Enjoy With A Friend!

We here at Spillmanville Inc. have been a busting our tail as of lately. I've finally started to get back into the swing of working in a kitchen. The past week has really been about finding my kitchen legs and figuring out how to stay on them after work up in the studio. Kitchen work isn't a joke. It's hard work and requires a great deal of physical exertion. However, the experience has been a trip. Long gone are the days of stress caused by working in a completely screwed up school system in a city with a backwards governmental system. Now, I just have to worry about what veggie specials I want to serve or what soup of the day I want to make. It is a lot like working in a study, but with intense time restraints.

Working at Three Angels Diner has been a real trip. I'm in the kitchen doing my thing while people sit back, enjoy some good food, and take in my paintings that are hanging all around the dining room. It is an odd experience to be on hand when people want to ask about the work on the walls. It's like they are almost impressed with the fact that they are enjoying my art at the same time they are ingesting the plates of food that I just prepared for them. When things slow down after the pounding of the lunch rush, I often look out into the dining room and look at my paintings with all these people sitting around them. A loyal regular of the Diner asked me if I enjoyed working in the kitchen. I told him that I worked in my art gallery and I just happened to be serving food to all the patrons that came to view the show. I'm truly lucky to be enjoying this little experience.

So, obviously the studio sessions have been back and forth, but it is finally coming together in a manageable schedule. Yes, a constant schedule is important in order for me to keep from getting lazy and content. Working at night is still a bit different to me, but I'm slowly getting used to the freedom of working after the responsible part of the day is done. The past couple of nights have involved prepping canvas and taking stock of some of the oil paintings that are in the mid-level stages. I have a few paintings that I have been putting off finishing due to a lack of deadlines and the unwillingness to paint in color. So, these paintings have been pulled out and set back up to be completed. Now, when I'm looking around the painting room, I can see the beginnings of a show and a cohesive new body of work.

I finished this rather large drawing last night, and i am fairly content with the outcome. I've been using the bamboo brushes still, but I decided to start bringing the pens and coffee staining back into the process. I'm still not sure if i prefer the black on white look of the previous couple of drawings or if I like the stained look better. In the long run, it probably really doesn't matter as long as the process works with the image. The drawing is titled "Enjoy With A Friend!". I've been thinking a lot lately about my friendships with people and how they have evolved over the years. I've realized that I rely on my pals to for many things including laughs and conversation, but I also utilize their personalities and stories in my art. I need real friends and those moments of banter in order to find new narratives for my paintings and drawings. Obviously, a lot of these moments occur over adult beverages. So why not enjoy with a friend.

"Enjoy With A Friend!"

gouache, ink, coffee on paper

32"x40"

That is that for now. Up next, finishing a few unfinished paintings, starting a new painting of birds constructing birdhouses, a new T-shirt design, and hopefully wrapping up the last 2 comic pages that I started weeks ago. Wow! We are busy.

Enjoy,

Spillmanville smells like bacon and hamburgers still.