Now I get it............

After agonizing over using just three tubes of paint last week, I decided my experiment was "interesting" but not something I really wanted to pursue. Then I started another small piece, and halfway through it I noticed something was different: no cad red! no indian yellow! not even much blue. This little painting manages to do what I tried too hard to do last week: it has a muted, more subtle palette. So, once again, change comes at its own pace. If I just keep plugging away and trying my funny little experiments, something eventually does happen - even though it is never quite when or what I had expected. Once again, it may seem that I am making a mountain out of a molehill, but it's all part of the process - and the longer I paint, the more subtle the changes.

The Crossword Puzzle Saga, Part 2

Finally, after an inordinate number of hours of work, I finished constructing my first crossword puzzle. After all that head banging, the fun part was writing the clues. A couple that I am most proud of: Equine victim of taxidermy - "Trigger"; Helmet head holder - "Aquanet". I submitted it to Will Shortz, NY Times Crossword Editor, yesterday. Apparently it takes a long time to get a reply, so I am not holding my breath. I also sent Will a few postcards of my work along with the submission - clearly I am drawn to the grid. In a way, constructing the puzzle mirrored my painting process: one change in one box almost always leads to an seemingly endless set of changes all over the grid.

Cleansing My Palette?

My dear (and very tidy) friend Constance http://steplikeagiant.wordpress.com/ restricts her palette to six colors (plus white). Here is my work table paired with hers:

Not only is her palette limited, it is very deliberate and cerebral, a la Joseph Albers. Her work table, like her painting, reflects this studied approach, whereas mine exposes the chaos in which I usually work. My colors choices can appear to be wild and random, though there is actually a degree of method to my madness.

Anyway, while in New York recently, I saw the Morandi show (see my post of September below) at the Met and marveled at his subdued palette (among other things). I’ve been thinking a lot about color lately........so…….last week I decided to experiment: I randomly (of course!) picked three tubes of paint: Alizarin Crimson, Indanthrone Blue, Quinacridone Gold (plus black and white) and began a small piece using just those colors. Ouch.! As I worked and moved from square to square attempting to balance the images and tones, I had to occasionally slap my own hand so that I would not pick up a Cadmium Red or an Indian Yellow. How do I use just these three colors (which, of course, I grew tired of quickly) and keep the work vibrant, and not let it get muddy or monochromatic? (An aside for anyone reading who is not an artist - we see our own work under a microscope: small changes that go unnoticed to most people loom huge in front of us……)

I am used to pairing complementary colors; with this subdued palette I had to rely on a different eye, one I don’t have a name for. Lots of questions arise: should I go back and study color theory again?? Have I lost the ability to be subtle? (Did I ever have it??) If intense color equals a certain kind of energy in my work, how does a less intense palette translate? No answers, but plenty of questions. The bottom line is, I would have to repeat this “three color” experiment at least ten times - do a lot more paintings - before I could begin to made real sense of it. Time will tell if I choose to do that. A part of me fears that without vivid color, I would simply disappear and wake up in a muted world – like The Wizard of Oz in reverse.

And as is often the case, I notice choices I make along the way only when the piece is finished or nearly finished. Often these hit me like a ton of bricks and a big loud “Duh!”. For this piece, I opted to put a palette image right smack in the center. I would like to say that it was premeditated, but nope. Sometimes my best decisions are made in spite of myself, so to speak.

So here is the little painting – tah-dah! - next to a same size (12” x 12”) piece using my “normal”, (i.e. everything-but-the-kitchen-sink) palette:

Are they noticeably different? I don't think so. (btw, the "muted" one is on the left....) Is one more successful because of the color? I don't think so. Is one more accessible? I don't think so.?? Do the colors complement the imagery? I hope so. There is really very little difference.

When all is said and done, what matters is not the finished painting, but the questions that lead me to try this little experiment....as well as the ever fascinating process of putting the paint on the canvas.

NYC Photos amid blog frustration

Why is my spacing all wrong?????????? I edited the previous post numerous times, and still it comes out with big gaps. sorry! Please bear with me as I try to get better at this.

