michael james armstrong » drawings

glashaus grand opening (group show)

Michael James Armstrong — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:05:10 +0000

you may remember that i just recently moved into a new studio. in that very space, this saturday, will be the first art show of many to come. this time around will be an open studios/group show in conjunction with device gallery.

in addition to my most recent work on display in my studio, i’ll have 3 new pieces in the show – drawings on mylar on steel.

i hope you can make it!

ps- i didn’t design the invite but i did design those glashaus letters.

3 drawings and a new show

Michael James Armstrong — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:14:20 +0000

first, i did this mirrored subway car drawing (based on the R36 ) a few weeks ago for a painting i’ve yet to start:

then i photocopied it a couple times, cut it out, and taped it together to make a neat little subway car skyscraper that sits perched on a shelf in between some art books and some ultra flat black.

next, 2 more drawings that will become paintings very soon, and will be unveiled on september 27th at the Device Gallery in la jolla.

“30 story ranch house”

“up”

5 more art night sketches

Michael James Armstrong — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:10:32 +0000

i love the paper in this book.

31 on the job sketches

Michael James Armstrong — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:08:12 +0000

when i used to work at MCASD as a security guard it could get pretty boring. there would be stretches of up to 2 hours sometimes where there would be absolutely no one in the museum. thankfully, during those times we were allowed to sit and read. i did a lot of reading when i first started. titles such as “the master and margarita”, “1984″, “hunger”, and one of my favorites, “the confederacy of dunces”. after awhile though the museum got a little busier and it got harder to concentrate on reading when you’d have to stop and put the book away every 5 or 10 minutes. so i didn’t read on the job too much anymore and went on to doing crosswords. well, i suck at those so i went on to just drawing. i’d carry a clipboard with a few sheets of printer paper that i’d get from the front desk, and whether i was sitting or standing i would draw (usually with a ball point pen, sometimes pencil). i amassed quite a few drawings during those long boring days. most were complete garbage that i’d end up tossing out as i left to go home. but some were worth keeping. most of these are smaller than the picture implies. i blew them up in order to see them better.

this was my view across the street of the new museum location at the santa fe train depot from the front desk of the old downtown location at one america plaza. “concept is king” was a stab at the museums choice of the jenny holzer permanent installation on the front of the building. not my cup of tea. same thought was behind this drawing which is based on the museums “X” logo:

this is about as controversial as i get in my work. heh. on to less agenda oriented drawings like these:

want to see the other 26 sketches? check out my FLICKR page.

new sketch book

Michael James Armstrong — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:44:51 +0000

i got a cool new sketch book at “stationers” in hillcrest

the dimensions are 5.5″ X 8.25″. it’s made of butcher paper and string, with a corrugated paper cover. pretty cool.
i did a few sketches in it last night at art night. here they are:

new drawings, non-photo blue

Michael James Armstrong — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:21:31 +0000

here’s a few art night drawings. the first 2 are from a couple weeks ago and the last is from last night.

that star has a couple butts on it

this one’s a little hard to see because it’s non-photo blue on chip board. i don’t usually draw like this but…i don’t know. felt a bit cubist at that moment i suppose.

some old colored pencil drawings and stuff

Michael James Armstrong — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 05:15:42 +0000

here’s some colored pencil drawings from a couple years ago:

this one was done during a past art night – it’s a collaboration by myself, joeygold, and gubba:

nice lounging bean by GUBBA

this drawing i did for a friends (an ex art night core member, NICK) short lived ZINE:

it was an art zine, and you had to do a piece that was based on a theme. i don’t remember the theme, but this drawing was based on that theme.

close up, just cuz:

new drawings on fish paper

Michael James Armstrong — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 05:14:41 +0000

fellow art nighter, FRIDA, gave me some of this great paper she got while in mexico. it sat in the studio for a couple months until i finally put something down on it. i did these four drawing the same day i made my “black power” collage. here we go:

on these first three i drew the paint marker lines first at random, and then i did the graphite lines to bring it together.

the texture of this paper is cool:

macro, just because: