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I was on Facebook a little bit ago, and there was a question in the left side panel that asked, "What's your life motto?" And, as is common in the 21st Century, when I responded, wrote a few sentences, the damned thing wouldn't let me save it. :) That's so like technology today. But even with its glaring insecurity and frustrating glitches most of us are stuck to it like super glue. I find that only mildly amusing; it is also very much disheartening. But I've said more than a couple of sentences here on the pitfalls of taking technology, and those behind it, at face value. Just remember that where ever you go and whatever you read, you are more than likely reading a veiled advertisement. Ain't it wonderful? ')

I've been painting today but am taking a break. I come back to the computer room periodically to see if I've gotten any important emails and to see what's going on on my two sites, Redbubble and Artwanted. I uploaded Eggman II yesterday on Redbubble and in the area I'm supposed to describe the piece and get folks all excited about having it on a shirt, a skirt, a mug, etc., I said something that I thought worth repeating. I said I could probably paint the 21st Century equivalent of Guernica and be largely ignored nowadays. After uploading to Redbubble, I went to see a movie at the discount house up the street. Every preview of coming attractions involved either super humans or the paranormal. There wasn't a real human drama to be found. That strongly suggests that we are filling our lives with pure escapism rather than dramas that explore the human condition. Or maybe the escapism is due to the drudgery of our every day existences? If that isn't food for thought, I don't know what is. ;)

Every week I try to learn something about an artist that I've either never heard of before or know little about. This week I stumbled across David Smith. Mr. Smith is classified as the sculptural equivalent of a Motherwell, Rothko or Pollock. I actually found his pieces much more engaging than those artists. He died in the mid-Sixties. I've never seen a more concentrated and sadly serious face in my life. Well, Dylan Thomas comes to mind and maybe Mr. Eliot of Wasteland fame. The internet CAN be used for something useful, you know. Just saying. :). I'm uploading a photo of Mr. Smith so you can see what I mean.

Perception is colored by one's personality and personality is colored by the experiential data, memories if you will, one accrues over time. A very young person's personality is initially colored by home life and the social interactions therein plus the incidental absorption of media---like TV and internet. We are pure almost empty vessels at birth without preconceptions or expectations. These two concepts are learned later and usually in much the same way as Pavlov's dog learned, I think. The only major difference between those who exist along the same timeline then is natural intellect and the genetic predisposition of the individual. But even intelligent individuals can create a rather staid homogenous collective if there's no one in it to poke holes in the flimsily constructed façade of human society and point out the absurdities and its paradoxical constructs.

If you cease to question what is, you become just another sheep in the meadow baaing and chewing. And the status quo becomes calcified and violently resistant to change. That usually means that everything, popular entertainment, marketing, etc., is calculated to target the largest demographic rather than actively stretch itself to evolve into something different. In America that means those of average intelligence and the young. Undeveloped brains, it seems, are more easily distracted by colored lights and short sound bytes. I don't think there's been a time in human history when so many humans are being bombarded by so much trivia on a continual basis. I see this as I check my electronic mail, do research on the internet or turn on the radio in my car. Everything seems calculated to titillate but so little to actually educate or stimulate.

So are humans in general moving up the evolutionary ladder or merely sitting complacently on some middle rung listening to Lady Gaga? I'm probably just a little too close to see the bigger picture and as I've developed a strong pessimistic streak over time, I think I'll have to pass on that one. I think I've accrued a bit too much of that experiential data over the course of my life. ;)

I'm currently working on 'Eggman II' and will hopefully have it ready for upload this weekend.

Another Friday evening...well early evening (5:30 to 7:30) ...gallery show opening has passed. Last Friday was held the "New Works" show reception at Art Space Gallery here in Austin. I didn't get off work until just at 5;30 and was surprised to see a good-sized crowd already in attendance when I arrived a short time later. Of course, having been a member for around 5 years now, I know the faces of artists and artists' families and friends which told me I wasn't seeing a bunch of newbie potential buyers.

I was glad to see a painting by Beverly Deutsch had already sold---probably pre-opening as I got there by 5:40. It was arguably the nicest painting by her I'd seen recently. Of course, I said something stupid when she walked within earshot and she took me literally and walked on by, otherwise I would have told her personally. Oh well.

Another artist who does geometric abstracts stopped by the reception and asked where my piece was. I told him behind a clump of attendees, pointing. When he returned he said, "Of course, it's a bird." Well, it's a bird and it isn't. It's Bird Fork II so not exactly a variety you'll see singing in a tree in your backyard. I just smiled--well, I think I smiled; those things don't come as easily as they once did. I could have responded that he only does multi-colored geometric patterns so what's the difference save that I don't do the same 'thing' every time I sit down at the easel? But I didn't.

