Noelle Ascending

A dear friend has made a transition and now rises, with wings. Note: she has passed on since I painted this. RIP dear one.


Noelle Ascending    20" x 16"    oil on canvas    5.27.2017

Hathor

Hathor    30" x 24"    oil on canvas    5.29.17

Worshipping at the wrong altar, Part 2

Is this art?



Team Duff 'gets' Lou Reed, and hence, this song in a way few mortals do, or would care to. ...melancholy Dane: to be and not to be, isn't that the question?


Is this art?



So not 'bleeding edge', and it's got a vibe. Thanks for inviting us to live our daily grind life as art. How do we make a living there, a full-time job, a "real" job? 

Curious that these two videos' strategies for dealing with identity seem polar opposites, yet equally disaffected; I think Lou Reed wins in the end...wins what?


Is this art?

Another way to express identity; clown of someone else's. This head be Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar's father and the former dictator of Syria.This would go over fine in a Chelsea gallery, context optional.

A learned artist friend once told me that a great artist said, 'If you want to learn art, don't go to the museums or the galleries: go to the street'.

Dying Comedian

This fellow is being helped over the threshold by two comedians from eras past (note the Meiji-era Japanese costume of the one, and the Commedia dell'arte costume of the other) who long ago translated into pure Clear Light. They remain in the Bardo to serve others, guiding them toward comic consciousness.

I think comedians on our Earth plane are true guides to liberation (as long as they're not angry comedians) because they can reveal the truth of ourselves, to ourselves; see Heyoka.

This canvas started life as a letter to a friend; then a gesture drawing, no model, suggested the right arm, reaching; then they arrive. Still a work in progress, but I'm feeling better about that blue suit, which I first thought too bright, as it well suits a man voyaging through the Bardos; none too shabby.

Dying Comedian   16" x 20"   pencil, pastel, acrylic and oil on canvas   10.2016

Vibration: Earth Healing 3

On this night of the Snow moon, the Eclipsed moon, the Full moon, the comet, I offer this; it's part of the Earth Healing series, but I decided to stop right there.


Vibration: Earth Healing 3    30" x 24"    oil on canvas    2.5.2017

Earth Healing 2

A continuation of the Earth Healing series. I call this "Midnight Messenger" in private; it's a silent message. If I look too closely I will work on this forever so I am ignoring it. Nos. 3 and 4 are in progress, and No. 1 is getting a makeover, more on that soon.

The Earth Healing series originates in a meditation described by E.J. Gold, wherein one sits and visualizes the globe of Earth in their hands, and sends warming vibrations to it, to "bring it back to life" as it were. In experimenting with this I tried to ask, what kind of vibrations does Earth need, and then send them in; I've tried to render these vibrations in paint, although in this iteration it kind of took on a life of its own.

Earth Healing 2    oil on canvas    30" x 24"    2.1.2017

Lake

Unfortunately, you can't see all the flaws in this picture. I made a big point of leaving them in there, so nobody would get the idea that this was a picture of a "lake", no matter how picturesque. It is a picture of myself; as I would like to be, if I could maintain this measure of reserve all the time, in order to be able to gaze into my inner world without reference to, um, reference points, concepts, situations, people, problems -the ongoing disorganization of my life- to gaze simply at the self, as self, without reference points. That is the aim.

Yes, there were flaws, but I accidentally corrected them with GIMP; you'll have to be content with what flaws you can see. Did I mention this picture is for sale?

Lake    oil on canvas    20" x 16"     11/2016

Earth Healing 1

This is Earth Healing 1, the first in a series; 2 is almost done. It started when I was reading the news (really awful) and after, thinking "What is an artist supposed to do?" What can we really do to affect things for the better? We artists tend paint what's wrong with the world and with ourselves, without offering a solution or an alternative.

There's a meditation by E.J. Gold around 'warming the world', so I made an artistic experiment with it. I envision the globe in my hands, with all its turmoil and pain, and ask myself what it needs. I send the required calming and peaceful, both warming and cooling, vibrations to it, feeling a change, a re-tuning to its proper tone or vibration, if you will. Then I try to render this in paint.

I think I'm going to have to do something like this forever into the future. I can't just go on doing something 'interesting', it's not enough.

Earth Healing 1    oil on canvas    30" x 24"

Big

The title is ironic: we all think we're 'big' in our own world, 'til one day we see that in the wider world, we're not. And when 'big' as in grown-up, our little one is waiting inside, much to our consternation breaking the surface at some inopportune moment, like when feeling very much alone... have I told you too much? I want you to dream your own narrative, but I'm insecure. 😳

This started life as an abstract drawing, lines reaching up toward some source, down to the ground, but that contrapasto came out perfectly, if wrong. I think (I wonder) if the original abstract feeling I had grew in this painting but I can't remember. All I know is I've seen this guy before, I know this guy, probably been him sometime.

I call this my '70s' painting, like everybody did these 'sketchy' things then; here's mine.

Sorry 'bout the photograph, took many, GIMPed along, yet I think some of the feeling shows through.

I can't decide if this is finished or not, the convenient appelation 'work-in-progress' appeals... 

Big,  2017,  oil on canvas,  30" x 24"

Prostitute

This started life as a loosely drawn self-portrait (like about 15 seconds) and quickly turned into something else. I was originally going to call this 'Goddess' but the mid-tone background and the distilled emotion changed as well. I think I share a lot of qualities with her; I'm bitter, vengeful, cold, remote, but fair (with my customers? I don't have any customers -would you like to buy this? 😸).

Finally this is about women's status in the world; their socioeconomic status in many places depends on their desirability and nothing else. Denied education or opportunity there's no alternative but marriage, forced or otherwise; or this. Knowing the news, I see there's a lot on their plate, even in the more 'civilized' countries. I could go on about this but you know the stories. Finally really, I must say she's the survivor, since time immemorial; no one's going to bring her down.


Prostitute, 20" x 16", oil on canvas.


I couldn't not offer this sonic art, as an accompaniment.

Kerry James Marshall AT THE MET

Thank god it happened in his lifetime: a retrospective for one of our greatest living North American artists, gladly letting us inside his experience. Up through January 29, if you're in New York, see it. Just one image for you, click through to Exhibition Objects.

Voyager, 1992

Enjoy.