First, it was graduating, then camping, then my dear friend got married and then…more stuff.

Life has been crazy, chaotic, and awesome.

You’ll be happy to know I have been painting, selling work, trading work, talking to people about my work, donating my work to a church I go to, being in a video about my work, and yet still, more painting. It is getting to the point that I am needing more canvases (!!!!)

And most recent in the news, I will be working for this wonderful program. It is just starting up and needs teachers, so tell your friends. Do it.

Do it now.

I am going to be a visual arts instructor for the program. The director is super awesome, a Christian and just, yeah, super awesome.

So there you are: an update on my life. Come back soon, and I will post some images of new paintings

I am changing over to this address to be updated more frequently than here: 

It looks more professional than my current blog and is easier to hand out as an URL than my current portfolio site. So yeah. We’ll see how much it changes along the way…

But never fear, I will still update here with random crap having nothing to do with my art!

Ok, so I got a wrong number call from a number that I didn’t answer. (That number has called me several times before, and I never answered). But next time I will answer. And here is why.

After I ignored the call I noticed I got a text, and here is what it said, I swear, word for word……

“Dr. Mortimus, I have recieved the updated schematics for the hamster relocation teleporting system. The grid 9 file is corrupt. Resend…hampsters are restless.”

Holy Crap.

It is a 562 area code number and in reverse lookup, I can only find out the city and the carrier of the cell phone without paying. Downey, and Sprint.

You think someone is messing with me?

My senior show at Biola: Colorscapes.

Opening Reception: March 23, 2009, 7-1opm. Come. There will be BRIGHTLY colored candies!! And cheery-faced folk. It will be AWESOME.

The show runs from March 23-27, 2009 at the Biola Art Gallery.

In the gallery next to me is an AMAZING photographer Shannon Leith. Come and see her show everyday, it changes. Everyday. She rocks like that.

P.S. If anyone would like a show-card (I am trying to get rid of them spread the show-card love) send me your address

1. What is your project (name, how many pieces it entails, what the pieces are…basically, if you were describing it to someone who doesn’t know anything about it) My show is entitled Colorscapes. It will contain abstract paintings in a variety of sizes and arrangements. 3 large 4’ x 6’ panels, a group (not sure how many yet) of 2’ x 4’ panels, another group of  2’ x 2’ canvases, and two grids of nine 16” x 16” panels. They are all in acrylic paint with occasional collaged elements such as rice paper, molding paste, hot glue and Elmer’s glue. Each painting is loosely based the composition from a Chinese or Japanese landscape painting. When I am making these paintings, tension is first established through initiating improvisational actions (like painting shapes or pouring paint, something to interrupt the untouched wood or canvas). Through the layering and editing process, the work begins to direct itself in an improvisational ripple of pours, edits and stencils. Movements are made where they are directed and questioned by formal instinct. Ultimately this dissident dance is resolved in melodious little worlds of delight.

2. Where did you get the idea for it? After taking Painting 2 a year and a half ago, which is a class that entirely deals with study and creation of abstract paintings, I fell in love with the freedom and opportunity presented by abstract painting. Each time you lay down a color, pour paint, drizzle or stamp, the result would be different. That variety, improvisation and unpredictability was terribly exciting. Sometimes the differences were large, and sometimes just subtle enough for a careful seeking eye to find. Painting in this manner was thrilling, something that I would not easily tire of. I had come from a strict figure-based narrative painting background, painting portraits and dealing mostly with the figure. I enjoyed it, but could lose interest in what I was working on fairly easy basis.

3. What has been the biggest challenge so far? For a while near the beginning of this yearlong process, it was challenging to discover a direction for my work. I was perfectly content just to be constantly making, constantly painting just because I love the process so much, but often times I wouldn’t stop and look and my work or take the time to actually think about what I was making. So the challenge was to stop working (which I LOVE doing) and actually reflect on my work. Once I was able to do this and take in advice from peers and professors, I was able to find a direction and an equation that I could plug variables into that would produce interesting, diverse work, but work that would be coherent and stand together as a group.

4. What are you most excited about? I think just being able to share my work with the community. I have spent so much time working, and it will be a joy to see it all together and displayed in a way that can be enjoyed by others.

