Category: Research

Rotrouenge

2/1/2019

Drawing 01·31·2019, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

"Chaos, Stillness & Prayer" (2018 No.9, state 8), oil on canvas, 54x36 inches {"Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm.... an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction." -Saul Bellow, "Writers at Work: Third Series", 1967}

I will not relent. This is poetry. As poet I continually revisit, alter the script yet conserve the basic idea; My process is consistent enhancement of meaning. That is my job. This work of mine will not become genre, nor will it become extinct. Like Rotrouenge, it is lyrical and has repeated elements that may be called refrains. However, I believe in contrast; the repetition of marks and/or forms is contrasted against the entirety. I also believe my work is mostly similar to Rotrouenge because "...the original genre may have lost its distinct identity."

Yesterday I revisited the painting "Chaos, Stillness & Prayer" (2018 No.9). Today I show state 8. It is now essentially complete, yet requires a once-over to affirm its completion.

Yesterday's drawing continues my research into hard versus rounded forms.

Rotrouenge (from Wikipedia)

In the Middle Ages, the rotrouenge (Old French) or retroencha (Old Occitan) was a recognised type of lyric poetry, although no existing source defines the genre clearly. There are four conserved troubadour poems, all with refrains and three by Guiraut Riquier with music, that are labelled retronchas in the chansonniers. Six rotrouenges survive, but only one with music, and four of them are attributed to one trouvère, Gontier de Soignies.

Medieval Occitan treatises state that the retroencha always has a refrain, but modern scholars have found no other distinguishing characteristic. Pioneering work in singling out and identifying the rotroencha was made by Alfred Jeanroy. In the twentieth century, the German scholars Friedrich Gennrich and Hans Spanke developed two distinct theories about the textual and melodic form of the rotrouenge, implicitly suggesting in the process that some of the few specimens of lyric labelled as such in the manuscripts are in fact mis-labelled and do not represent the rotrouenge. The French scholar Jean Frappier noted that "we are not absolutely sure that we have any authentic specimens of the rotrouenge", indicating that by the time the term came into use in the late twelfth century it was no more than an archaism ("an attractive old term" in the words of Hendrik van der Werf) and that the original genre may have lost its distinct identity.

Graphical Earthquakes

9/13/2017

There are ups and downs in everything, positives and negatives. Without quaking there would be no revelation. Revealing the light, letting it shine through the cracks, outwardly and so bright as to allow recognition, means cracks are necessary. For me, new is not "something completely different," but something better revealed. I wish my self-discoveries were so novel as to be similar to the discovery of an absolutely unknown species of dinosaur or insect. That is an inhuman want. Impossible is self-discovery that is startlingly novel. Neoteric is possible. Strange, unprecedented, and singularly unique, is not possible. Yesterday's drawings call upon my past. They are research by revisit. They are questions whose prior answers were not rigidly successful. I return. This is a seismic search. Yesterday's drawings are me compressing a springboard for energetic release. Yesterday's drawings are not unique, nor perfect in their success. I am back at it again today!

Like a Diary

4/14/2017

"2017 No.7" (state 4), oil on canvas, 56.5x57.5 inches

I have said it before. Picasso said it. Making art is like writing a diary. Every day thoughts flood my mind. These thoughts are original and new. These thoughts are me living. These thoughts are me reacting to the day before today. These thoughts are questions I am asking about all I have done and all I have experienced.

Yesterday's drawings feel more like a diary entry than usual. These drawings are exploring latent ideas springing into my mind in contrast to the work I see before me. I am reacting to the painting I did the day before and to the drawings from the day before. I am questioning. I am answering. I am researching. The weird thing is the enduringness of this activity. Weird because somewhere, in the back of my mind, I think I can figure this out and make one fully realized image on canvas or paper. That is not going to happen. No way is there an ending to this activity.

Standing Back

4/12/2017

Yesterday's drawings are tests. They are me philosophizing, stepping back and thinking, asking where should I be in this art-making crowded by choices. Simplicity is nice, comfortable, but not long lasting. I vote No.1 as best for me. Best for me because it satisfies me most. It keeps me engaged in more than a moment. It is a series of moments in visual form.

