When you vote in clowns, a circus is sure to follow.
And what a circus we are seeing from the GOP in the House of Republicans. Wow.
They made it evident that they were clowns from day one but it was mainly in their clownish performances as soloists or in small troupes. Yesterday, the whole group of clowns showed up (in what I imagine was the world’s largest clown car) and the circus was on. McCarthy was voted out as Speaker of the House and the first act of the new temporary head clown was to shut everything down and go into recess for a week.
That’s probably a good thing. They can’t do as much damage when they’re not there.
These are not serious people. They have no interest in governing or advocating for real people, only in performing for money.
These bad clowns reminded me of a blog post from back in 2015 about some other bad clowns.
From 2015:
I found myself awake late one night this past week watching a film I’d seen a couple of times before. It was He Who Gets Slapped, a silent film from 1924 which was the first film made by the then new movie studio MGM. It stars the great Lon Chaney in a pretty grim and tragic story (it is based on a Russian play after all) that is sometimes hard to watch and hard to turn away from at the same time. On this particular night I couldn’t look away.
The basic premise is that Chaney plays a brilliant scientist who is screwed over by a wealthy man who steals both his ideas and his wife, humiliating him before a crowd of the foremost scientists who laugh at him.
This humiliation spurs him to retreat and become a clown called He whose act is to be masochistically slapped by an entire troop of clowns, his pain sparking the laughter of the crowd night after night. Of course, it ends with a bit of wonderful revenge as the rich guy gets his just rewards but it is by no means a happy ending or a feel-good film.
But a great film it is.
The imagery of the clowns in the film is quite remarkable and haunting. Whenever I see this film or Chaney’s other dark clown classic, Laugh, Clown, Laugh, (it was on immediately after He but I couldn’t take that much pain in one sitting) I am not surprised that many people have coulrophobia, the fear of clowns.
It made me perform a quick search for some GIFs with clowns to share. Putting them together was quite creepy. Try to have a great day after taking a gander at these joy makers.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder- Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565
Because the world is so faithless, I go my way in mourning.
—Pieter Bruegel
From 2009:
I am totally in awe of the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the patriarch of the great Flemish family of painters. There are so many paintings of his that I could show that would be equal to those I chose for this post but I find these particular pieces striking. There is great richness and depth as well as a tremendous warmth in his colors. I always feel enveloped in his paintings as though they wrap around me like a blanket, particularly his peasant pieces.
Pieter Bruegel- Tower of Babel
This piece here on the right depicting the Tower of Babel has always excited my imagination beyond the actual biblical story. I’m always reminded of the Gormenghast Trilogy from Mervyn Peake when I see this image and wonder if it had any influence when he was formulating the story for his novels. The scale of the building and the way it dominates the composition is breathtaking. The shape of the tower and the manner in which it dominates the composition has shown up in some of my paintings in the form of a tower-like hill.
Pieter Bruegel- The Fall of the Rebel Angels
His earlier allegorical works seem to have been heavily influenced by Hieronymous Bosch and have incredible energy. He had an ability to take multitudes of forms and scenarios and bring them together in a way that had great rhythm, lending almost an abstract quality to the overall scene. I find these paintings quite beautiful despite their sometimes jolting imagery. This work was an influence on my later Multitudes work that was comprised of masses of faces.
I could look at his work for hours and find new details to focus on, new dimensions to coopt and explore in my own work. Even writing this short post is taking a long time because I just want to stop and look at his work. I find it truly inspiring and wonder how it will find its way into my own work someday. Somehow. Maybe…
I am replaying this blog entry from 2009 (with a couple of new comments in italics that give examples of how Bruegel’s work has been an influence) because I had a comment at Saturday’s Gallery Talk from another artist who said that my work reminded him of Bruegel and some other Flemish and Dutch painters. It kind of left me gobsmacked because I didn’t necessarily see it myself. But thinking about it later, his work certainly was an influence and could easily show itself to another’s eyes.
