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.
If I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it – keep going, keep going come what may.
Today and the next several days ahead are busy for me as I do prep work for the June 2 opening of my solo show at the Principle Gallery. Even though it’s really hectic it’s not a disorienting kind of chaos. I’ve done this so many times that I understand the rhythm and timing that is required for these preparations.
If you work diligently… without saying to yourself beforehand, ‘I want to make this or that,’ if you work as though you were making a pair of shoes, without artistic preoccupation, you will not always find you do well. But the days you least expect it, you will find a subject which holds its own with the work of those who have gone before.
Since 1936, every September, the Dutch town of Zundert holds the world’s largest flower parade, the Corso Zundert. This past September the parade honored the 125th anniversary of the death of Vincent Van Gogh, the town’s most famous native. Each of the floats is primarily comprised of locally grown dahlias, although other local flowers are not prohibited from use.
I showed this short video here about six years back. It’s a compilation of morphing self portraits from Vincent Van Gogh put together by Phillip Scott Johnson that I found intriguing then and now.
I wrote last year about a couple of places where my work has ended up in one way or another. Recently, I received some material from a couple of these places that show how my work is being used.
He also introduces us to the word autotelic, taken from the book, 
Redtree Times 