 "Four Definitions" (2022 No.2, state 02), 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} My life, as artist, has been complicated by my desire to rebel against everything I know. After many years of art-making, I am ready to accept classicism; classicism as practiced by Picasso, Matisse, by many modern masters. I have decided to stop my rebelliousness. I see my work, when most rebellious, is confusing to viewers, to myself. I want, I need, to make art easy to see, easy to understand, easy for viewers to feel what I feel during its making.
 Drawing 01·04·2022, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Nothing is the same; everything is the same. It is both ways. Perhaps the term "everything" requires alteration. No matter, here I am, it is 2022. New Year! New ideas! Old ideas! I want to strengthen communication to myself, to my viewers. Strengthening means acceptance of new ideas, as well as acceptance of old ideas that are true ideas.
 "Honorable Terms" (2021 No.7, state 11), oil on canvas, 52x59⅞ inches, {"The roots of reason are imbedded in feelings — feelings that have formed and accumulated and developed over a lifetime of personality-shaping. These feelings are not a source of weakness but a resource of strength. They are not there for occasional using but are inescapable. To know what we think, we must know how we feel. It is feeling that shapes belief and forms opinion. It is feeling that directs the strategy of argument. It is our feelings, then, with which we must come to honorable terms." - James E. Miller, Jr., "Word, Self, Reality: The Rhetoric of Imagination" (1972)}  Drawing 08·19·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches The quest is getting more simple. My understanding is less hindered by confusion of the goal I seek. I just want to be common. I want to be common in my ability to engage other human beings. I am looking at a lot of Art that I find intriguing. I am looking at Art that speaks easily to me. I am examining Art for common threads that are its successful means of communication. The work I show today is the result of this quest for commonality.
 Drawing 05·08·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 05·08·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches sThis is about me getting you to see me for who I am. No, I do not want to steal your soul, but I do want you to pay attention to me. My recent work is more attention demanding. This is intentional because it is required. Why plod along making work for myself when I can make work to communicate with you? These two drawing center themselves, request clearly, speak clearly. Why was it so difficult fo me to get this moment? This is the moment I understand clarity of purpose is actually artfully intelligent. The Beatles did it. Beethoven and Picasso did it. The best at their craft understand this. I wonder, why did I wander the complexity of the rain forest when I wanted the simplicity of the desert?
 Drawing 04·08·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I am working toward a disposition that is direct, realistic emotional intensity. Why muck around when roundabout is confusing? Go for it! Devolve from confusion, uncertainty, and mystification. This is the route to satisfactory communication, trueness in social intercourse. Yesterday's drawing was a realistic step toward my goal of unabashed, complete honesty.
 Drawing 04·09·2020 No.1, graphite on paper, 16x20 inches  Drawing 04·09·2020 No.2, graphite on paper, 16x20 inches I have done a lot of work, tons! Yet the insights keep coming. New knowledge never dies of old age. Looking back, perhaps I have not been clear enough, direct enough, not as forcefully true as required to be fully communicative. I worry. Perhaps my art has been difficult to comprehend. Perhaps my previous work has been more complex than simply lucid. In comparison to older things yesterday's drawing are simply intelligible. These drawings go right to truthfulness, i.e., they communicate without distraction. My art is beginning to make complete sense.
 Drawing 02·13·2018, pencil o paper, 16x20 inches Less posting; more learning about Social Media — that's how it is. I mentioned this in a previous blog post. I am taking a course that teaches better use of Social Media. What I want is more interest in my art. I have been told the best way to get that interest is proper use of our current social environment. I tell you this because I have reduced my time in the studio in order to learn about effective socializing. This is ART versus SOCIAL MEDIA. Right now, art-making may be getting less time, but looking at yesterday's drawing it is not losing in its struggle for better communicate. The drawing I show today is an excellent one. My process of self-discovery, of self-acceptance, of making art that reflects my need to communicate to you is endlessly evolving. It will succeed because I listen to you and I listen to me and I know when I have made something more successfully communicative. Yesterday's drawing communicates well. I am walking in the right direction. I am becoming authentically me. I am becoming a better communicator. Social Media is a necessity. It is a major means to communicate to you. Through interaction via Social Media I am becoming more astutely aware of my failures and my successes to communicate.
 "2017 No.12" (state 7), oil on canvas, 76x61 inches Making art is seeking a big nod. It is looking for a non-verbal response. Sparkle is the look I am trying to obtain. An excellent drawing, an excellent painting, must sparkle with light. Light is our most basic visual connection to one another. Light is the commonality which leads us to remain, allows us to believe there is truth in front of us. Then, hopefully, the nod will come. "I get it!" Yesterday's work engages me. I nodded "yes" because there is intensely personal self-involvement in these works. I hope you too will nod "Yes!" Trying not to be trite, I will mention this: When we say, "We see the Light," we mean "We Understand!"      The world is a messy place. Yesterday's drawing are fantastical! For this they felt very soothing in the making. The middle one has the security of being upright and center-balanced. Who could ask for more? Who could ask for an easier solution to the pain of vulnerability? The two on the wings are not so simple. In each case I sought stability, but the way of finding it differs greatly. No.1 rocks back and forth, the left object leaning left, the two right objects leaning right. No.3 creates its space in a more complex manner, as shadows do not pay attention to a point source, but are invented in order to give the composition animation and interest. Of the three drawings, only No.3 has forms clearly reminiscent of our real world, as a cloud-like form hovers in the upper left and a two-eyed being is framed by a rectangle just right of center. Even the form, on which the vigilant creature resides, looks a bit like a stranded fish. Nice day. Sunny, perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold: Goldilocks!
 Drawing-02·27·2016, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches Sometimes I see my work as nothing new, nothing different, and stuck within the framework of historical standards in place 50 years ago. This is me at my most fearful. Yesterday's drawing brought this up. Competent, but unlike the work currently getting high notice by reviewers of Art in America and The New Yorker. Could be I need to change. Could be I am not open enough to my own instincts. Could be I am early on a road to personal definition. Could be I am right and the rest of the world needs to catch on.
Outside of my fears, let me tell you the way I see yesterday's drawing. I played with forms that are well known to all. I bent them till they filled the page with animation, big to little, normal to abnormal, light to dark, round to sharp, repetition of the similar versus contrast of the dissimilar. I enjoyed the labored process of seeking and finding. It was iterative: mark, erase, mark, erase, mark, et cetera. The problem was eventually solved. However, the final product does not grab the viewer with enough surprise as to engage on the deepest levels of emotion and intellect. Obviously, I need to think about my process and its outcomes. I want to engage my contemporaries. I want them to jump in, to partake in a conversation. First comes the engagement. Communication will follow. I need to work on this. |
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June 2022
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