December 2009

Origins of Language and Mythology

The more I read of Greek mythology, the more mysterious the origins are. I keep returning to Hesiod and Homer and still ask, what was it before them?
Below is a quote by Giambattista Vico which helps me understand how language and arts came together with civilization at the same time which will never happen again.

"Poetry, which was the first form of wisdom, began with a system of thought, not seasoned or abstract, as ours is now, but felt and imagined, as was the case in those primitive human beings who had developed no reasoning faculties, but were all made up of senses in the highest physical perfection, and of the most vigorous imagination. In their total ignorance of causes they wondered at everything, and their poetry was divine, because ascribed to gods the objects of their wonder, and thought that beings like themselves but greater could alone have caused them. Thus they were like children, whom notice taking into their hands inanimate things, and playing and talking with them as though they were living persons. When thunder terrified them, they attributed their own nature to the phenomenon; and being apt to express their more violent passions by howls and roarings, they conceived heaven as a vast body, which gave notice of its anger by lightning and thundering. The whole of nature in like manner, they imagined to be a vast animated body, capable of feeling and passion."

Giambattista Vicco Della Metafisica Poetica

Harmony

What makes the harmony?
Past the regular preconceived ideas. It is a series of instinctual actions tempered with serious reflections.

Painting is always the relation of what is being said to how it is being said.

As they say with speech. The same holds true with painting. Don't mince your words.
Every single dot of paint has to be locked into the form. It contributes in ways which cannot be simply broken down and examined.

September 2009 gouache

September 2009

Abstract Painting

The transition of my paintings from abstracted representations derived from drawings in the field, to paintings starting from various sensations coming from multiple levels of experience is happening on its own accord.
I think that music plays a major part in this transition. Usually, a song comes from playing around with some form that catches my whim. Then, before I know it , I'm on to something. The thing that sustains me is a flash of something I think I hear while simultaneously playing.
The hardest thing to let go of, is the concrete form. The image which is always there to go back to. A form is still there. It is just different. It is no longer an armature that represents some kind of image preconceived before the execution. It is still a type of armature, but it is not at all the same.
The form is there, etched somewhere between an unchanging grid, and a quick glimpse which embodies more of a tangible place which is felt and sensed in entirety.
This presents a problem for me technically to keep up with the sensations coming in. Painting has changed to a more layering process, within the key of the whole, which can change any time and must be kept up with. The physical issue of oil paint remaining wet, calls for a lot of preparation. I must be able to completely relocate an area if desired without the mess interfering with the mixtures I want.

I begin to see a trace. Something that's left over and doesn't look like it was touched by a human being.
When I see something as if was coming from more than myself, painting begins, for real.

gouache on paper
9" x 12"

The initial striking in of the picture is for me, an all or nothing type of situation.
Somehow, I must be able to find the general key of the picture and simultaneously, catch some glimpse of content, without depicting. This usually happens with constantly adapting and harmonizing with acts of desperation.

oil on panel 12" x 12"

The poet seeks what is nowhere in all the world,
And yet - somewhere - he finds it.

Titus Maccius Plautus

Latest oil painting

oil on panel
22" x 24"

June 2009

oil on panel
27" x 24"

Crayon and chalk drawing

Spring 2009
6 "x 6"

This is an example of where these paintings begin. They're always done outdoors and in rapid succession. About 6 or 7 drawings, one after another while walking. I don't stop until I can focus on the glimpse that I thought I maybe saw.
China marker is my favorite medium here.

The gouaches are the next step. Each motif has a few gouaches that are built up as I start an oil. All these go back and forth until the painting has an unexpected depth while retaining the spontaneity of that original drawing.

Outdoor Scene May 2009

Gouache on paper
11" x 13 1/2"

Spring 2009

Gouache on paper

Sping 2009

A.P. Ryder Essex Canal

I photographed this painting at the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday. Ryder's paintings take some time to digest, but when seen in life, have a haunting presence which seems to form out of nothing.
The American wing is my favorite in this museum.

