Garret Bock’s Blog

Taking summer classes at the Cyprus College of Art

Exterior of CCofA.  Located in the old Turkish section of Larnaca Cyprus.

My studio (i’m looking pretty pissed in this photo).  Photo by Nicola Stead.

Studiomate, Gerry, hard at work.

Nicola in her studio.

Also, since being here, I’m blasting through sketchbooks

Sketchbook 7 and 8.

Here are random pages from the books.  It’s really just me goofing off…

Santa Claus and the Easter bunny Vs. Robots on page 98 of sketchbook 7

Scalding Tea page 4 of Sketchbook 8

Birthday party page 8 of sketchbook 8

Fat Samurai Vs. the Hydra page 12 of sketchbook 8

Page 108 of Sketchbook 7 which is a sketch of the print….

Colored in print of Un-welcome Dinner Guests.  I don’t like this huge print.

 Took a day trip to Jerusalem

View of Jerusalem

Interior of the church built on the spot where Jesus was arrested.

Large mural painting of Radioactive Jesus (?).  I don’t know what’s going on in this painting.  I went with the Russian tour group, so I didn’t really know what I was seeing.  I had to use my detective skills/wikipedia when I got home to figure out what I saw.

See. This is a good example.  What is the seal of the United States doing on the ceiling of this church?  I’m thinking some sort of Da Vince code conspiracy right?  No, it turns out that this church was rebuilt in 1919 and it received large funds from countries around the world which is why it’s called the Church of all Nations.

Tomb of Mary

The un-grandiose entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.   Inside this church is the Tomb of Jesus, where he was held in Prison, the hill where he was crucified, where they prepped his body for burial, where the cross was buried and found hundreds of years later.  Who would have thought that all that stuff happened within 500 hundred feet of eachother?

Another story about this church: being the holiest place in all of Christendom, the church is run by all these different sects of christian churches.  They’re all assigned different parts of the church which leads to trouble.  As in fist fights between priests and monks (the last one being on April 20 over a door left open).  Besides the areas run by different sects there are parts of the church that are run by all of them and can’t be changed without confirmation from all groups.  Obviously, this is a huge problem.  If you look in the picture above there is a ladder on a ledge that’s been there for 150 years because they can’t agree to move it.

Jesus’s tomb is located inside this little church that’s inside another church.  Like I said, went in there and didn’t really realize what I saw until I got home the next day and looked on the internet.

 Interior dome with an incredible Trompe-l’œil ceiling. Completely convinced it was real.

Mosaic floor in the basement of the church featuring the Great Flood.

Probably the best mosaic I have ever seen.

The Western Wall.

Dead Sea floating.  Floating in the Dead Sea is like floating in your scalding bath tub filled with baby oil/a gallon of Morton’s salt, and incredibly sharp rocks.

I almost bought this shirt…

Other random photo from the airport.

Postcard picture of a fresco from a church near Kakopetria.  All the other frescos were explained in the guide…what is going on in this picture?  Why are they all so sad (except that redheaded guy being held in the forefront)?

Check out this awesome ceramic sandwich that I made years ago….so bad.

Dimitri, a teenager trapped in a 9 year old’s body.  He’s passed out in a chair at 12:30 in the afternoon because he was up all night.  Completely oblivious to the alligator on his chest.

It’s over Safari!  If were cool enough to notice this post has been corrected… Firefox allows me to now go back and fix all the crazy posts due to Safari’s “issues” with me creating posts….

Plugging away on a new series of woodcuts

Detail test of a woodcut I’ve recently carved entitled “The (un-welcome) Dinner Guests”.  This thing is 60 cm by 80 cm making it the biggest thing I’ve carved in six years.  It turns out that it may be too big.  I can’t find decent paper on the island that size to print on.  I’m actually thinking about recutting the whole image smaller (a shame I know) to fit with a series that I’m considering doing.

Nostalgia drawing from sketchbook 6.  In case you were wondering what those epic battle scenes that I used to draw as a kid looked like, here’s a bigger one that I recently drew.

Ancient floor Mosaic from the House of Doinysus in Paphos.  I’m really inspired by the borders, which is why I’m also considering recutting the (un-welcome) dinner guests.

More Mosaics

Besides the Masaics,  we’ve been heading to old churchs in the mountains and veiwing the frescos.  These are really amazing but you’re not allowed to photograph them.  I have some post cards and I”ll be posting them in a few days.

