blog is at a new location

Its not quite as interactive yet but here it is

http://www.holdstudios.com/Matthew/Mlog/Mlog.html

love you all

M

HOLD is open for business

Look at the shirt closely. Good. Now who can't agree with that!

Well it is official. Heather and I now have our new website and company online. Please visit us at www.HOLDstudios.com

This may be the last posting on this blog as our new website has its own internal blog. So for those of you who bookmark such things the blog is on my "more" page. That will make more sense when you visit.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this blog and I look forward to it continuing on the new site. Heather and I built it together and it will be a live entity with new work (paintings, photos, films, pics, blogging, etc.) posted regularly.

Its the real deal.

Much love to all of you

Sincerely, warmly

Matthew Olds

Just to let you know I am still working on this blogging thing

Guard dog at ol' studio in Georgetown.

 Much to come on the blog, video (now editing) photos (now editing) and a some exciting business developments (not to big though).

Thanks for checking back!

xoxo

M

Just some of the beauty we encountered on the road

click to enlarge



This is in BANFF National Park. A stunning, stunning place. There were two lakes like this we visited. The first one had an unfortunate infestation of huge huge resorts right at the base of the water. This one did not...yet. We packed a lunch at the car and Heather, Chevy and I hiked in. It was a truly beautiful spot. To the right of the picture (off frame) we could hear and see avalanches releasing down the mountain. Nothing threatening but it sounded like thunder and slide off the cliffs like a waterfall. Magical place. I believe this is Lake Moraine.

There will be more pics and yes even some video coming soon.  We are still editing both mediums.  I may slip in some more images from the Road Kill Series if there aren't to many objections.  I try in that work to make the formal issues more substantial then the gross out factor so it shouldn't be too bad for all the squeamish viewers out there.  Actually, I am going to slip one in here now.

This was the first moose we encountered on the road. There were three others. This was in Ontario working our way towards Lake Superior. There were trails from the wood to and from the moose along with the matted down areas evident of other visitors besides ourselves.

Opening tonight at the Seattle Art Museum Gallery

Heather and I would love to see any of you out there who can make it down to the SAM Gallery at 1220 Third Ave, downtown from 5-7 PM tonight. Should be fun and if you can't make it wish us luck.

Cheers!

M&H

Back home from our Trans-North American Road Trip

click on photo to enlarge if so desired


We are back home after an amazing three week road trip throughout southern Canada and the northern United States. We were fortunate on this trip to be able to take our time traveling from our starting point: Vashon Island WA, to our destination: Lake Manistique in the U.P. of Michigan for an Olds family reunion and then back again.

On our way east we mostly stayed on the Trans-Canadian Highway through gorgeous mountain terrain, rolling breezy plains, and dense forests. On the way home we took the meandering Hwy 2 all the way back to WA through small towns both living and dead, swarms of May flies and even more gorgeous scenery. Of all our road trips north and south, east and west, we almost always had to take the interstate due to time constraints so this trip was a joy as we were be able to poke along with only a modest idea of where we were headed or might be staying that night. Lots of camping, lots of bugs, lots of love and lots of fun.

Along the way Heather and I were documenting, both with video and still images, our travels, thoughts, and road kill. The image above is just such an example from Northern Minnesota of a Quail. We have hundreds and hundreds of photos to go through and hours and hours of film to review. We are excited to do so and it is our intention at least in the short term to post such things here on our Olds Art Blog.

Its great to be home and to all the family we saw, we love you and had a fabulous time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

On the Road

Heather and I have been traveling the Northern wilds of the United States and also that of Southern Canada. We will be back soon and will have plenty of posts in the coming weeks.

Thanks for checking back

Much love

Matthew & Heather

Happy Father's Day Dad

This is to my dad, the best dad there is and that ever was. I can not thank you enough for all your support, love and encouragement you bestowed upon me/us. I am so proud to call you my dad and love you so much.

I hope you have a wonderful day (perhaps watching the improbable, impressive Tiger Woods) or on your own course or out with Mom but whatever it is you are doing know you are being loved and thought about in the far reaches out West and how grateful I am to have a father like you.

Thank you for everything Dad (you too mom but today is father's day) and we can't wait to give you a big hug in the coming weeks. We leave Thursday!!!

I love you

Your son,

Matthew
xoxo

Pic of new studio in progress

Since moving out of the Georgetown studio (and before) Heather and I were working on converting an unused and once undesirable space into the new headquarters and studios of Olds Art. Here it is in its latest state.

Out the double doors leads to the next building which is Heather's studio. Beyond that lays a twelve acre estate that we are caretaking, and beyond that, Quartermaster Harbor a finger of Puget Sound.

