The unrelenting questions are becoming less annoying and more practical. Questions get answered, but not always for the best. I see this in the left edge of state 14 of the painting 2017 No. 14. Its increased width on the left side is good, but the unevenness of its left black border disturbs me. That border is not a complete failure. It did prove the forms on the left of this painting require more room to move. Other questions were asked yesterday. The snake-like object encircling the large form on the right had its value lightened. It reads better. Success comes as process, from questions asked to answers given, one by one. This repeats till it all makes sense. The remains of process eventually become all that remains.
There are questions and answers in yesterday's drawing too. I was examining the ground as a three-dimensional plane lit with a major specular highlight. Nice! There is much I like about the current state of the painting 2017 No.13; there is much that discomforts me. I feel more insecure about the right side then the left side. Here, in reproduction, it looks better than it does in the studio. The left is not quite in sync with the right. It is atmospheric discord, as well as image discord. Most important, I am now optimistic. This painting will succeed!
Yesterday's drawing is testing my sight, my ability to see. Is that a hole in the center of the large, complex form on the right side of the drawing? Or is it a protrusion of something light in value? I don't know. I done care. In this case my intuition responds "yes" to this form's viability; in art-making affirmative intuition must be followed, even if it leads to failure. This manner of problem solving is OK in art-making, always leading to the discovery of correctness. This method is not always good in life. In life, sometimes one cannot go back and correct a gaffe. Art is about mistakes and failures leading to knowledge, leading to better art. This is not true in human relationships. People say and do things they cannot take back. I would like to declare the painting 2017 No.12 complete, but never say never. In fact, 2017 No.11 remains on my painting wall; yesterday I looked at this previously "completed" painting. Now I believe 2017 No.11 needs an alteration, i.e., removal of a little murkiness in thought and deed. I will probably give 2017 No.11 a bit of a re-do tomorrow. For now, I believe this one, the one in front of you, is complete. (A note about reproduction: That top border band of blue/black of the painting reproduced here today is darker in the actual painting. When photographing this painting I tried to adjust the lights that were used to illuminate the painting. In my adjustments I could now remove some of the surface sheen. Thus, the top border, which is darker in value, is reflectively grayed in the reproduction you see before you.) Please note the playfulness of the frame created by the dark border: it changes in value, as well as in width, consequently it also changes in its artifice of depth. This is new in my work.
Yesterday's drawing continues my query into biomorphic abstraction. I have long feared complexity as possible harbinger of confusion. Yesterday's drawing did not tap into this fear. I felt control and clarity. Looking at this drawing, as reproduced here, I believe I did succeed in layering the complex, yet creating simplicity of comprehension. This drawing is about balance: balance of forms, balance of compositional movements, and balance of value and contrast. It works for me!
Yesterday's drawing is me better realizing my roots. The drawings from the previous two days of studio activity look and feel wrong. Wrong in the sense that those previous drawings appear too figuratively attached. I believe they are good drawings. Good in terms of all things formal, i.e., composition, value and size contrast, use of scale, the use of light and the third-dimension. Confusion is easy. Clarity is hard. The clarifying factor was the beginning of the painting 2017 No.9. It feels right. The struggle today is to keep it right. This is the discipline that is necessary in order to be successful in this game of making art
I actually thought I was done with the painting 2017 No.7. Today's reproduction of that painting made me think again. The color value of the bottom right magenta area is too dark. Theres is very little change in that area from the previous state, but the left bottom corner did change a lot. A balance in contrast is now off. Conclusion: One more day of work on this painting is required.
Yesterday's drawing came fast and furious. Some days the juices flow in one place (the drawing), then I miss the mark in another place (the painting). I worry about the demands to perform. I tell myself, "Not to Worry." Practice makes substance. The more I do this activity, art-making, the more true it is. This trueness exists despite any conflicting and confusing emotions. In other words, it is not for me to judge. I must continue to believe that any activity, when humanly performed to the best of one's ability, becomes true through the effort of trying. It is apt for me to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
Yesterday's studio activity brought two interesting drawings, and a turn toward more effective color and value contrasts, in the painting "2017 No.4". I am proceeding in a manner different than ever before. It is the way I do things, at least with my painting. I am re-inventing my process with every painting. I do not feel the same about my drawing. Painting "2016 No.20" is pale. Its values are low. I am casting my way into it with caution.
If you have been watching my recent art, instead of being distracted by my recent falderal, you have observed a gentler touch. Yesterday's drawings, and the newest painting ("2016 No.16"), exhibit a higher degree of contrast in value, and touch, than my previous works. Again, I must complain about reproduction. I try to reproduce my art close to reality, but I am never totally successful. Yesterday's reproduction of "Drawing No.1" is far from true. The grays of the pencil have a wide range of values in the original, not seen in today's reproduction. Therefore, I need to tell you what the original says that may not be evident here.
My gentler touch brings great benefit to my expression. It allows me to create a world on paper that is more light-filled, that has rounder, more robustly three-dimensional forms. This has been a goal of mine. Yesterday's drawings took a positive step toward achieving this goal. Insight! It happened on paper. Time consuming it is, these demands. My work is calling for it! I am just following its call. The requests must not be ignored. Thus the work makes itself. I am the conduit, channeling visual truth.
That first paragraph is scary. It reads like one would expect from a deluded prophet who believes he has been called upon to follow some mystical, spiritual enlightenment. All I know is this: my knowledge continues to expand. I see the work in front of me more precisely than ever. I can feel its need for a dark mark in one place and a subtle gray mark in another. This is the same for color and for form, as well. Each work's requirements are self-evident. Yesterday I completed the painting "2016 No. 15". I am glad. I want to move on to a new painting. Following my theme for today, the painting "2016 No.15" demanded more precise shadowing on its "floor," so I did it! As good as this is, I know I could continue to squiggle, to reform; the niggle is always there, never goes away. In the larger scheme of things, that would be contra-productive. It is better to begin a new work. Lingering on an older work would have me correcting for the knowledge deficiency that was present when I began that work. Rather than trying to correct the initial shortfall of knowledge, it is better to begin anew. It is better to accept the indigenous limits of a work, and move on with greater understanding to a new work, riding with loftier knowledge right from the get-go! |
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April 2024
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