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1/8/2018

Finished Does the Cosmos Care?, archival computer print. Several different things appeared here, although the same general ideas remain. Started with paint splatters on a floor, a real fight to get it "right" in terms of relationship to other things. An accident in filtering caused it to go dark, and there it was! The darker, literally and figuratively, figures were harder to see, the contemplator stood out, and the swimmer in the sea of cosmos was just right.

 

1/12/2018
Working on Inquiry. For several months, have been working with the chaos/flow field I used in Heraclitus Applied (10/13/2017). Although theHeraclitian/Epicurian idea of randomness/flow and accidental joinings was there, I decided to get a little "dirtier," less idealistic. As I looked at the piece, it seemed more bruised than real, so I've cleaned it up a bit, still leaving some of the easiness we experience in life:

 

1/23/2018
Finished Flow Triptych, ed. 50. Started with seeing the Jurgis Daugvila saddened angel on the wall. Got the idea right away for a triptych, with the flow untouched in the center, the sides containing two possibilities, quantum-like. Took a while, searching through my resources before I found the great counter: a dancing girl. Had to work to get just a bit of the flow in the figures. This may be just a one-off, since I am working on another already that is back to the "Timeline" idea, Nature and Ideas.

 

 

Later, looking on the Nature and Ideas study, I decided it would make a good computer print, so now we have Other Flows, archival computer print.

 

 

 

2/8/2018
Sketched in Nature and Ideas a few days ago. Today got the idea to first paint a gray, then randomly sgraffito back into from the "flow"paint. In the mixing, went into a blue-green gray. The idea is that there is even more depth behind the depth.

2/22
On vacation in Mexico, I saw a wall that was being overgrown. Seemed a good metaphor for our intellectual boundary-making meeting nature's surge. Working on a computer piece.

2/26
Not much progress on Nature and Ideas, due to weather, misc. events, and our Mexican vacation. Like the way the ground has turned out, added a blue intrusion instead of light. However the light intrusion has returned in the computer pieces. Reintrospection is finished. The idea is okay, bounding around between perception and understanding, but the composition is fun. Shapes repeat, sometimes sneakily. Zigs and zags do their unifying and linking. I'm looking in, like "What the HELL!"

 

 

2/27
Finished Apart, pencil, ink on paper collage, on paper, 8.5 x 11 in.

 

 

 

3/5
Arc of Life is a 5 x 5 in. version of Arc of my Life, done as a donation to The Depot Museum and Gallery for their fundraiser exhibit, "5 x 5."

 

 

 

3/12/2018
Finished Considerations, pencil, ink on paper collage, on paper, 8.5 x 11 in

 

 

 

 

3/19/2018
Finished Towards, archival computer print (ed. 50), 16 x 12 in. or x 32 x 24 in. Also worked out a new way creating cosmic chaos/randomness: one wash, dried, another thin on top, brush handle random lines. Whether something can be worked out or not, not sure.

 

 

 

3/26/2018
Did From Then To Now, pencil and collage on paper, 8.5 x 11 in. Looking to start from scratch, went to my folder of resources. Liked the running youth, thought the dream-like image a good metaphor for the ideal, eventually came up with the idea of tearing up a sheet of paper with an edge as a real. To make sure the paper was seen, I touched the edges with a pencil.

 

 

4/7/2018
Walls or Not (ed.50), archival computer print, 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Inspired by a wall in Puerto Vallarta that was slowly succumbing to nature, expanded to include the old "thinker coming up with a concept," a part of an old painting on the them redone to make the conceptualization more prominent, with an underlying flow from a friend's photo of a tea stain, and finished with an ending that cannot be known.

 

 

4/19/2018

Finished At the End of the Line, pastel and collage on paper, 9 x 12 in. New metaphors mainly, for the chaos flow, the reflection, the ideal, the real, the beginning, the end.

 

 

 

4/23/2018

Finished Realizations, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. More metaphoric and field explorations. The "zzzzzzzz" of energy flow in the ground, material and spiritual/material explorations, along with the solitary position thinking for yourself puts you in.

 

 

4/26/2018

Finished Conclusion of the Moment, archival computer print (ed. 50) 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Existence just moves on, I reach so few.

 

 

 

 

5/5/2018

Finished a study, An Insight, archival ink and paper, 10 x 8 in.The beginning is now a young boy riding off. The "real is an empty cake plate and a flower vase. The resolution is a cloud or rock, realistically done, and a circle (conceptual abstraction). The middle, action zone, is a abstraction of a real building interior, Dallas Ft. Worth airport.

I like it a bit, but am still leery, not will to fully commit to this new path across an old field. THAT, I like a lot. The maelstrom of creativity.

