Joseph Freshwater "Life of a River Beast #3"

Joseph Freshwater Life of a River Beast #3   This is a new painting i finished abstract. This is the first piece i really played around with mixing heavy body and fluid acrylic in the style that's developing for me. when i sat down i had no idea what i was planning to paint. Sometimes things explode on to the canvas for me and its not a long complicated process. Sometimes my art replicates how i live my life randomly guided by pasisons Exploding all over the place and going at something hard then lol i am done. my brother didn't like the burnt umber bars i painted across the painting but their was a really cool shadow from my windows that laid across the painting as i was working on it and i wanted to try and capture that moment in time so i just traced over it. I like it because you can see threw it underneath. Sometimes i do what i want with out thinking which is totally me for good or bad. Even though i spent like 5 hours painting and and all my paint in the process which could o ruined the piece but Eh. I hope you like it. the reason i put it as River Beast # 4 Is because i plan to paint a helmet and 2 other objects in the collector series for all my paintings. hope you brings you entertainment. i put a lot of hidden images inside the painting. One is Spqr the Roman tattoo i have on my shoulder. Several hidden Sea Monsters

This is my new abstract acrylic painting i just finished. I call It Mind Fog #4  The Overall set up is that the blue white circle in the center represents our earth just around the time humans are working towards commercial space flight. i put a sun way in the distance underneath the earth to give it depth. I added a ton of hidden images that should catch the eye and hopeful make it fun to look at. On the upper left side you might notice what looks like a snake eye when you notice the yellow teeth he looks like he is almost enveloping the earth this represents the challenges we have and will over come getting humanity into space. also under the blue earth if you change your view to think of it as a eye you will notice the teeth below it. this was meant to represent another serpent. i see serpents as the epitamy of beautiful and cunning. sometimes as a species we are cold blooded but the beauty of our species and our intelligence shows threw. this piece is dedicated to one of my favrite big personality richard Branson and all the people who work with virgin galactic to make commercial space flight a reality. i am a huge supporter and think its the right step for us.

" If Edgar and Allen robbed you would you be Poe"

Here is the inside of my new glass painting when lite up. thought id give a close up so you can see the hidden shapes and fun stuff. Also i don't try and make so much dark or scary art i normally have no clue what i am about to make when i pick something up and start at it. Halloween is my favorite time of the year and i kinda like pumpkins so i guess lots of my art just tends to be darker. Im currently working on one like this but with more of a sea theam using blue led lights when i can find ones small enough. This peice is called "if Edgar and Allen robbed you would you be Poe' tribute to one of my fav creative types. See other posts below to see what the vase looks like in the day vers what it looks like at night when its lit up in the dark.

If Edgar And Allen Robed you would you be Poe

This is my first time painting glass i call it   "If Edgar and Allen Robed you would you be Poe"  Tribute to one of my fav creative people. I am starting to have a lot of fun with Light and dark in my paintings. i have a few ideas i am working on using fish tanks as canvas because of their three dimensional property's. also i am working on a way to be able to paint bar codes into my works so when scanned with a smart phone you it will bring you to webpages that make the art interactive. Anyone who likes my art here you may send me a friend request on facebook. i like to know new people. also let me know if you can see any fun hidden images i try to pain into my works. One ill give you the teeth on this guy are made to look like little people doing a dance around a fire.

 UPDATE from old post
One idea i had for a painting i had gotten a few years ago when i was at target buying a mop outside while it was raining. I had just got done watching scrubs and happen to find the janitor character very entertaining. I thought a stone statue image of a janitor holding a mop up to the sky while it was raining would be cool. he would have a   look on his face like "Dont Worry I got it". then just to add some more flavor underneath the stone base of the statue in the painting some etched in words would read a personification of the sun and the tide. I just like to create images of places i think would be cool to hang out at. Here is the writing that would be etched under the stone statue in the painting

Each day he spent along the tide
Wondering today what depth she lied
Her secrete shared
his pain was deep
their stood his soul a withered heap
Lovers breeze did bend to kiss his eyes
lovers pain did tend to his demise
His love the sun
his mask the tide
their placid love to us they hide.

this image if it was a place would be somewhere id like to go read a book. Just got done sketching the outline for this one on canvas. its fairly weak sauce put ill post it anyways as a timeline from where i started to how far i plan to go. this might be one of those images i keep re painting as i get better and better. Update Now that i have a little more experience under my belt on the technical painting side i have started to work on this. iv found this to be one of my favorite painting ideas and think someday it will be a really great painting. The feel behind the look "Dont worry i got this" Is an emotion most people can relate to.

