Meditations? Personal Graffiti? Prayer Drawings?

I am not exactly sure where the idea came from, but I have been working on these individual drawings over the past few days. I have done one every day since the 25th of October, and they take anywhere from an hour to about 3 hours each. All are pen and ink, as you can see, and are on 9” x 12” paper.

I have been reading Kip Tiernan’s “Urban Meditations,” which is amazing, and have always been a huge fan of Frank O’Hara’s “Meditations in an Emergency,” so maybe that is some of it. I think also talking to Nick Dragotta (see previous Howtoons post) last week and discussing his work, and my comfort with pen and ink, it got me thinking I might want to return to some of these works. There are actually a few similar ones on display (and for sale) at the Gulu-Gulu show right now (see http://www.gulu-gulu.com/).

Many of these were done outside near the Children’s Museum in Boston, and are likely influenced by the seagulls (many of my pieces and poems make a connection to flying and birds) and cityscapes, reflections, the human form and memories in general.

So, here are a few of these in the series of “Emotional Graffiti,” “Visual Prayers,” “Meditations in Black and White,” or some other possible title I am searching for. I try and focus on what I am thinking on, and call forms from memory, and then use a combination of found imagery in the pieces and larger overall ideas carrying sometimes between two or three pieces or more.

The ones above are from October 26, 29 and 31 respectively (starting top to bottom).

Happy Halloween everyone.

Tim Wakefield

Well, for those of you not in Boston. or those who happen to not love the Red Sox, the game last night probably meant little to you. But, as usual, baseball fever has enveloped Beantown.

The only sour part of the whole affair for us die hard Red Sox fans is the lack of Tim Wakefield on the World Series roster. While this may or may not be solely due to his inflamed shoulder, Wakefield is a personal favorite of mine. A member of the Sox since 1995, Wakefiled is third all-time for the Red Sox in wins behind Roger Clemens and Cy Young.

So while the win last night was so, so sweet, the only thing missing was Wakey.

Picture above is from Boston.com

In honor of Tim Wakefield, I am posting a poem written (first draft at least) on the back of a series of postcards in Crossroads (corner of Mass Ave. and Beacon Street) in-between watching Wakefield work his magic with the knuckle ball. I'd raced there to meet some friends to watch the game and had to listen to the first inning on the radio on the car ride there. There are a lot of things you might be able to picture in your head during a baseball game on the radio, the chaos of a beautiful knuckle ball is not one of them.

The poem was included, along with "Blue"and "St. Augustine's," in a show at City Hall in Boston a few years ago. I hope you enjoy. And, of course, Go Sox.

RED SOX/ROYALS— MAY 7, 2004
(9 POSTCARDS TO MARTIN)

I.
You can’t hear a knuckleball
over radio, no matter how hard
you listen to the leather
sink and spin through summer
air. Stop trying to hear wind
move— close your eyes
instead. You just might see.


II.
White uniforms, green grass
(being green), broken-in base-
ball hats, the brims stained
with salt and sweat. But you’ll
never hit a knuckleball
the way you’re listening.


III.
Don’t forget
the air even
when you’re
watching it too
much. Swallowing
summer is more
appealing here.


IV.
Don’t forget
the summer, even
when you drink too
much and swing
wildly at knuckle-
balls; grass clippings
at your shoes.


V.
Don’t forget the promises
you made before you stepped
into the batter’s box—

that you’d be cautious
in this summer air. Stop
staring at your shoelaces.

Baseball is the reason
summer was invented.


VI.
There’s no more magic left
in baseball, once you realize
the lights are burning out.

This
game
is
growing
between us.

The scoreboard numbers,
twisted.
The springtime air,
confused.


VII.
Don’t hit the knuckle-
ball.
Don’t you hit
the air.
Don’t hit your
baseball glove
with fists.
The game is almost
over.


VIII.
Baseball was invented
to give drunkards
a sense of peace
in an impossibly irregular
spring. Knuckleballs
were invented
by conjuring brandy
in a glass of summer air
and sucking on an ice cube.

Nothing is there
when you look for it.


IX.
Count the seconds
until summertime
is over. It’s that way
when looking for white
to separate from the air.

It’s that way
when swallowing something
you almost understand
then looking for it later.
You know you are confused.

Howtoons

A brief commercial break:

The amazing artist, and fellow Midway-er, Nick Dragotta released his book "Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless" this week.

Amazon describes the book as: "Part comic strip and part science experiment, Howtoons shows children how to find imaginative new uses for common household items like soda bottles, duct tape, mop buckets, and more–to teach kids the 'Tools of Mass Construction!'"

