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Don Deleva 2004

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M1 Spec :  graphite, water color on Bristol paper, 11/12/2004 Surrealism and Italian Futurism were the original art movements that captured my attention. Some how using a ruler and intersecting triangles released pent up energy in me and it continues to be a source of emotional release. This period of work for me was about the total abstraction of the human body. I saw each drawing as a metaphor for emotional state of mind of the figure. Each shape, shade and texture represented the subjects compartmentalized thoughts and emotions.
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This is the first Skate board I painted, July of last year 2015. Since then I have painted 4 more and sold 5. The board you see here is a gift. It is in the collection of Bill Streeter of Tukwilla, Wa. He is the one that got me started painted on them. Thank you BILL!

looked at Picasso

Ive been looking at Picasso's work from the 50s and 60s as reference for a painting I am creating called "War begets war" and "40 miles out."   I took photos of "wars' progression. I posted them on Facebook I will post them here in the next few days. " 40 miles" has more reference to Picasso then "war..."
"YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT IF YOU IT'S ANGERING SOMEBODY." "I LOVE THE JUXTAPOSITION OF SOMETHING BROKEN WITH SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL GROWING OUT OF IT." Josh Homme
I forgot all about the photographer Roger Ballen. In the same way I am attacked to Joel Peter Witkin so too am I to Ballen. For me I think it is the sense of shamanic reality to everyday life. Black and white photographs have an other worldly quality to them.

Artist Trust Benefit Auction 2013, thank you!

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It feels good to have the 2013 Seattle Artist Trust select a painting of mine to be included in the 2014 benefit auction.
It's been a while but all this time I have been working on a panel that I have been working on for the last 8 months. I have spent on average 2 hours a day on this piece. Sometimes I think I should just toss it and start another panel but for some reason I just hang on and keep painting on it. It has a sister piece that I have work on for 7 month but I think that work is finished. It's a wall street portrait, it feels like the last( who knows?). About 3 weeks ago I finally gave up coding to go back to art. Coding really wasn't that hard for me to give it up since it never worked for me. I spent 5 years working really hard trying to find a job coding and then spent the last 2 years trying to stop painting and art so I could learn JavaScript. I must have done a pretty good job at not painting because now...nothing comes to me and there is no flow to the process. I actually think this might be a good thing but man I am lost! I can't seem to concentrate on one thing and I
There is nothing like honesty, I mean it really is all we have. Honesty with yourself is even more rare. Some people just bleed it out of themselves and it shows in thier work like the singer and song writer for Polvo or the painter Max Ernst. I try to be honest but damn if accolades and money get in the way of making decisions that take a painting the way it should go. A this point i am going back to my roots to find out when i started painting with earthy desires in mind. I mean what if i should be printing instead of painting?
It has been a long time but at this point I really don't care. This morning I took a long shower and felt that hot water hit my back and dreamed of a future long away in a distant past. I don't mean to be vague but now my ships are leaving the harbor. Vague as it may be I don't know what to do with it. I can't seem to put it together so I just have to put it out there and hope someone else gets it or makes sense of it. I hear voices tell me to put it all together this way or that, but really they are voices telling me to make some sort of sense of something so you, the people, will understand it. Well I am out of Ideas and confusing conglomerations of ill fitting parts that don't help you understand. That's not your fault by the way besides the fact that you have all the faculties to make your own sense out to it. Maybe it's not for my generation to know. I think if anything I am creating myths for the generations that will be here in the tomorrow ho
What actualy is an existential crysis? I have been thinking about the birth place of ideas and motivation. I had this idea that maybe they come from not wanting to be alone. If you create something, anything,you have just proven you exist that thing is now in exsitance for others to see and bring into thier conscience.
Being in reinvention mode is painstakingly tedious. I am not the same person I was 3 months ago, a LOT has changed for the better, thank god. I have been painting twice as much as I was in the last 5 years. Images don't just come to me anymore, I am having to work at them with sanding out scraping and gessoing. I will try to keep a visual log of the work so you can witness the changes as the work evolves.
Some times i just loose my way. Im not sure i think its when i don't have an image in mind. Sometimes its also like when people say things they have no idea what they are talking about, like "art imitates life." What does that mean? Picasso didn't imitate life and niether did Van Gogh, Rembrandt, the list goes on, Duchamp did kind of except that he stole from real life. Infact Picasso said Good artist borrow and great artists steel. Anyway i am typing this on a nook so forgive my spelling and stuff. Actually i have no excuse, i should know how to spell by now.
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 Today, I drempt Salvador Dali hugged and kissed me. He gave me his blessings in a cool blueish damply lit room near his home in Figueres. He said nothing and all I could do is cry as he when to pick from a wall of paintings, one to give me. I remember his hair styled as Velazquez and pearlescent light obscuring his features. It was real enough to make me question if it really did happen. As I woke I could feel my face in the contortions of a cry. BTW: Yes, I realize this is a self portrait of Velazquez but this is a representation of how the dream look and felt... "The muse of mortality Vanitas paintings became a popular genre in the 17th century, usually juxtaposing lush still lifes with skulls as reminders that death waits on all of us. Plunking a traditional example by an unknown 17th century artist in the middle of Dali's surrealist works may confuse at first because Dali didn't paint vanitas as we think of them. But the show argues that he created
So the other day I posted some weird azz stuff about Subjective Polymorphism. Well believe it or not it is a name that I researched and created as a way if explaining how it is that I paint. Trust me when I say I didn't pull this name out of thin air, let me explain. I have always wanted people to realize that they make up there on reality for the most part, we spend most of our life in or heads making scense of our own reality so that we can form some semblance of sanity and meaning to our life. My painting plays off this.  
Letter from the medium, Let the medium be itself, then tease it to suggest images that were never meant to be created. It takes an ability to see with the minds eye and have an open mind enough to let shapes and colors suggest  anything and everything. Then it is just a matter of you choosing what you want to bring out. Leave the integrity of the original vision so that from a visual stand point the viewer doesn't know weather the image was purposeful or accidental. It's as if the medium is talking to you and letting you  know this is the way it reacts to . "by throwing a sponge full of color at a wall it leaves a stain in which a fine landscape can be seen... as well as heads of men, animals, battles, rocks, seas, clouds and other things...In this you will find marvelous ideas because the mind of the painter is stimulated to new inventions by obscure things. ” Quote: Salvador Dali
Subjective Polymorphism: *Subjective: Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world . *Polymorphism: Many objects made from one. In the context of object-oriented programming , is the ability to create a variable, a function, or an object that has more than one form. Subjective Polymorphism is a style of painting were one image is created in a way to suggest many but the image is personal similar to looking at clouds and seeing faces animals....