My Dream idea that i would like to find a way to make into a fine art painting

have you ever played air guitar like bill and ted do in there excellent adventure ? I had a weird dream that i would love to find a way to work into a painting. Ill explain the dreams concept on a small scale so you catch the idea but then well take the concept to a global scale. So heres what i would do if i hand the funds. i would take a shopping mall and deploy hundreds of thousands of sensors every few feet through out the mall each with a unique sound attached to them. then i would rent or sell special gloves that have recorders and speakers on each finger where a person could run threw the mall and literally pluck the air to produce a musical sound. the recorder would not only play the sound allowing them to create music but it would record the sound allowing the person to run threw and discover and collect different key note through out the mall. this adds collectivity to the entertainment venue and gives a person a reason to go back time and time again. Fun Dream idea right but now lets take the last idea and apply the concept globally. if a government with space access could use gps type satellites to grid sensors or another technology that would work with the gloves to produce different sounds all over the world. they could sell the gloves at a alarming rate. country's all over would buy them and the country who produced the idea and had the capital to keep it up and running would make jillons of dollars to pump into what ever they wanted. many people across cultures would buy these because it has the collect ability of different notes and the universal langwage of music. Diffrent parts of the world on gps would have diffrent collectable sounds giving benifit for collectable toursium. : ) So i know the idea sounds crazy but most good ideas start out crazy. Ill find a way to paint this concept into some fine art and maby someday someone with the funds will bring the idea into being and hook a broke brother up for the idea : )

Whats Light When Dark (My New Painting Idea)

Thought up a new painting idea i started working with last night. The view is from a person sitting in the very center back of a city buss looking towards the front down the asile. One side of the buss is slightly darker then the other side of the buss This is clearly divided bye a edge in the center. Their is a person standing in the middle of the line which divides light and dark. Half of their body is human the other half is skelton depending where they enter the dark or light side. All the people on the dark side of the buss are skeltons and all the peaple on the light side of the buss are human looking. Any part of someones body that goes over the light to dark line is visa versa. The painting is all about how culture and people all have a duality of light and dark to their personality. My Bi Polar creative rage at its best eh lol. Untill next time...Got Milk ? Hell no i got iniative..it tastes better with cookies...go get some : )

Where Art Thou : )

Hello yall. Just thought id post that this blog is still in the works. iv been spending most all my time learning how to draw realisticly. Draw realisticly so that someday i can draw unrealistic things looking realistic. Hopeing it will better my art. allthough i strongly identify myself as an abstract painter i belive that its important to be able to have the skill to be figarativly competant. Ill post some new works soon. I curently lack a studio art space so works been slow on the painting side.

As you guys know im really new to art heres a few of the paintings iv done recently while trying to teach myself.

Riot in a bottle

New Painting im working on is titled "Riot in a Bottle". the picture is of a young man in the foreground witnessing some type of atrocity in the distance. he has a large bottle brought up to his lips that etched in glass says riot in a bottle. inside the bottle theirs a picture of a riot in full force which symbolizes his thoughts getting stronger as hes drinking his liquid courage. just doing some ruff drafts but i think the symbolism could be rad. thought id mention i don't condone riots because the wrong targets have the potential to get hurt. Half the time it hurts the cause, its like two kids slapping each other in the yard with the teacher watching. Neither side does what they intend in most cases because everyone's watching. im not a fan of something that doesn't get much done till someone takes it to far. I just like art and with all the stuff happening in the world thought it be a interesting subject. Also in another acrylic painting that's a bit lighter. I plan to draw some riot police with their shields out cept the one in the middle holds a big wiggling plate of orange jello. an enscription on the plate Reads "Protesters love "Jail O"

Got Milk ? Hell no i got iniative it tastes better with cookies.

Interactive painting concept im working on is called "You got haunted". Its an interactive overhead acrylic painting of a city. Their is a short book guide or panel pages that are inculded with the painting. the concept is that you look and explore the city as if you are a invisable ghost abel to pass threw walls and explore whats going on in the city uninhibited. Who hasnt wished they could pass threw walls and see whats going voyer style around a city. I think people will be intrested and identify with this interactive painting. For example on how the book works you look at a house on the map 1824 road drift drive. 1824 road drift drive is connected to page 6 in the guide which gives a short description of what you see when you go in the house. it tells you  that jenna cullens and mark david live their and explains what they are doing at the moment. As a ghost you get a chance to look in unobserved hear how they are interacting and what their thoughts are threw the book. Then at the end of each short incert you get the chance to choose from 3 diffrent choices if you as a ghost want to scare the shit out of them. :) im working hard to find a way to make my art simpler to understand yet still as detailed. eventualy ill get their.

