free to drop me a line at Nordicsummit@gmail.com 

Guitar Step Two

A quick post just to show images of the guitar in process.  I consider this the second step, the body has been totally stripped down and finished in a deep satin black oil base.  This is going to form the surface for portions of the back and will also be used to provide some tooth for the area's I'll be collaging onto.  While I begin the next portion of the work I'll also be stripping the paint off the neck screws, strap post and the pot nobs in order to give them better paint jobs (and in the case of the nobs a wicked cool paint job) and seal them for protection.  Joe



New Project, Dean Electric Guitar

First off I want to apologize to everyone who watches my blog or visits it frequently. I’ve been horribly busy lately and as a result I haven’t been able to update in quite awhile but I assure you I’ve been working hard on quite a lot of work and I hope you all look forward to seeing some of it in the near future. However, this post is dedicated to my newest project, a piece I have just started working on as a collaboration with my friend Kevin Hall. Kevin is a guitarist and enjoys collecting and refurbishing guitars. It was his idea to work together and he was kind enough to provide me with a blank canvas, a Dean EVO XM model electric guitar to be exact. I’m super excited about the project since it’s the first time I’ll be applying my art to an item like this, creating a fine art guitar that will look awesome and remain totally functional. In fact I’m so excited that this time around I’ll be doing a little something extra for my blog, something that I know several people have expressed a desire to see before. Over the course of working on the guitar I’ll be posting work in progress images all the way up to the end result. So I hope you’ll all check back often to see the WIPs and please feel free to leave me some input and let me know how you think its going. For now here are the before shots of the Dean. Joe