Category: Engagement

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

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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.

Try, Try Again

Loaded with Information

It IS Happening Here

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