Trayc Claybrook, visual artist

Ouch?!?!

I wonder how this happens?! That egg is twice the size of every egg we've ever gotten? Look what it does to the carton! That had to hurt...

Living sculpture

Upsidedown planter

Chickens in my backyard

Chickens 1

Caching In

Caching In

"Caching In" video, color, 5 minutes

Can coordinates kill you? Find out in this suspenseful, comedic, thriller!

High Five

High Five FINAL

"High Five" (2007) video, color, 3.5 minutes

The prairies of North Texas are an austere landscape.
On the wide, flat terrain, man-made towers of concrete and steel become our forests, a freeway interchange our Grand Canyon, the sky our ocean.

Moving forward with my ideas

Experiment1

This is a snapshot of an evolution I'm taking in my work. I had this idea to transform the silhouette into a 3-dimensional sculptural form. This is the first exploration of this idea.

Experiment1a

More from the X Ten Cellars show

Two more paintings from the X Ten Cellars show!



"One After Another" oil and encaustic on BFK mounted on oak panel. 24" x 24"



"One After Another" detail






"Windmills" oil and encaustic on BFK mounted on oak panel. 24" x 24"



"Windmills" detail

It Became Something Else

These paintings are transitional pieces I painted for a show at X Ten Cellars. They  assisted me in moving my encaustic work from small scale to a much larger format.  The imagery is also evolving into a more personal language. However, this language is being expanded to include not just personal issues, but social and [political issues as well.
"Front Yard" oil and encaustic on BFK mounted on oak panel. 24" x 24"





"FREE" oil and encaustic on BFK mounted on oak panel. 24" x 24"





"FREE" detail

Semi-daily video 12-14-07 "Grasshoppers"

Here's the first entry in the "Daily video" video blog that my friend Shirl and I are doing. This is from a trip this summer to West Texas. I became strangely infatuated with the thousands of oil thingies that were absolutely everywhere. 

Grasshoppers

My girls

Mygirlsattheopening

Shirley, Candace, Me, and Michele

1woman show at 9 Eyes Gallery

Wow! This is a really great thing for me. I was offered a 1 woman show at 9 Eyes Gallery and the opening was August 4th. I have 18 peices in this show, 13 encaustic pieces, 5 large paintings, and 2 handmade artist books. This is a compilation and bringing together of most of the work that has been posted on this blog. As we were hanging the show it was very exciting to see these pieces interact with each other. The small encaustic paintings have this internal quietness to them while the large oils are open and bright. To see and feel these two spectrums of emotion weaving in and out of each other is really a beautiful thing. It kind of reminds of the way life really is emotionally; one minute we are bright and open and in the blink of an eye we can become quiet, internalized. This was a really fun opening. I think there may have been anywhere from 50-60 people there total. I'm looking forward to the closing reception. BTW-ALL of this work is for sale except for a few pieces that have already been sold.

 

Showat9eyes

A show at The McKinney Ave. Contemporary (MAC)

This was certainly a fun event for me to be a part of. It is the membership show at The MAC in Dallas, Texas. It is such a great opportunity to see work created by other artists in the DFW area. Not everyone shows their work in galleries around the city so this is a great show for connecting with my fellow artists. There were lot's of people in attendance including some of my painterly friends, Ross Von Rosenburg and Mary Furer, who also had pieces in the show. The theme for this year was "War & Peace". Here's the piece I submitted. It is from a very new and experimental series I'm working on. It's titled "Tell yourself".

MeattheMAC

Artist's Statement

My work is usually structured in the form of sentences. It is orientated on the horizontal, like a story, and read left to right or vertically, like a poem. The images are symbols or hieroglyphics that are revealing a story or narrative of some sort. However, because of the contextual shift the symbols have undergone, the viewer is invited to create their own story based on the enculturation and experiences of their own life. The shapes and elements used underneath the images provide texture and dimension which I equate to the senses and act as a connection the physical world.

OK so I'm catching up...

OK so I'm catching up on posting the work I've been doing lately. I thought I had migrated all of the old blog over here but I have just realized I didn't. As Richard Tuttle said, "Coming into sync with this art thing that you carry around is extraordinary and when that actually happens and it does more and more I can say more and more that I have nothing to do with it." Most of the time, I don't remember painting these things. I remember feelings and smells and temperatures and some thoughts, but I don't really remember the physical act of creating these things or, and most far from my consciousness, why I did it. These have a highly codified visual language. How do the materials compare? "Something was made where there had been nothing before." R. Tuttle.

These pieces are not meant to be seen quickly.They are meant to be contemplated until they take you some place. 

7 days

I have been working in my studio for seven days straight. I started and finished all of the encaustic paintings for the Waxy Buildup show. I have to say it was a grand experience. Painting for 8-10 hours a day; the only thing I stopped for was a little company, some dinner here and there, and my teaching job. It gave a glimpse of what it feels like to do this for a living. The paintings are done and now it's time for them to go out into the world and be what they will. There are 13 of them. I have posted a few of them here.

and so it's been happening

I haven't been in my studio for about 5 weeks. I have been working A LOT!!! I had a shoot in the Bahamas for 10 days, 7 fabric designs to get out, 7 classes to teach, and a 7 year old to take care of. But I'm certainly filling up that creative bucket. I should be able to get back in my studio by mid May. I will have made all my deadlines by then. All I need is a couple of weeks to catch up. I guess this is just what happens and it's important not to beat yourself up about it. My friends are all still here and all things are pretty-much magic. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my shoot in the Bahamas. Enjoy all!!!

Soft Deductions

Soft Deductions

What are your neighbors really saying?

Malebox

Malebox

This is a charming story about a guy, a girl, and her malebox.

This one is different

I guess I could say that about each new painting I start and work through. But this one is vertical. I have never really worked in a vertical fashion before. I have always worked wide. I have always seen and felt my work as a sentence. But who says sentences can't be written vertically; like poetry. This piece was conceived totally in a stream of immediate consciousness and it continues to be worked on in that way. (I almost feel as though I should capitalize IT.) It's an absolute blast when you begin to really go with this magical thing/ability to speak through a process called painting. I can't begin to even imagine what is coming next.

Kris, a photographer, came to my studio

My good friend Kris Hundt, who is a professional photographer, came by my studio for a visit and we ended up laughing, talking philosophy, and she took some really cool pictures. She clicked while I painted. It was a wonderuos thing. If you scroll down, I have posted some of the pictures she took.

A full day in the studio

Ampersandpanels

This was my first long, full day in my studio since I moved into it. It was an absolutely beautiful day out. Sunny and a bit warm. My studio has no heat so I was able to warm it up nicely due to the temperature outside. I'm almost done with the untitled painting with the clock I just posted. This painting is quite a jump for me. It's very sparse and clean. I'm use to being a lot messier with things. But that is one thing I wanted to evolve in my work-skill. I wanted to work on craftsmanship and skill within the process. Somehow that has translated into a very crisp image. I can tell you, not everyone is a fan of it. I think that is because they just aren't use to it. Anyway, the working title for this piece was Shaman/Priest but it may end up being Monument To Thieves. I just like the not-so-pointed nature of the second title. I feel the first one gives away too much. I also prepped 13, 12"x12" ampersand panels for the encaustic pieces I'm ready to start. You can check out that blog at waxybuildup.blogspot.com. I posted a photo of the panels here. They have such a quiet beauty to them in the late afternoon light. Enjoy!

Aquisition of new technology and other goings on

I replaced my camera! This one is much more "involved" than the old point-n-shoot I had so I haven't mastered the settings yet. But we'll get there. I did finish the fig but I can't seem to find those pictures for some reasons. So I went ahead and posted the newest painting in progress. It's working title is "Shaman/Priest" or maybe"Shiver/Warm". Who knows at this point in this painting's young life. I also started another painting that will be two horizontal canvases stacked on top of each other. This is odd for me in two ways. I started another painting while a current one is only just beginning and I never work vertically; usually these paintings read horizontally like sentences. But this is really not such a suprise. These paintings are coming to me almost faster than I can get them out and they are evolving in both idea and method as I go through them. I have never experienced such an evolution in a body of work in my entire career as a painter. This is a most wonderful experience. The smaller, encaustic works you see were done in an encaustic painting workshop. I have always used bees wax in my work but never in the correct, traditional way. So I decided to learn how to do it the right way. These are the three paintings I did in the workshop. I'm going to be in a show with fellow artist and good friend Deanna Wood this summer. The show is called Waxy Buildup: Cleaning House and it is a collection of encaustic paintings that have to do with cleaning "house". You can check out that blog also. There is a link listed on the left of this blog. Enjoy some more pics from Rome!

Loss of technology

Well, I failed to mention in my last post that I had left my trusty Kodak digital camera in an Italian taxi cab. Of course it wasn't just the camera but also an expensive pair of duty-free sunglasses, a beloved statue of the Piata, and an apron with David printed on the front. Basically, that was a 5oo.oo taxi ride, not counting the fair and the tip. That is why I haven't been able to post any pictures lately. Fortunately, my simm card was full and I had taken it out of the camera and put it in my pocket, so my pictures made it home safely. I have also ordered the replacement version of my old camera and it should be here any day. In the meantime, I have rented a studio to paint in and it's 2 blocks from my house. I will be able to take much better photos of my work annnnd I will be able to do a little bit bigger work. I also collected all of the pictures my friend Vicky took in Rome so I will post some of those soon.

When in Rome!

Wow! That's a really good word to start with when I think about my experience in Rome. I was there for 7 days over the New Year's holiday and it was beautiful. I have been to Rome before, but only for 1 day. This time I really got to take in not just the monumental sites, but the people of Rome, too. I couldn't remember if Italians were friendly people or not, but it didn't take very long for me to find out. They are very open and expressive. They lock arms when they "stroll" down the street, they look you deep in the eyes when they talk to you, and they greatly appreciate it when you try to speak their language. I had sort of a "guide" in Rome for the first 3 days. My friend Joseph Mamente. He's from Bare, Italy, which is about 4 hours SE by train from Rome, and he plays soccer, I think probably minor league if there is such a thing. But he didn't speak any English so we had to each buy English to Italian translation books. It really helped me speak better Italian, quickly. It was a wonderful thing to have a non-English speaking person to describe what you are seeing and to give you historical information. I wasn't sure how I would respond to plopping myself, pretty-much alone, in a country where I could at best peck out the language. But I did great and I learned a lot about myself in the process. I recommend everyone should travel out of their comfort zone, both mentally and physically, at least once in their life.

The second painting

FIGdetailMCU

I started this painting last week but got a little side-tracked with finishing that giant wall painting. I worked on it all day today so I could get it to a good place visually before I leave for Europe and i couldn't figure out where to take it next. So, I'll just leave it until I return home.

Finishing the wall painting

Finishedbuhdda

It was very much a pleasure to finish the giant wall painting. The title of the painting is "Here I go". That text is actually stenciled in the painting in the lower right corner but it is yellow and hard to see from where the picture was taken. I will post some details of it later. I finished Thursday night around 9:30 after working on it for 9 hours. I first saw this piece as nothing more than a mural in someone's home, but as I worked on it and put my thoughts and feelings into it, it became so much more. I was asked about the possibility of having to paint over the piece if and when the owner moves. Not a problem. It's all about letting go anyway.

1st post...

This is the first official post of my blog. I'm very excited to be coming online in this capacity. I currently have the second painting in this new series in the works. There will be 14 or 15 total when it's finished in late May. There will also be an artist book and a short film to accompany the series. I hope you will take the time to look, contemplate, and make comments. I'm looking to incorporate light into these works but I haven't figured out how to go about it or even why I want to do it. I will be posting my progression. I am going to be in Europe for a week at the end of this month and I will post snippets of my travels there as well. Have a great one!