Abstract Art Blog

A Year of Making Art, Day 129: Making Bad Art to Get to the Good Art

August 26, 2007  Day 129

Bored, restless, irritated and burned out is how I felt when I started this morning's drawing.  First, I looked at yesterday's effort:  Ugh.  I don't want to do that again, I thought, so I started with a bright red, my favorite color.  But the composition went nowhere and pretty soon, even color couldn't save this attempt.

   Drawing #131  11" x 14"

How much bad art do I have to make in order to get to the good art?  Yesterday's painting session revealed another weird result.  I was still painting over an old canvas, trying to get the new to merge with the old, and ended up here:

  Canvas 18  40" x 40"

This painting originally looked like this:

  Canvas 18 in a prior life 

Everything I've been doing lately has been doomed to failure.  Yesterday I took some short test videos with my Nikon Coolpix 8700 digital camera, and could not get them to play back on my computer.  In the process, I messed up the camera settings I usually use to photograph paintings for my website and blog. 

After struggling with the impenetrable manual for an hour or two, I gave up.  Pushing buttons too fast without thinking has gotten me into trouble before, and I'm sure it will  in the future.  I tackled the manual again this morning, and I think I've got it fixed now.  But I still can't get any software on my computer to read the video files correctly.  Yet a year ago I made several videos that work fine.  What am I doing wrong?

Adrian suggested I ask Stan Bowman, my printmaker, for help.  "Isn't he an expert photographer?"

"Yeah," I said.  "Maybe as a last resort."

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting in order to give me time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

A Year of Making Art, Day 100: Art as Problem Solving

July 28, 2007  Day 100

Today I realized that one thing which is consitent between my drawing and painting is the idea of problem solving.  I get some paint on the canvas, or some lines on paper, beginning not exactly randomly, but without a lot of care in their placement.  Then, at some point, I need to coerce, cajole, or charm this beginning into a form that works.

In this morning's drawing, the thick vertical blue and green lines formed an armature for the rest of the composition.  In many of my drawings, I create a strong central core that radiates out and becomes lighter at the edges.  Some of the paler random lines add a texture and counter-balance to the more deliberate lines placed later on in the process.

   Drawing 101  11" x 14"

Next I did some preliminary painting on canvas 16, which I now have to let dry in order to work on again.  Normally I would just paint over this immediately, but there was something about the shimmering orbs of yellow, orange and red which intrigued me.  We'll see if I can make anything of it tomorrow.

  Canvas 16  36" x 36"

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

A Year of Making Art: Day 70

June 28, 2007  Day 70

Yesterday afternoon Rebecca said she would like an art lesson, so I repositioned my painting table and easels in order for us both to be able to paint at the same time.  Mind you, I haven't painted along with another person since art school.

Rebecca is twelve and has always been interested in art.  For the past three years she has been taking oil-painting classes on Saturday afternoons, where they basically teach her how to copy other paintings and posters.  In the process, she is learning a lot about technique.

Since I paint with acrylics, most of my lesson yesterday was focused on the various effects one can get with them, and the differences between acrylics and oils.  We painted on water-color blocks so that we could work quickly and not worry about ruining a canvas.  I was pleased to see that Rebecca had confidence in her own choices and did not attempt to copy what I was doing.

At the end of our session, Rebecca had completed one painting she hated, one interesting "abstract flower" with drips, and one with a very nice Georgia O'Keefe feel to it.  I completed three paintings, one of which I was quite pleased with:

  Open, Seeking 18" x 24" acrylic on paper

And then we noticed it was almost six o'clock.  We had been painting all afternoon.

This morning we are leaving for Canada, so naturally I feel rushed.  But I am still in a blue-green mood, and did a small drawing in those colors:

  Drawing #71  9" x 6"

Blixy will pick us up around ten this morning, so I'd better go pack.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

 

A Year of Making Art: Day 37

May 26, 2007:  Day 37

My grandmother was an expert paper-flower maker, creating incredibly accurate and beautiful roses, dogwood, and many others.  She would spend hours trying to teach me her craft, but I would become bored and impatient, and when she was not around, I'd take a short-cut and create a simpler, more abstract variation instead.

My father always belittled my grandmother's paper flowers, saying he preferred real flowers or nothing in the house.  I learned the same prejudice, even as I recognized my grandmother's talent and envied it.

My mother loved flowers, and spent her life trying to coax them from the earth, not very successfully.  I resisted work in the garden because of my spider phobia and general fear of bugs flying or crawling.

A neighbor just gave me a small jack-in-the-pulpit to plant because I had admired them in the woods on our walks.  The pot has been sitting on the sink in my studio for several days.  It needs to be planted.  I must find a shady, moist place for it in the back yard, perhaps near the stream that dries up in the summer.  I hope I do it soon.

