Skip Noah • Art Blog

Next Generation Project Texas Fellow

2011-09-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

I have been selected to be a Next Generation Project Texas Fellow by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. I'm looking forward to it!

More information here.

Public FB page

2011-02-08T18:02:00.000-06:00

I have a public page for my artwork up now. If you'd like to receive updates from the page you can follow the link below and "like" it.

Link to like

NPR and Austin City Hall

2011-01-17T19:59:00.000-06:00

My artwork is featured on NPR. It is an article about Turning Art.

I will be showing with other artists at the 2011 People’s Gallery Exhibition at Austin City Hall. The exhibition runs from February 18, 2011 – January 13, 2012.

Bacchus in Barcelona

2010-12-30T00:18:00.003-06:00

I just uploaded "Bacchus Giraffe…Drunken God of Mythology" to DeviantART where you can order prints and other merchandise.

If you are in Barcelona, you can see a print of this artwork at Bar Zim (Calle Dagueria 20, Barcelona - Gothic Quarter). I look forward to going there myself someday and enjoying a glass of wine.

TurningArt

2010-11-18T15:14:00.001-06:00

My art is on a site called TurningArt. It works similar to Netflix, only you can build credit towards purchasing the art. More here.

Austin Airport

2010-11-15T11:42:00.003-06:00

I have a new assemblage piece I created titled "Grass Growing Through Cracks in the Sidewalk", that will be on display at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport until January 2011 (across from gate 8). It is part of a Green Art Series show.

Here is an article

Summer Group Show

2010-06-07T09:57:00.001-05:00

I will be showing at Dahlia woods Gallery show titled "HOT TIME...Summer in the City", a group show featuring 11 artists. Opening reception Fri. June 11: 6 - 8:30 p.m. and show continues through August 31st.

Spring

2010-04-25T21:12:00.007-05:00

I will be participating in an exhibit titled Fresh Faces, which runs from May 1 - June 5 at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas. I created a piece for this show titled "Interrupted while constructing my chrysalis". Its a piece that shows a woman building a chrysalis around her, hidden away in some room or basement. Someone is walking down the stairs interrupting her work. The original idea for this was going to be a green misanthrope style lady, but the work evolved on its own into this idea.

May 15th and 16th I will have some artwork included in the 5X7 Exhibition and Fundraiser for the Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin. My first artwork to be shown here in Austin. I created 2 untitled pieces for the fundraiser that I am donating to the Arthouse. One is a man holding 2 doves. The idea for this painting was created while watching a documentary on Tesla. Toward the end of his life he loved feeding the pigeons of NYC, and had a favorite white one. Tesla was a brilliant man and his love for animals persuaded me to respect him even more. The other is an abstract of Nikki. The colors remind me of the way Ladybird Lake smells early in morning. There is a certain blue-green smell that is nice when you are close enough to the lake the wind blows your direction. These paintings are small, which was interesting to work on canvas that small.

My art will be included in the publication Moulin Review, Vol. 2 and Vol.3. Im looking forward to seeing my artwork in these publications, and reading the stories and poetry by others as well.

We bought our first home and are currently moving so I will be taking a break for a while. We are staying in Austin but moving to the South-West section, which has more of a hill country flavor about it. I think when I do start my art up again I will be creating some scenes from the hill country.

Modern Luxury Magazine

2010-03-02T10:39:00.002-06:00

There is an article about my artwork in the March issue of Modern Luxury Magazine (Dallas edition). Check it out here online

Ive also redesigned my site.

The Elephant's Au Pair

2010-02-06T22:33:00.000-06:00

The Changing Tides

2010-02-06T22:25:00.000-06:00

The Blind Prophet of New Orleans

2010-02-06T22:22:00.000-06:00

I Can't Have Tea Late at Night Because of All the Ayes Ayes

2010-02-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

The Judgement of the Owls

2010-02-06T22:16:00.000-06:00

I Throw My Rose at the Bull

2010-02-06T22:00:00.001-06:00

I find violence against the innocent for entertainment both abhorrent and sad. In this painting the bull has defended his life against the many swords of the matador. The empty seats in the stadium reflect the silence and disbelief of the crowd, the accessories to the matador’s actions. Red blood escapes the matador blending with the red of the cape, linking the red in the rose that I throw to the bull in victory.

InTownMix

2010-02-03T11:08:00.002-06:00

Here is a great short review of my work, advertising the Other Worlds show I'll be having at DWG.

Other Worlds

2010-01-17T20:13:00.002-06:00

I have an upcoming solo exhibition at Dahlia Woods Gallery titled "Other Worlds". The opening reception Fri. February 5th: 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. and the exhbit runs until March 19th.

I'm currently creating new artwork for the show.

Rainstorm Approaching The Town By The Sea That Never Existed

2009-12-08T09:30:00.002-06:00

In this painting I was interested in the idea of art creating a world that momentarily exists to the viewer. Just for a moment your eyes walk the streets, go into the buildings; feel the approaching rainstorm in the air, smell the salt of the sea. The mind wonders back to reality with the slightly melancholy fact that this town does not exist, nor has it ever.

