Drawing As a Rocket Stage

These are a collection of images that are helping me move forward towards my next painting. I am looking for ways to build this painting up with several drawing attempts that kind of build a bridge to the image that is out there calling to me.  Some times I feel like a stop short and settle to soon with the drawing stage that leads up to the painting. 

The drawing stage is like the stage of a rocket that gets the painting into orbit, out of the earths gravity pull. Drawing is laying a foundation.  Drawing is clearing the rocks from the field and pulling the harrow behind the ox.  If you are an artist you may think of drawing in a different way.  I would love to hear how drawing works or doesn't work for you.  I would like to hear how you think of it.

This Image Defies Logic

The following exerpt from an essay on the Trinity was written by Debby Toppliff.

Rick Beerhorst, an American artist, recently completed “Self Portrait,” a religious painting that poses questions about societal and psychological relationships, both human and divine. In the painting the artist looks into a mirror in order to paint his own portrait. The center of the painting contains three triad-like images of the artist. On the wall behind hang some of his earlier works. Most prominent is a mother-of-God image of a woman, in this case the artist’s wife, with the Christ child visible within her. She spreads her cloak to shelter six figures--her five children plus her husband, a fourth image of Beerhorst himself. As in all mystical paintings, this image defies logic, yet God is clearly present within the Mary figure, incarnate in flesh. The husband takes refuge under the protection of the mother of God who has also given birth to his children. The center of the painting is the artist’s hand. As he paints his own image, is he also painting the image of God within him?  The slant of the easel and the hands of the clock move the viewer’s eyes to the Christ child. This provocative work ponders the psychological elements of personality and the different roles we play. Although the only person of the Trinity in obvious attendance is the baby Jesus, the threeness of the painting suggests the unseen presence of the Triune God.

For That Brief Moment When Life Makes Sense

After spending time with the work of Philp Guston this week I was reminded of the radical shifts in my own work.  The painting I have reproduced here was done a few years ago when I was exploring a different way of making paintings that allow a free associative way of creating a composition.  These paintings use woodblock prints and random pieces of cloth and ephemera to create a texture of images and patterns that are then painted on.  I have always enjoyed the rich textures of time worn and battered antiques that tell the story of something that has been well used over the years.  These paintings are coming from that view of beauty. 

These pieces also speak to a desire to build connections between things and ideas. I am taking things that may not have an obvious link or any real similarity at all and creating the connection by shear force of putting fragments together on the same picture plane.  In doing this I am really trying to make sense of my own life that so often feels little more than a big jumble of broken pieces and half done projects.  When I make one of these paintings I have that fleeting feeling that for short lived moments life does have meaning and things do happen for a purpose.

Philip Guston Had Guts

These are two paintings by Philip Guston who has always been a favorite of mine.  Guston died in 1980 and is often talked about in reference to his 3 extreme style changes that he went through over the course of his career.  His ability to re invent himself along with sheer brutal force of his paintings have created a certain bench mark for any one who picks up a brush to make a picture.

For a more in depth look at Guston this review by John Yau of a recent exhibition is a good read.

Turning The Key In A Broken Lock

Key Keepers, oil painting, 20x30 inches by Ilya Zomb

Replaced the broken wheel for a smoother ride

Empty the trash for a new treasure

Forgiving and baking bread

Mix colors on the pallet with the Velvet Underground playing on the turn table

Saw dust and wood chips are under the table

Butter is melting in the pan

Turning the key in a broken lock

As secret keeps tumbling out of her ear