All in progress, I caught a sunny day and dragged them outside to shoot. I'm off to the national forest and a day of family. I'll jump back into these this week.
the remains of Saturday
All in progress, I caught a sunny day and dragged them outside to shoot. I'm off to the national forest and a day of family. I'll jump back into these this week.
juice
I'm here and the studio is quiet and I'm looking at 6 paintings and I feel that I am looking at something potentially new. My camera battery is out of juice, and I had planned on a pure photoblog entry today, but perhaps without the concern for documentation I was free in a way I didn't realize.
There are times when a Corona at noon is about the best damn thing on the planet, and whatever went down today was/is transformative. None of these are finished, but I went somewhere today, somewhere I don't think I've been before. I'm not sure how this will play out, but I'm up for the ride.
My initial explorations a few weeks ago with stencils got me thinking about silk screening and today I tried a technique that takes the philosophy of that process without its objectives/results. Something that has always interested me is using existing tools in very different ways. What I was thinking about today was denying the visual assumption. So whenever I see a painting becoming dictated by the visual assumption, I try to get rid of that assumption. The brain is always trying to take power over the eyes in art, and the biggest challenge I've seen with college-aged painters is that they must be taught to see and not just look. We anticipate patterns, we look for balance and symmetry. Abstract painting has the potential to challenge those anticipations/assumptions and in so doing, allow us to see differently. What I'm concerned with is seeing things in new ways, ways unconsidered or even unimagined. We need this in the world, we need this in our country right now because the paradigms as we know them no longer apply. To my mind, I don't paint for other artists necessarily, I believe I paint for politicians and scientists and those who can exert influence on the engines of culture. It is my greatest hope that someone will be lost in one of my paintings, -the way one looses themselves at the ocean or in the mountains, and some new thing will occur to them.
I am not interested in making meaning. I am interesting in creating the opportunity for meaningfulness.
I'll come back to work tonight, hopefully I can find the charger and get some pics up tomorrow.
There are times when a Corona at noon is about the best damn thing on the planet, and whatever went down today was/is transformative. None of these are finished, but I went somewhere today, somewhere I don't think I've been before. I'm not sure how this will play out, but I'm up for the ride.
My initial explorations a few weeks ago with stencils got me thinking about silk screening and today I tried a technique that takes the philosophy of that process without its objectives/results. Something that has always interested me is using existing tools in very different ways. What I was thinking about today was denying the visual assumption. So whenever I see a painting becoming dictated by the visual assumption, I try to get rid of that assumption. The brain is always trying to take power over the eyes in art, and the biggest challenge I've seen with college-aged painters is that they must be taught to see and not just look. We anticipate patterns, we look for balance and symmetry. Abstract painting has the potential to challenge those anticipations/assumptions and in so doing, allow us to see differently. What I'm concerned with is seeing things in new ways, ways unconsidered or even unimagined. We need this in the world, we need this in our country right now because the paradigms as we know them no longer apply. To my mind, I don't paint for other artists necessarily, I believe I paint for politicians and scientists and those who can exert influence on the engines of culture. It is my greatest hope that someone will be lost in one of my paintings, -the way one looses themselves at the ocean or in the mountains, and some new thing will occur to them.
I am not interested in making meaning. I am interesting in creating the opportunity for meaningfulness.
I'll come back to work tonight, hopefully I can find the charger and get some pics up tomorrow.
The year of purity, part 1
I alluded to my "year of purity" in the last post. By no means am I suggesting that "The Conversation" is not important to art, and to the process of making art; I believe it is. I have also come to adopt the philosophy that work has to be seen in order for it to be art. So when I say that I am sitting this year out in terms of publicly getting out there, it does not mean I'm withdrawing completely.
Things come into my life which move me, -often in two's, which, if you know my life you would understand better. So I'll share two moments that came into my life within the past few days that shook me up, gave me pause, encouraged me and renewed my spirit in the studio.