Of Winter gifts and idea drifts :)

Next painting concept is kinda a weird one. Their is a man siting outside his back yard deck deck in the middle of winter with no shirt on. He is wearing just some pajama pants slippers and has a gift wraped christmas present box covering his head with a big red bow at the top. He is standing proudly in 2 foot deep blankets of snow painting at his easel. the caption above him says "Mentaly Ill....... But Gifted " lol hopefully someone gets the pun :) The cool thing about this painting is their will be a painting inside a painting.  What he is painting will be a snowman with a machine gun riding a unicorn threw a snow filled vally. the snowman is mowing down a buncha scuptures of crystal dolphines coasting threw the snow drifts. I have been working on trying to scetch this out before i paint it. but i think im a better painter then i am a sketcher lol. either way this will be a fun painting. on a side note today i showed my first real canvas done painting (44 percent done i guess) to someone.i keep changing and adding to the flavor text. Felt good i had been procrastanating showing it due to not knowing how to get it posted. Lost my usb port but on a side note i will go back to each post and add some corasponding pics as i get them done. Objective over come :) the person i showed it to told me they enjoyed it so far. that felt good. Their is no better motavation then someone enjoying what you try to make.

Pillow Case Fairy Tale...thats right

you know how some people are not very good at telling stories. i had an idea that might help parents tell better bedtime stories to their kids. my idea is to take pillow case's and sew in a fairy tale city map. the map will have a childrens picture book to go with it. On each page it will have a really cool description of diffrent houses and places in the fairy tale world that i will write. Their will also be blank lines for the parents to write in their own story parts that they can tell the kids at night time before bed and really make it their own. the way i see it is that then when ever the kids go to sleep they can look at the pillow and be like oh snap thats cool i remember that story. i think this would be a useful and productive product to make and ill look into how i can make it work.

Zombies ate my Arm :)

New art project iv started today with my time off is titled twin cities zombie Apocalypse basically interactive map for my friend Amelia. we use to run "Minnesota Morbid" Low budget zombie film company where we worked on scripts and youtube skits. Basically im painting a map of a city. each address has a corresponding address that is labeled in a book where i am compiling our old move script. Should play out like a interactive adventure when someone looks at the map. is gonna be really cool and im super into it so its going fast. Pics to come soonly

The days activitys acomplishments as well as some learning expeirances

Worked with some acrylic gel medium to mix with my paint so it lasts longer.  i picked it up from wet paint last week this guy helped me find it and everything else i needed. amazing store the workers were very polite both times i have been their. you can tell they have passion for what they do. im such a noob when it comes to art supplies the people make more of a difference where i shop then price. id recommend them highly. One other place i shoped at this week was michels in harmar mall. the worker dint even pay me a second glance. They had a lot less selection but i was abel to find some wood panels that worked very well as molds. Best thing about harmar art supply shop is its proximity to harmar petshop where i got to check out the reef tanks and critters  :) Friend of mine mentioned to keep looking for deals online as well. Iv learned it pays to listen to good advise. I think i have most all the art supplies ill need for a while other then more paint and canvas and a easil which i might build. This afternoon i read some of my books on scetching i find it hard to draw things im not intrested in and have digressed to re drawing the art work off old magic cards i had laying around. Now that was fun. I always think of really stupid lines to go with my drawings. mostly play on words :). Finding a hard time learning to paint small letters in acyrlic in order to use them as keys to the book that goes with my interactive map art. Now im watching the walking Dead on amc off my x box 360 gammer tag is IGC Postman if anyone ever wants to play black ops call of duty :). One of the things i have also been experimenting with today is pouring acyrlic into molds to make acyrlic paint houses stand a quarter of a inch off the canvas. Hasnt worked so far but im not detered.If anyone has advise on a good way to acheive this please hit me up. time to do some writing i think.  i plan to gather a few people intrested in art and have like a dinner art party night once a month where we can share ideas and do art stuff together if anyone is intrested localy here in the twincities just hit me up. Ill keep things posted when i figure out what might be best.