Texture is Qween!

My paintings come to me like found objects. My painting process is similar to walking on an over grown path, seeing a sparkle in the ruff and excavating to it like an archeologist. This has been the most exciting way to paint for me. It make me feel as if I discovered an image and by supporting it with composition, contrast and color I am revealing something that has been hiding in the chaos of texture. Texture is a big tool of mine it is my muse. 
As I settle into this new job my work seems to be gaining ground slowly. Leaving the world of selling art supplies seems to have helped me concentrate on what it is I am painting. Everyday day conversations never seem to cover art or painting and at this point I don't miss them. Painting has become urgent, unlike it has been in years. It's strange to be painting from the moment instead of the preconceived idea, its like I have started to learn how to make art from the shear pleasure of making a mark again. Now, the mark is not trying to impress the culmination of marks like it doess if you force them. The real question is are you forcing them to empress or are you making marks for the shear enjoyment of their power and elegance?  This is a self doubt all artist feel deeply. 

Malfuxtion 315

FEK315 walks in threw the door, looks up at the clock and sees a wedge of time, then walks a few more steps to see what happened within that chunk. "15 minutes? It took me 15 minutes to walk through the door? What the hell did I do in that pie wedge?" Goth Cindy Turns to him. "See, this is what  am talking about. You have no idea that you were talking to me about Long Range Missiles. You where calling them sniper weapons." FEK315 looks at the ground "Cindy, I am really not sure I understand what you are saying." "You loose time FEK." "How is that?" "Dah phuck I should know, your the lunatic!"  FEK315 grabs Cindy's latex suited hips with grappling hands, pulls her close to his face and dives deep into her eyes.  His zombie stare makes her shutter and slightly surrender. "Goth Cindy I know where you are. I see you in your head with Auto Cannon rounds passing you like light coated street flies, whistling razors c
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Its funny how I tell you I don't work from sketches and then the 2 days ago I doddle some image and now I want to work from the sketch...LOL! I'll post the sketch. my image of Zen: George Condo Artist.

Pifft! Preliminary Sketches!