This morning's drawing is a reflection of my mother's love of flowers, my grandmother's paper creations, and my own abstractions.  But it fails at being truly floral beause I began it in a more non-objective way and then couldn't seem to turn it fully one way or the other.

  Drawing #36, 11" x 14"

I painted some abstract flowers a couple of years ago at the urging of an art dealer, but I am ambivalent about them:

  Abstract Flower Six 

  Floral Seven

  Abstract Flower Five   

Yesterday afternoon we did set up the badminton net in between thunder and light sprinklings of rain.  We were interrupted when Michael, eleven, got stung in the chest and belly by some bug we were unable to identify.  After tending to his bites, we went back out and completed the task.  Rachel, eight, joined us to play until the thunder and rain came again.  After dinner, Blixy joined us in a game.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

A Year of Making Art: Day 29

This morning, out of the blue, I have an overwhelming sense of foreboding.  Blue and lavender are the colors I used to express these feelings in a drawing.  Listening to Judy Carmichael did not help to lift my mood.  I printed the words as I thought them:  "Sense of foreboding."  "Who am I?" "Death, Life." "So tired."

At seventeen, looking into the mirror in my dorm room at the University of Southern California, I asked, "Who am I?"  I had become disassociated from my self for the moment.  When I told a good friend and she, frightened, reported it to the dorm mother, I quickly shaped up.  I did not want the dorm mother meddling in my private affairs.

Earlier in my teens I had written a typical teen angst poem that asked, "Who am I?"  But to still be asking that question at sixty-five?!

The first line I wrote on the drawing was "tools of the trade," because I was feeling that these pens I am using will not allow me to express myself adequately.  I longed for other tools.  And I wondered how the tools we use constrict our lives and our expressions of our lives.

Here's the drawing.  Nothing much.

  Drawing #28

All is going well in my life, so where did this mood come from?  Am I beginning to be anxious already about the upcoming exhibits in June?  It's way too early for that!

Why am I always waiting for things to be over?  I gobble up my life in this waiting.

And now I will try to finish Canvas #9.

Later:  Yes, I did destroy the painting Adrian liked yesterday.  And then I kept working.  And now I have this one:

  Canvas #9, now "Culmination"

And now I will go on with my "to do" list and ignore this mood.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

A Year of Making Art: Day 28

May 17, 2007  Day 28

Yesterday evening we went to an art opening at King Ferry Winery in King Ferry, New York, about twenty miles north of us along Cayuga Lake.  My friend Stan Bowman was having a solo show there.

In general, I don't believe in exhibiting art in places like wineries, restaurants, banks, etc., because people go to wineries to drink, restaurants to eat, and banks to get money.  They are not going to these places to look for art.  It's hard enough to sell a painting in a gallery, no less a venue that is not designed to attract art lovers.

There are always exceptions, however.  First, for any beginning artist, these places provide an opportunity to show your work and to begin to assemble a resume.  Even for experienced artists, sometimes you'd just like to see your art in an exhibit somewhere.

Second, the quality of the exhibition space and attention paid to the art vary greatly from one winery, bank, or restaurant to another.  If the owner provides a separate gallery space and helps to promote the art, then the artist will have a better experience.

How would I rate the King Ferry Winery?  They definitely helped promote the artist, including providing food and wine tasting for a reception, but the exhibition space was just fair--better than many I've seen, but not great.  Perhaps that's because their main business is, after all, selling wine.

This morning I tried something different:  I listened to music while I made my drawing instead of working quietly like I usually do.  The cd was Old Friends by jazz musician Judy Carmichael.  The result is a much more improvisational sketch with a lot of movement.

  Drawing #27, 14" x 11"

Next, I continued to work on Canvas #9, carefully filling in the small shapes I'd drawn with washes in shades blended from yellow to deep red.  When I stopped for the day, I did not consider the painting finished, but I liked what I had so far.  Adrian thinks it is "done" and said, "You can try to improve it or ruin it."  I'll see what I think tomorrow morning.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)

A Year of Making Art: Day 27

Yesterday afternoon I made my final choices of the ten paintings for the Hopper House Art Center show in Nyack this June:

  Agrarian Compass, 40" x 40"

  Always Forward, 36" x 36"

  Green Here and There, 36" x 36"

  Green Is Good, 40" x 40"

  Hope, 36" x 36"

  Illumination, 36" x 36"

  Life Cluster, 40" x 40"

  Pleasure Palace, 36" x 36"

  Tower of Song, 40" x 40"

  Triangle Pose, 36" x 36"

This morning I attempted a drawing in the style of the Improv paintings, although of course, I had to translate the method to fit this medium.  It was an interesting experiment, though the result didn't have the impact of the paintings.

