Stuff Going On

Hey, how's that for a gripping title? Really makes you want to read what's, well... going on, huh? No?

 

I'll have some stone pictures up in a minute. As soon as I get done writing and put the card from the camera into the computer, that is.

It looks like The Lost Canyon Project has once again taken center stage in the daily routine. I'm referring to "The Lost Canyon" as the over arching project, the goal of which is to see Pete Hampton's work take, what I and others believe, is a rightful place among America's great regional artists. 

 

To that end I submitted The Lost Era Transcripts  for consideration on Vox Day's Arkhaven Comics. The work was accepted. Now I have to re- format the entire project for upload to the Arkhaven site. Once more I have a ton of work on my plate.

But the first posting went on line last week, and has drawn almost four thousand views, and a whole bunch of 'likes' in six days. Consider that the blogspot site, despite my efforts to promote it, has drawn fewer than ten thousand views since it went on-line in 2020. Arkhaven is the first big break.

And Bill Ohanseian, creator of  the Turnbul Canyon movie, is opening his "The Hills Are Alive" art show at the Whittier Museum on July 8. I'll be hanging the eight paintings that I own, and showing The Lost Era slideshow pics on a monitor for the opening.

All the Lost Era pics are loaded into the MOVAVI program, and I'm working with our good friend Holly Overin to create a soundtrack for the slideshow movie. We hope to have  it ready for showing sometime in the near future. Lots of work ahead.

 

So why am I doing this? What is it that has driven me to invest so much effort into this quixotic undertaking? Wish I had an answer. Somehow, I still cannot shake the feeling that I've been called to do this. Something greater than I know has placed this responsibility into my hands. My sense of conviction is as close to unshakeable as it could be.

 

But let's get back to the stone, OK? I didn't have a whole lot of hope for this project. The material itself is beautiful, but this ragged splinter of rock didn't seem to have much potential. (Didn't I already say that?)

 So it was going to be an improvisational piece. Just start chiseling, and see where it goes.  I started out wanting to keep it simple and easy, but as per always I've created a sticky and cramped inside space to work with, and I'm looking at excavating a lot of material where it's difficult to get a tool on the stone. Too, I want to keep the natural irregularities in the faces to give the thing an organic, 'carved by wind and water' look. But progress has been slow. I'm dealing with very low energy these last several days, and I have not had the juice to get on a work binge. Even so, puttering away on this is a good balance to the computer work which, as I've noted, is mostly robotic and dull. 

So, that winds it up for now. New blog posts are likely to be sketchy for a while, now that I'm on project again. But there has been progress, and there is hope for good things to come. Thank you for stopping by.