blogging – Page 154 – Almostfinnish’s Blog

A riddle wrapped up in an enigma

I was working on a small postcard size sketch. It was a study more than anything. The interesting thing is now that I look at the pictures it is my natural tendency to turn the work on its side or upside down when I work. And even though it makes sense to me. For some reason when people come over and visit and it’s upside down they look at me and laugh and just have to ask why is it upside down? Of course I’m totally oblivious to the fact that it is until they bring it to my attention. As far as I can see it’s still in process so presentation is the last thing on my mind.

I learned this in school from one of my classmates. He would turn his work upside down to get a better perspective especially when something had to be symmetrical. Your mind could play tricks on you thinking it looked right but if you reversed the image you could see it in a new light.

Okay so it’s been a very trying week. There must have been some dark cloud hovering over effecting us all some way or another. I lost my muffler somewhere on the side of the road. The brakes on my truck went faster than I had hoped. My car definitely needed some new tires so we found this guy who would sell us some used tires for $40.00. Here he has another pair sitting there and said we can have those too for $40.00. We only had $29.00. He said you look like you could use them more than me and takes the $29.00.

I was just wonder how we looked? Were not poor maybe broke sometimes but not poor.

A riddle wrapped up in an enigma.

I need to start selling some paintings.

Keeping our liberty and art spirit alive.

The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high function, a moment of existence. We make our discoveries while in this state because than we are clear-sighted.

Robert Henri-The art Spirit

We have a magic bullet it’s a smoothy maker. We did a combination of eggs and green peppers and well the eggs turned out green by accident so in the spirit of Dr Seuss’ birthday I said oh look we are having green eggs and ham for breakfast. The kids said no thanks. I said you can’t say no you have to say…I do not like green eggs and ham. I will not eat them here or there I will not eat them anywhere. Personally I wouldn’t eat them with a fox or in a box either note to self never do that again.

This year will go down in history, for the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safe, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future. Adolf Hitler 1935.

This is why Congress will not pass any gun legislation in the USA. We have the 2nd amendment for a reason. “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson

A bloody mary for breakfast?

I woke up to a winter wonderland today. We’re snowed in got about 8″ of snow over night expecting 12″ by the end of the day. Schools are closed and there are cars stuck or in the ditch everywhere. It’s a mess out there very thankful we still have power. I’m not going to work I have plenty to do here like finding my cross country ski’s.

In front of me sits a bloody mary, a bagel with cream cheese with a hint of almond and on the side an omelette with cheese, green peppers. Another bloody mary might be due or at least a beer chaser. This is a treat for us not a normal thing.
I’m checking my eBay and had a pretty successful week. I diversified a little and made some good choices aside from my usual postcards.

I was reading from a local newspaper called “Freedom Weekly” free news for free people. It has our national debt of 16,432,519,875,802.97 and it says under it…

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie (marxist term for the middle and upper class) is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
Vladimir Illich Lenin

Do we ever learn from history? The president now says the sequester is going to devastate our economy, but George wills who I believe says 44 billion is less than 2% of the GDP budget. We’ll see what happens this week in Washington.

Painting wise…

I find myself vacillating between feeling that it’s really great and really horrible. One moment, I’m a genius creating masterpieces and the next I’m thinking I haven’t any talent, the work is vapid and I’m a complete idiot. It’s a constant process of doubt and assurance that drives you to do better.
John Alexander

Taking a break from painting the figure.

Painted today. Taking a seriously needed break from painting the figure. There’s freedom in not having any pencil marks or guidelines to follow on the canvas. The pure artistic desire to just paint. Taking the time to figure out on your own where everything belongs, how it visually looks and how it all relates.

I always start with the under painting. I use raw sienna and prussian blue and a little white for a change basically establishing my value study as I covered the whole canvas with paint.

I am working from a photograph I took some time ago in North Carolina while we staying at the Hilton. It was a summer night and we would stroll down the boardwalk. The evening lights and water reflections were a delight to be around while we would watch the sun set and then stop at a nearby bistro for a local beer and southern platter. Our little get away from the party at hand. The ocean breeze was so warm.

“The boardwalk in Charlotte” I have a few other photo’s so this could turn into a series. When I finish this one I’m hoping to bring it down to the local coffee shop called Smith Bros located right along Lake Michigan/one of the great lakes. Some very interesting array of artwork is on display there and some by a couple of friends I have unexpectedly come to know by chance. My work is not on display at this time because I had a piece disappear with the owner from another coffee shop that closed it doors unexpected. Stolen in other words…we take our chances as artists not like it’s worth a million dollars yet. There are a couple of other galleries that have pop up in Port Washington lately I need to inquire.

Galleries set the stage with food, wine and music.

Galleries set the stage with food, wine and music. Inviting the public to participate as special guests as they mingle, engage in conversations and share ideas. And of course…meet the artist.
It’s a funny thing all the time and work it takes for artists to line up a show that when it comes down to attending the opening reception it’s a sudden…dreaded obligation. Personally I could never get comfortable with just hanging around and mingling with my family much less with a bunch strangers and I consider myself seasoned. The questions? Like what does one say at these things? What does one do? How does one look? If I dress modern I should have dressed more retro and if I dressed retro I should have played it safe with contemporary. At my last show I saw that we had some commonality of wearing tweed referring to the other artist that shared my show so I was thinking I was safe.

Most artists that I encountered defy the stereotype that we know as unsocial and are usually eager to talk about their work and themselves as they stand in the fore front. I am so stereotypical when it comes to talking about my art. I can talk about anything even the weather for hours but when it comes to my work which I’m passionate about I’m short, succinct and all preparedness is nowhere to be found.So I was reading about some artists that go to great lengths of being late, or not showing up at all and or last having someone else show up in place of them. My first thought was why didn’t I think of that. I have to admit I was a half hour late for my show only because a bridge was out and the road was under construction so I had to take a detour in a city that I’m not too familiar with anymore. Did I mention it was also raining. The other artist was fashionably late an hour.

Most importantly what I discovered was that no one buys anything unless they have an emotional connection to it and that I’m the one that needs to make that connection happen for them. So some where and some how? I need to work on getting my passion across to the viewer and forget about sounding esoteric or elite.More often than not people want to see the artist only a few want to talk to them.
I want to conclude by saying I must have done something right aside from showing up because in the end I had finalized a couple of sales during my Danceworks showing in october 09.