Meditation

Studio Work

I've had a series of studio visits recently. It's sort of a funny time to do that as the work is at a precipice. Of course that could turn out to be only a minor step or a straight angled cliff to climb or jump off of.

I've been really working my surfaces trying to make each perfect. Funny thing happens when you labor over something. It looses clarity. I've been working and working the surface but by doing so each piece becomes harder to communicate with. When I was just diving in they were speaking clearly and made the work belch out of me like a pork bellied bullfrog nailing it's dinner. There were those pieces that were off mark. They just got recycled. In fact some of the works I'm focused on now is recycled.

The difference between recycling and working the surface is hard to explain since they both have some of the same elements of process and additions to a piece.

I've been hearing from some such as Richard Stewart "..to think about he Fire Paintings", then there's Mark Zimmermann who has recommended against exploring to focus on what is working. Both have known my work for nearly a decade and know it intimately and both have good points, but I'm not sure where the work will go ultimately.

Normally I would wait for the work to be in a safer more complete stage before showing it to people, but sometimes I just want to know what certain critics of my work will have to say about where I am. It's like a lamp in the jungle, giving me a sense of where my footing is. Sometimes it hits like a chord, other times it serves to confuse further.

ART FAIRS

Having spent some time at the art fairs last week was actually inspiring. Instead of seeing the same garbage that Chelsea keeps churning out there was some incredible work to witness. It was a surprise and led me to realize that though New York is the financial center of the universe it seems to corrupt the system of artist/gallery.

Oddly it reminded me of the LA art scene which is far more vibrant I think, partially because it's not as exclusive and partially because it's not so so so moneyed. Yet reading art magazines that focus on west coast and LA in particular nearly always have at least one article that compares in some way there to New York. It's a funny sense of insecurity it smells of, meanwhile the work there is far more exciting in general.

I'm not really sure of the cause, it seems it has more fluidity. Maybe that comes from being less about money. I'm well aware that it is not divorced from money but it feels more like the late 80's did when I was in college and there were less people in the art world.

Bo Bell who was a contemporary and friend of Cy Twombly during the early days in New York used to tell me how much smaller back in the fifties. I've heard other artists mention the same sentiment of how much more intimate New York used to be. I don't live there so don't know how small it is in that way but LA feels more intimate, in what I imagine New York to have been like back several decades ago.

So it was good to see the shows and know that there's good art being made all over the place. I was particularly surprised to see so much quality from galleries in the Midwest.

Back in the Studio

It is wonderful to get that jolt of inspiration, but ironically it actually stymies my thought process as to the current work. Do I want to wander and explore with my painting itself, the materials, or the concepts? Of course I do! Should I finish what I've started, maybe that -more difficult road for myself to go down, and hold back, and learn to say no to myself is the right thing to do.

I suppose it won't kill me to just keep certain bits in a sketch book and hope that one day I'll have the right moment for those thoughts. Knowing that if I do, they'll be in process while my mind is partially elsewhere on the next series of works.