Draft

Draft for an up coming painting.
(White pencil on graph paper)

So, here is a sketch for an up coming painting that I will most likely be starting within the next month. This is a painting that will be coexisting with two other paintings (one finished, that I mentioned in a previous entry , and another that will be in production after this one). Just to touch briefly on the concept behind this trio, I have been thinking about transition, as I have also mentioned, and baptism. In this case, I am more or less considering three things: an idea, and ideal, and the living truth of it all. This is still something I am trying to grapple with and refine, so I apologize for the vague and ambiguous explanation. None-the-less, I am moving forward with the project, and learning as I go along. With these, I am trying to reconfigure how I go about making, especially in terms of my painting. I still believe in having a plan, but I'm starting to take the approach of Barnett Newman, in that I would start a painting by simply painting. And whats more, is that in the process of affecting the canvas, in turn it would have an effect on me. Thank you Mr. Newman.

Not a moment to lose!

In the midst of all this talk of time, and it being my main subject as of late, something rather profound, yet ordinary had struck me. I had been thinking, as I was looking at some pictures of some people that I know, that are around my age, and thought: My God, one day I shall look back at times such as these when I am much older (if those days do come that is), and I shall say “look how young we all were then,” and how time had run such a game on us all. How we’d been tricked into thinking no time had past at all. That is, until we see the proof, and then we are taken through the loop, and we start to count the days, and even seconds perhaps, that we missed as it slipped out the back door, hardly letting a floorboard creek. And then we might even carry on to say how if it were only that way again, how much more we would have done and experienced, seized the moment, and made every second tamper and toil at that back door with the amount of locks and efforts put into containing them. And even still in this thought, I could almost awake as if from a dream, and take account of what took place in my mind and the actuality of my being: I am still young! To have thought of this made me think of what a gift it is to be at such a point in life. It helps one to think as to what they are doing about it as well, and to contemplate on the so very preciousness of each and every moment. There is not a moment to lose! Or perhaps it is quite the opposite, and that is what the saying suggests.

"I AM"
pen, graphite, water color, and gold acrylic on graph paper
7x7"

Joseph and Nicodemus
pen, graphite, stickers, and newspaper clipping on graph paper
7x7"

So these are the drawings I said I was going to post, and I hope to have more up soon to have proof of all this work I said I've been doing. Also, just as a note, there is some minor shmutz due to the surface of the scanner I used. I tried to remove as much as I could.

So, Tuesday, December the 1st, is the opening of a senior run show (that I was apart of) at UARTS, which I will also have one piece in. I hope to have some images up from the show before long, as well as the piece that I had in it. As well, I will be posting some smaller drawings that I have been working shortly, and hopefully more...

Here is the press release from the Facebook page so you can get the gist of the show:

The senior painting/drawing majors present Pair Off, an exhibition curated by the senior seminar class featuring works by seniors and juniors in the Fine Arts, Crafts and Photo departments.

This exhibition brings together pairs of artists whose works seem to create a relating or contrasting dialog. Each individual artist speaks uniquely through his or her medium, however no artist exists in a vacuum. This exhibition pairs the trends and interests of young artists within the University of the Arts community, and when presented together, they form the larger conversation that drives the exploration and expansion of the contemporary art world.

Pair Off is on display from December 1st – December 10th in Gallery 224 on the second floor of Anderson Hall, 333 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia. An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, December 1st 5 pm. until 7 pm. The exhibition is open to the public and refreshments will be served.

So work moves on, and still, it goes well. I have completed another piece (a painting), and it is helping me to segue into making larger works. As well, this newer piece is helping me to stand back and compare it to others, and how I might incorporate similar elements to them/tie up loose ends for some. During my making I am trying, as of late, to think more through the process then through sitting and thinking. As to say, I am learning about what I am doing, and thinking about the piece while I'm making it (through the materials).

As well, I had spent some good time in New York City the past two weekends, and saw a good deal of work (some good and some bad). The ones that I particularly enjoyed:

Anish Kapoor- http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view-now/anish-kapoor-memory

Dan Flavin- http://www.davidzwirner.com/

Wassily Kandinksy- http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view-now/kandinsky

Wayne Gonzales- http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/475

Dan Fischer- http://www.derekeller.com/exhibitions.html

Wolfgang Laib- http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2009-10-29_wolfgang-laib/#

For the sake of posting

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

I just wanted to post this for the sake of posting.

Work is on the move, as it were, and the said painting is finished...for now. I still need to think more on this piece and whether or not I need to add another element or two. All together, I am pleased with the painting, and have been writing as much as I can about it. Still, further up and further in I go, exploring what possibilities present themselves to my mind's eye, and learning all I can. Through my working on this body of work, I discover more and more about who God is(as well as myself), just by finding my way through a drawing, or marking a canvas. More ideas are brewing for more works, and I am refining them in my mind to the best of my ability. Steady still, and productive, I believe things are coming along quite well.
Till next time---