 Drawing 12·29·2021 No.1 (state 2), pencil on paper, 20x16 inches This revisit, to a drawing from 12/29/2021, is auspicious. This drawing has become full of flavor and wonder. I am living in a New World. This is a symphony; rich, complex, with many instruments available to sound a tune - counterpoint, contrast, form, and pattern are here. I am vigorous, sinewy, and have power.
 Drawing 10·23·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Comparisons in Art are difficult; Art's range of content runs the gamut of human emotions. Today I give you a comparison of my drawing from yesterday to a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). This is not an easy comparison. To me, it is apt; it represents my struggle to be true to myself. I am drawn to Basquiat's extreme, forceful content, but... I am me and he is he. The one simple and obvious connection I make with this Basquiat painting is its organization. Basquiat slams you into its center panel; he grabs the the viewer with color contrast, as well as formal centering because of content that are complex and patterned shapes. Basquiat painting is a lesson in classical compositional organization. There is no getting around the effectiveness that is centering the viewer's attention through any means possible, which include large forms, strong color, obvious shapes, interesting patterns, and high value contrast.  Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Untitled", oil on wood slats  Drawing 11·08·2020, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches  Drawing 10·21·2020 (state 2), pencil on paper, 20x16 inches Here I am. I find failure and success in everything I do. Yesterday I revisited the drawing from 10/21/2020 (directly above👆). I made it simpler. I made it more to the point. I am learning that meaninglessness must be removed in order to express accurately. Look back at my blog post of 10/22/2020 to see the earlier version of this drawing. It is obvious; I removed the falderal. Right now, this paring down to true and essential has become my most important work. Then how did I create the drawing at the top today's page? Drawing 11·08·2020 shows the complexity of my thoughts, which are relentless, but (perhaps) distractive, and annoyingly about composition, but not meaning. Simple clarity of expression is most important. Complexity must be abandoned. Complexity occurs when my thinking steers toward pattern, not emotional significance.
 "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 2), oil on canvas, 55.5x66 inches {"What might have been is an abstraction; Remaining a perpetual possibility; Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory." -T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"}  Drawing 09·11·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I am all over this. Incredible to me, the creator, this game of making-art is in control. My knowledge can be plucked from everywhere; it surrounds me; my brain is on fire; omnipresent are ideas that can be identified as true. This does not make my task faster, easier. In fact the road just got bumpier; my speed has slowed because there is so much I can do with every mark I make. It is much more than marks. It is composition and form and light and color and repetition and pattern et cetera et cetera. Crazy full of possibilities but also crazy specific with solutions that actually make sense. Solutions that speak truly, speak authentically, are several and few. Finding them is my task.
 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.  "2017 No.8" (state 2), oil on canvas, 55.5x62 inches This strange and wonderful painting, 2017 No.8, is springing up with this season of newness. It is many things. It is new. It portends a lot of labor. It is eclectic, and referential. This is not an easy spring! It is a reflection of many things known, such as patterns that force the third-dimension, and zigzags that do that too! Yesterday's drawing is, perhaps, also a plant-like reference to this season.  Drawing 04·25·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches  "2017 No.6" (state 11), oil on canvas, 66x60 inches I believe the painting 2017 No.6 has been solved. Is it done? Not quite! The lower left portion of the patterned area exhibits a more bluish tone that is out of sync with its upper right portion. Not a big deal! Easy to fix! I think the dirty blue of this area is apt, works well. The entire patterned area will take on the dirty blue, which means the lower left portion will change. Then this painting will be complete. Oh, this painting took on staccato, not vibrato, since its last version. In my last post I predicted vibrato was coming. Proves I do not know what's coming in my own work. Glory, glory! Yesterday's drawings are more simple, more direct, than others of recent memory; No comment.    "2017 No.6" (state 7), oil on canvas, 66x60 inches 2017 No.6 is NOT quite there. There being the place that makes it completely satisfactory. Mostly I need to work on the pattern in the carpet-like form that sits on the painting's ground. The composition is firm. The work remaining is important, not mechanical but definitely laborious, and a bit boring, This thought, that it will be labor, is pronounced because of my need to move on to a new painting. Beginning a painting is so much more exciting than finishing a painting. Yesterday's drawings surprise me. They look unusual. They tell me that exciting innovations are coming!     Is means a satisfactory route to an end if the end is a good one? I cannot answer this in political context. In terms of art-making, "No!" For me, art is ongoing research. Day by day I ask questions. Day by day I get answers. Some days the answers are more profound, more meaningful, more important to accept as valid. Through effort, over an enormous amount of time, I find authenticity through the art-making process. Currently it appears buffoonery is accepted by a great number of those who have wealth and political clout. These are the people who have the resources to buy the best art that has been made on this planet. I must ask the question: Should art follow? I say, "No!" Art is a different animal. It is a process based upon personal values and personal truth. It is a practice, like meditation, different for each us but filled with commonality. Through commonality profound communication occurs. Such communication cannot be offensive. Thus the difference between good art and politics.
Yesterday's drawings continue to explore simpler forms against contrasting backgrounds. This, plus the three-dimensions advanced by the foreground forms and shadows, create an artifice of 3D space. Pattern is also being explored as instigator of defined spatial planes, as seen in drawing No.2, and also seen in the current painting on my work wall, "2017 No.2."  "2016 No.17" (state 7), oil on canvas, 48x51 inches Henri Matisse, where are you? A bit of Matisse's sensibility is in the painting "2016 No.17". Old painters never die, their ideas get stolen and reused! I actually looked at a few of Matisse's paintings before I worked on the curtain-like form on the right edge of "2016 No.17". It helped bolster my conviction. A splendid Matisse painting from 1948 is reproduced at the bottom of today's post. As mentioned in today's blog post title, the work seen here today is two day's old.     Henri Matisse, "Interior with Egyptian Curtain", oil on canvas, 1948 |
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February 2023
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