The Naked Silo

Fully completed jetpack Rather than create something new, I simply transferred the fabric "flames" from the Mark 1 over to the Mark 2 (the fabric moves nicely when I'm up on the stilts). To cover up the now-redundant bottom two holes, I used  a couple of stickers on each side, the top holes being all that was needed to attach to the backpack (see the build log for more details). Painting the fuel tanks red and blue completed the project. Top view Pilot headgear The cap and goggles are the same ones I wore at last year's Lantern Festival , but Krista made me an awesome new aviator's scarf. Full Jetpack costume in action at the  Skeleton Park Arts Festival Flying through Boxtopia Circus

Like many of my other unusual projects (like  all   my   cooking   stuff , my  pirate sword , and  Small Pond 's first  barn quilt ), I figured the new jetpack for my Pilot stilting costume (to replace my first jetpack built for the 2014 Firelight Lantern Festival ) would also be undertaken by the  Special Projects Division . But, this fall, I'll be getting involved in some highly unusual projects (dealing with Small Pond airborne mythology, alternate realities, and a few personal builds) that will all be realized through various scale models and dioramas. Yup: I'm getting back into model-making after a hiatus of about 15 years. So I've created the  Small Pond Shipyard  (with fancy logo and slogan) to deal with these creations and, since the new jetpack is flight-related, it makes sense that it would be the Shipyard's first assignment. The Special Projects Division is still active, with at least two new projects alr...

30" x 36", oil on canvas, 2015, private collection This is one of two portraits I painted of Toronto-based musician George Meanwell. My intent was to enter one of them into the 2015 Kingston Prize for portraiture, so I painted two and submitted the one I liked better. I submitted the other one. Although the hands in this one make me pretty happy, I feel I got George's likeness better in the other painting where he's playing a concertina. I like this right hand a lot. Early stage. Earlier stage.

36" x 30", oil on canvas, 2015, private collection This is the portrait I painted of Toronto-based musician George Meanwell which I submitted for the 2015 Kingston Prize for portraiture. I took many photos of George playing concertina, banjo , and cello during his stay here at Small Pond back in November 2014. It was always a delight to hear him practicing in his room upstairs, and even better to have him play while he posed for me. I got a lot of great shots, but I was only planning on painting two portraits (and submitting the one I liked better), so I sadly had to cut the cello (but who knows –maybe one day I'll paint another portrait of George playing it). Incidentally, the very first portrait I submitted to the KP (in 2011) was a painting I did of PEC farmer  George Emlaw  (which didn't make it into the exhibition). The next one (in 2013; it takes place every other year) was  a self portrait  (this didn't get in, either). So, here I am, two years l...

The first ten paintings from my Tournament of Shadows project will be on display (and for sale) during May 2015 at Closson Chase . Here's the write-up for the show: Conjuring imagery from dreams, fantasies, and mythology and combining them with a painterly alchemy, Milé Murtanovski’s Tournament of Shadows carries narratives that shift and transform, almost particle by particle, for each person who sees the paintings. An ambitious 100-painting project that will take years to complete, these first ten paintings serve as a long-range forecast of things to come.

This blog post compiles all the links to all 100 paintings of my big World War One art project I called To the Sound of Trumpets . I've set this up in sections according to how the exhibition was arranged at Macaulay Museum in November 2014. We begin with the Archduke Franz Ferdinad and his assassin, Gavrilo Princip: Catalysts for Calamity Dance Partners 1 Dance Partners 2 through 5 Dance Partners 6 through 9 To the Sound of Trumpets Entrenched Over the Top And the Women Went Also R&R Nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus Snow March Dance Masks Gas Attack Nunc est bibendum Troubles on Top of Troubles This Silent Countryside Captured! Wounded More Wounded "Send More Men" Buried Bang Bang Toys War Progression Effective Range: 50 Yards Children of Mars Across This Antheap The Kindest Cut The Empty Schoolhouse Flamethrower! Writing Between the Fi...

To the sound of voice and piano. During the exhibition of my World War One painting project (11-30 November 2014) I had a selection of music playing in the venue ( Macaulay Church Museum in Picton, ON) to convey an overall sense of melancholy –not sadness– while visitors looked at the paintings. Among the songs was one called "So" by my friend, writer and musician  Gayleen Froese , which always makes me think of a snowy winter's day whenever I hear it –and we did get some snow during the exhibition. The mood of it was perfect for my show and I was very happy when she said I could use it for a video showing all of the paintings in their proper display order, starting with the Archduke Ferdinand and his assassin, and ending with the Remembrance section. This video lasting 3 minutes and 45 seconds represents almost ten months of work, from the first documentary watched to the last brush stroke applied (not to mention the 8 hours spent hanging the show the day be...