It was all the rage during Open Studios. Kids and parents alike flocked to Nick's studio and the book itself is beautifully done and a lot of fun. Would make a great Christmas gift.

For more info on the book and how to order check out the website at http://www.howtoons.com/

Open Studios 2007

Above, see two images of my studio at 617 Midway during Open Studios this past weekend.

The weekend was a huge success. The weather was warm and the FPAC people did a great job of getting the word out. It was the most people I had in my studio during an Open Studios event by far.

I sold one of the Fire and Ice series as well as a few chapbooks and had great response to my new work. In particular, "Steel Heart," "Target/Target," "Spring Training (Pitchers & Catchers)," and "Summer Clearance" were received very positively.

This Open Studios event was the most highly participated in Midway Studios as well- on my floor alone a number of amazing artists opened up their doors to show new work.

Thanks to everyone who came and I hope you all enjoyed the event as much as I did.

Work in Progress: Summer Clearance

Above, see two shots of the work, "Summer Clearance," in progress.

Kara Walker

Last week’s New Yorker (October 8, 2007) featured a great write-up on artist Kara Walker (titled “The Shadow Act”) written by Hilton Als. For anyone unfamiliar with Walker’s work, it is a nice piece and talks a bit about the artist and her overall project.

Above, find two images of Walker’s work. The first is titled “Jockey” from 1995.

As found on:
http://www.artcritical.com/gelber/EGAmericanCutout.htm

And the second is “Freedom Fighters for the Society of Forgotten Knowledge, Northern Domestic Scene” from 2005 as found on Artnet:

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424824222/983/kara-walker-freedom-fighters-for-the-society-of-forgotten-knowledge-northern-domestic-scene.html

The article had me thinking back to about 4 months ago. Every so often, I receive a call to artists— either from Fort Point, or some other means. Well, about 4 months ago, I got one that was a design firm looking for an artist who worked with silhouettes, to help with creating a holiday design for a chain of stores they were representing.

In fact, keep a look out this late fall— I wonder which store it was.

I have tried to train myself to pursue leads that come anywhere close to what I do… without doing much filtering. That is, I don’t think “stores?” or “marketing?”, I just try and be open-minded and do some footwork to see where things lead. I have found that good opportunities and interesting projects come from the most unlikely of places, so why not at least do some initial follow-up and find more information?

I explained in my email back, that while I wasn’t traditionally a silhouette artist, per se, I did use cutouts quite a bit in my work, and pointed to examples like “Precious Gems” for examples of my work in shapes to render human forms.

The reply I got was quite polite, and nice (lots of times you get no return on these things). It explained, something to the effect of: “thanks for your interest, and submitting your work, but we are really looking for someone more along the lines of Kara Walker.”

At the time I didn’t think much of it. I thought, yeah, Kara Walker certainly does a lot with cutouts and silhouettes. If anything, I thought, Kara Walker is very famous and accomplished, I am not sure you are going to find anyone that caliber with an email request, but alas.

But the New Yorker article had me thinking about this again. And basically, how utterly insane that comment was. While I understand that the people were discussing Kara Walker’s technique, her work is so against these ideas of image and marketing— the New Yorker article highlights Walker’s use of the sexual and barbaric in her work to display the atrocities of slavery and American society— that it seems crazy to even mention her name in association with what one would be looking for in a project like this.

I think the other problem is that Walker’s technique, of using these black silhouette cutouts, is so embedded in the message and the ideas conveyed that it is hard for me to separate the style and approach from the finished product.

It is really like the email said “we are looking for someone like Kara Walker— extremely talented and inventive, but without any message.” How weird.

So, the New Yorker also had me thinking of Walker’s work again, and how moving and simple it is. She is the type of artist that when I look at her work I think “of course,” while also feeling an emotional punch in the gut.

I recently finished a bio on Albert Einstein and was thinking so much about how the pursuit of mathematics in that way is much like an artist going to the studio everyday. To parallel Walker, she has designed her own type of mathematics with this creative approach and each equation (piece) is precise and interesting and a revelation in itself. Truly amazing and enjoyable.

As I work on “Summer Clearance” and finish it up for Open Studios, considering Walker has me wishing for cutting paper, which I am sure I will do again soon. In fact, one of the websites I came across featured her cutout work next to Alex Katz… another interesting connection to an artist I have been thinking about (see past blog entries).

If nothing else, go read the New Yorker article. Plus, the cover is one of my favorites in a long time.

Completed Work: Swimwear

Above, see a photo of the completed work "Swimwear."

Finished Work: Shoulder Press

Above, see the finished work "Shoulder Press."

