Just for the die-hards

First new image of 2012 is now posted to the home page at www.sirinsky.com. I'm pretty stoked about it - and hope this will be indicative of the rest of the year. Just announcing it here for you ultra-blog fans...full announcement with this and other things to come in the next several days.

Enjoy!

-Marc

2012- Pedal to the Metal

Hi everyone:

A healthy and happy new year to all! I hope everyone has enjoyed their holiday and some much needed time off. My next day off at this point isn't until April - which is a LONG time from now. Gonna need some art to get me through!

I've deemed 2012 as the "year of the art" - and plan to put the pedal to the medal in a lot of areas. New work, exhibitions, promotions and a variety of other tidbits will all be coming your way. If you like what you see and read on the blog (or have any suggestions), please do comment - I read them and take them all seriously. Well, almost all of them...

Please also refer your colleagues, friends - even your enemies - to the blog and to my website to check out my work. Again, they can link to the blog directly from the site - so you guys really have no excuse. This is my annual plea for everyone to spread the word. Thanks in advance.

Enough of the pledge drive - I do have some concrete art news to deliver. One of my pieces was recently selected for the "Winter" exhibition at A Smith Gallery in Johnston City, Texas. Google Maps tells me it's not terribly far from Austin - so if any of you are heading that way in January to escape the cold - drop on by! The info is:

A Smith Gallery

105 N. Nugent Ave.

Johnson City, TX

Hours: 11-6 pm Fri and Sat, 11-3pm on Sunday

Exhibition Dates: 1/6/2012-2/12/2012

Reception: 1/28/2012, 4-7pm

I feel pretty good about being included in this - about 500 pieces were submitted internationally, and they only accepted about 50. Great looking group of work overall - you can see all of the work here: https://asmithgallery.com/Winter_Accepted_Images.php

Funny thing is - the piece they're showing is the same image I exhibited at The Lunch Box Gallery in Miami a few months back. So, the piece has gone from Chicago, to Miami, back to Chicago, and then to TX. This little guy has logged a lot of miles over the past few months! For a refresher, the image is here - give him some love:

The juror for the show only selected 1 image per artist, which is kinda nice. Should be a good one folks.

In other art news, I just got back a really good looking roll of film - which is surprising since when I was rewinding it, my kids turned on the lights in an adjacent room....and I was sure the film had been exposed. Seems as though I lucked out. If only those old Bakelite cameras had a rewind mechanism!

I tried doing some printing last night, but my printer has not been cooperating. Looks like I'll need to bring the old one out of retirement (thankfully I still have it) but I need to install some new print drivers before I can move forward. Hopefully this week I'll have some new work to show.

That's all for now. Remember, tell your friends, and have their friends tell their friends! Everyone's support is going to mean a lot in the coming year.

Stay warm and stay tuned!

Marc Sirinsky

www.sirinsky.com

www.sirinskyphoto.blogspot.com

still homeless...for now

Hey everyone:

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Not too long until the next one...so remember that during your daily grind!

Blogging music is a random play list today - but the Sex Pistols just came on. I guess that one is pretty self explanatory.

So, now that the website has been updated to contain 2 portfolios of separate but related work, I definitely feel like I have a little more latitude - but not a ton. These two bodies of work still need to relate to each other, and to my own personal style that I've taken years to develop (no pun intended). I've shuffled the image order on the second portfolio (the non-painterly work) several times already, and even added an image today from 2010 that fits pretty well now. It's the image of the factory I posted way back then - maybe some of you die-hard fans remember, but if not - don't fret...just go to the site and look at it!

I have another image I did a while ago that I still like - but it doesn't fit into either group. You can't force a square peg into a round hole I guess. I think I posted this to the blog soon after I shot it as well - but here it is again:

What's so odd about it is that it contains many of the elements of my other work. It's kinda painterly in its look - similar to that group of work. And, it feels a little bit haunting to me - like much of the work included in the other portfolio. But, somehow, the way those elements are put together in this one has left it homeless. Do you guys agree? Let me know what you think - I suppose I could be swayed, but...

Otherwise, I've been exploring a bunch of exhibition opportunities - group shows mostly - but am still looking for a home for my work. An agent would be nice right about now...

Take care everyone!

-Marc

Just for Fun

Hi all:

Just wanted to post this one for fun. Passed by this thing a bunch of times and finally decided to take a shot of it. Reception to it so far has been luke warm - but I like it...

Enjoy your evening everyone!

-Marc

Changes Afoot

Hi everyone:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I felt like taking a break from the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to give everyone a little blog update. There's only so much high school marching bands and Broadway lip-syncing I can take.