Ancient Ruins of Kurion, located near Lemessol.

Famagusta’s DMZ.  This is an abandoned stretch of beach in the north that runs for miles.  No one is allowed to enter it since the war in 1974.  Note the crooked shot because I had to shoot it discreetly.  Armed guards in the area don’t look too kindly on people taking photographs of this area.

I switched continents.  Visiting my family in Cyprus.  

This is my family’s super mansion.  It’s not really a mansion but it is a lot nicer than our old house in Iowa.  I was pretty blown away by their upgrade.

 View from the hills where my family lives.   Larnaca and the sea are in the background.  It’s not as hot here as it’s going to be so before that happens I’m hiking in the hills around my parent’s house.  Somewhere out there, there’s an artillery range that the army drops mortar shells onto.  I haven’t found it yet but I know I’ve gotten really, really close…

Local Football Game.  European football fans are intense.  At this game they pulled out road flares when they scored a goal.  Andonis is pissed that I took this photo because it was of the opposing team scoring.

My brothers,Andonis and Dimitri, wrestling. 

Dimitri helps me print a linocut. 

Experimenting with Linocuts.

Traveling a bit.  Stopped back at my Grandparents farm in Missouri and uncovered more old drawings including all my sketchbooks from age 5 to 18…

This pig is a snappy dresser, and I think he’s carrying an axe.  


  

This frog is grammatically challenged…I wouldn’t trust his opinion on reading.  

Now this strange, rainbow colored, smoke bellowing car looks like its opinion on reading is one to be regarded.

My older sketchbooks are filled with these elaborate battle scenes that I used to draw.  For nostalgia reasons, I decided to draw one in my newest book but it was a pain in the ass.  How could I spend hours drawings these? 

My sketchbooks from high school are filled with notes to me from my mother.  I guess she felt that this was the best way to reach me when she wasn’t home (this was in the stone age before cell phones).   The story behind this note:  for some reason, my parents wouldn’t give me a key to the house.  I’m not sure why…it was really ridiculous because I usually got home from school before them and I would have to break into the house by taking the screen off a window and crawl in (to all time traveling burglars; 218 Woodridge ave. in Iowa City is really easy to break into from the years 1997 to 2002).  but then there would be times when I would really need a key and they give me one of theirs…was there some sort of rule that said that they couldn’t own more than two keys to the house?  Who knows…. 

 Grandpa Bock shows off a meteorite that he found in one of his fields years ago (it now resides in the flower bed). 

My newest nephew, Grady Norman. 




  

Aidan, my oldest nephew, takes a pit stop to clean out his nose.

Jen and I took a five day tour of the Southwest, or according to our AAA map “Indian Country” which I’m sure is the official title of the area.

Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Navajo Nation, Monument Valley, Zion National Park.

What a hole in the ground…

“You too can ruin a majestic view by calling 1-800-RV4RENT!”

Ancient Hopi Ruins ironically located at the Navajo National Monument

Cool Neon Sign located outside Zion National Park in Southern Utah

By far the the place that I wanted to the most was Monument Valley, mostly because of Sergio Leone and John Ford films like Once Upon a Time in the West and The Searchers. Growing up in Iowa, you just assume that all little Western towns were built in grandiose landscapes…well let me tell you that they are.

This has nothing to do with my trip:

Photograph’s by Dulce Pinzon

Great photos, social commentary and humorous? Someone give this artist a grant!

New Print finished 4/08/2008 at the Compound 

Matt and Lena Reynoso have started an art studio and gallery called the Compound. Jen and I have been down there helping them tear down walls and ceilings getting the space ready for people to move in.   Spots are open now if you’re interested check out http://thecompound.ning.com/

Matt finishing tearing out a wall

This is the former walk in Beer Cooler that’s being turned into a common work space (check out those awesome beer cooler doors, the gallery is on the other side, so when you’re in the gallery you can see the work studios behind glass).

Other things:

A disappointing comic by Garret P. Bock at RPS’s DIY art show Feb 29th, 2008 

Cake at the Show 

 Schuyler Robertson featuring his work at the RPS DIY show (please note that EVERY photo of Schuyler that I have is him making that face).

Jen hits me 

Ed Cassel is working on some huge pinball back glass paintings down at Lucky Juju’s storage space on Alameda’s old Naval Base.  He invited us down to check out his work.

The Lucky Juju’s storage area

Fireball!