My Pecha Kucha, developed at the behest of Silvermine Galleries, is available on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=szzy_syjNkQ. The announcement postcard for this exhibit, and the Pecha Kucha, are below. All relevant information regarding the 70th A-ONE exhibit can be seen on the postcard. This Pecha Kucha explains my creative life, from informative years to the painting, Amidst a Falling World, now on view at the 70th A-ONE Exhibition. This Pecha Kucha is 20 slides with 20 voice overs by me, each slide last 20 seconds, total run time = 6 minutes 40 seconds.
Yesterday's beginning of a drawing is shown below the postcard. This drawing feels like a new beginning. I will work on the same drawing today. I believe a lot of excellent work is about to spill from me. My level of understanding has recently taken a big step toward clarity. Yesterday, after several days of being swept away by preparation of my Pecha Kucha for the 70th A-ONE Silvermine Gallery Exhibition, I was active in the studio. I show you yesterday's drawing without comment.
The Pecha Kucha is done (I will link you to when Silvermine Gallery makes the Pecha Kucha live and linkable). For the Pecha Kucha I took a photo of my studio on 8/23/2020 (see it below). Funny it is, I find this, the last day of my solo exhibition at Bromfield Gallery (Boston), a Good Thing! I just want to get back to my daily routine of making art. I am almost there. Next week my last solo show of this summer begins at Lyme New Hampshire's Converse Free Library (opens July 8). The library will exhibit mostly drawings, and a couple paintings. The Summer Juried Exhibition at AVA Gallery (Lebanon, NH) will exhibit my painting "How's It Gonna End" and a drawing (opens July 12).
Yesterday's drawing is massively worked. It took three days! This complicated manner of working on drawings is a new thing for me. Intuition is driving my steps. My path is revealing itself, surprise by surprise. 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) Yesterday it felt good to be back; I am making art! I felt insight and glory. Nice! This is the stuff I was born to do! That said, I need to prepare to deliver paintings and drawings to Bromfield Gallery in Boston, due June 3. I cannot rest. I must make both art and frames.
Yesterday's drawing examines my recent interests and ideas. It has a central pyramid and two side panels. This frontal design invites the viewer to enter. Then the wandering begins. Consequently it is a highly successful drawing. As I said earlier, it is good to be back!!! When did I last make art? On Friday (April 26) I delivered my paintings and drawings to AVA Gallery. My solo exhibition at AVA opens May 10. Nine paintings and twelve drawings will be shown. Below is the AVA Exhibition Announcement card.
Yesterday's drawing made me feel rusty. It did not come easy. For the next month I will be making art, but I will also be preparing paintings and drawings for my upcoming solo show at Bromfield Gallery in Boston. I would like to sit here and chat with you, but I got to get ready. In two days I deliver 11 paintings and 12 drawings to AVA Gallery for the June 10 opening of my one-person exhibit.
Yesterday's drawing explores some of my recent ideas, but fails at exploring others. I am trying to put ALL my ideas together in one drawing. I will get there, but I must admit this to myself: The distraction of getting ready for an exhibition is heavy. I know I must accept this distraction as real and necessary, despite my wanting to rebel against this outside-of-myself organizing influence. As I made yesterday's drawing I felt rusty, a little out of touch with my present ideas. But here it is, and here I am. I continue on the labor of readying my paintings and drawings for the AVA Gallery exhibition; my works will be delivered this coming Friday, April 26. In making yesterday's drawing I had to wrangle with myself; I had to force myself to focus on my two most present interests: (1) Full frontal composition akin to the means Pablo Picasso used, and (2) A greater involvement with the emotional subtleties that are available when negative space is used effectively. Yesterday's drawing approached both of these interests, but became dark and menacing as it was worked and re-worked; I hit it with an extreme amount of pencil marks. This drawing did not come easily. Today, I finish touching-up the last two paintings going to AVA Galley, and I framed two of the four more drawings I must frame for the AVA exhibit. Perhaps I will get a chance to draw. I very much want to keep in touch with my current thoughts. Currently my studio time is 90% "getting ready" and 10% making original art. I much prefer doing the latter, but the former is necessary. Exhibiting new art is very important to me; I want to interact with viewers. The batch of drawings and paintings for the AVA Gallery exhibit are almost ready. I am framing drawings now, and I continue touch-up paintings on canvas that are now stretched on wooden stretcher bars OR mounted on wood panels.
The drawing I show today was executed two days ago. It is a good one. It will mostly likely be shown at Bromfield Gallery in Boston. I will not be delivering work to Bromfield till June 3 (by that time many new drawings will have been made; this one may not make the cut). As good as yesterday's drawing is, I believe it can be better. There is a thrust of darkness that begins in the upper middle and moves diagonally to the lower portion of this drawing. The clarity of this thrust gets a bit vague in the lower portion of the the drawing. I believe, if I enhance this movement it will enhance the drawing. The proof will come in the doing. I will post its final state tomorrow.
FYI: I have been busy framing works for the first of my Spring/Summer exhibitions. I deliver works to AVA Gallery (Lebanon, NH) on April 26 (opening on May 10). I will neglect my new paintings till the older paintings are framed, cleaned-up, varnished, ready to go to AVA. I will continue to make drawings. Making Art is ingrained in me, rewarding to me as necessary to problem solving life and living. Art to me is an indicator of Life; I cannot stop doing it. I believe my recent drawings are excellent, perhaps the best I have ever done. This reward of quality keeps me involved, day by day, relentlessly. |
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January 2021
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