wake up call - the temp dipped below 50 last night, which i know is aberrant for this time of year - but it doesn’t change reality - soon i’ll have to stop working outside! there’s something so special about being able to experience ‘nature’ while working on the paintings - from dawn 'til dusk, and even knowing they’re out there all night with the cascading magic of crickets, locusts, spiders, moonlight, seasons, and dew. they are, after all, ‘informed by nature’ - they gain their soul from her - from the initial sanding of wooden panels, to the patterns of gesso applied during the cage-like symphony of birds, bugs, and wind - their ‘layerings’ baked by the sun, diluted by the rain, and modified by the varieties of changing light and daily recognition of subtleties we all know but forget to remember - and the completion that arrives when an uncanny and unforeseen balance is achieved - as if it were directed by forces beyond my aesthetic.perhaps i should find a way to continue this enthusiasm by working outdoors in a moderate climate (with nature) all year long - not that i haven’t done it before (ie., venice, ca) - now, my reasons and way of working have evolved - that changes everything. appropriately, it all began with ‘genesis’ - the book of fifty paintings i did on retreat at a nature preserve in palenville, ny. i had a profound enough inkling at that time as to the course my work was taking, but not the clarity of its’ necessity.
the mother of invention.
i suddenly recalled having lunch at a vegan cafe in venice years ago and a conversation with frank zappa who was sitting next to me in cramped quarters at an outdoor patio that seemed to be designed for ‘littler’ people. we remembered meeting years earlier in allentown (muhlenberg college) when i showed him my 20’ ‘guernica-style' mural of the horrors at ‘kent state’. another humorously charming, sarcastic genius slipping into eternity.
Jo Zawinul, the father of 'weather report' and jazz great passed away this week.
"it's all about harmony".
