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1/4/2019
Finished A General Story, acrylic and collage on canvas, 36 x 48 in. (9/24/2018, 11/14/2018) I like how the exaggerated perspective made the barrier seem even larger and more intimidating. Got around it, nature, thinking, and a jumble followed, insight (wisdom?) finally gives some idea of the tapestry of energy that is the universe and one's life.

 

 

1/5/2019
Suggestions Towards Truth, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Started with the idea of exploring a multi-layer sandwich of geometric/biomorphic abstracts, after coming across an old drawing of geometric/biomorphic abstraction. Ended up picking about 10 works from photos and previous art, juggling, pushing, deriving a concept, altering shapes, colors, transparencies for a few weeks. Extending a stroke of yellow to the edge of the piece, thereby incorporating several aspects, snapped the final piece into place.

 

1/8/2019

Path of a Long Moment, archival computer print (ed. 50). 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Looking for some continuity and iiking the idea of a path from Suggestions Towards Truth, I began stripping away the borders and other aspects that could be taken out. Flow is more emphasized, colors are more metaphorical and darks not so dominant and "dark." The feeling is fresh for me, and I like it better than Suggestions Towards Truth.

 

1/20/2019
Flow Topography, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Imported a pic of my studio drop tarp, liking the patterns, but intending to change the colors. Running through various schemes, I was attracted to the life-giving greens and blues of the basic color shit, but had to spend a lot of time changing some colors in the scheme that fought the idea notably purple slashes and brown blobs. after I picked the start of the objects, the stage, as entry, I sorted through about eight other objects until I found something conveying the ideas of the ideal, the real, the enlightening, and moving into a partially realized enlightened flow.

1/30/2019
One Meander Through the Flow, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Wanting to freshen my mind by going in a somewhat new direction, I chose the "crane" graffiti scribble on a gray wall. Next picked a ground that could be seen through the wall, cleaned and straightened cracks and flows to be somewhat "real/nature" and "ideal/idea." Followed up with what might fit, the walking figure and the muon creation. Moved around a lot after adding the chair to complete a journey ("Meander").

2/8/2019
A "boom" today. Was going to do a small collage in the sketchbook, just to see what came up. Going through resources, I had picked out a few possibles when I saw "it." A trim piece from a computer print proof, it was an inter section of one rich dark with some natural color and another rich dark with a hint of light at the top right. With some more trimming, it could be the finishing segment in a Timeline piece. When I laid it in place in the sketchbook, it because obvious that it was too dominating in scale. Rather than cut it down, I pulled out some large Arches, and am developing the idea on that. So far, joining the now attached piece in the upper right are a yellow-orange "Apollo light" at the top, and a tricolor stroke of green red, and black (nature, blood, death) that starts bottom left and swerves up to the finish corner. A perfect-except- for-a-few-things piece of paper I brought home to fix and scale. A printer nozzle test was juiced up and moved from bottom to top. Another area that had two drawings was moved from top to bottom, and the center cut-out and tear now got a revised me-the-artist. May be the pivot piece, but had to develop it before I could continue with what I am calling "Getting and Giving."

2/10/2019

Finished Getting and Giving, archival computer print (ed. 50), 16 x 12 in. or 32 x 24 in. (2/8/2019) Quite a bit of copying something from one layer and using it in another. Tying things together conceptually also tied the piece together altogether. I like the complexity of the composition and the concept.

 

 

 

 

2/11/2019
In and Ongoing-Study, ink on paper, 7 x 9 in. The strong parabolic swing of the lower element was a real bother. Went to the computer. Tried several flows, until an old multiple pencil worked. Juggled first Page (Early Summary) for In and Ongoing (2/8/2019) for placement and size. Decided it to be a start, with a mature artist (far right) reflecting both it and the "end" above.

 

2/14/2019
Seascape-There and Beyond, ink on paper on canvas, 5 x 5 in. Done as a donation to The Depot Museum and Gallery's "5x5" fundraiser. Enjoyed diffusing the light, intensified the colors, and adding some structure to the infinite flow in the painting Seascape.