It's rare I work from sketches mainly because the sketch is part of the work. I usually start on a panel and work out all my ideas there. "Preliminary Sketches" are the being of the work so to leave them out is like throwing away the bones. For illustrators "Preliminary Sketches" are were you work out your mistakes. I am not an illustrator. Every mark I make is an important part of the final work. Sometimes a mark is there from the begin of the work and becomes a pivotal part of the painting. The evidence of the mark is exemplified with the constant rebuilding of the original mark. How many times have you made a sketch of an idea only to realize you like the sketch more then the final work? That is because the spontaneity is worked out of the piece.  The first marks are important, they record the raw emotion that caused you to record the idea in the first place. Even if the original marks are scraped out the evidence of your erassing the marks are still there.
Robert Motherwell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_evtvqBawY
With my new job I am finally working 40 hours a week..it's a good thing! I started working as a large format digital press and digital cut operator.  This has finally given me the opportunity to concentrate on painting.   As far as my art work goes,  I sold all of my inventory last month and gained 2 new collectors who each bought 4 pieces or more. Now my studio is empty, no shows lined up, money coming in and no pressure for sales. Sales pressure is poison to me, needing to sell art to eat really effects my work in a trite illustrative way. Over the last 8 years found out that my audience is limited.   Lately, I have been looking at the paintings of Franz Klein, I find Klein's monumentality and heaviness attractive. His works like "Le Gros" have a permanence like structures of iron. ( Mark Di Suvero comes to mind. ) Looking at them closer the way his grays, blacks and whites interact with the texture of brush stroke give each work a quality of portrait or

SIlent Auction!

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Visit my website for more information www.dondeleva.com .
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Beacon, acrylic on panel, 5x7 2.2013 Control:Beacon#3 has landed and the weather couldn't be better. The Russian meteor can be seen in the upper left quadrant of the painting. Well maybe at this point it wasn't Russian I think it was more just a meteor because it hadn't landed yet in Russia. It was just passing by the planet JimJim 12 in the constellation HeyBroThatsMySalami. side note: Dr Sally Tweezenphoner was eating a salami sandwich when she was tweeting the name of the constellation to a fellow astronomer when her dog ran off with her sandwich .  

Money equalls validity in art.

Lately I have been reading about the Art Market and how it is changing the definition of Art itself. Here is a good article on what I am talking about. http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-06/art/uptown-money-kills-downtown-art/full/ It's an interesting read.
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This year I decided to create 6 to 12 of the best works I am capable of, I have one work completed already it took about 4 months and 6 different versions to create. Monarch, Acrylic on panel, 16x20, 1.2013 Last year I decided to switch from oil to acrylic mainly because I wanted to get back into drawing and printing. That's a logical reason isn't it? After 16 years of oil painting I kept coming up with the same answers to the same problems. I needed new answers to take my work in a new direction so I decided acrylics was the best way to keep painting.  (Hold on the printing and drawing are coming) I also really missed drawing and printing and as I painted in acrylics I started to realize that you can draw on the dry paint, not only, that but I started wiping out areas of paint with my hands like I would wipe an etching plate. You can do that in oil but it makes a hell of a mess. In acrylic all it does is dry on you hand, and as it drys on the work you ca
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As I go deeper in to this new phase of painting I start to realize that I am painting White Collar workers as Heroes and Villains, the major players in the game of a country's economic health. At this point I feel that I am working with the mythology of the white collar worker not to an end but recognizing their role in power from a world stand point. the Interview: acrylic on clayboard, 5x7, 10.24.12 Suit 7: acrylic on clayboard, 5x7, 10.26.12
I believe these portraits are celebrations of the technological worker, the Tecky. I wasn't sure for a long time why these portraits were coming out of me. At first I thought it had something to so with the 99% demonstrations, the bank debacles and the corporate corruption. Maybe this has something to do with it but it seems so negative and I wasn't doing research to find out more about these problems, so I knew this really wasn't what I was painting. It just didn't seem correct, the images were too comical for such a heavy topic. Today I was writing an artist statement about my work and it occurred to me after seeing my Dia De Los Muertos portraits of 2 years ago that what I am painting are Techys. Thus the cubism and angular lines with the business suits. These are portraits of people who write code all day and invent the coolist new apps on your phone. They are celebrations of the people in technology.
How is it when you can't put emotions to metaphor?
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Suit 2: acrylic on panel, 8.2012

Suit #1

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Suit #1: Acrylic, 8.16.2012, 8x8 This is the first painting in my Suit series. This body of work is a comment on the restructuring of the banking industry and the core values of handling Americas money by large corporations and banks.

