For an artist, Nightcrawler is a fascinating movie. Nightcrawler, released in 2014 and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is about a bottom feeder, Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal), who discovers the world of crime scene photo-journalism. Bloom, armed with an internet account and google, is an autodidact who envisions himself an entrepreneur. As the movie opens, Bloom uses his…
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Books, Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized
Book review: the War of Art
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Steven Pressfield’s the War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles offers pop psychology advice to struggling writers and artists. Pressfield is most known for his novel and film The Legend of Bagger Vance. Before reading this book on my Kindle, I’d read nothing by the author. Mimicking Sun Tzu’s classic The…
aesthetics, Bio, Paintings, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Finished ‘Garth and Daryl Talking’
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I finally got Garth and Daryl Talking to the ‘finishing stage’ and lite the rocket. I determined to finish the painting in a single day, but after a day-long marathon it wasn’t done, so I followed with a half-day session and finally finished it. Garth and Daryl Talking is 42″ x 68″. I build my own stretchers for…
Bio, materials, Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized
In the studio 5/3/15
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I build paintings slowly. I spend a considerable amount of time on the drawing before touching a brush. Once painting starts, I try to work as efficiently as possible. It doesn’t always work out–so much can go awry. But the point of so much preparation is go get a painting to the finishing stage where…
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This article in The Week provides a perspective on the Baltimore riots that mirror my own. As a Baltimore native, the author, Tim Kreider, has a dog in the fight. The author, although white, discusses the alarming and dramatic changes in the nation’s police since 9-11. The author maintains, and I agree with him, that the militarization of the police has increased the number of unfortunate incidents like those in Baltimore and Ferguson. It’s dismaying and off-putting to see the police arrayed in military paraphernalia confronting U.S. citizens once again. The changes are evident even in small-town America where we live.
Of course, I don’t condone the riots, but the police appear to be developing an ‘us vs them’ mentality. Read the article.
Paintings, Shop Talk, Studio Corner, Uncategorized
In the studio 4/26/2015
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Junk in a junk shop–oops!, antique shop–and people milling about doing what people do. Main Street #1 is composed from three photos. I moved figures around, as I often do, in a photo of an antique shop on Main St, and added figures from two other photos. Three photos for a painting is about par for me these…
aesthetics, anecdotes, Art Museums, Cleveland, Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized
In the studio 4/25/15
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This is a pretty good photo of the unfinished Heated Discussion. It’s at the ‘get it finished any day now’ stage. I enjoy working on details but sometimes I give them too much attention. The stuff in the background is too strong–too busy. Secondary motifs can be jarring when they spill outside their intended place and…
materials, Paintings, Shop Talk, Studio Corner, Uncategorized
In the studio 4/19/15
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I showed Sunday Parade once before when I probably should not have–it was too raw. It’s overcast today and the studio lights (even my ‘natural light’ lamps) wash-out the colors, but I think you can get a sense of what is going on. Sunday Parade is 42″ x 56.” Although Sunday Parade is an urban street scene,…