Each of these articles represents me thinking about something connected to my creative process. They might be me working through a current project or a gallery of work completed.
- Inconsistency
I’ve been thinking about inconsistent art practice recently. Consistency is something that receives a lot of attention in art making and it has obvious… Read more: Inconsistency - How to Make an Art Book
At least this is how I made one. You should make one too! I’m not usually someone that feels like the way I make… Read more: How to Make an Art Book - Looking Back to Look Forward
My connection to art making recently took a more curatorial turn. As I’ve showed in my last post, I was drawn back to work… Read more: Looking Back to Look Forward - Imaginary Landscapes
I’ve published a new art book! Imaginary Landscapes is a 7×7″ 32-page artist designed and published compilation of a series of my intuitive abstracted… Read more: Imaginary Landscapes - Hearts on Water
A recent post I made to Substack’s notes has been my only experience there of what is, for me at least, a “viral” post.… Read more: Hearts on Water - Are hobbies where our heart is found?
The other day a friend referred to something they devote a lot of time, energy, skill, and heart to as a hobby. I didn’t… Read more: Are hobbies where our heart is found? - Bodies of Work
Openwork. An ongoing series of drawings. Thoughts on the vulnerability of making and the further embodied sense of what making means in a body.… Read more: Bodies of Work - Portrait of the Artist as a Wall
During most weekdays I spend some portion of my day in video calls. I work remotely for my job and those calls are the… Read more: Portrait of the Artist as a Wall - A Garden of Niches
I refer to myself as a generalist. The main aspect of this for me is simply having an interest in following a variety of… Read more: A Garden of Niches - Words in Order
We use words to know better how we might speak. We use images to know more how we might see. This is part of… Read more: Words in Order - Beach Ephemerals
Yesterday my partner Gayla and I spent a bit of time at one of the small public beaches that is close enough to our… Read more: Beach Ephemerals - Squaring the Circle
In graphic design, grids are often used as the scaffolding that gives page elements a structure to align to. The underlying grid of a… Read more: Squaring the Circle - Work at Play
I have worked for many years now as a Play Designer. Explaining what this means is never a simple thing but I’ll try here… Read more: Work at Play - A Figure Emerges
This is a bit of an origin story for one of the ways an image can mark a moment of change. It’s about how… Read more: A Figure Emerges - Where is Art?
Does art lay in wait in an artist’s materials? Is there a drawing inside every pencil, a painting in every tube? Do the artist’s… Read more: Where is Art? - Grow Curious
Back in 2016, my partner Gayla Trail and I collaborated to self-publish her fifth book, Grow Curious. She was the author and I did… Read more: Grow Curious - Life Under Glass
Since my last post I have continued drawing digitally in Procreate and testing how it feels to both pull from and challenge the habits… Read more: Life Under Glass - React to the Ground
A blank drawing surface stares back as a challenge. The smooth surface of a page says nothing about what it wants. A fresh sketchbook… Read more: React to the Ground - How to draw a circle?
The how of making art is a cottage industry. There are countless classes and tutorials about the right tools, techniques, and mindset for people… Read more: How to draw a circle? - Swimming in Brutalist Fountains
I think of my six year-old self and my friend Steve. It is the first day of first grade. Summer’s tint is still glowing… Read more: Swimming in Brutalist Fountains - Music as a Sketchbook
I’m going to revisit some older work again since it’s helping me to look back at a variety of work and see what it… Read more: Music as a Sketchbook - Fingers Dipped in Water
In the previous post, I showed a series of abstract drawings I made on my phone. Digital finger painting. Making those miniature images of… Read more: Fingers Dipped in Water - Finger Paintings
The glossy glass slabs most of us now have with us in pockets and bags — the ubiquitous relative supercomputers that we mostly take… Read more: Finger Paintings - A Third Hand
In 2016, my friend Aaron Leighton asked me one day at work if I would be interested in collaborating on some artwork. We were… Read more: A Third Hand - Transient Sources
In my last post I talked about one of the main spaces I work creatively these days and having the tools, supplies, and various… Read more: Transient Sources - Documents and Spaces
I think most artists are remiss at documenting their work. Making careful records of finished art and process can often run counter to how… Read more: Documents and Spaces - The moon is on TV
Is this the first place I can find myself? Am I here watching unknowing as my grandfather sets up a tripod to take these… Read more: The moon is on TV - There’s a Question in the Sky
The large maple tree in our neighbours’ yard that looms over our garage — I call it “ghost tree.” It’s mostly because I have… Read more: There’s a Question in the Sky - Permutations