 

 

 

3/11/2019
Flow--A Personal Comprehending, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

This began with an image that is now gone, but remains the spirit behind the piece: a self portrait with a bookshelf behind me. It represented a fulcrum, where ideas and nature began to come together, and whose output (still in the piece) was an artwork of the underlying flow. Hours and hours getting edges, coloration, and tonality right—yet it never looked right. As I turned off the layers that comprised it in Photoshop, intending to use perhaps only one or two, the piece struck me as right. The flow itself was now a stronger element. The other elements (ampersand for idea, rock for nature, painting, geometric squares in dimension for later advanced id4as, Mt. St. Victoire for nature revealing the flow, and the dancing girl/spirit for the freedom and joy in realizing that it's just Cosmos) that I had introduced in developing the work fit. A little adjusting of values to sync up everything, and done!

3/17/2019
Tendencies and Acts, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. From start, through milestones, to understanding.

 

 

3/25/2019
In and Ongoing pencil and archival inked collage on paper, 19 x 29 in. The story, from beginning to end:

 

2/8/2019
A "boom" today. Was going to do a small collage in the sketchbook, just to see what came up. Going through resources, I had picked out a few possibles when I saw "it." A trim piece from a computer print proof, it was an intersection of one rich dark of some natural color with another rich dark with a hint of light at the top right. With some more trimming, it could be the finishing segment in a Timeline piece. When I laid it in place in the sketchbook, it because obvious that it was too dominating in scale. Rather than cut it down, I pulled out some large Arches, and am developing the idea on that. So far, joining the now attached piece in the upper right are a yellow-orange "Apollo light" at the top, and a tricolor stroke of green red, and black (nature, blood, death) that starts bottom left and swerves up to the finish corner. Calling it In and Ongoing.

A perfect-except- for-a-few-things piece of paper I brought home to fix and scale. A printer nozzle test was juiced up and moved from bottom to top. Another area that had two drawings was moved from top to bottom, and the center cut-out and tear now got a revised me-the-artist. May be the pivot piece, but had to develop it before I could continue with what I am calling "In and Ongoing." Titled it Page (Early Summary) for In and Ongoing, ink on paper, 10 x 8 in.

(2/11/2019)

In and Ongoing-Study, ink on paper, 7 x 9 in. The strong parabolic swing of the lower element was a real bother. Went to the computer. Tried several flows, until an old multiple pencil worked. First, juggled Page (Early Summary) for In and Ongoing (2/8/2019) for placement and size. Decided it to be a start, with a mature artist (far right) reflecting both it and the "end" above.

 

Finished the work by moving the artist/observer/photographer to a better position, both for composition and concept (ongoing). Rubbed out some of the work on the easel in artist/observer/photographe, so the flow shows through.

4/6/2019
Ascending Inwards, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.
Looking, through a glass darkly, exposed to nature and thinking, incorporating a bit of the Cosmos in the work.

 

 

4/13/2019

Finished Woman and Cosmos, ink on paper, 12.5 x 14.5 in. Epson P800 printed Looking at a sheet of overspray paper I had used a few times, I saw that its cosmic randomness would go well with a beautiful face—the world as it is and as we try to make sense of it (sometimes even successfully). A few changes to emphasize some things, and to create in the upper left corner the edge of the sheet, suggesting yet another dimension of understanding.

 

 

 

4/23/2019
Aspects, archival computer print (ed. 50), 11 x 15.5 in. or 22 x 32 in. As I was storing Woman and Cosmos (4/13/2019), my mind's eye caught something, perhaps the geometry and spatial aspects. Anyway, those are the things I developed in the piece, adding another "world" (finger hole in paper retainer of storage drawer), knocking down some areas through toning and blurring, and removing the paper's edge to hint at depth/edge rather than make it too strong. Also, the usual adjusting of color and value to bring everything into harmony.

 

4/26/2019
The original sheet of overspray paper with a drawing on the back that I retraced on the front for Woman and Cosmos (4/13/2019) ended up on top of a large gray sheet that I had "ruined" with paint splatters. An idea was born.

