Progress Report

I planned 2020 as a series of monthly projects. This is my half year progress report.

In January I wrote and recorded my first album of original music. It is ten tracks, most of which I can listen to with only moderate wincing. This project was great for converting my nebulous musical exploration into focused results. Songwriting is a skill I’ve always wanted but have been too self conscious to develop. It’s actually not that hard if you don’t take yourself too seriously and you’re willing to borrow elements from music you like. Here’s Noah’s Song, written for my one year old nephew. I’ll release more music from this project over time and hope to perform it live when we go back to having concerts.

In February I performed at my younger sister’s wedding. This goal was bit of a gimme because all I really had to do was show up. I played mandolin with my father on guitar. We passed the chord structure of ‘Canon in D Major’ back and forth while weaving in melodies from the Lion King, the Legend of Zelda and Jurassic Park. It was great. I gave Kate and Tim a painting as their wedding gift, which they used as a backdrop for the ceremony.

Sumser-Rowles Wedding Painting - 40” by 60” acrylic on canvas

In March I planned to write a feature film script. This was the first goal I did not accomplish. I was never able to land on a satisfactory outline and decided to come back around to it. Still wanting a deliverable at the end of the month, I collected, evaluated and edited the 46 viable sketches I’d written for ALLCAPS sketch comedy over the past two years. I titled the collection ‘Self Improvement for the Lazy and Stupid’ because that seemed to be the most recurrent theme. Printed and bound it has a similar heft to a feature script so I maintained the feeling of monthly success.

In April I painted ten plein air oil paint landscapes. This was the most time I’ve ever spent painting outside and I think the practice has had a profound impact on my output. I began painting landscapes in 2018 but used the form mostly as a vehicle for abstraction and imagination. Painting from observation - something I hadn’t done seriously since college - is a whole other beast. Referencing an actual environment keeps me accountable and requires decisive work. I am very pound of this series which I am listing in my store for the first time as I post this entry.

Plein Air Paintings: Marin County, April 2020

In May I had planned to promote a show I booked for June that would feature the paintings I completed in April. As it became clear I would not be able to have my show due to quarantine, a new goal emerged in the form of the De Young Open. This will be a major show of Bay Area artists set to open after quarantine. As soon as I heard about the application I had a vision of executing an old drawing of mine as a large, oil painting on laser cut board. This project seemed to complete itself over the course of the month as I rushed toward my first external deadline of the year. I submitted the piece in the beginning of June and will hear back in July. Whether or not it is included in the Open I am very proud of this painting. It is the first time I have worked with my ‘Cartoon Universe’ theme since 2014. I call it ‘View from my Studio Door’ because as I painted it I saw more and more relevance to the harrowing nature of current events.

View from My Studio Door - 48” by 64” oil on laser cut MDF.

June has been the most challenging month yet. I had originally planned to host a show at the Mill Valley Community Center. When that was canceled I planned a major refocus around art communication on social media. As I set out to pursue that goal, the Black Lives Matter protests began and it didn't feel appropriate to divert attention. I spent this June thinking about my role as a white male artist. After an initial post of support I kept quiet because I don’t think mine is the voice that needs to be heard right now and also because I didn’t want my contribution to be superficial. This month showed me that it is my urgent responsibility to fight oppression. I will create inclusive art and help promote voices that are less mainstream than my own. I am not totally sure what form that will take but I’m looking for it now.

This has been an incredible half year artistically. I’ve grown in ways that I didn't anticipate and produced work I didn't think I was ready to make. I write this post as a celebration of the year so far and a commitment to the second half of 2020. I’ll be getting more verbal about my work and finding ways to support myself while pushing for progress in any way I can. There are paintings to make, movies to write and music to be shared ahead. Thanks for coming along.

Backstory

This is the first blog post on this new website. Justice, my girlfriend of three years, made it for me. I’ve had a spotty history with websites. I kept an aggressively routine daily blog from 2008 to 2010, had a self-made website from 2011 to 2012, did various kickstarters from 2013 to 2016 and then went into full reclusive artist mode only sharing vague and confusing images with the ~700 people who follow me on instagram. I have a history of overreaching with my social media, then becoming self conscious and blowing the whole thing up. I’m fairly certain I’ve lost a number of friends doing that. Hopefully I won’t be doing that this time. Not least of all because this time I am 35 and relatively more stable as a human being. But also because I’m ready to try and own my role. I am and have been for about twenty years fully artistically preoccupied. I had drawn since I was a child but and dosed with Painting, Theatre and Writing in high school and wound up going to college to get a double major in Painting and Film and a concentration in Belief Systems. In my last year of college I was so enamored with learning that I took up a music practice, which to that point I had only had fumbling experience. I also found a project that both compelled me to spend hours on it and seemed to hit a resonant tone with a larger audience. In 2009 I finished a 9 by 6 foot oil painting of about 1400 recognizable cartoon characters. That painting and it’s successors took me to Comic Con San Diego, got my name on Adult Swim, Funded six kickstarters and moved me to New York City where I spent five years selling prints and reading books. Since then I returned to California to paint landscapes and build a practice of writing. Plus I wound up teaching art part time which has been a great opportunity to verbalize what I know. I can’t tell you exactly what this website is going to be (because I don’t know) but what I’d like is to be posting here with decent regularity and building up a body of content that works aesthetically, intellectually and comedically with an eye toward environmental justice and solidarity. I’ll try to do at least one thoughtful post a week that will keep you present on what I’m working on and give you ways to collect, support and collaborate. Thanks for reading.