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Archive for December, 2008

The Dark Work

Posted in Early Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on December 11, 2008| 1 Comment »

A Journey BeginsMy work had a dramatic change for a while in the months after 9/11.  Like everyone, my worldview shifted that day and this was reflected in my work.   It became darker in appearance and tone,  a bit more ominous in feel.   A lot of this had to do, technically, with the way the pieces were painted.  I was using a dark base and adding color in layers on top of this base, slowly building up my surface.  Much like painting on black velvet.  Normally I start with a white base and add layers of colors, taking away color as needed to achieve a desire effect.  As I pulled paint off the surface, the light base would come through and give the picture plane a glowing presence.  My normal technique is basically a “reductive” style whereas this new work in 2002 was “additive”.  

Being untrained, these are terms I’ve adopted to sort of describe what I see as my technique.  They work for me.

Night TranceThis new work was not nearly so optimistic in feeling as my previous work.  People were a bit slower to embrace it and I wasn’t surprised at a time when our nation was still reeling.  But it was a true expression of how I felt at that time and I remember my time at the easel with these pieces as being very trance-like.  I would start a piece and have a hard time stopping.  A virtual intoxication of color.  Or maybe more of a refuge in the scenes.  I don’t know.

Since the public was a bit more lukewarm to this group , which the galleries call “the dark work”, I have several of these pieces still and I am still excited when I look at them.  They are rich and bold and very still in nature.  They may be dark but I still think there is hope in these paintings but it’s a wary type of hope.  

And in the end, hope is hope…

In the Flow

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If I Had a Boat…

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Influences, Video, tagged , on December 10, 2008| 1 Comment »

The ServantThis is a little exercise that I did when I was first painting and still working as a waiter at a Perkins restaurant.  I call it The Servant and it sort of sums up my time as a waiter, except for the fact that  I never wore tails when serving pancakes.  It was a great learning experience however.  I think everyone should wait tables for a while.  Teaches humility.  

I remember going to some openings and being praised for the work.  “Oh, this is so wonderful” this and  “You’re doing great stuff” that to the point my head barely fit in my car to drive home.  Then the next morning I was pouring coffee for a factory worker or a trucker and I would realize that for most people my so-called triumph was an absolute nothing.  Didn’t matter and never would.  

My head returned quickly to its normal size and would resume my duties as a server, all the time whistling and humming tunes in my head to pass the time.  Here’s one from Lyle Lovett that was a favorite back then and still is.

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Rilke

Posted in Influences, Quote, tagged on December 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

HarlequinA few lines forwarded to me from my sister from the poet Rilke:

Make your ego porous.  Will is of little importance, fame is nothing. 

Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything. 

                 – Rainier Maria Rilke


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Advice to Young Painters

Posted in Biographical, Influences, tagged , on December 9, 2008| 2 Comments »

Studio In the WoodsI’m showing the picture to the right to illustrate a bit of advice I often give when speaking with students or aspiring painters.  This is my first studio which is located up a slight hill behind our home, nestled in among a mixed forest of hardwoods and white pine.  This photo was from last February.  It was a fine little space although it lacked certain amenities such as running water, bathrooms and truly sufficient heat.  However, it served me very well for about a decade.

The advice that I give to aspiring artists is this:  Learn to be alone.  

The time spent in solitude  may be the greatest challenge that many artists face.  I have talked to many over the years and it is a common concern.  Some never fully commit to their art for just this reason.  To be alone with your own thoughts without the feedback or interaction of others can be scary especially for those used to being immersed in people and conversation.

I like to think that I have been prepared for this aspect of this career since I was a child.  For much of my youth we lived  in the country,  in houses that were isolated from neighbors.  I had a sister and brother, 7 and 8 years my senior,  and they were often my companions at times but  as they came into their middle teens I spent more and more time alone.  This is not a complaint.  Actually, it was kind of idyllic.  I lived a fairly independent life as a kid, coming and going as I pleased.  I explored the hills and woods around us, going down old trails to the railroad and cove that ran along side the Chemung River.  I studied the headstones at an old cemetery tucked in the edge of the woods overlooking what was then a thick glen, filled with the family who resided at a late 1700’s homesite that had stood across the road from our home.  All that remained was a stacked stone chimney which served as a great prop for playing cowboy.  

In the woods there were immense downed trees that served as magnificent pirate ships.  There were large hemlocks with thick horizontal branches that were practically ladders, easy to climb and sit above the forest floor to watch and dream.  

My life would be very different without this time alone.  Sure, maybe I’d be a bit more sociable and comfortable with groups of people, something which is sometimes a hindrance.  But it prepared me for the time I spend alone and allowed me to create my own world that I occupied then and now.  The same world that appears in my work.  That is my work. 

This is only a short post on a subject I could drone on about for pages and pages.  But, to aspiring artists, I say learn to love your time alone and realize what a luxury and an asset it can be.  Your work will grow from your time alone.

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Elvis in the Wilderness

Posted in Painting, Technique/History, tagged , , on December 8, 2008| 2 Comments »

Elvis in the WildernessThis is a small oddity titled Elvis in the Wilderness from a series that I called Outlaws, first shown in 2006 and a series I will address more in future posts.  They were all fairly small pieces, usually 4 to 6″ square and were all much darker in nature and in appearance than my normal work.  They were, however, an extension of the faces that I would draw in my high school years so for me they were not a drastic change.  They were all part of me.  For many longtime viewers they were a sharp turn away from the style and light of my representative work.  Many approached me at the show at the Principle Gallery that year asking if this was a new direction and would it mark the end of the landscapes.  I explained that this was just another aspect of one person, that while I do show myself through my work I am only showing small facets of my whole at any given time.  Snapshots, if you will.

