year's end ...

strange times we live in - but they're ours ...

pleased to be able to complete 2008 with a project i've wanted to do for years ...

i sincerely wish the very best for everyone in 2009 ...

winter solstice ...

arrived at 7:04 a.m. [est] sunday morning with ice and snow ...

faunus ...

7'h x 14'w - progress shot ...

i'm already missing working outside - and though i probably shouldn't because of temperatures and pigment stability, i steal as many opportunities above freezing as possible ...
more wintery mixes on their way again today ...
it's becoming more apparenent to me every day how much 'nature' informs my work ...
without thinking, i told a friend last night that "nature is God's clothing" ...
the more we learn, the more we understand haute couture ...

first snow ...

it ain't giverny, [but i like it] ...

phase one of a new 14 foot x 7 foot painting ...

they all begin this way -
i remember one of my first painting instructors from forty some years ago stressing "get the drawing down" ...
today, it's more a matter of laying out a mind map for navigating thoughts and geography of surfaces - especially when they get this size ...
a welcome reprieve from the cold temps allowed me to get this piece started outside this morning - so much more freedom under the big arena - the clouds, weather, animals, birds - my sources ...
what you can't see - is that it started pissin' down rain about a half hour after i took this shot which caused some of the piece to transform itself into hints of morris louis or frankenthaller - the benefits of circumstance ...
my intention at this point is to have the piece suggest the subtle lushness of early spring - but things always change ...
lately i've been admiring some of monet's nature and how he generalized specifics and made the pieces as much about location as he did about painting - but i'm also thinking about dufy, mompo, miro, gorky drawings, kiefer, petroglyphs, sumi-e, cage, and the giant black hole at the center of our galaxy that german astronomers recently tracked ...

equestrian details ...

two details ...

equestrian ...

36"h x 80"w, 11-2008. acrylic paint on wood.

time ...

90 days later - we've moved from the lushness of late summer to the long shadows of fall ...

i'm flirting with acrylic disasters as the temperatures hover in the 30's - my outside studio season is quickly coming to an end with little hope of a warming trend ...

its been a productive and serene learning experience ...

golden paint ...

with mark golden and james carroll ...
["kimono study" on the floor]

a few posts ago [golden dreams], i mentioned the possibility of visiting the golden paint company ...
last week, james carroll and i took the 4 hour + sojourn to new berlin in upstate new york ...
james was one of my college professors, mentor, and founder of the 'new arts program' - so there was never a dull moment trading art war stories all the way up [from bethlehem,pa] and back ...

mark golden was his usual good spirited self and a gracious host as he shared some of the history, current events, and plans for the future with us - and the manufacturing, museum, and development facilities were all well worth the trip ...

i saw some incredible new colors that'll find there way into my work and left with a lot of ideas - truly inspiring ...

the "kimono study" [shades of dawn + shades of dusk] and "chariots of the sun" are now part of the golden collection ...

what an honor and great memory ...

large scale painting ...

during the 1990’s i started four very large paintings that were integrated into public performances ...
the length of the shows never provided me enough time to finish the pieces - nor was it the intention of the experiment ...

ice house performance - 1997

since then, i’ve dabbled with the 20’h x 30’w surfaces, but once again was limited by working conditions and adequate space to complete the projects ...

20' x 30'

my interest in large-scale work is similar to providing an accomplished improv musician a forum without limitations - there’s often more room for playfulness and exploration - and, opportunity for the essence of the individual’s abilities and attitudes to emerge less constrained by expectations ...
sometimes the subtleties of the artists’ predispositions, thought, and process are revealed more fundamentally when confronted with freedom ...

the common theme behind each performance was pretty much aligned with all my work : to articulate the present; to focus or meditate on the moment - to identify the energy, nature, or impulses - tonality, frequency, or vibration - then respond to it - observe, evaluate - readjust - re-engage - over and over again until the idea reaches maturity or the abstraction becomes clarified ... [very much the same way a mathematical equation represents an event or characteristic of nature] ...

since i was a kid i’ve been going to the philadelphia museum of art - and usually through the rear entrance so my first experience is with the gigantic chagall painting ...
for me, it’s an immediately transcendent experience - first to be physically overcome by the sheer scale of the work - the muted background accented with contrasting images, the earthy odor of clay retained by the canvas, the zillion brushstrokes, the dreaminess, and paradox of something so obviously intentional done with apparent whimsy - mastery ...


chagall

unlike any other museum i’ve been to, the experience uniquely sets the stage for my reverence to generations of painting and the evolution of humanity - and as if that isn’t enough, there’s an unfrequented cy twombly room of heroic “Iliad” paintings to keep things in perspective ...

the presence of so much genius, history, and divinity is humbling ...


twombly room

recently, a few opportunities to take on the challenge of four large scale paintings have aligned themselves ...


harryn

more to follow ...

vertiginous - details ...

vertiginous ...