Artists and fame

Some artist's art is their fame and their product is secondary.
I find myself still in the middle of reinventing myself. My paintings seem to be about busy work right now. Figuring out what it means to paint with acrylics is redefining my imagery. Inspiration wise I seem to be floating between Guston and Franz Klien. Size wise I have shrunk down to 5x7, 5x5, 12 x 16s, mainly because of my neck problems. I hope soon I can find some groove because right now I feel like I am painting to be busy. This wall street tie and jacket series seems to predictable and illustrative. At this point I do not want to become illustrative but I am wondering how much illustration people need to understand these paintings are not about abstraction.
Some people call me a Surrealist, I am not. I don't paint dreams. Some people call me a Hallucinatory. However, I am not tiring to get you to see something I didn't paint. There was a time I was tiring to do this, but now my work seems to be more about the act of painting and the final image is secondary. I am concerned about the quality work of the final result but the end images come about by crystallization of thought at the time of creation. What I do take from the Surrealists is automatic thought. I add emotion from the Abstract Expressionists and use the everyday as an inspiration. It is really important to understand that I "find" myself working this way. After years of training as a printmaker and trying to end up with a specific image in the end felt like I was becoming an illustrator, I felt constricted and predicable. I see Illustration as the process of creating with a specific final image in mind, thus the "sketch" and the preliminary works t
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Title: Portrait of Philip K Dick, Acrylic, 6.2012
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Here is the final to the Ironman portrait. I have been thinking of doing a series of these.  It's a great excuse to work in red and yellow.
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This week I was asked to create a work for a show based on a super hero, if you know me at all you'll know I picked IronMan. I thought about creating a work based on bankers being Heros but after the latest buffoonery with Morgan Stanley, Chase Manhattan and the Facebook stocks I realized that at least Tony Stark is fictional and seems to care a little bit for his fellow man. So I took the painting below and started to create Ironman over it. Here is a phone shot of what it looks like now. I know it's fairly pedestrian at this point but keep in mind that this is the beginning sketches. The idea at this point is to create several cells at once with a technique called dynamism.
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I paint on pieces until I feel then are finished. I know that sounds logical but how do you know when something is finished if you have no idea what the end result will be? When I started creating art I was a Photo Realist, but after 3 years I got board of coping what I was looking at, besides I didn't see the point in poorly imitating a camera.  My Art is a log or journal of where my mind has been for the hours I have been working. One thought leads into the next, that is why my work is busy and seems to be fragmented. This is how I am inspired to keep painting. Here is an example of a painting I have been working on for the last 3 weeks.  The painting seems to be at half stage, although I can never be quite sure. I have some paintings go through 3 or 4 finished states before they are complete. I think it has to do with the fact that my skill has not caught up with where the painting is going. I have had paintings take 4 years to complete, that's working on
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Untitled, Acrylic on panel, 8x10,  2012 My new room, graphite on paper, 8x8,  2012 Stroll on Wall, oil on panel, 20x30  2012 America or me?, oil on panel, 40 x40,  2012 Roots, graphite on Yupo paper,  8x11,  2012 Hedge Fund, oil on panel, 25x30  2012 Cut Throat, graphite on paper, 8x12  2012 White Collar 2, acrylic on panel, 8x8  2012 An innocent man, acrylic on panel, 8x8  2012 So here is some of the work I have completed in the last 5 months. I have made a move toward acrylics. After painting with oils for 20 years I needed to break my pattern to learn more about the images and ways to improve on the final outcome of the work. I am also going back to my instinct of image. I got caught up in trying to sell art and as I say, you either make art to sell or you make it because you have something to say, blessed and cursed are those who's art

Painting 12 for the year

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Here is a new painting I am working on, this is stage 2. Not sure where it is going I also wanted to let you know I am excited to tell you I have my first retrospective At the Fine Arts & Creatives Emporium in Everett Wa. next month.!!!
I finished SkipJack this weekend, I will post the final painting tonight... Art is about the mulit-layering of an idea like an onion peals back a layer to reveal another layer. I paint in mulit images and layers to emulate this process, thus the importance of only hinting at images. I want you to fill in the blanks of what you are looking at. After all wasn't it your teachers and your parents who told you " You only see what you want to see!" I like Rembrandt because he created realism out of small abstractions. If you look closely at his work you will see that his brushstrokes are as abstract as any of the abstract expressionists. I am working in the same manor only my final product is a lyrical mess that leaves the viewer with the responsibility of making sense of what they are looking at.
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I painted for money and I didn't like it. Now I paint for myself and I feel like I am actually making a contribution to the creative conciseness of Seattle. Showing my art in cafes brings the work to the masses of people who live everyday life. When you go to galleries you see art that sells, otherwise the gallery would not be in business. My art is not in galleries because it's hard to sell my work. why would anyone try to sell something that is takes convincing the client the work is good? I truly have had people walk up to my art and say "I want this painting" and on the spot write me a check for a couple thousand dollars. My work is not hard to understand if you don't want to understand it. If you feel like you have to know the right answer to my work then you missed the point. title:Skipjack medium: oil on wood date: currently in progress from 2007 to present. size: 30 x 40 (ruffly)
As a way of reinventing yourself you have to break down those things you thought defined you. I thought painting defined me so much that I let the world start to influence my work in order to fit in, in order to make money, in order to be understood. But the cost is too high for me to give up the one thing that makes me feel like I can make an offering to the world, my own creativity no matter how banal, ugly, and ridiculous it is. Money contorts My thinking when it comes to My Art . That being said I have only been painting sporadic late lately. I think it is because I am breaking down the my process of painting and separating it from wanting to make money from it and what it is I am really trying to capture. I know I have said this before but I thought I needed to up date this blog and this is how I feel. I will post work soon as it comes.
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Yes i have been painting, this is somthing whipped up today after painting the house. It's called Bankers Shame...at this point. I am not sure it is finished. I

