Constant Presence

Finished a new painting yesterday, ordered a frame for it today…

Constant Presence, 60” x 60”, silver-leaf, gold-leaf, gesso, acrylic, oil on canvas

here are a few pictures of it hanging on the studio wall:

The Hour

New painting completed, a Lily, painted for Elan Hair Studio

Confessions

This video was made for the virtual show R’emerged at Monmouth Museum. A show for all alumni of the NJ Emerging Artist Series. I am sitting in my studio at Chashama in Matawan NJ, talking about the painting of the roses called Confessions….

Purification Spell

M. Kelm made a new film, the sculptural remains of the spell are on display in the Luck show at Chashama

Black Moon, The Blue Yonder

A small rainbow painting called Black Moon (8”x11”), painted from a photo taken the day of a Black Moon in July 2019. Currently hanging in *Luck* at Chashama…

A painting from a few years ago, The Blue Yonder (20”x30”), being sent to show at Monmouth Museum…

* LUCK *

I’m organizing and curating a group show at Chashama Art Studios in Matawan, NJ….the show includes everyone in residence at the studio…the theme is Luck…..opening reception is this Saturday 02.22.2020 from 6-9pm!

Patrizias Logo Painting

I painted the Patrizia’s logo on the wall at their location in Red Bank, NJ this morning

Confession framed

I picked up Confession from the framers today….

New Frame, New photo

I framed the palette I was using while painting Confession….thinking of calling this Roses Crossing Middleground or maybe Roses in Medio….

My studio neighbor Douglas took a polaroid of me the other day at the studio…

Offering

Just got this painting back from the framers. The title is Offering. A small study of a bowl of roses I painted after the big rose painting, Confession. The painting feels to me like the bowl of roses is an offering made by something that is in the darkness, pushed out into the light, for the beings of light. The light opens into the space of the viewer, so in a sense the painting feels like an offering made from inside the painting to the viewers outside the painting, in the light.

Offering - 20” x 16” - Oil on Canvas

Confession

Recently completed a new painting, titled Confession. Dimensions are 31” x 50”, Golden ratio. Will get it framed in a couple weeks , and plan on making prints too. Going to continue to dwell in the vibrational frequency of the roses for a while, and will be making some smaller Rose works for the rest of the year.

TRANSCENDENCE Submission

I recently applied to a juried show called Transcendence at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Manifest made an international call to artists for “works about going beyond the normal”.

tran·scend·ence
/tran(t)ˈsendəns/ noun: existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level. synonyms: superiority, supremacy, predominance, preeminence, ascendancy; incomparability, matchlessness, peerlessness; excellence, greatness, magnificence, sublimity, importance

Manifest writes, “Something many artists strive for in their work throughout their careers—a going beyond ordinary. But what about work that addresses the idea of Transcendence as a subject, rather than an aspect of the ambition, dedication, and rigor of the artist themselves? How does visual art represent, either through subject, form, or content, a notion which, in some form or another, underlies much of human introspection and civilized activity since our earliest days as a species?”

I submitted 4 works to the jury, hoping to be able to contribute to the show. Here’s what I sent:

1. Truncated Cube, 12” x 12”, Silver-leaf on faded blue paper

   The Truncated Cube is associated with Angelic Melancholia ever since Albrecht Dürer’s print Melencolia of 1514. Since Dürer, the Truncated Cube makes an appearance in the work of other artists seeking to visualize the heavenly melancholic geometry as a presenence in the world, there are notable works by Anselm Kiefer and Carsten Nicolai.

2. Metempsychosis, 11.75” x 12.25”, black paint on orange tissue paper, gold leaf, pink paper

Metempsychosis is the transmigration of a soul from one body to another, animal or human. I like to think the soul can transmigrate into the body of a color, becoming blue light, or electricity, a body of water. In any case first the soul flies like a crow in high winds through the dimensions before finding the next body.

