In an Ideal World
I have been considering the proposition
that this world lacks an idea of the ideal scene. Due to the lack of an ideal scene people go around accepting the existing situation. Perhaps we need to start “mocking
up” the ideal scene. First, with no other action needed, fill in the end of the following sentence:
“In an ideal world,…”
For example:
-
In an ideal world, there wouldn’t
be criminals because people would learn that the way to happiness includes not doing anything illegal.
-
In an ideal world, young men
wouldn’t feel the need to blow themselves and others up to solve a real or perceived inequity (Al Qaeda, Hamas, etc.)
I would like to compile a list
of “ideal world” scenarios, if for no other reason than to keep reminding ourselves that the world doesn’t need to be the
current situation. You are invited to submit if you like. I’ll post on a web page.
Digital Illustration
 I have been experimenting with art almost wholely created in the digital environment. I'll explain simply: I had
done a "coloring book" to go with a poem by Dean many years ago and then only did about 10 copies of it and distributed
to children I knew for Christmas. The original black and white ink drawings languished in a folder for many years. Dean recently
updated the blank verse poem. I decided to post it to the web with color drawings. I purchased a Wacom Graphire stylus. (This is similar to a mouse but operates like a pencil,
with a mouse pad being the vehicle for communicating to the computer. This is ideal for me because I am left-handed but have
always used the mouse right-handed to avoid having to reprogram it.) There are about 30 black and white pictures. I have done
12 of them in color at this point, in the process, learning how to manipulate color in the digital arena. I'll cover how this
is done and what I have learned on the lessons page.
The use of translucency in portraiture
If you look closely at skin, it's not opaque. So in doing a portrait, you
want to communicate this translucency. There are two ways to do it, in either oil or acrylic. In simple terms, one is called
glazing and the other is called scumbling. Don't try to paint a flat color and call it skin. Sneak up on it. Paint into it
the bluey-greens of veins, the browns of freckles, the pale blues and reds and oranges that occur because of reflection. Oh
yes, there's reflection! Did you ever hold a buttercup under your chin to find out if you liked butter? More on
Lessons page
When all is said and done
It will be the ripples of my passing that spread to affect others for good
or ill. If you do things with Art (in the sense in which L. Ron Hubbard defines it in Scientology: "Art is
a word which summarizes the quality of communication.") people become more capable. As people become more able to communicate and be communicated to, the world approaches nearer
to an ideal scene. My successes have been (will be) where I communicate effectively. My failures have been failures to communicate
or to adequately receive someone's communication. And this is not a categorical thing; that is, I don't think I ever
wholely fail or wholely succeed, I simply slide more towards one or the other end of a continuum. Anyway, it's something to
think about. Any thoughts?
Development of a portrait
Mon, February 16, 2004 | link
Learning to edit
I'm working on dekludging from years of somewhat sorted but stored things. Some of these have to go, to make way for
new stuff. Letting go of things is hard. It's sort of a physical editing. I'm beginning to get the idea. Getting rid of clutter
is a learned ability. If I get really good at it, I'll also be able to "get rid of" in such a way that it helps someone else.
For instance, I just gave the keyboard that sat for years in the basement to a musician friend who is poor. "What do you want
for it," he asked. " Create," I said. "If you make some money at it, give some back. At the least, give me a tape of what you create." (You see, I know
that the technology used in the keyboard is at least 10 years old, making it improbable that I would get much if any money
for it anyway. So how can I lose?)
What a difference the sun makes
Yesterday was cloudy and I worked indoors all day. I am tackling years of "hoarding". The process of cleaning and rearranging
things guarantees a large amount of chaos. Framed and unframed paintings in the hall, in the studio, in the living room. Piles and files of books and papers. Such
confusion is stirred up by the process of uncovering and recovery from past neglect! I was tired, perhaps not wholely from the physical
effort. Today I woke to bright sunshine. Now it is cloudy, but the sun is a glorious visitor in February when one wishes for
Spring.
