Brain Dump - Fresh from the Dry Hole Studio

The Creation of a Master Piece – How it all comes together.

Big Mike on July 12, 2024

Here you can see the steps involved in creating a Mikey Likey piece.

Let’s get AI to help us find a fat ugly man angel!
Ew. That’s weird. I like it.
Photoshop comp with elements found all over the internet.
Here are my raw materials
Sand off layer of weathered wood and dirt.
Look how smooth and nice.
Priming the wood.
For every element of every piece, I need to cut out sections of wood that they’ll go on.
Complex labeling system.
Now I put them together to begin tracing. I’m such a postmodern, pop art cheater!
Tract that stuff. Even the old masters had their tricks.
Once all the images are on the pickets, I can cut them all out.
Lots of scraps get produced. I have a way bigger pile at this point.
After they are cut out, all the individual boards have to be put together with dowel rods (not shown).
All of the individual images to paint for all of my planned pieces begin to pile up.
More.
And more.
Now I have to sand all the edges. This is not fun.
When they’re all sanded, they need to be brought in to get ready to paint on.
The edges are painted white and the backs are clear coated to make them all shiny, clean and smooth.
When the backs and edges are applied, sanded and recoated…I can begin to apply texture and base colors.
Each images from every piece needs to be layered with texture and color.
Then I can jump into the details.
The images begins to take shape from the bottom up.
Progress
Finished images are piled up to be assembled later.
The pile gets smaller as I assemble all of my new work.
View of the back of a piece being assembled. Every piece presents unique challenges I’m never prepared for…but I’ve done a lot of these by now and can figure it out pretty quickly.

Photoshop collage mockup of Relativistic Selfie 1 featuring a high angle selfie with prominent cleavage, grackle and cactus with an arrow pointing to the cleavage and bird poop in her open palm.

Relative Sexiness of High Angle Cleavage Selfies

Big Mike on January 25, 2024

What is up with all the high angle pics certain women post on social media? I understand that it’s a simple trick to make yourself look more attractive, but why are we not more self aware that we are blatantly trying to obscure our true selves? So high angle pics make you look more attractive but then many women will complain about the people these pics inspire to contact them…and yet they continue to post them, every day, over and over.

So what? Who cares? Well not only is it interesting to me that so many people will repeatedly use such obvious tricks, but why it works! The angles of pics incorporate aspects of both physical and philosophical relativism. The subjective “truth” of how beautiful someone is depends on the relative angle of the observer.

Relativism about truth is the claim that what is true for one individual, or one social group, may not be true for another and that every effort to adjudicate between context-dependent standards of truth and falsity is bound to be futile.
ScienceDirect.com

But it isn’t only for women. Men can appear to be more attractive and dominant, accentuating features of male prowess by taking pics from LOWER angles.

The journal Psychological Science (Makhanova et al., 2017).

People’s physical position relative to others may shape how those others perceive them.
people use relative physical position to manage impressions by strategically positioning themselves either higher or lower relative to ostensible observers.
Five studies supported the prediction that women take and display photographs portraying themselves in a low relative physical position to highlight their youthful features and appear attractive
whereas men take and display photographs portraying themselves in a high relative physical position to highlight their size and appear dominant.
as do members of other social species, people use relative physical position to manage social impressions, and although these impression-management strategies may have deep ancestral roots, they appear to manifest themselves through a contemporary human modality-photographs.

Women

…being viewed from above (a downward angle) amplifies signs of youth and attractiveness, such as having a large eyes and forehead, and thus appears to be consistent with women’s motives.

Indeed, women appear more attractive when their heads are tilted down and they are thus viewed from a downward angle.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28485703/

Men

“Being viewed from below (an upward angle) amplifies
signs of dominance, such as height and a large jaw, and thus appears to be consistent with men’s motives.

Indeed, targets appear more dominant when their heads are tilted back and they are thus viewed from an upward angle.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28485703/

Interestingly, the researchers found that men and women take pictures from different angles depending on their motive.

Women:

tend to take selfies from above when trying to appear more attractive
when the picture is aimed at other women, they take the picture straight on.
tended to take their online dating selfies from above.

Men:

showed no particular preference for dating pictures.
switched from a low-angle selfie for attracting women
to a straight-on selfie if the audience was thought to be other men.