Eduardo, my photographer friend and I had a good chat. In fact, he and I were talking when Beverly walked by. She was probably a bit 'high' after selling her piece. I don't blame her for that. In Austin, selling work isn't easy unless you have been publicly recognized by an artistic authority or achieved some other flavor of notoriety. I've always had difficulty with self-promotion. One of my biggest failings, I think.

I stayed until almost 7 then walked over to Walmart. After finding their Deli closed for the day, I returned to my Fiat and drove home. I had talked to Jan Knox, Kelli Montgomery and Eduardo. No one else there showed an interest in conversation and I didn't feel up to initiating any. I went home and started a painting I'm thinking of titling Cock-eyed. I did a sketch in January that I liked. Oh, and it doesn't have a bird or bird reference. Maybe I'll have it ready for the Figurative Show that's coming soon. I'll upload that sketch; tell me what you think. :)

Mar, 2017 I'm just getting my strength back after a bout of double pneumonia. Suffice it to say, I did not enjoy the experience. They say, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I say, "What doesn't kill you just doesn't kill you---yet." That being said, February was not a very productive month in any sense of the word. I've also noticed that my eyes seem worse for the experience as well and that is something I could have done without. I require my eyes in so many ways. I have now primed five canvases---all 12 by 16 inches. If I could paint full-time from the here and now, I would paint larger pieces but since I don't see that happening any time soon, smaller will have to do. Some discount smaller pieces but in my experience increased size does not make a small idea bigger and vice versa. I guess I'm not a 'sofa-sized' artist after all. I have recently painted a reincarnation of 'Evolutionary, I presume' but I'm not sure about it yet. I was just going to call it 'Evolutionary' but I've hung it on the wall in the living room and await my final verdict. I have several pieces that I've either mothballed or painted over. I imagine most artists have done the same.

My illness made it impossible for me to attend the February 'For The Love of Art' Show. It marks the first time I've missed an opening since I rejoined Austin Visual Arts Association in September of 2012. It also marks the first time I've had a painting in a show I wasn't quite finished with. I had to deliver it after I started coming down with what was to be diagnosed as double pneumonia and so didn't have the energy necessary to finesse it as I had intended. O well. I can do that, hopefully, when I get it back. I deliver 'Bird Fork II' this weekend for the 'New Works' show that opens on March 10th. I keep telling the folks at AVAA that I do not like Friday openings, especially those that open at 5:30 pm and only last until 7:30 but they do not seem to take my words to heart Many people don't get off work until 5 pm or later and Austin traffic at that time of day is abysmal. I would run that gallery very differently if given the chance and I would try to take the adjective 'predictable' out of the equation as well. ;)

As for the image I'm uploading. This t-shirt has my 'Eye Catching' piece on it. I purchased this and it arrived with great color and quality. I hazard to say that it IS quite eye catching. ;)

So another year is about to hit the dust. Seems like just yesterday we were so hopeful of 2016. It wasn't a bad year overall though I'd never call it stellar. As long as we keep cheating each other, lying, hurting and killing each other, the years of the future will all leave the same bad aftertaste. It's too bad really. We now have an international medium of communication/education in the internet but we use it badly. I guess tolerance comes with understanding and understanding comes with knowledge. We'd rather wallow with the hogs of ignorance than fly with the eagles of freedom. You do recall the saying "Knowledge makes one free?" Ignorance keeps us shackled, my friend and it sorely limits our ability to see things clearly.

I'm working on a couple of new paintings but the muse hasn't been with me lately. I've been more interested in putting my home music studio together so I can make---not beats per se---but music of the kind that lets me express myself in much the same way that visual art lets me express myself uniquely without compromise. I put together a music studio glued together by MIDI and quite a few hardware synths back in the Eighties and had it assembled in such a way that all I had to do was boot my trusty Atari 1040ST, the synths, my wind controller and mixer and I could be occupied for hours. I sold a lot of my equipment in the late 90's, tried putting it together again several years back with lackluster results but now I am on the verge of having it the way it was in the 80's only better.

