Just the picture..........

So this is a video of the different states of the piece I have been working on today.  Below is the "final"state I decided on.

The Master

The top image was created listening to a Cello solo.......not sure if it had anything to do with it......the one below was finished today........adding the blue and a yellow layer over the piece as I left it yesterday.

Just watched the film The Master.........very strange and disturbing........anyone reading this see it?

Utopia.......

 I have been thinking a lot about what the future holds for us as a species.  The outlooks seems pretty grim these days....global warming, population, food, man it all seems to be heading off a cliff. 

I have been trying to get my head around a utopian vision......an idea of what we can aspire to, a set of ideals of social as well as cultural interaction which can at least mitigate some of these overwhelming concerns.

We should be more optimistic, don't you think?  The technology revolution has changed everything.......except we have not figured out where we all fit in I think.........

This piece is a painting I did at a live art painting event last night held in Commack, New York....

8 Changes

So this piece kept changing...........this is the first and second state. 

This is the third and fourth state..........I kinda obliterated the original idea for some reason.

This is the fifth and sixth........I worked in the color.......

This is where I left it..........if I make any more changes I will post it.  I thought this was a pretty cool progression........kind of weird destroying the previous layer.

Waiting for purpose.........

 

Light through a yellow glass

Save for the diamond 

The fox observes the transparent nature

Emptying to forms ill defined

Outside the universe

Everything is random

Not empty but not defined

Waiting for purpose.

Linocut print

 Second post today........I just pulled a print from the plate and thought of posting it here............

Originally thought of making this a reduction linocut print, but I think I will edition it as is.  The edition will be 10 to 20 prints.......hand printed.

different things........

These are the two states of the print created today.  I like both of them equally.......but the first one no longer exists

 I started this painting yesterday, just a few marks to see where it is going......I will work on this later today.....

This is a linocut I have been working on for a few weeks now, couple of hours a day.........I will either do a reduction cut on it or use a monoprint as the background color...

Horses.........

This is the first and last state of the print I made today........the image in the center is the plate that was created to overprint the first image. This was done 2 more times to create the rich background colors.

This was the piece prior to the one above.  The original idea of this was someone riding a horse and the horse rears up.......a common historical image of power..........

revisions......

These are the two states of this print.  I felt that the original image looked a bit underdeveloped so did a second layer to separate the forms and establish space better.

Here I also did a series of layers to get the final print from the initial image.   I like them both, and in retrospect almost prefer the first piece........

On this day........

On this day

She waits at the edge of the ocean, at the end of time
Seeking the seam which must be there.
To travel across the sea and stand at a distant shore
Hold the deep meaning which inspired this journey

In her mind she can see the distant figures
Hold together into definable shapes, feelings
Lifted up from the core to be able to breathe
The chorus emerges from deep inside her soul

Back on her shoreline
Standing amongst the slivers of white shell
Cool ocean breeze, sounds of birds wings
Held back to reality with eyes closed, remembering.

Parachute........

Free Radicals
Dust
Shapes the become three dimensional after spending time in my mind
Recreated here to the speculation of others with similar intent.

Crown of thorns dispensed to the masses
Implying simplicity through gestures of intelligence
Actors take the stage as if nothing is happening
Burst of speed crashes into the backdrop exposing the directors ambivalence.

If you need a shoulder to cry on, do not look here,
Says the impatient rich lady awaiting her golden chariot
Her champion awaits his freedom
She expects patronage to cure the horror of her dreams

Six horses arrive late, wondering about the hawk flying above
Solitude is the punishment and the reward
Look skyward for your next mission
Soon to arrive on a golden parachute. 

looking for something new

So I think I am hitting the wall on the prints.......I have said this before I am sure.  Mostly spending a lot of time in the studio, trying to figure out what to do next.  I have a lot of material, but cannot seem to find a way to figure out what to do with it........

round interior

I had thought of this idea of a round room as a setting for a painting and thought of pulling a print to see general ideas.........

paintings........

Working on paintings again..........the one above is from yesterday.........the piece below has been around for a while, now I am doing stage 2........firming up the darks.......then redo the whites.......once I get this layer done and dry I will start with the color layers........

fixing a print that did not quite work..........

Three new ones for today.......this evening I pulled out all of the prints I have done in the last few months, organized them a bit........trying to make sense of this project and try to figure how to go forward.......
Big question as to whether I should try to rework pieces that did not quite work or just leave them alone. Well I tried to "fix" one from the past and made such a mess that I threw it away......something to think about for sure.......

painting and prints.....

 I made a few prints on paper this morning.........this one was created on the "stone" paper.  There is a quality I am getting with these pieces that are made directly which I cannot achieve with the paper prints..........funny but I am not confident when I start with one of these pieces. 

These 2 pieces are the states of the painting from yesterday.  The one at right is where I left things off last night.

The blue one..........I finished the overall color yesterday and will let it sit for a while.......try to decide where to go with it next.

Done!

My first instinct was to make this image one layer and keep working on it.......I decided to leave it as complete and see what you think............

late prints

I printed later in the day today......ran into the city to photograph a wedding.  Bought some new linen for the stretchers I recently purchased, back to some larger canvas' I think. 
Ah the life of an artist........I have to find the mortgage payment this month and the taxes are due in April........credit cards keep adding up......no one is buying the work.
This is a daily struggle, never enough money, always worried, but keep hoping the work is good enough and will finally break through.  Sometimes I think this whole thing is pathetic......
I will not dwell on this, but just in case anyone is reading this, I thought just this once I would come clean about this part of the creative experience.

painting on paper.......

These 2 images are a bit of a departure from the previous works..........they are a combination of drawing directly on the paper and working with the printmaking tools.  On the reddish piece you can see the scraping I did from layer to layer bringing back some of the earlier color.