Older paintings in storage

The other day I was looking in my shack for a paint brush and some varnish. I came across some canvasses that where closely held together. I thought "hmm, interesting I have some more canvasses to paint on" But as a matter of fact, they already were painted, I had no idea - and did not even know what was painted on it. I checked, and indeed, some paintings I did a long time ago when I was living on the other side of the island. They are abstract paintings, I remember I did them on impulse and completely free hand, one-off. I remember the passion that went into it. The passion that some people are expecting to see in art. Curiously enough, when one day I was pitching my art pointing someone to check my website (to a so called art connoisseur) he thought my art (paintings) were lacking that passion and that this sort of paintings can only work in the USA. (I was pitching to someone in Belgium). I was a bit taken aback by their statement. Actually when I pitched my art to galleries in Bruges, Belgium and in art galleries in Knokke-Le Zoute (I was there on vacation) I would here the same thing. (I am always kind of pissed when I get back out from those galleries. Yes, I understand they have a business to run, expenses, marketing, shows etc, and they want to be somehow sure of the 'product' they have. But none of the galleries would even entertain the idea of me proposing to do even some sort of joint venture (read: share upfront costs of marketing). Anyway, back to the 'missing soul' in my works. I know what they are referring to: no shades, no highlights to create depth or 3 dimension. No visual brushstrokes, no paint splashes and no suggestive topic... Well yeah, that is my art. Representational, iconic, pop art. I like what I do, I like my style. When I have my camera handy, I'll take a picture from them. I think I remember that I did not want to expose those paintings as they have a completely different style than what I currently do and did not want to be known for that. I thought then that you 'have to work on a style' another starving artist myth.

Innocence painting - work in progress

In my previous post I described the idea behind this work and promised to upload some pictures of the work in progress. Today I finished with the sketch and then I projected on the canvas. Drew a rough outline, then started with the collage of the vintage magazine clips centered around women. You'll see how far I am at now. You'll also see the finished collage with the sketch projected over it. This work is far from done. Now I have to wait till it dries. I'm thinking now on the background color and whether I should do the dot pattern I always have in my work or not.

The current art work I am working on called “Innocence”

It has been said that the world once belonged to men and that that has now changed in this era. Male achievement was always recognized while occupations performed by women were regarded as less important.

Cultural differences between the eras of the 50’s & 60’s and now are enormous. The era of a view of women as passive sexual objects; as devoted mothers, and as dutiful wives. A world of subordinate standing.

Now, women are social actors. Women are now recognized as equal to, or even more powerful than men. Woman now (from what we can gather in advertising/the media (a reflection of the society?) is that she has to be gazed at. The woman now is slender & sophisticated and self confident in her obvious social prestige. I am wondering if this change is a good thing. ‘Everything women’ now is sexual suggestive and not really that “innocent”

This work is a sort of an ironic play portraying the earlier era of innocence and what society has come to now. I really wanted the female subject to be a bit more erotic/pornographic to make this point more shocking. But, on the contrary, I have left the female subject in this work completely “innocent” I guess I am playing along.

I am not sure if my writing above is clear and translates my opinion well. Just as the visual art, you can perceive it in your own way, which would ultimately be - perceiving yourself.

Pictures of progress following soon.
The work is a collage of advertising of the 50's and 60's represented as the skin of the woman depicted.

Paint on canvas or on board?

Why are we going through the diffulty of painting on canvas if we can also paint on a board? Board seems to be ideal, less preparation, nice and straight, no sagging canvas issues, you can rest your hand on it while painting etc etc. The advantages of painting on board seem to be endless. Yesterday I was on a site from a company that makes canvas stretcher frames. They say that canvas is the best to paint on for archiving issues. A board deteriorates... can crack & rotten; where the paint would chip off.

I really would like not to keep myself busy stretching canvas and making my own frames or prepping a board and just buy ready made canvas, but the sizes are not interesting and the cost is too high. Maybe when I get successful I wouldn't have to worry with it and have the canvas stretcher frames custom made. Damn! I just want to paint and be creative!

