First, I went to the Brooklyn Artists Gym where I spoke to some artists and looked at my work; it was not well lit and I had Peter put a spotlight on it – painting that’s not well lit won’t present itself as well.  I insist on good lighting – and hopefully, good placement.

But I also felt sad tonight – and I had to express it – so I painted another Oil Pastel Sketch.  It’s hard to explain – and it’s what led me to paint again.

 

A couple of thoughts – all my fellow artists – and other artists, in their own studios, had their work on display tonight and Sunday – and probably longer after that.  My work, each done in one sitting – using Acrylic – looks raw.  I mean….I’m wondering when I’ll be ready, or willing to commit more than one sitting to any one painting – as there’s only so far an artist can go in one sitting.   In my case, the oil pastel sketch was done in a little over an hour.   I’m so aware of my limitations – my impatience, the problems I have with detail – of not even being sure I want to paint the details.

And then, I think about the people looking at my painting and I feel the burden … do they like my work?  Suddenly I’m glad I don’t make my living as an artist, that I don’t count on people liking and buying my work….how hard that would be.

While I was depressed by something else – the matter of who was looking at my work and what they thought, what I thought, depressed still more.

It’s as if, I got over my fear of showing my work – coming this far in the last 6 months – from not having painted in over 10 years before what forced me to begin again, this spring – only to realise I’m really at the beginning – all over again.

The only thing I’ve got – is the knowledge and good sence to know who I am – and what is me and what is not me.  My work no longer looks like anyone else’s – it comes out of me, for better or worse.

Another thought – it’s easy to like paintings that look closer to a visual representation (person, still life, landscape) – the closer a painting is to common visual language – the easier time viewers have relating to it.  On the other hand, the more common the visual language, the more easy it is to dismiss the work (because it approaches a photograph).  People tend to admire the skill of representation – but the best artists hid many abstract qualities within the visual representation (ie: a portrait) – no doubt – visual representation is also limiting.

In my painting, above, I’m struggling both with my sadness – which feels profound, and the medium itself. I simply do not want to focus on details – yet I feel I should.

Also ran into 2 new friends, Matthew and Nichelle at BAG, they were taking a tour of the galleries in the building.  The two middle photos are of LemurPlex, a new Robotics, Electronics training lab in Brooklyn, a couple of blocks from BAG.

  

 

The last photo on the right is at BAG, it’s sorta a party to go along with the art opening.

And finally, what are they studying at the LemurPlex?
Saturday and Sunday, October 21st and 22nd, 12:00PM-6:00PM

Physical Computing Intensive using MidiTron:

Intro to Electronics and Interfacing Sensors, Lights and Robotics

Have you ever wondered how to play music by moving your hands or trigger video clips with the blink of an eye? In one weekend, you will learn how to do this through tutorials in basic electronics, MAX/MSP/Jitter programming, sensor building, lights, robotics, and interactive design using the Miditron (a sensor and robotic interface device). You will learn these techniques hands-on by building mini-projects and ideas of your own design. This is of interest to Artists, Musicians, Dancers, Actors, Engineers, Programmers, Lighting, Sound and Graphic Designers, and others.

You will have the opportunity to design sensor-based projects using MidiTron. You will learn basic electronics, MIDI, and programming in order to implement your projects. You will learn how to incorporate basic circuits into your projects and art. Subjects covered will include electronic components, symbols and schematics, electricity flow, making connections, testing, and troubleshooting. Programming using MAX/MSP/Jitter will also be taught so that you can control sound and visuals through the computer. Through guided tutorials and critiques, we will explore technical and aesthetic issues regarding their projects. In addition, prior art will be discussed for inspiration and analysis. No previous knowledge of electronics, sensors, or programming is assumed.

Sounds really interesting …. I’m not sure it’s the couse I’d take now – yet there are ideas that I could execute better on a computer/electronics medium – like showing my life as a web page (ie: like the home page of a big corporation – but it’s all about me – did a sketch of that a couple of weeks ago – but I’m not sure how I’ll execute yet – all these ideas require more than one sitting and I’m not sure I’m ready for this yet – we’ll see).

Time to go to be, or try to.

I went to a few openings tonight – maybe 4 or 5 in the same building – the show I did want to see was Doug Safranek at the ACA Gallery in Chelsea.

All the work at the ACA Gallery was in Egg Tempera – and I have to say, Doug Safranek’s paintings were fantastic.  I spoke briefly with the artist.  For one thing, his show was well attended; many people came, many friends of his, but also people like me who know nothing about Doug Safranek.

I spent about 30-40 minutes looking at the entire collection – there was so much detail in each painting – l don’t know that it’s possible to get any more detail in a painting than what Doug Safranek puts in …it must take him close to a year to do one painting – and he does, maybe, 3 or 4 a year, similar to what Joe Coleman puts out.

