Hell represents a place of the unknown. It is to be feared because it cannot be described. This fear is non-verbal. Our intuition tells us to avoid hell because it contains unfathomable pain we should avoid. Yesterday I did not visit hell, but I did allow myself to work straight from my intuitive core of knowledge. Consequently, the quality of the work jumped to the better. I tend to fear the indescribable, but it is where an artist must go to find reality.
I have little to say. I am busy figuring this out. That is more important than words. Things are not what they first appear to be.
It was very cold yesterday, with the high temperature reaching only 13°F. Today is a little colder, but sunny. My drawings were on the cold side too. Yesterday I never did get warm. Today is a busy day for me. I am hoping to get into the studio and return to painting. I feel as if my drawing has gone as far as it is able to go for the moment, but the painting is miles away from satisfaction.
I was tired before I got to the studio. Yesterday's early waking was excitement related to insight, but it was not advantageous for energetic art-making. So I spent most of the day catching up on mundane things that needed doing, and finally entered studio at around 4 p.m. I spent two hours there. The result is two drawings. The first is interesting in the challenge I gave myself in terms of composition and form. I began with the abstract concept of a vertical oval next to a horizontal oval. The two ovals played well against one another, and if I was a minimalist abstract artist I would have stopped there. For me, the figurative artist, the games began, and here I show the outcome. The second drawing was me jumping in and acting as I imagine Willem de Kooning might act. I used the female nude as a simple point of reference. I am not enthusiastic with the second drawing, but I do appreciate the solution that is the first.
I awoke early this morning, at around 4:30 a.m. I felt understanding within me. I now feel I can make the art I want to make. Today is the United States Olympic Marathon Trials. They begin at 9 a.m. in Houston, Texas. There is an article about Desiree Davila in yesterday's USA TODAY. Davila will compete for one of three Marathon berths in this year's Olympics in London. Davila is quoted as saying, "There's all these things in life, and you don't know why they happen the way they do. But running isn't like that. It's so simple. You put in what you want to put in, and at the end of the day, you get the result you earn. You can't deceive yourself. So whatever anyone else is saying about you is great, but at the end of the day, it's just you and the clock." Speaking of Brian Sell's success in his bid for a spot on the 2008 Olympic Marathon team, Davila is quoted as having said, "Because he was prepared, he didn't have to do anything different or special, or have this magical day." With a few changes in the words, these statements talk about being an artist: At the end of the day, it's just you and the art-work, just you and the drawings and paintings you made that day. There is nothing special or magical about making art. You put in what you want to put in, you get the results you earn. Yesterday I spent only about an hour and half in the studio. I did not draw, but went right to painting on "Unexpected." I am awakening to my ability, and to my potential. More and more I know what I need to do, what I can do. I am accepting the limitations I must work within. Drawing and painting, like any media of expression, has its restrictions and boundaries. This is good for the artist. Comprehending the limitations allows one to practice, and fully utilize, one's tools. It's similar to the rules of a game, like baseball. Creativity within the rules is unlimited after the rules are fully comprehended. How well one plays the games is dependent upon how well one comprehends the rules. Michael Lewis's book, "Moneyball," explains how the recent changes in playing the game of baseball are a result of better comprehension of the limitations of the rules of baseball. He likens outs to dollars. There are a limited amount of outs in baseball as there are dollars in a person's finances. From this simple idea comes a way of viewing batters as statistical protectors of the out, and from this comes the idea that the Batting Average is not as important as the On-Base Percentage. This is revolutionary thinking for the old game of baseball.
The woman took a turn toward the more appropriate in the painting "Unexpected," but the man glares in his incongruity. It is not his mood, it is the size of his head that is discordant. Its scale is out of whack. As I look at today's reproduction I also see that the local color of his hands and head do not properly participate in the atmosphere of the overall painting. I have my work cut out for me. I am excited about this. I can handle it. This feeling that I am able to tackle, and solve, every problem presented, is relatively new. I attribute it to the large volume of knowledge acquired in my day by day drawings. The enormous volume of drawing was me gathering comprehension. What I have now is what I need to succeed in my quest for expression. Onward!
By the way, yesterday's drawing was a study for the woman in the painting "Unexpected." In the drawing I transformed the woman into a man as I studied the twist of the head to the right while the body is turned to the left. The head of the woman is not right, but the composition has moved well. Two steps forward, one back. You can see my struggle in yesterday's drawing. Yesterday was one of those days where comprehensive seeing did not come easily. I was very aware of the struggle. I do not want to write any more. I want to paint.
By meat, I mean the painting. Right now copious amounts of information are being gathered in my drawing, every time I draw. Yesterday's drawing shows this again. I have wondered if the distractions of the holidays, which restricted my studio time, was good or bad for my painting. Yes, it did delay the paint going on canvas, but I cannot discount the enormous amount of drawings I did as a source of strength and information. Drawing is the training for the more sustained concentration that is painting. The urge to paint is upon me. More important is the welling up of confidence that the recent spate of drawings has given me. The gathered knowledge, which is this feeling of strength required to enter a painting with optimism that nothing is too difficult to solve, also translates into the feeling that no subject can lack the requirements to animate my attention. This makes me think about Luc Tuymans. He bounces around with disparate choices of subject matter. Tuymans loves the human head, but also finds interesting compositions in many mundane objects of this world and makes nearly abstract works with these images. To illustrate this contrast I show two of Luc Tuymans' works. I can see this happening to me. The idea that every subject is expressively interesting is an outgrowth of the knowledge that drawing is expressive in itself when informed with its vast qualities, its ability to express by line, form, value, contrast, shape, and composition.
The day by day work pays back. The drawing I show today is excellent. It was a response to Antonio López Garcia's sculpture "Man and Woman" (below). He is a contemporary realist, and like me, many of his works depict couples. At the end of today's post I show a painting of his. López Garcia is older than I, born 1936. He is revered in Spain, some critiques have called him Spain's greatest living painter. The emotional gravity of his work is enormous, and demonstrates how simple compositions can be expressively powerful. The "Man and Woman" sculpture struck me with its size difference between the man and the woman. This one idea instigated my drawing, which is, of course, quite different in image when compared to Antonio López Garcia's sculpture.
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April 2024
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