Reinventing myself

They say reinventing yourself is a good thing, well I agree. In the last 3 years I have felt I have been rehashing my old ideas and thoughts, focusing on Art history and the elements of Art. I decided this year to start something I felt was based in the future and the here and now. Object Oriented Programming is an art form I have not really explored so I have made it my goal to understand and learn OOP to clear out my mind and start new, as it were. This change in scope is a powerful one that has taken me out of my myself and in to the world of the present and future. I compare it to build virtual sculpture that serves a purpose. I see programming as the art it is. My goal is to dive deep in to programming and let it influence my Art. I can't wait to see what comes out. I will post as the painting come. :-)
As I design more and more websites I think more about squares. Last night I had a dream that I was rebuilding my face in CSS3 and HTML5. I remember seeing my hands, my fingers were typing out a Div tag with the Id "eyes". Once that happened I was able to see the browser version of my face and the outlines of all the boxes I had created to form the portrait of my face which was actually me alive.
The painting below. Salmon Eater spawn a new direction. Currently I am working on 5 paintings all of which have this collage of images that fade in to the next. I am excited to see what they look like when I am finished.
I have never liked the obvious, my stint with pop surrealism was an experiment with telling people what to see. I came out of it feeling hollow and like a production artist. Honestly I don't have the personality to tell people I am right and everyone else is wrong, only I know what is wrong for me. I don't mean to be cryptic and strange I just think that touching on the vague is powerful. It gives people the opportunity to own their own thoughts about what they are looking at. It is a personal goal of mine to help people find who they are and that they use my art as vehicle to prove to themselves that there vision of life is as valid as everyone else.
I don't have too much news today being I have been working for the last 10 days straight(except yesterday). I do have 4 paintings I am working on right now hopfully I will have some new work to show you in the next month.
I've been working a lot in the last few weeks. All though that means I can finaly eat it also means I haven't been bloging much. Well I have been painting quite a bit. I would say in the last4 weeks I have started 4 paintings, finished 3 worked into 3 and still have not come to a conclusion on " Salmon eater". I have been toying with the idea of leaving the thin veil of white over the image but people seem to mistake the work for not being finished. Its interesting to me how people do not seem to be intersted in coming up with there own conclusions about paintings. Poeple can be so afriad of "being wrong". I say there are some things that are meant to be made personal and my art is one of those things. So if you need more explaining I can only give you what I was thinking of at the time. If this is written wonky its because I did it from my phone and my phone does not display a cursor in this text box. Forgive. Me

Salmon Eater stage 3

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This is the next progression of the Salmon Eater. A new title is starting to arise from it, Gold Lust. You can still see the original composition hasn't changed too much but the integration of the bottom part of the painting is starting to become a part of the work. I don't know if the work is finished, I like the misty quality and the sloppy suggestions of shapes that become foundations for defined images. I need to sit with it for awhile.

Skull painting progress: Stage3 finished.

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  I still haven't gone back to Salmon Eater, but it awaits my return. Like I said I finish the Skull, sorry I finished it in one night, Here is it. Title:Summer Nights Medium: oil on clay board Size: 5"x5" Date: 11.2010 It would be nice to say that you can see some of the original scratching or black but all is painted :-).

New Paintings

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Title: Rebirth Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 4"x6" date: 11.2010

Progress on the skulll painting and Salmon Eater

So the Skull painting is finished. I forgot so take photos of the progress while painting it. See the problem is that I finished it in one sitting, I usually take photos after each sitting. Oh well I will get it right. Salmon Eater has not been changed yet. It needed to dry a little, this time I will take pictures.

