Category: Profound

Honing the Knife

1/5/2023

Drawing 01·04·2023 No.1, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 01·04·2023 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

What does it mean to be profound? I am looking. Feels like I am getting there. I am not intellectually convinced. I do think well of these two drawings, more as experiments toward profundity, than full realizations thereof.

When Scope & Depth is Undeniable

9/27/2021

Drawing 09·26·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

It is getting scary. The drawing I present today is undeniably deep and profound. That's the scary part. This drawing's in-your-face centerness insists you look, not look away. When is scope and depth undeniable? Take a look at Alberto Giacometti's "Diego" (below). That is one answer in addition to the one I give you in my drawing. Look and hang; you will discover yourself.

Alberto Giacometti, "Diego", oil on canvas, 1953

Righteous Images

3/7/2020

"Clever Liars" (2020 No.1, state 04), oil on canvas, 56½x45¼ inches {"Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don't!" - anonymous}

There were the Righteous Brothers. Here's a Righteous Image! More images like this will be a-coming; I have learned I relish direct, in-your-face, principled, irreproachable, and uncorrupted images. I have had a difficult time getting here. Discovering images like these is arduous; I am in the midst of arrival. Images are a-coming that will be easy to visually comprehend but emotionally and intellectually complex. These works will require the viewer to slow down, contemplate, have an extended life of involvement; living with images like these is necessary. Living with these works is like living with a mate; there is no quick way to fully comprehend the character of the being; slow, steady observation, coupled with slow steady contemplation, is required to fully understand.

"Clever Liars" is in state 4. Its needs are becoming clarified. Today it calls upon me to paint.

right·eous | ˈrīCHəs | (adjective)
1. (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous: feelings of righteous indignation about pay and conditions | he is a good, righteous man, I am sure.
2. US informal very good; excellent: righteous bread pudding.

righteous (adjective)
1. the scriptures contain rules for righteous living: good, virtuous, upright, upstanding, decent, worthy; ethical, principled, moral, high-minded, law-abiding, just, honest, innocent, faultless, honorable, blameless, guiltless, irreproachable, sinless, uncorrupted, anticorruption, saintly, angelic, pure, noble, noble-minded, pious, God-fearing.
2. a look of righteous anger came over his face: justifiable, justified, legitimate, defensible, supportable, just, rightful; well founded, sound, valid, admissible, allowable, understandable, excusable, acceptable, reasonable, sensible.

Graphite's Day #2

12/9/2019

Drawing 12·08·2019, graphite on paper, 20x16 inches

For two days in a row the savior of my drawings has been a graphite stick. There is punch to these drawings. I am enjoying it! Profundity is issued by showing-up, day after day; doing the work. Continuity is important. Reflection is important. A jump in my knowing is occurring. This is happening NOW! When I write, "NOW!", I mean over the recent period of time. Perhaps this enlightenment will not end anytime soon. I must maintain my health and well-being to extend this period. I just revealed my greatest worry. This living, this discovery, is limited by mortality. I am within a great effort to extend both, both mortality and this period of profound discovery.

A Day with Incident

9/26/2019

Drawing 09·25·2019 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 09·25·2019 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 09·25·2019 No.3, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Yesterday exhibited great potential. Every step I made brought me closer to pure internalization. I witnessed myself as I witnessed my drawings. Each drawing came easier than the last. The last made most sense of all — it had, and has, intense meaning. I felt my way through it as I feel my way through a conversation of great meaning. Here I am. These drawings are profound; they contain revelation and revelation again. I made them till I exhausted all meaning.

Miracle? or Just a Day at Work?

2/4/2019

"The Doctrine of Liberty" (2019 No.1, state 8), oil on canvas, 66x59.5 inches {"I believe there is a golden thread which alone gives meaning to the political history of the West, from Marathon to Alamein, from Solon to Winston Churchill and after. This I chose to call the doctrine of liberty under the law." -Anthony Sampson, "The Changing Anatomy of Britain", 1982}

Yesterday was just another day at work. Paying attention to the transitions occurring to the image in front of me brings visceral response after visceral response. My day by day work is intuitive alteration after intuitive alteration after intuitive alteration. It is repetitive in reaction but not repetitive in action or consequence. "The Doctrine of Liberty" is clearly educating me. Liberty is not without responsibility. Choosing to be responsible is liberty. Liberty is viscerally acting, making real my educated intuitive ideas. Profundity is found by following the call of my intuition till there is no more call. "The Doctrine of Liberty" is becoming a profound work of art, but it is not completely there yet.

I am a Working Man!

1/6/2019

"Seriously?" (2018 No.11, state 12), oil on canvas, 49.8x62.5 inches {"All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously." - Hermann Hesse, "Reflections", ed. Volker Michels, 1974}

Drawing 01·05·2019, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

All my images annoy me. There is much work for me to do. The problems are apparent. The problems are overwhelming. Great effort is required. In 2019 I have three exhibitions; two major, one minor. I feel urgency. My acute and insistent need to get it right is not solely due to my upcoming exhibitions; mostly it is due to my sense of not feeling successful. My images have not achieved the depth and profundity I know is possible. The end for me may not be fully achievable, but I believe consistent work will bring me closer to fulfilled significance.

A Mini-Series of Bald Bees

5/23/2018

"Weoman" (2018 No.3; state 4), oil on canvas, 35x42 inches ("I could not get a rhyme for Roman, And was obliged to call it Weoman." -Marjorie Fleming, "Sonnet")

Drawing 05·22·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Today I admit to photoshop alteration. For the first time I have done research using the tools of the photo enhancement computer program Photoshop. In the painting, Weoman, I altered the left side because I could see changes a-coming that I had not yet accomplished in the studio. The changes seen here will occur immediately upon my working on this painting. This will happen later today. So, I am not fooling you. I admit, I did work digitally on this painting. The manual work upon it will soon match the changes you see here. It will be slightly different, and much better, than what I was able to accomplish with Photoshop.

Yesterday's drawing continues my complex research into an enhanced sense of value, form, line, and compositional structure. I believe yesterday's drawing is a very good drawing. It is predecessor to great work. My process is undergoing transformation. Process change is leading to image change. The profundity of my work is climbing a hill, moving up, moving toward maximization of my human possibilities; all in a time of superheroes!