The trick these days is finding the right software sequencer that plays well with external MIDI equipment like synthesizers, etc. I now have more hardware synths/samplers than I did in the 80's though most of them are of the desktop or rackmount variety. I demoed lots of programs like Ableton, Sonar, Reaper, etc. , but found the best one for my purpose to be Cubase---one of the early MIDI sequencer programs from Steinberg that's been around since MIDI's early days in the 80's. Go figure, eh? Part of my problem several years back was my lack of thorough research in this area and the fact that I was using a keyboard controller when I should have been using my wind controller like I used to. It also helps that companies are putting out hardware synths again---many of them analogue---and so I found a more comfortable fit now than almost a decade back. I'm also adding some newer units like the Korg MS-20 mini, Waldorf Rocket, DA's Mopho and a couple of Roland's Boutique models to my setup. I also purchased a Tascam 2x2 audio interface that seems to be doing the job. With so much external equipment, I've decided to go with a mixer upgrade and am looking for one that will fill the bill. I like to layer the sounds from various synths, so I'd like to have them all plugged in and available---well, most of them anyway. I'm even thinking of dusting off my old Ensoniq Mirage rackmount sampler and seeing if it still boots---you need a floppy to do this and it's a toss-up whether it'll be the floppy drive or the floppy OS disk itself that will have died.

If you go to YouTube and type in 'Redsound Darkstar and Omnichord 200M' you should find my channel, such as it is. It's not very big. I have a couple of slideshow/videos of my artwork and they use some of my vintage 80's material as soundtracks. I've always just given my imagination free reign, not trying to emulate or imitate any particular genre or style and that pertains to my sonic adventures as well as my visual ones. It's not amorphic but it does morph around a lot. :)

Anyway, I still have a tiny optimist in my head who hopes 2017 will be a great year for planet earth and mankind too. Yeah, call me crazy but I can't force myself to kill the little guy totally. Ha! I'm uploading the AVAA's 2016 12BUY12 show's official invitation. It has my Redbirds In Evergreen on it. First time that's happened since I rejoined in 2012.

I've had a bad right hand and wrist for over a month now but I need to start using it again; I'm very tired of pecking words out one-handed. Today I thought I'd fill in some gaps. Typing is a little painful but I'm supposing if I do more or it, the pain will lessen. Hmmm. That's sort of my feeling on ART as well; it too is a little painful but by doing it, the pain seems to lessen. I'll leave that as cryptic as it may sound to some of you. I'll possibly leave as many gaps as I fill.

I don't know where the years go nowadays save that the days, weeks and months pile up behind me like so much refuse. In the old days I filled lots of notebooks full of images and words. Nowadays I'm a little stingier, I think, with what I do with my time. Of course, if you work for a living, there are large chunks of it that isn't yours by default. I now realize that I should never have tried to blend a non-traditional mind with a traditional work ethic. I probably should have gone the Gauguin route and told the traditional minds and world to go blank themselves, but I've never been that selfish, unfortunately--or maybe that brave. Now I realize with so much dead time behind me and so little living time ahead, a little good old-fashioned selfishness might have proven useful.

Some people---well, most people really---think of art as rather useless, something with shape and color but little function. I look at that idea turned inside out; art is what moves the world forward (sorry guys technology comes in a distant second---if that) and gives it its depth and context. Art does not need to be a joy to behold to be worth beholding. Unfortunately, once the process is finished and the piece exists, it takes a little effort on the part of the viewer: they have to really learn how to SEE. I would say at least 90% of the population of planet earth have no idea how to slow down, take a deep breath and let something REALLY in through their eyes (and/or ears.) This is not limited to ART, otherwise, we wouldn't need all these talking heads spouting the obvious to the oblivious.

I always say I need to write more in this blog area, and I suppose I do: like art, writing is therapeutic, cathartic, much more so than orgasm or crying, I think. Sometimes I get so mentally occupied by inanities that I forget there's a part of me beyond the mindless repetition that exists and sits languishing in some unlit corner of my soul. That's why I must periodically slow down, shift mental gears and throw a little light on it, the only part, that's truly worth anything.

I have two blank canvases I'm prepping for the yearly Christmas show. This year I purchased burlap canvases and I'm in the process is blending gesso and texture paste medium to create a hopefully interesting surface on which to work. These very little plots of earth, these 12 inch by 12 inch squares, have become the only area in time and space that will be mine to do as I wish with as much ability as I can muster. When you look at it that way, art can be defined as the quintessential personal freedom, a place where the unadulterated soul can sing in a pure uncensored voice.