Mythological Origins

Robert Graves has some very interesting views on the origins of Greek Myth. Almost all of his explanations have to do with the earlier transformations from a matriarchal queendom (which would sacrifice an interm king, later an interrex surrogate boy in his place, then the subsitution of an animal) to a patriarical kingdom. This factual transformation was later mytholigized in the depiction of vase painting and other objects.
He explains how then the later literal description such as Homeric Myths and Hesiod's Theogony are oral stories handed down from interpretations of earlier images. These images were depictions of real events such as invasions of other cultures or the transformation of small cults and their priestesses. The real event was then mythologized into a more poetic form.
These explanations seem very far fetched to me but at the same time extremely compelling. I cannot just simply accept the myths without at least wondering about their origins.
Along with Judeo Christianity, this is also the progenitor of Western Art. It is constantly evolving yet using these same stories for an incredibly long time.
I believe that this has survived so long because it taps into something universal. Biblical painting was viewed by an audience of 100% believers that touched every corner of their being.
In this day and age, it is not the case. If I depict a subject from Biblical or Greek Mythology, it will be internalized and understood, but not have the same impact that an earlier age would have.
As an artist I can only be true to the form of my everyday life. What I find to captivate my interest and fuels the expansion of my form.
That which is happening (content) is buried deep within that form, and like poetry, it must be read and reread until it slowly comes to the surface.

Springtime Flood

oil on panel
23x36"

Acts of Desperation

The marks of full desperation usually leads to deeper, richer, unpredictable elements.

Those moments when I just a have no idea what's going to happen ends up pushing things a little further than I would, feeling completely in control and pleased at the time.

That which is still standing

What remains after the things that take place on the canvas, breeds it's own kind of deep harmony beyond preconception.

Oil on panel 24" x 30" 4/2009

Reworking

While reworking paintings, I am beginning to see the accumulation of time that bears the complex flux of nature, strung by the immovable grid which somehow holds it together.

Watteau's theatrical fantasies are born from evening strolls in the park at Luxembourg Palace. The compositions are taken from sketches from nature. His paintings are what I consider to be an outdoor dramatic scene, while not being considered as a landscape.

Titian "Religion Succored By Spain"

I love the way the central activity of the Turk sinking into the water seems to be integrated with the scenery, yet still can be a focal point. Originally that was Neptune with his proud horses along with Venus and Minerva in front. I like how the power of composition can be retained even when the artist clothed them and changed labels. There's a wonderful transition to the figurative drama from the distant background with the haze of the smoke on the left.

Reason

My only initial hope each time, is to paint to the point where my reason is abandoned. Only then does the harmony begin to reflect the soul.

Gray Cloud

Gouache on Paper March 31st 2009

New Gouaches

These new gouache paintings are partly inspired by early water colors of Georges Rouault. His "Party at the Waterside" 1906, invokes a feeling of an event with something particular happening, without referring to anything too literal.

I aim for these paintings to be more of a drama which takes place in this setting than to be thought of as a landscape. It doesn't necessarily have to be outdoors, it just seems to end up that way.

Presenting

The exact point where the painting is no longer depicting but presenting, is never the same.
The stupidist idea or flippant gesture just may make it the hallmark for the picture.

I begin to notice that the coherency of the painting comes as I negate the parts I truly loved.

Illumination

The same drawing keeps on producing multiple variations, yet I think the illumination of the scene can achieve the same effect while using completely different means. One day, one night, I don't know how much of a difference it makes, as it opens the same door.

Pantheism

With Pantheism, Nature does have a larger order. For the artist this must be suggested in some way. However, it must be integrated with the entire structure of the painting. Not merely depicted.

This form was used in literature of the ancients. Intervention of the Gods were used as a device to show some kind of order to the mortal world where they had no explanation. Having this higher structure operating behind the scenes broadens the mental picture to operate on many levels.

Elysium

Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to remove yourself from the mainstream of society in order to think.

Elysian life?
Elysium- Greek place where the good rest when they die.

Path of Travel

The path of travel for these paintings is not easy, but I truly do not have a choice.

There is no way to possibly trace the crazy changes I make in these paintings.
The painting is the evidence.

I would like to represent the myths as I know them.

Greek myths no longer have any meaning more than a curiosity. Behind the Myth is what I'm interested in. There is something real, and the form must be integrated.

Content trickles in very slowly.