Tuesday, June 8, 2010

self indulgence





yeah weird. I've never really attempted a real self-portrait. For various reasons I've never really wanted to. I dont like spending too much time in front of the mirror in the morning much less looking at myself for days for a painting. The Julie Nester Gallery in Park City invited me to participate in a group show of all self-portraits so I agreed. I like Julie and her gallery space, and she has recruited some out-of-state artists that I respect a lot like Zack Zdrale, Eric Zener, and one of her artists whose work I am a recent fan of, David Ochoa. This piece is the largest head I've ever painted. I figure if I'm going to analyze my own features I'd go all the way. The panel measures 28" x 28". That isn't super huge, but it's a lot bigger than I usually paint. Mark making is really fun at that scale. The show opens this Saturday night, June 12th, 6pm. Hope you can make it.



This is one of the latest of my wife's work, and I must admit it is one of my favorites. I get the privileged of living with her work on our wall before it gets sent off to various shows around the world. I love this painting. Its 4ft x 4ft of interesting tactful surface. Sunny's process enables a viewer to consistently discover attractive nuances in every piece. Sunny Belliston Taylor has a solo show opening at the Finch Lane Gallery in Salt Lake this Friday, June 11th, 7pm. She will be showing a number of her small three-dimensional paintings, and about four of these latest landscape paintings. You should really be there.

20 comments:

Catherine said...

oooh I like it, huge floating head. or is there a neck planned?

justin said...

huge floating head

Catherine said...

it's maniacal, ba ba ba (insert spooky laugh here)

justin said...

yep that's how i feel about it

jamieBEE said...

pretty much you are amazing! and your wife is super!! My mom is coming into town on Saturday and we are going to try and stop by Sunny's show in SLC!

Deb Schmit said...

COOL!!
A big head.
I REALLY like this one Justin!
The warms and cools and the floating, sort of out of body thing going on. I love self portraits for this. You can pretty much do as you please. Obviously there will be no sale, so the pressure is off.
Nice.

jesusest@gmail.com said...

Good portrait. your flesh tones are so fresh and I like how you accents the more pronounce parts with a bit more red

Kam Belly Soup said...

dude that is kinda trippin me out.

Kam Belly Soup said...

dude that is kinda trippin me out.

Heidi said...

Nice one, Justin. It's you, but it's not you, too, at the same time. A more bizarre you, maybe. You look more uncertain then you do in real life. Although maybe you were contemplating how you could move to the heartland of Texas?

John Volck said...

Love your work! I also got to see one of your wife's pieces at a gallery here in Cincinnati. Nice geometric/textural stuff. I bet the "give and take" of how you influence and advise each other is very interesting.

John Volck said...

Love your work. I also got to see one of your wife's pieces at a gallery here in Cincinnati. Nice geometric and textural work. I'd curious in the "give and take" of how you influence and advise each other. Very cool nonetheless...

justin said...

thanks John. small world hu? That's awesome. Yes we enjoy being able to talk about our nerdy art problems together. Its pretty cool actually

Emily Carruth Fuller said...

It was great to see you guys at Sunny's opening. Congratulations with all you have coming!

Todd Langston said...

DUDE, your big head is awesome! I'm bummed I missed all these rad shows I'm just NOW finding out about. I haven't been on your blog in a long time, but I'm lovin the work I'm seeing (and the work I saw up at Park City)

Thanks again for celebrating with us on mine and Amy's wedding day, it was cool to have all you YO'S there. Sorry we didn't chat more.

Todd Langston said...

p.s. Sunny's painting is rad! I'm glad you posted one of hers too.

Nuwart said...

Congratulations for yout portrait. The tones are so fresh and I like how you accents the parts of the eye. I try to do oil portraits but I am so bad.
congratulations another time for your work.

Best wishes.
cristina
http://nuwart.blogspot.com/

Philby said...

The depiction of the person in the first painting, who seemingly stares ever onwards at the viewer, almost haunts one, it is almost a look of a hypnotist or magician perhaps... I couldn't say I would always want to chat to someone with such deep eyes, but great conversation anyways..

Erik-Dean Larsen said...

Hey Justin, Nosferatu called and wants his portrait back!

:)

e. Dean Larsen said...

Alright, I was joking ... you don't bear the striking resemblance to Nosferatu that I previously mentioned.

But I DO love your work and congrats on being on the Artist's Mag cover--INSANE!

If my paintings ever surface, they'll show the influence I gleaned from your Fall '07 class and your Rock Star style (especially the stance).

You rock, man!

Dean Larsen