Journal Entry 2.6 - HURT (Triptych)
Click to Enlarge
I couldn’t shake the thoughts from my mind how so often we, as a people, get glimpses of the world and its associated tragedies through our living room picture boxes. We see the pain and anguish of people far away from our everyday lives, we experience it in the comfort of our homes, and then after the weather we turn off the tube and head for bed. Perhaps we take some time to think about and process what we have just seen, or perhaps not. Soon the pace of life takes over and it is forgotten. The pictures of devastation are often times better forgotten and not dwelled on, but I do think they are important to SEE and not just notice. I personally feel that as a society, we tend to become de-sensitized to the overwhelming bits and pieces of information so readily available and thrown at us on a daily basis. I didn’t want to be de-sensitized in any way, so I started really looking at the people and their situations. I visited website after website, scanned newspapers and magazines and read story after heart-breaking story of both death and survival. The more I really looked and listened, the more touched and saddened I became. I decided that as an artist, the only real way I could relate what I was feeling was to create images that would cause people to stop and look and really SEE and FEEL and become sensitive along with me.
Journal Entry 2.5 - 1st Law of Thermodynamics
Click to Enlarge
Nature faithfully obeys her rules; any attempt by us to represent natural events must be done in an orderly fashion…this is the first law of thermodynamics. I love to read about and study science, engineering and mathematics because through that journey I find so many rules, formulas, and laws that when taken out of their context they can take on a human element or application. So in a sense the painting can be taken literally – thus the addition and play with the actual formula to accompany the law; or out of context as a reminder to appreciate the world we have. We must always be concious of the fact that a change in the universe will have an equal change and reaction therefore maintaining a balance (o).
Journal Entry 2.4 - Fibonacci 42
Fibonacci 42 is a painting that extended from my fascination with Fibonacci, a 12th c. Mathematician, and more specifically his Fibonacci number sequence that derived from studying the breeding habits of rabbits. What is so interesting about the sequence though, is that the sequence of numbers repeats itself all through nature. People have studied the numbers for decades and decades and found the correlation between the numbers and nature to be quite over-whelming and almost unbelievable. For example, if you count the number of petals on a daisy, it consistently came up as a Fibonacci number, the thorns on a fully ripe pineapple - you guessed it Fibonacci number. The number of bones in your body, the number of digits on your hand, the cochlear implant in our ear...if you plot the Fibonacci numbers on a graph you will get the golden ratio (Phi) and the shape of the little part that allows us to hear. You will also see it repeated in snail shells and other amoeba and sea life. In my pursuit to cross science with life and natural occurrences in life in my paintings, I particularly can appreciate the Golden Ratio (Phi) as it will allow you to find the perfect balance and focal point of any 2 dimensional planes. Fibonacci 42 further explores the sequence of numbers specifically the 42nd Fibonacci number...as I have come to believe that this number holds great significance in my life. And as I just turned 42 this year...I'm particularly focused on it right now.
Journal Entry 2.3 - Signals
Part of being an artist, in my mind, is experimenting. I am always curious about how different materials will interact with each other, and how can I push the limits of interactions on one canvas. Signals allowed me to push the limits of various materials all on one canvas. I have learned over the years to not only allow the painting to speak to me, but to also listen to what it is saying and let it take me on a journey of exploration and learning. The result, a painting that demonstrates that pushing and pulling, sweating and thinking, rushing and pausing can all lead to a favourable end. Signals is an abstract painting on canvas. It is 35x70". The end result of the message Signals brings to the table is communication. Communication with each other, and with art. I have included various collage imagery to provoke thoughts on how we communicate and treat one another, as well as graphic symbols of connectitivity in electricity to draw the parallel. As you move down the painting you will eventually find yourself with the ultimate symbol of communication - the telephone pole. The birds on the pole represent nature, but also a more historic form of communication - the carrier pigeon and harbinger crow. Signals incorporates sand, sawdust, concrete, marble powder, oil, tempera, graphite, tar and other miscellaneous and found materials! My art is always taking me on different journeys, but of late, we are definitely traveling some new paths, trying some new things, and speaking in a little bit different language. But no bother, it is a language we can all understand and speak, and that is the language of art.
Journal Entry 2.2 - Poetry Pants
As I finished my painting Poetry Pants, which was based on a poem I had written, entitled "Ants in my Cornmeal", I realized that this peice touched me more than I had anticipated. So that prompted me to go back and spend some time with the poem and meditate on the question which was posed to me by a viewer - Was Poetry Pants a self portrait? After I immediately jumped to the response that really all my art in some way or another is a self-portrait...I took pause. I paused to contemplate a deeper meaning...and of all my work, I have to say that yes, Poetry Pants is definitely a self-portrait. A snapshot of myself existing in a dark place, but recognizing that I can emerge - if only momentarily - into the light, to only go back to the dark place. Which means that Poetry Pants exists in the light, but was created from the dark. You can read "Ants in my Cornmeal" in it's entirety on my Poetry page.
