a drawing a day: July 16 , 2009 #350 - a circus act- the bubble blower
Recent Posts
- a drawing a day: July 16 , 2009 #350 - a circus act- the bubble blower
- a drawing a day: July 15 , 2009 #349 - a flame
- a drawing a day
- a drawing a day: July 14 , 2009 #348 - a circus act- the weightlifter
- a drawing a day: July 13 , 2009 #347 - a circus act- the large bodied man
- a drawing a day: July 12, 2009 #346 - a circus act- the trapeze
- a drawing a day: July 11, 2009 #345 - what it feels like sometimes when I teach
- a drawing a day: July 10, 2009 #344 --- heavy lounging
- a drawing a day: July 9, 2009 #343 --- heavy handed
- a drawing a day: July 8, 2009 #342 --- reaching
blogs of interest
good listening
July 16, 2009
July 15, 2009
July 14, 2009
a drawing a day
It was a year ago today that I started making a drawing each day.We are at #348 which means in a year I have missed 17 days. Not bad. But not so important--- I don't remember the days I missed.
I remember the feeling of drawing in the early morning half asleep. Warming my face over my coffee as I draw. Looking back over the drawings it is a record of the activity, the investigation, the exploration, the play for one life over one year. I remember the feeling of at least having done a drawing, a colored dot, a something . Will I stop now ? Goodness, no.
July 13, 2009
July 11, 2009
July 10, 2009
July 09, 2009
July 08, 2009
July 07, 2009
July 06, 2009
July 05, 2009
new work --- Studio 12 Gallery July 17-August 21, 2009
This a 'trailer' of the images for a two person show show I am having at Studio 12 Gallery. Opening reception will be August 7, 2009 from 4-9pm Studio 12 Gallery Denver,Colorado.
July 04, 2009
July 03, 2009
July 02, 2009
July 01, 2009
June 30, 2009
June 29, 2009
June 28, 2009
a week later
This time last week I was driving home from an airport run. Playing Janelle Monae 's Sincerely Jane over and over again --- just because its so cool. I know that is very high school but who doesn't do that ?
Last Sunday is miles and I mean-- miles--- away. So here is this Sunday that marks the ending of the work that I have been immersed in and the continuing of following this path , this pattern of what does it mean to lead ---really lead an artistic creative life. Art making never really stops. We never really stop because one thing leads into the next and into the next --- and then there you are making something --- all alone, but surrounded. Surrounded by tradition, by meaning, by context, by media, surround also by love .
What we do is not a mark of ourselves in the world so much as it is a way to allow others to understand themselves through our experience. We as artists open ourselves not for the accolade of opening but hopefully through the generosity of spirit we open, we become a conduit to something else. This kind of opening is done with faith, with trust in oneself ... and at times with a tremendous amount of insecurity, with tentativeness that comes with not knowing. However once we are comfortable with the unknown there is an explorer that takes over and bushwhacks and leads. This discovery is not just for the self. In fact left only for the self it is incomplete. Thomas Merton speaks about the boomerang of knowledge of the artist to the viewer and then back and then again to the viewer --- this cycles does not stop and is the completion; the continuation of the creative process. So here we are a week later different, and the same . Secure now in the insecurity and the discovery and the exploration in a new and then old way.
a drawing a day : June 28,2009 #332 --- a figure reaching
a figure extending their hand --as if to gently say --- ' come on ...'
June 27, 2009
new work ---- birds
bird with thorns
bird in thorns
birds flying
bird with tree
bird with leaves
new work ---- set #3 figures
#198 January 27, 2009
#190 January 19,2009
#183 January 12, 2009
#180 January 9, 2009
#191 January 20, 2009
#179 January 8, 2009
new work ---- set #1 figures
#177 January 6,2009
#278 April 19, 2009
#176 January 5, 2009
#238 April 25, 2009
#173 January 2, 2009
#196 January 25, 2009
a drawing a day : June 27,2009 #331 --- a moth-like bug
A bug. I liked the image on its side.
