 "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 22), oil on canvas, 64¾x57½ 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 realized "Gonna Speak to the Crowd” is not yet complete. I took charge, moved it toward a more active composition, an in-your-face, movement involved, structurally whole composition. This painting moved in the direction of my guiding principles: self-satisfaction and viewer involvement. Wanna see a painting that did ALL THE ABOVE, back in 1951; look below👇  Ellsworth Kelly, "The Meschers", oil on canvas, 1951  Drawing 11·28·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Try to look at this drawing as non-representative. I make a plea for abstractive, non-reality because this drawing has an improbable distraction, the body-two legs-neck-head confusion of its major form. I won't make a drawing like this again! I don't like figurative distraction. So... if you can escape the distraction, of something vaguely figurative, you will see a fine drawing, a drawing that deals with compositional movement, space, and form.
 "Gonna Speak to the Crowd" (2021 No.5, state 15), 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)}  Drawing 10·04·2021 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches  Drawing 10·04·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I realized my desire to center my drawings, and my paintings, may be missing another valid means of security visual interest. It is coherency of movement. I present two drawings. The first moves forms from bottom right to upper left. The second moves forms from bottom left to upper right.
My painting, "Gonna Speak to the Crowd", in state 15, continues to secure visual interest from center out, like an explosion.  Drawing 09·28·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches New is old and old is new; tis true because invention is reinvention cuz all that is has been before.
It took me several days of revisits to complete this drawing, which looks new to me, but, of course, it is not. Its quality is high; that's helps make it new, better. I find the definitive back-wall very interesting. That back-wall is a solid place to begin the origin of this drawing's movement. This quality infests me with surprise. I like this drawing.  Drawing 08·18·2020, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I am alway getting ready. I ready myself for my next work as I ready the painting, "Amidst a Falling World" for transport to the 70th A-ONE Exhibition at Silvermine Gallery. Yesterday's drawing establishes an intense interest in constant compositional movement and thrust. Every mark is a movement. The forms play with, and against, the inherent, intrinsic movement in each touch and mark. A day of reckoning is always upon me. This drawing is but one step in my relentless journey, a journey in search of self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment.
 Drawing 04·06·2019, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 04·04·2019 (state 2), pencil on paper, 16x20 inches As sophisticated as these drawings are... I ask, "Are these drawings too complex?" I fear they are too full of activity to be enjoyed simply and quickly. Do viewers enjoy wandering through drawings as abstract as mine? Perhaps a viewer would take their time to observe fully a drawing with many representational cues. I am not sure, so I worry.
The bottom drawing on this page is in its second state. You can compare it to this blog's previous post to see the changes I have made. It is better. The movements within it are more obvious. I am trying to make my ideas more obvious to the viewer. I am hoping the viewer is engaged more easily, more directly, I working to draw the viewer in through instant involvement.  Drawing 09·22·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches One more worry: Is my work too complicated, too subtle? Is it beyond the grasp of most viewers? I see visual connections across wide expanses of canvas and paper. I do not think I am deluding myself. Yesterday's drawing does work well. There is a solid core, there are rhythms and rhymes, there is movement and motion, there is value contrast, there are a large variety of forms, there is light, there is structural integrity. So, why is it not a hit? I believe it does hit well. Then why are viewers not begging that it be put in public venues? What are they not begging to see it up close and personal? Art that speaks truth should be seen. Perhaps Vincent Van Gogh wondered the same.
In yesterday's blog I quoted a New York Times article from March 22, 1992. The following paragraph, from the same article, is relevant to my worries of today: "Cezanne's career might have been as grim as Van Gogh's -- and as short -- had he not been the son of a banker and, ultimately, his heir. As it is, his progress from clumsy Expressionism to a sublime fusion of the monumental and the ethereal has attracted scholars from Roger Fry to Meyer Schapiro and John Rewald." (from the New York Times article, ART; How Cezanne Evokes a Bach Fugue, published March 22, 1992)  Drawing 11·19·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Right and wrong are often difficult to distinguish. Look at that little circle created in the upper left of this drawing. It flattens out on its left side. That was a conscious decision. I thought the flattened line played well with its otherwise roundness. Seeing it reproduced here I am not so sure. Overall the line it generates reenforces the verticality of the composition, while causing hesitation in the whipsawed rotation of the snaking form in which it is one circle away from the upper end. This is an example of a drawing that will spawn another drawing. The next will examine another possible solution. As I always say, this is an unending process without any perfect answers. Questions are wonderful! They initiate answers, good and bad. Questions, no matter the answers, always inform.
 "2017 No.11" (state 13), oil on canvas, 52x54 inches   This quest is a burden. To find the image that is as good as it gets is impossible. I keep trying. Constantly I ask myself, "Is it worth it?" After the work I mostly answer "Yes." The affirmative never comes easy, nor immediately. A certain amount of giving in, giving up, is necessary. Perfect success is impossible. The only success possible is making the image better than it was before. This seeking perfection certainly slows my life down. It also brings nervousness. Obsession is not trouble-free. It is conflict. It is disquiet that is anxiety and apprehension. Yesterday I returned to the painting 2017 No.11. It is better. It is not perfect. It will never be perfect. I do see it as better. It needs more. I accept the work that is necessary. That will happen today. Here is a bit of success: I have moved on from the painting 2017 No.12. I assure myself that 2017 No.13 will begin soon. Yesterday's drawings are interesting. No pattern, just writhing forms juxtaposed against solid, easily recognizable geometric forms. For fun I reproduce three images that somehow influenced yesterday's work (e.g, the sphere in Albrecht Durer's Melancholia was on my mind when I was working on 2017 No.11).     Drawing 06·01·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I am hoping to run. However, I am still learning to walk. Yesterday's drawing, and (actually) all the drawings of this past week, are me taking careful steps. One by one, they come slowly, carefully, deliberately. I am practicing. I am in search of the intrinsic and fundamental. Fundamental to me is form, pattern, compositional movement, variety, contrast, surface energy (created by rhythmic marks), and the dynamic of light versus darkness. This week has been weak on volume of works and the activity of painting. It has been one of low energy, but quality introspection. There is rhythm to discovery, invention, and creativity. I have great belief that living is filled with rhythm and rhyme. The idea that rhythm and rhyme can be mimed in art is beginning to be apparent in my drawing. At last! This technique of suggesting action, character, expression and emotion, by using only gesture and movement, is happening here.
Obvious to me, these drawings are prelude to my next painting, 2017 No.10. I intend to finish 2017 No.9 in the next three or four days. |
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June 2022
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