No I have not signed this painting yet.

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No I have not signed this painting yet

because it is not finished.

But I do have a deadline.

My plan is to enter this painting and another one

in a juried art show at the Anderson Art Museum.

Yes…Art Museum.

My birthday is coming up soon so this would be

a great way to start off the new year.

That is If I get accepted.

I’m considering a few other options as well but

just trying to keep my head in the game.

I engage in this quiet debate in my head.

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Sometimes I want to come up with some stupid generalization

as to why my painting is not done yet.

I desperately want it to be done

but at the same time I know I need to too push it a little further.

Add a little more detail.

Sometimes ambiguitiy works sometimes it not enough.

I always dwell in the possibility that I know where I’m headed

but occasionally I have to ask for directions

A direction I may not like.

Until I experience that moment of truth I venture on.

I engage in this quiet debate in my head.

Sometimes I hope for the accidental

as my intuitive manner of painting continues.

My acual interpretation of life into art

lies on a thin line of boring right now something is lacking.

It’s kinda mind numbing.

My art needs to challenge and reaffirm my ideas.

I guess my work is always a revolution of self.

I understand that now.

It’s that unequivocal commitment to the painting surface.

As an artist I take this paint and try to create some order.

Then and only then will I be done

Summer blues

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I got up early this morning feeling refreshed.

I sat outside with my coffee.

It was cool and still with a hint of fall in the air.

A faint dripping noise was in the background.

It’s damp but not wet.

I thank God for the moment and wonder what the day will bring.

Being that it is the last day of this long weekend.

The dripping persists almost like a woodpecker. The birds join in.

There’s a haze in the distance but the grass is very green and the woodchips orange.

A hummingbird buzzes a little too close.

The sun is trying to come out adding some color to the trees and then subsides.

A quiet wind has picked up and the clouds are rolling by.

The birds are surprisingly quiet again but that dripping never stops.

I get these visual revelations in my head sometimes.

As to how I should finish a painting that I’ve been struggling with or avoiding.

It’s a painting that has been sitting for quite awhile.

None of the ones I’ve been working on or even thinking about.

I found it and pulled it out of the garage.

It had some striking moments which I am pleased with but it’s in a medium I no longer work with.

But if there’s and end in sight this is a painting for me.

Wisdom is not as complicated as people think.

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This is a photo I keep coming back to from time to time. It’s a child hood memory. A time and place. 

No great artist ever sees things as they really are.

If they did, they would cease to be an artist.

Oscar Wilde.

Painting has been a vigorous and emotional endeavor. It has been a constant source of anxiety and delight.

I want it to be uncomplicated and practical.

you do not say the same thing in one room as you say in another…….Louis Kahn

Where do they get this stuff?

The same people who say “I want to make beautiful living effortless.”

Now this I like…practical no…but like yes.

As artists we encounter the unexpected.

We need to use our artist instincts.

And maybe reveal our secrets of the trade.

Wisdom is not as complicated as people think.

Idleness can be productive.

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We went out for a Friday fish fry that’s a big thing here. Went to a place called Moonlighting. It’s a little place off the beaten path hidden in some small town that we happen to fall upon one day. So we thought we’d go back. We ordered cod, you get a choice of potatoes, coleslaw and some marbled rye bread on the side. And of course a beer. I agree they do have good fish frys like they claim.

Behind us they have this old crumpled American flag in a frame. They found it in the walls when they renovated the place and kept it in remembrance that history starts here. I felt a little patriotic sitting here wondering who might have sat at this very spot at some point in time.

I was reading Solitude Inner Visions in American Art.

“Early romantics and transcendentalists solitude was a subject of those who observe the life of pioneer immigrant settlers around the turn of the century and during the great depression.”

The subject of solitude has been probed by American writers. Some things that Henry David thoreau wrote I found worth repeating. 

“A high intellectual level is not a prerequisite for solitude.”

“One of the beauties of solitude is its availability to every person.”

“To be in the company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

“A man thinking or working is always alone.”

That idleness can be productive; and that one could go far by staying put.

The painting above is called Black in Deep Red, 1957 by Mark Rothko