Wednesday, December 10, 2014

New Website and Blog

www.lucasnovak.com

Dirty Business


This piece is a combination of materials: oil and acrylic paint, brass plate, steel chain, steel wire, canvas, paper, foam, epoxy resin, adhesive, primer, gesso, and wood. It measures 29" x 44.5", though portions of the wall on which it hangs can be seen within its space. Film geeks may recognize that the painting on the brass plate is a scene from The Godfather, moments before Al Pacino's character, Michael Corleone, kills Sollozzo.
Here is a detail:



Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Monday, December 1, 2014

Something of a Superman

Here is a recent painting that I doubt anyone would want to hang in his or her living room -- or anywhere else in the house. But I did not paint it as part of an interior design scheme. The portion of prose is a page appropriated from The Fall by Albert Camus.


Something of a Superman, 40" x 36", oil, acrylic primer, gesso, paper, canvas, 2014.

Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Dawn Of Digital Life

Synthetic biology, aka "digital life", can be described as editing DNA like software in a computer. Recent advances "have enabled scientists to make new sequences of DNA from scratch. By combining these advances with the principles of modern engineering, scientists can now use computers and laboratory chemicals to design organisms that do new things--like produce biofuels or excrete the precursors of medical drugs." For more info, see: synbioproject.org.

But the world of biosynthesis is, and will be, abounding with conflict.


Synthetic Biology, 48" x 36", oil, acrylic primer, gesso, paper, canvas, 2014.

Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Doctor Watson, the Genius

Watson is the IBM robot supercomputer which will supposedly revolutionize medicine. Watson apparently helps diagnose sicknesses by instantly surveying all available literature and patients' files, then making recommendations for treatments to the doctors.

This is how I foresee it playing out . . .


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Doodle of the Day - That Little Monster

I wonder how the dog whisperer would diagnose this behavior that I witnessed at starbucks yesterday...


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Woman Behind The Curtain

Continuing on the theme of combining language with image


Woman Behind A Curtain, 44" x 32", oil on paper on canvas.

Here is a detail:



Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.


Monday, October 27, 2014

Friday, October 24, 2014

Revolver

30" x 24", oil on steel panel, 2014.


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Monday, October 20, 2014

Doodle of the Day - The Great Escape

Aww, the poor creature...


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.
#thegreatescape #escapetocanada

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Doodle of the Day - My Lion


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE. #mylion #lazylions

Friday, October 10, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Finding Bigfoot

He might be out there...


Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Scream


The Scream, 44" x 32", oil on paper on canvas, 2014.

Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Shades of Grey, Untitled


Untitled, 24" x 36", oil on steel panel, 2014.

Edvard Munch, the artist who painted The Scream, apparently said: "Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye...it also includes the inner pictures of the soul." The quote sounds a bit cliche today, but I find truth in the value of nature to an artist. Nature is an essential resource; it erases all false constructs and shows the truth of our existence.

Click on the image for larger view. To see all blog posts click HERE.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Doodle of the Day - The Devil Among Us

Are your friends a bad influence? . . .


To see all blog posts click HERE.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Breakthrough


Breakthrough, 30" x 24", oil on steel panel, 2014.

Similar to wood panel or acrylic panel, the steel panel differs from canvas because it is more sensitive in revealing brush strokes and texture. The steel offers a neutral gray which is a good starting point for a painting, while also providing a sheen or glimmer behind thin layers of paint.

Unfortunately, the steel sheen is lost on the computer image. Also keep in mind that every computer screen has a different color balance and brightness/contrast settings, so the image above is not an exact replication of the painting.

Click on the image above for a larger view.

To see all blog posts click HERE.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Friday, August 15, 2014

Monday, August 11, 2014

Doodle of the Day - The Documentary

For those who have sisters...


To see all blog posts click HERE.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Monday, July 21, 2014

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Monday, June 23, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Chasing the Greyhound

I witnessed a woman yelling at a guy on the street for no apparent reason. I suppose she could've been suffering from a mental illness. But still I had to draw it...


 To see all blog posts click HERE.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Are You Sociable?

The social media effect...


Happy Friday the 13th! To see all blog posts click HERE.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Doodle of the Day - California Public Policy


I've always found it strange that the California State Flag still features a grizzly bear. To quickly sum it up, here's an excerpt from the National Park Service website:

"The brown bear, also known as the grizzly, is on California state flag. So, why not look for it here in Yosemite? This is because there are no more grizzlies in California. When Euro-Americans arrived, they found a large population of grizzlies throughout the state. Grizzlies were perceived as a dire threat to life and property, and were killed in large numbers. By the early 1900s, few grizzlies and little of their prime habitat in the Central Valley remained. The last California grizzly was killed south of Yosemite in the Sierra foothills in 1922. . ."

So the question remains. . . A symbol of state pride?

To see all blog posts click HERE.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

A Little Cuckoo

When the technician puts conductant on McMurphy's temples, and the irons get close enough, light arcs across, stiffens him, bridges him up off the table till nothing is down but his wrists and ankles. . . and he's frosted over completely with sparks. Then it is Chief Broom's turn. The machine hunches on him, and he takes us through the air raid in his head. . .



Cuckoo, 32" x 44", oil and paper on canvas, 2014.

To see all blog posts click HERE.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Weather Extremes

At this moment it is 91 degrees in Los Angeles, not a cloud in the sky, with good chances it will break 100...


To see other posts, click HERE

Monday, May 5, 2014

Horrorshow, Most Recent Painting


"When we got outside of the Duke of New York we viddied, by the main bar's long lighted window, a burbling old pyahnitsa or drunkie, howling away at the filthy songs of his fathers and going blerp bleep in between as it might be a filthy old orchestra in his stinking rotten guts..."

Horrorshow, 44" x 32", oil and paper on canvas, 2014.

To see all blog posts click HERE.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Wrath


Similar to my law paintings series, this is larger scale, 40" x 31", and incorporates an iconic page from one of the greatest American novels. Where language is inherently limited and painting is confined to specific dimensions on a flat space, I find the integration of the two can create a higher aesthetic experience, like two candles coming together -- fire feeding on fire. 

Wrath, 40" x 31", oil and paper on canvas, 2014.

Thanks for viewing.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Celebrate

Good times...


Happy Friday! To see other blog posts, click HERE

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Dog Grooming $20

On the sidewalk in front of a pet grooming business, an employee in a dalmation costume looked fatigued and beaten, with droopy shoulders and gray fur dirtied by life in the streets among construction dust and exhaust from L.A. traffic. Even the in-built smile of the costume face appeared weary, not the type of animated character you'd see wandering Disneyland.

His job was to hold a sign advertising to passersby: dog grooming twenty dollars. As I passed the dog in my car, I saw the mailman walking in his direction. I was gone before I could see it, but I'm sure this doodle accurately represents what transpired...


To see other blog posts, click HERE

Monday, February 3, 2014

Doodle of the Day - Legalize It?

Discussions continue to occur in many states about legalizing marijuana. President Obama recently said he doesn't think it is as dangerous as alcohol. Some are wondering why people are still being put in jail for using it...


To see other blog posts, click HERE

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Hollywood

Hollywood And Saint Andrews


32" x 44", oil on acrylic sheet. 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Doodle of the Day - The Epic Journey

You can do it, young Caleb...


To see other blog posts, click HERE

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Doodle of the Day - The Frog-Man

Beware
The Frog-man



To see other blog posts, click HERE