Category: Form

Nirvana is a-comin'

11/12/2022

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Drawing 11·11·2022 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 11·11·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

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Continuity of Process

10/30/2022

"Ghost Town" (2022 No.9, state 07), oil on canvas, 55¼x58⅞ inches

Drawing 10·28·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 10·29·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Of these two drawings I prefer the one I began on 10/28 (completed yesterday). The other drawing is OK; it looks like I lost my processing edge. When I get tired I tend to look for a solution by use of form, rather than through composition. Compositional solutions are superior when the emotional tug-o-war rests upon the play of negative versus positive space.

"Ghost Town" is in state #7. It is getting better.

Fear of Flying

10/27/2022

And off we go... Why have I not been reluctant to boldly go this route? I have a need to make robust movement through marks and forms! I have gained enough confidence to challenge my reluctance! Here I am!

Search Pays

10/9/2022

"Catapult" (2022 No.10, state 2), oil on canvas, 60¾x55⅝ inches

My personal revolution is paying off. The painting, "Catapult", is self-respect. I feel deeply, yet, in the past, I have strayed from making Art based as much upon my personal history as upon the History of Art. This revolution is about me saying, “Enough with deception!” No longer will I restfully make Art clearly influenced by Picasso, Miró, Moore, Sutherland, Kandinsky, or Matisse.

I love creating three-dimensional forms. I love creating light filled images. I want to do this trickery on a two-dimensional surface. I do not want to be a sculptor. What I want is clear. My revolution is my acceptance of my personal preferences. This painting is a revolutionary step simply because it makes sense to me. Consequently, I am making sense of myself.

Sensitivity Training

8/27/2022

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

By drawing I am practicing touch and flow. It is here I an undergoing sensitivity training. The dynamics of value, form, and space (negative and positive), are within me; I am practicing making them outside of me. I am an athlete in training. I am sharing my sensitivity with you. These two drawings are among my very best. Most interesting is the technical aspect of centered composition, which is especially true in drawing No.2. Centered compositions were Picasso's default. A wide range of play in form, value, and space are allowed when centering is achieved. Centering grabs the viewer. When viewer is secured, the possible journey is wide and long, a fullness of dynamics and emotions are allowed.

"Arena" becomes "Camouflage"

7/10/2022

"Camouflage" (2022 No.6, state 11), oil on canvas, 41¼x58½ inches

Drawing 07·09·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Names change, I change, my artwork changes. It is all the same. I, me, mine! The painting, prior title "Arena", has become "Camouflage". Yesterday's drawing is more complex than some of may recent drawings. I am testing limits. Dense black light to forms in sunny light, in the painting, Camouflage". In the drawing I inquire about holding viewer attention despite many complex forms; forms are held together by rhythm, negative space, and spatial play. At this moment, I believe I have the wherewithal to make these questions become answers.

Small but Big Correction

4/30/2022

"Uphill" (2022 No.4, state 10), oil on canvas, 60x58 inches

A small correction makes a BIG difference in the painting, "Uphill the Hero". In the upper right I have leaned the vertical, arm-like form, more to the left. Much Better!!! More Profound! Amazing what a relatively minor alteration can do to the overall feel, the engagement, of a visual image.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

4/14/2022

Drawing 04·13·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

I am doing less commentary because my work is speaking more loudly, more clearly. If you look at my last two drawings you will see me finding ground, enjoying the surface as I play with space and time. The forms are few, but very important in defining space.

Born to Be

3/25/2022

"Four Definitions" (2022 No.2, state 03), 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}

The mystery in becoming myself is the work I must do. It surprises me that it is difficult. Becoming who I was born to be is a journey, a journey back to childhood. It is journey to acceptance. Acceptance of joyful instincts found there, discovered in my awakening days. I am thinking about the instincts that made me feel wonderful. I remember feeling great exhilaration in certain, defined discoveries. This is real, this is the existence I was born into, how wonderful it is! My work today is fashioning those joyful remembrances of things instinctually joyfully into something real.

Here I am, doing it. I find enormous clarity in my newest painting, "Four Definitions”. This surprises me: In making this painting I am greatly enjoying following personal instincts! The joy is my ability to actually make those instincts real. The reality is the painting that sits in front of me. Its reality gives me great satisfaction. I enjoy its simplest successes. For instance, I love the shadow cast by that form on the bottom right.

No Words, Yes Image

3/6/2022

"Silence, Exile, and Cunning" (2022 No.1, state 9), oil on canvas, 49x57 inches, {"I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning." - James Joyce (1882-1941), "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916)}

Yesterday "Silence, Exile, and Cunning" changed; it is incomplete. Everything needs to come together. The discord in the upper left must be resolved.

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