Connie Converse Portrait – Ceramic Tile

This week I wanted to share about a small ceramic piece I made while living on the Thai-Burma border.

Connie Converse, Glazed Ceramic Tile, 3.5 x 3.5″ (8.9 x 8.9 cm), 2011

It features a portrait of the musician Connie Converse who mysteriously disappeared in 1974. If you love pretty melodies and witty lyrics do yourself a favor . . . you can listen to her beautiful songs and buy her album here.

Sarah Wilmer + Mike Schultz, Connie Converse Album Cover, 2009

My friend David Herman of Squirrel Things Recordings remastered Connie’s music and put out this outstanding album of songs that she recorded in New York City in 1950’s. I was involved with the project when photographer Sarah Wilmer and I had the honor of making the Connie Converse album artwork.

Here I am sculpting in clay in Mae Sot, Thailand, 2011.

When I was living in Thailand I found myself listening to Connie’s music quite a bit. I had made some drawings of her and thought it might be fun to make David and his lady, the painter Sayaka Nagata, a small keepsake of Connie for their shelf.  (Check out Sayaka’s painting of Connie Converse!)

Clay Connie Converse tile in process, 2011.

Connie Converse tile in the window.

I made the tile while working with the Puzzlebox Art Studio located in Mae Sot, Thailand after picking up a bit of relief sculpting from Thai ceramicist Komol Kongcharern.

Here are some images of the process. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

Painting underglaze on a similar tile featuring a heart.

Glazed tiles prepped to go into the Kiln.

Thai ceramicist Komol Koncharern with a full kiln pre-firing.

Loading the kiln at the Puzzlebox Art Studio, Mae Sot, Thailand, 2011.

Connie tile and other work in the kiln ready to be burned!

Connie Converse tile post first underglaze firing before the application of clear glaze.

Getting the stink eye from a temple cat in Pai, Thailand, 2011.

The tile in its new home in Brooklyn, NY.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

Nature Drawing – Coastal Redwood

Coastal Redwood Trunk, Mt. Tabor, Graphite on Paper, 5 x 8.25″ (12.7 x 30 cm), 2013

This week: nature drawing, Mt. Tabor, and garden love.

The more beautiful the weather gets the harder it is for me to stay indoors to paint. After another dark wet Portland winter I am happy to take a break and trade out painting for drawing in the sun and the fresh air.

Pictured above is a drawing of a Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) that I drew in my Moleskine sketchbook up at Portland’s Mt. Tabor park this past Sunday. These are the tallest trees on earth and can reach up to 379 feet (115.5 m)!

Out the window to the east you can see Mt. Tabor beckoning me to abandon my studio.

Facing westward from Mt. Tabor towards my studio. (It’s the house with the garden.)

My garden plot is coming along nicely. So far I have planted Roma tomatoes, aroma basil, grey lavender, chives, snap peas and was gifted some tenacious potatoes which were already growing in the bed. I’ve been enjoying digging in the dirt with my hands and nurturing this small piece of earth. There is something very meditative and calming about working out there, and I’m looking forward to making drawings of these plants as they grow!

Also, I recently ran across this old photograph of myself as a young child in my pop’s garden. At this age I was known for (and actually remember quite clearly) raiding the garden of any and all snap peas.

Aroma basil starts in the garden.

Snap pea thief: my three year old self in the garden squinting in the sun, circa 1980.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!  <<<>>>

Sneak Peek! + Summery Spring

Currently I am focusing on a series of still lives featuring my collection of keepsakes from the Thai-Burma border. Pictured below is (a detail of) a painting of a ceramic hare and an antique statuette of a red swallow. I found the ceramic hare at an artist’s shop in the northern city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Just a peek until the series is further along!)

Ceramic Hare and Red Swallow (Detail), Oil on Paper, 5.5 x 7″ (14 x 17.75 cm), 2013

Blue and red spectrum on my palette.

This weekend I rode my bike up to Mt. Tabor to draw in my Moleskine sketchbook. Mt.Tabor is a park on an inactive volcano cinder cone within Portland city limits– basically it’s an enormous hill spanning 1.60 sq mi (4.14 km²) which is covered in majestic trees, winding pathways and vistas of the city.

My trusty steed among the great trees of Mt. Tabor, Portland, OR, April, 2013.