3. Aether, 72” x 54”, burnt canvas, white gesso, gold leaf

Aether is the substance of the heavens first theorized by Aristotle in the book On the Heavens. Aristotle claimed that Aether was the 5th element, and the element that composes the Heavens. Fire is the element that rises, and “the single spark and the whole of fire both seek the same place”.

4. Jupiter Square, 60” x 60”, powder pink chalk, light blue pencil, white paint, black gesso on canvas

Jupiter Square is a magic square, which means that each of the 36 cells correspond to one of the numbers 1-36. If one were to add the numbers of brush strokes in each row in any direction, up, down, diagonal, the sum would always be 111. The magic square is associated with the planet Jupiter because it works as a shield to the dark anxiety rays of Saturn. Jupiter provides a calming source of order and balance.

Opposites

Two prints are back from the framers:

1. I found the orange tissue paper on the ground in my brother’s garage, a year after making some paintings there. I must have used the orange tissue paper to get paint off the brush before approaching the canvas. The chance-result is similar to things i’ve tried to achieve with “in the wings”.

   The composition occurred because of an engagement with materials, but the work does not reflect an intentional use of directed attention. It remains mysterious to me; a case where something happened, duende.

   I put the gold leaf on pink and glued the orange tissue paper down, its framed with a white matte and the gold frame turns into a bit of a gasoline rainbow when the light hits it in the right angle.

2. Truncated Cube, silver-leaf on faded blue paper. The truncated cube is an object associated with angelic melancholia. The frame and glass are intended to add dimensions to the geometric construction; 2nd, 3rd, 4th dimensional geometry.

Falling Snow (Jupiter Square)

Falling Snow (Jupiter Square) - 60” x 60” - pale pink chalk, powder blue pencil, white paint on black gesso. 

Painting is a 6x6 Magic Square of numbers 1-36. Brush strokes of squares counted in any direction always add to 111. 

This mathematical logic of balance is associated with the planet Jupiter, acting as a calm shield to Saturn’s rays of dark anxiety and chaos.

Falling Snow (Jupiter Square)

Drawn on a 60” x 60” canvas, A 6x6 Magic square of 54”, each cell being 9”. A Magic square is a mathematical idea of balance, in a 6x6 square there are 36 cells, each number of 1-36 has its place in a cell, and if the cells of any row are added up in any direction (left right up down, diagonally, as well as the inner four squares, and other patterns) the sum will always be 111.

The idea of the Magic Square is associated with the astral influence of Jupiter, seen as a shield to the dark anxiety of Saturn. Jupiter demonstrates the clear path into the future.

New Print from framers

Picked up this silver-leaf Truncated Cube from the framers today, the recessed dimensionality of the frame makes the piece cohesive in concept from drawing to framing. The truncated cube is a often used in reference to angelic melancholia.

Practice of Recognitions

I found this piece of paper on the ground in my brother’s garage, where I was painting a year ago. It was folded in half, when i opened it I thought it made a better painting that a lot of the things I do on purpose. Sometimes something shows up, or occurs without intention, revelation is the opposite of control. A piece like this is situated in the strange zone between engagement and intention; it gets made by engaging with materials, but could not have been made if I had an intention to make it. Finding it felt like a recognition of something just on the other side of the will. My brother said he thought it looked Japanese, and I thought of those big Japanese paintings made with mop-sized brushes. The paper here is the orange tissue paper that is between sheets of silver-leaf. When I picked up the piece of paper I had a memory occur of having too much medium on my brush before having to make a brush stroke and kind of just whacking it on the orange paper before approaching the canvas. I was painting something that had a similar composition with much more control, the twin black orbs. I think I like the small orange version better. The silver leaf paper was laying around from the painting I did before the black orbs, one called Heavens with the floating geometry.

Prints back from framers

Truncated Cube, silver-leaf on blue paper. One of these are going to hang in the 10th Anniversary Show at Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park in a couple weeks.