 Drawing 10·10·2018, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches I have been staring at Burnt Norton. I did a great amount of pondering! The resulting idea I have: The major green/yellow form needs to be stabilized with a rectangle that is true to the edges of the canvas. This will be tried today. By tomorrow I will know if this alteration does what I believe needs to be done.
As with most of recent drawings, yesterday's was a study in an idea I have related to my recent painting. Do you see the rectangle, dead center, in yesterday's drawing?  "Burnt Norton" (2018 No.8, state 13), oil on canvas, 63x66 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 10·09·2018, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches Developmentally slow is the painting Burnt Norton. Not a problem; rather it is day by day movement toward solution. This is my acceptance of simplicity. You are seeing it here, now, but not in real time. I am living real time; I am acting in real time. You are seeing the day after day outcomes as if played on a phenakistiscope (not one in a circle but on a forever strip).
Yesterday's drawing is a study of a solid object with projections, forward and backward, from its dedicated spatial position. This is me thinking about necessay changes to the major green/yellow form on the right in Burnt Norton. Those changes were made after this drawing.  "2017 No.10" (state 2), oil on canvas, 41x54.5 inches Easier than usual is seeing yesterday's drawing as study for yesterday's painting. Miracle it is that never two days, never too actions, are the same. Now is now! This is the only way to decipher my veiled constancy of self. Calling this constancy is not absolutely correct. I do believe I am built to last. There is stuff in me that is constant. Origination and inception are not excluded from renewal and self-surprise.  Drawing 06·13·2017, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches   Drawings from 5/14/2015, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches With these images I have shown you all my work to this date. The drawing on the left is a study for my most recent painting, Lava. A couple of flying insects are about to show up.
 Untitled Triptych-08·13·2014 (state 46), oil on canvas, 50 X 136 inches (side panels: 50 X 38 inches, center panel 50 X 60 inches) I am becoming aware the rotation in my drawings moves from simple to complex and from small to large. In a way, all my drawings are studies for my painting, even though, on the quick look, the subject matter appears distant, or not related at all. My activity in drawing is based upon my queries about painting. Yesterday's drawing is actually a study for the woman in the right panel of the painting Untitled Triptych-08·13·2014. Her sensuality is going up. In the last few states I have been dealing with this change in her personality. Thus comes yesterday's drawing of a sensual female. Yes, the woman in the drawing appears a lot different than the woman in the painting. It is a study in mood, not a simple study of physiognomy.  Untitled Drawing-12·02·2014, pencil on paper, 11X14 inches  Untitled Drawing-07·08·2014, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches The one thing yesterday's drawings have in common is their origination via a compositional bias. In the drawing above I began with an L-shape, and in the drawing below below I began with a U-shape. From there both drawings took off on their own. I believe these drawings are preparatory works for my next painting. That next painting is planned as a triptych. The compositional solution will be built around the problem of animating three panels. The two side panels will be smaller than the middle panel. I am imagining the smaller, left and right panels, will have single figures (male and female), while the central panel will contain interaction between the two figures. It is the problem of interactivity, between the two figures, that is behind the inquiry seen in yesterday's drawings. These drawings are studies in a means to instigate the interaction. In addition, I have always enjoyed inventing abstract three-dimensional forms. Yesterday's drawings marry my recent interest in human figures with my old love of robustly three-dimensional objects. Here, these two intense interests come together. The vigorous third-dimension created by the objects (the initial "L" and "U") carried over into the human figures. This outcome is very rewarding.  Untitled Drawing-07·08·2014 #2, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches  Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 35), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "No", Right panel: "Yes" I have been working and re-woring the man's head in the left panel. You would have thought I had gotten it right already. It isn't just the head! It's the body as well. His right leg (on viewer's left) has to be extended. His right shoulder has to enlarge in reaction to the size of his head. And yes, his jaw line has to be tweaked, giving it less of a simple curve. And, with the latter alteration, his ear may have to be lifted! And so it goes. My biggest hope is the lessons I have learned in making this painting, extended as they have been over 35 re-visits to this painting, will be intuitively internalized and my way through paintings to come will be quicker and easier. BTW: when I extend the man's right knee and leg, and enlarge his right shoulder, the composition will substantially improve. (Note about reproduction: the image of Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 in relatively high resolution. This allows you to zoom-in for a better view of this nearly completed painting. It looks better in a larger format than the one which initially appears on your screen). Yesterday was an abundant and interesting day of drawing. It began with me examining closely a man's head looking right (this, of course relates to the man's head I wrote so much about in today's first paragraph). Then on to a study of a woman's head and neck, à la Modigliani. And finally a robust drawing with both the man and the woman.  Untitled Drawing-07·03·2014, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches  Untitled Drawing-07·03·2014 #2, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches  Untitled Drawing-07·03·2014 #3, pencil on paper, 11X14 inches  Untitled Drawing-07·02·2014, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches Yesterday's drawing began as a study for the man in the left panel of the painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 and ended more than that. I had intended a quick study before proceeding to the painting, but the drawing absorbed all my time, albeit a shortened session. The drawing was important practice for a few reasons, mostly because I dislike the jaw line on man in the left panel of Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014. Today I intend to return to the painting.
 Untitled Drawing-06·24·2014, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches Every one of these drawings was done in a spirit of adventure and openness. In process, each felt right and good. All three drawings are my large size (16X20 inches). All of them are different in spatial play. Yesterday, my overall thought process was the same as always. Even when I did not paint, I am looking for solutions for my painting. In these drawings I am asking questions about detail versus overall concept. I was exploring in order to finish the painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014. The solutions to yesterday's drawings will help me finish my present painting, and all my work going forward.  Untitled Drawing-06·24·2014 #2, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches  Untitled Drawing-06·24·2014 #3, pencil on paper, 16X20 inches  Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 (state 28), oil on canvases, 60X120 inches (each canvas = 60X60 inches) Possible Subtitles▸ Left panel: "Before or After", Right panel: "After or Before" My interests are so vast and grand that I do not feel comfortable with my own ambition. This painting, Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, is me accepting my current limitations and the aspirations of my ambitions. I have resigned myself to following my determination to get it right. I am nagged by the question of its validity. Can I know the path I am on has any value? No! That is exactly where my acceptance lies, within the "no." "No," there is no certainty. I am able to follow my intuitive sense of authenticity and truth. That is all I have to validate my journey. It feels small, with more questions than answers. Given all these doubts, I am surprised that I believe the importance of Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 grows with every alteration I make. The state I show you today is the best so far. It does feel like a symphony. Yesterday's alterations to the left man's head and body allow him to sits within the symphony better than the day before. Now his shape, his form, and his position play harmoniously within the left movement of this symphony (the left panel). Also, his connection to entire symphony has been enhanced. So here I am, slugging it out between doubts and my determination to get it right. Yesterday's drawing feels particularly weak. When I feel such weakness I ask, "From where did this strange thing come?" I believe it was created by my desire to examine surface more than composition, form, or expression. It probably should never be seen again because it is a mere note to myself, and not worthwhile as a work of art.  Untitled Drawing-06112014, pencil on paper, 14X11 inches |
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