The Circle of Life... With pucks.

I took my kids to their first WHL hockey game on Friday. My daughter got put up on the big screen and my son entertained the whole section with his dancing and headbanging when the music played. It was a full circle type occasion that filled me with memories of going to my first game with my Dad. All in all, it was a really nice night.

The days of fists flying every few minutes are on their way out now, the pucks don’t sail out into the stands anymore, and the speed has increased considerably. But the excitement of youth is still palpable - and contagious. I found myself wanting to play! Yes… Underneath a layer of nacho chip crumbs, spilled beer and a mustard stained spare tire of a belly was a kid wanting to be part of the game again.

It really was a bit of a ‘Glory Days’ moment for me. Fondly remembering 28 inch jeans, best friends on your line backing you up, breakaways, and even a cheering girlfriend in the stands…

I may take up the sport again on a more ‘beer league’ level… Though the years have transformed me from ‘power forward’ to something more along the lines of ‘bowling pin.’ But the love of the game is still there and I‘ve never been much good at just watching a sport… I‘ve always preferred playing.

Life goes on… and I have a feeling my old NHL pipe dreams will eventually be passed along to my son. He’s already taken an interest and shown an aptitude. I’ll do my best not to be the old guy living vicariously - but rather support him towards making both the friends and fond memories that will last him a lifetime.


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Work continues to feel like it’s moving slowly… I am finally getting designs to people and closing in on when they will actually materialize into paintings. But it’s still a little like walking through mud at times. I’ve got a little more time in on my E-Tac panel for SEMA and will hopefully have that done and shipped in time. It has been fun but also challenging not to bring urethanes into the mix.

There are days that depression rears it’s unproductive head and I cater to it a lot more than I should. I have another show on the horizon to prepare for now, though, and that is usually all it takes to get motivated. I just need to dust the ego off and forget about the humbling summer season I had, pick up my chin and start moving forward again.

As always - thanks for reading! I hope you’ve had a good week.

Rod

Abstract douchery.

I got spammed by an artist this week and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Upon reflection, I was actually quite surprised with my knee-jerk reaction of immediately shutting the page down. After all, I know all too well how difficult just simply getting your work seen by people can actually be. Maybe I should have given her more benefit of the doubt and/or consideration... 

But, in addition to the belligerently invasive marketing technique, I think the root of my reaction was that she was an abstract artist… And I, like many, treat many who pursue this sort of expression with a fair measure of contempt. Visions of a green line representing a prairie horizon or a 3 million dollar blank canvas representing god-knows-what immediately come to mind and the teeth just start to clench.

I’ve long tried to be a defender of abstract art. At it’s best, it can be a genuine and visceral peek at the world from someone else’s perspective. Much like how a well written article can describe a situation, offer insight, and evoke emotion - an artists movement, choice of color and presentation can do much the same. It is just unfortunately rare for this to be the case.

The way I see it, though, there are two major problems: 1) The artist often has nothing of any real value to ‘say.’ And 2) People are willing act like he (or she) does. At some point all that has been created is an illusion of knowledge and then people, not wanting to appear ignorant, pretend to ‘know’ as well. So the cycle begins and it becomes a culture of people pretending to ‘know’ something. An imaginary, often exorbitant, value is assigned and an opportunity to be condescending to people who just aren’t willing to buy into the BS presents itself.

The unfortunate casualties of the anti-abstract sentiment, however, are the people who really do have a perspective worthy of consideration. They are often lost in a vast sea of copycat paint splatterers, palette knife smushers, and just plain douchey self anointed ‘artsy’ people. So much so, that people will unfortunately and likely walk right by a true visionary in order to get a look at the latest Godard print.

There really are abstract artists out there that can actually paint ‘better than your kid.’ You just gotta look past the facade (and now/apparently the pop-up ads too) to find them. Failing that, you can always wait and see what sort of wacky predicament the olive will find himself in next time he runs across a giant martini glass.

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I’m still struggling with motivation on the work front. I’ve got some cool projects in the works, though, that I look forward to getting past the design stage. A very high-profile military commission in particular has got me extremely excited - it’s been a hard one to nail down though. As much as I have grown to love my sketchbook and design work over the years - it’s been a little while and I’m itching to get some actual paint under my nails again. I’m working on an E-Tac coffin lid display (possibly for SEMA) in between doing design work and that has been quite enjoyable. More custom/bike customer work on the horizon should get my ass in gear pretty quick here as well. All in all, no major complaints.

Thanks for reading! Sincerely,

Rod

Putting a ding in the universe.

Steve Jobs has dominated the news today and it’s hard not to wonder what sort of personal impact he has had. I’m sure there will be several news stories, biographies and probably even a movie of some sort made of his life so I’m not going to attempt any sort of summary here. In fact, we live in an ‘I’free house (not deliberately.) Though I was a little surprised when, a few years ago, my daughter informed me the little plastic toy she was holding up to her ear while dancing to imaginary music was, in her mind, actually an Ipod. I wasn’t aware she had ever even heard of them before but the cocked hip and snottiness of her response made it pretty clear that I was already losing touch with the next generation. It was the first of what I’m sure will eventually be many; “Ummmm…. Duh, Dad!” moments.

Where this man directly and profoundly impacted us as artists/in my opinion, however, was his involvement in Pixar and the eventual restructuring of the animation industry monolith that was Disney. Computer generated art was already finding it’s spot in the world (you could argue he greatly assisted with this as well), yes, but there was no real direct or ultimate destination for it. His fostering, funding and defense of Pixar allowed it to be at the root of what has since branched out into the most profitable and popular varieties of arts and entertainment available to the public today.

There will always be a place for oil paints, canvases, pencils etc. But it’s no small coincidence that the stylus now features prominently, if not dominantly, among them. We might have grown up drawing Conan and Eddie on our binders with our Bic pens… but our kids are going to be drawing -and animating- direct descendants of Nemo and Wall-E on their tablet PCs.

On one final, somewhat political tangent, though... What seems to be most bittersweet about his passing, for me, is that he actually made something. In a day of people acquiring insane amounts of wealth through fraudulent investing, predatory corruption, and blatant money laundering schemes - he actually, literally, and simply produced product(s) that people wanted. And I am convinced that, even with the immense profits he and his company enjoyed, he ultimately did so in an effort to actually give something to the world - not simply see what he could take from it. I think that is what I admire most.

Thank you for reading.

Rod