Salmon eater, work in progress: Painting over an old work

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1. 2. 3. Painting 1.  is a finished painting called Salmon Eater. Painting 2. is what happens to works that sit in my studio too long. They get sanded and changed into another painting. LOL! Painting 3. This is the 3rd stage in the repainting. Notice how it is starting to look completely different. As I paint my subject changes because I really don't ever have a subject to paint this is why it is hard for me to create illustrations. My mind wanders with my immediate feelings and "findings". I paint shapes and lines or do something to the surface like scratch it. Some times those elements suggest images to me so I go with them until I get board with what I am painting and some times I end the work or end the progression of an image. I am not looking for a finished recognizable image, rather I seek the ephemeral or enigma. I am looking for that place before something becomes a materialized image or thought. I am interested in moment before you label someth

Skull painting progress: Stage2

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At this point you can see that I have scratched in a skull and then dripped paint over the panel. I used a very "loose" paint to drip an organic grid for me to work with. ( in the same way that bones are an organic scaffolding for the muscles.) The paint is oil, it's 1 part paint to 6 parts turpentine.  It's called lean paint because the oil has been broken down in favor of flow and dying speed. There is a process of painting called "Lean to fat", it's a process that insures that the paint will dry correctly. For now, just understand that loose paint in the beginning is really important to the longevity of the style of painting I work in, "Glazing". I will go over that in the a little later.

Skull painting : Stage1

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I have had a lot of people ask me to show them how I paint. I am going to try to answer that by taking you through a painting from start to finish. This is a photo of a piece of Masonite that used to be a scrap piece of Scratch board sitting on my easel. Some times I find things and work over them. At this point I have done nothing to the Masonite.

A quote from Sentences on Conceptual Art from Sol De Witt

"16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics. " Sol De Witt Numbers are not mathematics in my art. They are representations of emotions mixed with mystery. They come to me as I am painting and I feel it is important to include them in the content of the work because they came to me in the creative process.

New Work

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Title: Skull in Motion Medium: Oil size: 6"x 6" x.5

Devo and Neil Young

This is simply the most incredible video I have seeing in the last 10 years of my life. 2 of my all time heroes in life together playing one of the best songs ever! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLwhnUiNDs

website

SO my website is almost finished. Actually I got the front page and supplemental pages completed except the Archive and Dollhedz page. These will be finished up in the next month. I created the templates for the pages so it shouldn't take too much time once I get other work out of the way. These last 2 weeks have been crazy. I had 3 shows to put up a cold and 14 days of work in a row. That takes a lot out of you. Today is the first time back doing some painting. I have 3 new works in the studio I will photo them and give you an update.
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The show at tasty went well. I sold these three paintings.

Auburn City Court House

So this weekend I am getting ready to Hang at the Auburn city Court house for October. It should be a good show.
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Title: Untitled Medium: Oil on panel, gold leaf Size: 42"x46" This painting is comes to me as an abstracted Mecha coming alive for the first time. Title: Untitled2 Medium: Oil on panel Size: 28"x36" I have this thing for abstracting skulls, it's a reference to the fact that our bones supports a bio machine that runs a spirit. The abstracted shapes and colors are the live with in the scaffolding of the bio machine.

Here is some work from this year

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Title: 12 Medium: oil on wood, gold leaf. Here is one of the first pieces I painted this year. It's had 3 shows this year. 2 in Seattle and one in Portland. It has one more show before the year is over. You can see the earlier stages of this painting in an earlier blog. It was originally two paintings that I painted over and bolted together.