I wrote recently about language and words in my artwork and the form of visual poetry I can see in some of what I… Read more: Permutations - Think about an Apple
I first heard about Aphantasia a bunch of years ago in a random news article and was fascinated so I immediately did the casual… Read more: Think about an Apple - Ways to Find
I’ve already expressed how I’m prone to chasing tangents down rabbit holes to often find new rabbit holes along the way. I have a… Read more: Ways to Find - Friction and the Shape of Language
Last time I mentioned thinking about the shape of words when I use them in my drawings. That got me thinking about concrete/visual poetry and how… Read more: Friction and the Shape of Language - Langue Verte on Substack
I’ve started writing weekly on Substack. My publication is called Langue Verte and I’m using it to explore and connect to my arts process.… Read more: Langue Verte on Substack - Associated Glitter
I recently saw some generative imagery made by the artist, teacher, and technologist Zach Lieberman that made me think of the way light reflects… Read more: Associated Glitter - In Between Days
Some loose thoughts on dwelling in liminal states… I’ve had a fascination with liminality — the state of being between one “thing” and another… Read more: In Between Days - Learning How to Do Things
In many creative acts/processes, learning “how” to do something is mostly discoverable. The act is the how. Playing a piano is the act of… Read more: Learning How to Do Things - Watercolour Landscapes : Series Four
Hand-painted watercolour landscapes by Davin Risk, 2020 These images are formed from memory, imagination, and the emotional connection I have from direct experience of… Read more: Watercolour Landscapes : Series Four - Watercolour Landscapes : Series Three
Hand-painted watercolour landscapes by Davin Risk, 2020 These images are formed from memory, imagination, and the emotional connection I have from direct experience of… Read more: Watercolour Landscapes : Series Three - Watercolour Landscapes : Series Two
Hand-painted watercolour landscapes by Davin Risk, 2020 These images are formed from memory, imagination, and the emotional connection I have from direct experience of… Read more: Watercolour Landscapes : Series Two - Watercolour Landscapes : Series One
Hand-painted watercolour landscapes by Davin Risk, 2020 These images are formed from memory, imagination, and the emotional connection I have from direct experience of… Read more: Watercolour Landscapes : Series One - Small Series
This is a series of roughly 4.25×5.5″ drawings on paper made between May and September 2020. I started making these as a way to… Read more: Small Series - Quarantine Zine
Early in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were looking for connection and ways to express where their heads and hearts were.… Read more: Quarantine Zine - Leighton : Risk (12×12)
Collaborative artwork made with Aaron Leighton Aaron and I traded these pieces back and forth from 2016 to 2018. We had a show at… Read more: Leighton : Risk (12×12) - Leighton : Risk (4×4)
Collaborative artwork made with Aaron Leighton Aaron and I traded these pieces back and forth from 2016 to 2018. We had a show at… Read more: Leighton : Risk (4×4) - Leighton : Risk (6×6)
Collaborative artwork made with Aaron Leighton Aaron and I traded these pieces back and forth from 2016 to 2018. We had a show at… Read more: Leighton : Risk (6×6) - Dots : Series Two
At the beginning of 2016 I finished a number of drawings in quick succession. Half a year later I could see a shift in… Read more: Dots : Series Two - Some Faces
In 2016, I found these twenty-two rough-cut wood squares on the street and picked them up not knowing what I would do with them.… Read more: Some Faces - Dots : Series One
A series of drawings on wood exploring childhood narratives and the emotional geography of memory. Begun in April 2015, these drawings were/are a “beginner’s… Read more: Dots : Series One - Calling Cards
I made these drawings for the second Swash & Serif typographic and lettering art show in Toronto in 2016. I had a large drawing… Read more: Calling Cards - Amateur Escapist
In 2015, I created a site called Amateur Escapist that I meant to function as a quarterly collaborative art zine based on my experiences… Read more: Amateur Escapist - Algodones Dunes
It’s mid–June in Eastern California. The Arizona and Mexico borders are equally close. With the daytime temperature locked at around 114°F, the obvious choice… Read more: Algodones Dunes - Down Roads
Let’s travel down roads. We’ll find places and they will be ours for moments. Let’s get to where the land lays out in front… Read more: Down Roads - Mount Evans
It was July 4th in Denver, Colorado and our kind friend Ross was playing tour guide and driver. Leaving the 92°F city streets behind… Read more: Mount Evans - Langue Verte
^ Starlings used to nest in the eves of our old apartment. The birds (along with a few squirrels and the near-feral neighbour cats)… Read more: Langue Verte - Cultivating Wonder
^ The wonder of childhood feels like this in my memory — rapid flashes with the occasional moment of brilliant clarity. When we speak… Read more: Cultivating Wonder