It’s been a busy week at our place, painting painting and more painting. I was busy in the studio finishing this canvas in my new series while Michael was busy painting our living room walls a beautiful shade of red. Color everywhere! We artists do the work and then proceed to the next step – naming our pieces. In reading about the naming process, I … Continue reading What’s in a Name?
“Art should be persistent; exhibitions should be small.”–Robert Henri, The Art Spirit I have been persistent and have been invited to mount a small exhibition of my “Colors of Jazz” in my new also small hometown in July. This is a happy piece of news for me after I lost opportunities when I left San Diego for Mexico back in 2018. And then moved again … Continue reading Choosing for a Small Exhibition Is a Labor of Love
Despite some discussions about the similarities between art and science, it’s good to be clear: they both matter, but they are not the same. David Bayles and Ted Orland make this abundantly clear in their Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. From Bayles and Orland:“It is an article of faith, among artists and scientists alike, that at some deep level … Continue reading Art and Science: Together and Apart
The past few weeks have been something of a struggle as I tried to adapt myself to the new studio space and adapt myself to a different way of working. This is not entirely new, but it’s not what I was doing for last few years while I created the Colors of Jazz series of paintings. The new way is a combination of the painting … Continue reading The Colors of Jazz Are Flying Again!
“Everybody who has any respect for painting feels scared when he starts a new canvas. A person who has never been afraid has no imagination…Brilliancy is going toward color…”–Robert Henri, The Art Spirit I make no claims to brilliancy, but Robert Henri and I agree that color is an animal that wags its own tail. My words, not his. Poet Yevgeny Yevtuskenko wrote about color … Continue reading The Colors of Our Lives
Miles Davis had it right: “Sometimes it takes a long time to learn how to play like yourself.” And with that, I’m right back in the jazz world. But Miles Davis knew whereof he spoke. And it applies to any creative work. Even to the woodcarvers who put their talent to work carving pumpkins for Halloween. I’m back but I’ve learned some things in the … Continue reading Learning to Play Like Myself
I’m ready to get back to work. I’ve been experimenting with my old collage materials on the small pieces of illustration board and trying some new tricks. But combining large areas of paint with the collage materials is a whole new adventure for me and results have been mixed. No, wrong. They’ve been bad. That’s why we experiment. Smaller works are not what I generally paint, so … Continue reading Floating on the Tide
Houses are very much on my mind, although this piece was done long before I began looking for one. It reflects more of my history than the present or my future. My family moved often because of my dad’s work, and I grew up in all kinds of houses in the many places we lived. Now I think of them in a different way, through … Continue reading Artists as Storytellers
Abstract expressionist artists so often have a hard time explaining what they do when they’re asked the larger-than-large questions: What’s it about? or What does it mean? Or why did you call it that? We have little to anchor our work back to whatever reality exists (I’m a skeptic about reality), and we work in a more or less constant state of mystery. Sometimes the … Continue reading Notice What You Notice
I ran across a phrase in the news this morning that hit a nail I’ve been aiming for right on the head. Shock jock art. I am not a shock jock artist. Nor do I aspire to be. But sometimes, I’ll admit, the big dollar numbers associated with the shock jock art world have a siren call. Apparently they have the same siren call for … Continue reading Shock Jock Art
Art and Tulips 