Pieter Brueghel- Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,
At the Gallery Talk on Saturday at the Principle Gallery, we talked about process though it ended up being a much briefer explanation than some in the audience might have desired. I have posted the description below of one of the process for one of my paintings from 2011, followed by a short video showing its evolution from start to finish, a couple of times over the years. I thought it might be a good time to revisit it as there are many new readers who may not be familiar with how my work comes together.
I paint in two distinctly different processes, one that I call reductive and the other additive. The reductive is a liquid process where I put puddles of paint on the surface then remove much of it. This process leaves the dark edges that define much of this more transparent work. The process shown here is my additive process, with layer after layer of paint being built up. The colors end up being denser nad more opaque than those in the reductive process. Here’s what I wrote in January of 2011 along with a video at the bottom that shows a timelapse evolution of the painting:
I worked on a new piece the last couple of days, a large canvas that is 24″ by 48″. I had already gessoed the canvas with a distinct texture and applied a layer of black paint. I had vague ideas of where I thought the painting might go from a composition standpoint but knew that this was only a starting point in my mind. Like most of my paintings, the finished product is often drastically different than what I imagined at the beginning. As I paint, each bit of paint dictates the next move and if I don’t try to force in something that goes against these subtle directions given to me by the paint the piece usually has an organic feel, a natural rhythm in the way the different elements go together. A cohesion of sorts.
Knowing I wanted to use a cityscape in this piece, I started in the bottom left, slowly building the city with geometric forms and rooflines in a red oxide paint that I use to block in my composition. I prefer using the red oxide because it gives a warmth under the layers paint to come that shows through in small bits that are almost undetectable at a quick glance.
At this point I still am unsure where the painting is going. I have thoughts of filling the canvas completely with the cityscape with the smallest view of the sky through the buildings but am not married to this idea. The paint isn’t telling me enough yet to know. But it has told me that I want a path of some sort- a street or canal- through the composition. I make room for one near the center before starting on the right side with the buildings there. I go back and forth between the right and left sides as I build the city, constantly stepping back to give it a good look from a distance to assess its progress and direction.
At a point where the city is nearing the halfway point on filling the canvas, I decide I want this piece to be less about the cityscape and more about how it opens to the open sky beyond it. I extend the road that started at the bottom and twist it upward, terminating it at a bend in what will be now a field beyond the city edge. The sky, though still empty, is pushing me ahead, out of the city. The piece has become about a sense of escape, taking the street from the cityscape and heading upward on it towards the open fields and sky. Painting faster now, another field with a bit of the road appearing is finished beyond the first lower field. I have created a cradle in the landscape for the sky to which I now turn my brush.
There’s a certain symmetry at work here and I decide I want the central focus of a sun in this composition. I roughly block in a round form, letting it break beyond the upper edge of the canvas. I pay little attention to the size of this sun except in its relationship to the composition below it. My suns and moons are often out of proportion to reality but it doesn’t matter to me so long as it translates properly in the context of the painting. If it works well, it isn’t even noticed.
I finish blocking in the sky with the red oxide, radiating the strokes away from the sun, and step back. [The video below basically begins at this point in the process] The piece has began to come alive for me and I can start to see where it is going. The color is starting to fill in in my mind and I can see a final version there. This is usually a very exciting time in the process for me, especially if a piece has a certain vitality. I sense it here and am propelled forward now, quickly attacking the sky with many, many brushstrokes of multiple colors. working from dark to light.
There are layers of a violet color in different shades that are almost completely obscured by subsequent layers. I could probably leave out these violet layers but the tiny shards that do barely show add a great depth to the flavor of the painting for me and to leave them out would weaken the piece in a way.