Vertiginous, 10-2008. 80"H x 96"W.
Acrylic paint on wooden panels.

fresh out of the studio - sorry about the flash spot but we've had a few cloudy days in pa and i just wanted to get this posted ...

this painting was started back in july and thoroughly documented by videographer, john spadaccia with the intention of producing a dvd that clearly shows the morphology of the piece ...

wildflowers ...

"wildflowers", 2008. 80"h x 72"w. + morganhill flowers ...

golden dreams ...

i’m a painter - so i paint ...
nearly every day - one way or another, since 1972 ...

with humility; i’ve had the opportunity to experiment and explore just about every genre and material out there to arrive at my own ‘voice’ ...
done it all - from gargantuan three dimensional installations, environmental, traditional, performance, collaborative, and conceptual ...
the common denominator - paint - has remained my primary vehicle of expression ...

for now, why is less important than that fact ...

during post graduate studies at the university of the arts [philadelphia, 1979], a colleague recommended that i contact a small paint manufacturer in upstate new york to seek resolve to a technical issue i was having with a series of drawing and xerox collages ...

i wanted the objects veiled in translucent color as though they were stain glass images - veils that would not interfere chemically with archival standards of paper ...
short of being encumbered by the weight of glass or the static limitations and color selections of plexiglas or acetate, there didn’t seem to be a product manufactured that provided a thin enough viscosity with consistent coverage and saturation -translucent consistency was the objective ...

quality acrylic paint and mediums for artists were still relatively limited by most manufacturers’ predisposition for emulating oil paints rather than exploring the virtues and potentials of plastic ...
[and to some extent - still is - but that has more to do with less progressive educational and artistic standards] ...

i made the call and surprisingly spoke to the owner/alchemist that understood my dilemma immediately and provided suggestions and samples to achieve solutions ...
this relationship resonated with my belief that “if you can think it, you can make it “ ...
the alchemist’s name was sam golden, and in the years that followed i found that there was rarely a technical or creative issue related to materials that couldn’t be solved with thoughtful expertise by calling the magic number ...
additionally, i was always kept in the loop of newly developed products i hadn’t considered ...

after many forays and sponsorships with other paint manufacturers, i began to use golden acrylic paint exclusively by 1988 ...
a material that has consistently provided me satisfaction over the years - if i was having a creative problem, i could rest assured that it didn’t have anything to do with the paint ... from the simplest things like the paint containers, lids, and bottles - designed to be user friendly with minimal or no waste ...
when you’re on a roll, you don’t have time to fuss with some package designers’ fetishes ...
even the smell of the paint is less offensive to my senses ... and i still have containers with usable paint remaining in them since 1990 ...
whenever i’ve gotten a shipment - [and its’ never cheap] - i feel like a gift arrives ...
i open each and every container under the auspices of inspecting the content - but actually to marvel at the creamy or fluid consistency, odor, magic, and possibilities of the product ...
i'm a difficult customer, as many will attest - but since that fateful day in 1979, i've not had a singular disappointment - quite the contrary - usually unexpectedly surprised by some nuance or innovation ...
even the shipping amazes me - double cardboard and padded with unrivaled care - [and i’m the kind of guy that expects my sliced cheese at the deli counter to not have overlapping edges before being wrapped] ...

needless to say, golden paints have provided me with a vehicle to realize my ‘voice’ and vision as a painter - like yo yo ma’s favorite cello, or keith jarrett’s piano - yeah, it could probably be done without them - but having them provides a confidence and freedom to explore other concerns ...

so it shouldn’t be any surprise that i’ve often dreamt about visiting the manufacturing facility [oz] in new berlin, new york - but somehow always thought that i shouldn’t violate the privacy or sanctity of the alchemist’s studio ...

this week, another dream comes true ...

black holes ...

black hole #1, 2008. acrylic paint on macadam. 8'h x 12'w.

stimulate ...

heard president elect obama's press conference today, and what stood out most was the reality-solution strategy of challenges we as a country need to address ...

an approach that demonstrates sophistication, intelligence, and leadership rather than reaction, aggression, and trickery ...

don't want to get corny, but in the old barn where i live and work there was a plank of wood in the original hayloft with the words 'united we stand, divided we fall - 1866' - just seems like a fact of nature which is evident everyday in the wildlife of the forest - and after all this divisive, negative energy splayed about by the media over the most tedious campaign season in history - it's a relief ... not to mention a relief from the fear-mongering rhetoric, arrogant posturing, diminished opportunities, and deceptions over the past eight years ...

suddenly someone is talking about stimulating the people, small business, growth, changing policies, and transparency with a 'can do' attitude - that in itself is stimulating ...