Exhibit A, a quote from Ranier Maria Rilke:
To so many questions I am, at present, living, I most certainly would not be able to live the answers. Tomorrow I register my little girls for kindergarten, and so begins the long, steady journey of transition into their own beings and their own lives; lives, which will include me for a time, but ultimately will be consumed by all that moves us on in life, in love and in spirit. I tell them to live the questions. I tell myself to have patience.
The second bomb was this video of the artist Sean Scully. Props to Sharon Butler at Two Coats of Paint, who mostly has worthwhile things to say about art, and more so about artists. I was not intimately familiar with Scully's work, but I have to say a part of me fell in love with the man while watching this video. I love what he says about making art towards the end. I love that he is at play in the studio, but also incredibly focused and serious. (and I love that studio!)
Things come into my life which move me, -often in two's, which, if you know my life you would understand better. So I'll share two moments that came into my life within the past few days that shook me up, gave me pause, encouraged me and renewed my spirit in the studio.
Exhibit A, a quote from Ranier Maria Rilke:
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.
The second bomb was this video of the artist Sean Scully. Props to Sharon Butler at Two Coats of Paint, who mostly has worthwhile things to say about art, and more so about artists. I was not intimately familiar with Scully's work, but I have to say a part of me fell in love with the man while watching this video. I love what he says about making art towards the end. I love that he is at play in the studio, but also incredibly focused and serious. (and I love that studio!)
via The Guardian online
I don't know, it just sort of rocked my world. I love watching him paint at the end too. So I go into the studio tonight pumped up and excited and a bit sore from running this morning (more of my year of purity, btw). Stay tuned.
the 50
If you're new to this blog, here's some history. Late in December, I ordered 50 canvases built and shipped to my studio. The concept was to work within a uniform space, with the same dimensions, and to paint 50 fully-realized paintings.
My reasoning behind this was that I would settle into an almost automatic, assembly-line rhythm; and out of this process would emerge something (hopefully) unique and personal. This was never about the finished works, however. It is all about the process along the way.
Over the weekend I reached for canvas number 10. There are 4 cases still unopened, and this is an unprecedented situation for me as an artist; to have materials, time and space all available in concert. For the first time in my life, I can work (relatively) unimpeded.
Limitations are a good thing when it comes to art. Artists are, well, creative, so being forced to overcome obstacles more often than not leads to something interesting. It is so-often the case that when all limitations are removed from art, the work suffers. (A certain Broadway show comes immediately to mind).
Yet I have to say with the conviction of one who knows, there is nothing inherently noble about poverty. It doesn't make art more "true" or "real," it just means that one has to prioritize more carefully. So I'm fortunate to be where I am, fortunate to have this time and this studio and to be able to watch the work unfold.
I have also decided that this is my year of "purity". I will not exhibit, or seek exhibition. It is solely about the work and the studio discipline. I'm weary, and I must confess I'm becoming a bit jaded when it comes to all things "professional" about art. Better to withdraw for a time than watch that happen to myself. So the studio has become fun again. It is about slinging paint, and about play and about wonder. Hopefully, the work will have that freshness as well. This remains to be seen.
So, thanks for stopping by this little corner of the internet; one that documents an artist's work in a little corner of America, -one that you've likely never heard of.
Kid in Play
Beatback party with some '80's freestyle and gfunk on the ipod. It's a cloudy day with Aggie in the studio and 6 canvases in play. We are officially in Flow. Everything shown is in progress.
back to the night shift
A stolen night. A hint of times to come when the short spring gives way to the long, hot nights of southern swelter. I'm here, now. It's Wednesday.
In the Winter I am James Brown, slinking off the stage covered in a cloak, all my energies drained and the show is over. I need the single warm breeze; I need the first night in the 50's and I can fling off the cover and slide back under the lights. I feel good. I knew that I would now.
So things move on. I am settling into my groove and each piece is becoming more autonomous and I go where it leads me. I reached for the cerulean blue; I saw the blue in the sky on Sunday and it jumped out of the piles of tubes on the table tonight screaming, "I am the Spring, I am life." True, it will get cold again. The flowers will bloom prematurely and the fragile buds will get frozen, it happens every year. But now I've seen the end, and now it feels good to be in here and to work.
