Open Studios here this Friday! Hit me up from the contact form if you want to come and I'll send you the address.

I've really gotten into this botanical stuff. I am not sure if it is totally boring or if it is cool, but it seems to have emerged as a focus.

Don't get me wrong, I really love my God's Eye and I am keen to do some more big color abstract stuff...those Tulip fields in Holland keep calling to me.


For now though, back off to do my Fall

How things change. Woosh, as an artist trying to essentially place a stake in the sand, every picture created represents multiple steps in the marching on of time. Deciding when to stop the advancement of progress (or decline in some cases) is one of the tricks of the game of art.

My very first cycle out on the canvas, the mapping out the points and those first few layers really was a stunning piece on its own with almost no further steps. There was such a powerful gracefulness about it, and the scale really encouraged it. Perhaps darken a few lines or so, but little else.

It takes a lot of courage to put so little on the canvas, especially a large canvas like this one (48"x48"). Maybe it is confidence, maybe with time and experience one knows when to see the final piece, or, perhaps every one of us must grapple with when to call it complete.

Or is a piece ever truly finished?

See yesterday's post for my latest version. I am stuck at that final juncture...or, if I take another step, I might feel more settled and pleased, but...I risk a bad move and then additional steps to accommodate for it, with not too much space to spare...or do I run the design off the edge? Sigh. This really is a process oriented piece. It's an interesting project to document as so many different angles (no pun intended) keep coming up with each ste. I suppose that every piece is a process of some kind, even if it is slinging dripping paint at a canvas.

I have this additional question to decide upon and that is, Glitter or no Glitter? To Sparkle or not to Sparkle? I really love using the glitter on my pieces.

This piece that I am working on has been a really exciting exercise with a clear nod to Josef Albers. His work on color theory was a truly pivotal moment in my own art education. Color pairing and the surprise of neighboring color effects, color is always a kind of struggle for me and, I think, plenty of artists.

This painting was inspired by the gorgeous Dutch tulip fields that I recently posted about. In subsequent post I talked about that kind of glow that I see over the world - the god's eye was what immediately came to mind. I am thinking that I need to do one more abbreviated cycle. In order to open it a bit and to re-introduce one or two of those sharp color pairings, like the Napthol Red to white to Dioxazine Purple, to Perm Violet and then the bright blue of Light Blue Permanent.

I think of this blog as an expression of my inspiration boarding. Anything that triggers the mind's eye. I have books and files full of colors, shapes, layers, light, etc..

Today I was thinking about how I've always felt as though I see the world with a sort of sparkly glasses, like those things you put on and look at lights or candles and they reflect a holographic glow of shapes or colors. I think most every artist has some kind of special goggles or lenses. 

This past weekend we attended the Venice is Sinking Masquerade Ball and we went together as a group of Noble Lords and Lady from the Italian Renaissance. I am enamored with the sumptuousness of these elaborate layers upon layers.

This is me standing in front of one of my paintings, Red Lines No. 1.
I was struck by the gorgeous colors of this composition. Thick and luscious reds, shimmering emeralds, blacks, bronzes and golds and creams. It is perhaps an interesting palate for an upcoming painting. Hmm, A Deconstructed Renaissance perhaps.

The ball was a pretty impressive array of wild corsets, masks, feathers, jewels and skin. I am definitely feeling the color palate. This follows on to the really mind-numbing work of Jean Paul Gaultier.

I was so lucky to have been able to catch the show at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco this past summer and yowza yowza!

http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/fashion-world-jean-paul-gaultier-sidewalk-catwalk

I have notes and notes of ideas for mosaic-based paintings. I'm working out how exactly to proceed from a process standpoint, but have sketches and notes and am working on filling in the knowledge gaps.

I simply adore a good costume! I can't understand folks that don't like to dress up. I've been dressed up since I can remember!