June 26, 2009
pedicure perspective
Ah... the cringe moment when I reread this post will be short--- because really to admit to gaining perspective on the work that I am making by going and getting a pedicure seems downright counter intuitive ! But, that's what I just did and I feel much more on track after reading who looks better in the same designer dress and other gossip while sitting in that 'massage chair ' getting my toes overhauled. I came to the conclusion that these next two sets of this series are not about the hook--- the how cool can you make this thing look and "you are kidding me ... its wood burning !? " Kind of thinking and kind of direction.
These next two sets are about honest, authentic mark making , presence in heart and in spirit. The simplicity in the making. The pieces are about staying still as much as they are about movement. So an afternoon of working outside , getting rained on, drinking my cold coffee while working at my folding table with my wood burner and then my soldering iron and the my wood burner--- feeling closer to a retired hobbyist in their garage than an artist ---and then leaving the house to get away from really what is the beauty of this work. It is quiet and in its quietness it is yelling loudly to the heart and to the spirit to the quiet openness of the interior. I am now ready to begin again.
notes on daily talk
Let me see if I can put words to this before I start to work today. What I want to talk about is how important dailiness is --- or rather has become for me. A daily practice that is about renewal and renewing of oneself and therefore placing a renewal of spirit out into the world, for the world. And in this daily practice there is a mystery, an openness that is gradual, that is about being.
Walking around the park the other day I listened in to conversations as I passed by--- like flipping slowly through talk radio --- I heard that one person's story at that one moment in time --- I am not a tremendously careful eavesdropper --- what I do listen for is the feeling of the conversation and the snippet of the story of other people. I suppose you could call it a hobby of sorts that was passed down from generations of melancholy Irish Catholics searching in other peoples lives for their stories--- nevertheless it is a genetic skill I come by honestly. As I pass by on my laps I listen for and then think about until the next 'channel ' of people --- what they were feeling as they talked.
Talking is what most of us do everyday. In this talking we are telling, reviewing , and renewing our story to be heard and listened to and mostly felt by others. This is how it has felt to go through these drawings that I have made almost each day. Some worthy of repeating , of saying again and again that is ... in sometimes a louder or sometimes a softer review and then becoming renewed. Being told again, being felt again.
a drawing a day : June 26,2009 #330 --- two fire breathing patterns
two fire breathing patterns starting to fight...
June 25, 2009
June 24, 2009
new work ----the bookends
#14 8.14 .08
#127 11.17.08
June 23, 2009
new work---- set #4
#222-2.21.09
#223-2.22.09
#225-2.24.09
#227-2.26.09
#229-2.28.09
#240-3.10.09
Here's in process images of set #4. Its great to see these up-- I can pretend that I didn't make them --- and wonder about what people might see in these images. The splat has this quality of cartoon and garishness that I am interested in for these images.
a drawing a day : #327 June 23, 2009 --- a bird flying away
a bird flying away
June 22, 2009
Working on images---- June 22, 2009
It was unmercifully hot when I took a ride this afternoon --- OK so maybe that is a little dramatic --- but it was hot! I worked this morning on the clerical stuff I have to do for the next show and did some other errands so that when I did start to work I wouldn't be thinking--- "... OK ... at 2pm I'll go ... at 3pm I'll go ...at 4pm ...." and then never leave the house. Compelled to write something about this work that I am currently involved with--- like maybe how it is opening the doors , making a difference in my perception ... or something like that ... I could ... but I am not certain of that as yet. I do feel that I have been in the midst of this work for about a year now --- I am confident when I say that I feel like this is the sort of voice I would like to give to these images that are coming through--- that I am working on. I think about things like how Star Trek really is a cool movie --- and Romulan is probably named after Romulus and Remus. I think about Einstein's expression : "Make it simple but not too simple." And I think about how this work is for people to see, to get something from , to be told a story, and to be opened up in their way by the personal and then universal images... and I think that I have more to do.