In the foreground we poured the concrete floors and built it up from there. Any one who needs finish concrete work contact Heather because she has the touch. A true natural. Me, well I just made a big mess but I'm strong and could at least move the stuff around. Thankfully the roof was already in place and sturdy so unlike the loft in the tipi which I regret profoundly for those who risked life and limb to sleep under there (sorry mom and Kris) while Heather and I slept above in sweet rickety bliss. Well, the leaky top of the tipi due to a poor choice in lodge poles (aspen not pine-do not duplicate this mistake) meant we caught the downpour that occurred that evening, or any other night for that matter, so the sleeping wasn't all that sweet but at least you were dry although in grave, grave danger. For the record the loft never (this night and beyond) never collapsed and my construction skills are much much improved. Thankfully we all made it through the night, although at times it seemed a distinct possibility that we may not. Where was I....

Ah yes, the studio. To the right in the pic leads to a hall that leads to the second painting studio and then finally to the woodshop. It is a pretty cool and unique layout and some of you I have talked to know how great I have been feeling to have all elements of my work back in one space. The work in Georgetown was very important and I learned a lot by having such different and distinct spaces which demanded scheduling, preparation, and acuity which was and was not always just right there.

More to come from soon from Olds Art on Vashon.

Some additional works in progress

Here are some additional works in progress from the studio, some of which will be included in an upcoming show at the Seattle Art Museum Gallery in July. Click to enlarge

Domestic Subversion

This is a little side project that produced itself out of the simple chores of the day. No more. No less.

Recent installation of commission work

I installed this piece last week after construction delays of over 4 months. It is the entry way of a recently renovated 30 story condo in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle (north of downtown). Its about four feet high and nine feet long and was art by committee.

whidbey island afternoon (Pastoral)

A little vignette with Chevy and myself. Heather was doing a workshop for a couple of hours and I went along as her driver and set up and take down guy. While she was workshoping the local artists of that beautiful area, Chevy and I went out and about and this was one stop called Eby's Landing. We were watching these tiny water fowl flock and fly just above the water level back and forth about ten meters out from the shore line. You can see them just above the you tube logo as they fly past. The high pitch chirping at the beginning (before being drowned out by the plane, waves, and constant tone from the computer) comes from a different type of water fowl in and amongst the structure in the background.

The Rise and Fall of I.B. ( a rough sketch)

This experimental animation through painting looks at Isolationist Bunkerism from another angle. I imagined doing something like this in the real world and some of my installations reflect that although its yet to be documented with a camera from its rise to its fall as it is here. There was a second half of the video that didn't work out so I had to figure out a different way to conclude it. I look forward to trying to make additional vids of higher quality.

New works in progress from the studio

Elevation Set-Layerings

As I progress on my ongoing series of Micro/Macro paintings, I am focusing more and more on the abstract aspects of the painting and subject matter. In the beginning, the Macro (arial) part of the equation was inspired by trips by air, elevated vistas, and arial photographers such as Heather Joy and David Maisel. As the work progressed, I found the shapes and shaping of the land by our own collective hand provided a great deal of inspiration, power, and despair (sometimes individually and often collectively). When these elements are translated via painting, I find that a rich dialogue of content, color, form, and specifically mark making come into play that stand on there own as source. With that, I am very excited to explore these relationships further.

Images provided are: Ongoing, Acrylic on Panel, 24" x 24"

Happy Mother's Day Mom

To my amazing mom with whom I owe everything to (along with pops but its mother's day afterall). I am so grateful for all you have done and so proud of all that you have accomplished. I hope that you had a wonderful day yesterday and that it continues on to this day and the next. My only wish was that I could give you a big hug in person but that will have to wait until June which is rapidly coming around the corner.

You are the best mom and thank you for the joy that is my life.

Your son,

Matthew

xoxo

One of the greatest American artists living today...

This video is from "This American Life" a must listen to experience on NPR (and now television show on Showtime) for those of you into that sort of thing which I am. There is something about this artist/cartoonist that amazes me and leaves me breathless. It may not be apparent in this video but you must check out some of his books if you have the chance. His stories are much like the top video so that relates more to the nature of his work I think. His name is Chris Ware.

The old studio in Kingston

For those of you familiar with my Georgetown studio this is what came before. It was peaceful spot on 2.5 acres and an important stop along the way. The shop was on the left with the lower roof and the studio was on the right under the highest peak of the roof. When I would get lonely I would light fires in the pit there in front. Click on photo to enlarge.

I.B. continued

This image is another out of the "Isolationist Bunkerism" body of work. There are 12 different bunkers in this hillside installation made of recovered lumber and lights and range in size from two feet to four feet wide and two feet to eight feet long.

The Olds Art Delivery Fleet

Here is a glimpse at our fleet of top-notch (but often stubborn) delivery vehicles. All of them classics of mid to late 20th Century American design. Here at Olds Art our vehicles have over 90 years of combined delivery experience and that's an impressive number to count on.

Killing Art Follow Up

This posting is a follow up to a previous post called "Killing Art". Here is a bit of what I am talking about in photo form. Please forgive the poor image quality.

The first image is the one that still hurts to look at as I really like the painting at this point. It was a work from the "Micro/Macro" series where I would juxtapose a formal landscape or image with that of an ariel abstraction or in this case two, the left and right panels. The center panel is a of a nest that I had built several years ago. The nests were assembled from wysteria vines and measured anywhere from 3' to 5' high and then suspended in trees or lightpoles in groupings. The painting is a triptych measuring 5' x 12'.

