Tidying up 2023 art works

Forrest and Gregg have helped me update my website.  Check it out.  My bad, no blog posts for too long.  I have been working.  Here are a few pieces that you may not have seen.  Echoes Encore is 17″x108″.  I have posted half here.  Next is photo of me with work in progress.   Verdant is 46″x54″.  Spring and summer garden.

This is half of this 9 foot long painting.

Discharge- first measure

Forrest said this painting reminded him of a musical score.  He’s working on synth music.  This part is about 3 ft. of a 15 ft. canvas.  The canvas was made for photo printing.  It buckles when it gets any moisture.  I’ve enjoyed tussling with the ups and downs of this canvas.

Discharge

Discharge- has many meanings

This is another painting on a word.  It is a way for me to enter an abstract place that is color, lines, and now puckers.  This is photo canvas that is 17 1/2″ wide, and comes on a roll.  I’ve joined three pieces that are five feet, with duct tape.  I don’t have a drone so the first photo is paralaxed.  I’m working on an old pingpong table, plus a couple more.  Today I was able to walk along and make continuous lines with charcoal.  The moisture in the paint affects the pucker.   Also, by working flat, the gravity pulls everything.  I’m used to letting it pull on the drips when I work vertically.  These panels may get a vertical treatment, or

17″ x15′ photo canvas

not.  

Discharge, like sneeze, fart, static electricity or a bomb.

Gingko leaves in progress

There is a paper mill near here.  This piece of paper was left in the school by a teacher.  It has pin holes in the corners.  It is 41″ wide by 10 feet long.  Dale says it is milk carton paper.   It is very heavy.   Painting on a flat surface is different for me.  The photos are all spread out, for now, but they might give you an idea.  Since I am painting this on a table, there are no drips.  There is still gravity, just not so obvious.

Gingko Leaves

Hope- horse m s

This painting has “simmered” a long time.  The horse might sing is a tale of hope and possibilities.  The double row of teeth on the right side show some of the obstacles!  The canvas is 4 feet by 5 feet. 

Glass Stairway

The stairway is paused.  It has narrowed to fit through the uprights.  It is removable, but the next layers will lock it in place. At  Meditation the other day, we discussed whirl.  I am thinking of turning the last steps, to break up the linearity.  The UV glue is incredibly strong, and thanks to Donna for the new lamp to cure it more quickly.  Gregg had to do some jiggery- pokery to get each new step to clamp to the previous one while it was curing.  Some nice dry weather has us doing some maintenance and repairs.  Poly; means many is “simmering.”

stairway

More than one way

I’ve been working on New Perspective for nine months, a long time for me.   I am working from words and experience, not photos.

 There is a lot going on that is … involving.  Now I am working more closely with Gregg on sculpture.  I have worked on 2-d paintings and drawings for a long time, and this third dimension is pushing me around.  I represent gravity in my paintings by letting the paint drip.  In a sculpture, gravity will literally take me and throw me on the ground.  Ouch!  That’s how I got involved in making Poly: means many.   I am tentative, but I’m getting bolder, more confident.  Or so I tell myself.

This relates to this painting New Perspective.  This is grappling with my transition into the third dimension.  I have worked on it from every vertical direction.  Maybe it’s time to put it on the floor?  I won’t work on it above my head, too much trouble. 

New Perspective

Topography

topography

I have made a base for Poly-means many that will sit inside the steel legs.  Except I’m going to have to modify the corners, because they won’t fit.  They are too tall.  Art, for me is the process, and learning.  I have helped build and rehab many houses, so you’d think I would get that “measure twice” rule of carpenters.  However, problems and glitches sometimes lead to new ideas.  Anyway, most of the topography is made of scraps of plywood.  I will insert some pieces of plate glass in some of the gaps.  Some are holes, or ruts,  like to map of my life.  The red wood dye is a Briwax product.  I will continue to add more dye to make some areas dark.  Because some of the plywood had a hard finish, it barely takes the dye, and other areas are various shades. 

Shadows

Poly-means many

I am trying to understand the many sides of this thing.  Maybe like a blind person describing an elephant.  I have already used steel wire to make the word “open” which I plan to use to wire the book closed.  Along with openings and opportunities, there are limits.  After I fashioned the word “limit”, Gregg forged it for me, making it flatter and wider.  Then we took a photo to show the shadow, and the light.  Many of the words I’m using are opposites, but some are shades of meanings.  “Limit” may appear on or near the “glass ceiling.”