The mangling and muddling and laying down; tonight I was laying it down. A drink at home before bed and the sleep that comes from doing work worthwhile. And in my mind, there is a small glimmer of hope that I may yet walk the Brooklyn streets at the end of the month.
a good day
Managed to get into the studio today with good effect. 3 of the 6 are coming into being, and today i obliterated much of the last session's forms. I'm having some tech issues, and didn't get the photos up in time for a post, but I'll try to do an all-photo post tomorrow. They are at a point where photography is difficult; there are no forms to grab onto, mostly subtle hues of color. Digital doesn't like it, there are days I miss film.
Speaking of, I've been working on my entry to a traveling exhibition and it is photography/collage. It's been challenging, both in terms of subject matter and technique. Part of my tech issue was with Photoshop crashing on me and as I'm currently living off 3 computers right now, 2 of them PC's, life on that end is bringing me down. Santa, a MacBook pro please.
Still, I'm a believer that limitations in art can sometimes force one into interesting places, so I have a few days yet to finish this.
I hope to get back tomorrow and at least upload the pics.
Speaking of, I've been working on my entry to a traveling exhibition and it is photography/collage. It's been challenging, both in terms of subject matter and technique. Part of my tech issue was with Photoshop crashing on me and as I'm currently living off 3 computers right now, 2 of them PC's, life on that end is bringing me down. Santa, a MacBook pro please.
Still, I'm a believer that limitations in art can sometimes force one into interesting places, so I have a few days yet to finish this.
I hope to get back tomorrow and at least upload the pics.
forgiveness
The past few weeks have been an exercise in the act of self-forgiveness. Forgiveness for not getting to everything I want to accomplish, forgiveness for giving less time to each part in order to accomplish the greater whole, forgiveness for failing with my interactions with people in moments, and forgiveness for not being perfect.
In the Meyers-Briggs test, it is suggested that I value justice over fairness. I've come to feel this is true. I've had to make some tough decisions about other people's lives over the past few weeks, and some of those decisions were absolutely not fair. I believe, however, that they were just and served the greater purpose. If you had told me that I would become an administrator in graduate medical education, I would have laughed. But like so many parts of my life over the past decade, what I now find myself doing for money is something that I found my way into and something that I've found I'm both good at and enjoy.
It's not a job where you get to be people's friend, and that is personally very difficult at times. Yet it is something that makes a difference, and something that potentially changes the world around me, and that's rewarding.
It is generally at this point in the winter where I become incredibly depressed from not being able to work. I am fighting this and finally began work on my entry to a traveling exhibition. In playing around with different ideas this weekend, I felt so excited, and discovered some new perspectives which I plan to bring back into my painting. This entry is photography, something I enjoy personally but have never considered pursuing as an artist. The piece is post card size, but I plan to make a large print (possibly a limited run of them) if it comes out well.
I'll elaborate more when it's done.
I have to remind myself that time away from the studio is also part of working; it is, in its own way, part of the process.
In the Meyers-Briggs test, it is suggested that I value justice over fairness. I've come to feel this is true. I've had to make some tough decisions about other people's lives over the past few weeks, and some of those decisions were absolutely not fair. I believe, however, that they were just and served the greater purpose. If you had told me that I would become an administrator in graduate medical education, I would have laughed. But like so many parts of my life over the past decade, what I now find myself doing for money is something that I found my way into and something that I've found I'm both good at and enjoy.
It's not a job where you get to be people's friend, and that is personally very difficult at times. Yet it is something that makes a difference, and something that potentially changes the world around me, and that's rewarding.
It is generally at this point in the winter where I become incredibly depressed from not being able to work. I am fighting this and finally began work on my entry to a traveling exhibition. In playing around with different ideas this weekend, I felt so excited, and discovered some new perspectives which I plan to bring back into my painting. This entry is photography, something I enjoy personally but have never considered pursuing as an artist. The piece is post card size, but I plan to make a large print (possibly a limited run of them) if it comes out well.
I'll elaborate more when it's done.
I have to remind myself that time away from the studio is also part of working; it is, in its own way, part of the process.
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