Thursday, January 27, 2011

studio shots

Thanks again to everyone who applied for the internship position. I've hired two people for the time being, one person from the list of people who applied, and one person who I was already friends with. There is actually so much to be done that I am considering hiring a third person. Either way, I will be referring to the list of applicants when these people eventually quit or mess up bad enough that I have to fire them. For my next blog post, I will post their information, links, and some of their work. For now though, I'm just posting some studio shots and details of work in progress. I've said this before, because it takes me so long to do a show, there are huge gaps on this blog when I don't really have any new work to post, but I will try to do a couple of these updates along the way, and I'll be in a few fairs and groups shows as well...

So here are some shots and a few descriptions. This might be boring, you can click on any image to make it bigger...

My small drafting table and my computer desk covered in garbage.

A detail of an almost finished painting.

An empty checklist is really panic inducing...

I got this in the mail today, the new Kris Kuksi book. I met Kris through my friend Daniel, who did both of our websites. The book is excellent, if you don't know his work check out his website...

I listen to audiobooks basically every minute that I spend in the studio, unless I'm writing emails or reading real books. I just started listening to George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire. My two favourite things to do are drawing and listening to epic fantasy novels, so when I combine them I'm in nerd heaven. I've taken it so far as to print off the maps of the worlds that the novel's take place in, and tape them to my desk so I can follow where everything is happening. If Jamiyla reads this I'm afraid she might make me sleep on the couch tonight, but I'm proud of my fantasy audiobook dedication...

A drawing I am working on, it is 14" x 18", a grid of carnivores.

Our fish tank, most of the fish are hiding.

Anyone who has read my blog for awhile might remember Patrick, he was my intern a couple of summers ago. He just finished school, and is now renting a portion of the studio. Having him in here is awesome, we trade a lot of audiobooks and he always cooks spaghetti. I really love his work, he hasn't updated it in awhile but you can see his blog here. You can see the blog post I made when he started as an intern here.

The painting area.

A piece in progress.

This is my bike, it's a bit of an old man bicycle, up until this summer I rode a roadbike, but I fell off of it and hurt my hip, and couldn't really ride it for the rest of the summer. Then I needed money so I sold it to a friend, and when I could ride again I bought this guy.

I really like the front rack, I do all my grocery shopping and art supply shopping with it. The dumb thing actually cost more than my bike did...

This is what my hip looked like after I fell. I couldn't really move around for a few days, but the World Cup was on, so it turned out to be awesome.

This is the little room that all of the store orders get wrapped in.

Below are a couple of drawing on mylar, 24" x 24", that need to be painted for my show. The show is November in Paris.







This is the big piece that I'm working on in my apartment above my studio. I've been working on it for about 2 hours a day for about 10 months now, and it is going so slowly, it's testing my patience. It will be a grid of 10 000 vertebrates, the idea is that it will be the centerpiece of the show, but I'm going to have to really move on it. It's about 40% done.

A detail.

Ok, that's all. I thought this update would take about 20 minutes to do, but it's been about an hour and a half and now I'm sorta anxious. I'm going to plan some new mylars tonight, I hope to have about 9 mylar paintings in the show...

Another reason that I haven't been updating this blog quite as much is I tend to post very small updates on facebook, and sometimes forget or am too busy to post them here. If you want more news, or to just read the dumb stuff I post when i forget that people I don't know are reading or watch the rap videos I put on my wall, friend request me here.

12 comments:

dj jimenez said...

all this is great!

kyle clements said...

Awesome Stuff Nik.

Your dedication is an inspiration, and your work is simply fantastic.

beebe said...

The work looks great! Congratulations on the Paris show and the interns.

Martini said...

your work is absolutely mesmerizing. thanks for sharing!

Lauchie said...

Looking bad ass, Man!

fishlemons said...

I love seeing peoples studios and getting an idea of how they work on their stuff so this entry made me REALLY happy. Your work is wonderful, i'd want to ask you questions about it but i don't want to take up time so i will go look through here and the internet, see if i can find the answers. Just wanted to let you know you're Amazing.

S Sweetman said...

Those new pieces are looking amazing. Can't wait to see them in their entirety!

Nicholas Di Genova said...

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Fishlemons, I'd be more than happy to answer questions, if you don't mind being patient about how long it might take me to reply to your email. I have an inbox filled with emails that I haven't gotten around to yet, but I wouldn't mind one more.

mediumphobic@gmail.com

I love looking at art studios as well, usually, I would much rather prefer buying a book about an artists studio rather than their work, I'm not sure why, I just find it really motivating. There is a great one about Nara with brown cover, I can't remember the title. I don't even like Nara's work, but that is one of my favourite books.

Elle Januarie said...

Very inspirational!

Aurelie said...

Love your work
I discovered it last year in Paris and was kind of hoping I could see more of it for real at the Salon du Dessin Contemporain this year...
It seems I'll have to wait till november...Where will it be??
I hope your empty list won't stay like that for long

Nicholas Di Genova said...

Aurelie,

Thanks for the kind words, I actually might be in the Salon du Dessin Contemporain this year again. I may send a few smaller pieces, but i am still unsure.

As for where in paris my solo show is, I'm not sure yet actually. The gallery is in the midst of a move from Marseille to paris, but they don't actually have a space yet. They do assure me though that they will soon, and that my show will take place in November...

Anonymous said...

I share your love of drawing while listening to audiobooks! ahaha. Check out the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I found most of the audiobooks online! They're pretty great as far as epic fantasy novels go.