5. Why are you an art major? The simple answer: it is in my blood. Both of my parents were art majors (photographers, my dad actually knew and interned with Ansel Adams) in college and my dad went on to work in the film/media business and my mom as a graphic designer. My extended family are also artists, I have an uncle who is a curator and a painter, and an aunt who is a photographer. So for me, art is a way of life, the culture that I was raised in. However, art was definitely something that I chose on my own as I came to understand that it became a necessary part of my life to draw, paint, photograph, see in a way that was careful and more deliberate as a way of processing who I was, negotiating my place, my role.

6. How does your project reflect what you have learned about art in your time here at Biola? Well, as was mentioned before, my whole way of working was inspired by spending a semester studying abstract painting, so without that class, this work would never have existed. But truly, my work reflects the care and critique given by my professors and art peers. Their direction-leading advice really pushed me places I would have not thought to go before.

Ten Random Things About Me

[1] I say Avocado with an extra letter in it, making it Alvocado.
[2] I hold my pen very strangely when writing or drawing. They told me when I was little it would make my hand cramp, it never does.
[3] I am terrified by the movie E.T. I was traumatized in my childhood. And it is really pathetic.
[4] I refuse to get my ears pierced. No real reason in particular.
[5] I love acting. I miss it terribly.
[6] I think pianos are sexy.
[7] I have very eclectic tastes in music. Thanks Dad.
[8] I love flowy dresses and skirts, but rarely wear them.
[9] When I am in the mood, I actually love cleaning. It’s weird.
[10] I sometimes mix a color of paint that looks so good, I want to eat it. Really.

Nine Places I’ve Visited

Washington D.C

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

San Francisco

Vail, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

New York, New York

Amish Country, Pennsylvania

Williamsburg, Virginia

Eight Things I Want to Do Before I Die

#1 Find a job that I love.
#2 Share my life with an awesome Jesus-loving guy.
#3 Live someplace with real seasons.
#4 Learn to play an instrument.
#5 Go to Italy.
#6 Become a successful artist. And I only define success as being a individual who strives to create good art and can’t wait to get into the studio to make.
#7 Have a garden.
#8 Adopt a dog(s) from a rescue society.

Seven Ways To Win My Heart (exactly the same as Amanda’s…)

one. Love the Lord with all your heart
two. Laugh (a lot).
three. Be willing to be super silly
four. Love art, film, literature and discussing all of these subjects
five. Be honest
six. Love my friends and family
seven. Play an instrument (PIANO)

SIX Things I believe in.

{1} Christ
{2} Goodness
{3} Truth
{4} Beauty
{5} Art
{6} People

Five Things I’m Afraid Of

1. Becoming Bored/Complacent
2. Hurting Feelings
3. Asking people for favors
4. Country Music!!! Ew.
5. Being Lost

Four of My Favorite Bands/Singers

1! Radiohead
2! Imogen Heap.
3! Coldplay
4! Jethro Tull

Three Things I Do Everyday

<1> Laugh
<2> Eat
<3> Sleep

Two Of The Best Feelings

un. Knowing that you are loved, no matter what.
deux. Finishing something big.

One Quote to Live By

“It is interesting to note how many artists have had physical problems to overcome, deformities, lameness , terrible loneliness. Could Beethoven have written that glorious paean of praise in the Ninth Symphony if he had not had to endure the dark closing in or deafness? As I look through his work chronologically, there’s no denying that it deepens and strengthens along with his deafness. Could Milton have seen all that he sees in Paradise Lost if he had not been blind? It is chastening to realize that those who have no physical flaw, who move through life in step with their peers, who are bright and beautiful, seldom become artists. The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.” Madeline L’Engle in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.

He starred in an awesome secret agent tv series in Britain in the 1950′s called Danger Man. He was the original secret agent.

He wrote/produced/directed and starred in The Prisoner. In my opinion, one of the finest television shows ever.

He was up for the original role as James Bond, but turned it down on grounds that Bond was too much of a womanizer. Yes, Patrick is one classy dude.

Starred in multiple Disney films, and television shows.

Made various television appearances throughout his life most notably starring and directing several episodes of Columbo, for which he won an Emmy.

You were one fine fellow and you will be missed. 

(March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) 
Farewell Citizen Number 6.