February 7, 2015
Nice day in the studio working on artwork. Took a small piece out of my Do-Or-Die-Skies pile and gave it a gray wash, and it eventually turned into a decent sky, although the half-and-half design is less than ideal (the cloud ege is right at the half-way mark which is a no no in terms of interesting design).
Daily Whipout: "Hoodoo Haboob"
The rock outcropping in the painting is a famous Hoodoo in the Painted Desert, up by Holbrook. And, of course, the name for a sudden desert storm is sometimes called a haboob, so the title refers to and plays off two weird phenoms in nature. And speaking of weird phenoms, here is a great take on art and our feeble attempts at capturing beauty, or the truth:
"The film is about mediocrity, how we deal with our limitations. What our parents told us we are capable of doing and who we are—we are great, we are unique, all that. But we are not. It's brutal, but it's true. . .the difference between what we really need, which is affection and love, and what we are normally seeking, which is admiration. In the end, no matter how successful you are, nothing will fulfill you. It's impossible."
—Alejandro G. Inarritu, about his film "Birdman"