Back here on the arts side again with an embed regarding how I plan to approach this project as sort of a tutorial. Surface is a 9x17 crate style gift box, plain wood. Came with packaged cheese, crackers, jams and other such mail-order Christmas fare. Painted Marx Toys space tank missing its dozer blade needed something bigger than my 4x4 inch Fun Size.
Project had gotten stalled at this state with Marx tank descending crater to meet up with out of scale painted Marx astronaut from the same playset. Knew we could do better.
Much better.
Now it's an accident scene from one of those shows where guys in foil suits pull wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow. Only it's a spaceship and we're on Ganymede, where it snows frozen methane. My dad loves the shows and terrorizes anyone present with them daily. Plenty of material to work with here, respectfully. But yeah, this is therapy.
Some nomenclature for the box's etymology. All the way from China! Better their trees, I guess ...
The bottom will get a basic treatment of crackle paste moon terrain then sealed over with enough gel medium to be sealed in safely for display on tables or shelves. Though usually I approach the artworks anticipating it will hang on a wall and it seemed kind of weak to just leave the base plain.
I try to think of the box form as nine small panels intersecting at 90 degree angles. Each one should be its own interesting little painting, and all nine should work together no matter what angle they are seen from. When you first approach artwork in person it is rarely face on, and seldom from the Dutch Angle views I use for standalone pix. So it has to at least look intriguing from all sides, if not damn good for something that small.
My standard 4x4 and 5x7 inch sizes. Seemed kind of lame to have the sides just bare or even painted black, so I started letting the insides creep out. Now as much time goes into crafting the sides & bottom as do the main interior panels.
Goal for the sky on what I call The Forgotten Box with color shifts in a whispy haze of Light Interfere Fluid Acrylics. Then glassed over with multiple coats of Clear Tar Gel dried to a visible depth, with the shimmering Micaceous Iron Oxide Fluid Acrylic optically magnified by the curves in the dried gel layer.
So, working this motif sort of backwards: Usually I paint the box and then choose the found pieces to tell some sort of absurd little story. In this case it's starting with the story and a barely begun box, then crafting both to complement the other. The idea will change and evolve, spawning others. There are plenty of broken spaceships to go around ...
GOTCHA
Camera crew ready for more emotive interviews back at the Space Garage.
Accident cleanup crew from "Heavy Rescue 411: Ganymede Station Edition" with foul-tempered Irate Pilot at far right. Imprudent speed in a methane blizzard, could have been a lot lot worse. Everyone needs to learn to just slow down.
Concept for the project best summed up by this trailer clip, Meant to be a space parody of those Weather Channel shows where guys in foil suits pull wrecked trucks out of the snow. My dad is addicted to them, will watch two or more episodes every day ...
In drydock with pristine example of the form. First marketed in the US c.1952 (?) and elsewhere through the end of the decade. I like how these are American made even if extremely fragile, low density plastic that dislikes being dropped onto hard surfaces. Which while an indication of their era (soft "unbreakable" plastics first invented 1954) I've often suspected a clever marketing ploy in selling more units.
Vended originally from counter bins at Woolsworths etc for $.15 cents, two for a quarter. Now highly prized collector's bling, the damaged red ship came that way to me with others as fodder for artworks.
An example of the color scheme I'd employ here on a Marx Toys space dozer tank missing its bulldozer blade, as Corporal Qtzklplzk tries to 'esplain how he locked the keys inside. Sgt. Hallstead barks "Hour walk back to base for the spare set. Enjoy it."
Utilizing Golden's fluid Micaceous Iron Oxide for a grungy oil-caked "Used Universe" look, like she just rolled off a Jawa scrap heap.
Another example using an LP Toys style Checkers Rocket. Minimal and like it's made out of metal.
The full composition, box is about 9x17 which is the largest one of these I've tried so far. Terrain yet to be fully sculpted, and I want debris scattered around the impact site,
Idea was a "Behind the Scenes Look" parody spotlighting cast & crew members from the show. In this case the Irate Pilot of the wrecked space car the Heavy Rescue 411 crew are contracted to clean up.
By the Ganymede Station Transportation Administration at an hourly rate, billed back to the accident claimee. It isn't cheap, and guess what: They get an hour for lunch every day, paid. Including while cleaning up your mess, Sir. Or are you rated to go mop up all that explosive monomethyl hydrazine yourself? Didn't think so.
The trouble he got into. Imprudent speed in unsafe conditions. Methane blizzard, could have been a lot lot worse. Everyone needs to learn to just slow down.
Unearthing more finds from the basement artwork storage vaults.
I like how the lighthouse has crackled over time, some of the terrain as well. Needs more ocean - Am fairly certain this one was shown at the same Halloween theme exhibit as Castle Squonkenstein. Or was it The End of the World? "But the cause was lost, now cold winds blow ..."
The song in question from 1972's very British "Foxtrot". Always sends shivers up my spine. One of the best Mellotron solos ever, you feel the bass pedals as much as you hear them, and Steve Hackett's guitar leads the hopeless final charge. Great ending.
Pleased with everything going on with it except the sky. And it needs human figures, somewhere. A nice big shadow from a cloud. Tiny red "Fox on the Rocks" off in the distance. Have the rest of my life to finish it off, so ... Will post what comes of the notion.
Hogweed Thrall Studies
2017 acrylics and pastel on insulation board, 24 x 24 inches.
Studies for upsized versions of the Hogweed Monsters from my larger "battle painting" concept on canvas, which never got enough work into it for the monsters to be anything but half sketched in. Useful at the time but am pretty sure a few hirez pix will suffice and its surface painted over. Nice light sturdy 24x24 foam board, wide enough so it won't warp and tough enough so its surface could be lightly sanded off.
More on the Giant Hogweed series here, in itself an unrealized mural scale project from 2018 inspired by "The Return of the Giant Hogweed". Including the sketch painting seen in the short subject video below with a portion of the song.
2017 acrylics and pastel on insulation board, 24 x 24 inches.
I like the griffins up in the sky. Pretty sure it was in some Halloween show c.2018 (?) but the impetus for the somewhat out of character imagery was for (paid) use as a horror movie video/DVD cover which never came together.
The Genesis angle on this one is that the Witch or Warlock character was partly evoked by the scarifying stick-figure "witch" image the band would project behind them while performing "The Waiting Room" during the "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" tour. I'd have flipped out if in the audience during that evocation of something dreadful.
Squonk was also a college era nickname, with variations on it drummed up by my man Squidly like Count Squonkula, J. Robert Squonkenheimer, or in this case the Baron Squonkenstein. Very proud of this painting - will do more about the Baron's fictional universe.
One of the for the artwork inspirations including choice of colors, Halloween sound effects party album from 1972 or so. Coach Dodge used to play this for us every year in the gym at Tecumseh Elementary. Good times!
Glad that didn't sell! My approach to the figures almost works there, hanging guy looks great. Likely left as-is once the DVD project was abandoned. One more from today's heap ...
Pandemic Normal
2021, mixed media on canvas 24 x 36 inches.
That was end of the world horror movie, but it was real. Five other works like it from the time, none as yet shown publicly. More on the series soon.
Steve Nyland(b. January 1967) is an artist living & working in the greater Syracuse NY area. Steve obtained his BFA in Media Studies (Experimental Studios) at Syracuse University’s School of Visual & Performing Arts in August of 1992 and his MFA in Studio Arts from State University of New York at Albany in June of 1997.
Steve undertook post graduate studio work at SUNY Empire State College in Manhattan NY 1997-1999, serving as Studio Intern to artists Mel Bochner and Luca Buvoli. Also participating in subsequent exhibits including at PS 122 Manhattan, Galapagos Art & Performance in Brooklyn, CBGB Gallery Bowery, and the 2002 Free Biennial Open Studio at Hunter College in Manhattan.