Trimmed the overspray/drawing page to perspective. Added eclipses from three proofing prints I had made. Next, I started looking for what would go with the idea of a cosmos that creates seeming randomness while we try to make sense or extract beauty from it. That ended up with more randomness from extracting stains from an old drawing board. I liked these because they started out tumultuous and reflective of early dichotomies or reality and idealism, while gradually simplifying and thinning out, defective of later clarity. The attempted grid of rationality with its recognition that complete understanding was unattainable was the next step as I looked to find the inherent development of the ideas and feelings. The next step was unknown, would come likely from my collection of resources.

Indications-Study,computer inkjet Durabrite,7.5 x 10 in. After going through many, I picked a drawing of a flower and rectangle. Manipulated them to the right position at the end of the timeline, the flower solid, "seeing like a rock" both itself and the artist, the rectangle being the unknown, yet continuing the cosmos.

 

 

4/30/2019
During the past several months, while working on pieces featuring flow as a light ground, I had done, and set aside some exploratory pieces with a darker ground. These may have influenced Notre Dame Fire—Legacy Sequence, Computer Archival Ink, 14 x 11 in.

Started out with a map of medieval Paris and a crinkled piece of aluminum foil that I had poured ammonia on—something "eternal" (shiny foil) with a burn-looking mark on it. The idea grew into seeing that this disaster might become a good. If our culture can revive what is best in it rather than sink beneath an over-enthusiastic multi-culturalism and divisive diversity, carrying forward values of objective truth and individual worth, then, Phoenix-like, the immolation would be worth it. So, I drew from an older work which dwelled on the circle of time and culture, and melded in photos of the fire, used the Rose Window with a glow to signify the re-birth, over a replaced charred wood and unknown future.

5/6/2019
A Realization, colored pencil and collage on paper, 12 x 9 in. Was inspired by the semicircle cutout. Paper underneath (time flow) ending in a an unintelligble. From there, the swimming in the flow after emerging from the fair, discovering that the sought after order of the cosmos was involved with the reality of changing life (apple) just came.

 

 

 

 

5/17/2019
Experiment-Off To The Side 2, ink on paper, 8 x 10 in.

A re-working of the painting "Experiment--Off To The Side," as commissioned by Joe Kozuh. When I could not find the original 1995 painting he wanted, I offered to re-work it on the computer and print it. Removed some of the canvas textures, altered the white canvas spaces to a slight tint of myriad colors (not noticeable at first) that became in my mind my more recent concern with the ground of existence, cosmos. Tweaked some colors and strokes to hint at carryovers and links from one part of existence to another

5/19/2019
Within, archival computer print (ed. 50), 11 x 15.5 in. or 22 x 32 in.

Started with a photo capture of a paint table that had a lavender rectangular frame as one overspray. The randomness of the other oversprays and the gold overspray attracted me. Rotated the shot so that the gold fit in at the end of the l/r timeline.

Although I did not know where this would lead, it seems to have revisited other Timeline themes, Ap[o0llo/Dionysus, youthful plunging / mature consideration, Heraclitian flow.

6/4/2019
Dark Trees and Chair, ink on paper, 10 x 8 in.
While exploring an idea to work with in my current style, an idea popped up to try it out in a very early style.

The very early explorations of objects very close in values was an extension of looking through a doorway, of how undecipherable the world really is.

This piece had my recent exploration of the chair as a metaphor for contemplation or action, about to be taken, or having been done.

 

6/9/2019
Right Now, archival computer print (ed. 50), 11 x 15.5 in. or 22 x 32 in.
Browsing, I was attracted to some older works which I reassembled into another Timeline or journey work. The bicyclist begins his travels, through mystery and beauty, reason/understanding, to a kind of unifying of conceptualizing and nature, a realization of the raw being of things. All this has a faint realization of the flow of the cosmos which is of course much more intense outside the borders of human perception.

 

 

 

6/10/2019
It's That Simple, Really, ink, collage on corrugated plastic, 8.5 x 12.5

Almost a mindless grabbing of what attracted me, playing around, tearing, adjusting, liking the idea of patchwork psychological framing in our perception, but play on.

 

6/25/2019
Moments Within the Coursing, archival computer print (ed. 50), 11 x 15.5 in. or 22 x 32 in.