Vista of Portland from Mt. Tabor, Graphite on Paper, 5 x 8.25″ (12.7 x 30 cm), 2013

We are experiencing another week of freak summer weather in April– very unusual for Portland, OR. At great odds with my painting time I have been spending as many sunlight hours as possible out of doors walking, biking, seeing friends, and breathing in the Spring air. Pictured below is my adorable artist / seamstress friend Loni. She made everything she’s wearing in that photo! Check out her Etsy shop- LoveToLoveYou.

Loni among the luscious smelling lilacs.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!   <<<>>>

Thailand Sketchbooks!

Everywhere I go I carry a sketchbook. Mostly I use them for planning out more in-depth work. But when I travel I employ them for quickly recording and digesting what I see, hear, and feel in the world around me. Here are some sketchbook pages from when I lived on the Thai-Burma border in 2010-2011.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!  <<<>>>

Baby in a Basket Riding a Dragon, Chiang Mai, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2010

View of a Monastery and Tea Plantations, Doi Mae Salong, Thailand, Graphite, 2011

Surin’s Wooden Bench, Mae Sot, Thailand, Gouache on Paper, 2011

My Studio From Life (in the Yellow House), Sumi Ink on Paper, 2011

Golden Buddha, Chiang Mai, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

Early Morning Sketch of Farmer Riding a Tire Pulled by a Cow, Graphite on Paper, 2011

The Mystery of the Thai Toilet (or How does this work?), Graphite on Paper, 2010

Safety-Last Metal Pipe Transport (I saw this in heavy traffic), Ink and Watercolor, 2010

Laundry Drying on a Bamboo Pole, Mae Sot, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

Four Generations of Women on a Motorbike (Infant to Great-Grandmother), Pencil, 2011

Early Morning Cock Fighting, Thai-Burma Border, Graphite on Paper, 2011

Beth and I Walking Out of Our Flooded Neighborhood, Sumi Ink on Paper, 2011

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!  <<<>>>

Painting Studio and Flower Blossoms!

The loose underpainting of a still life featuring a ceramic hare and red swallow.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been focusing on a series of still lives depicting mementos, oddities, and knickknack from the Thai-Burma border. Later this year I’d like to show this body of work– hopefully the sale of which will help to finance my return to Thailand to continue working with migrant youth from Burma.

I would again be teaching art as an artist/mentor to young and talented Burmese folks at the Puzzlebox Art Studio in Mae Sot, Thailand. Potential energy is my favorite kind of energy– and they’ve got it!)

Painting still lives of mementos from the Thai-Burma border in my studio.

Pictured above is a shot of my studio near the completion of the third painting in the series. Recently I have been trying to be more deliberate about mixing my palette of colors before I begin painting for the day. It’s said that Pablo Picasso structured his painting days like this: In the mornings he mixed his palette. He’d then eat lunch, take a siesta, and do the actual painting all afternoon and into the evening.

Mixing a spectrum of golds, greens, and grays on my palette.

While I usually demonstrate ample patience with my artwork I have realized that I can be impatient when it comes to finding the right color during the actual act of painting. So, lately before I paint I have been placing my palette between myself and the easel. This has proven to be a good way of structuring in slowness and deliberateness when mixing all of the colors that the painting requires.

Cherry blossoms at Portland’s waterfront on the Willamette River.

Spring continues to bloom here in Portland, OR!  This is one of my favorite times of year here as the streets smell like flowers everywhere you go . . .

Friends enjoying a cherry blossom petal shower. Yay, spring!

Next week I’d like to share some of my sketchbooks from Thailand!

Feel free to comment and thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

S K E T C H B O O K S – Part 2

<<< Note: Web address change! >>>  Pinksphinx.wordpress.com is now located at http://mikeschultzpaintings.wordpress.com/ and mikeschultzpaintings.com.  If you’ve got my process blog bookmarked please update it.  : )

Connie Converse Album Artwork Sketch, Brooklyn, NY, Sumi Ink on Paper, 2009

More sketchbooks from the past!

What I find strange about keeping journals made up of drawings is that I can clearly remember everything about the moment that I was making each picture: Where I was, who I was with, my life circumstances and state of being at the time. It’s odd considering that without them my memories can be pretty vague . . .

Perhaps the best part about looking through my old sketchbooks was recognizing and acknowledging who I was in the past and how much I have grown as a human being. (Of course– I’m not talking about a drastic change from recent years. I’m talking about what I found in my sketchbooks from a decade ago.)