Between 2003 and 2008 Nyland ran a home video mail order business for obscure cult movies & pop culture ephemera out of his Syracuse home, publishing reviews on the subjects regularly at IMDb from 1999 through the present day. During this period Steve also developed a background in video and digital media arts utilized in presenting his artwork to this day.
Steve began exhibiting his artwork in the Central New York area full time starting in 2008, working also as a Curator in both the Syracuse and Utica NY and sitting on various arts committees in both locations. He acted as Director of Visual Arts for the Utica Music & Arts Festival from 2014 - 2017, worked as Gallery Director for The Dev in downtown Utica from 2015 - 2017, and maintaned the Macartovin Annex Studio & Exhibition Space on Genesee St from April 2014 through January of 2020.
From January 2015 through May 2020 Steve worked as Artist in Residence and Curator for The Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse NY, producing in all twenty two quarterly public exhibits of CNY area artists through March 2020.
Readers may also use the messaging system at riight to leave comments or questions. You don't have to log in but please use a screen name, all comments marked anonymous subject to removal.
Putting this up to serve as an instant reference page while rebuilding professional credentials -- Please check back soon for more!
Steve N. May 2023
Edit 052423 Exhibition record and CV to follow. Considering cover image options
Long/short is that we have a new parody make believe TV show idea to have fun with. Debated on which blog to go over this on as there's as much art content as space bling worship. But it's about those plastic ships right now, the painting to follow. Usually it's worked the other way, starting with a more or less finished painted box that needed something inside to tell a story. This time it started as finding an idea large enough to snugly fill the void-like expanse of a much larger area than my standard 4x4 inch size.
Not sure about the text but want a "splash screen" with the make believe show's name, will refine it. Depicts an accident scene involving a somewhat rare Gilmark Toys hard plastic space car in a severely damaged state I'd obtained for a few dollars more. Held onto it knowing I wanted to utilize its still respected hull in a creative manner ... We just happened to have one of those Heavy Machine Rescue type shows on during supper, where guys up in Canada wearing brightly colored foil suits pull wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow? and bingo.
The box work as originally plotted out, painting just there at this stage to suggest an off-world location. Box is a 10x20 inch cheese collection gift crate from the late Uncle Michael. Best idea I'd come up with was to make a crater (at right) with plasticine that a likewise broken but handsomely painted Marx Toys space tank could traverse down to meet up with a painted Marx astronaut.
Groovy idea, but what of it? I like it when the arrangement suggests a little story, the more absurd the better. And the only rule is that the painting has to be as cool as whatever goes into the box or you're just flappin air. Craft table bling priced $50 or less, maybe clickbait eye-candy for people to "Like" on social media. Pass. Set it aside for a month & worked on other things.
Mayhem. Now we have a story to tell, and much more to fill in starting with finishing the painted scene. Needs a space heliocopter or wreckage hauling garbage ship in the sky over the tank, suspended by wire etc. The terrain will be more terraformed and scattered with debris from the mishap. And I want to paint the crashed ship with a stainless steel iridescent acrylic that looks like metal. Not like I could mess it up any further.
Are we having fun yet?
What I'm after. My dad is hooked on these shows, and will gleefully watch two or more episodes a day if allowed. He admires how it stars essential workers who modestly go about difficult tasks in bone-chilling, dangerous conditions for basic pay. No false heroes being celebrated, just guys who go home to their families at the end of the day. Sit in a chair, maybe have a warm meal.
I used to hate it, and still cannot discern between the two or three shows if its kind that feature into our routine programming here at Camp Nyland. I believe they are produced by the Weather Channel? and all have that same narrator whose voice has become more frequently heard in our house than music. Or at least upstairs on B Deck where my painting area is.I hear that guy booming on all the time, and when the inspiration hit I felt it was time to respond in kind: "Just go for it, snarky media parody and all." Cross-topic interest with the potential of a new audience who follow the show and want artworks involving work crews cleaning up after rocket accidents ... I have a lot of broken space ships in my boxes of stuff set aside to feature in artworks. Consider this warming up a new trope.
