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Archive for the ‘Influences’ Category

Poor Old Dirt Farmer

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Video, tagged , , , on August 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Let Us Now Praise...Strange confluences.

I was going through some old work and came across this piece just as a random track came up on my iPod.  It was a Levon Helm song, the sort of title track from his latest CD, Dirt Farmer.

It really went together beautifully and the rhythm of Levon’s music kind of captured how I saw this fellow looking at his land, the beauty and sorrow of it.

I may have displayed this piece before.  It’s called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men… and was part of my first solo exhibit some 13 years ago, a show called Exiles that was hung at a lovely art center, the Gmeiner, in Wellsboro, PA.  This piece has always resonated with me, having sorts of indicators that I only see.  Little cues that remind me of the time in which this piece was done, giving me a sense of how I felt at the time and how I was viewing the world.  Things that only make the piece special for me.

That’s a pretty common thing.  Cheri has a piece of mine in our home that I painter several years back.  A nice piece but not a great one.  But when I see it I remember all that went into this particular piece and the struggle to pull something from what appeared to be a mess at the time.  I see the effort and determination that recovered the painting from the scrap heap and made it work.  I see it as a turning point in my confidence in my own abilities.

But those are only for  my eyes, probably not evident to the outside world.  Kind of like the dirt farmer above.  Who knows what his eyes behold?

Here’s Poor Old Dirt Farmer from Levon Helm:

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Durer’s Pentaflakes

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , on August 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Durer Self PORTRAITWhenever I stumble on anything from Albrecht Durer, the 16th century German artist, I am immediately humbled by the magnificence of his works.  His paintings are beautiful, combining delicacy and strength to create a naturalism that was unusual in its time.  This self-portrait is one of my favorite pieces of portraiture.  His engravings are masterpieces of the art, dense with detail and hidden meaning. Many are allegorical and some are just plain interesting such as this engraving of a rhinoceros, shown below, done only from the descriptions of others, without ever having seen such a creature himself.

Interesting stuff, indeed.

durer rhinoSo if being in awe of his artistic talents weren’t enough, I happened to come across a bit of information that Durer, among other mathematical recognitions,  was also the first to recognize the pentaflake, a mathematical construct that describes the formation of snowflakes.

It goes something like this:

pentaflake 1pentaflake 2pentaflake

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Seeing August

Posted in Influences on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I shut my eyes in order to see.

-Paul Gauguin

Gauguin-Where

It’s August and I am beginning to feel the effects of this month as I do every year.  I often feel it as a turning point in my psychological year, as though it is the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

I always find this a time of questioning, of doubt.  Usually a temporary withdrawal from the world.

It’s a hard thing to describe, especially with words.  Difficult enough with the implication of imagery.

Maybe that’s why I’m using Gauguin’s painting today, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?,  an epic piece that deals with the very question of existence.  Maybe.  I don’t know.

The beauty of age is knowing that these August days are fleeting and simply a part of the deal, days to be endured and  days to simply close one’s eyes and see…

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3 Days of Peace and Music

Posted in Current Events, Influences, tagged , , on August 15, 2009| 3 Comments »

woodstock  It’s been forty years.

Woodstock.

Saying the word Woodstock only means one thing to most people.  Three days in August that came to be a symbol of an era.

I can only imagine what an 18 year old kid today thinks when he hears the word Woodstock.  For today’s youth hearing someone talk about being at Woodstock would be like a kid in 1969 hearing their grandparents talk about something that happened in 1929.  It would seem like ancient history.

But Woodstock still has mythic appeal.  The musicians and performances were legendary, many like Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner becoming cultural touchstones.  The sensation it caused in the media and throughout the country was huge and subsequent festivals to this day aspire for the effect that Woodstock produced, always coming up short.

I was too young for Woodstock, being only ten at the time.  But I remember the weekend and the news reports of the thruway being closed.  It really struck later when the film came out and for Christmas my brother got a new 8-track player (cutting edge at the time!) with the Woodstock soundtrack.  Christmas day was filled with Country Joe screaming  Give me an F! and my mother yelling at my brother to turn it off.  I must’ve listened to those big, clunky tapes a thousand times.

I don’t think they’ll ever replicate the way everything seemed to come together at Woodstock.  It’s almost like a piece of art in its entirety.  It could only be produced by that perfect blend of participants and the perfect moment.  A synchronicity of time and events.

It’s easy to make too much of something like Woodstock but for today I’ll just think about how the music from those three days still reverberate today.

