Tuesday Figure Drawing

I finally got to go to Robert Windle's Tuesday figure drawing sessions at the Old Sears Building. I haven't been able to go for a few months because of furniture-making class, so it was good to finally get back. There is seriously nothing better than sipping some wine out of a plastic cup, turning up Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Little Wing," and doing figure drawing. Nothing better. Some drawings from last night:

New website section - DESIGN

I decided to replace the "Illustration" section on my website with a "Design" section... mostly because I don't really do that much illustration and have been doing a lot more design. Right now, it has the work I've done thus far for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Savannah Current, and 2 Hours Traffic.

Check it out here.

Have a good Memorial Day, everyone.

I had to carry all my wood back on the train yesterday. It wasn't fun, but I got it here, and I hurt my back in the process. Not a big deal, just sucks. I still need to cut the dadoes to receive the shelves, and also cut the shelves to length, but I figure I can do that with 45 minutes and a table saw, so maybe this weekend. Here are some photos of the basic frame roughly together on the floor:










I like it, I think it'll look good, but it's nothing new. That's why once the dadoes are cut, I'm going to glue a bunch of maple on it and then try to make what I actually envisioned for this thing. It's nerve wracking. There's a good chance that I'll totally ruin it. There's a good chance it may turn out to be incredibly tacky. But there's a small small chance that it'll look exactly how I want it to look and it'll be freaking awesome. It's always tough when you've done your preliminary work and, for the next step, you want to try something that not only you haven't done before, but you haven't seen anyone else do it before... it's sailing at night without a lighthouse. But when I actually sit and think about it, I'd really much rather have a failed risk on my hands than a successful mediocrity.

Since I hurt my back yesterday, I was sort of stuck on my couch sketching. I got frustrated since I need at least 5 good figures in the next couple weeks, and I'm having a hard time getting any figure drawing done. Also, has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of models in figure drawing who feel the need to do "extreme" poses? Contorted arms, twisted legs, sometimes they involve some sort of pole... that's all good and fine, but it's been a while since I've had to do the painting called "Pole Vaulter Triumphant." I like to do lonely, quiet, evocative scenes and you hardly ever get models who do those poses.

Oh well. Here's some sketches I did on my couch yesterday for a pet project that probably won't be done for 6 months. I'm going to steal the hand for something else though:

Postcard and press release from the "30 under 30" show at Varnish Fine Art:



ArtSpan, CCA, and Varnish Fine Art Gallery invite you to see the next generation of Bay Area Artists in "30 Under 30," opening Thursday, June 5 and continuing through June 28, 2008. This collaboration celebrates the Y Generation of entrepreneurial artists, honoring them for their talent, drive, and bravery in a world that is progressively getting harder to gain ground in.

This show was open to under-30 ArtSpan artists and members and CCA students, faculty, and alumni. Jurors Kerri Stephens and Jennifer Rogers of Varnish Fine Art Gallery and Justin Giarla of the Shooting Gallery selected 30 artists from the numerous submissions. The changing times bring forth new ideas and understandings to visual art, and this show was especially interested in the responses of the Bay Area Generation Y crowd. The goal of this exhibition is to give young artists a voice and assist them in the building their careers. ArtSpan recognizes and celebrates the excellence of art institutions like CCA, which provide the necessary tools for its students' success in their chosen art form. ArtSpan is an organization that supports all artists, regardless of where they are in their careers.

So please join us for a reception for the artists on Thursday, June 5 from 6 - 9 p.m. at Varnish Fine Art Gallery, located at 77 Natoma Street. The following artists will be featured in the "30 Under 30" show:

Rita Alves, Hilary Williams, Joseph Findeiss, Josh Hershman, Ernesto Ortiz, Lauren Cohen, Gavin Worth, Argishti Musakhanyan, Theo Rigby, Kate Nichols, Noah Sakamoto, Estee Stevens, Joshua Hagler, Julia Goodman, Kara Nelson, Sam Snowden, Leah Rosenberg, Ian Norstad, Ian Amberson, Ariel Clute, Matt Momchilov, Seth Armstrong, Peter Belkin, Judy Wu, Jessica Laurent, Carol Anne McChrystal, Nancy Chan, Deanna Charles, Queena Hernandez, Demon Cutler

42. La Calavera

I finished another stencil today: "42. La Calavera." It's not the best spraypaint job here, but I was cursed with horrible winds right as I started painting, so the paint blew in beyond the edges making them fuzzy. I'll re-spray it at some point.




