A Way To Measure The Blue Of The Sky

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2010/October/SaussuresCyanometer.asp

Onward

So.  Art.  Onward.  There is delight in organizing, gathering materials and setting up for work which will come from new knowledge and inspiration found at the the Scuola and in Venice, and right here in the neighborhood.  Like cooking, one gets calm, gathers, prepares, transforms somethings into something, serves, eats.  And then goes on again. 

 Process is the art, the state of being in work is the whole, entire, and complete point.  The physical art piece itself can carry energy and can continue to sing on it's own in a good environment, (not in the closet). The tax lady says I am in the category of "manufacturing", which is just crazy.  What am I manufacturing....ideas put onto paper, or canvas.  Dreams, nightmares, hope, despair, discomfort, mystery, anarchy, stories, bliss, prayers.  These prayers won't coordinate with the decor.  

I haven't danced quite as much, but when I do it feels deeper and sweeter than ever. The focus has shifted toward community and friendships.  I haven't done much DJ-ing at all, finding a centering quality to the radical practice of getting enough sleep!  I am in the flow of the new work and it feels great.  I will see if there is a dance-able and DJ-able schedule. Things have changed, and continue to, in regard to the building effect of having stayed with art for so long. And I realized that it would be a squandering folly to neglect my work in order to chase down tango, especially since tango already lives at my house.

Today: Find a diamond tip etching needle, continue with small experimental plates,  think about light on water and look at my drawings, prints, and photos of water.  Decide things. Listen to Schubert. Enjoy the green glow of the rainy day. O.K. maybe a little tango.....

NOTE:  Readers asked why they can't find the tango entries.  I archived everything prior to my residency in Italy.  If there is an article you are searching for, you can ask me for it and I can send you a link.  Also, I saw  my writings on other blogs where my writing was unattributed.  I don't mind people posting, or sharing, but would ask that they contact me first, and give me credit (or blame) for the material.

Some Sketches From Venice and other Things

 The view from the apartment in Venice.  I hope I get the same room or at least that side of the building next year.

 The Franchetti Palazzo where Bertil Vallien had his great show while I was there.

 A neighborhood in Venice.

 Some hodgepodge of Venetian forms, and a real place,

These are all very rough fast sketches done in small (around 9 x 6 in.) format using charcoal, some watercolor, india ink, and whatever is at hand.

Anyway I promised to post some of these.  There are lots of them.  Maybe some will become prints.  I am working out aquatint trials and getting good or at least workable results for this lovely, but somewhat challenging technique of etching.  Hope to post some of those soon.  So much to do.  And gardening season upon us.  And Italian language study, and producing for the normal galleries and taking care of the home.  All of those things matter, and contribute in fact, to the success of the artwork.

Small scale distractions are the enemy.

Spring Sizzle

Spring Sizzle,  Silkscreen Print in 20 colors, on Arches 88 paper, 33 x 25 in.  Edition of 10.

This, like most of my silkscreen prints, is made using one screen with successive blocking out.  This is referred to as a reduction method, or as I like to call it, the suicide method.  As the print progresses the matrix is reduced to fewer and fewer open areas by the application of a waxy substance, which blocks out the screen.  There is no going back.  But now I allow myself to start fresh with a clean screen if needed.  In this case some blacks were added at the end, which made for better contrast and some jazzy shapes, and containment of some shapes which were drifting off and not paying attention.

I wasn't at all sure if this print was going to please me at all.  But after the blacks, I feel it has energy and heat, and the colors worked out in spite of some technical problems.  At this point in the ever mysterious marketing world of art supplies, I am opting to use tube paints for more pigment and better consistency than the weak and blah products better suited to t-shirts and posters than to archival works on paper. The tube colors, added to a printing base are efficient and make better use of known materials, and they are rich.

It was fun to make this print, as a return to a medium which is an old friend.  It is familiar, and now I value the necessary doubts.  The stage is set for the next phase of working on "hybrid" prints, combining methods.  This was suggested as a good next stop during the residency this year.  It is good to have another technique, more is possible, especially in the realm of dark line and tones.