At the last gallery reception another artist, very much the traditionalist who does landscapes, harbor scenes, and the like in a neo-impressionist style, asked me where I get my ideas. I paused for what to him probably seemed a long time. I did not want to appear elitist or flippant. A lot of people take me to be a 'smart ass' though I guess that is preferable to the other end of that spectrum. :) When I at last spoke I merely mentioned my modus operandi for coming up with the majority of my imagery: the quickly drawn page of one-minute or less small drawings. I work very much in the same vain as Andre Masson who pioneered automatic drawing in that I initially start putting down lines until something suggests itself on the page. I feel I have almost perfected this technique as I seldom have very many excessive or nonessential lines---when it works. It is interesting to note, I think, that there have been times when I've dredged up very little or very weak images, and others where I created a miniature treasure trove at one sitting. This quick dissolve from unconscious to conscious thought can be a hit-or-miss process and depends, it seems, upon unseen perimeters that have to be properly aligned to work in a useful and creative way.

Just this last week at lunch, I did several interesting drawings using this technique. And the drawings that became two of my most recent paintings also came from the same page of quick sketches. They and others can be seen on the pic I am uploading with this blog entry.

So the answer to the question of origin would properly be, I suppose, the psyche of yours-truly. But I don't believe you can create meaningful art without engaging the analytical side of the brain to some degree and I most certainly do NOT believe in 'concept for concept's sake.' Have we truly become so trivial and tissue thin?

Can you find the original drawing for what became 'Hat Trick' in the photo?

I've not been writing much here. I started something recently but upon a re-read thought it too acidic for public consumption. What the public wants are ten-second soundbytes or visual cotton candy/wallpaper and not what I have to say, apparently. In fact, people seem to read more into what I don't than what I do these days. Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that we live in wishy-washy hyper-sensitive times in which we mouth a praise for individuality on the one hand and slap it down with the other. No where is this more evident than in our schools. I'm beginning to think the pharmaceutical companies are merely pushers of conformity. We are bringing up the means of our eventual destruction. In fact, if you look around sans rose-colored glasses, you see that America's downfall is pretty much a done deal---and we did it ourselves. Rot usually does begin somewhere internal and unseen. Look at the headlines, the idolizing of celebrities (merely because they ARE celebrities) and the proliferation of heads looking down, eyes focused on a brightly lit rectangle as though it were a window into self-worth.

Ah, I've already fallen into a vein akin to the acidic prose of my last discarded missive. Well, so be it. It's on my mind and I think it's worth writing and THINKING about. In that entry I was talking about how so much of the art I see these days is derivative, uninspired or conceptually wanting and therefore thinner than tissue paper, indeed thinner than our skin. Oh, yes, we are a thin-skinned lot by and large. There's so much anger and fear just below the surface of mankind or we wouldn't be so quick to judge, hate and/or kill our fellow beings. It's unfortunate that in an era of almost instantaneous worldwide communication that we do not grasp that opportunity with both hands to make understanding of other cultures and races paramount. With understanding comes a sense of kinship.

Most of us carry a computer in our purse or hip pocket hundreds of times more powerful than the one that took man to the moon but we merely graze on the vapid consumer-driven Internet like mindless cattle. Our textual communiques, if intercepted by other sentient beings, would give the impression of a race that only just fell from the trees. Maybe that's not so very far from the truth?

In my work I try to be hopeful even in my encrypted and less-obvious pieces. I grew up in the 50's and 60's when it was OK to speak your mind without this continual fear of societal condemnation. George Orwell's omnipresent screen of propaganda is now carried along willingly. I think he would be surprised and appalled. Now I think about it, it seems we are living in a hybrid film combining elements 1984 and The Invasion of The Body Snatchers. But that's just my take on what I see on a daily basis. It could be I'm just too old and out of touch. You may look around and feel you are living in a technological paradise. If you do, could you please let me borrow your glasses, whatever shade they may be? :)

I'm uploading a pic of some work hanging just inside my front door. Please try to imagine this all over my little house and on every available square foot. :)

The 38th Annual AVAA Membership Show held its reception last Saturday, September 9th. It was well attended, though I felt like it wasn't quite as crowded (it's a pretty small space) as it has been in previous years. Please know that I joined, or should I say, rejoined AVAA in September of 2012 on the actual day of that year's reception. So technically, this is only my fourth reception since getting back in touch and the third in which I displayed work.

Several friends, artistic and largely supportive, made appearances and I was grateful for that. I enjoyed the musical duo, Pod People, who played ballads dating back as far as Gershwin's Summertime, though I don't think many of their selections were 21st Century--or much past the Seventies of the last one, really. ;)

I managed to stay the whole reception, though I retreated to the chairs out front near the music on a couple of occasions. A friend from work shot a couple of pics of me w/ my artwork. I'm uploading the one he sent me via email.