This has been a liberating painting to work on. Simple, raw and concentric, making a meditation on the spirit of Eva Hesse and her works featured during a show around 1964. Her drawings and paintings began to push the boundaries between painting and sculpture, with her reliefs on panels.

This piece for me was a simple exercise using her pattern of circles, though mine are more ordered, as is my tendency. When working with free hand circles, the artist is forced to face the imperfections of the line. My challenge was to relent the battle.

There is something so light and liberating about being able to call a piece finished with so little on the canvas and so many obvious mistakes. I have ideas about next possible steps, but I am happy right now to call it done and let myself feel through it.

There is such a strong impulse, for me anyway, as an artist, to keep pushing on and on and fixing and adding more and more to a piece, Holding can be a challenge. With this piece I intentionally set out to keep it simple and keep it raw and rough and a little dizzying...A pocket full of posies.

Sans II, 1968, polyester resin and fiberglass by Eva Hesse
© The Estate of Eva Hesse. Hauser & Wirth Zürich London.
Photo by David Heald

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So nice to look at her work and just kind of meditate on the accidental beauty of it. She was truly a pioneer in the art of the world.  Eva Hesse’s career was all too brief, 1963 to 1970—the year she died of a brain tumor at the age of 34, but the work that she did before she passed was expansive beyond her years. 

Literally expansive, some of her pieces run 40 feet or more. She pushed the bounds of traditional art medium bringing fiberglass, latex, rope, industrial wire, plaster and anything in between into relevance. Her geometric designs intentionally crude and lopsided, forces us to acknowledge at once natures perfection and harmony coupled with its irregularity and roughness.

I am constantly forced to face my own imperfection and I so love and admire Hesse for quite literally forcing the issue. 

This stained glass window was made from over 100 sheets of laser cut paper by artist Eric Standley. See the entire piece on Colossal.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/01/stained-glass-windows-made-from-laser-cut-paper-by-eric-standley

Ok, so what the heck, right? I mean, seriously, this guy is insanely brilliant. This is what I call "Smart Art." One of my new all-time favorites, www.thisiscolossal.com' highlights the work of some of the world's most gifted artists.

The planfullness of this kind of artwork is just stunning to me, to keep every next and last level in mind, to fully anticipate each next level of the piece, is so profoundly impressive to me. I only dream of one day being that smart in my art. I have dreams of levels after level, after level. I've gotten close and started foundations, but a little too late or a little too early, etc., confound me. I have numbered steps outlined for my next piece and I am going to test this as a new experiment.

PNEUMA 2 Photographic transparencies, metal frames, dissection pins 16.5" x 18.25" x 2" by Alan Burr Johnson.

http://www.alanburjohnson.com/PNEUMA_3.html

I had the great pleasure to meet Alan, in his Jerome, Arizona studio we serendipitously found on a last-day's light activity trip we planned last minute after our major expedition from Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon. (yes, I can tend to be wordy.) We'd been through a couple of the studios at the Old Jerome High School building and one of the artists recommended we stop into Alan's studio.

I walked in and my jaw dropped. Literally I stood there paralyzed in awe for a few seconds. "This is really f*ing smart art," I said to my brother and sister-in-law. His work is just stunning. His use of materials and technique, to construct these haunting pieces is so clever. The way that light plays off the translucency, and the shadows cast fill in the story. Layers of these parts and segments in these beautifully planned structures.

Pavillion, Oil on linen, 63x158 by Brian Rutenberg

http://www.brianrutenbergart.com/studio/paintings.html

Final words on layers and colossal pieces. Brian Rutenberg.

No, but seriously, these massive canvases are built up from these abstracted forested landscapes, layer upon layer of these stunningly contrasted and vibrant colors. What is especially stunning to me is how he builds up these segmented areas, as if he is playing with the lights and colors we find in the woods. This action pulls the landscape out of the common and into the brilliantly abstract.

Uh oh.

So, now after all of these posts, it occurs to me that I am setting myself up for a pretty tall order for my next pieces. Gulp.