Artist Daniel Merriam, has created an Easel to fit his vision in a grand way. In his own words, he explains the process to expand his creative artistic boundaries..
In the past month I have worked on everything from small pencil drawings to bronze sculpture to 5x8 foot paintings. When you discover that your ability translates into many different forms, you get the urge to push the envelope. My ambitious personality causes me to constantly bite off big projects to chew on.
Each time I approach a subject, I take the experience I have and build on it, usually trying to implement something new each time. The table /easel I have built here was a concept I had had in my head for years and finally decided to go for it. Large works. Of course this means more paint, bigger canvas, and a sore neck from holding out my arm. Otherwise, it's like working on one of my smaller paintings with a magnifying glass. No matter what life throws at artists, they will usually figure out a way to work with it.
Here I just grabbed some leftover framing lumber I had in my garage and put this together in a jiffy. I put casters on it so that I can move out of the direct sunlight as it works its way around my studio. The goal was not to build a perfect table but to get to work on the big paintings. Maybe someday I will rebuild it with fine lumber and make it look more like a permanent fixture. It needs some adjustable struts on the back. I can have my brother fabricate some from steel pipes. One of the toughest things about this was committing to a concept for the piece. It is so much work and will be quite costly to produce, frame and ship, I felt I had to demand more of my faculties to make it worthwhile.
Information and images submitted by artist, with permission to share his story.
Special thanks to the artist Daniel Merriam. 2010