Our pilot at right in gold, a Gumdrop Alien cyborg by LP Toys of Hong Kong. That's his spouse in orange begging him to please get down from there, same toy line. Assorted astronauts by Giant Plastics, Multiple Toymakers, Airfix, and LP Toys, all painted with acrylics by Golden's. Dutch angle closeups like these can be printed + framed, or projected, enlarged, traced, painted into, and become their own flat 2d artworks. Kind of a nice angle to work from right there.
Which wasn't easily arrived at. Total time invested could be rounded down to three months of stop/go work over two years. First the elements had to be found, some of which I've had since 2019. The figures and space tank had to be selected from that stash and painted. Then the box selected & its terrain begun, the prior idea with the space tank worked on for about a month. Then the inspiration of the wrecked ship had to present itself, along with an hour or so excitedly fumbling up the collection of elements shown. Another hour taking pix, several more sorting them, modifying them, and writing up the post. Other things were created during that time span as well so it's not like this was a sole focus.
Drydock at Ganymede Station, one of our commercial and industrial hubs on Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, where forward bases to explore Saturn's life-rich water moons were established. Current population is about 22,000 mostly made up of industrial workers, miners, refinery crews and the support staff needed to provide lodgings and recreation for a small city's worth of humans. Which fifty years on is a mix of both Terrestrial colonists and Out Worlders who have never set foot on Earth.
One thing is for sure: My astronauts are always in trouble. One misadventure after another.
Saturdays are for what I call Culture of Collectingposts about my interest in vintage space toys in addition to cutting lawns here at Camp Nyland. And much of today was spent avoiding doing the latter while ogling a long-wanted item of 1950s plastic space bling - The "Pyromatic Rocket Ship" space car manufactured by Pyro Plastics in the USA starting in 1952 (?). I'd had a similar rig but this baby is logo marked, beautifully intact and the lawn will be there tomorrow no matter how much rain falls on it. Having priorities in order is a vital step to success.
Some video on the specimen and other items of interest. Runs four minutes ... Not sure what was up with my voice that day, sounds like someone who pahked theyh cahh in Bahhstan Yaad.
The Culture of Collecting (thinking seminar titles here) refers to how I felt an obligation to be conversant on the toy forms used in creating my artworks. Especially the vintage 50s and 60s stuff that others collect very passionately. Pyro Plastics has its own following separate from the space toy era as fabricators of model kits and scale replica vehicles, each of which has their own culture of collectors. You have to learn your onions and figure out the neighborhood, though my fascination is squarely with their space toy creations.
Octopus Hunt, 2019, 11x8 inches, pastel and acrylics on laser print of digital photo. Toy forms by MPC, Britain's Ltd. and Dollar Tree. Terrain and backdrop acrylic paintings on wood.
A lot of research went into learning vintage toy lingo and being able to accurately describe each piece that would figure into my art schemes. Their pedigree and history are part of the formula. I get more inspiration from vintage forms than contemporary, my geek button being switched on by Cold War era design sensibilities, functionality, and the right shapes. We're going to have fun utilizing this beauty as a photo subject for flatworks, printed or traced as above.
No Vintage Space Toys Are Harmed In The Creation Of My Artwork
My paintings and videos both evolve over time. I'll go back and rework things as they hang there on the wall, if a better solution to hone down the intent presents itself. So here's a new "remix" of the Hogweed Battle painting video montage with what I think are improvements. Runs 90 seconds, with sound.
Nice upgrade! Let me know if my sound elements prove distracting. Not trying to make a music video but animate the painting. Also the title is meant as a parody of 18th/19th century epic battlefield paintings with flowery descriptive elongated titles. In my case adapting some of Peter Gabriel's verbiage from the song itself.
The Final Onslaught of the Mighty Hogweed, Threatening the Human Race
2018 Acrylics and pastel on canvas, 30 x 66 inches. Unfinished.
The full size work above, and it was when mixing this new edit's transitions that it occurred to me the figure at more or less dead center being torn asunder by enraged Hogweed shock troopers has blue hair. I have not had blue hair since 2016 but am fairly certain that was meant as the self portrait element, taken from (among others) Michelangelo portraying himself as St. Bartholomew's flayed skin in his Last Judgement.