I personally love the feeling of approaching rainstorms. This unnamed town cant see the rainstorm approaching because of its position on the mountainside, but I'm sure if you were on the streets you could feel it. The relatively calm sea (calm before the storm), made for an easy trip for the person in the yellow rowboat, who looks like they were just at the town across the harbor. Which town they call home is unknown even to me. At first I had the sea crashing with waves, it matched the swirling turmoil of the thundercloud. But after painting over it and noticing the calm, tranquil feeling of the sea, I left it in a state of momentary serenity. Ive also recently had a great interest in Japanese art, especially that of Hokusai. I believe some of his works have had a slight influence on this piece especially.

The town itself is reminiscent of the Cinque Terre region of Italy. The buildings clinging to the sides of mountains plummeting into the sea. The buildings themselves I added very light elements of Asian and Islamic architecture.

In a lot of my recent paintings I show a sun that is either setting or rising. In the painting I complete before this one, "Chiron Serenading The Autumn Woods", the sun is a morning sun, heralding a new day and season. Ive been asked if it is setting or rising in this work, I believe it is setting. I love the rain at night.

Art for the MASSES Exhibition

2009-11-22T23:44:00.002-06:00

I'll be part of a group exhibition at Dahlia Woods Gallery in Dallas titled Art for the MASSES. The reception is Saturday Dec. 5 from 6-8:30 p.m. The show runs until Jan 30. You can find more information here.

Chiron Serenading The Autumn Woods

2009-11-01T13:41:00.005-06:00

"Chiron Serenading The Autumn Woods" shows the scholarly centaur Chiron playing a bouzouki guitar in the woods during late autumn after all the trees have lost their leaves.

The trees in this piece are dancing erotically to the music, surrounding Chiron in a circle as he is playing. There is a communal, sexual, and spiritual feeling in the movement of the trees as they respond to the music. The dull winter sun peaks through the branches as an ocean of cold clouds is coming towards the scene, heralding the beginning of a new and colder season. Chiron sits on a path, contemplative, performing a musical celebration, a story of the year that has past, one last dance before the sleep of winter.

I now find myself drawn towards doing art that involves nature and the outdoors. Living in Austin you have a lot of great outdoor locations to hike and be around the natural world, and I believe this environment is making its way into my artwork. I have more ideas for nature centered art in the future.

Facebook

2009-08-14T23:10:00.001-05:00

I just created a new facebook account so if you like my art and would like to be friends on facebook send me a request!

http://www.facebook.com/skipnoah

Audition in NYC video

2009-07-22T19:15:00.002-05:00

I tried out for a reality artist show this past weekend in NYC. On the video you can see me at 4:00, I'm at the table talking to one of the first screener.

NeighborsGo - Dallas Morning News Article

2009-07-13T14:36:00.003-05:00

You can click on the images below to read. NeighborsGo is part of the Dallas Morning News, a neighborhood section. The Irving NeighborsGo did a great article on my North Lake Exhibition.

Female Centaur

2009-07-13T13:46:00.003-05:00

This is my artwork for the 2nd of the 3 Body Art Balls in Dallas I participated in. Its titled Female Centaur. I was originally going to paint the model but it tuns out she was allergic to the paints I had, so I improvised and covered her in color plastic wrap and painted parts of that. The back legs of the centaur costume that I created where attached to her front legs and had bendable knees, so when she walked the back legs moved in tandem with hers.

Christmas Queen

2009-07-12T14:02:00.003-05:00

In 2000 I took part in The Body Art Ball in Dallas. This was the first Body Art Ball (they continued on for several years afterwards, I took part in the 2 following years as well). This is called The Christmas Queen.

Photos from Dahlia Woods Summer Group Show

2009-07-11T21:52:00.002-05:00

Dahlia Woods Gallery Summer Group Show

2009-07-07T12:48:00.003-05:00

Dahlia Woods Gallery is having an art reception this Friday, July 10th from 6-8:30pm. It will be me and around 10 other artist showing. The show will run thru August 15th.

Dahlia Woods Gallery is located in Dallas at 600 Cantegral Street

The Young Poet Rumi

2009-06-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

The painting "The Young Poet Rumi" shows a young Rumi (sans white beard) composing a poem. The painting is a visual narrative of catharsis. Peacock feather in hand, the flow of ink has veered off the paper and knocked over an ink well as the weight of emotion from what he has just written causes him to collapse in creative exhaustion, his heart pumping blood onto the green table. Two young birds fly in through his open window bringing flowers. These feathered muses also bring him inspiration metaphorically through these gifts of flowers.

When I see this painting I can smell the salty air of the sea just outside Rumi's window. The lines of the poem on the paper are from the poem Heroes:

Does any artist paint for the sake of the picture itself,

without the hope of offering some good?

No, but for the sake of the viewers and the young

who will be drawn by it and freed from cares.

Photos from Northlake Art Reception

2009-06-18T16:35:00.001-05:00

WeShotJr Interview

2009-06-18T09:51:00.001-05:00

Here is an interview I did for a site called weshotjr.com

Giraffes and Seahorses

2009-06-09T15:06:00.004-05:00

I will be having a retrospective of my work spanning back the past 15 years at Northlake College in Irving. The exhibition's is titled "Giraffes and Seahorses" and will display will be over 20 pieces of art ranging from the early 1990s till this year. The show runs from June 11th - July 7th, with an opening reception on Wednesday June 17th, 7:30 - 9:00 pm in the gallery.

