 Drawing 12·21·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I am making an effort to pare down the complexity of my images. They are often made by forms being added to balance off forms already there. This leads to compositions balanced by complexity of means. Such activity-style is convoluted. I am trying to make images more closely fit my intuitively known emotional/Intellectual self.
I am not explaining this well. An analogy is this: If a device can be built in a myriad of ways, it must certainly be better to build it with fewer parts. The more parts the more chance it will mis-perform, perhaps even do something it was not intended to do. It might break completely; its intended function may be lost. Obviously, a quest for simplicity of means in visual art is best. Simple is more efficient, and the intended communication is more likely to be successful.  "2017 No.14" (state 5), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches  Drawing 12·20·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Maybe it is good for me. I am making headway, not byway, perhaps leading to right-of-way. Conflict can be good. Am I deluded, or is yesterday's effort fruitful and a multiplying factors? Today, as with yesterday, my time is conflicted and limited. I must go.
 Drawing 12·19·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches There are multifarious ends facing me. One has immediacy. The idea of my mortality and eventual silence is the scariest. My here & now involvement in the End of the Year celebrations, and holidays, is the most demanding. I am a social animal, as well as a spiritual/Intellectual/emotional one. I have family. I have myself. Conflicts arise and overwhelm. Particularly at this time of the year, during this particular Ending. The process is not pretty; perhaps the outcome will be. I am trying to make here & now work well for me and for the people in my life, friends and family. I need generous amounts of time in the studio to feel comfortable with myself. Recently that time has been compromised, reduced by the many preparations to celebrate. Hopefully the celebrations will diminish my conflicts. Best I can expect is my memory will be altered by their success. I hope good memories will not make them too ugly to repeat.
Yesterday I made one drawing in one hour. It is informative. I want to pursue the simplicity of its central form. Soon a painting will come that takes this simplicity as most important. Look at the painting 2017 No.13 in reproduction. It is difficult to see it well in this small form. In the studio this painting sings. It is large, a width of 71 inches (180 cm). There are also problems in reproducing color and value. I made a postcard of 2017 No.13; its image looks cramped in a 5x7 inch format. To get attention, for people to wish to explore my art more fully, more correctly, and in person, I have to get their attention. This will be done best if I make a few works that reproduce well in small formats, such as on a 5x7 inch postcard... always nice to have a new goal.  "2017 No.14" (state 4), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches  Drawing 12·14·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches The world of my pictures wants to impinge upon the world of my living. Immediacy calls for reverberation. It brings attention. There is intimacy in my request. Yesterday's drawing is a surreal blend of ground and sky. They don't mix well. This is different from the reverb seen in state 4 of the painting 2017 No.14. I know, despite our inability to see it, there is commonality of approach. The drawing and the painting ask for attention using surface junction versus surface disjunction. Vocal disturbance enhances the nuance of a signal's meaning; this is called reverb. I am using its visual equivalent. Of course my analogy is impure. The idea is not. I hope you are looking because you are disturbed by my visual means and intrigued by my visual content.
 Drawing 12·13·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Whatever you see in this drawing I see a reverse triangle that instigates great compositional vigor. I have noted before that Picasso utilized a tried and true center triangle in his masterpiece Guernica. Picasso's triangle is so forced as give the viewer boredom after multiple viewings. This highest clarity of composition does allow Picasso to invent incredibly rich, novel, and greatly emotive forms. It allowed Picasso to perform with intuitive abandon on a rigidly organized frontal compositional assault. Marvelous it is that Picasso absorbs the viewer in the active emotional strife of his characters. These hurt and screaming figures reside comfortably within a securely balanced image. Security versus chaos is Picasso greatest theme. Giving the viewer security, so they may feel comfort while they view chaos, is the reason I am deeply influenced by Picasso's best paintings, drawings, and prints. Returning to my drawing of yesterday: What I have called a "reverse triangle" can be found with one of its points cut at the bottom of my drawing. It moves the viewer up and around the two major forms on the right. Those forms, juxtaposed as they are by spherical versus cubic centers, each play with dissimilarity against the other. This occurs comfortably because they reside nicely in a secure, upside-down triangle. To be absolutely correct, there is no triangle there! My "reverse triangle" has its bottom point cut to flatness. Mathematicians call this shape a trapezoid.  Pablo Picasso, "Guernica", oil on canvas, 1937  "2017 No.14" (state 3), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches   Little to say. These are Q&A's. One follows another. Perhaps is the question, perhaps is the answer. More to come! That is all there is.
 "2017 No.14" (state 2), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches  Drawing 12·07·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Who knew? I am the last to know. Am I making sense? I just do it. Day by day, forward a bit, backward a little, forward more. Everything I do brings questions; more questions than answers. The questions drive me. There are more of them than I can handle in any moment. Being here is more important than not. This implies all solutions cannot be fully processed if I take time between bouts. Fighting and winning occurs more often if I show up in the ring more often. This is obvious.
 "2017 No.14" (state 1), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches Recently I have not had a lot of dull moments. I am lucky to be here, here as "on the internet." The luck is this: Me posting did not come easy today. My computer simply would not connect to the internet. I tried many things to get connected. I am here after hours of trying. I do not understand how it finally worked. OK, let us get to my art.
A new painting was begun yesterday, 2017 No.14. I tried to keep it simple. You see the result. I will not work on it again today. All those hours trying to figure out my internet connection, me on with Apple Care, etc., kept me out of my studio. Now I am off to a dentist appointment. I hate these kind o f days. Recently there have been too many distractions. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, most useful.  "2017 No.13" (state 21), oil on canvas, 63x71 inches  Drawing 12·03·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Done and out is 2017 No.13 at state 21. Yesterday's drawing is profoundly interesting in its internal contrast in form and in its imaginary spatial compositional compartments. It is, I believe, a prelude to the next painting, 2017 No.14.
 "2017 No.13" (state 20), oil on canvas, 62x71 inches   State 20 of the painting 2017 No.13 was important. There will be a state 21. Right now this painting is a pinch away from finality. The only thing I question is the mid-portion of the dominant right form. I am wondering if the value of the shadow between the lowest snake-like form and its second-from-bottom portion is too high; should it be darkened? That, along with a few minor purifications, it will be done; will happen today.
Yesterday's drawings are vastly different from one to the next. This happens when I am anticipating transition to a new painting. What shall I do? With what shall I wrestle? A new painting will begin very soon. |
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December 2023
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