Anodyne Artisan

Whiteouts

2009-10-24T18:18:00.002-07:00

These are all paintings I have previously posted. They have been revised which is something I often do with my paintings. All five of these were expirimental to began with. They just did not do anything for me as I continued to look at them sitting in my studio. For many years I had thought about trying to do some paintings using various off whites or high key neutrals. By imposing this limit or challenge I believed there might be some interesting results. These paintings were not painted exactly in the way I conceived of doing this experiment. They were not started using only whites, instead, whites were used to paint over existing paintings. The underlying colors are allowed to peek through. Also, I made an effort to use brush strokes and texture to further define different areas of the image. The results interest me more than the original paintings and make visible some new questions I want to persue.

The B&W Turn

2009-09-06T16:01:00.002-07:00

Ojo Caliente

Source

Riley Switch

Candy Kitchen

Portable Cosmography

My work over the past few weeks has taken a turn to B&W and maps. Maps have appeared in my work off and on for as long as I have been making images. The turn towards black and white for me is about directness and allignment with my sketchbook. The continued choice of words as subject has to do with avoiding illustration of concepts that are on my mind and going direct to the word in itself. These images have been meditations, struggles , and even visual subversions of the words. This recent group with maps have also turned towards often using toponyms or place names as subject. I am placing and meditating on my connections to theses words and even the actual places. What names and places stick with me? Why? If the place name is not the subject, then a place on the map is related to the word used as subject. This is the case with "Portable Cosmography." Chaco Canyon is part of this map and is connected to the title "Portable Cosmography" by way of a paper I wrote, with the same title, about the social agency of B&W pottery design in the Chaco region of the ancient southwest.

Road Going

2009-08-15T17:14:00.002-07:00

Road Going : Pegasus

Breath 66

Road Going: Route 66

Many responsibilities

2009-08-14T07:06:00.002-07:00

I have not posted any new work for a week or so, but that does not mean I have not been painting. I have four new paintings that I just need to get photos of and then I can post. Now that summer is over for me, I have so many more daily responsibilities. The images are coming.

Now Showing at Chroma Gallery Albuquerque

2009-08-05T10:53:00.003-07:00

The last paintings I posted have been revised, except for "El Don," and I have since painted three new ones I will post maybe later today. My work is now being shown at Chroma Studios and Gallery in downtown Albuquerque. The web address is chromabq.com . My work is not on there page yet, but should be eventually.

Essence and the El Don

2009-07-26T16:39:00.003-07:00

This is a revision of "Detroit Redlining." Had to add "The D."

A revision of "Anodyne: Bahia Honda and Key West"

I added the Conch and Sun from the Conch Republic Flag.

This is a new one, "Essence and the El Don"

Gallery Ready

2009-07-20T09:23:00.002-07:00

"Providence and Maintenance"

"Medicine: Pagosa Springs"

"Belong: Troubled Like Oraibi"

"Holy: In A Blue Way"

These are revisions of previous paintings that were posted. As long as my paintings are in my studio they are subject to revision(s). Most of the time they get better in my opinion. If they get "worse," I can always re-tack back towards the earlier version. The paintings change as I learn more about where they came from and what connections they have to my current experience. They are layered like life, and a little of the past always shows through.

The Rest of the Revisions

2009-07-13T18:41:00.001-07:00

Mediate: Neon Novacane

Detroit Sfumato: Redlining

Anodyne: Bahia Honda

Completed revisions

2009-07-13T18:31:00.004-07:00

Providencia Verde

In a Blue Way: Holy

Alignment: Dauphine Street

Rough drafts of current work from past two days

2009-07-11T11:10:00.002-07:00

Mediate: Neon Novicane

Towards Sfumato: Detroit

Anodyne: Bahia Honda

Alignment: Dauphine Street

Out of town and cripple

2009-06-25T13:01:00.002-07:00

I have not painted since Friday. We are in Michigan and I am still crippled up with some kind of strain in my painting shoulder, maybe a pinched nerve. I am healing up, but this has been irritating me for several weeks. Trying to rest my shoulder and heal it up.

Gallery Revisions

2009-06-12T10:36:00.003-07:00

These are the latest revisions of the paintintgs. These were taken professionally by Amy Parish . Also, these are going out to galleries in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I will keep you posted on how that all goes.

Theology and Geometry: A Dartboard Confessional

2009-06-06T12:58:00.008-07:00

Above left, "Juxtapose" (remix).

Above right, "Holy, Holy, Holy: Kinda Blue."

"Theology and Geometry: A Dartboard Confessional"

Remix

2009-06-06T08:11:00.002-07:00

In the last post the lower image, "Juxtapose", has since been remixed. Last night I was working on another painting and "juxtapose" kept bothering me out of the corner of my eye, it still needed some attention. I started working on tracing over some lines that had been covered up with the grayish-blue. One change led to another and then to others. I will post the results later today.