For those interested in viewing this exhibit the Northlake College is located in Irving, and the college gallery is in building A.

Amalgamation of minutia

2009-05-12T14:55:00.005-05:00

I didn't make it to Houston for the reception for the Hunting Art Prize. I was selected by 3 jurors to get into the show; Kate Green an independent curator and former curator of Artpace in San Antonio; Chiyo Ishikawa, deputy director of art, Seattle Art Museum in Seattle; and Suzanne Folds McCullagh, curator-prints and drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago. I didn't win the prize money, but thats ok, I got into the show which I'm happy about.

Im working on a painting around now about the poet Rumi. It should be completed here in the next couple of weeks. Im going to include this piece in one of the two shows I have coming up this summer, a solo show at Northlake College and a group show at Dahlia Woods Gallery, both in Dallas. Im looking forward to both.

Ive included a drawing I did a while back of a Buddhist monk realizing the ways of becoming one with all thats around you, i.e., understanding and accepting your role as part of everything.

Photos from Natura Fragilis

2009-05-12T00:34:00.005-05:00

I found some great photos online of the Natura Fragilis exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center. The photos were taken by another artist at the show, her name is Julie Zarate and you can see her work here. The curator for the show was Enrique Fernández Cervantes. He is a really great guy and artist if youd like to check out his work.

BlackWhiteRead.com article

2009-03-28T10:50:00.006-05:00

Here is a great article by Glen Kitto for BlackWhiteRead.com on the "Perchance to Dream" show at Dahlia Woods Gallery.

Blogs

2009-03-07T23:25:00.004-06:00

I found my name on some blogs and thought Id share. I think its great that these people used my work on their blogs, thanks!

recogedor.blogspot.com

lali.toutsimplement.be

lletresdelsinore.blogspot.com

Peony

2009-03-05T16:58:00.004-06:00

This is a new found objects sculpture Ive recently completed. It will be included in the Natura Fragilis exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Dallas Morning News- Feb 13th

2009-02-17T20:44:00.004-06:00

I was recently featured in the Dallas Morning News Weekend Guide-Arts Section, which you can read by selecting the image below.

Review for "Per Chance To Dream" show

2009-02-13T21:14:00.009-06:00

Lydia Regaldo recently reviewed my art show at Dahlia Woods Gallery for THE magazine. Lydia has an eloquent way with words, and explained my art and my intentions with amazingly keen insight. After reading this review I couldnt help but have a big smile on my face.

You can read the review here.

If you're in Dallas you can also pick up a copy of the February edition of THE magazine at most art galleries.

Darfur

2009-01-16T14:35:00.002-06:00

This painting depicts a woman from Darfur, beaten and clinging onto life, looking back at the viewer and wondering why no one is helping her. Why is she being ignored by the rest of the world? The women and girls in this region are receiving the worst types of violence committed especially against them. This is the image of someone that has hit bottom and is sitting there waiting. However you can see the strength in her eyes, a dim light that is taking refuge in the depths of her pupils, a light that will soon well up and shine bright again.

The image of this painting came to me all at once, in an instant. The surface of the canvas is rough, beaten and worn as is the subject. To me it’s a painting that is constantly challenging the viewer to solve the answer to an unanswerable question - Why? Why the violence, the rape, the murder, why against us? Against me? Why is more not being done to help the victims?

This solitary symbol of the victims of Darfur will never relinquish her question of "why". Her gaze digs its questioning stare deep into the viewer looking for answers as do roots dig into dry soil searching for water.

Freud's Subconscious

2009-01-16T14:00:00.001-06:00

Sigmund Freud, feeding the materialization of his subconscious (a ring-tailed lemur) a cashew. His own creation and discovery, the subconscious, now a living entity of its own, resting upon his shoulders, needing attention and further nourishment (especially cashews)!

Just a fun painting about the creation of new fundamental ideas and how we incorporate them into our framework of reality.

Why a lemur? Something Id really like to do one day is to feed wild lemurs in Madagascar.

Midnight Storm Rolling Into Venice

2009-01-16T13:56:00.003-06:00

Midnight Storm Rolling Into Venice is an architectural piece depicting the city of Venice at midnight just as a storm is blowing in from the Adriatic Sea.

All the people are inside their homes, the streets are deserted; the winged lion of St Marks is cleaning himself (now that he doesn’t have to sit still pretending to be a statue). A wooden chair waits the viewer in the lower left side of the canvas, inviting the viewer to have a seat as their eyes wonder through the city streets and breathe in the cool, salty air just before the storm

The Way the Light Dances in Istanbul

2009-01-16T13:47:00.000-06:00

I have seen by traveling to different countries that the light seems to have a different hue, a nature all its own in relationship to the geographical elements, the plants, the stones, the dirt and animals (I include people under the animal description). Light seems to have its own unique characteristics based on the angle its hitting the earth, the longitude and latitude you’re standing on at the moment. This is the light vibrating and dancing through the ancient and modern streets of Istanbul, broken up into cross sections of time, a split second of sensation and time tiled like slides for a microscope.

