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Archive for May, 2025

Trip the Light Fantastic

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 6, 2025| 5 Comments »

Trip the Light Fantastic— Coming to Principle Gallery, June 2025

Come, and trip it as ye go
On the light fantastick toe…

–John Milton, L’Allegro, (1645)

Trip the light fantastic. From Milton’s 1645 poem, it originally meant to dance nimbly. But for some reason, perhaps its phrasing or the derivations of the term over the centuries, it’s a term that summons up all sorts of images in my mind. But for the purpose of the new painting shown here, nimbly dancing might well fit as a description.

Using the phrase as its title definitely came to mind as the painting took on its final form. With the lively, rhythmic spirals and bright undercolor in the sky along with the rolling undulations of the sea, there is a feeling of a dance of sorts in piece for me. Of movement and countermovement, of rhythm matching rhythm and the joy that comes when that movement seemingly becomes effortless.

As though the two rhythms have become one.

As you may know, I am not a sailor. So, I can only imagine that there are those magical moments when the sea, the winds, and the sailor feel as one. I would imagine that would be an exhilarating feeling of unbridled joy and freedom.

That’s what I see in this piece. I feel lightened and brightened by it. But that’s just me…

This painting, Trip the Light Fantastic, is 15″ by 30″ on canvas and is from my annual solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. This year’s exhibit, my 26th there, is titled Entanglement and opens on Friday, June 13. Much of the work in this year’s show deals thematically with the bands and tangles of energy that make up everything, including us in our human form.

Much of it entails representing that energy in the sky of these pieces in a variety of ways– as twisting knot-like ribbons without beginning or end or cacophonous bands that interweave over and under one another. There are also some, such as this painting, that employ colorful rhythmic spirals.

It all makes for a striking look in each piece, one that make me really stop and consider each. The skies are often the central figures in this work, as much as the boat or the Red Tree or the house, and it’s hard to not dwell on finding some sort of meaning in them. There’s an almost meditative, therapeutic feel in many of these pieces for myself, both in the painting and the viewing.

Does that translate to other viewers? I don’t know. And maybe that doesn’t matter in the long run. It felt like I didn’t have any choice but to paint these pieces.  In some weird way, they demanded to be painted at this point in time.

Maybe I needed them for some reason. Some purpose.

I haven’t figured out the why of this. I only have the what at this point. And maybe, like so many things, I will never get the answer I seek. Maybe I am supposed to only ask the question.

If that’s the case, so be it. I am satisfied in continuing my search without answers if every so often I get to trip the light fantastic…

 

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Time/Breathe

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2025| 2 Comments »

As In a Dream— At West End Gallery

Humans are amphibians — half spirit and half animal…. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. 

–C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Taken from C.S. Lewis‘s satirical novel, these are the words in a letter from a senior Devil, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood, who is a not yet fully a Devil, only a Tempter. I like its description of humans as amphibian creatures who attempt to exist in both the world of the timeless spirit and of the timebound physical world, with their only consistent trait being that are constantly changing.

I kind of see things in the same way. I don’t know if that would have made me a Devil in Lewis’ eyes. Doesn’t really matter, I guess.

Anyway, I am still on break but felt that I still had to share a piece of Sunday Morning Music. It’s become so ingrained and obligatory that it would nag at me if I didn’t at least make this small effort. So, without further ado, here’s a bluegrass take on Pink Floyd‘s classic Time with a short foray into their Breathe Reprise at the end. This is from the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Greensky Bluegrass. a modern bluegrass group that feels more Phish-y than Bill Monroe. I like their treatment of this song and I very much like their name. Sounds like a title for one of my paintings. Maybe it will be someday. Who knows?

Now, have to run– time is short for this amphibian….

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Gaining Understanding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 2, 2025| 2 Comments »

Gaining Understanding— Coming to Principle Gallery, June 2025

“Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor. You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own special lighting. Pay it some heed…you will have for the rest of the day a remnant of satisfaction and a touch of coexistence with nature. Gradually and without effort the eye trains itself to transmit many small delights.”

–Hermann Hesse, My Belief: Essays on Life and Art

I am going to take a short break from the blog to try to catch up on painting and other preparation for my June solo show, Entanglement, at the Principle Gallery. I feel like I am behind schedule but can’t tell if that is reality or just a feeling, maybe a by-product of pre-show anxiety. I just get the sense at the moment that I at least need to feel like I am caught up.

I didn’t want to leave without sharing a new painting from the Principle Gallery show. The piece at the top is one of the smaller paintings, 10″ by 10″ on wood panel, from the exhibit. I call it Gaining Understanding.

I thought the passage above, especially that first sentence, from Hermann Hesse was appropriate for this painting. It also pretty much describes my early morning walk through the woods to the studio, usually in darkness. So often I stop along the way and look through the trees at the sky. The bracing coolness of the forest air on my skin, which is still warm from sleep, is refreshing.

I find that I feel closer to some kind understanding on those days when I start them in this way. I feel sharper, more in tune with something beyond me. It has a calming effect that seems to slow time a bit.

This small painting reflects that feeling for me.

I’m going to leave it at that before taking this short break. Well, I’ll throw in a song as well. This is If I Could Only Fly from the late Blaze Foley. He’s probably not on your radar, unless you’re in Texas or have followed Outlaw Country or Americana music for a long time. Foley died in a shooting in 1989 at the age of 40, never really achieving wider notoriety. But his music lives on, providing a rich legacy, as do the many quirky stories of his life. As the late Townes Van Zandt said of Foley, “He’s only gone crazy once. Decided to stay.” The writing in this song and his enunciation reminds me greatly of the late John Prine which makes sense as Prine recorded Foley’s song Clay Pigeons for a 2006 album.

I’ll be back soon. Thanks!

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Whitman/ A Clear Midnight

Posted in Uncategorized on May 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Silent Eye of Night- At West End Gallery

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.

–Walt Whitman, A Clear Midnight

First day of May. Suddenly the deadline for getting the work ready for my June show at the Principle Gallery seems so much closer than it did just yesterday. It was only April then and the June show seemed months off. A distant dot on the horizon. I know it’s just a matter of perception, but time feels as though it constricted greatly in the last 24 hours.

The once distant dot has transformed into a growing knot in my gut.

Of course, as I have noted here in the past, this is all expected. I’ve been through this many, many times before with my solo shows. This feeling comes with every show, without fail.

So, after nearly 70 solo shows, it doesn’t approach as a stranger to me.

What that translates to is that I am shortening my time on this blog this morning and heading right to work. I am already feeling late. In lieu of any semblance of original thinking this morning I am sharing a triad of a bit of verse from Uncle Walt, a painting of mine now at the West End Gallery, and a 1966 version from Marvin Gaye of a song written by Willie Nelson in the late 1950’s, Night Life.

Do what you will with it all– I have to go now.

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