figure drawing at the illustration academy...

Sorry again for the lack of updates... I have been floating around Florida for the past couple months and stopped to attend the Illustration Academy. It's been amazing so far and will make a larger post about it but until it's finished I will be MIA. Here's one of my projects:

The great Vincent Pagniucci...
(I love neighbors that play music!)

I just finished "The Judgment of Paris" last week and can't believe how much this book has improved my understanding of the art world and history behind it.



I don't really understand the majority of conceptual art. I don't know if I had just fell asleep during a crucial moment in art history class or I am thick minded, but this hang up has persisted and never changed as I went through school. This attitude applies to many artists and entire movements, where learning names and dates never did much to help me see why high esteem was placed where it is. The only thing I have to go by are my own tastes, which are skewed and shaped by a childhood full of nickelodeon and comic books...

This book has helped because it explains what the world was like around the birth of the first real modern art movement: Impressionism. In the mid 1800's, art seemed to be taught more like a craft or science, as opposed to today where the majority of students are instead encouraged to experiment and find unique methods and visions. It's a little hard for a 20th century artist such as myself to imagine an art scene without the picasso's and dali's, but Ross King's detailed and entertaining writing literally teleported me back and helped me "get" it. I took a long time to get through this, mostly because I read it with google image search nearby where I could look at every person and piece he mentioned.

I never knew how interconnected the new art movement and the national politics were, and I'm amazed by how impressionism seemed to begin a chain-reaction that slowly shaped the art world into what it is today. This book really expanded my horizons and I strongly recommend it.

almost a year ago, a friend of mine talked me into participating in an art show. I didn't really have any new work that wasn't in a sketchbook or embarrassingly unfinished- so I ended up doing digital prints of some older work and dressed up some sketchbook stuff in photoshop. I decided to post a few because paper trails has been a little sparse lately... sorry!

Paper Trails will be on another break for a few weeks as I relocate and get situated. Thanks to everyone who supported me in person and to those who left comments.
-Dunc