It was hard to pick out something, one performance, that could singularly define this event .  There were so many.  So I went with this because every time I hear it vivid memories of those times pop up for me.  Here the aforementioned Country Joe McDonald singing his I Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag.

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Charles Burchfield

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged on August 10, 2009| 12 Comments »

charles_burchfield glory of springAy my opening, a friend who is also a painter and I were talking and the name of Charles Burchfield came up.  My friend asked if liked his work and when I said that I did very much admire Burchfield’s work, my friend shook his head and said that I’d have to explain it to him because he just didn’t get it.  Thought it was crap.

I told him that I always immediately engaged with Burchfield’s paintings, that I felt that I understood in a small way how his mind conceived his imagery and how he translated that to paper.  His work just made sense in my mind.  It was more about getting across something more than a scene or mere image and that clicked for me.

Charles Burchfield_sun_emerging Charles Burchfield is a real presence in the art world of western New York state, having created most of his work while living in the  Buffalo area in the early and middle part of the past century.  There is a well known art center and museum bearing his name at the University of Buffalo and his work is in the collections of many major museums. 

For me, his work is more about the spiritual elements of the everyday world.  Things that are seen all the time and simply overlooked take on a meaning and a life of their own.  This excites me because I consider that an important element of what I try to do.  I always pull inspiration from his work and hope that someday someone will feel the same thing from mine.Charles_Burchfield_September_Wind and Raincharles burchfield Rainy Night

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Encouragement

Posted in Biographical, Influences on August 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Private Joy

 

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.

         — George Santayana

 

 

When I give gallery talks, generally there is a part at the beginning where I run through how I came to be a painter.  I usually tell how I wanted to paint when I was a small child, maybe 7 or 8 years old, and my parents bought me an oil painting set from the old Cardinal Paint store in Elmira, where they sold art supplies alongside their house paints.

Of course, I didn’t have the first idea how to use the paints and the canvas panel ended up covered with a smear of a color that could best be described as pukish looking.  Discouraged, I moved on to other things.  Many other things through the years.

Now, that might seem, at first blush, like a sad little story but it always touches me.  My parents didn’t know how to go about helping me but they did what they could and never discouraged me from whatever avenue I chose to follow.   I was never told I couldn’t be this or that I should be that.  They didn’t know what was possible and never tried to put limits on my hopes.

In high school, I harbored dreams of being a writer and for Christmas one year they gave me a Remington Rand office typewriter.  It was a reconditioned monster of a machine, must’ve weighed 75 pounds.  I had it for years and when I did finally get rid of it, it was with great sadness.  It was one of the best gifts I’d ever been given and was always a symbol of my parents’ encouragement.

The point of this is that my parents allowed me the freedom to discover what was possible for me in my life.  Did they always go about it in the best way or guide me in any way?  Probably not  but that didn’t seem as important as the freedom they gave me to search for what was possible for me. 

And being able to find what was possible, as the saying above says, is the beginning of happiness…

 

 


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Holbein’s More

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Painting, tagged , , , , on July 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Holbein-SirThomasMoreYou run across a lot of people who are completely dismissive of anything from the past.  They feel that we at the moment are the leading edge of humanity’s progress, that we are the culmination of all that has come before us and thus, anything created long before our time can not have equal value  now.  There’s this sense that only the modern can fully express the complexity of our world.

When I see this painting of Sir Thomas More painted by Hans Holbein in around 1527 I realize what  flawed logic that is.  

Here is a painting that was painted nearly 500 years ago that, when seen in person at the Frick in NYC, has surfaces that are absolutely beautiful.  It still glows with its sumptuous colors.  All the years of technical progress have not produced materials that could accomplish any more than Holbein did with the materials of his time.

holbein_henryviiiI could stand and look at this piece for hours, marveling not only at the beauty of the paint but at the way Holbein captured More’s humanity and the sense of the time in which it was painted.  For me, this painting really illustrates, gives life to, an important figure in history.  More was the ultimate man of conscience, refusing to give in to Henry VIII‘s will that he endorse Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon so that he might marry Anne Boleyn.  It ultimately cost him his head and cost the world a wonderful mind, one that gave us the concept of Utopia.

It is obvious to me that Holbein felt warmly towards More in the way the piece is painted and the way he captures his persona.  In the painting Holbein  did of Henry VIII (on the left) I get a different sense.  It’s meant to be large and strong, to be a display of regal power and that it is.  But there’s a coldness in the piggish eyes and an arrogance in the stance.  Oh, it’s a beautiful painting, on many levels, but when you compare the two it’s obvious where Holbein’s sympathies lay.