I have painted several hours on the sky now and still have a ways to go before it reaches where I see it in my mind. There are no shortcuts now. Just the process of getting to that final visualized point. But it’s dinnertime and my day is now done. I pick up and step back to give it one final look before I head out into the darkness. This is where the painting is at this point, where I will start soon after I post this:
In the blog post with the final version I then wrote:
Above is the tentatively finished version of the painting I started earlier this week, a 24″ by 48″ canvas that I am considering calling Escape Route. I showed the first few steps of the painting process on this blog two days ago, ending with the sky being near finished and the composition blocked in. I’m not going to go into all the steps and decisions that went into completing this piece. Instead, I put together a short film that shows the painting evolving to the finished product.
I will say that the final version is much different in many ways than I first envisioned with the first strokes of red oxide that went on the canvas. Each subsequent bit of color, each line that appeared, altered the vision in my head just a bit, evolving the piece constantly until the very end of the process. Even the last part, where I inserted the treeline that appears on the farthest ridge, was not seen in my mind until just before the decision to proceed with them was made. I decided to go with this treeline to create a final barrier for the road to break past on its way upward toward the sky. A final moment of escape.
This painting has given me a great sense of satisfaction after finishing it. I spent much of the late afternoon yesterday just looking at it and taking it in. I don’t know if it will translate as well on the computer screen but this piece has substantial size at 24″ by 48″ which gives great weight to the blocks of color from the buildings and the light from the sky. There is a sense of completeness here that I could only struggle to explain, but as I said, brings me great satisfaction. I feel as though the evolved painting has exceeded what I imagined when I first started this piece. While I can’t fully explain that, it is all I can hope for from my work.
I will spend some more time over the next several weeks looking at this painting, determining if anything should be tweaked or altered. A highlight added here, a line made crisper there. But as it stands, it feels as thought it has taken on its own life and I will probably leave it alone as it is.
And here’s the video, only about a minute long, that shows how the piece came about.
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
–G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England (1917)
…happiness doubled by wonder…
What a lovely way to think of gratitude. In the wake of yesterday’s Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery, I think I understand what Chesterton meant.
I went into yesterday with a little trepidation. And more than a little uncertainty which turned out to be the theme of the talk. It had been four years since my last Talk at the Principle and I was worried that it might end up a bust. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. Even as the clock ticked near the 1 PM start, I was worried since only a handful of folks had showed up. But in what felt like the blink of an eye, the space was suddenly full, very much as it had been in the years before the pandemic forced a hiatus on my talks.
And to top it off, this was a wonderful and open group of people. They allowed me to speak freely as well as letting me work my way into and out of problematic thoughts. Their engagement and graciousness kept the flop sweat at bay and made me feel heard and felt.
And for these talks, that is a lot. All I can ask.
I left the gallery feeling that I had been given a gift so much larger than those I had gave. And that is a prime example of my reasoning for the paintings that are given away during these talks. A lot of people think I am a bit crazy for giving work away but in my mind, it is but a small gesture of gratitude when compared to all the things– and I’m not talking about material things– that I have been given by these folks over the past three decades.
They have made feel, as I said above, felt and heard as a human which translates into a sense of meaning and purpose in my life. A small bit of myself in the form of a painting seems like a good deal for being given such a gift.
So, to all the folks who attended yesterday’s Talk and to Michele, Clint, Taylor, Owen and Sierra at the Principle Gallery, please accept my simple Thank You for the gift you gave. It is indeed happiness doubled by wonder.
For this week’s Sunday Morning Music here’s a longtime favorite from the late great John Prine that works in many ways for today’s post. This is All the Best.
When: TODAY–SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s FREE and OPEN TO ALL, FUN, INFORMATIVE, with GIVEAWAYS and a FREE DRAWING forthe painting below, On the Rise–and maybe even one more!
AND MUCH MORE!!
On the Rise– You Could Win This Painting Today!
On the road this morning enroute to the Principle Gallery for today’s Gallery Talk. Have a group of new paintings and goodies to give away so I am looking forward to a good talk.