Of Raindeer and Rythem

   this week id like to start a new painting the theam for it will be how we as
people conceptualize the ideas and thoughts behind songs and fairy tales in
relation to there sugarcoating darker shallow messages children should learn
but we are uncomfortable teaching them.
    for example in the children song Rudolf the red nose reindeer.
they all laugh at him and call him names. but as soon as he lights up the way
for Santa becoming useful they all love him. Lets take this concept and explore
the positive sides behind it as well as figuring out ways to curb the negative
aspects of it. can we use some of the concepts we find in songs and fairly tales
 to fix problems in everyday life ? for example Can the concepts behind the song
 Rodolph the red nose reindeer be used to fix anything in society ? i can think
of a few things but i want to hear from you all. the way i plan to incorperate this
concept into a painting is to record it in one of my maps as a conversation that
happen at one of the event markers in a overhead map.ill do something silly like
a dream scape painting where you are in a bar talking to a oversized walrus in
a top hat and hes telling you his thoughts about it. Art is really fun because you
can take your own thoughts and record them for all time yet still make it entertaining
where someone might actualy listen to what notion your trying to get across.
It may be hard to understand what i meen bye my exploration map art concept
idea untill i get some of them posted but they will be coming soon.

Of Dreams and thoughts

Do you ever have a dream that seams so real you can taste
and feel the environment. every detail is woven into a crazy realistic tapestry
? well i kinda wonder if like our subconscious minds create inventions while we
dream. like how random thoughts threw out the week are put together to make a
picture. perhaps our brains while sleeping are capable of taking distorted ideas
 we have wanted to put together but have to much distortion when we are awake to
 produce. Is there a way we could remember these ideas from dreams more clearly
and take concepts from them to put to practicle use in the real world? with new
technology they are currently able to map images dreaming people have on computer
 screens. this technology has a long ways to go but i had a new idea for the
 concept. what if we were able to teach a computer program to replicate the
process of dreaming. if it were programed to take weeks worth of images from
peoples memory and put them together randomly or with programed connections
then display it on a screen what images would the computer program come up
with that might spark creative products. perhaps we could then watch the screen
and get new ideas for inventions or technology that we might not have thought
up. it would be able to be broadcast on a computer screen a dream network for
 inventors. this application is very possible just to take the concept that
 peoples dreams are visual attached memory ,wants. wishes and fears find a
way to map the images out so they mathematically produce connected images and
 tweak it from there.  Since this doesn't exist yet id love to use acrylic painting to express some of the cool crazy dreams that i have in a way others can experience them they way i do. Soon as i figure out how to post the paintings i have been working on ill get them posted up on here for anyone who wishes to to see.

Jaintors and silly putty.

One idea i had for a painting i had gotten a few years ago when i was at target buying a mop outside while it was raining. I had just got done watching scrubs and happen to find the janitor character very entertaining. I thought a stone statue image of a janitor holding a mop up to the sky while it was raining would be cool. he would have a   look on his face like "Dont Worry I got it". Then just to add some more flavor underneath the stone base of the statue in the painting some etched in words would read a personification of the sun and the tide. I just like to create images of places i think would be cool to hang out at. Here is the writing that would be etched under the stone statue in the painting

Each day he spent along the tide
Wondering today what depth she lied
Her secrete shared
his pain was deep
their stood his soul a withered heap
Lovers breeze did bend to kiss his eyes
lovers pain did tend to his demise
His love the sun
his mask the tide
their placid love to us they hide.

this image if it was a place would be somewhere id like to go read a boo. Just got done sketching the outline for this one on canvas. its fairly weak sauce put ill post it anyways as a refreance from where i started to how far i plan to go. this might be one of those images i keep re painting as i get better and better.

My First Blog OH SNAP : )

Hi ! So my name is Joseph Freshwater. How are you today ? good beans. Iv decided to start a blog to track my personal progression into becoming an artist. I feel i have some really interesting ideas and a different style that id like to share. Slight problem i have no idea how to paint or draw. But its all good because when i was young someone dropped a bucket full of initiative next to me and i snatched it up and ran. No you cant have it back ! I have decided that I should take my lack of technical skill and keep practicing until its to a place where i can share how i experience the world with others. I hope some of you might find it interesting and engaging to follow me from the start. my primary interests are in production of interactive story based acrylic paintings. i have never had a professional art class and cant really say i have any friends with a similar interest in art but many people i know feel its a skill i should develop and would excel in. I guess we will see if they are right : ) This blog will also hopefully serve as a way i can get to know some other artist as friends in the twincities to share work with and engage in the culture. Iv finished my first 3 paintings soon as i find my camra cord ill post them here on this page. hopefully bye tonight. they are just some cool maps for a new exploration art concept i have. Basicaly i draw a cool map then their is a book that i write that goes along explaining who lives in each place and or what you see when you walk in the door or explore the area of the painting.