The Griffin and the Cello

2009-01-16T10:55:00.003-06:00

This piece is title "The Griffin and the Cello". It shows a griffin (with the anthropomorphic addition of a woman’s head, arm and breast) playing a cello on a street corner. All the people in the street have umbrellas, and you can see from the water rushing down the street drain that there is a break in a rain storm. The griffin is resting her foot on a flower of life ball similar to the way Chinese guardian lions do.

The cello to me is a very sexual instrument when the musician is a female. The female musician wraps her legs around the large wooden vibrating instrument, playing and creating notes, a communication takes place between the musician and the instrument that is both intimate and sensual. The music that is made floats through the air, calling nature to rain more, to produce more water to nourish the earth. The figure in back watches the street musician playing in admiration.

The female griffin musician playing the cello represents a woman creating life, the intimate relationship between mother and baby in utero. The creation of life is pure, natural, animalistic, and beyond our comprehension. It is the nexus between our dimension and another, the one we all came from before this one.

I look in on admiration at my wife as she creates life. This painting was finished the day we found out we are having another baby.

Per Chance To Dream Reception Photos

2009-01-15T13:41:00.000-06:00

Per Chance To Dream Reception at Dahlia Woods

2009-01-02T20:28:00.001-06:00

Id like to invite anyone reading this post who will be in Dallas On January 16th out to an art reception Ill be having at Dahlia Woods Gallery called "Per Chance To Dream - The Dream Paintings of Skip Noah".

I will have 13 paintings at the show, most of them I haven't shown to anyone. The attire is very casual, its free, and should be lots of fun. Here is the information:

Gallery Name: Dahlia Woods Gallery
Address: 600 Cantegral Street in Dallas (bordering Deep Ellum)
When: Friday, January 16th from 6:00 to 8:30 pm

Jasmine Tea With Okapi

2009-01-01T14:16:00.009-06:00

This piece titled Jasmine Tea With Okapi is a fun story showing an Okapi wondering into a tea house at night, and a geisha serving him some Jasmine tea. The okapi seems smitten with the geisha serving him, though the geisha seem a bit unsure. He has probably been to this tea house before, most likely has a crush on this particular geisha. She knows this and seems a little uneasy that we have wondered in and are viewing the unorthodox relationship between the two.

Yellow butterflies are flying in through the window and partaking in the spilt tea on the table and gathering nectar from the wild cherry blossoms in the geisha's hair. This idea of the yellow butterflies is influenced from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book 100 Years of Solitude.

The hanging lamp forms an eye, drowsily staring back at the viewer. The situation created by this scenario, combined with the blue-night milieu, nature with her wild cherry blossoms, yellow butterflies and anthropomorphic okapi, gives birth to a conscious; a situational conscious whose eye flows through the hanging lamp and stares back at the viewer with an ancient ambivalence.

The reason I chose an okapi for this piece is to contrast the natural markings of the okapi with the unnatural ornamentations of the geisha (and other women who find it necessary to over decorate themselves).

San Francisco Under a Marigold Sky

2009-01-01T13:49:00.005-06:00

This is one of the new paintings I recently finished. It shows a person (me) laying in the foreground holding a thread that winds its way through the hills of San Francisco. The thread represents where I have physically been, the time and experience of walking through the city condensed into a material object.

When we visit or live in a city, the more we explore it the more we collect memories and associations with that bit of geography, the wider our definition of a place becomes. We also see places without physically standing on them (the water in the bay, the sky, the air around us) that we have sensational memories of (sight, smell, temperature).

I am currently reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero of a Thousand Faces, and he talks of a world navel. I represent the world navel with the dark somewhat ominous spiral expanding in the center of the city, a nexus between this plane of existence and a dimension beyond our senses. A connection with the experience of exploration and learning that lies between memory of tangible, physical surroundings and a deeper understanding that lies beyond what we can explain in words, beyond what our senses can comprehend, something that can only be suggested through symbols, presented so each individual can meditate individually through their own framework of the reality that exists beyond our comprehension.

DWG Going Native Reception

2008-12-07T21:28:00.003-06:00

Here are some photos form the group show at Dahlia Woods Gallery this weekend.

Upcoming Show - Going Native

2008-11-30T09:11:00.002-06:00

I have 4 pieces of work at the Going Native show at Dahlia Woods Gallery. There is a reception Friday, December 5th from 6-8:30. The show runs from the 5th till January 3rd,2009. I'll have 2 new paintings there. The paintings are title "The Griffin and the Cello" and "San Francisco Under a Marigold Sky" (Ill post photos after the reception).

Gallery Representation with Dahlia Woods Gallery

2008-09-17T20:41:00.011-05:00

Starting October 1st I will have gallery representation with Dahlia Woods Gallery in Dallas.

I'll be creating all new artwork that will focus on architectural and surreal/dream based ideas. I'm looking forward to working with the gallery.

