Emerson Scans Things

So every once in a while a fun thing will happen and I'll "finish" a sketchbook. This usually takes me roughly a year to do, but also usually I have 2 or 3 that I'm working on at once. So this fun thing happened to me recently so let me show some highlights

...

But first, let me say this. I've been regularly keeping a sketchbook since I was 13. When I was a teenager I wouldn't let anyone look in them because they were far too personal. It was my place to draw without having to worry about what anyone else thought. Now, I approach sketchbooks essentially the same way, the key difference being that I now let people look inside them.

And so I can only imagine that most anyone's reaction when looking through one of these is something like,

"yo, what is wrong with this dude?"

And I suppose that's because at the time I wasn't really worried about what you thought

but of course now I am

So I still get very nervous showing these

but here they are anyway

-em

Alone with the elves

The Empty

The Crazy

The Hopeful

The Pleading

The Seething

The Innocent

The Thought Inbetween

The End

Acrylics on paper, 6.5"x10" and 10"x13"

Completed at Gullkistan Residency in Iceland (gullkistan.is)

Leftovers from Þorrablót

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

And also I still paint

Suwon

y 

Luis

Acrylic on paper

More to come!

-em

Wrapping up

So my time here at VSC is just about over.

It's been really great.

I mean, what could be better?

So, let me show you some drawings

                        L'Orgine du Monde

-em

Emerson Finishes things

Hey friends,

So, I wasn't sure if it was going to happen, but I finished a painting. It's tentatively titled, "Wait." 

The texture here is achieved with several layers of oil paint, which after dry, I rub over with charcoal, and then push around with mineral spirits. While that's still kind of wet I put a dry wax medium over it with a palette knife. It makes this really beautiful transparency, and you can sort of control how translucent you want it to be. Then I flicked a little bit of white paint on top of that, and that's pretty much it. Is this sort of thing interesting? I am really tired.

Okay, so actually I had finished another painting before that one, but I only kind of count it since it's quite small (around 16"x20"). This one is titled, "Meditation at the End of the World."

I have one more day to paint in oil and then I need to start letting things dry if I'm going to be able to ship them before I leave here. I'm reaaally hoping to finish this other painting, but we'll see.

until next time

Em

Sleepy eyes and subzero temperatures

Hey friends,

Here are a couple more things I've been working on. They are details of paintings that are roughly 3'x5'.

Sometimes when I paint, Mother Earth is like,"yo, wtf."

VSC

Hey yall, I'm making art again so I'm going to start blogging again.

I'm in a beautiful place called the Vermont Studio Center.

Here's something I've been working on: