Category: Art Making

Getting Out There

4/5/2022

Drawing 04·03·2022, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

I don't want to write today, I want to get out there, make more Art!

Long, Slow Slog to Familiar

4/2/2022

Drawing 03·30·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Finding my intimate, familiar self, should be simple; it should be a clear, reliable journey, a defined destination. However, the world has confused my vision. Education told me there are ideas that must be valued. I am the sum total of my life experience and my education; together these are vast, not simple; they confuse me because education and experience often contradict one another. My entire life has been devoted to getting to the simple, familiar place. The Artist’s journey is the Artistic activity; it is the sweeping away of confusion, it is the ridding of distractive details, it is honing in on personal truth, making true into consistent activity.

The drawing I show today is one more fleck along my journey. It was, in its active making, a practice of trueness to my spirit.

When and Knowhow

3/26/2022

"Four Definitions" (2022 No.2, state 04), oil on canvas, 58⅝x54⅝ inches, {"I am reminded of four definitions: A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted—in the air. A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest—at the command—of his head." -Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), radio address to "New York Herald Tribune Forum", 26 October 1939}

This process of art-making constantly surprises. It surprises me I trust my instincts enough to allow them to take over the process. Step by step this painting is going somewhere, where I do not know. I do know it feels very good to have the confidence to trust my knowhow when the painting calls for an alteration.

Beginning of an Impossible End

1/19/2022

Drawing 01·18·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

With this drawing I have opened the door to the impossibility of an ending. There is no perceivable end because I will never choose an end. All things must pass. The direction I am traveling is built upon sensitive, mindful steps, each a minuscule movement in a long, endless journey. I have too much to do; there is no possibility of being happy with an ending. Yesterday's drawing calls out, "Endless!"

Making More Sense

11/24/2021

Drawing 11·23·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

My goal is to make sense of it all, from Life to Works of Art. Making Life, making Art, they are difficult conundrums (which is redundant), I have much unfinished business. Yesterday I took a step in the right direction. The way I approached this drawing, and the way I approach life, feels better, right and good. This is not a declaration of success, but a statement of worthwhile endeavors.

The Loss of Luck

3/11/2021

Drawing 03·10·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 03·10·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

My father said to me, "That's not luck! You are succeeding because of the work you've done!" Once upon a time I believed part of art-making was recognizing insights found through serendipitous mistakes. I called this, "Luck." Now, my Luck is diminishing, at least in the making of my art. More often I find truth by setting a stage, a stage based upon well founded, well worked, ideas. If there be luck, I am the maker of it.

These two drawings are exceptional pieces of manufactured self-discovery. There is no Luck in these drawings! These were found by work. The work is in the doing and in the work I did to inform the doing.

Talent versus Skill

8/21/2019

Drawing 08·20·2019, pencil on paper, 16x2 inches

I have been away from the studio. I was attending serious business. I visited museums. I had a dream in which I dialogued with Picasso. I contemplated. I retreated from Making-Art. I contemplated Making-Art. My many recent exhibitions left me confused. "What am I doing?" and "Why am I doing it?"

The art-making I seek requires skill and talent. Today's contemporary art scene often appears devoid of skill. That said, there is a talent there, one that causes public and private interest and engagement. We live in a world where celebratory personalities head countries and engage many followers. Upon inspection, some of these leaders are devoid of the required skill and knowledge to do their jobs well. However, there is talent there, a talent that causes public discourse and public interest. That is the definition of Artist. This illustrates my personal quandary. My confusion is comprehensible. I received a lot of positive feedback from artists, some gallery and museum directors expressed appreciation of my art. I did not get a lot of sales. I take lack of sales as lack of engagement. My viewers did not choose to put my art on their walls. Desire speaks of engagement. I want espousal; I want my viewers to want my art. If they do not want it they must not need it. I have failed if my viewers don't need my art, if they don't need to buy it, or own it. I feel I did not fully engage my viewers. This saddens me. I want more. I want my relationship with my viewers to be consummated!

My skill is extremely high. I can do anything on paper (or canvas) that I can imagine. Perhaps I have restricted my imagination to knowledge already acquired. I must engage my skill with greater abandon, with ambition to disclose more deeply than that which I intellectually comprehend. I am not who I think I am; I am more. The only way to know oneself is to uncover oneself. I must walk naked into the world. People love to look at naked people. They are unable to NOT look. Is this the gap I have been unable to fill between my viewers and I? I need to take off all of my clothes.

Referring to popular culture, this is what I see, We have a president of the United States who is more reality TV star than successful statesman or successful business person. This man obtained his lofty position by appearing to be upfront and personal (despite the many questions surrounding his truthfulness). He has engaged our entire population despite his lack of skill for his current office. That is his talent. It is talent that may serve me well as artist. I want to engage. I want people to pay attention to my art. There are NO limits to what I can do because I have the necessary skill to do it. My failure to fully engage my viewers is my lack of a certain kind of talent. One can see the talent I am missing in our current president, also it is present in reality TV stars, in pop music artists, and in show business celebrities. The artist Andy Warhol was more a successful celebrity than a skillful artist. This explains a talent I must nurture in order to fully engage my viewers. My extreme artistic skill is squandered if I do not have the talent to engage my viewers.

I dreamed I was with Picasso in his studio. Picasso threw me out. Picasso silently waved goodbye to me. I reluctantly gave in; I said goodbye. I walked away from one of my great educators. I do not need mentors any longer. I must rely solely on myself. It is no longer about what I know; it is about what I do not know, what I need to discover.

Yesterday's drawing is much different from the one in this blog's previous post. There is a two-week gap in time between these two drawings. I have begun to take steps without knowing where I am stepping. I step in confidence without knowing where the next step will lead. That is a good thing.

My Olive Trees

5/18/2019

Drawing 05·17·2019, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

I continue to struggle to keep thinking, to keep making art in the midst of manufacturing. I am making stretchers and wood panels, putting my paintings upon them. For my drawings I am cutting matts, placing them in frames. Within the discomfort of my current situation I made this drawing. It is a good one. It triumphs over my struggle. Right now I feel this is my plight. Perhaps this is always. I believe, if I just keep doing it, I will triumph. I stick-in there, keep thinking, keep doing; I have not found a problem I cannot solve. My ideas pull me forward. The first limitation is the quantity of my ideas. The second is the amount of time I have to research, to solve these ideas on paper and canvas. I have many ideas, more than I have time to follow. Ideas just keep spilling out of me. I worry about time. It is the limitation of time I worry most about. In his poem, On Living, the Turkish poet, Nâzım Hikmet, wrote, "You must take living seriously that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees — and not for your children, either, but because although you fear death you don't believe it, because living, I mean, weighs heavier." My paintings, my drawings, are my olive trees; I plant them because my ideas weigh heavy. I must nurture them, make them real. I do not relish looking forward because, although I fear death, I do not take my time to believe in it because living overwhelms me, is heavy upon me. Yes, I take my moments one at a time.

On Living   --Nâzım Hikmet (1902-1963)

I
Living is no laughing matter:
   you must live with great seriousness
       like a squirrel, for example--
   I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
       I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
   you must take it seriously,
   so much so and to such a degree
   that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
your back to the wall,
   or else in a laboratory
   in your white coat and safety glasses,
   you can die for people--
   even for people whose faces you've never seen,
   even though you know living
   is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
   that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees--
   and not for your children, either,
   but because although you fear death you don't believe it,
   because living, I mean, weighs heavier.

II
Let's say we're seriously ill, need surgery--
which is to say we might not get up
           from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
           about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see if it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
       for the latest newscast. . .
Let's say we're at the front--
   for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
   we might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We'll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind--
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.

III
This earth will grow cold,
a star among stars
   and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet--
      I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
      in pitch-black space . . .
You must grieve for this right now
—you have to feel this sorrow now--
for the world must be loved this much
   if you're going to say "I lived". . .

From Poems of Nazim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, published by Persea Books.
Copyright © 1994 by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. Used with the permission of Persea Books. All rights reserved.

Chaos, Emotion, Attention & Distraction

10/19/2018

Drawing 10·18·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

"Chaos, Stillness & Prayer" (2018 No.9, state 1), oil on canvas, 54x36 inches {"Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm.... an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction." -Saul Bellow, "Writers at Work: Third Series", 1967}

Making art, making life, is full of distractions; there is a lot of chaos. Ordering emotions, placing them in front of myself, rooting them out despite the distractions, separating truth, attempting to clarify truth by making images; this is my job. I bring order to my living by giving attention to the stuff I can order. It is understanding I seek. I will not allow the distractions of chaos to stop me from my effort to make sense of this state of being.

Yesterday was a good day. I did follow my need to use visual motion to exude personal emotion. I did this in a drawing, I followed it with a new painting, Chaos, Stillness & Prayer.