Happy new year!

Over the summer I started messing around with carving wood. I carved some patterns into a few old wood fan blades. While nothing came of those (I still may figure out how to incorporate those with my art in the future), it got me motivated to try new things.

I fumbled around, made a few failure pieces and then decided finally to make small wood panels to paint on.

Subject matter wise, I have gone back to my fantasy/sci-fi roots. I keep thinking about these HP Lovecraft deities and how they exist in multiple planes of existence at once and have no real visual form to them. They can basically look like anything they want to be or that your mind conjures them up to be. This is kind of what I am going for with this one.

I have a series planned out for 6 (maybe more) portraits of these “beings” that take form in an ever changing mask to the audience. I have decided on the series name of “Masking” to best describe my new work here. There may also be a representation of neurodivergence as well as I see myself behind all of this.

As far as my process goes, first I have gathered imagery from photos I have taken and from the internet and throw them into photoshop. Next, I carve them up, mess with the contrast, warping, blending, hue and saturation and somehow I end up with an image. I spent probably way too long (8 hours of photoshop at least) doing this. I then carved into the panel so that I can get a 3D aspect to my piece. (below)

After carving, I treated the wood, then gessoed it. The result, is my ongoing painting of this guy (above). This is a work in progress, so hopefully the end result will be something I am generally happy about.

I wish everyone a happy new year and the best in 2025!

Ben