The second and third photos are of the painting as it continued in phases until it ultimately was broken apart, repainted into something else completely and sold off individually.

I miss that first painting.

I.B. or Northwest Cedar Tall House

This image is of the I.B. towers shown in the video/slideshow on the right side of the screen (under Hold Productions) as they are currently installed in my Georgetown studio. They range in size from 6' to 12' tall.

Lumen project 2007-8

Here is one of the projects of last year. This was for the building Lumen near the Seattle Center. It is an award winning design and I was very excited to have my work included. I completed 20 different works for this building and the images show two of them in the studio and then installed. The red and blue are each 8' x 10' respectively.

A New Thermos that I am very excited about

I had my eye on this at an antique store on the island. We noticed that they were going out of business and didn't want to miss my chance. Kept my coffee warm in studio for several hours.

Upcoming Exhibitions

I am very excited to announce two upcoming shows.

The first will be this summer during the month of July at the Seattle Art Museum Gallery which is the commercial wing of that prestigious institution. The work will be focused on the arial abstractions of my "Micro/Macro" series http://www.oldsart.com/lgimages/01_Olds.jpg

The second exhibition will be a collaboration with my stunning and brilliant wife Heather Joy exhibiting the work leading up to, from and after our summer residency at Smoke Farm courtesy the Rubicon Foundation in July 2008. The exhibition will be at the respected and reputable Featherston Gallery http://www.fetherstongallery.com/ in the heart of the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

This summer Heather Joy and I will also be making a film in which we trace a trip her mother and father took in the 1970's through Canada, Upper Michigan Minnesota and Wisconsin using the extensive photo archive of the original trip as the road map and outline to the film and the adventures and artistic experiments along the way. The destination of the trip will be the Olds Family Reunion at some cabins on a lake in the U.P. It is a very exciting oppurtunity and we are anxious to get on the road.

Visit our websites for more information: http://OldsArt.com and http://HeatherJoyPhotography.com

Artist Matthew Olds in his Seattle office

Killing Art

I have primarily been a painter. With that comes the experience of killing my work.

Now, if you don't know what I mean when I say that, think about cooking a wonderful meal. You have done all the preparation, you know what you want to make, have a basic recipe and so you start cooking. Everything is going swell. Onions are frying up just right, some garlic and olive oil to get things going. You can tell that this is going to be one tasty and satisfying meal. Then you start adding the meat of the meal and that goes well too. Browning up real nice, you can hear the pop of the grease and sizzle of the yummy fat. Right now you got yourself a pretty good meal. Satisfying, fairly appealing and enough to feed you but tonight it just won't suffice.

No tonight you just saw Top Chef and realize that you could beat any of those cats, so you decide to spice it up. A little cumin, a little pepper, and then salt. But when you go to add the salt the lid comes off and empties out into your pretty little dish that you have just paid and worked so hard for. Bummer right? Totally.

But does this deter you? No (although it should because the meal is lost so go order a pizza already).

What can you do to counter act all that salt? Well, you could start by adding more ingredients, some potatoes to start sucking all that salt up, and why not, maybe some carrots, pinto beans and cauliflower for good measure. Now you are really cooking something, although you don't know what it is, and its not what you intended to make but at this point you have come this far and its all still hot and cooking so why stop now? You're just getting into it right?

Now with all this new stuff in the pot you realize that you need to add some water because this is turning into some sort of stew. Fair enough. Sounds delicious. Throw a can of tomatoes in there too for texture and color. Of course though with all this other stuff you already added to try to make up for your initial mistake, your stew is now overflowing. Without any other pots to transfer the scalding hot mess on your hands, it starts to boil over onto the burner and the olive oil that you used to start the dish with ignites a hot flash of light and pain. Soon the kitchen is engulfed with flames, people screaming, dreams lost, complete despair and all this from just wanting to make a little tasty something something to eat.

Boy, that sure didn't go well but somehow you managed to get out, save the family, cats and the dog but all was lost. But you know what? Even with all of that you find that you are still hungry. So since you've lost everything and all you have is what's left of your kitchen you go back to see what's there. You fear what you will find but somehow, magically, suprisingly, you realize that some of the meat might still be okay if you scraped away all that burnt, cruddy- muddy stuff. So you start carving away trying to find that tasty morsel that might just satisfy your hunger. It might just be there. Hopefully so, but if not, you will just have to give it to the dog. But the dog takes a half-sniff of this disaster in your hands and wants no part of it either and that is pretty sad.

That my friends is what painting is like for me and you know what? I am feeling a bit peckish...

Well...I've gone and done it this time

Yes, its true...I...um..have...ah...kinda have started a blog. And now you are here. Well, welcome.

Flowers!? For ME?! You really shouldn't have. Well, come on in and take a seat. Can I get you something? Whats that? I don't think I have that but I'll take a look around and I will see what I've got. Be right back ok? Good. It really is great having you here. Thank you for coming. OK, I'll be right back.