 "The Intervening Tick" (2018 No.6, state 7), oil on canvas, 49x33 inches {"Is that where wise men want us to live; in that intervening tick, the tiny slot that occurs after you have spent hours searching downtown for that new club and just before you give up and head back home?" - Billy Collins, "The Present", from "New Ohio Review" 2017}  Drawing 09·06·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I am a man of intense nuance, questioning each and every stroke of color, form, and light reflectance. Yesterday I completed my last pass upon the painting The Intervening Tick. Regrettably I also looked again at Along for the Ride; I have to call that painting done too! I always see nuances that could be better served. I should move on, so I will, decisively so! Tomorrow I will strip my last two canvases from my work wall and begin new ones. Lessons learned must go somewhere; that somewhere is now, not looking back. This is me counseling myself to begin new paintings.
Yesterday's drawing is me trying to find the next step that makes sense. This drawing is helpful as preparation for the nervous leap I will take tomorrow on newly hung blank canvases.  "2017 No.14" (state 16), oil on canvas, 63x63 inches  Drawing 01·30·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches After sixteen efforts, the painting 2017 No.14 is on the edge of being finished. It is in these moments, just prior to completion, that my excitement runs highest. I having been chasing this game across the savanna; I have caught up. There it is! With skill the kill can be had. It is time to be careful and bold. It is time to pay attention to nuance and detail.
The drawing shown was made on January 30, 2018. It is claustrophobically clogged with rock-like bolder-like forms. Relief from this clog of forms occurs at the top of composition. It is masterful. I am beginning to accept my mastery as authentic.  "2017 No.14" (state 4), oil on canvas, 47x44 inches  Drawing 12·14·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches The world of my pictures wants to impinge upon the world of my living. Immediacy calls for reverberation. It brings attention. There is intimacy in my request. Yesterday's drawing is a surreal blend of ground and sky. They don't mix well. This is different from the reverb seen in state 4 of the painting 2017 No.14. I know, despite our inability to see it, there is commonality of approach. The drawing and the painting ask for attention using surface junction versus surface disjunction. Vocal disturbance enhances the nuance of a signal's meaning; this is called reverb. I am using its visual equivalent. Of course my analogy is impure. The idea is not. I hope you are looking because you are disturbed by my visual means and intrigued by my visual content.
 Drawing 09·14·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches I often worry I am too much into detail. I agressively search to find, thus I am overwhelmed by the activity of seeking nuance. Do I enjoy it? I do. Yesterday's drawing is full of finesse. It surprises me with its clarity of forms, its clarity in shadows cast (both by the forms on ground and on the surfaces of the forms themselves). Spatial play is animated by light. The forms are positioned by their surface values as well as by the shadows they cast on the ground. (We all know the white paper is actually as flat as flat can be.) Am I a dunderhead because I wonder too much? No, this is the intricacy demanded by sophisticated problem solving.
 "2017 No.11" (state 3), oil on canvas, 44x50 inches Out-loud thinking is becoming obsolete. Processing never dies. Telling the truth is mandatory, albeit nearly impossible. Verbal truth is more difficult than visual truth. Words are like nails. Images, not so much. Images are full of nuance. Nuance is required to communicate clearly, precisely. Deeds are a test of veracity. Images can be good or images can be bad. I am uncomfortable looking at yesterday's visual activity. That is helpful. It leaves me wanting more. The unravelling mystery calls me back. It's like a good mystery novel, the ending is obscured because of factual insufficiency. I must return to unravel that which is known yet not apparent.  Drawing 07·18·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches    I heard a Freakonomics podcast entitled "How to Get More Grit in Your Life". This made total sense to me! It is what I do. In the podcast, the psychologist Angela Duckworth said "substitute nuance for novelty". This is my current mantra. Yesterday's drawings took a step in that direction. Novelty is not as important an nuance. Nuance speaks of authenticity, novelty represents a question being asked. This clarification indicates the reason both are important. However, I believe nuance is more important in making a substantial work of art. Novelty may initially engage the viewer, but without nuance there is no long lasting engagement.
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At MEHRBACH.com you may view many of my paintings and drawings, past and present, and see details about my life and work. Archives
December 2018
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