Journal Entry 2.1 - Juarez Girls
The painting Juarez Girls (48x40 - Oil) is next in my continuing Juarez, MX. series. I went to visit Juarez on a photography trip to capture the town itself, and ended up heartsick and enchanted at the same time, by the people there. I began paying the various characters, all beggars and scrap sellers, for thier portraits. The first in the series was Senora Juarez, a puppet peddlar. I captured her portrait just as she was handed some coin. The expression on her face broke my heart. The next, is Senor Juarez. I captured his portrait just as he and his music was refused from lunching patrons. The next in the series is the Juarez Bead Maker. He sits on the side of the dirty street day in and day out and strings his beaded jewelry. And then there is the most recent - Juarez Girls. This pair of sisters were sitting outside of the public restroom, where you paid for water and toilet paper. After using the water it would continue to run for a few more seconds...she would sit and watch, and when someone exited the restroom, she would run in and get the water to wash her little sister with. In this portrait, she is captured just sitting back down, and combing her little baby sister's damp hair. To see the painting click over to pictures above. You can also visit my blog and watch a video of the painting process that led to Juarez Girls.
Journal Entry 1.4 - Astronomy Abound
I am fascinated with space, space-time, and everything that comes with it! I especially love to read the history of how the various theories developed into what we know today to be true and proven. With the recent testing of the Large Hedron Collider in Geneva, and the idea of actually proving the existence of the Higgs Field and Higgs Boson...I thought this would be particularly timely! It is a very exciting time in science indeed! This is a page from my journal that I did after reading about Ptolemy and Copernicus. Ptolemy, a mathematician, geographer, and astronomer circa 168 AD; and Copernicus, c. 1520 AD, a mathematician and astronomer in his own right, as well as a physician. Copernicus displaced the geocentric model of Ptolemy by proving the earth was not the center of the universe and was displaced in a rotation with the sun. Cool stuff! And of course there is poor Galileo who championed Copernicus with his heliocentrism theory, finally putting the earth and sun into their proper rotation stations, that put the poor bastard in jail because he dared to let the Catholic Church know that the Earth was not, sad to say, the center of the universe! I wonder...where are the great thinkers of our day? Maybe they are hanging out in Geneva dreaming about smashing protons, neurons and quarks together at nearly the speed of light...and wondering...what would it feel like to ride a beam of light into space-time!?
Journal Entry 1.3 - Look Out for the Monkeys
I have very strange dreams. I'm not even sure they are dreams...they may be drift visions. Drift Visions is what I call it when I can be still (which is usually difficult, and not very often) and either close my eyes, or stare at something until it takes on a different form, or blurs out of existence. In another words, I just get lost...tune out...go away. Sometimes this leads to the most outlandish and vivid dreams...or...drift vision mind-stories. This Journal entry is one that I did after a particularly vivid bit of imagery flooded into my head. Here was my journey. I envisioned walking down a dark alley that opened up to a jungle field kind of place or world. It was really bright, and all of the animals were huge...tall really, with really long legs. I felt very small, and when I looked around there were dead cats everywhere, like paving stones. The animals kept whispering about monkeys. I could'nt see monkeys, and I don't remember monkeys...so I think, maybe I was the monkey. Yes. Yes, I must have been the monkey. The caption reads, "Don't worry about stepping on Dead Cats. Just keep a look out for the Monkeys." This, I think, is good advice.
Journal Entry 1.2 - Fibonacci
I have always been facinated with mathematics. One of my favorite mathematicians is Leonardo of Pisa, Fibonacci; a 12th Century Mathematician. So much so, that my new puppy's name is Dylan Fibonacci! The sequence was derived from Fibonacci studing the breeding of rabbits. Kind of like the Monk and his peas led to some of the basic information in predicting gentic traits. The sequence works by adding the number in the seqence to the previous derivative and coming up with the next number in the sequence. I.E. - 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5...etc. The thing I love about mathematics is the arguments. For example, some people believe there really should never be zero in the sequence, because it is just that zero, null, non-existent, whereas others argue it must be there to shoulder one. Funny. I am reading a book about the history of zero, so I have a new respect for it, so I always start with zero. Everything needs a little love. I have read on and studied the theorums behind the number sequence, and although I don't completely understand all of the formula's I do understand the sequence. Wierd. The most facinating thing for me is how the fibonacci sequence is found in nature. The number of petals on a flower, the number of blades of grass in a square foot, even with your body. Also the shape when you plot the Fibonacci sequence on a grid this spiral is found in sea shells and sea life...even the cochula of your ear! The other thing that I have realized, is that if you are a Pascal Triangle and ratio odds kind of person, is that the Fibonacci sequence is found in Pascal's Triangle if read from top right to lower left! Amazing! This is a page from my journal in which I was working out some formulas and beginning to work at plotting the Fibonacci sequence on my own, in order to try and better understand it. I love connecting science and mathematics to my art and letting it take me places that I'm sure I want to go!
Journal Entry 1.1 - Georgia on my Mind
Georgia is a very important place to me. Not just the fact that I was born and raised there, but that it keeps coming back into my life in the most pleasant of ways. I don't get to go home as often as I would like, but I carry her with me everywhere I go, and although I have been away long enough now that my accent comes and goes depending on how tired I am, how drunk I might get, or if I have been hanging around my relatives from home...I always have Georgia on my Mind. Growing up on my grandparents porch every summer, ignite some of the best memories I can recall. And I do recall them often! I wrote the poem - "Georgia on my Mind," not only to sum up my memories for others to enjoy, but to remind me to take in and recall the sweet smell of pine in the air after a hard rain, the dew on the grass, magnolia trees and blossoms, the squeek of the swing and the stain of that red dirt on my clothes and shoes.
