Etch-a-sketch Brutalism

Thanksgiving at my parents house always brings out some of the best (and oddest) forms of creativity.  Just before leaving, I'd ordered Spomenik, Jan Kempenaers photo essay of brutalist monuments of the former Yugoslavia.  I found myself day dreaming about the monuments when I picked up an old Etch-a-sketch.

It's a perfect tool for sketching brutalism.  Hard edges mixed with crumbly corners.  Seemingly permanent but quickly discarded.  Every time I sat down I found myself drawing a monument,

What I'm working on - bathrooms and floors

Recently I've started to redo our house.  Half out of necessity and half as art practice.  I haven't figure out how to contextualize it yet but there's something there.

The boys bathroom was gross but all it really needed was a can of red paint, a new light fixture and some stickers.

What started out as the race car bathroom took a turn when I started framing some drawings of artists I'd been doing.  It's been kind of therapeutic to sit down and imagine what sort of Ed Roth creation Donald Judd or Richard Serra would drive.

Now all I need to do is figure out the floor.  I'm leaning toward that gray bumpy industrial stuff but cork would probably look better.

Until then I'll be tackling this -

drawings from the trip

Drawn to Television

11 days until the race.

Drawn to Television

For this race is turns out Car 23 is going to be Car 28.  So, I spent an episode of Top Chef doodling a 28 design.

Drawn to television - welding edition

Okay, so this isn't a drawing and it wasn't made while I was watching television.  But, I was listening to a podcast and it felt like a drawing.  Just a sketch playing with materials and seeing what they would do.

Basically, I finally bought a welder.  Something I should've done years ago and yes, I'm way out of practice.

Drawn to Television

Working on some sponsorship graphics for the car.....hmmmm

Drawn to Television - ipad sketch

This one bounced between my ipad and my computer.

Drawn to Television - ipad

I finally got around to getting a decent drawing program and a stylus for the ipad.  It's pretty fun and really nice to be able to plop down anywhere and sketch.

Here's yesterday's drawing.  It's a riff on the Thrush/Mr Horsepower logo and could be a good graphic for the car.

before I picked up the stylus, drawing with the ipad was a bit of a challenge, thanks mainly to my extra stumpy calloused fingers.  Here a couple where I just grabbed some images and started playing.

Drawn to Television - Camping 2

I got an ipad and started using Jiffy-pack envelopes as a stealth holder.  You can leave it on the seat of your car and it screams junk mail! rather than ipad!

While camping it got drawn on.

Drawn to Television 21 - Camping

Drawn to Television 20 - Swim Team Practice

It's been a busy summer.  Not really enough TV watching.

Drawn to Television 19

The car went off to the shop today.  Power steering is in it's future.

Drawn to Television 18

I found an old pad of graph paper....that stuff is awesome...

Drawn to Television 17 - Soccer Practice

Maybe it's living in the suburbs, or the economy or listening to too much Slayer but my work could be taking a bit of a dark turn (a brightly colored dark turn?)

Drawn to Television 16

Drawn to Television 15

Sol Patrol

Drawn to Television 14

McCracken Wagon - I've continued practicing my inking.  With this one I played with photoshop so it would have an old decal feel.

I really don't know what's going on with these Rothesque Wacky Packish drawings but I'm having a good time.  My high school drawing hand is coming back along with my junior high imagination.

Drawn to Television - 14

Drawn to Television - 13