 "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 8), oil on canvas, 63x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 9·29·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Full consciousness of being comes slowly. Consciousness slowly becomes comprehension. Comprehension translates into art. Art reveals consciousness. My process has changed. This is a recent change. It is an ongoing change in my being and in my art-making. Profundity is a product of deep contemplation. Profundity is discernment. Profundity is natural insight into comprehension into consciousness. Art is revelation of comprehension. My art is the display of my consciousness.
Here, I come to you through my art-making. Yesterday's work is momentous. It tests my comprehension; thus it succeeds and fails. Art-making reveals right and wrong. It is the loop that is problem solving; it reveals true knowledge and self-betrayal. The process goes on, moving me toward full consciousness of being.  Drawing 09·27·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I am sorry. Sorry for myself; sorry for those who follow my every post, follow everything I make; I have been distracted. I feel guilty because I do not like this, it is not who I am; it is NOT my normal temperament. I am normally detached from the fray that is called politics. Unfortunately it is everywhere these days during the U.S. Senate Judicial Committee hearings on a nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States. I will not speak to the confusion in front of us. Confusion distracts. I want to simply say, "No, I will not personally allow this distraction." I have failed thus far; I have been distracted. No more! As with all things political, this too shall pass. I want justice and equality. My worry is not about politics, but about the longevity of things politically decided. I suggest that we, as a nation, should ricochet between this and that, i.e., we take two steps forward, one back, two steps forward, et cetera. I am hoping this process we are watching is similar to that of making art. I am hoping this process is research toward a more enlightened society.
I am working, day by day, toward better art. I observe myself moving toward this goal, one step backward, two forward, one back back, two steps forward, et cetera et cetera. The sum of this process is forward; enlightenment! Slowly, surely, work day by work day, I am making art that is better art; art that is more profound and more informed. Yesterday's drawing was made by the distracted me. It is research. I was thinking of the Vincent Van Gogh drawing I posted yesterday. The simple idea of this drawing fits me well, despite it being executed by a distracted me. It is a step of research that has resulted in a tiny step forward in my art. My art is better informed today than it was yesterday. Enlightenment!  "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 7), oil on canvas, 55.5x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 09·25·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Happiness has not yet arrived. This ain't easy. The painting, Burnt Norton, ain't yet right. It is taking a toll; an emotional toll. I am in a humongous effort. There is desolate, lonely weight upon me, but I am optimistic. Confusing? This is a mountain worth climbing. The required humongous effort is this: I am at the bottom of a mountain. It is very far to the top and I am looking up! I do not want to be distracted by my feelings. I do not want to be overwhelmed by the difficult, arduous, strenuous journey that lies before me. Being here and now, taking one step, then another, is my responsibility. I will achieve this. However, when contemplated, I am daunted by being in this position, at the bottom. I will stop contemplating; I will act! Before I take another step, I leave you, and myself, looking at a wonderful drawing by Vincent Van Gogh. The more I study Vincent van Gogh's work the more I find kinship between him and I, between his artistic endeavors and mine. I am talking about consistency in research & development, the constant quest for greater depth of knowledge, and our ardent desire to be relentless in finding personal visual truth. Vincent and I share a yearning to connect with every single bit, snippet, shard of paper or canvas that we use as ground for drawings and paintings. We want to touch these surfaces with marks denoting we have been here, that we have touched every scrap and portion of every bit of surface with thought and feeling.  Vincent Van Gogh, "Wheat Field with Sheaves and Arles in the Background", ink on paper, 31.5x24 cm. 1888  "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 6), oil on canvas, 55.5x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 09·23·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I worry when the going feels slow... Are my good days gone? Have I lost my intensity? Have I lost my energy? Am I too old? It takes initiative to step back and make sense of these feelings. Difficult it is to see the slow development of the painting Burnt Norton as due to personal revelation rather than personal foundering. Yesterday's drawing is insightful; it is me stretching to find robust, personally sensitive compositions. Vincent van Gogh would understand me. He would understand my fears. Vincent was relentlessly experimenting. The drawing reproduced below below was done by Van Gogh in the last year of his life. It is sanely experimental.  Vincent Van Gogh, "Wheatfields", ink on paper, 1890  Drawing 09·22·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches One more worry: Is my work too complicated, too subtle? Is it beyond the grasp of most viewers? I see visual connections across wide expanses of canvas and paper. I do not think I am deluding myself. Yesterday's drawing does work well. There is a solid core, there are rhythms and rhymes, there is movement and motion, there is value contrast, there are a large variety of forms, there is light, there is structural integrity. So, why is it not a hit? I believe it does hit well. Then why are viewers not begging that it be put in public venues? What are they not begging to see it up close and personal? Art that speaks truth should be seen. Perhaps Vincent Van Gogh wondered the same.
