News

An update...

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Some news:  here is a nice little review of the Self Image show at the Arts Guild of New Jersey in Rahway.  The show is still open and runs through February 12th.
The Between Realities opening on January 22nd at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA was amazing - the work was beautiful, the gallery lovely, and it was a pleasure meeting everyone involved.  Here I am, beneath my drawings...and why yes, that is a red dot over my head!!!

between-realities-opening

A great D.C. weekend (thanks Madelyn and Butch! btw, now I am totally addicted to Trader Joe's Mediterranean hummus...).
Highlights (aside from the art show, of course):
Visited the memorial of my all-time favorite Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson:

jefferson

A moment of awe, please:
jefferson-2
We had a stop at one of Obama's favorite D.C. restaurants, Ben's Chili Bowl, home of the mighty chili half-smoke:

bens

And then on to the National Portrait Gallery, where I had the opportunity to see the breathtaking exhibition of the  Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition exhibition finalists...oh my, oh my...the show runs until August 22, 2010 - a must see (as is most of the National Portrait Gallery, which is on my list for many more visits).
The Great Studio Clean Out is going strong, and I am busy cleaning, drawing, cleaning, drawing...and on and on...

Self Image: Contemporary Self-Portraits

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I am pleased to announce that I have three drawings included in an exhibit that opens this weekend:

Self Image

Contemporary Self Portraits

The Arts Guild of New Jersey

1670 Irving Street
Rahway, New Jersey

Opening Reception 1 - 4 PM

Sunday, January 17th

I had a bit of preview when I dropped off my drawings - there is some wonderful artwork in the show - please drop by!

self-image-show

My most recently completed large-scale drawing, Cottonmouth and Magnolia, will be on display as well as Soliloquy and Incise/Excise (No More Frown).

Cottonmouth and Magnolia

Soliloquy

Incise/Excise (No More Frown)

Temporal Reverie

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A new drawing is complete...I have taken a few snapshots (not the fancy digital images from the art photographer, but the idea still comes across).

Temporal Reverie

Graphite and watercolor on Arches hot press watercolor paper
26 x 32 inches

Temporal Reverie

Some detail photos:

coelacanth-detail-3

coelacanth-detail-1

detail of watercolor on the pearl

That magnificent fish is a coelacanth...and yes, I used the common free use image as a reference (to some degree) - lets just say, they ain't easy to find and I looked for a specimen to photograph myself (boy, and how), as I had a specific need to appropriate a specific fish that had to do with a specific dream (the fish are considered to be a missing evolutionary link because they have leg-like fins, therefore, when I was having my reverie on the temporal and the transitional, it was the coelacanth that swam into my vision).
I cannot figure out how to import video into this blog  (Jo, tell me what to do) but there is gorgeous, and exceptionally rare footage of them swimming and eating in their very unusual handstand position on ARKive (a site that documents all endangered animals on earth...a real time suck if you are into that sort of thing).
I loved making this drawing - I do not find that creating drawings is a drudgery or a fight, and I am perplexed when artists talk about their struggles with creating their art or the chore of having to complete the task.
When in the studio, there is a state that I enter where executing the drawing becomes both a cerebral and an intuitive experience - yes, it is a struggle of sorts - with shape and form and marks and interaction with the pencil and the paper.  But, I love that sense of struggle and that feeling of adventure and risk - will this happen and how will it happen?
This is not to say that the process of art is easy - although it should be enjoyable, gratifying and pleasurable - and I question the motivation of those artists who complain about the actual execution of their vocation.

I trusted what I wanted, not what I thought would work.  I did what I myself thought was interesting, and left its reception to the gods.

- Stephen Pressfield, The War of Art

The magnificent Jo Bradney, who does all of the HTML voodoo to make my website and blog appear, told me how to make image links appear (thanks Jo!):

ARKive logo

Coelacanth in deep submarine canyonCoelacanth in deep submarine canyonHans Fricke

ARKive logo

Coelacanth displaying characteristic handstand postureCoelacanth displaying characteristic handstand postureHans Fricke