Screengrab from Wikipedia.
Still recall learning about this in art history and being like, "Dude ..."
My recollection had been that my person was meant to be one of the soldiers to the left spraying weed killer on the Hogweeds, but the guy being torn apart also has its internal pouring out which makes me think of my diverticulitis art.
Pretty sure. I have not worked on or seen much of the work since June/July 2018 and that was half a life ago these days. So yeah, Saturn devours his children or whatever. Or was it Jupiter?
Another upload with commentary on the painting series, and has the older version of the battle video. Feel welcome to email ideas etc or comment using the message system, you don't have to sign in to chime in.
Syracuse area artist Barbara Conte-Gaugel is having an exhibit of recent landscapes in oil at a favorite venue here, the Petit Branch Library on Victoria Place just off Westcott St in the outer university area.
Opening reception Saturday June 3rd from 2pm-4pm.
Barbara was a regular contributor to our shows at The Tech Garden and we did a studio visit with her c.2014? that helped familiarize me with the artists at Syracuse's big Delevan Center on Fayette St. just out of the downtown zone. Always a pleasure to work with! Been thinking of Syracuse area venues to go introduce myself at and Petit Branch has been a place I've long wanted to show my artworks.
Visit barbaraconte-gaugel.com for more on Barbara's multitude of talents, and see you on the 3rd.
Revived project from 2018, conceived of as material for a show at The Tech Garden in Syracuse with THE END OF THE WORLD as its theme. I did the lost Bimini Road, Lighthouses (at the end of the world there, get it?) and the Mighty Hogweed series. Which were increasingly large and more ambitious attempts to visualize battle between mankind and the Giant Hogweed in "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" by British rock band Genesis from their 1971 album "Nursery Cryme".
First the excitement of re-discovering the works for the first time since maybe 2019.
For reference, here's the entire piece of music in question. Makes good reading music.
"The Return of the Giant Hogweed" by Genesis, 2007 Remaster
Apologies for any forced ads!
Toxic Heracleamantigazziani, the Giant Hogweed. An invasive species introduced to the UK from Russia in the later 19th century and was considered a serious threat to the British ecology once its traits became known. Its spread ran unchecked for several decades until a national eradication scheme was implemented. While resembling benign Queen Anne's Lace its sap is toxic to humans and animals, its thorns sharp enough to cause bleeding, and chokes out all other plantlife in the plots it infests.
Genesis onstage from 1973 with then singer Peter Gabriel in his Flower Man mask he would don at a key moment in the band's majestic 1972 magnum opus "Supper's Ready". He only wore the mask & played that persona during "Supper's Ready", which Pete attributed to British children's show characters Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men.
TURN AND RUN
That is kind of scary, with his stage makeup for other sections of their live act. All I knew when I was fourteen and heard the Hogweed song was that this was the guy who wore the Flower Man mask. And would imagine Gabriel donning the mask for the climactic finish of the song, when the band pulls out all the stops as the Hogweeds vanquish over humanity for having trashed this planet and its ecologies.
"The Return of the Giant Hogweed" Live on PopShop, Belgian Television 1972
Apologies for any forced ads!
Well he didn't wear it, but he does (very carefully) gets rough with his microphone stand there at the end, and it's always a joy to watch Steve Hackett play his guitar parts when the camera operator allows us to. The song was on the nightly setlist of what is known as Black Show, before the costuming when Peter would wear the black ensemble seen in the above performance. As their catalog of songs to play increased and Gabriel's stage personas become more complex the song was dropped.
Well ... Maybe with some work.
So no, Peter Gabriel did not wear his flower mask for "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" but with some artistic license I used the idea of it as a visual motif for this army of walking human size plant monsters. Dangerous too, lethal to humans, with both dandelion thorn sharp hands, the strength of small trees, and spewing a poison that makes that Death Sushi poison Homer Simpson ate seem like a belt of decent Scotch.