My paintings often represent who I am at any given point in time but sometimes they are more aspiration than reality.  I long for calmness and peace, in the world and in myself.  I desire a strong and brave outlook, to have the wisdom of the ages.  I want to shed my fears aside and live boldly.  Unfortunately, these wishes sometimes remain just that– wishes.

But so long as these aspirations remain, there is hope for more light  and less darkness.  Like Elvis in the Wilderness, sometimes one struggles to find a way to the light.

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The Gift In Giving

Posted in Favorite Things, Quote, tagged , on December 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The Gift in Giving 

” A bit of fragrance always

clings to the hand

that gives you roses.”

                  -Chinese Proverb

 

 

Just a little reminder on a cold, dark Sunday morning.  If you can, help someone out in some small way.  You’ll be better for it. Promise.

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Hullabaloo

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , , on December 6, 2008| 2 Comments »

HarlequinIt’s Saturday morning and it’s time for something different.

This is a video from 1966 by the Vogues performing (well, kind of) on the TV show Hullabaloo.  It was an interesting time in popular music.  It was at the cusp, before the explosion of pyschedelia, before Woodstock, before the anger of the late 60’s.  The British Invasion was still in full swing and the Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , the album which would spark  the coming change.

But here are the Vogues, sporting the clean cut look of the early 60’s and  matching cardigan sweaters.  This is really a pretty good video for the time.  Maybe it’s because it’s such a great song.  Anyway this is Five O’Clock World…

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Quiet Rising

Posted in Influences, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on December 5, 2008| 2 Comments »

Quiet Rising

It seems a little odd to sit down and write something about why you like your own work.  I know a lot of artists find it difficult and maybe even a little distasteful.  For me, it’s about trying to find that part of a painting that reaches out to people, the part that is communicating.  I am the first person to see the work so in order for the piece to be able to speak to others it must first speak to me.  It must excite me on some level.  That excitement is a very big part of my process and carries me through a lot of long days alone in my studio.  So when I write or speak about my own work it’s so that I might understand better why the painting works.

That being said, this is a painting titled Quiet Rising which I’m showing  because I like this piece on many different levels.  On an emotional level I find this piece very calm, very quiet.  There is a nice harmony in the way the colors and forms fit together, again in a way that I find very calming.  For me, that appearance of placid calm seems to be an important aspect in my own evaluation of my work.

The path in the foreground has a curve that I find very intriguing.  I can’t put my finger on the reason but it reminds me of an element from Henri Rousseau painting.  Maybe it’s the movement of the path or the quality of the blue in the sky– I can’t be sure.  A lot of the feelings I get from a piece are not quite fully realized thoughts.  More like snippets or a tiny bit of a memory that comes to you without the whole episode, leaving you unsure if there even was a real memory there to begin with.

Whatever the case, this painting works for me and is worth sharing.  It’s being shown at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.

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Madman’s Drum

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2008| 4 Comments »

Lynd Ward/ Madman's DrumThis is from the wordless graphic novel, Madman’s Drum, from the mind of the talented Lynd Ward, done in 1930.  It is a self-described novel in woodcuts but to me has the feel of the truly great silent films from the years prior to its publication.  When I came across his work 13 or 14 years ago I was blown away by the feel, by the dynamic compositions and by the rawness of the storylines.  Each frame was put together so beautifully.  I am at a loss for words to describe how his images spoke to me, how his handling of light and dark told more than words.  

His first and perhaps more famous graphic novel  was Gods’ Man, published in 1929.  This was actually the first Ward work that I saw.  I have a newer edition from Dover that is very nice, very sharp, but the first book of his I saw was an older edition in the library from the 1930’s.  It was a bit yellowed and the paper slightly rough, the spine rubbed and worn.  It all contributed to the overall feel of the work.  It felt like I was finding a certain truth, something that was tucked away, a spirit voice waiting to be heard.Lynd Ward / Gods' Man

The boldness of the lines and the way the shapes and forms filled the picture frame boggled my mind.  It was so cinematic, so stylized.  Detail was stripped away but each frame lost no emotional impact.

It was everything I wanted in my work.  But I knew that could not be.  He is a true individual and his work is his and his alone.  I didn’t want to emulate.  I wanted to absorb the feel and use that feel to create something that was my own.  It showed me the possibility.

Great stuff…

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Eastern Influence

Posted in Influences, tagged , , , , , on December 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Into StillnessAt my first solo show, in 2000, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, I was approached by many people all asking the same question: “Can you tell us about your Japanese influences?”  If it had been one or two people I wouldn’t have thought anything of the question but this was like 30 or 40 people all asking the same question.

I explained that there wasn’t any overt connection or influence from any particular Japanese artist.  This was true.  I had seen prints, obviously, but hadn’t really looked deeply into them.  I didn’t even know who Hokusai or Hiroshige were.  Didn’t know much at all, to be honest.

I was more influenced by the haiku poetry form, such as those from Basho.  I loved its simplicity and spareness of form, the way those three short lines of verse could create a real sense of atmosphere.  You could feel the sense of quiet that I sought in my work.  I even had a series of paintings early in painting career titled after the haiku.

I think that the works of Japanese masters such as Hokusai and Hiroshige carry this same feeling,the same that is instilled in many haikus.  There is a placidness, a calmness that permeates the work.  I was honored that people saw a similar quality in my work even though the similarity was coincidental.

Pieces such as the one shown here, Into Stillness, are among my favorites to paint because of the calm attitude that is required to make the piece come alive.  I can only paint them successfully when I am able to shake off all cares and troubles and find a point of stillness.  They really don’t come as easily as I might wish.

But I can hope…

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