Poems in Artpoint

Artpoint Magazine has included two of my poems, "The Reason I Hate Gauguin," and "Dear Jukebox," in their new Fall 2007 issue. The magazine is available throughout Fort Point in Boston at places like The Channel Cafe, Sagarino's, and Flour Bakery.

Work in Progress: Untitled

Above, see a new work in progress that is untitled as of now. It is 18" x 24" and is acrylic paint on paper.

Summer Sketchbook

As promised, see some pages from my summer sketchbook pictured above.


I probably go through a sketchbook every 3 months or so, depending on its size, and use it for all sort of notes and sketches and scribbles. Being a poet, I generally have a notebook for poems in progress as well, although I will jot down
ideas and lines in the sketchbook too.


Pictured here are some pages of the beginnings of recent works in progress. The very top one has some notes that eventually turned into "Spring Training (Pitchers and Catchers)" and the second one down has the beginnings of "The Songs of Captives."


This idea of using circles comes through here in a few of these (per my last post) and I thought it might be interesting to see this stuff in its beginning stages.


I will post some of my life study sketches sometime later. I like to observe and keep my drawing hand in practice in the book as well, although what you see here are more along the lines of preliminary drawing and idea pages.

In Progress: The Songs of Captives

Above, see a picture of the work in progress, The Songs of Captives.

The panel on the left has the map pieces fixed on, while the center and middle are just laid on as I wait to glue them down. I am wondering on cutting some of the circles in fractions to imply the pattern across the canvases or not, and I haven't made up my mind yet.

What you see here are map cutouts in two different sizes as the collage elements. I anticipate a third layer of imagery on top of that (the "three" motif is important to me in all my works somehow) that I have had planned from the start.

As you can see, I mentioned earlier that I would be exploring some different collage elements here, and I meant this use of circular patterns.

Using circles has been a goal of mine for a long time. I did it on a earlier large painting called "Kiss" that was included in a few of my shows in Montana. I read in a write up on Jackson Pollock once that when you begin to work in circles, you are really losing your mind.

While I don't really aspire to lose my mind, I do like the challenge of it (using circles, that is). Also, I have been thinking a lot of Lichtenstein's dots. While he used them to make up a larger picture, I began to wonder what it would be like if the dots were the picture. This piece is my first attempt at that, although I do have plans to incorporate imagery using these circle patters in different ways already living in my sketchbook.

In fact, that gives me an idea- it is probably good to post some pages from my sketchbook over the past few months. I will do that soon. Might be interesting for some of the blog readers.

I hope to have this piece, and a few other new ones, done for Open Studios. Although, the next level of collage is a new approach for me as well, and might take some trial and error to get right.

In Progress: Untitled (Shoulder Press)

Above, see a new work in progress that is currently Untitled.

It is 18” x 24”, acrylic on paper.

I am having some fun with this piece. Like the combination of styles— that is, exploring the skethchy/painterly/pop style I have been using lately, and then using it to imitate a Rothko. I know it sounds a little crazy, but when I started the design, and used the two squares, I thought, “Rothko.”

Of course, this is very different, and anyone who might truly try to imitate Rothko might also find themselves on the linoleum floor and bleeding— but I always like the idea of combining two disparate influences (line/painterly, flat/depth… or here, Pop/Abstract).

The idea informed my color choices, and the loose approach to the paint and forms. Very quickly, the painting became (is becoming) more about how the shapes and colors interact than anything else.

These non-collage works carry a different power than the collage pieces. I am not sure I enjoy one or the other more in terms of their ability to convey expression, but each certainly has its own strength in communication.

October and the Gulu-Gulu Cafe

Hard to believe it is October already, that the baseball playoffs are here, and the Gulu-Gulu Café show has arrived. Dropped my work off there on Sunday morning for the three month show that will run until the end of December.

It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas presents. What better place to do a little holiday shopping than the Gulu-Gulu Café in Lynn?

Their website is http://www.gulu-gulu.com

There is an artist talk scheduled for November there— more on that as it gets closer.

I have 15 pieces in the show— lots of different sizes and mediums. Included are “Coast to Coast,” “Snake Charmer,” “Queens,” and others. They will update their website shortly with all the pieces and prices, so check it out.

I have been busy here— getting prepped for the Gulu show was a large task in making sure I had good photos of all the pieces, that I framed and matted some work, etc. In addition, I have been sending out poetry manuscripts, entering some juried shows, and prepping materials for some additional submissions.

Also have been writing some poems back and forth with Martin Cockroft- who continues to amaze. For anyone who knows Martin and his work, it is a humbling experience to watch his poetic mind in action on the page.

Other than that... Open Studios is right around the corner, and I am expecting a large turnout this year.

Hope to see everyone the weekend of the 19th, 20th and 21st.