Josh Millard @joshmillard@mastodon.social

Menger Transparencies
oil on canvas, 24"x30"

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/10/16/menger-transparencies/

when i tooted about this earlier it was partly an attempt to exorcise the song from my head by talking about it but that has more or less precisely backfired

sounds like a fuckin' flowchart being over-excitedly recited at the world's most awkward strategy meeting

I have grown a lot as both a musician and a music consumer over the years in my capacity to appreciate and embrace the broad swath of pop aesthetics and I don't think dumb songs are bad or something to be ashamed of enjoying.

But it's just, jeez, how was this a thing. This dumb dumb song.

To my dying day I will believe with all my heart that Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" is just a super dumb song.

Fourth and I think final pass on this Menger sponge transparency piece.

What I lost in brighter tones in the previous step I picked up in overall visual and color complexity and I think it was worth it but am having mixed feelings in the moment. Each step on this has had an element of "I hope this doesn't push it to far", and this step I'm not sure I got away with in the way I hoped to.

Also this shit was disorienting as hell to work on the last couple passes.

Just found myself looking back with a weird fondness for that little chunk of time a while back where every sketchy insurance/mortgage/whatever ad on the web was riffing on the aesthetic of a short back-and-forth loop of bad footage of one or another random woman just sorta dancing in her living room for some reason.

"Man, remember those terrible inexplicably shitty ads?", my brain said, wistfully. "Those were great."

Also since there's been the whole big flurry of activity, here's a re- #introductions bit to say either howdy or hi again:

I'm Josh Millard, aka cortex on #MetaFilter, a very long-lived (founded in 1999!) community website I run. That's the hub of most of my online life. I'm a #mefite.

But when I'm not dealing with MeFi stuff, I also paint (which I post about here a fair bit) and do misc. #art stuff and music, and play a fair few video games.

I have sort of a thing for Menger sponges.

A set of works in progress; this is the after the 2nd of what will be either three or four passes total, using heavily thinned-out oils on large canvases.

https://mastodon.social/media/H7oDE1ZSMwhSpLYLBMY https://mastodon.social/media/MA602UEdQrbnZkgZxeI https://mastodon.social/media/FhxTrFooagoyR1IGkCs https://mastodon.social/media/ZLFVZYzsjoFZT263oEg

https://mastodon.social/media/1McXn5pOixiRg3CI_gA

here's some dang ol' art I'm working on right now

oh hey again masto

Yardstick Spiral V
oil on canvas, 40”x30”

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/07/22/yardstick-spiral-v/

Continuing with this series. Have had a lot less spare time and energy for painting the last couple of weeks, but aside from work at home like this I have gotten a little bit of work done at a short summer oil studio course I've been taking, which has been nice.

https://mastodon.social/media/NdB5UHirDaEMLGZdCAA

https://mastodon.social/media/-iG13vToYzLfmRJ0rMs

Yardstick Spiral IV
oil on canvas, 40”x30”

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/07/04/yardstick-spiral-iv/

https://mastodon.social/media/ly62eZr8Hu4wXyRl5s8

Red Over Black And White
acrylic and oil on canvas
12”x12”

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/06/30/red-over-black-and-white/

https://mastodon.social/media/6MzEmw4pRwiN8Y7ps2I

Cube And Triangular Gradient
oil on canvas, 24"x36"

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/06/25/cube-and-triangular-gradient/

Been working on this all week -- a lot of small careful freehand triangles to try not to fuck up, mixing a new color several dozen times.

Very happy with the finished product, equally happy to be done working on it.

I started making oil paintings a year ago today. I wrote about it this morning:

http://www.joshmillard.com/2017/06/21/looking-back-at-a-year-of-oil-painting/

https://mastodon.social/media/duvu3jj7WLyDNZe9ZV4

Menger With Knife II
oil on canvas, 24"x30"

http://art.joshmillard.com/2017/06/18/menger-with-knife-ii/

THANK YOU

Q: WHAT DO YOU CALL SOMEONE WHO FIXES ELEPHANT TEETH

A: A MASTODONTIST