Saatchi Showdown

2008-09-08T07:11:00.000-05:00

Ive entered some artwork for a "showdown" on Saatchi's UK website. If you would please go here and vote for Dinner with Bacchus Giraffe!

Ordering Goodies

2008-08-30T20:42:00.002-05:00

If anyone would like to order photo prints, jigsaw puzzles, mouse pads, mugs, postcards, magnets or coasters with selected pieces of my work you can order them from deviantART here.

Breathing In and Out

2008-08-13T12:14:00.003-05:00

I notice that my work comes in breaths. I have a period of "breathing in", where I don't produce much work and just breath in the life around me, storing it up and processing it. Then I "breath out", letting my subconscious purge and I begin turning all of those experiences into artwork. For the past several years I haven't really produced that much work, Ive been breathing in.

I have ideas for about 25 new paintings that I'm looking forward to starting on. Most of the ideas I have are figurative, some with religious and anthropomorphic overtones about them. I will probably start on those this fall, after we move. I'm interested in seeing how my artwork has changed since I haven't been doing a lot of it lately. I notice that when I "breath out" my work has changed quality, new ideas and ways of painting spring out. I never know what the change will be but I'm looking forward to seeing it develop over the course of my next breath out cycle.

I was recently contacted by a photographer named Ross who is curating for a new space in Dallas called Ochre Gallery. Its a gallery space located inside a salon. I enjoy having my work out in public, for people to see and talk about as opposed to being stored somewhere. Its there now and will be there for several months. I'm also talking with several other galleries right now about shows and other things coming up.

Thinking Nun drawing

2008-07-09T10:39:00.001-05:00

A sketch from a scene in the movie The Sound of Music

Sites, anecdotes and thank yous

2008-06-26T15:25:00.006-05:00

I recently joined 3 art sites, thought I would share the links with any other artist interested. They are free sites and others can comment on your work:
Artbreak.com
ArtSlant.com
deviantART Gallery

I'm going to start applying to local galleries here in the next couple of weeks, a task Ive been neglecting for a couple of years now. I have an interesting anecdote about applying to galleries. About 9 years ago I applied to Empty Walls Gallery in Dallas. The first time I went in I saw a guy working there and he took a look at my work and politely replied "not interested", he didn't really look at me in the face at all. About 6 months later I went back to the same gallery, with the same work and saw the same guy, this time he loved it and asked me for work. I ended up showing my work at Empty Walls for about 4 years. It shows that not only are taste in art different from person to person, but even the same person can change taste over an allotted amount of time. Just a bit of encouragement for any artist who may be frustrated with getting shows.

On a different note I sent a copy of the sketch of Noam Chomsky I did to him, and he replied back saying "thank you and he appreciated it". That made me happy.

4 new drawings

2008-06-24T16:23:00.006-05:00

These are 4 new drawings Ive recently completed. The first of Nikki and Miro on the couch, the second of Nikki and Zoe napping, the third of the creek beside my grandparents house, and the last one of Noam Chomsky. I have a lot of drawings and sketches I haven't uploaded to skipnoah.com yet, I hope to get around to that soon.

Outside the Lines 8 reception

2008-06-07T22:46:00.004-05:00

The reception went really well at the Bath House Cultural Center. There was a large turnout, and some great work.

This show was even more special to me because my wife Nikki was chosen to show a piece of her artwork as well, a knitted wall sculpture. It was a lot of fun being in the same show together.

Outside the Lines 8

2008-05-28T18:00:00.001-05:00

I am taking part in an exhibition at the Bath House Gallery in Dallas from June 7th-28th called Outside the Lines 8. This exhibition was juried by 3 local art professors and one gallery owner. The Outside the Lines exhibition is focused on artwork that is outside the mainstream of art. There is an opening reception on June 7th from 7-9 pm.

Night Sky Over Reykjavik

2008-05-25T12:18:00.005-05:00

I have wanted to create a piece of art based on Iceland since we visited there in 2005. This piece is attempting to reconstruct parts of the city of Reykjavik and the sea bordering the city based on my memories 2 years after being there. There is a theory that each memory is reconstructed anew the moment you remember it from various symbols in your mind. This is my take on that theory.

Taking shapes, pieces, colors, experience, the feeling of the crisp clean air, the marriage of nature and architecture that is Reykjavik, the memories I have of breathing in the salty sea air with every step down her clean cold streets. No matter where I was in Reykjavik, I was constantly reminded of the mountains, the sea and the arctic sky above bordering the top of the world.

I changed the position of the city a bit, taking the main street and pushing it closer to the sea, moving Mt. Esja over a bit and turning the puffin island of Akurey into a man-made object. Nature and architecture seems so inter-related in Reykjavik I made an incoming cloud into the same material the city’s buildings are made of. The pink glow on the horizon gives a hint of the daytime reality the rest of the world is experiencing. You feel as if you’ve found a geographical hiding place away from daylight as the sun focuses on the lower latitudes.

I’ve had a growing interest in night based artwork. It seems at night colors and shapes become more intense as they pop out of the darkness.

