spence munsinger
artist & painter
I was describing, out loud, the process of applying paint to canvas. In the process of working to explain it, I found some insights. I use photographs as a synthesis for an image, for the starting place for space in the painting, for color reference, to see what colors would be, where light moves, how [...]
Bantam Books put out a paper-bound book called “The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta” in 1975. My original copy of the book is long gone. I remember his paintings vividly, from the covers of the Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan series and the John Carter of Mars books, and from this paperback art book. One of [...]
I’ve been thinking about the process of painting. I’m defining the sunset series, refining the words that describe why sunsets and where that comes from. I’m also looking for the words to explain and express and place myself as an artist. Creativity is a balance, a choosing of alternate paths of action [...]
“One must observe nature by means of the light reflected from objects, rather than be concerned with the tangible existence of the objects themselves.” From “Search for the Real” a collection of writings by and about Hans Hofmann, published in 1948. This statement is a Zen koan for an artist, at least for me. [...]
I was searching for something about color and I ran across a statement in a forum, something like “if you want to see how to paints trees find a book by Wolf Kahn”. Further down in that newsgroup, someone else agreed that the was the path to follow. I wasn’t researching trees, but I [...]
There is this standard thing an artist is asked to come up with, a piece of writing, basically an ad blurb peeking inside the artist’s soul. It is to bring the audience to a point of view from which they can see the work with some understanding of the process, the artist, the [...]
DeviantArt gallery is a love-hate thing for me. Which, actually, considering the site, is exactly appropriate. At least as long as the emotions occur at the same time, are intense, are expressed in somewhat dark goth terms and you throw in a bit of anime and manga characterization. Or perhaps something like this: [...]
An art museum is school, place of worship, archaeological dig, the burial place of my ancestors, to me. I am looking for precedent, for a lesson in the language of art. It’s like a writer reading – a part of me is always looking at HOW the effect was achieved and recreating the steps [...]