lally, the poet, once told me that " fear is the great divider, and love the great provider " ...

today i heard tangible evidence of the latter - nurturing, positive, and stimulating ...

so go make some art, buy some art, go to a poetry reading - a dance recital, a concert, find a new book, or a cd, do something different, something you've never done or haven't done for eight years, celebrate a new beginning - life and love, stimulate, and "give a good day" ...

keep - sake ...

just a few thoughts on a video/performance/installation excerpt entitled: keep-sake - by old friend and colleague, barbara kilpatrick

keep-sake ...

reminds me of art -
how things represent other things -
how quickly they modify, pass -
how events fade through reference, relevance -
focus -
contrast of scale -
nostalgia, purpose, and motive -
subjectivity of necessity -
monotony of effort, life -
requirement for meaning -
their occupation -
the repetition of things that create meaning -
the repetition of things that mean creating -
essential ingredients -
self consciousness rhythms -
figure-less landscapes -
eno, enone, lla -
black, white, grey -
voice, fact -
time and thought -
the imperative of either -
ether -
distractions -
things human-made -
made human -
nature -
the life of wind -
to witness or describe -
particles of change -
sequence -
expedience -
questions and answers -
endless stories -
reminds me of art -
the re-mind -
and rejuvenation -
over and over again ...

new day ...

i've kept my head down and worked for the past several months trying to avoid the glut of mis-truths and superficial sound byting that accompanies politics - especially when it attempts to belittle or degrade intelligence or sensible ideology ...

the energy that surrounded this campaign was like quicksand - loaded with desperation ...

i'm grateful that 'cooler' heads prevailed, but dismayed by the ignorance demonstrated by a large part of a population that professes to be the model for world progress in the 21st century ...

hopefully, this can be a period of healing, reconstruction, and re-evaluation of what is fundamentally important ...

the real battle between what is right and wrong is only beginning ...

at least now there's a chance we'll be governed rather than ruled ...

air electric ...

i think of you
thinking about
what i was thinking
when i was painting
what you’re looking at ...
seeing things
i don’t think about
anymore, yet, or never ...
knowing
we think about
what we see ...

[not close enough to care
for fun or flirt,
my finessed surfaces
are less personal,
less meaningful now ...
what matters more than how
is why
if anything ever mattered anyway ...]

Dalai Lama ...

off to hear a much anticipated lecture today ...

the last painting ... [e.8]

compression - conglomerate - layers - strata -
composites -
libraries of alexandria -
babylon -
enuma elish -
ravaged - revenged -
disregard and abandon -
parhelions -
ice - salt -
crystal - hydration -
water memory - transfigurations -
polyethylene pressure resists -
impositions and natural order -
cause and effect -
archeology, anthropology ...

light, firmament, dry land, luminaries, and man -
what intention [bullets] end[s] - or starts ...

branches of thought -
neurology -
reverence -
divine inspiration ...

the last painting ... [e.7]

i’m feeling cautiously optimistic ...
asking for, and accepting help
from the perspective of clearly defined need
rather than want, desire, or deserving -
it’s a new and humbling experience ...

some ideas are simply
part of a grander scheme ...

over the past twenty years,
july 4th has been a day of sincere gratitude
for the freedoms we’ve acquired,
the intelligence and humane manner with which
we’ve accomplished some of them,
the wisdom and tenacity of the persons who led us to them;
for reprieves from the bondage of self
and the chance to fill the God-shaped hole
in my soul ...

the last painting ... [e.6]

i’m starting to understand
my shortsightedness
in marketing and promotion of my work ...
when i was younger, it was a lot easier to ask
for consideration, favors, and help ...
at my age, i presume that people expect me to
have attained a certain stature and independence
in my field of expertise ...
false - the world, and my response to it,
has drastically changed since 2001 -
definitely an odyssey -
or as i said years earlier - odyssey and exile ...

when i used to think that i [more than others] -
deserved, or was entitled to benefits of my effort -
i never hesitated to ask ...
humility, pride, and neurosis changed all that ...
now i’ve realized that it’s only those who dare to ask
that earn consideration in the grand scheme of things ...

the other truth is;
i’m so preoccupied with appreciation;
living, researching, and developing art,
that marketing becomes an extraneous
and often toxic pursuit ...

nothing says ‘fact’ like black on white ...
word(s) on a page - signage - a mark -
evidence of some kind of intent or activity -
unless it’s written in blood ...

three wooden panels - seven coats of gesso -
layered surface markings - modeling paste -
inscriptions - black iridescent glaze -
sanded to white and gray - naphthol red letters -
iridescent copper - pure titanium white
with iridescent pearl - water - heat - gravity -
cadmium yellow capillaries ...

weathering crisis, meditation, prayer -
reading, studying, and paying attention ...

fact - i am - ami - fatima - iepov ...

the last painting ... [e.5]

mildly foggy this morning ...
not clear enough to move quickly -
not so thick i can’t rely on experience to navigate ...

picasso said he only painted what he knew -
what he already discovered ...
used to sound arrogant,
but i guess i could live with that ...
lately i’m haunted by a lot of what some major leaguers said -
including gorky, pollock, and rothko ...

seems to be a madness that comes
from trying to see too far in the distance -
an intolerable frustration with the ordinary and real -
and the pressure of maintaining ideals
to actualize visions ...

