Flounderer in the Shallows of Art

Summer studio has been productive. Now what? I need to update my website, photograph work properly, look for a way to show what I've been doing. I'm kind of torn between two "bodies of work" I'm working through.

Why do I always do this, start one thing and have to have another project happening at the same time? Henry Samelson , in his blog, calls it having a Buddy of Work, or work you do alongside of your main preoccupation at the time. Trouble is my preoccupation seems to be divided down the middle. I tell myself "pick a lane road warrior" (a line from a Frasier episode).

I'm sitting here now between a wall full of paintings in the"weathering realities" series and, on the other side of the room, two of the oil paintings on old paintings with an old painting waiting on the easel to be set upon.

Two, of a large number of  oil paintings, behind and on the floor.
An old landscape I'm painting over on the easel.

Just a few of the many many paintings in the
'weathering realities' series

I'm not finished either series yet. I want to continue for a while before I start deliberately looking for venues, although I've already had an online show of some of the weathering realities series. It came my way, I didn't seek it out and if something comes my way I would consider showing some of this work again.

Do I have to choose a lane? What does it mean if I don't? How do I present them? Do I look for shows of the two separate bodies, or do I look to show them together? Am I just a flounderer in the shallows of art? Maybe you shouldn't answer that, it might crush me.

Studio Glimpse

Wow! since my last post, in April, the studio is humming. It's been a long few years of various stresses, illness, moves, accident, death, day job. Through it all I've painted and drawn. I've shown and I've sold work. I feel I've moved to a more solid place in making work.

For now, I don't have a 9-5 part-time job and other life stresses have let up. I'm able to spend more time in the studio and travel. I feel the difference. There is time, there is space and, in my new studio, there is light.

As usual I have two projects on the go. A project I'm calling Weathering Realities in ink and acrylic paint on paper that I showed, in part, at Galerie Cerulean last month. The second project, going on in the background, is a series of oil paintings over old paintings. 

The ink on paper paintings are not as cohesive a group as the oil paintings. They are wildly experimental within the confines of materials and subject matter, the subject matter being my response to and attempt to weather psychologically the impact of current political realities. In other words, making them helps me get through the awful days in which we live. 

The latest Weathering Realities experiments alongside some of the oil paintings on  the right.

The oil paintings started out as a side project, but they are a more consistent and calmer companion to the other work.

Painting over old paintings, a more cohesive group that started out as a side project.

All together now. One side of the studio, with dog, where I look at
some works from both groups of paintings

  

More oil paintings. The one on the floor is the first larger work.
I find it too blatant, too disjointedly expressive so far, I'll be going back in.

Studio vignette. The blue elephant sculpture (studio mascot) was made by my daughter in
elementary school a long long time ago.

A new start, ink on paper.

The most recent oil painting in progress.

Exhibitions, Travel and Change

Back from the desert

Well, that trip I talked about in the last post happened. It was wonderful 2 months and one week on the road. I'm back 6 weeks now and have already taken a short solo camping trip since then. I did only four small drawings of the desert while I was away and otherwise stayed away from art altogether.

Dome Rock Arizona

World affairs and change

My painting is changing. I think the Secret Messages series is done (but not all on my website yet, I'm working on it and planning to work on the website also). I'm moving more and more into abstraction. It started happening with the Secret Messages series. The change has been gradual and recent, so, we'll see how that evolves.

Oh, and, an online show of the new work! at Gallery Cerulean in their Project Room. This came out of the blue. The gallery director, whom I know through Facebook and Instagram, emailed me and asked me to show in the Project Room. Online exhibits suit me. The cost of framing for a show is prohibitive and this way I get to show my work at venues I have respect for and that are all about the art, not the commercial. Besides the online show, Timeraiser purchased one of my paintings. It will be auctioned this week at Timeraiser Vancouver as a way to raise volunteer hours for non-profit organizations!

The election in the US of a complete twit, threw me for a loop as it has done so many. Immediately I could not paint, feeling what is the use? But I needed to try to calm myself and painting is how I do it. I know my efforts 'don't mean a hill of beans in this crazy world', but they are what I have. It's how I communicate about, and weather realities. So I opened my sketchbook and started apathetically, it helped, I became less apathetic. The show  at Gallery Cerulean is an exhibit of some of these efforts.

Below is one of the latest pieces in this new series titled "Weathering Realities".

Turbulence, 4 x 6"

Show Time (and statement angst).

Not long now and the show will be up. On Tuesday we hang. The show is in a non-profit space and so I have to do a lot of the work myself. Wow, marathon. I will have help with the hanging though. Thanks Kriss and Ming and Firehall staff.

Your invitation is posted below, but if you are a Facebook friend or otherwise a  friend, or are on my mailing list you have already seen it.

Things are looking good. Of all the things on my list in the last post there are only a couple left. "Blog Post" is one of them and here I am, blog posting. No statement yet, who knows if it will happen. If it comes naturally and I feel like it, it will be done. I've rewritten my initial statement many times. The last iteration is on the invitation but even that feels not exactly it. It's accurate but doesn't seem to cover it somehow. I recently refined it down to: "Today's Lesson Will be in Life: These pathos and humour filled paintings reveal an approach to current events and life's turmoil that may give some relief from the grim dark while at the same time not denying it's full truth and impact."  Ahh, I don't know. If I could say it, I might not have to paint it. Never mind, I'll do my best with it and that will be that

It's been a while since I've had a solo exhibition. I'm very happy that I did this show. I need and want people to see the new work in person. Thank you in advance for being there. And thanks for reading my posts and looking at my work online too. It's great to have a way to get it out there to appreciative eyes. And, even to critical ones.

Now, to make sure all the last minute things are done and take a walk in the bog with the dog. First I think I'll have lunch and a cup of tea.