 

 

5/12/2018

Made two pieces as explorations:

Exit Unknowable, collage and pencil on paper, 11 x 8.5

 

 

 

 

Towards Nothingness—A Journey, collage and pencil on paper, 11 x 8.5

 

 

 

 

 

Starting with nothing in mind, a pencil, and my folder of resources, I pulled something interesting, than began to pick other things and draw, all objects in dialog.

5/26/2018
Finished Ergo, archival computer print (ed. 50), 16 x 16 or 32 x 32 in. To stimulate new thoughts and visuals and to sieve what was really important, I picked an old piece and threw it into the computer to see what developed. The old piece was Mondrian Anew:

 

 

 

I enjoyed putting in the moiré, making of cosmos, using trees for nature, my own cat painting for primal nature, and the nude with the cosmos as part of "her."

5/28/2018
Perceptions and Emotions, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Another revitalization of the Timeline series. This explores light as the metaphor/activator of experiences/ideas.

 

 

 

 

6/6/2018

Clouds and Things, charcoal and collage (print segment), 12 x 9 in. Saw a few clouds in the sky on the way to the studio today, and decided to start there, not knowing what else would fit. Found something in my resources folder, more a gut feeling than an analytical one.

 

 

 

6/8/2018
Finished Search and Resolution,colored pencil and collage, 12 x 9 in. Fishing around in resource folder again, knowing I'd do something with the grid. This one came easily.

 

 

 

 

6/25/2018
The Hidden Revealed, pencil and pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in.Driving to the studio, I saw a van pull behind a building, and it struck me as a good starting place. A subtle doorway, with a crack to the outside world come to mind next, then, thinking about a resolution, the idea of nature being more or less eternal, and a final enlightenment in my life popped up, as the idea of the landscape, and another popup idea, the sun illuminating.

 

7/1/2018
See Through, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Dove into my resources folder, knowing I was looking for seeing through a forest of tress (having just looked out my window at dusk). From 20 or so, picked the center image, then decided to go with another piece I had reated, with trees in front of a flow visual field. after that, and some adjustment, more things seemed appropriate, based on the general idea of "Timeline."

 

7/10/2018
From Leaf To Leaving, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Using new elements to express feelings/ideas of chaos/randomness, ordering of experiences, passage of time and thoughts.

 

 

 

7/26/2018
Dichotomies-Art, Idea, Reality, pencil, ink, collage, tape on paper, 9 x 12 in.
A free flowing start, getting the idea to outline the artist (photographer/person) partly over a phenomenon/idea. Meanwhile, there is a real thing, masking tape, in the field

 

 

 

7/28/2018
Finished Goodness Gracious, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Another Timeline work. Different starting and ending representations, as well as Art trying to get at reality and the sometimes of old sadness.

 

 

8/10/2018
Am destroying "Homage to Leon Bishop" because it has ceased to be anything but an exercise in composition. Originally, I wanted to see if new symbols for my Timeline series would be interesting. (The original Bishop work is on the left, the study I made in the middle, its state when I pitched it, on the right.) Red for birth, nature branching into the beginning and end of life, the greening of light/idea, and the final break from actively being in the flow, of passing into oblivion. Much work to keep the paper from bucking from its support. A few times, mostly of gessoed "erasures" and cutting the right into the "departure." But, "blah" and forced lately.

8/13/2018
Finished A Flowering, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

This piece was inspired a while back, while driving to the studio, somewhat flat. I thought, "What am I seeing, that could go against that?" Flowers in a yard passed by. I digitized a flower/box/rainbow piece from 1972. Picked a topped obelisk with a sun on it for the bad feeling. Used a drawing of an easel in a studio for the "art trying to get to reality" aspect. The ancient stone face sculptures remind me of basic human nature. The face is a sculpture in clay of mine, which I digitized. Finally, the light and shadows of light are our understandings of the flow and flux of the cosmos. It took quite a while to get things in a communicating and good composition, the zig-zag of life as well as the "S" or Renaissance harmony. Color and transparencies took a lot of time to get the right harmony and contrast.

8/21/2018
Finished Start To Finish, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

I like the ideas of shadows on the wall, growing things that are also passing things. So, added a portal on the left for a start, and some other things from my life, as events and also metaphors. Finish is at upper right, a discontinuity that still is in the flow of the wall/cosmos.

 

8/24/2018
Finished A General Story-Study for computer, 7.5 x 10 in.