Next week I’d like to share my sketchbooks from when I lived in Thailand in 2010-2011.  I’m excited about it as I found a lot to share.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>  Feel free to comment!

Drawing of Cedar Mountain, Cody, Wyoming, Ink on Postcard, 2007

Portrait of Jack, Kansas City, Sumi Ink on Paper, 1999

Drawing Antiquities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, Graphite, 2012

Lynn’s Lion, Portland, OR, Pencil on Paper, 2013

Emily Writing a Letter in a Diner, Near Big Sur, CA, Sumi Ink on Paper, 1998

Tea Plantations and Hills of Mae Salong, Doi Mae Salong, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

Portrait of Julie, Russian River, CA, Sumi Ink on paper, 1999-2000

Pocket Subway Moleskine, NYC, Ink on Paper, 2009

Self Portrait Looking at a Memory of Myself in Brooklyn, Mae Sot, Thailand, Pencil, 2011

Memory Drawing, Burmese Refugee Family Collecting Plastic, Mae Sot, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

People Drawing on the Subway, NYC, Graphite on Paper, 2012

People Drawing at Washington Square Park, New York City, Pencil on Paper, 2008

The Elegant Dog (at the Immigrant Detention Center Near Our House), Graphite on Paper, Thai-Burma Border, 2011

Mike at MOMA, New York City, Graphite on Paper, 2006

Little Nova, Portland, OR, Pencil on Paper, 2012

In the Wilderness with Ghosts (Preliminary for Doc’s Painting), Portland, OR, 2005

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>  Feel free to comment!

Hitchhiker, Stowaway, Drunk – The Sketchbooks That Time Forgot – Part 1

Portrait of Mike, Vermont and Kristen, Kansas City, Sumi Ink on Paper, 1999

Headstrong, emotional, and spirited are three words that could easily have described me in my youth. But they are probably just a kinder way of saying naive, intense, and unpredictable.

A far cry from my life now which is deliberately healthy and calm I was a bit of a wild child who loved nothing more than to travel and create mischief. I drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, weaseled my way in and out of dangerous (sketchy?) situations, and it’s all documented in drawings and words in 18 years worth of sketchbooks.

Portrait of Aidan Healing After the Accident, Charcoal, Colored Pencil and Gouache, 2006

I spent the weekend looking through these books and found so many hilarious and truly weird images. I’ve chosen to share a handful of drawings that I found interesting– of old friends drawn from life, loose sketches of my surroundings during my travels, and a few simple drawings that I just happen to like.

People Drawing in my Pocket Subway Moleskine, New York City, Ink on Paper, 2009

These sketchbooks chronicle my life from Ithaca, Kansas City, Portland, Brooklyn, traveling in California and all over the US, Europe, and a seedy town on the Thai-Burma border.

Emily Before and After the Haircut, Bighorn, WY and Portland, OR, Sumi Ink on Paper, 1998

Page from the Golden Comet, a collaborative sketchbook of Mike Schultz and Jack Baumgartner, 2001-2007

Portrait of Sy, Sumi Ink on Paper, Russian River, CA,1999

When I was young I hitchhiked across the United States. I lived in secret for a year in a decrepit mansion at the Kansas City Art Institute where I slept in a wooden box dubbed by friends as “the coffin”. I was once yelled at by Allen Ginsberg. (Is it embarrassing to be yelled at by a hero? Umm, yes. Yes it is.) It’s all in these books for better or for worse . . .

Portrait of Jack Baumgartner Singing in a Russian Fur Hat, Kansas City, MO, 1999

Hare, Mae Sot, Thailand, Pencil on Paper, 2011

Greg’s Death Painting, Xerox Copy of an Oil Painting, 2000-2001

Memory Drawings, Mae Sot, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

The Modern Daughter of Babylon, Pocket Subway Moleskine, Express Train NYC to DC, 2009

Drawing at the Met, New York City, Pencil on Paper, 2008

View from Our House (The Yellow House), Mae Sot, Thailand, Graphite on Paper, 2011

A Jacob’s Ladder for Lester Goldman on the Occasion of his Death, Portland, OR, Graphite and Coffee on Paper, 2005

Thanks to Jack Baumgartner and Janine Shroff for the inspiration to make this post. Both of them have been posting past sketchbook work of theirs and it seemed like a fun and curious exercise. Curious perhaps, but choosing which drawings to share out of a small mountain of sketchbooks was so difficult!

Thanks for reading and please comment if you wish!  <<<>>>