Posted in Current Events, Quote, tagged Martin Luther King Jr., Quotes, Silence on January 15, 2018| 2 Comments »
Silence is not neutrality.
Posted in Favorite Things, Motivation, Quote, tagged Hokusai, Quote on January 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »
At seventy-three I learned a little about the real structure of animals, plants, birds, fishes and insects. Consequently when I am eighty I’ll have made more progress. At ninety I’ll have penetrated the mystery of things. At a hundred I shall have reached something marvelous, but when I am a hundred and ten everything I do, the smallest dot, will be alive.
–Katsushika Hokusai
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I really like the bit of wisdom above from the great Hokusai, both for his optimism on aging as well as the idea that as he continues to progress his work will reach a point where everything he paints– even something as simple as a dot– has a life force within it.
Attaining that life force, where the painting transcends what you have put into it, in any one piece is a rare and difficult thing for any artist to achieve. But that idea that you might one day reach a point where your work has moved from a product of thought and craft to a transcendent expression of the spirit is something that seems beyond our reach or even our aim.
But perhaps we should keep it as an aim in our mind, along with the idea that we will continue to progress as we age, even if it is stored in rarely visited corner. If we hold on to it perhaps we will subconsciously find our way to that goal. And when we are a hundred and ten, the dots we paint will have that same life force as those created by Hokusai.
It’s something to hope for…
I’ve included a few of Hokusai’s paintings beyond his famed wave and landscapes. I love his fish pieces and the raven is wonderful. Enjoy!
Posted in Motivation, Painting, Quote, tagged Max Ernst on January 9, 2018| 5 Comments »
Max Ernst- The Entire City
Every normal human being (and not merely the ‘artist’) has an inexhaustible store of buried images in his subconscious, it is merely a matter of courage or liberating procedures … of voyages into the unconscious, to bring pure and unadulterated found objects to light.
Max Ernst- Nature at Dawn Evensong
Max Ernst- Temptation of St. Anthony
Posted in Motivation, Quote, tagged Brain Pickings, Hollie Chastain, Quote on January 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I think as an artist it’s very easy to [equate self-worth with artistic success] because of the nature of the work. If you think of art as a job, then your product is so much more than hours invested. The product is a piece of yourself, so of course if the reception is not the greatest, then it can feel like a direct hit to who you are as a person. I think this happened a lot more when I was younger and still finding my way around. I would doubt my direction when a viewer wasn’t thrilled. The trick for me is not to put more distance between my work and myself, but to close that gap completely. I can see myself in the art that I create, and that builds a wall of confidence.
–Hollie Chastain
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I was reading a bit this morning on one of my favorite websites, Brain Pickings, when I came across this quote from contemporary artist Hollie Chastain, a Tennessee based artist who works in paper art and collage. The quote was included in an article about creative blocks and her words really spoke to me.
I liked the idea that at some point there is no gap between the artist and their work. The artist is the work and vice versa. But that term she employed, wall of confidence, really hit home. I see ias being t something that comes with continuing to stick with what you know is true to who you are as an artist and not being swayed by momentary lapses in confidence. It’s a wall that protects you from the peaks and valleys that come in the course of a career, that shield you from those times when you are not the flavor of the month.
It’s a wall that allows you to fight off creative blocks, knowing that you are secure in your own vision and the work that flows from it.
When that wall is there, you– actually, I should be saying I here–just have to get to work. And that is what I am going to do.
Thanks for the good words, Hollie.
You should check out Hollie Chastain‘s work. Good stuff. You can get to her site by clicking here.
I Came to Get Down-Hollie Chastain
Posted in Current Events, Music, Quote, tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Happy New Year, Johnny Otis on January 1, 2018| 6 Comments »
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
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That’s a resolution I think many of us would happily accept for this new year.
Here’s a little music from the late great Johnny Otis. You most likely know him best for Willie and the Hand Jive but if you get a chance take a look at his bio sometime. An interesting guy. This is his Happy New Year Baby.
So, have yourself a good day and may 2018 mark the return of the power of truth. Happiness and peace to you in this New Year.
Posted in Current Events, Quote, tagged Greed, Quote, Zbigniew Brzezinski on December 18, 2017| 2 Comments »
The financial catastrophe of 2008 nearly precipitated a calamitous economic depression, jolting America and much of the West into a sudden recognition of their systemic vulnerability to unregulated greed.
—Zbigniew Brzezinski
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How did we not learn our lesson? Did we forget this soon?
But it seems we have forgotten that greed without regulation is a voracious beast, leaving us now to live in a time of unbridled and shameless greed with no end in sight.
Oh, it’s nothing new. Greed is as old as mankind and was the basis for the rise of most kingdoms and empires. But what we are experiencing now, as in the Republican Congress’ cash-stuffed love gift to big business that they claim is tax reform, has been building for the past 30-some years, since the first blotch of trickle-down economics stained our national fabric, to this crescendo of pure avarice where the Republicans in Congress have given up even trying to hide their thirst for more and more.
