The Rig

Second Painting

I am in discovery mode. My biggest revelation: I love my work again.

For reference, here is a photo of the rig I have built for my new work.

I have been thinking about using simple machines to make my work for a while now. Anchor points and string tied to painting utensils, straight edges and adaptable systems to create a beginning for my work. I don’t draw. I have no artistic training. I don’t have yearning for any training. I have to develop ways around my lack of experience.

I see many people on Tiktok and Facebook making art with machines. Perfect art. Clean art. I don’t like it. I like rough shit. I like imperfections. I like antique stores topped with weathered signs. I like patina and scars- a whole life-story illustrated on face of an old man.

I like the tension of paradox. I like making new art that looks like it was rode hard. I like seeing the hands working when you look close, and having those hands disappear when you step back to take in the whole.

I like how my wife holds her mouth in an uneven half smile when she’s thinking. I like how her top lip makes her teeth disappear when she’s angry (at someone besides me). These are the beautiful things in life, in people. art.

I like the difficulty of using found things in the garage to build this contraption. I like the tension of the string when I apply a pressure to the trowel to make an arc. I like that however hard I try to make a perfect swipe, that it is completely flawed. I like struggling with the rig to make the move I want, and somehow finding the imperfection better than what I saw in my mind.

In my last transmission, I showed you a painting being made (I’ll post the video at the end) on the first iteration of my new ‘rig’. The photo above is version 2. I adjusted the spacing of the anchor points made by the pipes and added the same to match below the painting. I carved holes into cheap pine to act as vertical straight edges/guides. The next evolution is how to create a system using the verticals and an adjustable horizontal guide while allowing for new vertically positioned anchor points.

I have been calling this contraption, this easel machine, this dyslexic mousetrap: The Rack. It deserves a name. The name must contain work, God and sacrifice- all laid bare. I am thinking: The Yoke, The Paint Pillory, The Iron Loom.

Do you have a suggestion for a name?

Painting on the rack, last week…

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