  Drawing #26, 14" x 11"

Next, I continued work on Canvas #9, experimenting with colored lines radiating out from cadmium yellow, through the oranges, to red.  Then I drew black circles, and that's all I can do on it today because these lines will have to dry first.

  Canvas #9

Finally, I tackled Canvas #8, which I liked, but Adrian and Blixy thought was unfinished.  I added some carefully selected feathered black lines, and that's really all I want to do to it.  I like it this way.

    Canvas #9, now "Apple of My Eye" 48" x 48"

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)      

A Year of Making Art: Day 26

May 15, 2007  Day 26

When I was at Cooper Union School of Art & Architecture in the early 60s, I made an optical art (op-art) painting in design class.  Instead of my usual expressionist style of working, I painstakingly filled in tiny spaces with carefully mixed colors in order to create the visual effects of a floating sphere.  This painting was chosen for the end-of-year show, and I liked it enough to hang it later on the ceiling of my "pad," which I had painted black.  I think I left it there when I moved.

The drawing I did this morning was inspired by that piece.  It's interesting how things that happen to us in our youth remain to influence us the rest of our lives.

  Drawing #25, 14" x 11"

Next, I tackled canvas #7, which would take a lot, I knew, to bring together into a cohesive whole.  This, too, required the painstaking filling in of shapes formed by lines I'd made earlier.  I started with the pale yellow-greens I'd used in the Improv paintings, then added washes of cadmium yellow, rose red, and a deeper green.  The rose red began to bring it together, and the dark green did the final trick.

   Canvas #7, now called "Birdsong"

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.) 

A Year of Making Art: Day 25

May 14, 2007  Day 25

I was thinking this morning about Saturday's visit to two local art galleries.  These were both group shows, and I know most of the artists exhibiting.  What I realize today is that I automatically viewed the art in judgment mode:  What is good and what is bad?  Is the work of this particular artist exhibited today better or worse than the work they've exhibited in the past?  I was continually comparing and critiquing rather than enjoying what was in front of me.

Would it be possible to change the rules of the game and simply experience each piece of art for what it was?  I'm not sure, but the experiment could be worth it.  I make a note to try it next time.

I haven't been satisfied with my drawings lately (another judgement).  They seem too controlled and I am trying too hard.  In the middle of this morning's drawing, which I chose to do all in black lines, I wrote the words I was thinking, incorporating them into the design.  The purpose was to free myself up.  By stating a fear or misgiving, putting it out there, it loses some of its power.

I realize I am still trying to make the perfect drawing, the perfect painting, to show you so that you will say, "Bravo!"  This takes so much energy.

  Drawing #24, 11" x 14"

It is definitely more playful, but not something I would say, "Bravo" to.

Over the weekend I asked Adrian and Blixy for their opinions on Canvas #8.  I still like it, but they both thought it was "unfinished."

  Canvas #8

I worked on the other two canvases today, using the "Improv" painting method on #7, and continuing the background on #9:

  Canvas #7

  Canvas #9

Canvas #7 now looks like it will be impossible to save.  Tomorrow will tell.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)    

A Year of Making Art: Day 23

May 12, 2007 Day 23

I'm going to live!  Naturally I feared the worst when I went to the urologist yesterday, and sensing my nervousness, Adrian came along to keep me company.  "If I throw up or something from the pain," I said, "you can drive me home."

The nurse's description was pretty scary:  most women, she said, report that it feels like someone pinching the flesh on your arm.  I couldn't actually imagine how that would feel "down there" in my urethra.  My sister Laura and I always kid about how Mom would refer to any aspect of the female reproductive system as "down there."

In any case, the nurse continued her description by pointing out that in some cases, the procedure would be much more painful:  if the urethra was narrowed or had scar tissue.  Then she left me for thirty minutes lying on the table with my legs spread open to contemplate which levels of pain I might experience.

What if I can't stand it and scream out, I thought.

What if it hurts so bad that I can't lie still?  Will they have someone hold me down?

I was one of the lucky ones--three minutes of "discomfort" (I wouldn't describe it as a pinched arm, myself, but now my arm is black and blue from pinching it to see how that felt.)  And best of all, a report that bladder and urethra are fine.

I felt light and airy the rest of the day.

Maybe that's why I used pinks and purples to draw with today, making a valentine to someone, the urologist, perhaps?

  Drawing #22, 11" x 14"

After that, I continued work on canvas #7, adding lines of various colors.

  Canvas #7

Then, having only one blank canvas left, I started the first layer of background.

  Canvas #9

Tomorrow Blixy and the kids (Mike, 11, and Rachel, 8) are coming for breakfast, so I'd better get up early to make my drawing.

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)