Hogweed Thrall Study, acrylics on wood 8 x 24 inches or so. Did a group of them to help design a relatively simple character to replicate for the Flowerman Monster army. The painting was left unfinished before I'd started filling in the details. Am about to try again.
Brainstorm sketch for the composition, fall 2017.
Blue humans at right, green Hogweeds to the left.
Sources of ideas at play were World War One battlefield imagery, paintings by Otto Dix, and pre-20th century battlefield artworks of massive scale. Usually with expansive titles that go on and on, of which mine is a sort of parody. Of particular inspiration was the Gettysburg Cyclorama, a 360 degree work which surrounds the viewer with a human scale depiction of the battle.
Some of my charging humans are based on a reverse of this image.
Final Onslaught Study, fall 2017, acrylics and pastel on wood, 6 x 18 inches. This planning sketch does not yet include the Statue of Liberty form as I had not yet inherited the large canvas with the face on it yet.
The Cyclorama is not just painted either, much of the presentation hinges on the use of cutouts, 3d diorama elements and forced perspective tricks. All of which I have in mind for a larger "human scale" version of this composition, with the painting shown here a working sketch on trying to scale the motif up to larger proportions. The toy piece found object box paintings are a scaled down version of the concept translated to a size I could work on in my Lunar Module during pandemic quarantine.
"Totem Setup" from October 2022, using toy pieces sent by my fellow plastic figure collector and artist/musician Mark Dreez. Using a forced perspective trick to try and make the scene look epic. It can then be printed or projected onto larger surfaces to be traced, then and painted over like a giant coloring book. Solves the rendering precision and unlocks the potential of larger scales. To a degree I never need bother with freehand sketching anymore especially if it's proven a hinderance to creating new work.
Hogweed Studies, January 2018 4x6 inches acrylics on wood.
As to resolving the larger painting it crossed my mind when making the video that I can also use posable action figures generate pix matching poses which prove bothersome, print and make cutouts to collage into place. So this Hogweed project was a key evolution step: The frustration of not being able to realize what I wanted to see drove me to discover new solutions. Finally ready to try putting them into play, and regard this painting as Unfinished Business.
"The Final Onslaught of the Mighty Hogweed, Threatening the Human Race"
(2018) Acrylics and Pastel on Canvas, 66 x 30 Inches
Part of it I'm actually quite pleased with as-is, especially as nicely chosen digital pix. But the work was left "unfinished" once I decided that the precision of rendering for the human forms was beyond what I was capable of at that time. Feeling ready to try again.
The mass of Hogweed creatures shambling out of the weeds & sumac hedges down there by the freeway. Now overrunning the park and its sculpture garden, a teeming horde of Hogweeds stretching back as far as the eye can see, At the end three massive Mighty Hogweed giants lumber, crushing cars and tossing apart the shopping center like Godzilla's.
A ragtag band of humanity gathering to try and stem the onslaught, battling from the remnants of the trashed Statue of Liberty from "The Planet of the Apes". Which was a chance element, the beginning sketches of a Marilyn Monroe portrait the artist whom the canvas was estated from had left undone. So David's Marilyn lives on, and the battle design was adapted to accommodate the face while using the body contours to suggest how the terrain was shaped.
My JDHS classmate Philip Modesti USMC (Retired) on the tank there, shooting incindary rounds at the surprisingly flammable Hogweeds. They come right apart in this spray of green muck that looks like guacamole but is quite toxic.
Carnage. Heavy losses to both sides and the Hogweeds appear to have the upper hand.
Spewing their venom. They can also spit thorns, and up close use their Hogweed hands for melee combat to tear human bodies limb from limb. You stay away from them, see, even though some are smiling.
Humans responding with giant backpack canisters of weed killer. That was intended to be a self portrait image at left in the hazmat suit with the hose. Will finish it.
My best attempt at being gruesome. Will enjoy filling that in.
I'll be at that bench decent weather permitting, while adapting the basement into a new studio any painting instructor would be proud to invite their class to visit. More on the project soon.
Once more for good measure. Very pleased with this edit!