And so I am working on this series of paintings that feature high angle pics of women that accentuate their feminine beauty. I incorporate an unsettling gaze into the view’s eyes that shows a bold, unwavering confidence in what they are doing. Also included are examples of mating displays from the animal kingdom as well as hints of underlying discomfort that is always present when you can’t back up the reality you’re trying to project.

Toxic Masculinity: A photoshop collage of a painting I will do.

New Big Idea: “Toxic Masculinity” (working title)

Big Mike on August 31, 2021

So it’s been a while since I started hearing about this. It finally bounced around in my head long enough for it to work its way back out again as a kernel of an idea. It’s pop culture. It’s fraught with emotion, pain, ignorance, smug indignation and denial. In other words, it’s perfect fodder for a painting.

And with this being Texas, there is all kinds of different toxic masculinities running around. You have good ol boys, wannabe cowboys, actual cowboys, bikers, cholos, gansters, hustlers, and evangelicals. I’m not going to touch most of that with a 10 foot pole. At least not directly. I’ll stick to my own point of view as I explore the heart of the matter that bubbles up in all of those different people.

At first I heard toxic masculinity, and as a man, was assuming it was all about me and being a man and masculine in general. I don’t deny people who have been under the boot of the very real white privilege patriarchy. I have guilt knowing that I am an inevitable beneficiary of that system every day in every way, and I know when I need to keep my mouth shut and just not engage. Know one wanted to hear how I felt about the phrase “toxic masculinity” a.

I still privately didn’t get it. I was seeing it as a general feeling that masculinity was inherently toxic. I didn’t like that. We all have some combination of classic masculine and feminine qualities. There is no denying that the sexes have some physical, emotional and their own valid ways of processing things. Not to say of course that individual of either sex can have more or less of one way or another, but masculinity is a thing and it isn’t all bad.

Then one day, I finally got it. Like a flash. Maybe I was reading about ineffectual frustrated white males who aren’t succeeding despite their advantages and lash out violently at the world as a response. I saw toxic masculinity for what it was. Maybe I should have asked more questions instead of backing out of the room trying not to be noticed. But it was apparent to me finally that it wasn’t about me being masculine, it was about frustration at not being gifted with success that men reacted to in violent ways. At least partly. That was at least the aspect that most intrigued me and the one that seemed to be popping up in the news the most with more and more marginalized men engaging in mass shootings.

So that lead me to this piece. We have the flexing skinny white boy wearing the symbol of the toxic frustration he endures like a halo…in his mind the world is doing this to him. He’s a martyr. He is gripping the false idol of male virility, strength and pride. Is he trying to crush it, tear it apart, or is he desperately clinging to it. With his mask he isn’t immune to his poisonous frustration, but he isn’t aware of it.

I’m not sure it’s done and ready to paint/build though. I imagine I need some sort of candles and wall altar treatment as I am wont to do. Let’s see what pops up in my “doing” posts about this piece.

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Hopeless Cases and Good Graces

Big Mike on July 1, 2020

So I got this commission. Not just for a painting but for a custom niche wired with electricity and anything else I could convince them was necessary. I could have worked some plumbing into it perhaps but no, just the tiles and electricity.

They were interested in a slightly irreverent religious painting of their favorite saint, St. Jude. He needed to be holding their favorite tequila and a High Life, offering them to the viewer as if he recognized YOU as a lost cause in need of a beer and a shot.

I did some research on the worship (adoration is thinly veiled idolatry, let’s not kid ourselves) of St. Jude in Mexico. There is a church in Mexico City that features the image of Jude over a field of blue and white tile, so I figured the niche could have some tile of its own. Many tiles were considered. The sugar skulls motif can be overdone and a bit obvious for applications such as this, but damn it if these didn’t have just the right about of high contrast patterning without being too busy.

Not only did I mock up how the assembled painting look on the tile, I designed the niche to fit the tile without the need for cutting. I also diagrammed the wiring for it to be lit from above and a socket to power the flicker flame light bulb on Jude’s head.

