I started to seriously paint in 2016. However, I really believe I hit a stride in 2018. Collected here are some of my own personal favorites from the year. I hope you enjoy.
This was the first painting that I ever did that I received “critical acclaim” on. I call the piece “6 or 9.” Depending on which orientation you are viewing the painting you may see two different pictures.
“IDKFA 1/6 (Rosebud)” (c) Bob Van Starr 2018
I call this one “IDKFA (rosebud).” I was being considered for a spot in a prestigious art magazine and I really needed a few more pieces for my submission. This painting has lots of my cartoons (which I have been drawing since my childhood) scattered throughout, and is painted in watercolors. I called it IDKFA or Rosebud, as I was hoping it would be a cheat code to success ;-). IDKFA and Rosebud, are too very famous cheat codes in some infamous video games which will not be mentioned here.
“WildBerries” (c) Bob Van Starr 2018
I saw a video one day of people melting crayons in bulk over white surfaces. I thought that the end result of just the melting crayon was really visually appealing. Thus I decided to melt crayons onto white paper myself to see if I could get a painting I was really pleased with. I called these paintings the “cooked crayon series. This was the first Cooked crayon painting I did, it is also my favorite. I call this painting “WildBerries” and it is meant to look liked berry season in Down East Maine, which is where I reside.
“Kilauea”(c) Bob Van Starr 2018
I call this one “Kilauea.” In my opinion this painting clearly looks like an exploding volcano. I have had so many people tell me, it looks like a tree. That is the beauty of abstract. Really there is no right answers to this work or any work of abstract art in my oh so humble opinion. I may have had a volcano in mind, but I can also see a tree.
“ThisWasSupposedToBeAFireTruck” (c) Bob Van Starr 2018
I wanted to make another painting by melting some crayons again. Except I wanted to make less of an abstract painting, and actually give the melted crayons some shape. To say I was unsuccessful would be an understatement. To me this painting looks like a melting snowman river. I included this painting in my submission just because it is so colorful, one could spend quite a bit of time viewing this piece. (on a fun note, I remember absolutely burning my thumb with a lighter while I was making this one.)
“MechaLizardPimpNamedZillah.” (c) Bob Van Starr 2018.
I was working on some cover art for a band called Zillawatt (shoutout to those guys.) I made a mistake while I working on the cover art. So I decided to insert a character I made up for a dungeons and dragons game named Zilla. Except this Zilla resides in the sci-fi world me, and my writing partner were working on at the time. Zilla has “grill gator teeth,” a “mono color dream coat,” and a flaming sword. In this picture Zilla is at the futuristic bar that he runs.
Van Starr Productions 