Illuminations in oil

2009-06-01T22:21:00.001-07:00

Promised and delivered. The painting on the left is titled "Belong," the dimensions are 4' x 4' oil and wax on board. The thinking behind that title has a connection to the agency of decorative style in attaching people to objects. In other words, in the anthropology of art and embellishment, the way objects or people were/are stylistically embellished communicates information about the group that the object or person "belongs" to. That is an overly simplistic description, but I wrote a paper titled "Portable Cosmography: The Agency of Style in the Ancient Southwest." that I would be glad to email to anyone who desires a more scholarly explanation.

The second painting is titled "Juxtapose," it is 20' x 24' oil and wax on canvas. With both of these paintings, the title is embedded into the painting.

Three oil paintings in the works

2009-05-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

After the last post of eight images I started working on taking the sketch material into oil paintings. I have been re-purposing/painting over existing canvases that had overall repeating patterns painted on them. I have been painting the text illuminations over the patterns while still leaving pattern visible. In addition, I have been experimenting with cold wax medium that has an interesting matte transparency. I have worked on a new one each day for the previous three days. I am not yet ready to post them, they still need some time by themselves and a little bit more attention from me. I am pleased though. They will be posted in the next few days.

Persist

2009-05-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Finally! Turns out

I was saving these in the wrong file format. All fixed now. I did not intend to upload these all at once, but I have several hours and many frustrations into this, so they are all getting posted!

The bottom three images here are not in the order they were created.

Their titles are:"Deny Yourself," "Take Up Your Cross" and "Follow Jesus." When I take scripture like this and draw it I do not intend to be moralizing to the viewer. Remember, these are my visual meditations or votives. You as the viewer are able to peek in so to speak on what has been on my mind. These scriptures are embedded in my memory from hearing them throughout my life, often sung in church. At unusual times the words "trouble" me and desire my attention. That is when I will draw them.

2009-05-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I did get this one to upload, but the others have to be re-imported. I am a better drawer than techie.

Internal errors

2009-05-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

I had new images to upload but at this time there are "internal errors" and so I only was able to upload "Count Your Many Blessings." I will try again later.

2009-05-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

"Count Your Many Blessings"

Illuminations

2009-05-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

School is out for the summer and I hope to get the studio going . I have been doing so much work in my journal/sketchbook that I have neglected my painting. Summer and late night hours will provide a remedy. As mentioned in an earlier post, some of the works posted here will turn into oil paintings that will be posted also, if they come out better or on par with the original sketches. Also, the more I have thought about calling this work votivgraphy, I do like it, but it might be to much. The medieval monks and scribes that worked on illuminated manuscripts such as The Book of Kells inspire me. It has occurred to me that what I am doing with these texts has cross over with illuminated manuscripts. The monks and scribes, I imagine, got into meditative states as they intricately worked the texts into something more. Therefore, Illuminations might be a better name for what I am doing in these pieces.

John- The Revelator, Writer of the Seven Seals

2009-05-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

The above is the title of a song by legendary bluesman Son House. I have been listening to blues and jazz while working on these drawings. Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, North Mississippi All Stars, John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, and Django Reinhardt were all in rotation for the past couple days. The intuitiveness and improvisation of these artists are compelling for me. A form of visual jazz or blues is motivating me.

Leaning towards Votivgraphy

2009-05-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am leaning towards calling my recent drawings Votivgraphy. Yes, I made it up, but my thinking behind this is that votive is associated with vow, offering and prayer. These drawings are votive in that they are often drawn prayer or meditation. With each day that I work on these drawings in my sketch book, I am trying to reflect on and pay closer attention to my daily experience. Words and phrases will stick with me during the course of the day, I sort of perseverate on them and this often becomes materialized in my drawings. As I draw these words or phrases they continue to work on me as I work on them. The drawings are less about being representative of the words, rather, they are the words spatialized, mapped, reflected upon and struggled with to create a unity, or a whole. This is a meditative practice made visual.

2009-05-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

From top to bottom these four drawings have the following titles: Reflexive, Purify,

Place & Power and Nomadology.

Simultigraphy

2009-05-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

Simultaneity or maybe votivegraphy

2009-05-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

These are a sampling of some of my latest work. These three are from today even. For about the last month I have been working with the ideas of simultaneity. Maps simultaneously show many layers of information. The series of images I am working in are text or font based and words or phrases have been overlapped and layered. Another layer of these images is that they have been composed in a improvisational way. After the word(s) or phrase has been written/composed, a final layer to these images is how they are colored in. During this coloring in, also very improvisational and intuitive, certain "events" jump out at me from the "field". I will "move" with what is "moving." The simultaneous quality is that all these layers: the word(s), phrases, and composing merge together and are seen as a whole. The word(s) and phrases are often associated with and/are prayers or votives. In this sense, these images are visual prayers or visual meditations. These are from my sketch book and are done in pen and ink but some of these will turn into larger finished paintings. The titles of these three are: "confess," "casting anxieties," and "holy, holy, holy." Can you figure out which is which?

2009-05-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

2009-05-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

The blog is on. Now what? Just getting it going has taken me long enough. I envision putting my art on this site as sort of an online portfolio. Since I have a new body of work going that means I need to take some pics. That is "what." Until then...