Dave Stevens |
Illustrator/Cartoonist/Artist |
Blog(posted on 15 Nov 2024)
Being able to see the world differently has always reminded me of the “Scream” by Edvard Munch. He did it as a print and as a painting. I don’t know about you but if somebody were behind me screaming the way this figure seems to be my reaction would be to turn towards the source and see if I was in danger, then see if somebody else was in danger. This makes me think that the scream is internal, expressed in the body but inaudible to the strollers further along the board walk. Munch distorted the figure to emphasize the screaming and he moved the hands up on either side of the face, similar to the burial figures of ancient Peru. In researching this image I found various experiments by Munch where he tried different portrayals of the figure in the foreground. I also ran across a diary of his which indicated that his inner turmoil was real but was focused on what was being done to the land by those in his country. This would have made him an early environmentalist even though a number of people have used it for psychological pain. It is one of the ugliest art pieces produced and yet it is one of the most memorable and has a place in art history because it is impossible to forget. (posted on 14 Oct 2024)
The wording of this title made me think of a magician with his paraphernalia. His wand, Herons tend to collect in rookeries, such as the grey herons in the trees just before the I will be participating in the ArtWalk in Nanaimo this year at St. Andrews United Church, I realize not everyone is in the area but please drop in if you are. All are welcome. (posted on 15 Sep 2024)
Creating this cartoon reawakened how much fun I have combining creatures and/or John Singer Sargent was an American artist who produced oil paintings and Like Sargent I have kept a visual journal of our travels as it serves to remind me of
(posted on 16 Aug 2024)
I found my older drawings from Salt Spring Island that launched me into my mechanical insect creations. I mentioned them in last months Blog about Dragon Flies and I wanted to show a process I followed to arrive at my end solutions.
Most people think the Elephant Hawk Moth got its name because of its size. Like the elephant, this moth is BIG in comparison to others. The shape of its caterpillar body is similar to the shape of an elephant’s trunk, hence the name. Usually found in the United Kingdom, they made their way to British Columbia via collections and displays. Brock David Tebbutt, a self-taught artist born in Victoria, British Columbia, was inspired by others at the Western Front to assume a pseudonym. He changed his name to Joe Average. (posted on 15 Jul 2024)
A dragonfly lives between seven and fifty-six days, so every second counts.
(posted on 15 Jun 2024)
Cowbirds, which lay their eggs in others’ nests so unassuming birds raise their young—strike me as opportunistic and parasitical. Their meal-finding method is fascinating too: they eat the insects stirred up by the feet of cattle. These birds know how to take advantage and lighten their load. It reminded me of Austin Kleon’s TED talk titled “Steal Like an Artist”. During a period when he experienced writers block, Kleon began blacking out words and lines from newspapers and arranging them into haiku like poetry. People accused him of lacking originality. However, research revealed a 250-year-old technique like Kleon’s called found poetry. Writers and artists like Tom Phillips, William Burrows, and—going back in history—Caleb Whitefoord, a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin—created works the same way. Kleon concluded with “Nothing Is Original” and “All Creative Work Builds On What Came Before” with the result that we are “Creative Kleptomaniacs”. One of my students, whose name escapes me, started to collect magazine images of models. He painted clown faces over top. Initially I thought boredom motivated him but as I talked to him, I realized he was influenced by Red Skelton’s paintings of clown faces and the misguided value we place on models’ looks. He was parroting Kleon without knowing it. (posted on 14 May 2024)
Black oystercatchers are easy to spook. They are simple to identify with their black bodies and George Bellows, who painted at the beginning of the 20th Century, was a member of the (posted on 14 Apr 2024)
Amazing Airborne A-Z presents B.C. creatures that spend at least some of their time in the air. Georgia O’Keeffe is a well-known American artist. In New York she met and married the photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924. In 1929 she bought a property in the desert around Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, an area that inspired her. She is widely respected as one of America’s top modern artists and she has created several pieces that resonate with me. I am attracted to her use of colour and shape with her abstracts plus the created floral patterns and skull images. Most of her work has clean, hard images although O’Keeffe at times lets hard edges become soft and ethereal.
(posted on 15 Mar 2024)
The weird and wonderful creatures that make up the plankton of the Pacific Ocean were the motivation behind this image with a cage to signify the zoo. I have watched episodes on TV lately that show plankton at various locations and at depths that defy our understanding. These microscopic creatures are an important part of the food chain that provides sustenance for the much larger basking sharks, manta rays and humpback whales. These sea creatures swim with their mouths open through schools of plankton, straining their food out of the water. Small bits of plastic that mix with the plankton pose a real and immediate danger to these larger underwater creatures. Whale sharks, which can live for one hundred years, manta rays and sperm whales rely on plankton but the plastics don’t break down and can block the digestive tracts threatening death. One of the subjects that I have been incorporating lately are whales which I see as flying through their environment the same as birds in the air. First, I create geometric shapes with stencils that I hand cut and use special brushes that are flat and round. By mixing colours and varying the amount of paint I can create a variety of shapes on either black or white paper. Later I hand paint into the stencil images adding whales and vegetation to the geometric shapes.
(posted on 15 Feb 2024)
Did you get the pun with the yellow perch perching on the underwater plant? Andy Goldsworthy has often been called an earth artist. He works outdoors with a minimum of tools plus a camera to record his creations. He mostly uses imagination and time plus natural elements like thorns to join some items together. |