'every line and nuance is its' own experience' ...

i have no idea of what i want to see -
or i only want to see what’s in front of me -
not how it will or should be -
but what it becomes -
through an accumulation
of ideas and actions ...

relying on experience -
building on discovery and knowing -
forming some syntax of elements -
providing evidence of painting - today ...

as only the dying do ...

the last painting ... [e.4]

outside studio ...

understated cacophonies,
cataclysmic catastrophes,
moments of attrition,
relieved ambition ...
[disastrous dominos
useless placebos]

stratas of strokes form texture
surfaced contrition
focused attrition
diffused ambition
paradigms and lexicons
momentary clarity
convoluted disparity
singularity

illness of people we care about
[including ourselves],
snaps us back to true form -
equalizing perspectives -
focusing on momentary changes of disease
and the body’s challenges ...

the early florentine and sienese artists
attempted flawless surfaces -
void of texture and impurity ...
brush strokes, tiny crustaceans, accidental marks,
the occasional insect -
this is more interesting to my work -
layering, building, forming -
amalgamating what occurs from start to finish ...
like things in slivers of amber -
moments in time ...
i’m more interested in
varieties of surface markings -
but not as a primary focus or issue ...
blemishes, scars, wrinkles, expressions -
always more interesting than retouch perfection ...

theory is,
the big bang was a collision of protons and neutrons ...

the last painting ... [e.3]

flexible design ...
under sky in good weather,
under roof sometimes -
but always outside above fifty degrees ...
[for paint/pigment stability]

crescendos of anticipation
with every gesso layer,
seemingly mindless tasks
done thousands of times
leading down paths
of what i did, should have done, or wanted to;
cleaning the slate - conditioning - quieting -
preparing what’s next ...

few ideas arrive -
except next steps -
preconceptions vanish ...

recognizing where the birds are nested by sound this year -
flurries of activity from squirrel rivalries -
[a year of red and gray]
seems to be an over abundance of yellow jackets,
crow and turkey buzzards ...
[must be more dead things around - probably road kill]

more man-made sounds
echo through coffeetown ravine -
changing games of aging children playing,
familiar howls - gone,
puppies growing into their barks,
no roosters - more fox,
more curious groundhogs and growing fawn ...
hurried cars, suv’s, gigantic [unfarmer] pickup trucks -
everyone on cell phones with coffees to go,
atmospheric static -
proliferation of lawnmowers, weedwackers, leaf blowers,
motorcycles, atv’s, teenage speeders, airplanes, helicopters,
high altitude rumblings and vapor trails from newark,
emergency vehicles, mechanical decibels -
sad when silence becomes more unusual than noise in the rurals ...
[a competition nature is losing]

unending changes
details blend
cumulative events ...

the last painting ... [e.2]

a triptych - one narrow panel squeezed by two larger,
now joins what was and will be ...

that first stroke -
the first coat of gesso
over finely sanded wood surfaces ...
it’s gettin’ to be an old tradition
for me and painting’s history ...

for years i’ve been layering seven coats of gesso -
thin to thick over the surface to create stable ground
between surface and paint for a few reasons;
- because i admire the durability and care of the medieval fresco
and panel paintings, their patina, texture, and aging;
the artist’s hand ...
- repeated actions of layering gesso familiarizes me
with the surface and size of the terrain ...
- by the time i’ve completed the gessoing,
the surface is already imbued with patterns and texture;
with its’ own code ...
- seven coats is probably overkill, but eliminates guess work
and has consistently provided stable ground ...
- seven is also a bit magical to me - it’s all white on white,
motion, sensing, praying, planning - getting down to the moment,
the environment, the key; where the alchemy begins ...

even here,
emptiness and purity
have history ...

the last painting ... [e.1]

i’ve been hesitating ...
surrender to the inevitable - defy it,
or indulge in the process of possibilities ...

memories ...

clouds like this
on days like these
brought me where i am ...

[clear, bright, and lush with summer activity -
low humidity with refreshing easterlies -
dramatic skies and the fragrence of possibility ...]

morphologies ...

from mars: the first scoop of what we call soil here on earth ...

garden ...

meditation ...

wonder what this mandala will reveal ...

studio traffic ...

same difference ...