This is what my paintings look like as I develop them. Sometimes I will have a phrase that comes to mind as I'm drawing and I will think that is the title. Then as I refine the image the title might not work for me and then it becomes something new. I'm not sure if I'll even paint any of these! See? This one started as one thing in my head but once I scanned it, it now seems like I need to make an irregular shape for it. Like it needs to be taller than it is already. I was drawing some of these in a bar and some in a coffee shop with my friend Travis. He did some really cool sketches in my spare sketch pad. I'll post them after I make sure he's OK with it.
I am usually aware that tubes and holes etc can be symbols of eroticism but this group has been a little more obvious. As a professional artist, I treat my models as valued private contractors. I don't make comments other than "you look over heated, can I get you some water or something to drink?". It's summer time and the humidity is a beast sometimes. And then there are the ambitious types that think nothing of running up 6 or more floors to my place instead of taking the elevator. My building has extra high ceilings on most of the floors! I try to make my models comfortable, and I respect them and what they do, so when I want to be more conscious of the erotic possibilities of the pose, I error to the side of professionalism. After they leave I draw from my drawings or photos they've let me take. This keeps me a little more detached from the erotic nature of the poses and my models.
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Doing some drawing in a bar with some scotch. A young lady coming back to surprise her boyfriend found him making out with her bast friend at the bar. And I thought the fourth of July fireworks were over. I didn't quite hear all the words but I got the gist plus the body language was obvious. Earlier I had looked up for the score of the Yankee game on the TV and noticed he had been making out with the lady who was now in scorched earth mode. But I also saw him getting pretty close to the other girl when she was there so I just thought they were all on the same page. The girls were both attractive and I was mentally giving him the "high five" and also "it's your headache dude" at the same time. It had zero influence on whet I was drawing, but it was an amusing sideshow to my thoughts. I didn't see any physical violence, so at least everyone was an adult about it. Pencil and ink on paper. This is the first idea with this pose. The back ground was inspired by a photo I took of a metal panel in the subway. White tiles, metal panel imbedded in the tile and some black ooze that was probably once hot liquid black stuff that was now cooled after leaking out of the bottom of the panel over the tile and pooled on the cement floor in front. Imagining if this was in a nice suburban mall it would have been scrubbed clean after whatever was inside got fixed. Not in the New York City subway! Fix the wires and ignore the residue, maybe it'll evaporate? Whatever the reason for not cleaning it up I like that it is there. It ads texture to the background of everyday life. It's unique and it wasn't smelly, just another layer of background. I guess nothing is wrong since the lights still work and the trains still stop.
Explanations. I stumbled across some older files and here they are. They were done at a comic book convention while I was hanging out with my buddy Mark Texiera (TEX) to those that know his work. He's quite popular at the cons so I just sit back and doodle and draw small commissions he can't get to. Usually it all goes to liquor and pizza anyway. Helping out that economy! Similar pose but with a female. I was experimenting with various characters and trying to draw impossible positions. Ink on paper. The one below is along the same idea. It reminded me of Kurt Cobain. I liked this little sketch and decided to throw some color on it in Photo Shop.
Lamborghini and Ford GT 40. Hanging with friends at Manhattan Classic Car club drinking Laphroaig. I think that's how you spell it. Scotch! We were drinking scotch! The inspirational spark for future paintings! I met up with Abena at the car club. She modeled for me about 12 years ago. I hadn't seen her since. Out of the ether she said hello on Linkd In and we were drinking scotch and catching up a few days later. She was in sales at New York Press and had modeled for fun. She's still in sales and still really cool!
Here are a few pictures of me picking up a painting. Once a lifetime ago, I was married and lived in DUMBO, Brooklyn. My ex had found a bunch of my art that she didn't want and got in touch with me to pick them up or they were getting dumped. A few of them I still liked and hadn't realized she still had them.
I stopped in and picked them up. We talked a bit and then I was off. I had a bag full of small paintings and this one pretty sizable one! It was a warm spring day so I went the long way to see how my old neighborhood had changed. Originally I moved in there in '95 so I had witnessed quite a change (For the worst in my opinion) over the eleven or so years I lived there. Gentrification can be a bitch! I always hated that I was always a gentrifier. It was a pretty desolate uninviting area when I moved in. Most of the buildings were empty except a few that had a bunch of painters and sculptors practically camping in them. Everyone had makeshift shower systems and heat. Probably 90% of the spaces (maybe more) were illegal occupancy so the typical camouflage was to make your space look like a wood shop in case a building inspector managed to get in the building. But the spaces were big and cheap. There were no stores except a small deli the size of a mini van that primarily sold cigarettes that was open for a few hours in the afternoon. It might have been open in the morning but I never woke up before noon and I didn't smoke cigarettes. I walked to the river front and snapped a few pictures of my painting and then considered walking it across the Brooklyn Bridge into my current neighborhood by Wall Street. But then I thought the subway would be easier. |
CalendarJUNE
Opening at MF Gallery 213 Bond St. Brooklyn, NY JUNE 15, 6-10pm Please look over the Prints page and get them all. Have a good Easter/Passover or month. Now is a good time to commission a portrait or purchase some physical art for the winter! If you'd like to commission me for a painting... Portraits with my surreal aesthetic only. The face you have and my paint brushes! Estimated turnaround 3 months. Shorter will cost more. Contact me now. Last Rites Gallery 325 W. 38th Street, between 8th & 9th Ave, NYC: (212) 529.0666 FHarper.comWelcome to the Fred Harper Fine Art News Section Categories
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