Actually, I am hoping more for a good conversation. Talk implies it’s me just talking at the audience whereas I am looking for a lively back-and-forth conversation. That is always so much more energy when there is plenty of participation and questions from the group.
Hope to see you there! Here’s an oldie from 1978 that might best describe what I just wrote. Here’s the Bruce Springsteen song Talk to Me from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
So, pack up your questions and come on down to the Principle Gallery today.
Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength.
–Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
I am a little busy this morning getting prepared for tomorrow’s Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery. Besides framing up the last few new pieces that I will be bringing along, part of the process involves trying to clear my head a bit and organize my thoughts for the Talk itself. That can sometimes the most difficult task to achieve.
One of the new paintings, The Enlightenment, 10″ by 25″on canvas, is shown above. I am going to use it today as inspiration for clearing my mind. It seems to have that sort of clarifying power. It’s clarity immediately pulls me in and allows me to feel a bit more centered. Less scattered.
And I have an inkling that this might be a good thing.
Hope you can make it to tomorrow’s Gallery Talk. I have new work to show, things to talk about, goodies to give away, and answers to all your questions. Maybe not the right answers but answers, nonetheless. And no math questions, please.
So, pack up yourself along with your questions and comments and make your way to the Gallery Talk tomorrow. It promises to be a good time and might even be enlightening…
On that note, let’s finish off today’s triad with the theme of enlightenment with a song with just that title. Here’s Enlightenment from Van Morrison.
TOMORROW!!
What: GALLERY TALK
Who: With GC MYERS
Where: PRINCIPLE GALLERY, Alexandria VA
When: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s FREE and OPEN TO ALL, FUN, informative, and there will be a FREE DRAWING for thepainting below, On the Rise–and maybe even one more!
Moon, Stone, Moment— At Principle Gallery Saturday
The light we know in the skies above is all that remains of immensely distant fiery stars, many of which no longer exist. They have long since burned to nothingness.
Their light is all that remains. And even that is fleeting.
Soon, history is all that remains of light.
I think there’s a point in there somewhere, but I am not exactly sure where this will go.
I started writing this with the thought that all light is a byproduct of destruction and that we are ourselves are a byproduct of light, dependent as we are on it for producing food and energy.
By extension, we are all products of some distant destruction.
Something burnt so that we might be.
And maybe that is the point I am trying to make– that in order to produce light you have to be willing to sacrifice something. You have to be willing to burn, in some way, a part of yourself to nothingness.
That reminds me of a line from the novel Demian from Hermann Hesse, one that resonated with me at a crucial point in my life: Whoever wants to be born, must first destroy a world.
The question is: What are you willing to burn in order to create your own light?
That sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Not sure if it is, however. The burning is a symbolic form of transformation and is, for most, often not so dramatic in nature.
Even so, the change or transformation we seek– the light– requires some form of sacrifice.
I somehow see this in the new painting at the top, Moon, Stone, Moment. I think we have the choice to transform ourselves and the Red Tree represents that here. The stones in the foreground are static, not able or willing to transform themselves. Not that they won’t do so at some point. It will just take a greater force to create the destruction needed for them to produce the light they possess.
Phew! Not sure if this makes any sense but that doesn’t really matter. Many of my early morning thoughts here are half-baked at best and many won’t make it to the bakery shelves.
Not sure if this recipe works yet. Going to leave it in the oven for a bit.
Maybe I’ll have it worked out for the Gallery Talk on Saturday. We’ll see…
REMINDER/ TWO MORE DAYS!
What: GALLERY TALK
Who: With GC MYERS
Where: PRINCIPLE GALLERY, Alexandria VA
When: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s FREE and OPEN TO ALL, FUN, informative, and there will be a FREE DRAWING for the painting below, On the Rise–and maybe even one more!
