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For several years I've enjoyed viewing time lapse videos on a YouTube Channel called RinpaEshidan. The artists continuously paint over parts of collaborative murals and installations. Below is one of my favorite videos from the channel. The murals are simply painted in only black and white.



 The 5" x 5" format limited my painting detail, but I painted anyway. I stuck with simple shapes and representations of a fish and underwater plant life. In the end I decided to leave the background areas solid without dots.

 
acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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A few years ago there was a local restaurant called Semolina's Bistro Italia on Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans. My family enjoyed dining there for several special occasions. Each of us enjoyed specific dishes. Being the artist, of the group, I also appreciated the decor of the place.

Anyway, I felt that I needed to make a dot painting based on my visits to the restaurant. I started with a black background. Then I added metallic paint dots to the background using four different colors mimicking the arrangement of artworks I saw. Below is
the result.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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The same "Art for Art's Sake" night I also saw works by Mark Bradford. The large pieces looked like overhead images of cities. Some of them had collage elements in them. So, I decided I wanted to go on my own visual tangent.

 First I settled on some colors for a palette beginning with red, white and black for my background areas. Then I repeated the colors, adding yellow, in the form of dots as I created shapes. Along the way I ended up with something more digital looking. Well, anyway, that's how my process went.

  

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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A few paintings back, I mentioned attending "Art for Art's Sake." That same night, I saw the work of Gretchen Weller Howard. Well, the painting below is what resulted from seeing her work. Of course I went off on my own tangent.

Yes, my dot painting turned out bright and cheerful. Figuring out what I wanted to do over the pastel colored background took a couple of months. Anyway, I finished it. Enjoy.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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The same night I went to Art for Art's Sake I photographed some close ups of a desk that was decorated with pieces of glass. A light behind them dramatized the colors and details of the glass pieces. Below are three photos I took that night.

First I painted my canvas using a neutral color. Then I marked off the spaces with lighter areas of dots. To finish I took colors from the three different photos to make my own image.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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In an earlier work I depicted a group art show of fiber artists. In picking out imagery for this batch of dot paintings I also decided to do one on the gallery where the show took place. Dutch Alley Artist's Co-Op is located in Dutch Alley which is accessible from Decatur Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA.

After mulling over some photos I took of the gallery, I settled on the French windows and doors for a design. My background colors came from the exterior colors (orange and teal) and the logo colors (blue and white).

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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Many times I have gone to free screenings for films ahead of theatrical release dates. The story about this one is more memorable. I knew “Spider-Man 3” would draw a large crowd, since it was one of the hyped summer movies. So I made a point of going early and planning to be in line by 5 p.m. In fact I was 20 minutes earlier than I had scheduled.

Some people get in line and save places for others who arrive later. Well, for this free screening the organizers had a plan to combat that practice. They issued wristbands with numbers on them. People who were holding places could not continue to hold places once the wristbands were given out. If they still wanted to wait for those who hadn’t arrived, then they had to go to the back of the line.



When I received my wristband, I was surprised that my number was 110. I was concerned about my choice of seating inside the theater. It wasn’t until I made it inside that I learned that there were two theaters showing the film and that eight radio stations had given out passes. A lot of people had camped out for a place in line earlier in the day.

That brings me to my design and color choices. I realize this film became the butt of jokes, but I still liked the whole dark version of “Spider-Man” - or “emo” as some have dubbed him. Anyway, I went with a spider web pattern using the traditional “Spider-Man” colors and then a black and gray for the dark side. 'No clearing away any cobwebs for this memory.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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At a movie screening for a Disney film, the coordinators wore mouse ears that had flashing lights. The lights lit up in a circle creating a visual effect of spinning light. Anyway, I had to make a dot painting based on what I saw.

 Naturally I started with a dark neutral background. I mixed white with a little purple to imitate the light I saw. Then I started with a circle and varied the brightness of my dots. From there, I painted outward and inward from the circle. Of course I put my own artistic spin on my image.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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"Day Watch" is the sequel to film "Night Watch." Like the original film, it was a visually exciting movie for me. And like the first film I felt compelled to make a dot art painting. After a lot of thought, I narrowed down ideas to the scene with a female vampire driving her red Mazda along the side of a large building. I loved the use of red and black in

the footage.

As the car rides up the side of the building white stars, that hang from the roof of the car, no longer hang straight down.  The moment of the shift and the sense of flying were both visually riveting to me. I hope the third installment is made eventually.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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Almost five years ago I attended a meeting that led to formation of an organization called New Orleans Fiber Artists (NOFA). Fiber art includes an array of cloth materials, paper materials and mixed media. I was unfamiliar with the fiber art category. My collage art qualified as fiber art. In August of 2007, the Dutch Alley Artist's Co-Op, located in the French Quarter, invited NOFA artists to exhibit for a couple of weeks. The gallery set aside space for the show. A reception was held on Dirty Linen Night, the second Saturday of August. A band played live music as people visited the gallery and
Dutch Alley.