Their bald-faced lies, the deaf ears they turn to their constituents, the denials of any evidence that disproves their claims and the paltry bread crumbs they symbolically throw to the masses is an abomination, a direct insult to the people of this country.
Plain and simple, it is filth.
But until we stand united against this filthy greed, the greater part of the populace will suffer and pay for the greed of the few. This will deepen and continue until it is no longer sustainable.
And the cycle of greed is never sustainable. And when it is comes to an end there will be a great reckoning, one that I fear will be as ugly as anything this country as ever witnessed.
And we have seen some great ugliness.
I apologize for this riff this morning. There are no answers here outside of advising you to stay engaged and enraged. I know that’s a hard thing to sustain but we have no choice. As tired and frustrated as I am now, the anger I feel as I watch our country being played the fool while its pockets are being picked fuels me. Knowing that we are setting the table for a great suffering, one that the short-sighted refuse to see, and not caring is unacceptable.
Posted in Favorite Things, Quote, tagged Andrew Wyeth on December 16, 2017| 2 Comments »
Andrew Wyeth – Fence Line 1967
—Andrew Wyeth
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Andrew Wyeth – Over the Hill 1953
Andrew Wyeth- Heavy Snow
Andrew Wyeth- Not Plowed 1985
Andrew Wyeth- Farm Pond Study
Posted in Influences, Motivation, Quote, tagged Inspiration, John Muir, JPL, Juno Spacecraft, NASA, Van Gogh on December 15, 2017| 2 Comments »
—John Muir
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The image above was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft of the tops of the clouds surrounding Jupiter. I find myself constantly staring into it this morning with a mix of awe and dejection.
Awe at the sheer beauty and power of it. It is spectacular on a visual level in so many ways, at least to my eyes. The force of its rhythm is immense and the enhanced colors capture an emotional tone that rivals the work of the greatest painters. Looking at it, I see the ghosts of Van Gogh– I mean, this image is Starry Night taken up to the next several levels— Picasso, Goya, Chagall, Bosch and so many more. With my last glimpse I saw Munch and Dali and an image of the Minotaur. And Thomas Hart Benton. I think any of these painters would look at this and find inspiration, would see that intangible force in it that begs to be painted.
I know that I feel that way but that is where the dejection enters the picture. It inspires but in a way that seems far beyond my meager talents and my simple mind. It’s like being a Golden Retriever watching his master, let’s say it’s Einstein, pondering the Theory of Relativity at his chalkboard. I know there’s something there because it seems so important to my master and I want to help but all I can do is bark and wonder what the hell I am looking at.
I am like a frustrated dog trying to describe the power of the universe.
But it’s early. I’ve only been looking at this for forty minutes or so. Maybe the dejection will pass and the longer I look, the more I will move myself into those swirls of cloud and color to find a rhythm, or even a trace of one, that aligns itself with the simpler ones that run within myself.
And maybe something will come of it. You can never tell what the end product, if any, will be from any point of inspiration. Maybe it will set off a series of thoughts and ideas that takes you galaxies away from the original inspiration. But an image like this has an effect in some way, even if it does show up right away.
I feel the need to look a little more. Take a deeper look for yourself.
Posted in Painting, Quote, tagged GC Myers, Quote, Red Tree, Vincent Van Gogh, West End Gallery on December 8, 2017| 2 Comments »
I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
—Vincent Van Gogh
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This painting, Resplendent, which is now at the West End Gallery, reminds me very much of one of my favorite quotes from Vincent Van Gogh, shown above. Sometimes the beauty of nature sets everything right and wipes away the obscuring webs brought on by things we cannot control, creating a path for an expression of the effect from witnessing that beauty.
In my experience, these moments of clarity are accompanied by that uncertainty to which Van Gogh refers. It is not doubt, however. It is more like the recognition of losing conscious control to an outer (or inner) entity, one where all decisions have been made beyond your waking mind.
As in a dream.
The work at that point just comes seemingly on its own, as though it was meant to be or had a need to exist.
I know this a strained explanation. It’s such a nebulous thing, this act of creating something from what often appears to be nothing, that explanations and definitions often confuse more than clarify.
And maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe the very purpose of art is to make us aware of the mystery and uncertainty of this life. Maybe it shouldn’t be easily explained.
That being said, I will stop now. Have a good day– enjoy the mystery and beauty around you.
Posted in Favorite Things, Quote, tagged Edgar Degas, Quote on December 6, 2017| 1 Comment »
Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. –Edgar Degas
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There are so many days when I feel like I no longer know that I am doing which means, according to Degas, that I am on the right track. Right?
Redtree Times 