Why blog?

I decided to start a blog for several reasons. The first was that I seem to have a yen (on and off, but nonetheless, a yen) to write stuff. Clearly, I'm no writer, but , like everyone else, I have a few things to say. Hopefully, these things will not sound idiotic or sophomoric (nor drag on and on). If this does in fact happen, maybe the other content on the site will interest you. I want to parallel my writings with artwork that I hope to be creating as I venture forward. This artwork will be in a different vein-that is, a direction in which I'm not used to heading. If nothing else, you'll get to see me founder in different materials . I suppose it would help to explain this further: I'm a sculptor but hope to be working here in collage, maybe drawing and maybe some painting. To see my other work, you must visit my website (http://www.wmskrips.com/). Will the writing and the art-making coincide? Maybe yes, maybe no: there's a good strong commitment from me!

I hope to share some ideas and maybe a theory or two...a little pontification, maybe an opinion and certainly some recommendations. The frequency of these will probably be an erratic one-at best, you'll be amused. At worst, it will read like a tween diary... "today I fed the cat and then rode my bike to Timmy's. I had a good day. Yesterday, Timmy rode his bike to my house and..."

You get the picture.

Speaking of which, here's what I start with. It's a collage on an old door panel called "John II", mainly for the cut-out reclining figure at the bottom. I used colored pencil to make the king waving a sword and the tree trunk. C said that the horse looked a bit pretentious, so I washed him out a bit with pigment. For this collage and some of the others I've been working on, I feel that I owe some credit to a guy named Clint Griffin- I met him at Folk Fest in Atlanta and like his work a lot. I don't know him personally, but if I did, I hope that I could say the same about him. He's an artist who I need to stay away from, only because his work could influence me a little TOO much.

Anyhow, this panel measures 18.5" X 9.5" X 1"-as I said, colored pencil, pencil, collage on white door panel. Don't know how this is done, but I'm pricing this artwork at $200. Anything that you purchase will need to have shipping costs added on to it. Please contact me if you are interested.

More boring biography here-I mentioned painting and drawing before. I need to force myself into making these things-I am a painter-wanna-be and have been all my life. There's something here about what you can't have is what you desire the most. Friends tell me that I should stick with my sculpture (which they like) and shut up. Maybe they are right, but I keep thinking about sticking my hand in the flame. Spose it's because I really like looking at painting-the expressionist stuff has always been a favorite-you know, paint that looks edible and all that.

I think in 3D. The sculptural work that I do comes easily to me (well, not THAT easily-let's just say that it's a language with which I'm facile). But working with 2D issues is not at all the same thing-collage may be an exception only because it is a literally additive/subtractive process. Painting differs in the fact that the elements in hand transform in the additive process. Variables

multiply very quickly and the possibility of retracting yer actions (without a lot of spontaneity-killing work) are almost nil. The painting process is a tough one for me-spose it's because I feel that a lot (if not all) control is gone-since I rarely start any artwork with a finished image/object in mind, the options quickly overwhelm me and I lose my way...but who can turn down a challenge?