Succeeded today making a nice stretcher frame

The miter saw that I have is identical to a Makita Compound Miter Saw LS1040, the only thing is that it does not carry the Makita brand. I looked through the manual to find if I could make any adjustments so that it cuts the true miter angle that I need. Indeed: I was able to loosen the 4 bolts in the back that hold the 'guide fence' (the piece of metal where the wood slides along to). I took an angle held it against the saw blade, then moved the 'guide fence' against my angle and tightened the four bolts again. Did some cuts and I managed to glue the four pieces together without too much trouble that I had before. There's another thing: the axle that holds the motor has a slight play in it, if I make a cut would push the motor not straight down, my angle would be wrong again. I don't think I can adjust the tightness of the axel holding the motor frame... Anyways, great improvement.

I am mad: Stretching my own canvas did not work out today

Yesterday the hardware store where I buy the wood for making the canvas stretcher bars closed before my nose.... Pissed.. Ok, no worries, I could always go to another hardware store the next day (Sunday) before 2pm. I went there today, I selected some wood of the few choices I had. The smallest pieces of wood was 1"x3" x 10ft rather thick to make canvas frame, but I had no choice. Back at home I measured everything and started to cut the angles with an electric miter saw that I bought not too long ago with the purposes of 1) saving money and 2) to have large and custom sized canvasses instead of paying exhorbitantly expensive ready made canvas from a local (French) store and pay in Euros en plus...

Got more mad. The electric miter saw does not cut my 45 degrees precise....grrrrrrr It looks good when all is cut, but when I want to assemble the upper part of the canvas looks good, but when i want to join the bottom piece (4th slat) it does not fit. It looks like each cut is like 1 degree off. Geeez and specifically bought this machine to finally do it right because I did have the same problems doing it by hand before. So here I am, super anxious to start a new work but have no stretched canvas.. I am so pissed. And next is I don't know the solution to get the angle right on the miter, al lthe adjustment are dialed in fine, it's the axle when you push the motor down that has play in it. Don't know what to do.

Critics: "Why does the heart have holes?"

Some time ago I had some Dimitrios T-Shirts screen printed in the USA. I made this rather simple design. As is customary in my designs/art, I wanted it to be simple, a striking image and of iconic value that is easy to understand. I think I succeeded well. Then one day some guy asked why the heart has holes in them? I was surprised to hear that comment, I have actually never thought of it that way. I was slightly irritated in a way because I hate to hear comments in the nature of "Is this what you call art" etc... But on the other hand, it proved again that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or better rather - that we artists subject people to see things in different ways. Everyone lives in a different world, in his own bubble. In this guy's world, he saw the heart as one having holes. How do you see it?

Inspired by Hazel Dooney to start this blog

I've had a website www.dimitrios-art.com for as long as I can remember. I still remember the moment when I did it: it was exciting to be able to show my art to the world. Today, I am again having this feeling. In a way it's almost unbelievable why I only start now with a blog. I must say, I have been a bit dissapointed with the results of the site on its own for many years. But then came Twitter, Facebook etc... I was on Twitter, but not for my art perse.

A couple of days ago I was again whining about the hard time I encounter to get my art out... It just dawned on me to start a Twitter. I did, and searched a bit for art related twits. Followed some interesting people- and all of a sudden got a good vibe by following the links posted. I felt I was a part of the people I wanted to be a part of! Now after some hours of surfing I followed a twit of @InternetArtist talking about the cool art of Hazel Dooney, a young very successful female artist from Australia. Her art is cool, and what is striking is that she has success not through the conventional gallery system but entirely through her hard work of course but through the internet. She has a fantastic and inspiring blog. All this got me super excited and hence I started my own Twitter @DimitriosArt and this blog http://dimitriosart.blogspot.com

Wish me luck... I am excited! I feel a sense of renewed passion for what I do.