I spent some time reading about St. Jude and how in Mexico he isn’t just associated with lost causes, but because he a lesser saint often confused with Judas, he is said to be a better advocate for juvenile delinquents and criminals who need a saint who will pray extra hard on their behalf. All of this made me think that St. Jude might have a little attitude, with wry smirk and raising an eyebrow as if he knows what a fuck you can be. The face I’m painting a mixture of random internet images, Danny Trejo, Russel Brand and Jesus. In fact the robes and hair are just a painting of Jesus. I turned the regal red robes green, superimposed a rich paisley pattern on the green and added a Jesus medal on a *bling*bling* gold rope chain.

All told I think I photoshopped together about 20 different elements to create the collaged comp you see here. Two hands, shot glass, the logo on the shot glass, the beer, the body with the left arm rotated a bit, the medal covering up the original’s sacred heart, the gold rope chain, Danny Trejo’s face with a less prominent brow, some other guy’s eyes (all Christian saints have to have blue eyes) and parts of Russel Brand’s beard…as well as the halo, bulb, bird, fire and rays. And let’s not forget the parting clouds. It’s a very complicate piece that highlights so much of what I learned as a good Catholic School boy.

As they say, “Progress Over Perfection.” But I hate it when they say that even if it’s true.

So all I really have left to do is the top of the bottle and the face and there is always another pass necessary to get all the details just so. I just spent an hour touching up the Jesus medal a little bit. After all that I’ll just need to put it together.

The thought of painting that face has me shook. I’m a little worried about getting the expression just right. I guess faces with character and lines and shadows are easier than smooth soft faces. If so, then Danny Trejo’s modified mug should be a breeze.

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photoshop collage comp for future painting titled Acrimony and cheese

Acrimony and Cheese II – Revisited and Improved

Big Mike on September 1, 2019

Food and booze ideas, both old and new, seemed ideal for the Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Here is another idea that I wanted to revisit.

Moe Profane Painting titled: Acrimony and cheese

This piece was always a hit…for 7 years now, and yet was always brought home after so many shows. It is big and expensive and let’s face it, I didn’t paint her very well. I’m not sure too many people realized it, but a few did. I think others just intuitively knew something was off about her face. I mean, I used to blow up the contrast of photos in order to capture the lights and darks of a figure and not worry so much about all the million gradations, allowing the image to blend with the textured background.

I always seem to fall back into a habit of trying to reproduce all the details of what I’m painting and some pieces just call for more concrete figures. In “Acrimony” the image of the lady I was referring to was crap and so…I reproduced it as crap. Also I wasn’t spending enough time honing my illustrated angels and devils.

I’m not sure why I was falling into that trap over and over. I just had this drive to go fast and didn’t give them enough attention. Slicker illustrations or even leaving them out altogether was the greatest opportunity for improvement over the years. I had already come a long way in a brief time when I made this piece, but I had a long way to go.

Redoing this idea is worth the effort and you can get an idea of how it will looks as a layered cut out piece. Nevermind that I’m leaving out the angel and devil. I think there is a place for them in specific types of work but I don’t need them everywhere. They aren’t exactly universally appreciated. It never hurts to mix things up and feel like I need to include a worn out bit in everything I do.

I’m taking the table from the original piece, cutting it out, adding a right side to it. I’ll be painting the rest from scratch…as there really isn’t anything else that doesn’t need to be improved upon. I still remember sitting and painting the portraits of the crock pot, brick of Velveta and its foil wrapper. I don’t want to do that again.

Progress pics on the way.

Here is an update to the original comp. I had realized that I didn’t have the bottom of the table in the original piece. Adding the right side with the Rotel would be easy enough but adding bottom wouldn’t work. So I needed to cut it off with a new visual element. Words are always fun! But any time you do something to a composition, it sends ripples across it throwing everything out of balance. I fixed this by losing the rooster trivet. I angled the curtains in to make them more dynamic and added a garland. Boom. Is it better or worse?

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photoshop collage comp for future painting titled Holy Guacamole: Delayed Gratification

Holy Guacamole (Delayed Gratification): Revisited and Improved

Big Mike on August 26, 2019

So I’ve decided to bring along some old and new food and booze pieces to Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio and Houston. This one needs to be redone though.

Delayed Gratification taco time finished painting.

