Two portraits
November 20th, 2010Revision
November 5th, 2010
These are the last two paintings I’ve made. For lack of things to paint on, my dislike of waste, and experimenting in ways to make work, I’ve been going over old paintings, that are either ‘finished’, or at a point I do not want to resolve. These two also happen to feel particularly exciting, to me, at the moment: technically, aesthetically, and conceptually.
Beginning a painting, or a drawing (or collage, or sculpture, or…)—perhaps particularly, but not necessarily exclusively with abstract work—one first has to make sense of the space in front of them. Typically that’s a blank piece of canvas, or paper. This can be done in the head, by pouring paint, by making preparatory sketches, and so on. Always it is a response. When this response is to, not white page, or to an arbitrary shape, but to an image, and one of my own creation—and a failed one at that—that is, conceptualy, a pretty damn interesting starting point. In effect it could be just the same as pouring paint, and maybe that’s all I’ve done with it. But I’m excited about the potential.
Drawing, again
October 21st, 2010![Erin Sitting, with Elbow Out [drawing]](https://blog.ryliejamesthomas.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/erin-sitting-with-elbow-out.jpg)
I’ve been wanting to draw again: big charcoal portraits. This is the first one that is okay. I worry so much about not make illustrations when I’m drawing, and this is maybe that. I notice more ‘nice lines, and composition’ rather than ‘a person’.
I’m a bit frustrated with all my work, at the moment. I’m impatient, and it feels like I’m right at the start of everything. The abstract paintings are getting bigger, and are going somewhere, at least. I am looking forward to pushing my drawing. Moving away from line, which I feel very in control of, and trying really dig people out of that page. The carefulness, and tenderness that line can give, I don’t want to lose, but..
I mused today about how controlled my paintings and drawings are. Even in the paintings that start with stains, and thick messes, there are later placed bars and rectangles of single colours. I have a very ordered way of looking at images, that I think comes across most obviously in my videos. I worry about this, too, being too clean, and illustrative (though not in the
Someone Else’s House
October 21st, 2010
So, me and Erin have an exhibition opening next Wednesday, October 27, at Blindside Artist Run Space.
Our piece is two videos, both of the last place I lived in, on my last day there. Both were filmed without the other there, or even with knowledge that the other had filmed. So both are natural responses to the leaving of a home, and its transition into someone else’s. They loop, but have different lengths, so there are moments that sit well, and moments that jar, and these change over time.
Andrew David Stapleton’s catalogue essay (archived) makes clear the themes far better than I can, and I will update this post when Blindside’s site has it up.
You can watch Erin’s half of the video on Youtube. One of us will upload the exhibition version once everything’s all up and running. And, now, you can see a 25 minute excerpt of the one we had exhibited, via Erin’s Vimeo account.
Opening night is Thursday, 28th.
In other fine news: I received a globe for my film projector today, and got it all working (after mangling a bit of the Popeye film I ended up with). I’m very, very, much looking forward to uploading all the amateur films I’ve been collecting to Youtube, and Lost Discarded Abandoned.
Mordialloc
September 27th, 2010Bye, people
September 24th, 2010Two days ago:
Today:
That smiley face was not put there deliberately.
Mostly unfinished portraits
September 9th, 2010
Sketch of Luciana 
Self Portrait 
Dominique 
Dominique in Green Chairs 
Erin with Cabbage 
Loretta 
Loretta Drawing
Aircraft, and Williamstown
September 7th, 2010Hair Platin
August 25th, 2010The 529 in 1 Klik and Play Pirate Kart Part II: Klik Harder
August 6th, 2010Much earlier in the year I took part in a 48 hour game making event over at Glorious Trainwrecks. The aim was to make as many videogames as possible, the result being 529 games created by 102 people. That’s sort of amazing.
Every month Glorious Trainwrecks hosts a ‘Klik of the Month Klub‘, where, in the space of 2 hours, participants try make a game. Generally people use very simple tools—most commonly Klik and Play—and work from simple ideas. It’s very accessible to people, like myself, who have no idea, or want, to learn how to program. The results are often messy, goofy, and not always so good; but it’s a lot of fun!
I made 5 games:
Authentic Celestial Shiv
This was an experiment in making a horizontal shooting game; particularly the part that seemed the most daunting to me: designing the enemy patterns. I think it turned out quite nicely. The player’s avatar is based on a shiv I found in a bin in a hostel. The title is a riff on a Dirty Three song.
Bullet Hell Bulldog
A game for two people, based on a game I used to be quite good at: British Bulldog. Players alternate between trying to get from one side to the other, and trying to stop the other doing so. It’s a bit too fast, so relies on chance too much. I hadn’t played it with another person till recently.
It’s an idea I had a long time ago, but never had the drive to put the whole thing together. That’s one of the interesting things about these events; you have so little time you just have to cobble the thing together, somehow.
Castlevania 10
Inspired by the videogame series Castlevania, somewhat loosely. It’s the game most like a real videogame: players must complete screens of enemies, and boss enemies. The trick to the game is that you can ‘shoot’ a hell of a lot of swords at once. This is an accidental feature, because I couldn’t figure out how to make a character swing a sword, so I made them shoot, then I accidentally made them not disappear. Being an artist is about knowing which mistakes to keep, and which to discard; right?
It’s the most popular game of mine on the website.
Collecting
This one’s a joke/comment on videogames that are more about collecting baubles than being enjoyable in and of themselves. People don’t seem to like the end, but I do. And I think think the title screen is quite clever!
Colour2
Colour2 is my favourite. It makes images by generating shapes in a somewhat randomised manner. I wanted to recreate another, similar, thing I made many years ago. It would ‘shoot’ coloured squares in the direction of the mouse cursor. That was made in The Games Factory (a later program by the makers of Klik & Play), which allowed the shot squares to mark the screen with their colour. So the player could draw, in a way. Klick & Play doesn’t allow for this, so the game changed a bit. It also has sometimes-troublesome mouse support, that I wanted to avoid.
You can use the number keys to change levels. Number three’s my favourite.
You can download the compilation from here.
I may append some recommendations when/if I play through them all.