Lots of news everyone - the first being that I've done a bit of an overhaul of my website. Some of you may have noticed that you can now link directly to the blog from the site. This is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Just one click now in the upper right on "blog" - no having to remember and type in a separate URL. You're welcome everybody - just lookin' out for ya!

Secondly, I felt the time was right to separate my work out into two separate, but related portfolios. Though all of my work has a unified feel (so I've been told), there are clearly two independent bodies of work happening simultaneously: the more painterly looking work (now labeled as "images 1,") and my other work ("images 2.") They definitely belong on the site together, but I finally feel comfortable enough with the quality and quantity of each group to separate them out a little. This has always been the plan - but it took several years for both bodies of work to be ready for this transition.

And last, but not least - I've put a new piece up in the "images 2" portfolio. I've attached it below. Every time I look at it, I think about sitting out on the lawn, watching those sun-kissed days go by. Kind of a mix of nostalgia and warmth - with just a hint of Sirinsky oddball-ness:

I've got a couple more images in the pipeline too - so more to come soon. In the meantime, go stuff yourselves with all that is bad for you and enjoy some much needed rest (and football!)

-Marc

Worth The Wait?

Hi everyone:

I guess it's been a busy summer, since I just realized my last blog entry was back in July! But, just because I took some time off from blogging doesn't mean I haven't been busy with "art stuff." I come to you today with the soundtrack of a very random Ipod playlist...very random.

So, the first piece of news is something many of you know already. I'm in a show in Miami - which actually opens tonight. Why am I not there? Because a: it's only one piece and b: it's expensive. You get to the point in your career where you simply can't go to every show you're in. My rule of thumb is if it's a solo or featured artist gig, I do everything I can to make it. Otherwise, unless I can drive there, I generally can't justify the time and expense.

Anyway, the show tonight is at a space called The Lunchbox Gallery. Here's the info:

The Lunchbox Gallery

310 NW 24th Street

Miami, FL

Opening reception: Tonight (9/10) from 5-11 pm.

Show runs until 10/4/2011

Gallery hours: M-Sat: 11am-5pm

So, those of you in the Miami area, get your butts over there and let me know how it is!

I've got some other stuff in the works as well - some publishing opportunities and perhaps another show or two before spring-time. I'll keep y'all posted!

This is all stemming from the fact that I now have what I feel is a pretty cohesive body of work.

Obviously, I'll be continuing in this style and thematic ballpark for quite a while - but things are now at a point where I can begin truly shopping around. I also took a look at my exhibition history recently and realized that I'm a little low on juried shows in recent years. Part of that is my feeling that I've reached the point where I no longer need to pay to be shown as an artist. I always rationalized that as something people do when they're first starting out - to get exposure, experience, etc. But, in thinking about it, most juried shows involve a fee - so I decided to suspend my beliefs when something comes up that I feel particularly good about This Miami show is one example. They only took 12 artists nationally from an open call, which is good for the old ego, and I'll get to test out the Miami art market. Overall, not a bad deal I suppose.

I hope everyone is well and came through the hurricanes and earthquake ok. I'll keep everyone posted!

-Marc

How It All Starts

Hey everyone:

Since my skin started to sizzle after being outside today, I thought a blogging session in some nice, comfy air conditioning was in order. Blogging tunes today come courtesy of R.E.M. Been listening to some of their older stuff of late - we're getting reacquainted, and it feels like I never left! Even my kids were rockin' out to Reckoning in my car the other day.

Anyway, I thought for today's blogging session I'd show everyone where one of my plastic camera images typically starts:

Overall, this wasn't the lab's best scanning effort. But, to be fair, a couple of the images were kinda iffy anyway, so I can't blame them completely. I see the one above potentially being the case of a "happy accident" where this might actually work to my advantage. It actually came out a little creepier than I expected, and y'all know that I'm a big fan of the creepy. In fact, a lot of my work has this nostalgic feeling, with an unsettling undertone - so this one could fit in nicely.

As you can see, the original image is very flat looking, with these big blobs on the left and right side of the frame. Those white spots are two circles inside the camera touching the film. This camera was originally meant for a different kind of film (one that isn't made anymore), and I've rigged it to take 35 mm, which means light leaks and crazy things happen. Until I figure out a way to work around this issue, I've been retouching those areas, or cropping them out if the composition doesn't suffer.

Working on this image will take some time, and then from there, I'll probably put it through my printing process. I have some interesting ideas on how to work with this one, so I'll be sure to post the finished product when I'm done.

Stay cool out there everyone...break open a fire hydrant or something (not that I'm officially condoning that type of behavior)...

-Marc