Started a painting months ago, based on two recent small paintings that were sitting in the studio (yellow=light), and some past experiences with multiple uneven glazes changing color and creating a subtle randomness. It, and another piece nearly finished, have been just sitting there, because of organizing exhibits of other works, lack of time, fixing up my database of works after a collector bought a print and a drawing which revealed gaps in my data, and other tasks. Also, I have been working much more slowly now, "listening" much more intently to the paint that was previously put down in the previous step than to where the idea originated. Now ready to get the paint flowing again, I looked at the piece, and realized I had no idea what to do next. The blue/yellow paint drip "invasion" or "enlightenment" that had entered the general random flow of time now didn't bring up another image or approach. So, I went on the computer and pulled up all my "Art Resource" images, picking one, the barricade with a way around it which started the flow of idea about the times I did that and my realization about events in my life so far.

 

8/29/2018
Finished At First….Then...Now, archival computer print (ed. 50) 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. My intentions as always are somewhat vague, except for what would NOT belong. Started with the desk window, towards far right, near the end of the timeline, with the cosmos flow (background) being visible through the metaphorical "window." The other things represent stops along my limited time in that cosmos, starting with a birth and childhood where only shadows were really grasped. The piece reflects the idea, "At first I thought a rock was a rock and a three a tree; then I realized the rock wasn't just a rock nor the tree a tree; now I know the rock is a rock and the tree a tree."

8/31/2018
Finally happy with the" artist" metaphor (photographer/easel) in Inquiry (1/12/2018).

Used pastels to bring out the figure of the photogrpaher composite with easel just a bit.

 

 

Now I am sketching to get the right look on the boy, concentrating while smiling about his "work."

 

 

 

 

9/3/2018
Finished Artist Metaphor, archival computer, 20 x 8 in.

Initially this piece was intended as a reply to a photography website. As I worked on it, I realized it was a serious piece. As an artist, I see and I make—yet both aspects are open to error and expression. Great!

 

 

 

 

9/12/2018
Finished From Then On, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

Sparked by memory of School of the Dayton Art Institute days, Linda in a gallery, looking at a Monet during lunch. The broadening experience of art school led to a different life for me, through Art, thinking, to a resolution of appearance with reality.

 

9/16/2018
Finished Metaphysical and Palpable, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

Started with an old drawing ("Face Window Horizon," 1985) made with MacDraw, and found metaphors for birth, abstract understanding, nature, and resolution.

 

9/21/2018
Finished Tripod and Two Photographers, a set up photo, as yet unprinted. As I was cleaning up, I saw the cutout, remembered the paper it was cut from and the idea popped into my head. I decided to place the picture hanger in the head of one figure rather than removing it. Something to do with finished/unfinished, time's passage, potential.

 

 

 

 

9/24/2018
Fun day at the studio. First, took scraps from paper cutter and created a "Timeline" piece on regular paper. Gluing problems of course, some adding to the concept, e.g. a torn thin strand became more truthful as torn and broken. To preserve, finished with matte MSA varnish.

Then, affixed to A General Story a fossil piece (from a photo I took of our shower in Puerto Vallarta, some kind of stone that had cracks and fossils—perfect as a counter to the "ethereal" stroke on the other side. its slight angle also interplays with the angle of the stroke. That messed up my plan for the piece (8/24/2018 A General Story-Study for), but even that presents an enjoyable challenge.

 

 

9/26/2018

Finished Timeline Geometry, mat board on paper, 8.5 x 11 in. My art has always had a philosophical aspect. This one is bare bones.

 

 

10/18/2018
Finished Lawnchairs in Winter,archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 12 in. or 24 x 24 in. Working through old illustrations, I saw this, modified it, just because I like it. Colors are not the usual palette, but the concept of change, "smallness," and the fleeting moment just moved me.

 

 

 

10/24/2018
For the past nine months or so my work has been exceptionally varied. I am not sure what this might mean, whether I am in a fallow period before another style evolution, a new freedom, a result of my age, or something else. Unlike previous fallow periods, I am enjoying the works, even though I don't know their position relative to the progress of my work.

Yesterday, I likely finished Inquiry (1/12/2018, 8/31/2018), but will take one more studio to be sure, then sign. That piece and several others moved somewhat away from the "Timeline" style of a series of events, to focusing on a thought or single event.

10/29/2018
Finished Inquiry, acrylic and watercolor on canvas, 36 x 48 in. Digging, and finding some flow. Finished Winter Circle Implied, archival computer, 14.5 x 10.5, resurrecting the old Winter Circle and cropping its sides for a one-off piece for the Fall luncheon in our studio complex. I enjoy the piece, not so much for its simple idea, but for the complex, interacting composition principles.

 

10/30/2018
Decided to go with Lightfall, archival computer print, 12 x 16.

A month or so ago I came across a digital image of an oldpainting: Figures Untitled, oil on canvas board, 18 x24 in., 1968. Intending to send it to someone,I auto-exposed it because it seemed too dark, and suddenly there was another figure.