Naturally I wanted to capture that night in a dot art painting. I looked for representative icons and colors from the show to make my design. To see more photos from that night, visit my blog, pic journal.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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Several times I have attended free screenings of films, before they open, at Clearview Mall in Metairie, LA. Prior to standing in line, I have dined at Seranno's which is known for it's Latin cuisine. Not only have enjoyed eating various menu items, I have also enjoyed viewing murals and decorative art.

For a while now I've pondered how to capture my experience at the restaurant with dots. I ended up with a radial design mimicking some images I saw inside. The biggest hurdle was simplifying my design. The result is an explosion of bright colors!

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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In October and November of 2007, I did hands on workshops with some artists that are members of ARTinA, a local artist organization. The artists had a lot of fun painting with dots. Each of them went on individual painting tangents.

So, I decided I wanted to represent the experience with a dot painting. David Wargo's painting provoked my design. The curvy lines of the painting gave me inspiration. The colors used by the other artists influenced my palette. As I progressed I remembered I meant to include yellow. Well, that meant an odd ending on the right side of my canvas. I thought it mades the piece more interesting.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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The first Saturday night of the month is usually known as The ArtWalk in New Orleans. Art galleries have coordinated opening receptions. October's first Saturday is called "Art for Art's Sake." It is the "kick-off" for the season. In 2007 I went gallery hopping on Julia Street. While I was walking along Julia Street, I noticed a "chalk-drawn" mandala on the street. I had to take a photo.

When I made my list of items for possible paintings, I placed the mandala on my list. After many edits to my list I decided to go ahead and make a painting inspired by the chalk drawing. I worked with the pastel chalk colors involved, and attempted to capture the spirit of the drawing.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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For a year I set my small dot paintings aside. I did some preparatory work for some future ones, but mostly I spent time away from them. Well, now I’m ready to resume this group of paintings I call “e” Series Action. The last one I posted was ef.

Over four years ago my sister’s silver poodle, Frannie, had a litter of puppies. One was a black male. The other two were females, one black and one apricot. I chronicled the development of the puppies with videos I uploaded to YouTube. In fact one video became very popular. It remains popular still.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

On a sad note, Frannie passed away in June of 2011. She consumed a parasite that poked holes in her lungs. She had trouble breathing on her own. The four squares of my painting depict Frannie and her three pups. Frannie is gray. Ginger Rose is burnt orange. Sweet Pea and Dugy are the both black.

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Another exhibit I saw at The Ogden Museum of Southern Art was a show of works by George Dunbar. Many of his pieces have geometric patterns involving gold leaf. However, I was surprised to see works that were more expressive than the controlled patterns. One piece I saw had large overlapping rock shapes.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

My process took a different direction this time. Sticking with my four square format, I chose four colors based on the exhibit. From there, I created an overlapping pattern of dots in each square that formed arcs. Lastly, I chose muted colors to paint the remaining portions of the squares. The result is my own tangent.

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On one occasion an online friend found a video to recognize my birthday. As you might have guessed already, the video involved dots. It had a variety of colors and was animated. To remember that event I went back to the video.




acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

First I chose colors from the video to include in my painting. I then went about playing with the juxtaposition of colors as I rendered backgrounds and dots to create larger dots. The result of my experimentation is this painting.

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Back in 2007 I went to a free screening of the film “Grindhouse.” In the middle of the film there were faux previews. Separating them from the two films were “Intermission” and “Feature Presentation” title animations. They were the same ones used back in the early 70s when there were still drive-ins in New Orleans. I remember the titles many times when I went with my family to drive-in movies.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

For this painting I used the bright colors that I saw in the titles. I fragmented their revolving shapes into pieces inside four squares. In each square I mixed a bit of the bright color with a neutral color to make my dots.

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Many years ago I went to a screening of John Waters’ film “Hairspray.” When the new version came out, I saw that too. In the new version a 50’s star symbol was used on the set of the television dance show. The poster for the new film had a lot of bright colors. Anyway I wanted to use a star symbol with bright colors.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

First I separated the canvas into four squares of color. I then created a star shape over them with various pastel colors. Lastly I filled in the rest with pastel versions of the background colors. I’m a sucker for bright colors.

eb

Four years ago, while The Ogden Museum of Southern Art I noticed a large abstract painting by Kendall Shaw. His use of squares in patterns intrigued me. Before leaving, I bought a catalog of his work.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Recently I saw the painting again, at the Ogden. Also, I looked at his other paintings in the catalog I bought. Finally, I settled on some colors from his palette and started painting dots. As much as I liked his uniform squares, I let my dots vary in size.

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In the fall of 2007 I saw the film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” at the New Orleans Film Festival. It followed the story of real-life Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who had a stroke rendering him only able to move one eye. He narrates the drama while interjecting flippant remarks.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The opening credits began with floating circle shapes in front of a blue-green background. Lighting and focus fluxed as words and names appeared on screen. Once the introduction concluded there was a blurry transition to faces speaking above his seeing eye. His running commentary started there.

Needless to say, I was moved by the creativity of the film’s animated title sequence. I used the colors I saw in the movie to create a new dot painting. All the paintings in this bunch will be divided into four squares – some by their backgrounds and others by their foregrounds. So, I’ve now completed the first one.