 

 

 

6/26/2019
Reworked It's That Simple, Really (6/10/2019) to remove too much accidental stuff: the bubbles in the center section. Removed and painted in acrylic instead.

 

 

7/12/2019
Along with Heraclitus and Socrates, archival computer print (ed. 50) 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in. Started from scratch, randomly searching resources. After a few, I felt the need for a ground, and modified the one from Moments Within the Coursing (6/25/2019). Weeks of moving and improving clarity and integration. It's about my course, from birth to now.

 

 

7/26/2019
Indications, colored pencil, charcoal, collage on gray paper, 18 x 24 in.

Started with the sketch of the Botticelli-like face, amid the randomness of life, peering in. Flow, aspects of living, aspects of thinking, ending—all found their way in intuitively and got arranged intuitively, philosophically, and compositionally.

 

7/31/2019
Remember, You Are Dust, charcoal, ink, collage on paper, 30 x 22 in.

Had Tripod and 2 Photographers as an installation piece on studio wall. Decided that the paper curling was not worth fighting, would make a piece instead. Enjoyed getting back to making a charcoal drawing (the tripod). Each piece demanded a different treatment of the tripod.

 

 

 

8/14/2019
A Digest of Discovery, pencil, collage, 14 x 16 in. Icons of the things that I discovered and that discovered me, as I was part of the human running race and as an artist. I like the line(s) the objects create.

 

 

8/19/2019

Being and Essence, pastel and colored pencil on canvas, 6 x 8 in. I had created a flow on this canvas, anticipating a study for the boy in Inquiry (10/29/2018). Instead, I did a study for the whole piece on the computer (2/21/2017). As I walked by my paper-working desk, I saw some of the pieces I had used for A Digest of Discovery (8/14/2019). The boy running, young Heraclitus/me, running in the flow was the start. The rest popped into my mind, with some adjusting for scale and positioning.

Then, some pieces I used for this piece, lying there on the desk, grabbed my attention as a starting place for a new piece, on 14 x 16 in. rag paper.

 

 

8/22/2019
During and During, archival computer print (ed. 50) 7.5 x 18.5 in. or 12 x 30 in. During a break, I looked across the studio and saw the lid of my box of oils. Not far from it was an oil on brass, Thus the World Exists (12/26/2018). Since my mind had been on chaos/cosmos, this was what Thus the World Exists was about, and the lid both harmonized in form somewhat with Thus the World Exists and was chaotic, the idea was born. Adjustment for harmony, preserving some of the shapes before changing the proportions of Thus the World Exists and reinstalling them after wiping the original, now distended shapes, and finding a flow that could be peeked at through or around these two events—those were my main workings.

8/31/2019
Inquisitive Passage—Study, computer Working on Inquisitive Passage (8/19/2019), collage and pencil on paper. The silhouette of window/insight and figure suggested the looking figure and the walking figure. Then I looked through resources for other ideas that fit, ended up with swimmer in midst of material things and self portrait, backlit ladder behind French Door (enlightenment) and twigs (basic nature) done on computer.

 

9/3/2019
Embrace, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. I do not remember all the steps to this one. Back in July, I was feeling down, having just come back from a frustrating hospital stay. I decided to make something bright, to try to restore some optimism and energy. Grabbing a paint-stained paper towel and something else I cannot recall from my art resources folder, I started playing around with color shifts and transparencies.

In the middle of that, as I was getting close to what I now have, I went looking for other things, to make sense (a bit) of the field I was creating. Scrolling through my resources, I was attracted to the door and the figure. Door I just moved around and cropped a bit, so it wouldn't be so boring in idea and shape. The figure evolved from the original dark silhouette to the layered, lighter-colored shape it now is.

Until now, Embrace sat in a folder, forgotten as other ideas came forth. It worked too well, generating a new drive.

9/11/2019
Elemental, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. Started out wanting to pick up something from last piece (8/31/2019 Inquisitive Passage—Study).I liked the looking figure, but moved him to near the end of the timeline. The twigs (nature) became the grounding, near his feet. He became superimposed on the silhouettes of enlightenment, which received some colorful enlightenment. the other main additions were the moving, blurred figures and self portrait near French Door, the same one in the top Apollonian-reveal door. A peek-through there, to the Heraclitian flow. The swimmer emerged from his prior milieu, to swim in the flow, as we all start out.