This is art and history coming together at single points.  It captures the humanity that is contained in all of us and remains unchanged even to the edge of our time.  Good stuff.  No, great stuff…

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This is Francis Bacon’s Studio, Not Mine

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged on July 22, 2009| 4 Comments »

bacon-reece-mews-studioOne of the chores I have around the studio this time of the year is to restore a little order.  The year is a little over halfway over and in painting for the two solo shows I do each year that open in June and July, my studio environment can get a little disheveled, papers piled up and paint tubes, bottles and brushes everywhere.  Half-done canvasses, some started with a fire of inspiration that suddenly  dwindled midway and now await renewed  interest, lean against every available wall.  Books are stacked in piles waiting for the day when I can sit down and just read.  

It’s not as bad as it was in my old studio in the woods.  It was smaller and all my different processes including framing, staining and matting, were done in one compact space.  That was infinitely more messy and about this time every year, I found the clutter made concentrating in the studio more and more difficult.  The mess created a kind of static in my thinking.

bacon_study1953Now, the studio shown above is that of Francis Bacon, the late Irish born artist best known for his Expressionistic work that is often viewed as violent and disturbing.  I remember seeing these photos years ago and feeling so much better about my studio.  The huge black paint stain on my floor didn’t seem so bad.  But I wondered if I could function in his space.  I guess the concentration required to block out the mounds of debris would have to be incredible.  Maybe that is part of the painting obsession- to be so engrossed in what is before you that all else is pushed far off into the background.  Bacon did view his painting as an obsession, saying, “I have been lucky enough to be able to live on my obsession. This is my only success.”  

Bacon was an incredibly interesting character and one whose words often ring true for me.  He was self taught and talked in terminology that I understand, earthy and straightforward.  Very little artspeak.  

The piece shown here is one of my favorites, Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, and is very representative of the style of much of his work.  You can find a lot on Bacon and his work online.

Anyway, I’ve got some cleaning to do or my studio will start to look like this…

 

 

I have been lucky enough to be able to live on my obsession. This is my only success.

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Inspiration

Posted in Current Events, Influences, tagged , , on July 15, 2009| 1 Comment »

valvanoThere is a telethon of sorts today on ESPN.  Every year they take a day of broadcasting and devote it to raising money for the Jimmy V Foundation which raises money for cancer research.  The foundation is named after Jim Valvano, the college basketball coach who died from cancer back in 1993.

For those not familiar with Valvano, he was a pretty good coach but a great personality.  He is best known for his mad dash across the court looking for anyone to hug when his North Carolina State team improbably won the NCAA championship on a miraculous last second play.  His thick New York accent and fast, humorous banter were trademarks.

Well, every year during this day ESPN repeatedly plays Valvano’s final speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, made mere weeks before he died.  I’ve seen and heard this speech probably a hundred times and am always moved by its power, humor and message.  It is a tour de force of speechmaking.  He makes you laugh.  He makes you cry.  But at the end, he makes you think about how you’re living your own life.  His words make you want to be better.

That’s real inspiration.

Here’s the speech.  It’s about 11 minutes long but trust me, if you haven’t seen it , it won’t be time wasted.  If you want to learn more about his foundation, click on the Coach’s picture above.

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The Pounding In My Head

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged on July 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

9909-177 The Aspirant's RoadThe Tree


I stood still and was a tree amid the wood,

Knowing the truth of things unseen before;

Of Daphne and the laurel bow

And that god-feasting couple old

that grew elm-oak amid the wold.

‘Twas not until the gods had been

Kindly entreated, and been brought within

Unto the hearth of their heart’s home

That they might do this wonder thing;

Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood

And many a new thing understood

That was rank folly to my head before.

-Ezra Pound

 

I read the poem above by Ezra Pound years ago and put it away, not thinking too much about it.  I recently came across it again and saw so much more in it that pertained to my own view of the world, especially given my use of the tree as a symbol for the self and knowledge.  Interesting.

Here’s another Pound piece that I love for it’s use of language and its sheer thump and rhythm:

Ancient Music

Winter is icummen in, 
Lhude sing Goddamm. 
Raineth drop and staineth slop, 
And how the wind doth ramm! 
Sing: Goddamm. 

Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, 
An ague hath my ham. 
Freezeth river, turneth liver, 
Damn you, sing: Goddamm. 

Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm, 
So ‘gainst the winter’s balm. 

Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm. 
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM. 

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