Category: Engagement

Complex Plasticity

9/16/2021

Drawing 09·15·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

The question is... What are the limits of complexity an art-maker can create in his effort to immediately engage the viewer, then hold them for the long haul? The long haul is most important. If the viewer does not hang in the viewing, all depth and substance will be missed. The artwork fails if it does not hold the viewer's attention for minutes, then for days, and ultimately for years of return visits; each viewing to look again, to comprehend more, tp feel more, to be rewarded with more.

Yesterday's drawing was an effort to do just as say in the above paragraph. This is a rich, and profound, drawing; complex, filled with plasticity of thought and emotion.

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Defining the Special Sauce

6/30/2021

Drawing 06·29·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 06·27·2021 (state 2), pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

I am looking for the special sauce, the stuff that immediately engages viewers. I am looking to stir spices into the visual palette, looking for spices that engage. I need to play around, to mix in new spices, take others out. I am a chef, mixing up variations, seeking the potent mix that pulls viewers in, keeps them married to my work, keeps them wanting more. Thus came state 2 of the drawing from 6/27/2021, which is much better than the original version. Now I am looking at yesterday's drawing. I think the upside down U-Shape (in the upper right) would be better if smaller. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am right. And so it goes...

Strong Middle Strong Back

6/4/2021

"Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 3), oil on canvas, 62¾x57⅜ 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 same thing that saves people's backs from suffering pain is necessary in good paintings. If design is strongly centered the possible pain of confusion gets swept away by clarity of engagement. This is happening in "Gonna Speak to the Crowd", which is aptly titled. I am working hard to make this one speak directly to my crowd of viewers. No more futzing around for robust form and space, which can be confusing because ardent searches are ripe with confusion. I am going for center, for engagement through centrist clarity.

Try, Try Again

2/28/2021

Drawing 02·27·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

"In the Lost Negative" (2021 No.2, state 3), oil on canvas, 49¾ x58½ inches {We only live between before we are and what we were. In the lost negative you exist... Three ages in a flash: the same child in the same picture, he, I, you..." - Robert Lowell, "For Sheridan"}

These images are me reacting to newfound questions. I allow myself to act, react, making real. I simultaneously accept classical composition as mandate, and my receptiveness to questions. I accept The Classical Mandate, i.e., in-your-face engagement is the simplest, and purest, conduit to viewer attention. In yesterday's blog I showed three image by Philip Guston. Those images follow The Classical Mandate. Picasso accepted The Classical Mandate. I have, at last, accept The Classical Mandate. I accept the necessity of immediate, in-your-face, attention grabbing imagery. It is the necessity to engage the viewer; it is necessary in every composition.

After you look at my work, constructed with The Classical Mandate, look at one of Picasso's works (below👇). In his earliest work, and in his last, Picasso accepted The Classical Mandate. It took me a while, but I am here now. There is no denying The Classical Mandate is effective. Acceptance of tried and true is a comfort. It allows me to expand self-expression. It is the fluid means to self-engagement? The bonus is engagement with the viewer. After all, communication, between artist and viewer, is the ultimate goal.

Pablo Picasso, "Large Nude in Red Armchair", oil on canvas, 1929

Loaded with Information

1/11/2021

Drawing 01·10·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

There is a way to engage the viewer in a complex statement. First the viewer must be engaged through simple enticement. Yesterday's drawing was an effort in that direction. The cascading of forms engage immediately. The nuance that is within its space, and its forms, are comprehended through avid attention. This drawing gives as much as it receives. The viewer must be receptive, using his/her wandering eye, to fully appreciate the play, the intellectual and emotional qualities, inherent in this drawing.

It IS Happening Here

2/7/2020

Drawing 02·06·2020, graphite on paper, 16x20 inches

Yesterday's drawing surprised me. That drawing did not surprise me as much as our world gone bazzarro. Yesterday a large crowd of well educated, relatively intelligent folks, sat in a room applauding a bully-full of denigrating and dishonest comments. The comments were aimed at good folks, aimed at people calling a spade a spade. By spade I mean a tool with a sharp-edged, typically rectangular, metal blade and a long handle, used for digging or cutting earth, sand, turf, etc. (the dictionary definition). I digress; back to the importance of making art: I do not particularly like yesterday's drawing. Yesterday brought two things I do not particularly like, both need to be revisited with honesty in the forefront. My part is this: I must hunker down into my emotions. The drawing seen here is a technical marvel, but it does not engage emotionally. That is my failure. I need to go back, allow my emotional juices to flow onto the page. Moving a form here, a bit of light there, darkness over here, is not good enough! I am obligated to spill the beans of my tumult in real time.