 "Along for the Ride" (2018 No.7, state 4), oil on canvas, 57.5x49.5 inches) {"The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful consideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you." - Philip Roth, "American Pastoral"}  Drawing 07·29·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Wishing things come easily never goes away; it always fails to come true! I do find yesterday's drawing, and the next steps I took on the painting Along for the Ride, to be exciting, not easy. It was a rigorous studio session. Drawings do get done in one session; I move on. Paintings take time, slow and meditative — time away and time in-front-of. There is a long road to travel for Along for the Ride, which now feels appropriately titled. I am going to hang in there, like a buckaroo.
 Drawing 07·28·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches It ran away and I caught up with it. This process, the one I choose to engage, is an amazing, meditative, engrossing, fully capturing process. I am not the bold conqueror, imposing my will on the indigenous populace. My art appears mark by mark; I give into its desire to become whatever its wills to be. This one, yesterday's, is rather complicated. It took 12,638,947 marks of mine to become itself... psssst — just kidding — I did not count, but it felt like these marks just kept on being demanded; I completed each request until satisfaction occurred — not my choice).
 Drawing 07·26·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches It is simply a great drawing. You have to see it to believe it! My work is hitting harder in all the ways art should hit a viewer. Yesterday's drawing is substantive; emotive in texture, emotive in form, emotive in composition, emotive in light and in darkness. One dictionary definition of texture is "the character or appearance of a fabric as determined by the arrangement and thickness of its threads." This happens in Drawing 07·26·2018, except the threads are replaced with pencil marks. Wow & Zow! Sticking with it makes sense. Even the most unlikely of avenues, when followed with ardor and passion, result in excellent results. I quote again Oliver Wendall Holmes: "Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
 "Along for the Ride" (2018 No.7, state 3), oil on canvas, 57.5x49.5 inches) {"The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful consideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you." - Philip Roth, "American Pastoral"}  Drawing 07·25·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I wrote about being chronically wrong (actually, I quoted Philip Roth — see the sub-quote of the painting Along for the Ride). Life's driving force is acknowledging one's wrongness. Getting it wrong excites! It instigates determination, resolution, and aspiration; it instigates moving forward toward a better solution. Betterment is the product of self-criticism. All my art is the product of self-criticism. Living well is the product of honest self-criticism. I believe the difference between success and failure lies in one's ability to reliability self-criticize. That is trustworthiness! It must be nurtured. Beware the person who deludes themselves, deludes others, with dishonesty. As Oliver Wendall Holmes wrote, "Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
Yesterday's work is the product of my worries. Yesterday's solutions are common in theme; I am exploring this: moving the viewer into the picture from the bottom edge, then around and around we go. Compositional animation is important to me. Also, I am beginning to understand the means to relate each and every square centimeter of a painting (or drawing) to each and every other square centimeter.  "Along for the Ride" (2018 No.7, state 2), oil on canvas, 57.5x49.5 inches) {"The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful consideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you." - Philip Roth, "American Pastoral"}  Drawing 07·24·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches In my previous blog post I wrote about being wrong. I wrote how important it is to be wrong; being wrong is the most human quality. If you missed this idea it is because you did not fully read the title caption beneath the painting Along for the Ride, which yesterday hit state 2. It is Philip Roth who made this lucid; In his novel, American Pastoral, Philip Roth wrote, "The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living." This wrongness applies to art-making too. Wrongness is living art; Wrongness is the inspiration that drives art-making. There would never be a second painting if an artist got it right the first time. Never ridicule any painting; never ridicule any piece of art. All art is authentically human. The best art, I agree, universally connects us.
The painting Along for the Ride excites me. I will enthusiastically work on it again today. Yesterday's drawing is another step forward in my search to find a way to connect everything within a composition: every point, every mark, every form.  "The Intervening Tick" (2018 No.6, state 6), oil on canvas, 49x33 inches {"Is that where wise men want us to live; in that intervening tick, the tiny slot that occurs after you have spent hours searching downtown for that new club and just before you give up and head back home?" - Billy Collins, "The Present", from "New Ohio Review" 2017}  "Along for the Ride" (2018 No.7, state 1), oil on canvas, 57.5x49.5 inches) {"The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful consideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you." - Philip Roth, "American Pastoral"}  Drawing 07·22·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches The painting, The Intervening Tick, is nearly complete. One more session and it will be done. I have declared Chocorua (2018 No.6) complete. Moving-on is the real news. In 1977 my greatest mentor, Philip Guston, wrote, "So when the 1960s came along I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The war, what was happening in America, the brutality of the world. What kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything — and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue? I thought there must be some way I could do something about it." Guston did do something, the thing an artist can do; Guston made a series of Nixon Drawings. Guston also began making emotion-driven, figurative paintings and drawings. Another Philip has always engaged me. Philip Roth continues to be in my thoughts. I never met Philip Roth, but he was Philip Guston's good friend (see photo, below). In 1978, the year the photo was taken, I was working with Philip Guston. He was my artistic mentor. The two Philips are with me today. In my head I constantly hear Philip Guston's encouraging words. I am reading Philip Roth's writings. The painting I began yesterday is aptly titled from a few lines Roth wrote in his novel, American Pastoral. I am apolitical. I am a pure artist; however I feel the tension in America. Guston must have felt similarly in the 1960s and 1970s. I will continue to go to my studio, adjust my colors, adjust my forms, adjust my compositions, but I cannot help but realize my art is a response to the country and the world in which I live. My art is, I believe, appropriately expressive.  Philip Guston and Philip Roth in Woodstock NY, 1978  Philip Guston, drawing from the "Nixon Drawings", ink on sketch book paper, 1971  Philip Guston, drawing of Henry Kissinger from the "Nixon Drawings", ink on sketch book paper, 1971  "Chocorua" (2018 No.6, state 7), oil on canvas, 40x64 inches {"A substitute for all the gods, This self, not that gold self aloft, Alone, one's shadow magnified, Lord of the body, looking down, As now and called most high, The shadow of Chocorua" - Wallace Stevens, "The Man with the Blue Guitar", verse XXI}  Drawing 07·21·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Making a masterpiece is not easy... duh! I am working on it. The two paintings currently on my work wall, Chocorua (2018 No.5) and The Intervening Tick (2018 No.6), are closing in on masterful. They are exceptional paintings, yet both require a little more finessing in order for me to call them complete. "Complete," to me, means the best I can do right now, in this moment in time. "Complete" does not mean, to me, that I have made the best of all possible solutions for the painting in front of me. I believe I could work on a painting for a very long time, finessing it, making it slightly better than the day before. The question is when "slightly better" is nearly meaningless. There are artists who worked hard to understand this sweet spot of acceptance; the five most important I believe are Giacometti, Matisse, Cézanne, de Kooning, and Guston.
Yesterday's drawing continues my research into total page involvement. Every square inch of yesterday's drawing is touched; every stroke comprehended in its relationship to the entirety.  "The Intervening Tick" (2018 No.6, state 5), oil on canvas, 49x33 inches {"Is that where wise men want us to live; in that intervening tick, the tiny slot that occurs after you have spent hours searching downtown for that new club and just before you give up and head back home?" - Billy Collins, "The Present", from "New Ohio Review" 2017}  Drawing 07·19·2018 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 07·19·2018 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Wowie Zowie! I actually know what I am doing! Experimentation and risk-taking does lead to insight and better ideas. The old engineering attitude of spiraling around in search for insight, two steps forward, one back, two forward, et cetera, actually does lead forward. I am not amazed; I am very happy. The world is on notice: Here comes my best work! Better and better will continue to happen as long as I keep this attitude. I will now let you lookout at yesterday's work with no further assessment from me.
 Drawing 07·18·2018, 20x16 inches, pencil on paper Today's blog has a quoted title. It refers to a place I will never go again! Apparently the recent behind-doors meeting of the leaders of Russia and the United States had a negotiation that may result in an informational exchange; information from a former U,S. diplomat for information from the accused Russian Hackers. The former U.S diplomat (who had been stationed in Moscow) is now a Stanford University Professor. He said: "This is a cockamamie fantasy."
I have made a life-affirming decision! I will forevermore "un-see" politics. I am a visual artist. I see acutely. I see accurately. I find politics painful, disturbing, not life-affirming. One of my best friends cautioned me to dedicate this blog to art, He told me NOT to stray elsewhere. "Don't spoil it with politics!" he said. Absolutely correct he was! Absolutely correct he is! I know art. I understand art. I will dedicate my life to that which I understand. I will continue to see art. I Un-See Politics! Yesterday's drawing is another experimental drawing. Another such drawing will be made today; I will report on my art-making tomorrow.  "Chocorua" (2018 No.5, state 6), oil on canvas, 36x54 inches {"A substitute for all the gods, This self, not that gold self aloft, Alone, one's shadow magnified, Lord of the body, looking down, As now and called most high, The shadow of Chocorua" - Wallace Stevens, "The Man with the Blue Guitar", verse XXI}  Drawing 07·17·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches The great and wonderful condition that is art-making is... I am doing the spinning. I am the one who must judge truth versus dishonesty. The facts are created by me, judged by me, accepted or denied by me. The circumstances I live are solely mine. A fully self-critiqued life is a good life.
Yesterday's work on Chocorua (2018 No.6) has brought it to the brink of conclusion. I am very happy with this painting It stands well now; a few minor corrections may be made. I very much want to move on to 2018 No.7. Yesterday's drawing is me experimenting with ground as activity; I informed each and every dollop of the paper with marks. Is this not the manner to fully inform a composition? |
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February 2019
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