On the Clouds (In My Artwork)
If people talk about my art in the future, they will probably, at some point, mention the clouds. So before possible future critics extrapolate on my intentions, I'd like to share some thoughts on the subject myself - that is: the abundance of clouds in my paintings.
Because there is definitely an abundance of clouds.
Having and Having Not: Homelessness in Los Angeles
A new law passed by the LA city council prohibits homeless people from owning more belongings than can fit in a 60-gallon trashcan with the lid on, and allows police to summarily confiscate any tents that are still standing on public property during daylight hours.
The law is a response to Los Angeles's epidemic of homelessness -- a rise in homelessness that's clocked in at 20% of two years.
What Is There Left To Paint?
A frequent question that is asked of me: where does it come from? What inspires me?
Violet reminded me that the etymology of the word 'inspire' is rooted in the word 'breath' and that 'inspire' is a way of saying 'breathing life into'. So the question really is 'what breathes life into my work?' Where do I find the momentum - the life - to keep putting brush to canvas? Everyday I wake I think about those paints, those colors, that question.
Summertime Paintings 2015
Years ago I got into a kind of creative flow that went like this: winter was when I worked on large, detailed paintings while summer was for getting out and doing things and events and traveling and the like. I found myself painting and sort of hibernating during many winters because life feels quieter and more internal. It's helpful for allowing my mind and body to settle, focusing on the finer details of my work. Come summer - when life bursts with exuberant busy-ness, I'd pick up and go out and share and be more social. During those summer months, I often plan out a course of paintings to work through the winter - a general game plan, if you will - a setlist of paintings - and return to the studio.
It's like a moebius strip where I would go far enough inwards in one direction that I'd eventually circle back in the opposite direction… and then far enough out in the other direction, and so on. Back and forth, round and round.
Surrender
I was going through all sorts of files, updating web stuff, doing businessy things, cataloging and organizing, as one has to do. Sometimes I'm struck by the fact that there is just so much art I've created over many years. And much of it, I think, returns to this painting, Surrender (28" x 48"), painted in 1996 when I was 19.Painting it was a turning point in my life. I'd had this experience earlier that summer which had left me filled with questions and doubts. Basically, I was struggling with letting go of the yoke of social and parental expectations.
In my sketchbook, during one of my classes, I made a drawing the vision I'd had - after getting twisted around through some dark and frustrated rivers of mental constructs - of this land I arrived into of just... endless exuberant love with the sky folding into the earth and vice versa and these beings just dancing over the hills grabbing pieces of clouds and LOVE was written all over everything. I decided to paint it - maybe just the third or fourth painting I'd ever made.
The Dorky Painting
Back in 2003, inspired by a chapter of a strange (and at times problematic) book The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle, I painted "The Dorky Painting." As Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the introduction "It's like an egg: everything that is supposed to be in there is in there." There's really nothing else like it. So this painting is based on one of the chapters in the book - "Dorky Day". I can't explain it - you just need to read it. Broadly, however, it is a chapter about clearing the cobwebs from the mind. This painting was made to help clear the cobwebs of my mind.
In any case, on a whim one night, I looked up Mr. Kotzwinkle's website and sent him a link to the painting along with a short note of thanks. Below, is his response.
Art is an act of Love
Businesses run on products: product conception, product development, product sales, product redevelopment, and so on. Products products products. If we are not buying a product then we are producing a product or selling a product or discarding a product in order to replace it eventually with another theoretically superior product. These products are largely made for two reasons: to make money for the creator/sales person and to satisfy a utilitarian need that some aspect of our human existence has necessitated. Sometimes that aspect is basic: a shirt to protect us from the cold, shoes to protect our feet, etc. Other times - and this is often the case - the need goes much deeper - products are bought and sold to satisfy a desire to be attractive, to be beautiful, a desire to reflect some part of our perceived identity, and, most importantly, a desire to be loved. In the end, it seems difficult to decipher the difference between 'basic need' and 'desire'.
Artwork, at its purist, at its most whole, is born from the desire - an inner urge - to create. It is the desire of self-expression and bringing something new into the world. That urge drives us forwards - compelling us to always do more - because that which we have already made is never fully satisfying.
Why I Vote (And Why You Should Too)
The same old story: "Why vote? Voting doesn't make a difference. Politics isn't real. It's all smoke and mirrors. An illusion to keep you distracted." It's a common story - in one form or another - told by a disproportionately large section of people my age and younger. I'm 38. So that's a lot of people!
Getting people to believe that 'politics isn't real' is a great way to con a populace into apathy and inaction. Each group, each subsection of the population, seems to have it's own methods of doing so. It saddens me to watch people slip into sleep like that. Buddhism and Hinduism can use 'karma' - we are where we are and our lot in life is just our karma playing out, from the local to the national to the global level. It pacifies people. It keeps them from affecting changes. Christianity offers the carrot of eternal reward in Heaven and that God will judge, not man, so let things go. We all are guilty.
“Study for ‘The Battle of Tetuan'” – Dali
Study for 'The Battle of Tetuan'
Salvador Dali
1962
This little painting - it's about 7" x 9" - resides in the Dali Museum in Figueras, Spain, in an over-packed room filled with art and oddities, almost disappearing into the surrealist melange. You would be excused were you to overlook it.
Kauai and Maui
Returning to Hawaii 14 years later, Violet and I took a boat trip - time was short and the hike itself is long - around the north-western side up along Kalalau where I spent a month camping, being, and letting go 14 years ago in 2000 when I was 24. I'm a different person now yet, not so much as changed. Back then I'd hiked the Kalalau trail at least 8 times - once in only 3 hours. Had nearly had my neck crushed by the ocean, had been poisoned by the water, eaten a goat killed by a fellow camper and roasted over the fire, and then had retreated away from that larger transient community on that gorgeous beach. In a little hidden spot tucked away from everyone I lived in a tent alongside a river up in the valley. I dug a fire pit and had a sweet pool to swim in. I hiked, painted, got lost, found, sat, did yoga, grew my beard, mused and pondered and let myself disappear into the landscape.
"What made you come out?" asked Violet while we watched the sun cast sharp angles over the jagged edges of the cliffs.