Unto the Breach— Coming to Principle Gallery, Alexandria VA
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
–William Shakespeare, Henry V
I took the title for this new painting from the famous lines from Shakespeare that has Henry V trying to fire up his troops as they head into battle. He tells them that being polite and civil is a wonderful trait in a man until the specter of war appears. Then it is time to set aside all civility and unleash their passion and rage.
Now, to be clear, I don’t see this painting as being as being about war in any way. No, for me it is more about embracing that same passion of which Henry speaks and setting it upon those things that give your life meaning and purpose.
Some of us at various times sense that something important is missing in our lives, something that gives it meaning and purpose. There is an emptiness or void.
A breach, if you will.
I see in this painting that once you find that singular things that might fill this breach in your life, take to it with all the passion and energy you can muster. Total commitment. Go all in and leave nothing behind.
As the proverb goes: Fortune favors the bold.
And this is certainly about that.
Here’s a song to go with it from Cat Stevens. It’s If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out. and it is about the endless possibilities open to us if we just take the leap into the breach. Longtime favorite of mine.
REMINDER/ IN THREE DAYS!
What: GALLERY TALK
Who: With GC MYERS
Where: PRINCIPLE GALLERY, Alexandria VA
When: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s FREE and OPEN TO ALL, FUN, informative, and there will be a FREE DRAWING for the painting below, On the Rise–and maybe even one more!
Nature’s music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.
–Mary Webb, Gone to Earth
Busy getting ready for Saturday’s Gallery Talk (details below) at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. The painting shown here is included in a group of new work that I will delivering to the gallery on that day.
To my eye, there is a sense of stillness in this piece in this 20″ by 10″ canvas which inspired its title, In the Moon’s Pause. I could go on about color harmonies and compositional triangles and so on but just the fact that it has a calming effect for myself overrules all of that.
It allows me to easily and seamlessly step into its quietude without asking why it is so. All I can ask of it.
Sometimes, you have to simply accept the feeling and set aside the analysis. One of those cases when the what is more important than the why.
Here’s a musical selection that I feel goes well with this painting. It’s the 3rd Movementfrom Symphony No. 1 from Gustav Mahler. This is a performance from the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
REMINDER
What: GALLERY TALK
Who: With GC MYERS
Where: PRINCIPLE GALLERY, Alexandria VA
When: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s free and open to all, fun, informative, and there will be a free drawing for the painting below, On the Rise–and maybe even another one!
A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.
—Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
I have a lot to do this morning as I prep some work that will be coming with me for my Gallery Talk on Saturday down in Alexandria at the Principle Gallery. In addition to framing and all the other tasks that go along with it, I am also trying to mentally prepare for the talk itself.
I go over the possibilities of how it could go, different paths I could follow as far as theme and tone. Anything that will keep me from standing up there like a wooden statue, unable to reach out and connect with the audience in any way.
Maybe the theme will focus on that feeling of being the Stranger who is forever trying to find home, that place where they belong. That is the theme for the blog today as well as for the new small painting at the top, Comes a Stranger. This 8″ by 8″ canvas is included in the group I will be bringing.
Though I have no idea if it will happen, using the Stranger as a theme makes sense in some ways. It’s something on which I can speak easily, having often felt the part. It also plays an important element in my work as I sometimes see my created landscapes as being the homeland I seek as the Stranger.
But that’s just one possibility out of many. The folks who are sitting there will have a major influence on what the talk consists of and where it goes. I won’t know with any degree of certainty until Saturday, right around 1 PM. Then all bets are off.
Here’s a song to complete the triad for today’s theme. It’s a very good cover of the old Kinks song, Strangers, from the Black Pumas. Good stuff.
REMINDER
What: GALLERY TALK
Who: With GC MYERS
Where: PRINCIPLE GALLERY, Alexandria VA
When: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, Beginning at 1 PM
Why: It’s free and open to all, fun, informative, and there will be a free drawing for the painting below, On the Rise–and maybe even another one!
From 2015: 
But a great film it is.
Redtree Times 