Category: Success

Image Quality versus Message

10/3/2022

Drawing 10·02·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 10·02·2022 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

These two drawings are technically excellent. I believe I have too often neglected technique in search of message. No longer. My insight is this: A drawing's message is not as important as its technical success (same for a painting's message). If a Work of Art is technically a "Wow!", it will supersede, and succeed. Success is measured by viewer engagement. The higher the level of technical success the higher the level of viewer engagement. Witness to this are the greatest works of Art, from Picasso's "Guernica" to Velazquez's "Las Meninas" to Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement".

One More Stepping Stone

9/30/2022

Drawing 09·29·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Over the last week I have made numerous drawings. These are risky drawings, all in search of trueness to myself, the enlightened child born from years of labor, years of thoughtfulness. These drawings are stepping stones on my path, a path not mine to choose. I must follow my path if I am to reach personal satisfaction. My path is fraught with risk. In the past, my intellect, and my emotional needs, have tricked me. I have been tricked because I desire to fit the Artistic molds invented by others, i.e., Art which has found approval from scholars, historians, and critics.

Moving Somewhere True

9/23/2022

Drawing 09·22·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

"Shape of Things to Come" (2022 No.8, state 3), oil on canvas, 53x55 inches

I feel good. I am going somewhere true. Will that place be one of total success? No way! I go a direction, but every direction has its imperfections. I do that which I must. Yesterday's work, show here (as always), speaks volumes. The volumes it speaks is not only in form and depth (Art Principle stuff), but it exhibits my work not as an ethic, but as a desire to be felicitously moving along.

Making Sense in a Time of Confusion

9/11/2022

Drawing 09·08·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

My world today often encounters confusion in accomplishing tasks previously simple and easy. If a task involves working with another person, the guarantee that it will be smoothly accomplished is murky. Simple tasks become complicated and risky. I find solace in drawing. I can do. I can make something real. I am able to complete something all by myself. This drawing bears witness that my personal tasks can be accomplished well.

Even Better

8/29/2022

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.1 (state 2), pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.2 (state 2), pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

I bragged back on 8/27/2022, “These two drawings are among my very best.” They are now even better. These alterations are a clear sign I have jumped to a higher level of Mastery.

Sensitivity Training

8/27/2022

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 08·26·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

By drawing I am practicing touch and flow. It is here I an undergoing sensitivity training. The dynamics of value, form, and space (negative and positive), are within me; I am practicing making them outside of me. I am an athlete in training. I am sharing my sensitivity with you. These two drawings are among my very best. Most interesting is the technical aspect of centered composition, which is especially true in drawing No.2. Centered compositions were Picasso's default. A wide range of play in form, value, and space are allowed when centering is achieved. Centering grabs the viewer. When viewer is secured, the possible journey is wide and long, a fullness of dynamics and emotions are allowed.

The Brain as a Muscle

3/27/2022

"Silence, Exile, and Cunning" (2022 No.1, state 13), oil on canvas, 48x57 inches, {"I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning." - James Joyce (1882-1941), "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916)}

Many years ago, my first mentor in drawing and painting, Seymour Leichman, said to me, "The Brain is a muscle. Work on your drawing, work on your painting, your work will make your brain stronger, more able to do the most difficult tasks you ask of it." It is happening. My brain has become more able to sustain the difficult work of making complete works of art. This is particularly obvious in my last two paintings, "Silence, Exile, and Cunning” and "Four Definitions”.

Taking Myself to Heart

3/24/2022

"Silence, Exile, and Cunning" (2022 No.1, state 12), oil on canvas, 48x57 inches, {"I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning." - James Joyce (1882-1941), "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916)}

This is better than Cherry Pie. I am taking myself to heart; this means I am accepting, I am embracing my whims, my frailty, my inconsistencies, my worries, my propensities, my failures, and my successes, This is not easy for me. I am a colossally confusing entity. I want, I need, I chase, I emote. Taken as a package, I am not easy to manage. It is not easy to get along with myself. I am often uncomfortable; I failure often, which is difficult to accept. My successes must be recognized. I am learning to recognize my successes as important documents, notes to myself. These notes enumerate things important to embrace, to make mine. My acceptance of successes will lead me past my failures. I am on a journey to better, more righteous fields.

Yesterday I took "Silence, Exile, and Cunning” a big step toward acceptance of me. I hung in there through many small failures on my journey to make it more mine, to make it succeed for me.

Wonder & Glory or Something Else?

11/11/2021

Drawing 11·10·2021, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Whether I am right or I am wrong, I believe in this feeling of Wonder & Glory. I feel discovery. I am amazed. This drawing, my work, it feels right and good. I do fear self-delusion; in any case, I am enjoying this momentary feeling of success. Seldom do I feel entitled to self-respect. Seldom do I feel I owe myself celebratory elation. I have taken a step in the right direction. That's the way I feel.

The Structure of Contempt

10/10/2021

Drawing 10·08·2021 No.2, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

Drawing 10·09·2021, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

When does seeing become believing? For me, not soon, perhaps never, perhaps now. I have contempt for my own work. When concluded it never fully satisfies. I doubt success, so I do more. In doing I appreciate my own ability to see and feel my way to sense and sensibility. In the conclusion I find no happiness. I like these drawings, I doubt these drawings. Therefore I return to make more.

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