Not Art

2008-05-23T15:43:00.006-05:00

I recently signed an online petition against someone who calls themselves an artist ( but is not). This person (who I will not name) starved a puppy in a gallery and called it art. He is set to do it again this year. You can sign the online petition asking the gallery not to do this again.

Killing any living being is not art. It is cruelty, torture and murder for the entertainment of apathetic individuals. There have been other individuals who call themselves artists who kill in a gallery setting and try to pass it off as art in the past (I will not go into the details). To me art is a creation that reflects or represents some aspect of reality, conscious or unconscious. Killing is a reality, it is not a reflection or representation, it is not art, and when you witness the murder of another being through torture or any other means you are witnessing a reality. The reality of another's pain for your pleasure, again (this is the last time I'll say this) this is not art, and any violent individual who does this is not an artist.

Artist a day

2008-04-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

I was the artist of the day for a website called Artistaday.com today. I was very happy to see that, put a smile on my face, and I loved reading the comments people left. I encourage any artist to submit their work to this site, its a great way to see other artists and get some exposure.

This is not Gordon

2008-04-02T12:00:00.003-05:00

The relationship between humanity and technology is interesting when you consider that the material we are working with in its raw form is non-existent to our eyes. What we see on the screen is a “translation” of the real material inside the computer. The bright pixels that form pictures, letters and numbers are not really the actual information that we spend hours of every day working, with but an elaborate translation to human symbols. Years ago people worked with there hands and created the product, they could hold the actual result in there hands, today we type on keys, and the actual product is something we never see, the actual product is a translation. Kind of like everything you “see” around you is not external but translated information. Anyway, the title is funny, while I was painting this painting Nikki kept asking me if that was Gordon I was painting (a friend of ours at the time). I kept saying it wasn’t and Nikki insisted that it was, so I titled the painting so that I could win the argument, even though I think Nikki was right, it probably is Gordon!

NYC

2008-04-01T11:02:00.008-05:00

In the painting NYC, I combine ancient characters (Centaurs, Snake of Eden) abstract forms, and modern day characters (Lady of Liberty), and combine them to present a story of our modern day as if viewed from the distant future. I create the city of NY as a living, warm, breathing creature aware of its own existence.

The Lady of Liberty is deep in thought and rests quietly on a building, smelling a flower. Probably reflecting on her city, the changes it has gone through and contemplating with gentle indifference its future.

The centaurs are taxicabs, taking the citizens of this city to different locations as red blood cells take oxygen to different destinations throughout the body. One of the centaurs is playing the violin. Some of the taxi driver in NY have very interesting stories and talents. One taxi driver we talked to was a wood carver from Romania that worked in Vlad the Impaler's (person the original vampire legend is based on) castle.

In the outdoor restaurant scene, I show both the servant and the aristocrat with abstract faces, for that is the way each typically views the other. Each person in the servant work class seeing just another aristocrat, and each aristocrat seeing just another servant, both groups drawing from and displaying the same attitude towards the other.

I also show a homeless person green, sick and lying near floating wine. Some of the homeless you see in big cities can really touch an emotional chord within you if you look without apathy. I also have a guy looking up the stairs with a green arrow pointing. The green arrow is influenced by an exhibition of Francis Bacon I saw in Ft. Worth. There is also a guy who is part elephant walking the streets, much like the herds of people you see roaming the concrete maze of NYC.

One of the central figures shows a man with an apple, the sidewalk is grabbing his ankle and a snake is heading towards him, like a spider going after a bug trapped in her web. NY tempts some people into biting the apple of knowledge, changing ones view on the world and kicking them out of their respective paradise of blissful ignorance.

Persephone's Part Time Waitressing Job in Hades

2008-03-16T11:20:00.001-05:00

This is my new painting titled Persephone's Part Time Waitressing Job in Hades. I created this painting for an exhibition at the BathHouse Gallery called Verse and Reverse.
The painting shows Persephone, the daughter of Demeter (the bringer of seasons) and Zeus, who was abducted by Hades and brought to live in the underworld for half of each year. Persephone is shown waitressing at a diner in Hades, serving a slice of lemon and a bowl of seahorse soup, with one of the seahorses rising up from his fate to look at Persephone accusingly. The waitress wears an orchid in her pocket, still an admirer of flowers even after being abducted while picking them many years ago.
The story I was given for the Verse and Reverse show was by a writer named Stephen Paul Feagans. The story itself is about a couple's car breaking down in a small town and coming across a Cadillac in a museum given to one of the locals by Elvis. There is a part in the story where the couple is talking to a waitress in a diner, I took that one scene and developed on it adding my own associations into this subject matter.

Video for Verse and Reverse art reception

2008-03-16T10:52:00.000-05:00

Pictures from Verse and Reverse Reception

2008-03-16T10:51:00.012-05:00

Me and the writer I collaborated with, Stephen Paul Feagans

Zoe peaking out from Daddy's legs (bottom half of the previous photo taken with writer)

One of the biggest compliments I can have is when a child likes my artwork. Their view on art is untarnished by our insubstantial, culturally-biased, arbitrary "rules" of art

View of the White Rock Lake behind the gallery

3 drawings about 3 places

2008-03-04T13:39:00.011-06:00

The first of these is a drawing of Sedona, Arizona. I drew this from our hotel balcony when we stayed there in 2007. The view shows the green valley, the river, the birds flying around and the orange rocky peaks towering over the patchwork of green. I also drew a shadow with 3 heads to represent myself, my wife and our daughter walking in the valley.