In yesterday's blog I quoted a New York Times article from March 22, 1992. The following paragraph, from the same article, is relevant to my worries of today: "Cezanne's career might have been as grim as Van Gogh's -- and as short -- had he not been the son of a banker and, ultimately, his heir. As it is, his progress from clumsy Expressionism to a sublime fusion of the monumental and the ethereal has attracted scholars from Roger Fry to Meyer Schapiro and John Rewald." (from the New York Times article, ART; How Cezanne Evokes a Bach Fugue, published March 22, 1992)  "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 5), oil on canvas, 55.5x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 09·21·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Have you noticed? As my mastery increases I have become more deliberate. I am not rushing my work. I am taking time to consider, to contemplate, to act only upon deep instincts; it is activity easily distinguished from rushed judgements. It is contemplative activity, which must be similar to Paul Cézanne's "little sensations." Cézanne, late in his life, referred to his slowed down, bit by bit strokes of color, as little sensations (see below). Generations of art teachers have insisted that nature be recorded in Cezanne's terms -- the cylinder, the sphere and the cone -- and their students have complied without ever perceiving these shapes in his art. Actually, his technique evokes the rhythms of a Bach fugue more than it ever does planar geometry.  Paul Cézanne, "Mont Sainte-Victoire", oil on canvas, 65x81 cm, 1906  Drawing 09·20·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Never! Always! The edge of description is life as animated joy. Henri Matisse did it before anyone else. Matisse's Joy of Life is a grand display of compositional stress and color invention; it depicts the joy in creation. Joy of Life is reality itself. Joy of Life is based upon that which we see, i.e., the reality we know; the flat plane of the canvas is respected while three-dimensional-perspective is forced and enforced. Around and around we go, in and out we see. It is more than a test of compositional possibilities; it plays with simple contrast too, light to dark. Joy of Life is one of Henri Matisse's most important contributions to painting and the visual arts. I set about yesterday's drawing with Joy of Life in mind. My drawing achieves a high level of compositional energy, and rigor; in two-dimensions and in three-dimensions. Also, it runs with wild circles around its solid, anchored center.  Henri Matisse, "The Joy of Life", oil on canvas, 175x241 cm, 1906  "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 4), oil on canvas, 55.5x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 09·19·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Just when I thought I was getting somewhere I find out there are many, many miles to go before I sleep! There ain't no Fat Lady here to tell me it's over. The painting, Burnt Norton, took a revolutionary stance. There is no going back. My commitment is large. My ambition is large. This compositional play, round versus static, is fascinating. Interesting it is that Picasso has been called a classicist because his compositions tend to be frontally centered and read like a facade. Matisse is thought to be the compositional revolutionary. Me, I am a revolutionary looking to animate by contrast, side to side, in and out. Bring it on!!!  Pablo Picasso, "Musicians with Masks", oil on canvas, 203.2x 188 cm, 1921  Henri Matisse, "Dance (II)", oil on canvas, 260x391 cm, 1910  Drawing 09·16·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches In my last post I queried the efficacy of static frontal compositions versus compositions filled with rotations. The drawing shown today is a visual inquiry into rotation as compositional animator.
Perhaps Florence, the recent Hurricane, has instigated wonder.  Drawing 09·13·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Never perfection, always questionable; art is like life, i.e., striving to be better is a noble thing with no end. There should be a better way to see clearly, to see well, to get it right. There is not. Work is the only way. Yesterday's drawing is me trying circular composition. It is like dancing on a stage without any indication there is the possibility to exit. Is this a better way to make a composition? Henri Matisse often did it this way. Matisse must be respected! Notice the Matisse paper cut (below): There is a circular dance of forms against playful, various sized and colored, terra-firma-like blocks as ground. Those blocks solidly secure the stage, thus allowing the circles to dance in contrast to the rectangles they dance upon.  Henri Matisse, "The King's Sadness", gouache on paper cut & pasted, 1952 |
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February 2020
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