Vermeer and the light
We
saw the movie: The Girl with the Pearl Earring, from the painting by Vermeer, The Girl with the Pearl Earring. I have some objection to the way that Vermeer was portrayed,
a rather brooding, inarticulate and un-causing 40ish man, managed by his family and one patron, seemingly a very ugly character (and perhaps he was!). But the filming of Delft as it might have been was magnificent. Such a sad movie though. I hope they
are all happier now. Delft in 1665 is a very aesthetic place, as long as you are sitting in a warm and comfortable
movie theatre. I marvel at Vermeer's ability to paint pictures of light in the available light. You realize, we now have electricity,
which changes everything. The artist now has no difficulty having sufficient available light to paint, but we have lost those
strong chiaroscuro lighting arrangements so characteristic of pre-electric times. The best thing about the movie, to my mind, is that perhaps
it will inspire people to investigate the works of Vermeer.
You are all artists
OK. Time to stop pulling the punches. You are all artists. Last night I read poetry
and showed my art to an audience of about 40 at the Nora School, the audience composed of poets, parents, students. I asked
for a show of hands, those who were artists, or wanna-be artists, or goning to be artists. About two thirds of the audience
raised their hands. I did the same for poetry. I think (I'll just say it, and you can consider it my "opinion,") that people
in general are suppressed on their ability to express themselves. Art and poetry are simply ways of communicating to others
about things. Being a "good" artist (or poet) consists in part of developing the familiarity and skills necessary
to use the medium (words, paint, etc.) and in part of having something to say and the ability to say it. And of course, trying
would expose you to ridicule, wouldn't it? I think art teachers should keep in mind that they are not critics. They are facilitators.
It's an important distinction. (My opinion.)
Pushing back
One interacts with a painting, both as a creater and as a viewer. You can consider
yourself a passive recipient or you can push back. Pushing back means that you actively view as well as, as an artist, actively painting.
A painting, still and on a flat canvas, attempts to engage the viewer. There's
a sort of implicit conversation. It's why I don't quite "finish" my paintings. It's to allow the viewer to finish them. I'm
not sure this makes sense, unless you already agree and have had this experience. It's more of an internal concept. But it's
real to me.
The figure ground-relationship
The object doesn’t live alone. It is surrounded by its environment. As a child, I discovered an ability to draw accurately,
but I was a draughtsman of objects and parts of objects. I could draw a leg, a hand, a tree with utmost accuracy, but the
concept of “composition" escaped me, and it wasn’t until much much later (Antioch college, in a class on design from a professor
I feared and disliked) that the concept finally got through. I saw. I see. The shapes and values and colors of the surround
(the ground) are as important as the “figure”, or point of focus. Yesterday, working on a portrait of a baby, I started
by blocking in the head, then the body, then the background. When I put the space around the child, it came alive!
Northern Virginia Winter Sunset
 Yesterday afternoon, approaching the Home Depot, I became aware of the
sky. small tender pink clouds with steely blue-grey bottoms reflected the sunset behind me. But how could they complete with
that infinitely tender sky? And how is a painter (using our crass supplies) to compete with either?
The power of smoke in painting
Fascinated by Monet's handling of rain (should I say, rather, willingness
to handle any subject) I looked further on the Internet and found a wonderful reproduction of a painting I must have seen
as a young woman at the Art Institute of Chicago: Arrival of the Normandy Train at the Gar St. Lazare, by Claude Monet. Fantastic willingness to handle the qualities of smoke. Now I must
schedule painting smoke as well as fog!
The dreary winter day
Driving through driving rain to work this morning, I reflected that I'd never attempted
to paint a rainy day (probably because it's kind of dreary and not considered pretty.) And yet, how interesting the way that
shapes appear and disappear in the haze, and all the shades of grey. Monet got fascinated with rain off the coast of brittany. The resulting painting isn't much to look at, but I can understand the fascination.
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