The drawing above is of a section of Dallas I use to hang out in a lot called Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum has a lot of clubs, bars, tattoo parlors and so on. I drew the scene as if it were the year 1992 since that represents a year I was always down there.

The last of these 3 drawings is of New York City. This shows a typical midday pedestrian scene. Even though the subway entrance sign says 4th street, the image I based this on was midtown, at 34th and 8th ave near where I used to work.

(You can click on any of the images to see a more detailed view.)

Upcoming Exhibition

2008-02-19T17:04:00.009-06:00

I am currently creating a new piece of art for an exhibition at the Bathhouse Gallery in Dallas called Verse and Reverse. I like the idea of the show, artists submit a piece of existing artwork that a writer will write a poem or short story about. That same writer will give a story to the artist so they can do a piece of artwork on it. There are 8 artists and 8 writers participating in this show.

Right now I'm working on the artwork for the short story I was given. I picked out a very small segment of the story, just one line, to do the piece on. The writer is going to write a short story about the painting Dinner With Bacchus Giraffe. I'm looking forward to reading his interpretation of the painting.

The show runs March 15th - April 12th, the reception is March 15th from 7-9.

Asleep

2008-02-15T22:44:00.011-06:00

In 2001 we (me, my wife and a friend) took a trip to Japan. While there I drew my wife taking a nap. I'm not sure which city we were in at the time, I think Hakone.

The first drawing I made of her asleep was while we were on our honeymoon in Paris. This is probably my favorite drawing Ive ever done. I like the landscape quality. It seems like the pillow is a mountainside and her hair is a forest or meadow, falling down into a ravine behind her arm. The space under her shirt sleeve reminds me of a cave. It seems that the earth itself could awake from her nap, slowly opening her eternal eyes. To me this drawing sparks the association of Gaia, mother earth and the manifestation of that in my beautiful wife sleeping (after a long days walk through the Louvre).

I really enjoy these drawings of Nikki sleeping, I plan on doing a series of these.

Sun, Tree, Home

2008-02-15T22:30:00.007-06:00

We try to escape nature by building an artificial world around us, yet we are making this artificial world out of nature itself. This artwork is about cycles and the relationship of materials. On my website I describe this painting as the relation between our sun, the earth, and what we use of the earth and call "man-made". Sounds a bit vague, right? I'll explain through the symbols on the painting.

The sun provides the light and energy to Earth and without it we wouldn't be here, it is essential to us and in a way has help to build us and all of our fellow earthlings. It takes a beam of light from the sun about 8 minutes to travel to Earth's surface. In the painting you can see the wiggly, swirling vibrations coming down the stairs from the window showing the Sun. After the sunlight reaches the Earth it is "used" by pretty much every living thing, such as a tree. An Oak tree, for example, can live up to around 600 years old. Thats 600 years of sunlight and water. Man will use an Oak tree for construction, essentially harvesting the tree that the Sun and Earth have created. We use trees and other substances natural to Earth to make our creations, such as buildings (trees, rock, sand) roads, and various consumer objects. The straight lined shapes (man-constructed) intertwine and are hard to distinguish from the more organic swirling shapes (natural) in this painting.

We call these objects we construct "man-made", but we are using the material of Earth and Sun to make these objects. So these things are being constructed by man, but not made by man. Just as a society of ants will construct very complicated dwellings out of the Earth around them, we humans also construct very complicated dwellings out of the Earth around us. The complexity and use of these constructions are relative to the one who judges.

There is a quote from Carl Sagan thats sums it up best...“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”

Untitled

2008-02-05T20:15:00.000-06:00

With this drawing (and a couple of others completed around the same time) I wanted to try something a bit different so I painted different shades of yellow on drawing paper then drew my wife on top of that. I like the outcome, it gives it a certain cloud like atmosphere. I also like the expression of curiosity I capture on my wifes face, it seems like she was studying me as I was drawing her.

With the line style I use in this and other drawings I'm trying to capture the idea of constant change that is always going on around us. Nothing is ever still, not even a rock. You have the movement of Nikki before she sat down for me to draw her, the movement afterwards, the small movements imperceptible to the eye, the vibrations and movements on an anatomical level, and the myriad of movements inside her body.

I plan on continuing with the ideas and techniques used in this drawing on future pieces.

Female Flatworm Amazon Guardian

2008-02-03T18:55:00.000-06:00

Female Flatworm Amazon Guardian completed in 1999 is a vertical diptych. I first completed the bottom half in a very clean style around 1994 or so. In 1999 I added the top half or 'head' of the painting. I also create a rough, worn look to the painting to convey a certain wear and tear (I'll explain the analogy further down), along with small inner-drawings throughout the character's body and head.