Long time

It's been along time since I gave you any updates at all. I am really sorry about that. I have had a lot of things going on, most of them have centered around the art of computer graphics and Flash. For those of you that think I have given up on my quest for truth and using my freedom of expression, I say to you Have more faith in me! Flash and code only add to my skills of fine art. You will see the results of this soon with my short movies. It takes money and reinvention to be good at what you do, these are the things I have been working on. They insure that I paint as honest as I can. Last year I found myself starting to lean towards selling painting to make ends meet. That became painfully obvious that I have a limited audience for my fine art. Since honesty is the only thing we have in this world I have decided to preserve mine and paint what comes from my head and heart. Computer graphics is my business. It is the money maker that keeps my art honest, it is my way of in vi
So this year in October I have 2 big shows, one is at the City of Auburn Galleries and the second is at the La Familia gallery. I just got the 2010 city of Auburn gallery announcement in the mail, its always sweet to see your work in print when some one else prints it. ToooT ToooT. I am starting a plan for a redesign of my website. So it might be a little while before I list new work. Stay tuned
Here is some news, I had a painting accepted into the CVG gallery show in Bremerton, curated by Gary Faigin. The painting is "Psycho and Zephretti" oil on panel. I have a photo of it at my website. www.dondeleva.com . The show will be on up in February. I all so got a show at the Georgetown Limited Gallery in Seattle for July. Proceeds support the TheyShallWalk.org . I swear I have some work finished I just have to find the time to shoot it. Its coming!
Aqua went AWESOME! It's so good to have work on the east coast. Next year Aqua, I will send larger work, ( more money!). The La Familia Gallery is working out to be a good place to show and the people are great. I think this year I will concentrate on showing in Washington State. I would love to have a gallery in Grays Harbor or La Connor. I am also going to do more fine art fairs and less craft fairs. I had a great run of craft fairs this year it showed me what the game is about, now I need to take my work to the fine art audience.
This has been a great year, I have had a lot of shows! I showed in Miami Basil at Aqua, I got 2 galleries and entertained my illustration ideas. This year also put in to prospective where I want to go with my work. If anything, I learned my abstract side is an important part of my art. In 2010 I plan to focus back on my abstracts with a new muse. In one way I feel I left my collectors wondering "What the hell is he doing?" All I have to say is, some times you have to step outside yourself to see yourself, you know forest from the trees? By doing this I didn't come away with any "New Vision". What I came away with is the reaffirmation of why I painted in the first place. This year I got to play the "Celebrity Painter" by attending fairs and being out in the public. I also got to paint with quantity as a goal. The experience helped me to understand where to place dollhedz in my work, it also helped me to take my interest in OOP computer programming to
Well its been a month... 10 days in Sayulita Mexico were I painted 6 paintings in the sun and pool. Tuff? yes! You try to be in paradise and work. I really can't call it work since I love painting. :-) So here is a run down of this month. I had: Solo / Little Olympia Theater, "Architect dream" Group / Gallery Zero, Portland OR., "Big Ass Art!" Group / Art Not Terminal, Seattle WA., "Rock the Terminal" Group / Fremont Abey, Seattle WA. Here is the work I did: 3 paintings for Aqua Miami Basel 9 paintings for the 5x5 show at La Familia Gallery 2 commission painting for private collectors 1 personal oil painting for my private collection Fremont Sunday market. That's quite a bit of work for being on vacation and still having 9 days left in the month. Well on a different note, you know when you go on a vacation for more then 5 days, you start to loose sense of yourself because you have to see yourself in relations to the new surroundings, eve
Here in Mexico, with my acrylics, sun, water, roosters, fish , tacos... yeah I know, you think this is all fun agames but let me tell you I have finished 4 full paintings since I got here 3 days ago. One of the local galleries, Clay-Brom, has asked to show my paintings. It just so happens I have painting with me. So I guess I know am an international artist. Anyway i will upload some photos of Sayulita soon.
I am starting to work a lot in Acrylics, mainly because of drying time and and durability. If you don't know, oils take at least 6 months to a year to dry to the touch. Then they can take up to another year or so to completely cure. Once the work is cured the oil film is very sensitive to scratches and dust. Since I started doing markets and fairs, I have had to transport my work and subject it to the outdoors, rain, dust and constant handling, besides the transport. Acrylic seems to be able to stand up to mild wear and tear. My true love is oils and it will take some time before I fully understand acrylics, however my acrylics are teaching me a lot about oil. Next year I am looking into traveling to the Southwest and maybe the Midwest for some art fairs. It's time I take the my work outside of Northwest. LA and SF would be closer but people tell me Santa Fe and Austin are the places I should go to show my work. Who knows, I won't know till I get out there. Well, I am
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title: Stag Dream title: Raven Dream title: Cupie and the Raven The Above paintings will be showing at 2009 Aqua, Miami, Fl. Busy Busy This week, I went to Portland to hang a show, then I when to Oly to hang a show, then I brought 6 paintings to La Familia gallery, 3 going to an auction, 3 going to Aqua, then I have a holiday show at the Mourning Market, then I have 9 5x5s to paint along with a 4'x5' painting for the Gallery Zero, and then the Fremont market. Thing are going good.
I saw a stag last night. I talked to a raven on a wire I fell back ward on tilted slowly to let the rain in my mouth. Now, I am no longer. Thank gawd for jumper cables I was out of juice.
I was at the Sunday Market in Fremont this weekend, it was like a dream. It was cold the whole day because I was in the shade, the light seemed to be perpetually 10:00 am. I talked to a lot of people that needed to tell me things, 3 people in particular. It was like talking to people in dreams, everything seemed to have a deeper meaning. It was a long day from 5:18am to 12:42 pm, but it felt some how I passed threw gates or passed a test... It was good day.
What a month! I felt the key turn just a little. 1. I have a gallery in Seattle. It's the La Familia gallery in the TK building. I have been working on getting a Seattle gallery for the last 14 years. Some people don't have to work so hard, to them I say; Good for you, now its my turn and I am ready as all hell. 2. I got into the Mourning Market October 18th at Motor in Seattle, 1950 1st Ave. This should be a great show for my Dia Del Los Muertos work. 3. I'll be showing in at the Little Olympia Theater in November for a play called "the Geek". 4. I have decided to set up a small gallery at the Fremont Market. My goal is to be there year round. For the last 2 months I have been at the Ballard and Fremont market, I decided to be consistant at the Fremont market, so come see me. 5. There is a chance I will be going and showing at the Miami Basil Aqua. I will keep you up to date on that. 6. In November I will be in a group a show at the Gallery Zero in Portland.
I saw through fog some shimer of gold the light in my eyes old as the night so hard to keep the balance from dark and light this icicles hang from the chimney with care soon in hope that air will be there. I looked further in to the light All I saw was the rabid glow of foggy steel foggy gray steel like the after glow of a large fire in midday. I walked passed the flames in to the Davey Grey dawn I am still walking but at least my mind is more quiet.
Crazy Crazy, boy have I been going through some change. I almost don't know if my name is DeLeva any more, lol. So as of last week I have finally landed a gallery in Seattle, the La familia gallery. YEAH!!! I will keep you up to date with that, I might even be going to Miami Aqua this year. Today I am headed to the Fremont market to show off some new paintings and check out the crowds. On October 3 Ill be at the Mourning market with my Dollhedz, this should be fun. I'll keep you up on that.
Been a little lets see what I have been up to: 1. Take down show from Corridor gallery 2. Put up show at Zero Gallery Portland 3. Saw some Huskies win 4. When shooting with my lady and her father. 5. Working on a commission for 1800-Autopsy 6. work at Utrecht 7. 4 paintings for Clay Brom gallery Salulita MEX 8. one 3'x5' painting for Zero Gallery 9. getting ready for the Mourning Market at the Motor pub George town October 18 10. Ballard and Fremont Sunday market 11. Group show in Fremont in November. 12. Show a show at the Olympia Little Theatre set for November. As of today, I think that's it for the next few months? Who knows. I am Busy, so don't get mad if its hard to get me to do anything in the next few weeks LOL! I will try to post a little more. I got some new paintings on the way.

