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Always slower than I'd prefer...

4/30/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 7), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

Almost there for Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, but not for my most recent interest in multiple panel and strongly graphic compositions. I offer yesterday's drawing as example. "Not there yet" is all I can say.

Untitled Drawing-04·29·2014, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches

Attack of the graphic.

4/28/2014

Untitled Diptych Drawing-04·27·2014, pencil on two 11X14 inch sheets of paper, 14X22 inches total

Yesterday's diptych was drawn with both panels next to one another. I went back and forth, from one panel to the other, observing both concurrently. I enjoyed sensing their reactivity, back and forth. It was like having a conversation. Perhaps the two panels not only represent two people, but also represent the visual conversation between them. Like a conversation, the two images occurred simultaneously.

I hope to get into the studio today and work on Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, but I may not because today is Monday, the day I deal with all things practical. If I do get some time in the studio I will also begin to plan a new large painting of multiple heads, gridded like a graph. Yes, I am being attacked by the graphic. When I think of the art that hits hard, with compositional potency, I think of graphically well designed work. In my 04/26/2014 post I mentioned the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Brice Marden. All the work of Andy Warhol, and Picasso's Guernica, fits this bill of sale. So do many of the works of Wassily Kandinsky. BTW: Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat thought so much alike, in terms of their sense of graphic composition, that they made several comfortably composed paintings together.

Is this abnormal?

4/27/2014

Untitled Drawing-04·26·2014, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches

Not abnormal enough! My quest for more expressive and engaging art is taking over. I should say, "At last!" What have I been doing all these years? Answer: I have been gathering knowledge, intuition, and skill.

Today I will try again. I am certainly not there yet. I am tired of complaining. I am not there because I know I will never be there! I am here! That is why I must not complain about the years I have spent in search. Always I have been here! Knowing is not a sudden reality. It does bite one's mental ass. It pokes the brain with small bits of new knowledge. It does not slap the knowing into an instant wake-up call. This brings me back to today. I anticipate no more than more of the same. Not more of the same in images produced, but more of the same in process experienced.

A note about the reproduction of the drawing reproduced today: The reproduction of the left head is not as crisp as the reproduction of the right head. This is not due to focus problems, but to lighting problems. Pencil marks produce a subtle sheen on a paper's surface. In this case the light which reflected off the pencil marks of the left head dulled the contrast of the pencil marks relative to one another and relative to the white surface of the paper. Consequently, in this reproduction, the left head does not sing as forcefully as the right head. This diminishes the impact of the overall image reproduced here when compared to the actual drawing. The remedy to this problem of inferior reproduction is better placement of lights and better use of a polarizing filter.

The last "normal" drawing?

4/26/2014

Untitled Drawing-04252014, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches

Yesterday I revisited works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Brice Marden and realized there is something basic and powerful missing in my quest for the artifice of three-dimensions on two-dimensional canvases and paper. I need to marry the play of my three-dimensional compositions to the graphically powerfully two-dimensional expressionism of Basquiat's and Marden's best work. With this in mind I am stating this may be the last of my relatively "normal" drawings, "normal" in their reference to Western Art made since the Renaissance. Come back tomorrow and I will explain more. I will explain with a "new" drawing and with a few more words.

Getting somewhere and I think soon.

4/24/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 6), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

Going there is the best part because arriving there is never are satisfying as the journey. Nevertheless, this painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, now in state 6, is closing in on its finis.

Like a mystery novel unraveling...

4/23/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 5), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

Like you, all I can do is watch Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 resolve itself. The difference is I am the moment to moment participant in its changes. The right panel makes sense to me now, but the left panel needs work, especially the woman. Today she shall be the first thing I alter.

Untitled Drawing-04·22·2014, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches

Step 4 + a drawing!

4/21/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 4), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

The diptych's visual intensity is great enough to reduce my desire to write to zero. That's a good thing. I will leave here.

FYI: To see a larger image of Diptych-04·15·2014 (unfinished, state 4) go to the RECENT PAINTINGS page of MEHRBACH.com.

Untitled Drawing-04·20·2014, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches

Step 3.

4/19/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 3), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

It's going somewhere. As Joseph Campbell said, "Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”

Continued importance.

4/17/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 2), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before"

There are endless possibilities in this can of worms I just opened. Making art should be this way, endless and without limit. This feels exactly like the opening I have been searching for. Let me quote Joseph Campbell to make sense of this.

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”

-Joseph Campbell

This is important.

4/16/2014

Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches)

It is not only the large size of this new diptych that makes it important. The grouping of these paintings results in great emotional and expressive breadth. The reproduction here is much too small. As soon as it develops a little further I will post it on my website in a larger format. These paintings are now tied together and should not be viewed independently of one another.

Yesterday's drawing preceded the painting. It is a simple study, which is of no great significance by itself.

Untitled Study-04·15·2014, pencil on paper, 11X14 inches

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