Kickstarter and Video projects

Been busy lately, weirdly enough, doing a lot of video production. Aside from its being fun and fulfilling a few actual practical requirements, I am mainly hoping to get better at this medium, which I am finding more and more captivating each & every day.

This was a mini documentary on the work we have done for Freddy Henderson/Marshall Arts

THis was a spiffed up open mike of a Jimbo rant at a local cafe open mike - it gave me ample opportunities to practice cutting-editing skills and what I might call 'filmic illustration'

THis was my Kickstarter project

This was a section of a play Jim was in - helped in learning how to tweak audio.

Also, am happy to say I FINALLY started my kickstarter campaign, which can be seen here.

I am pretty happy with how it's doing up to now, though am certainly hoping to see more happen for it in the future.

Homily Sticks - Alicia Jimbo Collaboration

Not often in a course of a day, week, or year, upon participating in an art fair or event, does one so consistently hear “I have never seen anything like this before!” So it was with Jim’s Homily Sticks and Ponder Panels which, though met with some reserve, garnered enough of an interest from a Snow Bird New Orleans couple at the local BRACA art fair we attended some weeks ago that they purchased three.

Homily Sticks comes from marrying two of Jim’s favourite things: words and wood. His artistic statement regarding this nascent art/craft form follows:

In the course of its tumbling meander toward the sea, the rivers hereabouts cast up a practically limitless amount of cast-off wood, frequently as one sort or another of wooden needle. Beaver-bitten, human-hewn, or merely shaped by calamity and gravity and wind and water and stone into the classic shapes of daggers and handles of one sort or another, these forms are not what most passers-by would consider prepossessing. Often stuck in muck, covered with dirt and detritus, or moldy and buggy on the surface, these examples of nature’s short-swords often appear both common and homely.

Jim Hickey begs to differ. For many decades, he has collected samples of such items. Recently, he has begun to work the wood: cleaning it, sanding it, shaving it, developing the faces of the sticks so as to be more presentable.

He then lets the pieces sit, listening for what each one has to say until a semblance of sense emerges from a piece. After writing down and shaping these words, he burns them into the sticks: inevitably, some element of philosophy, morality, or intellectual investigation is what emerges, since even though he’s listening to the wood, the message is going through the ‘Jimbo Translator,’ which cannot help but bear the imprint of someone in love with words and ideas.

Alicia will often add touches of artistry to the words. Jim provides color and, as a final step, stains and finishes each piece according to what will both enhance and preserve a particular stick.

Although many of the sticks have holes and wire attached, adding potential functionality to the conceptual or aesthetic presence, others are freestanding or appear on finished bases. They all proffer some message—hence the ‘homily’—but mainly they are beautiful, natural sculptures that invite an appreciation for the infinite number of ways that time and tide craft gorgeous material for our contemplation.

We plan to develop this medium further. Meanwhile, Marshall Arts, in whatever form it takes, as well as local fairs and tailgate markets of all stripes in the WNC area will see these sticks come to life. They can also be seen in Marshall Arts’ Etsy store.

Turner in Madison County

As an artist, I am inspired by the wonderful landscape work of J. M. W Turner, the British Romantic landscape painter and printmaker. He revolutionized landscape painting and developed luminosity through colour to an almost equal degree that Vermeer did.

I own the following book, “Turner at the Tate”, which profiles 93 of the paintings that this prodigious artist produced. I have long studied these works in my own artistic quest.

Lately I have decided to honour the work of Tate by reproducing each painting in this book on a piece of found driftwood. I find that the ragged edges of the wood match Turner’s lively imagery in a spectacular manner. At some point in the near future (depending on funds and timing) I plan to paint all 93 paintings from "Turner at the Tate" on found driftwood. In order to complete this project, though, I will seek funding (probably through Kickstarter or something) in order to bring it to fruition. Reasons as follow:

Each one takes me over 3 hours - longer, if I am choosing to apply an indirect painting method. Therefore, in order to begin the project, I need the capacity to dedicate a good chunk of time to the enterprise. In addition, I need additional materials: more oil paints (running low on Prussian Blue), more paint thinner (running low), and gesso. In addition, I will need a steady supply of driftwood and found-wood panels - all cut, sanded, and gessoed - all in advance, so that I can just start painting right away. I already have a source of wood, who will charge approximately $3 per piece. If I have a budget, I will want to hire someone (and stimulate the economy, ha ha) to have an assistant who will gesso the wood for me.

I will do something with this series something I've never really done before: take time to present the work in an appropriate manner. I will need to invest in appropriate varnishes to preserve the wood. In order to effectuate that, I will either need to take a course or hire a consultant, since I understand that presentation is my weak spot. I will also explore (and possibly invest in) different framing techniques.

Additional ambitions attached to this project might be a dedicated, one-a-day blog, audio/video when appropriate, and hiring some sort of marketing consultant (online or otherwise) to see where I could take this further. Ideas include contacting the Tate museum (the institution that houses Turner's work), and otherwise finding a 'real art venue' that will allow me to have a show.

But all of this is happening in some undefined future. For now I have finished the first three of this series, seen currently at Common Ground, a great vintage/repurposed art locale in Asheville.