Some drawings from Venice are ready for deconstructive playtime, and for the preparing of plates and screens for prints.  I will try to post some of these next week.  Every work moment counts for a lot these days, and so too do the necessary doubts.  

Work Days

I am on the fifth color of a screen print.  Only about fifteen colors left to go.  And a deadline looms. But who's counting?  The sun came out for the first time in months, and I caught the scent of earth.  So any trips from studio to house have detours and stolen time of weeding and gazing into the hearts of little green things emerging from the dark.  

It feels good to be back doing something I actually know how to do, after my distant and exotic trips into etching.  A pure joy, even with the normal challenges.

It will be a benefit to have etching and monoprint in the repertoire. There can be deeper blacks, and fog, and steam, and heat.  Magic.

Opportunities came this year, and they told me to get the hell back to work.  Tragedy came, and told me that life if short and to get a move on.  Students walked back into my work life and asked to learn this crazy, old fashioned, deeply interesting work called printmaking.  

Note:  This is now a blog about my work.  Tango will naturally make an appearance now and then.  All dance related entries are archived now, and being edited.  I took them down to make clarity in the change of  subject, and because now and then I find my own words used without credit (or blame) given to me.  The tango writing is being published in a small artsy book of essays one of these days.

Thoughts on Creativity/Inside or Outside Worlds

When I am working as I am now, in process mode, or R&D (research and development), I come head to head with a strange problem.  There are basically two inputs into the work.  Things come from an internal mythology, a personal kind of mark making, mixed up with an individualized visual language coming from years of doing things a certain way.   Then there is another side made up of interpretation of the world, the lake that I see every day, light, nature, the sky right here.  Not at all magic, but then, in every way magic.

The two inputs, wishing to become outputs, fight with me a little for dominance.  Maybe eventually, or maybe already, they blend a little.  I talked with an artist friend this week who knew exactly what I was dealing with, and although he had no answers for me, he had answers for himself, which are obvious in his work. Anyway, just writing it down, and talking about it, is useful in sorting out the direction.

I want to compare this to dancing, and it may be a far reach, but I feel it there too.  I move a certain way, the inborn, personal way which is not style, and not learned, but is innate.  Then I have the learned ways to interpret tango (as a follower) based on some real and proved right way to do that as based on what has been seen and done in the past....Having awareness of both is good, but crazy making.  At least with my artwork, I am the only one in charge.

Pathway to Aquatint

The studio needed some rearranging and some new materials for the research into aquatint.  The best part is finding new alchemy.  It is a lot like cooking, and having little jars of spices and potions stashed in readiness.  The whole process is so delicious. But now that things are ready, there is hesitation.  That is because I've been down this road with silkscreen work, and the memory is there, the reality of trying, failing, trying again, failing, getting closer, but not there.  Then starting again.  The thing is that, as in learning to dance, no one, not even the best and most generous teacher, can really tell you what it is. In art a teacher can only give a roughly drawn road map to something for which success depends on things as delicate as how one moves a brush, and how fast, and how dry is dry, in any given studio on any given day.  So, I hesitate, recalling just how this goes. 

But it seems like time to jump in.

The best possible procrastination was a lovely night at a local practica.  I realized that in all these years of dancing tango, I forgot about it for awhile!  I listened to other music, staying focused on this adventure in printmaking. Art life has picked up considerably in the past year. It takes more of my thoughts and energies, and has become rewarding in tangible ways.  I went back fully to this place where I am much more likely to thrive in the long run, and put dancing where it belongs....as a lovely recreation.  

However, the sad fact is, that in two months off, even with continued exercise, I have lost a lot of ground in the tango.  There is some nice familiarity, but some parts are quite rusty.  Hopefully, with a good studio routine in place, and a schedule of work, I can find time for rediscovery and much needed refinements in tango. Priorities however, are back in place. 

Note:  If anyone is interested, Mariann Johansen Ellis has some videos that explain/demo aquatint very clearly.