Ironically, as i worked on a new focus, that original interest figure got wiped out. So, there are figures, placed somewhat in my "Timeline" series, and blobs, and randomness, and a light "waterfalls". I think it's likely a one-off, not liking the blobs particularly; but the waterfalls in an interesting idea.

11/4/2018
Finished Strata, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

After a walk on the beach, started with the idea of layering, of strata of time and experiences. Putting the photographer in as the me/artist, fished around for the other metaphors. The moon/mysterious writing from seemed right as a starting point. Then, why not an enlightened end point, which filled out the early questions by absorbing the flow/strata, which by then had quantum-like particle flow I'd added. Also, the photographer/artist had to be observing the whole process, so made him look both ways and be detached from a specific time/place.

11/5/2018
I started a new piece I saw some legs in another artist's piece as I was browsing the web, "transparentish" one overlapping the other, suggesting, as my chair does, contemplation and potential movement.

So I set out to work on the idea for myself. Began with a flow idea that I'd been planning for next painting, a textured current made up of light/ idea (yellows), materiality/living (reds). Spent quite a bit of time on a digital capture of part of a painting, to get the colors just right, going through saturation, hues, and values until it was present but not dominating, and carrying the right emotion.

Searching through my resources, I found a photo of mine where lower legs at the top of the frame generated a near full-length shadow. I had to create the head and create a new part of the shadow to replace where it fell on a wall. Worked the shadow to be transparent enough to show the flow.

11/9/2018
The start of two paintings. The inspiration for these is that in the flow of life/time there are conscious/reasoning aspects and nature-embedded aspects. Light and Blood. Apollo and Dionysus. So, these two foundations will be in two works that have flow, but are likely to be different.

11/10/2018
Finished Gleaning, archival computer print (ed. 50) 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

Keyed it up a bit to bring things more into harmony.

 

 

11/14/2018
"The Good, the True, and the Beautiful." These were the benchmarks for Art in the mind of Thomas Aquinas, a great thinker when not bound by the lack of scientific understanding in his era. I think he was right, and that is where today's standards are wrong. The Good, the True, and the Beautiful do not mean superficial sweetness, cliché, or pretty. Rather, they permeate at the deepest levels the whole piece, from concept to execution.

Today I cut out from heavy paper something that is going to be collaged onto the painting, "A General Story" (9/24/2018). Should the cut be beveled in or beveled out, or straight-cut? Well, beveled in would create a shadow, thus subtly separating the print from the painting, while beveled out would make the print appear to rise from the events of the painting. These options are not true to the intent, roughly, seeing more deeply in the moment. To parallel the painting's ground, a straight cut is best. Not a big Truth, but True in the sense of Aquinas.

11/21/2018
Finished Homage to Haydon, computer, dimensions undecided. Seeing an announcement of an upcoming exhibit for works of Hal Haydon from a collection, and having talked with him in the 1970s, I took one of his pieces "10 VIII 61," and made an homage. He was a nice man, but his system of looking at art was a bit narrow, so that came out in my work, as I expanded the space and the concept. It is not meant as a criticism at all, but rather a clarification of what's important to me, and about how art is judged. He was kind, but apparently not very impressed with my work. The next year, a work of mine, Studio Corner Dream, was juried into the New Horizons in Art exhibit. That piece is moving on, the yellowish trapezoid, into my red doorway area and a doorway from his original piece.

12/21/2018
Different Same Flow, archival computer print (ed. 50), 16 x 12 in. or 32 x 24 in. Trying to self-ground after some depressing events, I looked through my collection of "flow" images. Picking one I liked, I searched for some different, almost opposite, images. The tree on the rocky ridge and the sun-reflecting seascape fit the concept. However, it took a month of tweaking and subtle additions to get it right, strong opposites yet the flow showing through if you look hard enough.

 

 

 

 

12/22/2018
Heralcitus Apollo Dionysus-Study, ink (Epson Ultra Chrome) on rag paper, 8 x 10 in. For Heralcitus Apollo Dionysus (11/9/2018). Decided that the Apollo/Dionysus, Idea/Flesh bands needed to be in a more general flow. The other objects played into the idea of flow, observation, human

 

 

12/26/2018
Thus the World Exists, oil on brass, ca. 10 x 16 in. Walking out the studio the other day, I saw the brass plate I had been saving for an oil painting using a lot of glazing to let the brass through. Realizing I really did not have the patience to do repetitive glazing, I grabbed some oi tubes and just started out, letting the circular (glasses?) stains on the brass be the theme. Light. Trying to grasp the light, Fleeting nature. Thought.

 

12/30/2018
As The Tree Grows, computer, undetermined

Seeing the now and the past.