A work in progress that I'm really loving at the moment (9 x 9 inches)... this is it as it stands today, I've signed it, but I haven't named it yet... and I'm thinking it over... is it really done? Wait n' see... I love the glow of it...
This was my table yesterday afternoon... full of works in progress! I love these productive days... the red one on the right I can't tell you how many layers of paint that thing has on top of modeling paste, it's gone from one extreme to the next, and I decided to try red again (I have issues with red.) I'm not sure if I'm leaving it as is or if I'll keep painting over the darn thing until something makes me happy! The horizontal one at the top I wish I hadn't put those moons in it... they're way too white and they are bugging me... the earthy square in the middle is mighty nice, but I'm pondering it for now...
Speaking of pondering... this painting is FINALLY done... it's languished for months looking quite dull and brown... then I went crazy with my favorite turquoise color and so...
Ancient Artifacts, 8/15/2010 Acrylic, Wash, Monotype, Sumi paper on Canvas, 24 x 8 inches
This new painting will be in the exhibition opening this Friday, August 27th, 6-9 PM at The Gallery @ Healing Art Passages, 137 First Street, Liverpool NY!
I wrapped up seven of my new things for The Gallery this morning, and my Fred dropped everything off and is spending the afternoon there painting and enjoying himself in our little place. I felt disappointed that I only had seven new things to put in, but that's all right, I'm making more, and can always add stuff later or keep them back for another time or place... funny... I was reminded of something last night, as I was looking at the line up of my work... they are quite dark, murky, nocturnal themes, and lots of earthy tones... my Fred and the other two artists in our adventure are very bright in comparison... but this reminded me of a time in art school, when this young adjunct professor (a very perky girl, one of those too perky to the point of annoying, it was much too early in the morning for me to deal with that kind of energy)... well the story is this... she saw what I had been working on during the first few classes of the semester and she asked me point blank:
"You use such dark colors, do you have mental problems?" (Excuse me? Oh, did everyone in the studio hear that? You did? GREAT! I feel even better.) I can't recall exactly what I said back to her, tho' at that age I tended toward being more polite, but I remember being appalled and giving her a look (honey, you've got mental problems asking me that kind of a question). Now, to begin with, this girl had pushed my buttons enough already that semester, and this comment was the last straw... I left the studio during our break, went to the department chair's office to make my complaint and picked up an add drop form... This young woman had formed a very odd bias about me, and I wasn't going to tolerate that nonsense for an entire semester... that was right up there with the guy who declared
"Painting is dead." (All in one semester! Wait, I thought this was art school, not drama queen school!) Gotta love art school... oh the angst, so WTF at the time (early 80's). I probably should've stuck it out in that class to prove something, but I was young and impatient with bullshit, it was an intro painting class I didn't want to take, it just happened to fit my schedule and I needed the credits, so I shucked it off without looking back... but apparently, I never forgot since it came back to me with such clarity last night. So, looking at the line up of earthy toned paintings reminded me of this episode... (as I recall, I was painting a still life of field stones on that infamous day.) I laughed out loud at 11 PM in my dining room, how funny! It's so odd how people react to what you do... some love it, some don't, some 'get it', some dismiss it. All I know, I love what I do... these paintings of the bones of the earth, ancient artifacts, and night skies feel right to me, I wouldn't change a thing...