There’s so much detail – you can get lost in it – and yet – what strikes me is the feeling of what these images remind me of.  I grew up in NYC, but even if you did not grow up here …the images, the details work on your mind, your emotion.

The reason these paintings work for me is the emotion behind them – perhaps less detail might have worked just as well or even better for me- and I did not care for the framing – I don’t know what would work better – I just don’t like the way most of the paintings are framed.

 

At this level, a photo would have done just as well – if it was just about detail. Again, the reason the paintings work for me – it’s the feelings he put in – while he worked on the details – the love of the craft, the love of the image – that’s what I get out Doug Safranek’s work.

I tried to understand why someone would spend this long on one painting.  I can understand Joe Coleman doing it – because he’s painting his ideas and memories – but why paint something go to such detail when a photo would do just as well?

But then I look at each detail and the feelings that this artist felt, unfolds to me – and I’m totally fine – it’s great work. 

And then I looked at some of the other work in the gallery that was not his and I saw that less detail would have worked just as well.  The Egg Tempera technique is hard enough – takes very long time and a lot of extra effort to produce these kinds of results.  In 100 years, these paintings won’t even look like they aged, Egg Tempera holds up very well over time.

So, I’d suggest going to see Doug Safranek at the ACA Gallery. 

I can’t say that if I owned a Safranek ….I’d look at it over and over …that’s usually what I look for in work I think is good.  I think I looked at each of the paintings for a couple of minutes each – and I found detail after detail facinating…but I don’t know how his work holds up over time – would I still like it as much if it was handing on my wall for a month or two.  I’m not sure.   I think he could have dropped much of the ultra detailing he seems to delight in and still held everyone’s interest – but that’s just my opinion.

One of the few paintings I own that I did when I lived in the East Village in 1987-1989, before moving to Brooklyn. I was subletting an apartment on E10th Street and 2nd Avenue for a year after returning from a summer painting at the Vermont Studio School (or whatever it’s called now – I knew one of the founders from another life). The painting is After The Bath, it’s large, around 5ft long by 4ft wide, oil on canvas.

Last night, as I worked on my study of the door at the Brooklyn Artist Gym I thought about this painting – all the mini paintings that I did right … things I left alone - the parts that I could not intergrate into one – into my life then. I could not accept my touch, my approach, my vision, was good enough – I kept trying to make it better. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that – except that extra work I put in did not, often, make the painting better.

I am standing back, right now, and honoring what I did right here (and you can click on each picture to blow it up more).

When I painted the orange bottle, shown in the left picture, I saw a flash of light – pure energy – it was sometime early in the morning one day – I remember the flash (hopefully not an optical issue) and said – let it be – the elementals told me to leave it this way ….I will leave it. Also, the light blue coke bottle – similar thing – a light being, an elemental appeared to me, jumping out of my paint brush and into the painting, I said ….let it be. Is it finished enough? The elementals had spoken, I let it be.

At the time I was looking at Velazquez (esp the Maids of Honor - one of Velazquez’s most famous paintings) and Delacroix, more for his Journal, which I read several times (that’s whole other story that I won’t go into here – I suppose the painting I might most have in mind would be The Algerian Women in Their Apartments). The woman, at that time, was my girl friend, Maxine, who I no longer know.

At that time, I let the elementals guide my painting – I put myself in a passive role, but was often “stuck”. I had not yet worked out that it’s ok not be guided by elementals – not everything needs to be “inspired” or dictated from some voice or source that appears outside of me or inside my head.

Even as I look at my pictures – that I tried my best to balance for color and sharpness to match the painting, next to me, I see the elementals – sometimes popping out of the picture. At the time, I believed paintings could serve as a “doorway” between the elemental world, and this one – but if was the fusion with this reality that made the painting real, authentic.

Here’s some more parts of the painting, After the Bath, that I painted in 1988. Perhaps all this “parts” of the work are better than the whole – and now, when I paint, I just do the sections (I honor what I did right … here).

There’s more, but I can’t fit it into one post. Anyway – I feel this work has a “sound” much like what Fred Stonehouse mentioned he’s after. Also, was thinking about Joe Coleman, with the passivity he uses to let ideas flow into his head – and that’s what he paints.

Now it’s time to finish up packing for the EMetrics Summit - I have a train to catch to Washington DC.

Just some photos of my work – it was hung up as I was leaving Brooklyn Artists Gym last night. I had a beer with Peter Wallece and two friends of his – I think he was planning to be at it all night.

What people need, what Peter needs, is about double the number of artists to join and some investment money to expand. I hope he gets it soon.