9/11/2019
Geometric Mystery, computer, size undetermined, 9/11/2019 What started out as an attractive zoom of the Cloudgate sculpture ended up b being worked into something really pleasing for its harmony and yet dynamism.

 

 

9/23/2019
Looking For, computer, 12 x 16 in. Done on iPad (Art Studio Pro and Apple Pencil 2), starting with an iPad sketch while waiting for a plane. Many moves, to bring shadings, shapes, and colors into the harmony or contrast they needed. Difficult because I was clumsy with the tools and for a while was just throwing things down to see if they belonged. Everything changed but the "door" in the upper left, which just called out when I was looking at possible gradient fills to harmonize with the gradient on the right, which I had just injected for no particular reason.

I don't know If I will toss this, edition it, print it as a one-off—it is a step in a different direction, perhaps a side-step, perhaps a step forward.

 

10/11/2019

Inquisitive Passage, pencil, ink, collage on paper, 14 x 16 in. The collaged areas are archival inkjet ink on paper, a development from the previous stage (9/11/2019). Could have painted the door with the light and ladder behind, but I liked the inference of my mind building a construct that dimly connected with the flow of existence. Rather than the running figure, which caused confusion about the relationship between it and the looking figure, I reverted back to "nature" theme of early man, trying to figure it all out. The broken off tree branches I drew in rather than collaging from an inkjet print because that is an important point: my looking at and befriending nature enough to be able to draw it partially led to what enlightenment I have.

10/18/2019
Aspects of Place computer 12 x 12 in. or 24 x 24 in. Done on iPad (Art Studio Pro and Apple Pencil 2). Started out with a "just for the hell of it" idea, combining a photo of a doctor's office with a peek at nature through a slim window with one of a light fixture that looked like the sun. Five layers and refining the concept from the initial"why not make the sun a separate, entering object into the confines of the office?", I had a finished piece. As usual there was a fair amount of work "tidying up" stray artifacts and unnecessary objects. the concept enraged to being about the many aspects in anything the senses experience as the brain observes.

 

10/22/2019
An Understanding, pencil, paint, computer, 16 x 12 in. This piece was made in the spirit of its meaning, Random paint sprays and paint splatters, combined with a refined yet spontaneous drawing. Truth and Beauty. Chaos and Cosmos. Understanding the ways of the universe.

 

 

 

 

10/23/2019
Headway, 18 x 24. In progress.

That face (An Understanding, 10/22/2019) stays powerful. I had started a new flow piece, this time with random lines of different colors, overlain with a soft yellow pastel. I had nothing particular in mind, but planned on looking though my resources folder. A darker version of the French door backlit with a ladder shadow showing was first. Then, the face, and earlier version than light of how I perceived the ideal. Then a white border cutout, a later picking up of the way the universe flows. The walking man came next, starting off the whole passage, followed by an inspiration to use the cutout of the running child as a stencil, charcoal overlain with white conté. Then, finally, came what I had hoped for, new iconography. I joined a grid (rationality) with a section of another piece containing the bottom half of a reclining nude (referencing the woman as ideal earlier) and a musician (the artist ready to play). Finally, two accidental juxtapositions of previous works were on a sheet of thumbnails I used as resources: my face, a golden square (abstract knowledge) and a dying flower, leading to a still life I had done in exceptionally vibrant colors. The end—it all comes together, abstraction and physical reality in a unifying understanding.

 

11/8/2019
Riders On The Storm, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

Always, I'm probing in new directions. It's getting a little stronger now, so perhaps my current style and ideas are beginning to stale. Anyhow, in that state of mind, I heard The Doors doing "Riders On The Storm." My position in relation to my art, coupled with my mental state overall, urged a "why not start in The Doors direction?" I started with a section of the flow from a previous painting, a rather stormy one, and began to introduce timeframes from my life, from starting out relatively unaware, to the place now, a realization of something like the Zen "immanence of the fleeting moment." So, I fell back into the current "Timeline" series of works, but with some freshness. Fine place to be for now.

