Category: New

Strength of Returns

1/4/2018

Drawing 01·03·2018 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 01·03·2018 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 01·03·2018 No.3, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Two-thousand eighteen has begun: Here I am. Stronger than ever; Returning is a wonderful thing. Just when I thought ideas were rolling well I went away. I come back. Surprise, I am more clear. There will be strength in my returns. Here are those from My Day 1, 2018.

Up & Running

8/25/2017

"2017 No.11" (state 12), oil on canvas, 52x54 inches

Yesterday a friend told me that electric cars (Tesla's, for example) do not have transmissions. I didn't know. Never thought about it. I don't have a transmission either. After being on idle for a couple of weeks I am up and running. Feels good to be strong, healthy, and active. At last the painting 2017 No.11 is complete. Yesterday I placed a new canvas on my work wall; it shall become the painting 2017 No.12 (initial dimensions = 69x55.5 inches). I think yesterday's drawing is a prelude to the new painting.

Drawing 08·24·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Questions within the New

7/14/2017

Is this the same guy? New beginnings are mysterious, sometimes bold, sometimes conservative and retrospective. Me? I just plug along, follow the deep. There is nothing more to say. Looking is more revelatory than my words.

"2017 No.11" (state 1), oil on canvas, 44x50 inches

It is what it is...

5/7/2017

"2017 No.8" (state 7), oil on canvas, 55.5x62 inches

Never say never! The images continue to work their way toward their own personal finalities. I am the conduit. I channel ideas that burst from intuition. It is a reactive intuition. Reacting is my primary activity. The first mark calls for a second mark, then a third, et cetera. It is a simple activity. The simplicity brings surprises because I have seen a lot, done a lot, felt a lot, and know a lot. It is all within me. No one instance can know it all! So I plod onward, pulling out, one by one, things deep within me. I react to the internal. I react to the presence in front of me. It happens. It nourishes me. It make me feel alive and well.

The painting, 2017 No.8, is nearing its finality. After seven states I feel I know this painting. It is calling for a few enhancements, then it will be done. Yesterday's drawings did surprise. These images are new. They resemble nothing that I have seen before.

Shock of the New!

4/7/2017

"2017 No.7" (state 1), oil on canvas, 56.5x57.5 inches

Shocking? Not really! I just like the title I used for today's blog because I have enjoyed the wonderful book of the same name by Art critic Robert Hughes. Making Art "is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get." (This quote from the film "Forest Gump" is also, obviously, not new.) The NEW is the painting, and the drawing, because every thing I make is new. The painting I began yesterday does surprise me. It feels aggressive in its contrasting use of forms, scaled big to little. At the same time this painting is forcing the three-dimensional artifice of space, of which I am fond.

Yesterday's drawing looks like a mix of things recent: NOT so NEW!

Drawing 04·06·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

New & Different?

12/8/2016

"2016 No.20" (state 1), oil on canvas, 57x56 inches

I began a new painting. The daily work goes on. Is it new and different? Never! But, yesterday's work (including the drawings) has the feel of the work from day before... there is substantiality here. This does feel new and different. As always, I question my predilection to admire my own stuff.