Video Recap: This Must Be The Place at Firecat Projects

I put a video recap together of my Firecat Projects show. If you were there at the opening or closing gallery talk you may see yourself! If you weren’t there, this is the next best thing. Created with iMovie on the iPhone. Enjoy!

This Must Be The Place - Cityscapes by Kevin Swallow. Solo show of paintings at Firecat Projects - Chicago, IL. July 24-August 22, 2015.

Photography by Mariah Karson: mariahkarson.com

Music: “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” by Talking Heads

New Cityscape Painting: This Must Be The Place

This Must Be The Place, oil on reclaimed wood door, 28.5x40.5, 2015, $850This Must Be The Place, oil on reclaimed wood door, 28.5x40.5, 2015

I finished this new painting last night after about 9 months of work. It has had multiple incarnations - including its beginning as a collaboration painting with artist, Scott Simons. We abandoned it and he let me have the board. There was a good base to work with - graffiti, collage, acrylic, oil bar, and screen print. Then I added probably another 10 layers of oil paint to finish it off. The title of the painting takes on the namesake of the upcoming show at Firecat Projects: This Must Be The Place. It's a reference to a song by The Talking Heads, one of my favorite bands. Check out the video below from Stop Making Sense - damn, that had to have been a great song to see live:

https://youtu.be/HldHtBxNK6k

Animated iPad drawing - Loop Tracks

I have been playing around with the iPad Brushes application. It's now a free open source app. Basically, you can draw/paint on the iPad and mimic various brushes, textures, etc. The app can also record your brushstrokes which is both pretty cool and creepy. But it's a great way to create a time-lapse video of the painting process. I mirrored the iPad animation onto my laptop using Airplay and then used AirServer to record it and export out as a video file. Then post to my Youtube channel. Hopefully, future functionality will have video export built in to the application.

Here's the final image:

looptracks

Studio Updates

Due to extra busy life circumstances, I haven't blogged in exactly month to the day. It's been busy art-wise too -- a lot of current and upcoming art stuff happening...

  • Been having good meetings and webinars during the Klein Art Works course.
  • The artist Feedback Loop I'm in has been interesting and gets better each time I go.
  • My large-scale cityscape photographs should be installed soon at the Mile North Hotel as part of their hotel redesign.
  • I'll also have more large-scale photos going up this spring at the Hilton Suites new bar/lounge they are designing.
  • Had some good news about some national magazine press coverage I'll be part of -- more on that soon.
  • Been working on a new series of abstract paintings based mostly on objects from my studio:

Here's a video of me working on a painting recently in my studio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cCVGfxFweU

Help Kickstart the Chicago Writers Conference!



The Chicago Writers Conference is coming this fall: September 14-16.

My wife founded the conference to help bridge the business end of writing with the creative side. To help get it off-the-ground, she is running a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for the next 30 days to help raise the start up dollars. I am donating art towards this project as rewards for people who pledge donations at various levels (see below).

She was able to get Chicago rock band, OK Go to donate a song to use in the Kickstarter video. The Chicago Tribune has generously donated the space to hold the conference. She has some prominent local authors, publishers and agents lined up. Now, she needs help to get a full website up and running with registration capabilities along with other conference-related expenses.

If you'd like to support this project and help the Chicago writing community continue to grow, please visit the Kickstarter page to watch the video, get more info and to make a donation. The temporary Chicago Writers Conference website has additional details too. Thank you!

Below is the artwork I'm donating for the Kickstarter fundraising campaign rewards:


Chicago Skyline Sunset, digitally enhanced photograph, 16x20 (framed)
Marina Towers, digitally enhanced photograph, 8x10 (framed)
Watertanks and Birds #1, screen print on paper, 11x14 (ready to frame)

Watertanks and Birds #2, screen print on paper, 11x14 (ready to frame)

Kingsbury St. Watertank #1 (orange), screen print on paper, 11x14 (ready to frame)

Kingsbury St. Watertank #2 (orange), screen print on paper, 11x14 (ready to frame)

Thank you very much for your support!

Kickstarter video: