First piece of 2011

"Rislinger" 36"x 28" polished cement & dry pigment on panel

This year I am filled with renewed energy and creativity. I am making a conscious effort not to listen to my conscience! This is to be the year of the sub-conscience. I am truly letting go and letting the paint fall where it may.

Texas Blizzard of 2010

You need to understand that in Texas, 40 degrees is considered freezing and a light dusting of snow closes down the school system for a week. So imagine what manner of chaos ensued when an all time record breaking 12 inch snowfall befell residents of North Texas last week. At first I thought it was really cool, after all, it was quite beautiful and I work at home. I don't have to drive in that mess. Then power lines began to break, trees began snapping like twigs and roofs began collapsing all over the area! The streets and highways were littered with abandoned vehicles driven off roads obscured by snow.

So the artist in me reached for a camera.

The following shots are at my home while snowed-in

Cold Call

I finished this image about 20 minutes ago. Man I love digital cameras! It was very quick and easy and just flowed out of me. I am really getting into gestural drawing. I try not to pre-plan the marks I make and just allow my sense of design to take over and control the development of the piece.

"Cold Call" 20" x 27.5" polished pigmented cement on panel

click to enlarge

The trip to Tyler

I wised up and decided to wait a day for the roads to clear before I tried to deliver the art. I'm glad I waited. It was sunny and 20 degrees but no ice! It was actually a very pleasant drive, (thank God for my GPS!).

When I got to the University, I had difficulty locating the gallery. Everything was locked up. I continued to nose around until I found a warm body who could give me a little help. The Meadows Gallery is very impressive; I think my art will work well there. Below is the piece that got in. The show opens Monday, January 11th with the reception January 21st. The exhibition will be up till March 5th.

Hudsucker 39"x 27" click to enlarge

25th Annual International Exhibition

I was informed yesterday that my work was excepted into the 25th Annual International Exhibition in the Meadows Gallery at the University of Texas in Tyler. They tried to notified me over week ago of my inclusion but my e-mail was on the fritz. I received a phone call yesterday wondering why the gallery had not received my art. I was elated but frustrated. The only way to get the art there in time for the opening is to hand deliver it. Then the worst cold spell in over a decade hit. Do I risk life and limb driving over two hours each way on icy roads with temperatures in the teens. Hell yes!

I will write soon with the outcome, if I survive.

The New Year

As the New Year begins, I look back and review things I have done in the past year. Have I learned all they had to teach me? As I revisit a previous piece, especially after completing numerous new works, I see it with a fresh eye. Time has separated me from the creative process. It speaks to me in more muted tones so I have to pay attention and listen closely. If I am not careful the demands of new struggles drown out the relevance of old ones.

As I look forward to what the new year has to offer, may I have the good sense not to forget what the past has taught.

"Darjeeling" 30"x 36" polished pigmented cement on panel

Why do I create art?

The question has been asked, "Why do I create art? What gets me into the studio every day?" It's like asking a bird why it flies. Man was designed to create, whether it be music, poetry, cooking or even remodeling a house. It is a compulsion essential to the development of the individual as well as mankind in general. Why do billionaires, who have more money than they could spend in 10 lifetimes, spend every waking hour trying to earn more? Making money is their creative outlet, their bliss. If I were independently wealthy, I would still create art, it is my bliss. When I am in the studio, it is special "me time". I shut out the world and turn inward. I ignore everything that is not me and tune into my individuality. Before I make a mark, I have to get in the correct frame of mind.

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stated, "It is the challenge of the artist to explore the particular in order to discover the universal." I believe the individual is a particular piece of the universal and one's imagination is the conduit to the realization of that uniqueness. Art, if it is honest, is a means of self discovery. I allow my emotions, my likes and dislikes, to govern the evolution of my work. Above all, it has to feel right, I have to trust my gut, not my ego. My "modus operandi" is to set up circumstances where art might occur and then allow it to do so. This creative process is exhilarating and exciting, full of surprises and discoveries. The work becomes a byproduct of the experience. Tethered in the present moment, I watch in amazement as individuality seeks to reveal itself.

"A man's art is always more than he knows about himself," ( I saw this scrawled on a wall somewhere.)

My "Fortress of Solitude"

Muligan

Recently I have been experimenting with a lot of polished surfaced images. I felt the need, in this piece, to delve back into the more textural qualities that first interested me in the medium of cement. Most of my earlier works were all about the three dimensional capabilities of this medium. Textured surfaces occupied the majority of my designs. Then I began to experiment with the techniques used for polishing cement, I was swept away, learning about this new capability. Cement could take on the look of translucent glass, polished stone or the buffed appearance of ivory or bone. Mastery of this skill occupied the creation of many new works. Each new piece taught me more than the one before, until finally, I felt I had a good grasp of this technique. At this point, I feel it may be the time to try to integrate both surfaces into my work.

In "Muligan" I created a textured ground in which polished surfaces could be imbedded. I have to be concerned about weight, so I keep everything as thin as possible. The work becomes a kind of assemblage, as opposed to being created all in one piece. This opens up playful opportunities to move things around and mix and match, to find pleasing combinations.

As an added benefit, I am able to recycle parts of failed images that I have broken apart, that were otherwise headed for the trash heap.

"Muligan" 36"x 24" polished pigmented cement on panel

The Koi Pond

In the past I have been working fairly large, but recently I decided to play around with smaller works. "The Koi Pond" measures 25"x 24". To me, that is small. I feel more comfortable when working in the 5 or 6 foot range. I find it challenging to achieve a free gestural stroke using wrist action as opposed to my whole arm. None the less, this small size makes it possible to work much faster using less material. I consider each piece I complete a learning experience, so working small, in theory, should increase my learning curve. In practice, though, working smaller set me back. I had several miserable failures as the confines of the edges of the panel curtailed my freedom and imagination. I had to make a mental shift to this new scale. "The Koi pond" was the first successful attempt at reducing my images. When a photo of the image did not scream out "I am small", I felt I was on the right track.

"The Koi Pond" 25"x 24" polished pigmented cement on panel

Hudsucker

This was the first piece where I decided to bevel and polish the edge of the image. In my past work I was OK with the edges being rather rough and unfinished. Sometimes I get urges to make a change in a particular process or habit and there is always the choice of whether I should follow that urge or not. In this instance, I felt that it worked out very well. You can't really see the beveled edge in this photo but in person it adds a nice finished frame-like quality that contrasts nicely with the many rough finished surface areas. Many artists don't feel that photography accurately represents their artwork. This is especially true in my case. Photos do not communicate the fact that areas of the work have been highly polished, waxed and buffed to a mirror like surface. At this point I am inclined to repeat this edge treatment in future pieces.

"Hudsucker" 39" x 27" polished cement and dry pigment on panel