 "Tonstant Weader Fwowed Up" (2021 No.10, state 11), oil on canvas, 56x62¼ inches, {"And it is that word 'hummy', my darlings, that marks the first place in 'The House at Pooh Corner' at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up." - Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), in "The New Yorker", 20 October 1928, reviewed by Dorothy Parker as "Constant Reader"}  "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 21), oil on canvas, 64x57⅜ inches, {"I'm gonna spare the defeated — I'm gonna speak to the crowd. I'm gonna spare the defeated, boys, I'm going to speak to the crowd. I am goin' to teach peace to the conquered. I'm gonna tame the proud." - Bob Dylan, "Lonesome Day Blues" (2001)} "I'm late, I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say 'hello, goodbye,' I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!” This, from White Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland”, however, Lewis Carroll never wrote this entire sentence, it sung in the Disney film.
I feel late. During the last few days my work in the studio looks back, not forward. The skills required to complete the two paintings I show today are 2022 skills. These paintings hark back to 2021 ideas. I am ready to move on, but, I desire to push these works to their proper ends. This is important to me. I am always working uphill, on learning curve. I am learning much, as I move these paintings to completion. My perfectionism is apparent in "Gonna Speak to the Crowd”; I thought it completed two days ago. Yesterday, I tweaked it. Now I can accept it the way it is. This is not true for "Tonstant Weader Fwowed Up”; which will take another step today.  "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 20), oil on canvas, 64x57⅜ inches, {"I'm gonna spare the defeated — I'm gonna speak to the crowd. I'm gonna spare the defeated, boys, I'm going to speak to the crowd. I am goin' to teach peace to the conquered. I'm gonna tame the proud." - Bob Dylan, "Lonesome Day Blues" (2001)} The painting, "Gonna Speak to the Crowd", has arrived, here at last.
 "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 18), oil on canvas, 64x57⅜ inches, {"I'm gonna spare the defeated — I'm gonna speak to the crowd. I'm gonna spare the defeated, boys, I'm going to speak to the crowd. I am goin' to teach peace to the conquered. I'm gonna tame the proud." - Bob Dylan, "Lonesome Day Blues" (2001)} I am completing the things I began in 2021. Me, Summarist, moving forward by finishing off loose ends from the recent past. Yesterday I spent the entire studio session on the painting "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5); this is its 18th revision!
 "The Opposite of Indifference" (2021 No.4, state 14), oil on canvas, 54x51 inches, {"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that's being dead. His or her neighbor are of no consequence. Their hidden or visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the Other to an Abstraction." - Elie Wiesel, "US News & World Report" (27 October 1986)}  Drawing 06·27·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches The end of a painting occurs when the creative experience is satiated. Any further participation is a waste on creativity. Such is the position of the painting, "The Opposite of Indifference" (2021 No.4). I move on. Thus came yesterday's drawing. Experimentation in pursuit of a higher degree of immediate self-expression is in this drawing. I have many steps to take before satisfying my journey. Actually, satisfying a life's journey looks to be impossible, from my perspective.
BTW: That form that twists to the right, out from behind the rectangular pole, should have ended in a similar form, but one much larger. That would have made it a better drawing. Perhaps I will change that tomorrow.  "Clever Liars" (2020 No.1, state 13), oil on canvas, 56½x47½ inches {"Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don't!" - anonymous}  Drawing 12·31·2020, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches 2020 ends with me completing the first painting I began in 2020, "Clever Liars." This year has been an interesting journey. All in all, the 2020 journey has been fruitful. Obviously there has also been an abundance of fear. Yet here we are. Where there is life there is hope. My hope is unrelenting. My ambition is unrelenting. The two works shown today are cumulative, filled with ideas explored in 2020. These are, as I always say, stepping stones, but they are also works completed. Joy comes when I accept the success that is made real in artworks completed. I want to do more because each work completed instigates ideas. I want to explore and research every idea. I enter 2021 with oodles to explore.
 "Amidst a Falling World" (2020 No.3, state 19), oil on canvas, 66¼x57⅝ inches {"Should the whole frame of nature around him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world." - Horace (65-8BC), "Odes", book 3, no.4, I.52)} This is the final final state of "Amidst a Falling World." Yesterday the canvas was taken off my work wall, then stretched on its newly manufactured stretcher. This morning I accurately measured its dimensions, which are very close to the last version. I did have to re-paint the edges to insure the surface is consistent from edge to edge.
 "Amidst a Falling World" (2020 No.3, state 18), oil on canvas, 66¼x57¼ inches {"Should the whole frame of nature around him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world." - Horace (65-8BC), "Odes", book 3, no.4, I.52)} "Amidst a Falling World" is complete. There are multiple emotions involved in completion. It is death and life and learning and despair (over not knowing enough); it is an end and a beginning. It is informative, but sadly never as wonderful as I wish. Immediately upon completion my desire to begin anew is great. Everything fails a little, as well as succeeds a little. It is within the perception of failure that the next work begins.
 Drawing 06·18·2020 (state 2), pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I did not spend a lot of time altering this drawing — perhaps 60 minutes. A heat wave hit; I spent a good part of the day resurrecting an old air conditioner. Then, late in the afternoon, to the studio; this drawing's final image came quickly. The studio is cool and comfortable; it sits on a cement slab, kept dry by dehumidifier. OK, too much non-art-related information? Onward! Back to the studio I go! Just have to say... I like state 2 of "Drawing 06·18·2020" much more than state 1.
 "Something Else Entirely" (2019 No.4, state 24), oil on canvas, 38.5x62.5 inches {"And you’d spend years trying to decipher the sentence, until finally you’d understand it. But after a while you’d realize you got it wrong, and the sentence meant something else entirely." - Tadeusz Dąbrowski, from the poem "Sentence"} I declare "Something Else Entirely" finished! The drawing (below) is NOT finished. Looking for completion is an impossible task. I move on when works get to a place where they have said as much as they are capable of saying.  Drawing 02·26·2020 (state 1), pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  "How's It Gonna End" (2019 No.2, state 16), oil on canvas, 60x33 inches {"And I want to know the same thing everyone wants to know, how it going to end? Drag your wagon and your plow over the bones of the dead out among the roses and the weeds. You can never go back, and the answer is no, and wishing for it only makes it bleed." -Tom Waits, song lyric} How's It Gonna End has ended! Today you see its 16th state. This wondrous solution occurred as much in my mind as on canvas. The last two months of my studio life has been more about preparing works for exhibition than making work. All the while I was doing other stuff the painting How's It Gonna End sat there on the work-wall. I saw it every day. Somedays I looked hard, other days I did not pay attention. Slowly I deciphered its need. It wanted to be resolved through simplicity. The day came when I needed to do it. The true solution came from my working the canvas itself. I eliminated some of it, then I exaggerated what was already there. Bingo! Done!
The inflection point came when I knew all is prepared for my exhibitions. I relaxed. The solution to How's It Gonna End came quickly and easily. Suddenly I feel in control of my artistic life again. More good things will come soon... after I deliver my works to Bromfield Gallery on Monday June 3. |
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At MEHRBACH.com you may view many of my paintings and drawings, past and present, and see details about my life and work. Archives
May 2022
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