June 21, 2009
#325 June 21, 2009
leaves
June 20, 2009
Alice Ripley acceptance speech for the Tony Awards
Admittedly,I haven't seen this performance of Alice Ripley's that won her the Tony Award and really I had only just heard of her yesterday. She was doing an interview on a program -- Studio 360 --- which is wonderful and everyone should download this show often and listen through the entire show many, many times :) When I heard her interview they played a clip of this speech --- I was, and continue to be completely struck by her passion and integrity for the arts--- this is very worth watching and then watching again . Enjoy !
new work---- set #2
#122 Nov.12.08
#250 Mar.21.09
#249 Mar.20.09
#243 Mar.13.09
#212 Feb.10.09
#267 April.7.09
You may be wondering ... but where is set one ? I haven't started on them yet. Set #2 was begging for attention. This is a beginning of a series of works on paper and clay sculptures that are utilizing the drawings that I have done over the past almost 12 months. As with all the initial posts --- this is the start of the works. I am feeling good so far --- if not maybe just a little sentimental. But, it is a joy to do this work.
#324 June 20, 2009
a red dot
June 19, 2009
#323 June 19, 2009
a sacred heart
June 18, 2009
#322 June 18, 2009
Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without my heavenly Father willing it.
June 17, 2009
#321 June 17, 2009
Something like a heart, but with branches growing from it.
June 16, 2009
#320 June 16, 2009
Humans want to be happy and it is right that they should. But by thinking only in terms of the self we destroy ourselves for it is a limited concept and has no room for anything stronger than the human order...We need other people to give us a sense of completeness;we need the community. We need the world and the duty of serving it. We need eternity, or rather we need the eternal, the infinite. And there we come to the new, God-conscious humanism.
Father Alfred Delp, S.J.
June 15, 2009
Birds #1-103 --- worked through
If you have ever made anything and walked by it, read it over and over again, listened to it and in this process thought .... something should be more, different, --- this is how I've been feeling about these birds.
Needing this work for an upcoming show -- I really wasn't interested in leaving it as it was --- so I opened up the frame and re-worked the piece. I feel much better now thank you --- after an afternoon of cutting into the image , drawing back into the pelican and the other birds with colored pencil and oil pastel. The piece now begins the story of image and layered-ness that speaks of something pregnant with faith , with sacrifice and with a quiet yelling that I was hoping for in the piece.
Daniel Birnbaum, Venice Biennale curator
Venice Biennale curator, Daniel Birnbaum,talks about his rationale for this year's exhibition and some of the artists included in the exhibition. What he has to say is very interesting and enlightening about art making --- and really very real---its about artists responding to what is present and around us. Very worthwhile viewing.
#319 June 15, 2009
Oh... it was loud and smelly but when it opened its mouth over her head she thought "This breath isn't that bad!"
June 12, 2009
#318 June 12, 2009
breath
June 11, 2009
#317 June 11, 2009
One listening , the other talking.
June 10, 2009
clay work--- birds flying and looking around--- over the top of each other
Imagine that they are flying around and there is an underlying order to the flying. They have eyes so that as they look around---- they can see one another.
Pages
a drawing a day
- "Do not fail to do something everyday, for no matter how little, it will do you a world of good." Cennino Cennini I'm making a drawing each day for a year. Here are the rules: I have to make a drawing each day. That's it ... no more rules then that.
cut_paper
- It feels like forever ago when I started cutting into my drawings to create a more layered and puzzle like image. I have always resonated with the idea of building an image" or "carving it out". The cut paper is interesting because for my practice it touches upon sculptural, painting and drawing sensibilities.
100 things
- The volume of work that it takes to get to 100. The cleanness of 100 . The marathon of thought and application it takes to achieve 100 of something has always had an allure for me . I made 100 drawings years go. I carefully numbered them. It was interesting. So I thought I would seek to "know" painting through making hundreds of things.
artists
- It is hard to pin point any one artist that has influenced my practice , my vision . I always joke that it was the sisters at St. Anne's Catholic Church Saturday art classes that influenced my start. On the following pages is a "living" list of images that have come along to influence to generate ideas and to create approaches.
student art work
- The following album is a collection of selected student works in progress and completed. We always have a great time in the studio/classroom. At times, it feels like walking through mud ... but when we arrive we all celebrate , sometimes quietly, the challenges that we faced and moved confidently through.
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