post cards from Istanbul

currently untitled (in progress), oil on canvas, 

120" x 81" [two panels], Rico '14

Progress today as I lost myself in retouching the Moroccan patterns by hand.  There is a sublime beauty in Islamic geometry, and I found what I would normally consider a very tedious process incredibly meditative.  I can't really say why I've suddenly introduced these motifs into the work other than the fact that I've been reflecting on a trip I took to Istanbul with my wife in 2006.  We toured mosques until our eyes blurred and then visited the modern art museum.  I don't think I've ever fully digested the work I saw there, though perhaps this is, at last, an honest attempt to do so.  Seeing AbEx interpreted through a completely different culture's eyes was simply incredible.

I've begun researching more patters for incorporation into new work.  I find the combination of order and chaos (albeit constructed chaos) very interesting.  I have many personal associations, but for now at least I'll keep those to myself and allow people their own.

I think the next logical step for me is to begin mixing patterns and combining them.  It's time to clear off the drafting table; I have a feeling I'm going to be using it a lot in the weeks ahead.

I took a fantastic photo of this with my phone, which caught a lot more of the refracted and reflected lighting on the thinner panel.  If you follow me on Instagram, you can see it here.  I'll be building out the abstract forms over the next few evenings and hopefully emphasizing and expanding those wonderful liquid-like moments.  

Free

N. Main St. studio,  summer of 2014

They say the truth will set you free, and I can finally announce that I'm leaving my day job and going back to school for a Master's.  It may surprise some, but not for an MFA and not even in art.  I recently discovered the world of UX design and it was like finding something I didn't know I was looking for.  I start Clemson this fall, and my family and I are excited and anxious.

I have always maintained two careers; one for money and one for life.  The debate rages on whether having a day job makes one a "real artist" but to my friends and peers at least, I am and will remain the real thing; and that's the only verdict I need.  I suppose I'm multi-dimensional, so perhaps I need more than one thing to keep me busy and finally discovering the opportunity to break down the self-compartmentalization of my personality was a very liberating thing.  I've been in a work environment where there are no artists, no people who perceive themselves as creative.  I've felt the need to hold a big part of myself back all these years, and I can no longer bear it.  

At my highest functioning, I need to be able to let go of persona and focus exclusively on what I'm doing.  So I'm very happy to announce the end of the short-lived life of "Mr. Rico."  

The studio work is exploding.  I've got half a dozen canvases on the way, a bit smaller by my usual standards, and I'm excited about the weeks and months ahead.  I don't know exactly where it is going, but I'm starting to paint in my head again every day almost constantly, so I know good work is coming.

I hope to have more time to blog, and to keep everyone up on the developments and work as they happen.  It was already 90 degrees in the studio today, but I had a smile on my face the likes of which I haven't had in a very long time.  

July will be about the work, and in August I'm taking a road trip to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends in Birmingham, a halfway point between us.  Then it's off to Charleston to hook up with another life-long brother in the CRB.  Looking forward to hearing them play and getting a chance to hang.  

the turning away

untitled sketchbook entry, June 2014, Rico

I've been on hiatus from the studio.  My process (generally) is that I will be in the studio and something will occur to me; something brand new or unexpected.  I will get this information down quickly in some fashion: I'll write about it, lay down some drawings, or even dive right in to painting it.  If it is very good, that is to say if I feel both excited and terribly unsure, I will then walk away.

If after a few weeks of ignoring it I find I cannot, I then embrace it and make it happen.  So painting, working, sometimes happens while I'm doing other things; things seemingly unrelated to painting.  In this case, the introduction of motif into this work struck me through accidentally stepping on my sketchbook.  I wear Converse all stars almost exclusively in the studio and the print from the sole was so arresting on the sketch.  It got me to thinking about pattern and juxtaposition and repetition.  Order, and chaos.

Beyond ideas there is the doing.  One has to make the ideas actually happen and this requires technical planning and practical considerations.  (Stuff we creative types often consider quite boring).  Yet there is tremendous satisfaction in addressing the practical and the technical when one finally drafts them in service to the idea, and that idea is then executed.

I guess I'm saying that sometimes I have to walk away for a time in order to see.  I have to turn away so that I can rediscover.   Painting is serious work.  But it is equally serious play.  It has to be fun, or at least satisfying on a some visceral level.  Paintings need to surprise me in the studio.

So I'm back in it.  I need life to ebb away for a time and embrace the practice.  When I work I am free and when I stay away from the art too long I begin to come undone.

I experienced a personal setback this week.  While these generally don't bother me, I feel as though in this case I was grossly underestimated as a person.  Part of it was the medium through which the interaction happened, and part of it was, I think, my vulnerability at this moment in life.  I couldn't get the people on the other side of the interaction to see me and ultimately I count that as a failure on my part.  I'm going through a great deal personally and look forward to announcing something next week and getting it off my chest.

Until then, the studio and the work.