Delayed Gratification: Taco Time piece was done before I put much thought into layering levels. Also, while people were enjoying the familiar old praying men, they weren’t digging the clock so much. So I cut off the clock and made the men and their meal separated and ready for more to be added.

So then I asked myself, “Self, what could I add that will help make the piece more relatable”

I wanted something to better connect with viewers and make it generally a better piece. I contemplated on just what it could be the men are praying for. Ideas of abuelas and pin up waitresses were considered. But then keeping with the prayer theme, why not add a Mary in their shared “thought could” offering to theme he only thing that’s missing on their tacos? The best of all condiments and something that is becoming more and more expensive. Avocado! Something worthy of prayer. And who better to ask than Mary?

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photoshop collage comp for future painting titled Just Desserts

Thorny Snoots and Cactus Fruits: Weird Shit Cows Eat

Big Mike on August 25, 2019

Making this for Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio and Houston. The name of the show doesn’t mean in any way that I need to paint about food and booze, but it just so happens I do that a lot anyway. Well, why not make the first of my Prickly Pear Series incorporate a little delicious ice cream?

We all love the ice cream and go knows the prickly pear deserves respect for all it has done for the people that have inhabited this part of the world for so long. Here is an altar of sorts to them both. Let’s see how it come alive when I paint it.

But wait! An update…I thought cow heads to match the rams in Prickly Beers and Ram Tears would make some sense, and it really fixes the weird spaces created where the bowl and placemat intersect.

ADDED BONUS: having the candles overlapped by a painted element is an exciting new thing I haven’t done in these wall altar pieces.

“Keep Digging” – Big Mike 🤗

photoshop collage comp for future painting titled Prickly Pears and Fruity Beers

Fruity Beers and Ram Tears: Weird Shit Goats Eat

Big Mike on August 25, 2019

Making this for Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. So if I was already doing a piece featuring Prickly Pear ice cream, it seems obvious that this show would need one about Prickly Pear beer as well.

I’m from the mid-west and when I first heard people ate cactuses I was all, “shut up!” Then the idea of them producing sweet tasty fruits was a shock as well. Now putting them in beer? Weird. Taking the better National Beer of Texas and mixing it with a fruity flavor is weird. It is a shock every time I taste it, but you know what? It works. So shut the hell up.

Now where can I find prickly pear colored candles!?

“Keep Digging” – Big Mike 🤗

photoshop collage comp for future painting titled Mimosas and Mea Culpas

Mimosas and Mea Culpas: Numbing Big Regrets From Last Night

Big Mike on August 16, 2019

Making this for Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Food and booze is kind of my wheel house and “Mimosas and Mea Culpas” features more breakfast moments…waking up full of regret and shame, filling up with more of the booze that got you there. The night crow and the morning jay representing your insatiable need to leave your consciousness despite your outward superficial efforts to show how grounded you are with your “live laugh love” coffee cup.

In my work the magic of creativity can come at several stage of production. Accidents, surprises and the actual act of drawing, painting, cutting, shaping and assembling can bring complexity and history to a piece, but also as I formulate and plan the image, strange associations and random results of Google Image Searches can give rise to a composition I had never envisioned. This has never been truer than when I was coming up with this photoshop collage. Now I can begin to recreate it on my fence pickets.

“Keep Digging” – Big Mike 🤗

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/entertainment/scooby-doo-50th-anniversary-history-trnd/index.html?no-st=1568423507

Virgin Butterworth: Revealing the Madonna Archetypes All Around Us

Big Mike on August 10, 2019

Making this for Pancakes and Booze shows this fall in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston.

Had a short list of virgins I wanted to do anyway. This was one of them. The showed vaulted this vague nugget of a concept to the front of the line.

So I found a picture of an old bottle of Mrs. Butterworth, changed her pose, adjusted the label and started surrounding her with religious tropes in the form of breakfast related imagery. The only think I had in mind was the bottle. Chance with Google image searches and random associations come together to create this comp that I now need to paint.

Update: above you see the latest version. Here is the earlier one. Luckily I realized that Mrs. Butterworth wasn’t virginal enough. I didn’t want to make her look like a Mary, but she did need to look more saintly than this:

Blessed Mother of Breakfast: Photoshop collage comp

“Keep Digging” – Big Mike 🤗