Oh, also, my inlay process worked. Here's a scrap:

Today is the last working day in my furniture-making class, and I wanted to make all the big cuts today, so I had to get my wood ready for that yesterday. This involved picking up my four big double planks of wood and the walnut I cut into strips, putting them into a canvas bag so they didn't slip around too much, and, since I don't have a car, carrying this bag to my work. On the hottest day in San Francisco in years. So it was tough, but I finally got it there. I set up a makeshift jig on the bandsaw and thinned out the walnut even more, planed them by hand and then glued and malleted them into grooves I had cut into the maple. Here are two of them clamped:




Here are two other ones a little further down the road:





So today, if I can get a table saw amidst the last minute scrambling swarms of classmates, I need to cut these flush, cut the angled top and bottom cuts for the sides, cut in the dados to receive the shelves and cut the shelves to size. I doubt I can get it all done in time, but if I can cut the dados today I'll be happy.

I also finished a new stencil yesterday, but I don't have anything to paint it on right now. I will Saturday and I'll post pictures of it then. I'm excited about this one. A slight style departure.

27. El Corazon

I made a new stencil and sprayed it on an old window yesterday. Then I had to scrape the entire thing off with a razor blade. Then I re-painted it. Here it is:





I had to scrape off the first version, because apparently, if you spray a heavy stream of paint on already dried paint on glass, the wet paint pulls all the old paint up and ruins it. Even this was tricky to do and sort of patchy. I've thought of a way to fix it in the future though.

I have another stencil waiting on my drafting table at home, waiting to be cut out, so hopefully I can do that tomorrow and spray it the next day. I'm hoping it's going to be a good one, so stay posted.

In other news, I planed up a big board of walnut yesterday to get ready to inlay it in the maple for my bookshelf. Then I learned all about the wonders of dado sets and cut a 1/4" channel into all my maple. No going back now.

I also sculpted some huge ape ears out of couch pillow foam for the Bay to Breakers float the other day using only a box cutter and my fingers. I would not recommend this to anyone who, like me, is allergic to literally everything on the planet. Not fun operating a cheap glue gun while trying to stop a runny nose and concurrently sneezing. I'm going back tomorrow night to hopefully finish up all the sculptural elements that I can so I can let the fabric people do their thing. Pictures soon.

It's been a while since I've talked about the bookshelf that I'm building, mostly because it's been pretty slow going. Even though I go to 6 hours of classtime a week, so much of it is used in waiting for machines or in waiting for the teacher to come look at your work that you usually end up getting one step done per class. And then, it's usually wrong. I bought rough maple at the lumberyard because it's a LOT cheaper than nice, finished lumber and I thought it would be good to learn how to do that myself. Here's a piece leftover of the rough stuff:





This is what you get when the tree is stripped and cut into rough planks. Nothing else is done to it. At this stage, you have to make the sides flat and square with eachother with jointers, planers, and a table saw. The jointer for these past few months has been my arch nemesis in life, but I think I'm starting to finally get the hang of it. After getting the lumber square, down to size, and cutting the biscuit slots, I got this:





I wanted the bookshelf to be 11-12" wide and got wide enough lumber, not realizing that the jointer in class can only accommodate widths of 8". So I had to cut it all in half, and then glue them back together in wider panels. I started gluing them last night and hopefully will have wood to start actually making joints and cuts next week. No promises though. The lumber clamped:





Here's a sketch of the basic bookshelf I want to build:





I'm planning on inlaying a thin strip of walnut on all of the outside showing edges just to give it some nice detail. I know this looks pretty boring, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve that will either make this thing awesome or absolutely ruin it. But for now, I'm keeping that secret.

Website update

I've added a "News" section to www.gavinworth.com, which will have information for any shows that I'm taking part in, so that my uncontrollably rabid fanbase can keep up to date with all things Gavin. Thanks both of you.

Meantime, I'm trying to finish up my Loteria stencil series so I can start showing them a little more cohesively. I did some sketches last night and hopefully will have some new stencils done in a week or two. I'm also working on a brand new series of stencils which I'm excited about... I'm giving myself a month to do 7 or 8, and I'm going to start work on a bunch of new wire sculptures. The goal is to have around 15 new ones done in three months. Here's to hoping. Some sketches from last night: