Philip R. Obermarck

Visual Artist

  • Portfolio
    • Sculpture
    • Painting
    • Drawing
    • Digital
  • About the Artist
    • CV
    • Biography
    • Artist Statement
    • Contact Me
  • Blog
  • A New Website and New Beginnings

    Although this version of my site resembles the old one quite a bit, it has been rebuilt from the ground up. Unfortunately, my former webhost made some ‘upgrades’ which deleted most of my files. They were unable to restore those files, and were rude in the process, so I have moved to a new host and am in the process of recreating philobermarck.com.

    Sadly, I’m unlikely to completely rebuild all the blog posts I made during that previous iteration of my site, but I was able to recover the text. I may try to add the photos back in later. Check back here periodically for updates.

    PhilO

    February 18, 2024
    Uncategorized
  • Print Portfolio Show

    This one is a bit late (like a month), but I’ve been a trifle busy post-Uni (more on that at another time). Overlapping our degree show, and running for a few days after, a number of  us were also in the Print Portfolio show at the Embassy Gallery.

    This show features prints, from Dry Paint, the print portfolio project arranged by Andrew Sneddon, one of our tutors at ECA. It was open to both first and second year MFA students and most of us in both groups participated. We also invited some of our tutors as well, so we had about 30 participants. The idea was that each artist would create a print in an edition of 35 and then the prints from each artist would combine to form 35 group portfolios. Each participant would get an edition of the group portfolio and the remaining 5 would be available for sale. This was the last show that the Masters of the Multiverse did as a group and nearly all (if not all) of us participated.

    You can see in the photos that we displayed the prints on tables with bare bulbs hanging above. This looked great in person but sadly the low lighting was anathema to my camera, since I did not want to use the flash. The bulk of the photos are of the reception itself, and my classmates.

    PhilO

    July 1, 2014
    Artists, Artwork, Exhibitions, School
  • Masters of the Multiverse: Degree Show 2014

    So, the degree show opened with two previews– the Business View on Thursday and the Friends and Family preview on Friday. Thursday’s preview went well, although there was very little feedback from the attendees. Since many of us had no business contacts to invite, we knew very few, if any, of the people who came. It also seemed the viewers were less interested in the artwork and more interested in the open bar (aside: bottles of Heineken and cheap white wine does not a reception make).

    The Friends and Family preview was fantastic. Great crowds and lots of questions and interest. I’m posting this Saturday afternoon while invigilating and we seem to have a very consistent flow of viewers through the galleries. there appears to be between 5 and 10 people in the room at any given time, and this has kept up pretty steadily.

    The show is open until 1 June and we will be invigilating it, as well as the Print Portfolio show at the Embassy, in shifts until it closes. Stop by and see it if you can.

    Now on to photos. This first batch was take during setup…

    This next batch were taken just prior to the opening or just as last minute preparations were being done….

    And finally, some photos of the show itself, including things outside the MFA galleries. Thanks to Al Hutchinson for being my roving photographer…

    Bonus photos: after the show closed we hung around the HUB, our little art shoppe, for a wee bit…

    PhilO

    May 24, 2014
    Artists, Artwork, Exhibitions, School
  • The End is Nigh

    The past couple of weeks have been spent in preparing our studios and setting up our degree show for next week’s opening. At the end of the day on Tuesday 20 May, we are done whether we want to be or not.

    We have three large studio rooms with 5-6 people showing in each one (some people have split their work between two rooms, though). For the most part, my room, the central one, seems to be pretty well finished. We still want to touch up the floors and maybe do a bit of detail work, but for the most part, everyone finished setting up last week.

    Last week, my sculpture was hung for display with the help of several technicians, a cherry-picker, and a stout rope. Max Young, the construction tech, helped me to build wall was along the back for the hanging of my paintings, and I then taped the seams and painted the wall. I installed the French cleats for hanging my paintings and now just need to do some final touch up and detailing.

    I sent my book off to the printers on Monday and expect to  see it back before Wednesday. It occurs to me that I may not have mentioned the book project in any previous posts. It was something I wanted to do from the beginning, but had back-burnered because of time and funding. I managed to make the time and found an inexpensive enough printer so I was able to get a small run made in time for the show. We will have a Hub or Shop in an alcove where prints and other items will be available for sale, along with my book, some carvings and prints of my own. This will also be where you can get your copy of the program, map of the show and postcards and business cards for the artists.

    My book is a retelling of the Norse Myth, the Mead of Poetry, using the artwork I’ve produced over the past year for illustrations. In the back are some photos of the work in the show as well. I’ve had 30 copies printed and although some will be sold at the show (I hope) I plan on selling whatever remains on the web and possibly in stores. Details to follow.

    Finally, the Print Portfolio project is nearing a close. I have produced all my prints but need to sort the bad from the good and trim them. Since they were all hand printed, I don’t expect to be able to trim them in a single stack, but one at a time. This could take a little time, but should be done early next week.

    We now have a confirmed show for the Print Portfolio, too. The Preview is on 27 May, 7PM at the Embassy Gallery and the show runs through 8 June.

    And, of course, don’t forget to attend the opening of the Degree Show, too!

    After the Degree Show has opened, I will post some photos of the install as well as the show. Stay tuned!

    PhilO

    May 17, 2014
    Artists, Artwork, Exhibitions, School
  • Nearly there

    This past week was spent in finishing. First thing was to apply stain to the wood- several light coats and then a dark coat as an accent, and then oil. After each coat of stain and each coat of oil, I gave it an overall rubdown with steel wool, to buff it and remove any excess. not a terribly exciting process, but so it goes.  In the background of these photos you can see some of the other things I have been working on concurrently, which I will probably discuss at another time.

    PhilO

    April 19, 2014
    Artwork, School
  • Finishing time

    This past week the bulk of my time has been spent sanding. Although I am leaving the sculpture textured, I wanted to smooth it out a bit before I finished. Today I applied the first coat of stain (dried pig’s blood mixed with water) and next week, I will begin applying the oil finish.

    I have been in contact with the University’s Estates department to discuss the hanging requirements, and once the paperwork has been passed throughout the  programme director’s office, they will be installing an anchor point in the ceiling. I am ordering up some natural hemp rope, and will use it to bind his ankles together and hang him from the ceiling.

    The paintings are coming along and I am working on the best way to display them. I am considering mounting them to slightly smaller pieces of hardboard and hanging them using french cleats. This will place them off the wall by about .75 inches, effectively creating an unframed shadowbox effect.

    As part of the publications team, the group coordinating the catalogue, I am working with Jake, Emma, Rachel and Stephen to decide on the look and feel of the degree show publications. The show will be called Masters of the Multiverse and in a meeting with the PR group, we chose to make our logo inspired by the 80’s movie version of the Masters of the Universe. I created the logo in Illustrator Friday afternoon.

    Masters of the Multiverse

    Finally, I am also working on a book that will hopefully be available at the show. I plan on using the images I’ve made to illustrate the Norse myth the Mead of Poetry. Although the images are abstract, I am finding that many of them are shapes and compositions that can be interpreted as illustrations. I’m finding it interesting to choose the images that go on each page and I wonder if people will see similar things to what I see. I expect the the juxtaposition with the text will help to inform the viewer’s mind what they are “supposed” to be seeing. At any rate, it is an interesting experiment if nothing else. I expect I will test it on some poor unsuspecting people before publication and determine if it works well enough to spend the money on printing. Time will tell.

    And here are today’s obligatory photos:

    PhilO

    April 12, 2014
    Artwork, Misc, School, Thoughts
1 2 3 … 12
Next Page
  • Contact Me
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Etsy

© 2024 Philip R. Obermarck