The Confusion of Contusion

2/3/2017

"2017 No.3" (state 2), oil on canvas, 27.5x50 inches

The wounds due to being human keep happening. They do not stop happening. To be human is to be at the mercy of entropy: Impossible to win. This is the Third Law of Thermodynamics. It conquers everything. Art is my refuge. No matter the cause of worldly uncertainty, I keep making art. Art-making is the consistency within the inconsistency of my living and my social behavior. Without art-making I would be sludge. Yesterday's drawings continue my efforts to see forms more clearly. Perhaps they are too sculptural for painting and drawing. This is a major concern with images on two dimensional surfaces. One must not go too far toward the artifice of the third-dimension or the reality of the two-dimensional surface is uncomfortably disrupted. This is me questioning. My current work is pervaded by research. The specular spot is useful in portraying the third-dimension, as seen in yesterday's drawings. INSIGHT: My art is about disruption. I wish to disrupt the ongoing decay of being human. I fight the dictum, The Third Law, that entropy in me is increasing. My little effort is me disrupting the two-dimensional surface with the artifice of the third-dimension. I am fighting for solidity in a liquid state.

Busy, Busy, Research Busy

1/25/2017

"2017 No.2" (state 6), oil on canvas, 74x55 inches

Yesterday produced a volume of work seldom seen in one day of work: four drawings and a new state to the painting "2017 No.2". Art-making busy means verbal scarcity and visual abundance, at least in my case. Such is visual research. In the midst of this current research all is to question. At this moment, I want answering appropriately to be undefined. I do not wish to clarify further because I fear it would characterize my work, which might distract me from the questions I must continue to ask.

Picasso to Morandi

1/23/2017

"2017 No.2" (state 5), oil on canvas, 74x55 inches

As a young Buck I thought I wanted to be like Pablo Picasso. Lo and behold, from years of work and consequential decommissioning of my original, desperate impulses, here I am. Picasso's work is unrelentingly attractive to me. But, I think I am more like Giorgio Morandi, the slow and careful researcher of image, rather than the blustery, exaggerator of visual reality. If you look below this post, you will see reproductions of paintings by Morandi and Picasso. I love them both. They both have influenced my work. You can see similarities in Morandi's light and form in my work; you can see in Picasso's painting similarities to my forms. Stepping back... "Who cares?" I am becoming myself. That is the importance. It is not important that my work references other artists' work. I very much enjoy looking at the works of both Giorgio Morandi and Pablo Picasso. This is the significant message. There is great value in identifying that which attracts me, makes me look with pleasure and glee. It aids me in knowing me.

Giorgi Morandi, "Still Life with Flask", oil on canvas, 1953

Pablo Picasso, "Couple on Beach", oil on canvas, 1928

Continuation: Brave or Not?

1/13/2017

"2017 No.1" (state 4), oil on canvas, 39x56 inches

The painting "2017 No.1" reminds me of me before. By "before" I mean, "I've been there. I've done that." This painting, "2017 No.1" is pleasant enough, but is it right enough? All I can tell you with clarity is this: I am in the midst of an upheaval through research. Things I knew to be true are no longer true. The approach to "2017 No.1" is that which is not right. I am struggling to correct my behavior. This year's drawings exhibit this change. It is my act of painting that must change in order for me to be here, be now, be authentic. My struggles continue. I will not give up. I'll finish this painting. Yes, in the act of the next painting I will force myself to be closer to right in action.

Drawing 01·12·2017, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Any changes going on?

11/2/2016

It is November, we are in late autumn, the U.S. elections are next week, and I am doing the same as I have been going for many years... daily work. Are there changes afoot? It will snow soon. I will continue my search, my research. Yesterday's drawings are me looking, me watching, me reacting to myself. I could not paint yesterday. It seems the latest painting, "2016, No.18", needs more contemplation before I act upon it. I think that will happen today. Changes are afoot!

Interlude?

3/13/2016

Drawing-03·12·2016, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches

When you opened today's post did you think you were somewhere else, not with me? Yesterday's drawing was covered by marks in a manner quite different for me. I think it was an examination of surface in preparation for my return to the painting "2016 No.3". Today I will find out. You will not know where this came from, nor where it will go, until I figure it out and post about my ideas, which will happen tomorrow. Even then it may just be me talking, and may not be me knowing.

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