The idea of this painting is about women, and the role woman have played and been subjected to all throughout history including our own present day. Women throughout history in various cultures have been the victims of oppression and violence, yet still are the archetypes of grace and beauty. The bottom half is a display of the female form, the part artist and poets have always glorified, the part men usually focus on. The top half of the painting acts as a peephole, showing a glimpse of the part of women that has been subject to oppression and abuse, offering a look at the collective mirror that time has a hold of, as in the book The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I've included a sketch on the female figure's body of a young boy listening to a father, as the father passes on the idiotic idea of mans dominance of woman, of subjecting them to harsh treatment, making them feel like second class citizens. Men pass on this illogical idea of a woman’s inequality to boys, mostly through example. Western religions perpetrate this absurd idea, which is why the father in the small sketch has a halo over his head. I also show an illustration on the woman’s head of a young lady coming to this realization, of her imposed inequality. Even today, here in the US I see men treating their girlfriends or wives not as a partner but as a type of subtle servant.

The Amazon guardian in the artwork stands as a symbol for the courage, the will and timeless persistence that woman throughout history have kept, that idea in the back of their mind (and sometimes right in the front for everyone to see), that they are not second class, they are not servants to be belittled, but they are the mothers of humanity, the archetypes of beauty and grace, despite some mens actions of arrogance and ignorance.

I sold this to a great person in New Mexico who has bought a number of my paintings.

The Evolution of Bacchus Giraffe

2008-02-01T16:28:00.000-06:00

I have a reoccurring character in some of my paintings, he is Bacchus, the Roman God of wine and intoxication, but in the evolved form of a giraffe.

The first painting he appeared in was a diptych titled Bacchus Giraffe…Drunken God of Mythology in 1999. In this painting a woman is shown getting herself drunk, to escape her worries. She is a devoted follower of Bacchus. In time her head detaches from this dimension and floats into the welcoming arms of Bacchus the Giraffe. He licks her head as if it were a fruit, his saliva acting as an elixir, releasing her from the pain she is enduring, easing her from worry. When I first drew this painting on canvas Bacchus was an ulgy, monster like bearded man. I painted over the man with a giraffe. At first I didn't like this painting very much, but now its one of my favorites.

The next piece of artwork Bacchus Giraffe appears in is a bit more comical, not as dark as its predecessor. Its titled Dinner with Bacchus Giraffe, and it shows Bacchus the Giraffe God as an almost unwelcome guest. The woman at the dinner table wrestles with the option of drinking to escape her worries. This woman has more hope and courage, she thinks of facing her problems with a clear mind, not giving into intoxication as a means of escape. But the thought of giving up and drinking is tempting to her and she is seen gazing at Bacchus Giraffe's amusing advances with a subtle curiosity. I created this painting in one day.

The last of my paintings (so far) that shows a giraffe, is not necessarily Bacchus. This giraffe is not trying to intoxicate people into escaping their worries but acting as a protector and teacher. In Pomegranate Seeds, completed in 2005, the giraffe appears to a man in his dreams and explains the magnificence of life creating itself over and over using a pomegranate as an example. He cuddles the sleeping man, almost sexually, explaining how each tiny pomegranate seed has the potential within to grow into a massive tree that will again produce fruits with tiny seeds that can grow again into massive trees into infinity.

The idea for Pomegranate Seeds appeared to me in a dream. I used the Bacchus like giraffe character not for his associations to the Roman God but simply as a type of guardian angel giraffe. In this painting the giraffe character is stripped of any associations with wine or escape. The giraffe in this painting is the antitheses of escape; he represents birth and rebirth, a message from Providence, the passing on of knowledge. The dream I had continues, the man wakes up after being told about the momentum of life reproducing itself infinitely and the giraffe is gone. He walks along a savanna and finds a sleeping giraffe, and he cuddles the giraffe, whispering into his dreams the secrets of life reproducing itself using a pomegranate as an example. That same giraffe wakes up then finds the man sleeping and this goes on forever.

I had the dream and created the painting in October 2005, the next month my wife found out she was pregnant with our beautiful daughter Zoë.

Introduction

2008-02-01T11:55:00.000-06:00

I'd like to introduce myself for those of you who don't know who I am. My artist name is Skip Noah. My real name is Daniel Myers, I acquired the nickname Skip in elementary school. I started painting around 1992/1993 and I would sign my paintings as 'Skip' most of the time. I decided to go with an artist pen name in 2000. I picked Noah after the character Noah in Genesis who saved all the animals. I currently sign my pieces with 'Skip Noah' and go by that name for my art.

I've taught myself how to draw and paint. When I was a kid I would trace cartoon characters on a light up tracing machine my parents got me. Years later when I was in my early 20s I decided to start painting. I showed at a gallery in Deep Ellum called Vincent's Ear. They soon closed down and I didn't seek any other gallery shows.

In 1996 I met my amazing soon-to-be wife Nikki, and she encouraged me to try and show my artwork again. I submitted my artwork to a gallery called the Deep Ellum Center for the Arts. They offered me a dual show with another artist. After that I started showing regularly at various galleries.

Thats the artistic side of me in a nutshell. You can always see more of my work on my website. I will be posting a lot of my past work on this blog so I can go more in depth about the paintings, the stories behind the paintings, post images of sketches before the paintings were created, and so on.