11/13/2019
Some Chairs, archival computer print (ed. 50), 12 x 16 in. or 24 x 32 in.

Seeing a cliché photo of chair shadows, I wondered if those shadows could be made into something somewhat more challenging. (The original shadows ended up in front of the table and chair, lower right.)

Starting with the original shadows, I created a flowing background, since chairs can represent a moment in time—someone having just gotten up to do something, or someone about to sit and think or rest. Bringing in some photos that had something to do with the theme, I moved them around, with two concerns: flow of time and nature/thinking. These elements suggested more photos to bring in. Using layers of different types and blending, transforming scale and sometimes direction, gradually over several hours the work began to seem to come together. The intent had clarity in my mind and the color and composition worked in a flow-and-eddy rhythm. The whole piece fell into the Timeline Series eventually.

Flow, how our moments are but part of the river of time, is very important. This, I created with the "background," which is in some ways the subject and the foreground. Not wanting to overpower it, the other visual elements are small, carried along in the current.

These elements fell into three zones: a middle zone, the progress from birth (shadow of walking figure, middle far left) to present (standing figure, looking back, middle far right), linked visually to the other two zones. It includes the realization that some things placed on a pedestal as a young man were but a part of life (log on pedestal), to a central realization of the relationship of life, painting "reality," and the reflection of true light.

The top zone represents cosmos and thought. The bottom zone represents nature/instinct/emotion.

The main composition is a rhythmical flow. However, there are also three radial compositions, three key areas that are hubs to the other elements around them.

There are a few more compositional elements fitting within the "unity with variety" composition principle of repetition. Also the content of the individual elements have layers of meaning.

 

11/16/2019

Experiences to Painting-Study, computer print, 8 x 10 in. Wanting to push into new directions, I went to oils (on paper—not the best support, but does not concern me). Transferred, a la Rauschenberg, a shot of two fallen small branches, planning to leave the tarp marks, also that was open to further developments. Also added a printed-on plastic fish at the bottom, in the "nature" zone of a Timeline work.

As I worked on these and peached for other images, I decided this would be about the artist, seeing, having (had) experiences, influences, desires and discoveries—all leading to the work (the actual painting of the small branches).

 

11/27/2019
Experiences To Painting, watercolor, collage on paper, 12 x 16 in.

A slight change of view here. Rather than proceeding as a timeline from left to right of stages, it is more an all at once moment. I start painting the "reality" I see, the branches, but they are actually but a small, almost pasted on aspect of the total reality. In painting them, my primitive nature, my human seeking, my Apollonian thoughts—all are there.

 

 

12/1/2019
Arrangement in Four Colors—Door, computer, tbd. I was exploring the Adobe Fresco app, based on my memory of Shadows, 1969. Just one the other interesting touches. Freehand lines being straightened, leaving some of the original. painting over at a percentage rather than erasing, the idea of geometry as suggesting esthetic emotion and story.

 

 

 

12/12/2020
Seeking, archival computer print (ed. 50), 16 x 12 or 32 x 24 in. Starting out with an image from a photo as a challenge (now the woman and window, bottom left), a story/idea built. I added another, not-yet-understanding looker. Both he and the woman are seeking something. Next, the bay with the mountains seemed a good symbol, especially as the water had a subtle wake leading out of the pic. The sky was removed, the water turned sunlit.

The big decision came next. How to imply that this all was a part of the flow of cosmos? Settled on altered pic of sand. Finally, I needed an observer, understanding of what this is about. The man hanging over the wall, his surrounding showing some evidence of being in the flow, was worked over to finish.

Some fine tuning followed: of transparencies, sea and mountain colors, the boy, a slight tint to the flow (blue, for the cosmos), some soft erasing, an adjustment of the semi-opaque windows. I like the piece. This one developed from a starting point different from the usual. Whether or not it alters the style/content of future work is unknown. I like that, too.

12/27/2019
Place in the Cosmos, archival compute print (ed. 50), 24 x 24 in. or 48 x 48 in.

At the end of the year and a period of searching expressions, this is a fitting visual summary of my perception.