Portland- the Gallery Zero

Portland was good. Their was a good turn out of people and some good art. I didn't get photos because I forgot to take my camera, but there should be plenty of other show because the Gallery Zero has asked me to show more work with them. The Gallery Zero is located in Portland's Belmont district which is just north of Hawthorn. Forget about your typical white painted walls, the inside is painted black and red which can be seen half a block away. I love the red walls it makes my work jump out at you. I am currently working on a new painting for Zero's next show. Ill keep you up to date.
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Title: Bee Medium: Oil on wood panel size: 8"x10" I took down my show from the Corridor Gallery today. I always love showing in Pioneer Square. First Thursday always brings large crowds and downtown Seattle attracts the art collectors. Next I bring my work to Portland for a group show at the Gallery Zero. This looks like it is going to be a great show with all new artists. I will be there for First Friday so if your down there come and buy me a Cognac and meet some good artists. I will try to get some photos.

New paintings

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Here is what I have been up to in the studio for the last 2 weeks. This is called Jax Rabbit. It's an oil painting on wood panel 20"x20". It will be showing in Portland at the Gallery Zero. Hope you show.

The Gallery Zero

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Here is the Group show in Portland. I will have 4 paintings in this show. It should be a great, one Come see it!

Last First Thursday

The Corridor gallery show went well, lots of people stopped in. I love watching the crowds, being a fly on the wall is one of my favorite things to do. Honest reactions are like diamonds in the grass. Currently I am working on the 4th painting for The Gallery Zero show in Portland. Last night I finish painting #3. Jax Rabbit . I will post it as soon as I get photos of it. On to the next

Corridor galley Seattle

We hung the work today, I have a lot of small paintings in this show. At first I thought the space was too large for my small paintings until Lynn helped me realized my paintings need a lot of breathing room. I usually smash all my work together so you can't get a good look at each individual piece. Out of the 3 shows with Corridor this one looks the best. TNX Lynn, I love the way this show looks. It's really good to get outside your work and see it out of the context of your studio and look at it as a spectator. More to follow after first Thursday. De Leva
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I would love to see you at the Corridor Gallery August 6th from 5 to 9 pm This is work from the last 6 months, the paintings are the result of going back to my roots.
Wow, was it HOT with no breeze, it made for a long fair. Sunday was the good day, the best part of Sunday was people where talking about Leviathan, the second was that I sold "Grave decision" to one of the few female grave diggers in this state. :-). That is my favorite kind of sell, like when I sold Copernicus to a Mathematician. Any way its time for me to get ready for my Corridor galley show. De Leva...OUT!