Taking Off

1997 - Blue Tracks - 36x60

Tomorrow, Tues, I'm off for Santa Fe! It's a good time for a change of pace and scenery. I've been exhausted for the past few days, could just be spring fever... or, more likely, lack of conditioning. Perhaps a few good walks down Canyon Drive and the rural countryside will be the ticket to getting back into shape... gotta get moving or I'll rust in place! I'm quite sure that's the problem and the key. I expect a full recovery, walking has always been my sport. Will be back late Sat.

The above canvas was the invitation piece for a solo show in New Orleans. Part of a transitional series based on rug patterns and traipsings that cross them. I thought it looked a little southwestern-ish and appropriate for this post.

Cleaning Up For A New Year

1994 - Pattern Push - 30x40

I will document at least 50 paintings as the year comes to a close, maybe more, if I get my act together and straighten out the prop piles of paintings that line the hallway outside my studio... accumulations of bare stretchers, abortions, confusions, promises and - sometimes - forgotten jewels. I've found that often it's best to put uncooperative problems out of sight and when they see the light of day again... voila! A Masterpiece! Well, not always, but at least I might finally see a solution where none existed before. Trick is, I've GOT to get that hallway cleared 'cause a couple of NOLA kids will be in-house for a week and the g-kid's bunk room (sleeps six!) is at the end of that long hall that houses my excesses. They all respect my stuff, but I'd best not push my luck!

I've got another horde of dated work (mine and others) propped behind the rec room sofa, a space properly used as a dart board alley. That work will be sorted through and eventually find wall space at the lake house... as good a reason for investing in that property as any. I'll quickly learn which works mean anything to me and which can, perhaps, find their way to eBay or it's equivalent.

I've traded and collected a lot of varied work as I "matured" as an artist... meaning, my tastes have changed handily over the years. And my own work has ventured into many side explorations which were fine but temporary, leading quickly to other venues. The Rug Patterns, for example... imperfect, unrefined and unrealized, but I have good feelings for them... I think I lost my innocence with that series. I explored wildly with technique, materials, imagery and attitude. The most exploratory were actually on paper, I think... the above painting is on canvas, rather refined but considerably unresolved. I still don't know which way is up! But I like the celebratory color and there's no doubt of the subject matter. Works during this time were beginning to get a bit of wall space, some were rather good galleries, but not really suitable for this series... they didn't understand it, I didn't understand it, the viewers didn't understand it. But it was good.

Making Tracks...

1995, Night Tracks, 18x30, mixed media/paper

A very important transition series as I moved from realism to the abstract was the Tracks or Traipsings. They often featured loose or random rug patterns and supposedly marked the passage of whatever personalities ventured across. Some were mixed media on paper, some on canvas. I started thinking about them this morning with talk of bird flu in Europe and how best to avoid any 'bird tracks' in our path as we traipse about the countryside. As I searched through my inventory images I realized how few really good photos I took of them, most are blurry, I can only hope the slides are better. I particularly like this one as it relates to the dark history of the area... the Cathars and Crusades... da Vinci Code and old castles... yeah, this one fits.

Stepping Lively

1993, RHODE ISLAND RED TWO STEP
11 x 30, watercolor

{{Take a deep breath!}}
I'm paying for a laid back life style these last few years... time spent with little real responsibility, just coasting along, doing as I please. Seems lately, everything is piling up and insisting on decision making skills... no fun! Well, maybe a little fun, the plans for France in April... that's fun, or promises to be. Company coming and going this weekend... that's not fun (spread this stuff out, people!) And I've got to cook, too? And entertain one wife during the day(s) while everyone else goes off to a swim meet? Yikes! Won't even go into the other concerns floating on the fringes, but there sure won't be any painting done today (or into next week, fersure!)

Thinking back for a painting that might describe life as I know it right now... the rug patterns, yes! Much of that series involved the idea of things, people, feet, unknowns traipsing across a rug. (Me? Walked on or walking on?) Didn't mean for these abstract red shapes to be anything, but they sure did turn into dancing chickens! A fun mixed media w/c that still makes me smile. Half sheet would make it about 11x30.

One other thing... had an invite to join a gallery north of Boston... they saw my work in Atlanta, want to add more abstracts to their line, talked about New Orleans (one of their artists being from there) and in general, were nice people... website looked good... but I sent my regrets.

Traipesings

1993, Traipesings, 48x36, oil on linen. At this time, I was very much into my rug pattern series, and exploring the idea of paths taken, passages, evidence left behind. This painting ties into the two previous examples with it's wildly gestural marks which were carefully preserved as the grid was painted around them. During this time I was still working in w/c, but a number of works were on canvas in either oil or acrylic... I was still trying to find my way out of realism, searching for another level. I'd love to see this painting again... it sold to a young couple from D.C.