Okay, let's try a few random photos from the streets of New York:

New York New York New York

Having just spent a few days in NYC, I am happy to report the Art scene is alive and well – I would even call it “thriving” - despite the abysmal economic situation. I spent most of my time in Chelsea, where there is an air of exuberance and much diversity to be found…..and to my delight, an abundance of painting. Very little strictly conceptual work (at least in the galleries I managed to see – there are probably 200 in Chelsea alone). Here are snapshots of some of the work I found most inspirational:



Noel Grunwaldt at Stellan Holm Gallery
Elegant and ominous watercolors and ink drawings of birds, eerily suspended between life and death. Beautiful paintings about death and decay – I love the inherent contradiction. There were also six small silver sculptures which were cast from the actual remains of the dead birds.





Dusty Boyton at Denise Bibro Gallery
Large,loosely painted exhuberant canvasses inhabited by a motley cast of human and animal characters. These paintings power lies in the tension that arises out of visual and emotional contradiction - they convey equal parts irreverence, fear, elation, humor, pathos. It took me awhile walking around the gallery to really “get” this work…….but once I did, I loved them all. The big, cartoonish imagery was deceptively simple at first – this was a good reminder that well conceived art takes time to appreciate.




Xiaoze Xie “Acts and Scenes” at Charles Cowles Gallery
I don’t know anything about this painter, whom I assume is Chinese. These were enormous monochromatic paintings of mostly American politicians sitting at tables, whispering to each other etc. The most striking was this one of a soldier being transferred out of what appears to be a combat zone in Iraq. A chilling statement which also reads beautifully as an abstract piece.




Duston Spear “Floating World” at Sara Tecchia Gallery
This is a woman after my own heart – she cuts up her old canvasses and work clothes and reassembles them into new bodies of work. These paintings depicted battle scenes which she desribes as representing her own “internal civil war” of creating art. Again, she creates beauty out of certain destruction. Foot soldiers, horsemen, and archers form battalions locked in close combat.

Kristin Moran at Anna Kustera Gallery
These were knock out paintings that I am still trying to understand – this one looks like something exploding in the middle of a contemporary kitchen.

I don't remember who the artist is.....sorry.....but this painting made me laugh out loud - at the bottom it says, "Some cannibals were eating a clown when one said, "does this taste funny to you?'"

More NYC pix to follow in next post.

Puzzling

I’ve been doing the NY Times crossword puzzle daily for about 15 years. Even when I am traveling in another country, I will find it in the International Herald Tribune. I have to finish it every day. However, it’s more than just a compulsion: it’s a great escape for me…..it’s almost meditative: it’s probably the one time during the day when I’m not anxious about anything (except maybe finishing, but that’s different…..). Some people time themselves – hard for me to imagine. Why would I want to rush through something I enjoy so much?

For those of you unfamiliar with this obsession, the puzzle starts out being fairly easy on Monday and progresses through the week, getting harder each day. There is a common misconception that the Sunday puzzle is the most difficult, but actually it is simply the biggest. The reigning king of the crossword is Will Shortz, who has edited the NY Times puzzle since 1993. Shortz designed his own college major in "Enigmatology". Clearly the right man for the job.

On a day when I solve a particularly difficult puzzle, I have been known to scrawl “genius!” across the top of the page. I once confessed this to a puzzler friend of mine, who laughed and admitted she did the same thing….we are a bunch of odd ducks. We are in good company, though – some others in this cult include Bill Clinton, John Stewart, and Bob Dole.

Recently I decided to take it to the next level – no, I’m not going to go to the annual tournament and compete – I’ve decided to attempt to construct a puzzle. I had been using a Scrabble board, but I recently discovered that an Excel spread sheet works much better.

So yesterday I began in earnest to construct a 15 square by 15 square puzzle. There is a website for puzzle constructors called Cruciverb (www.cruciverb.com) , where I was able to find all the rules and standards: no two letter words, no single "dangling" letters,etc. Writing the actual clues for the puzzle will be the icing on the cake, the easy part…right now the challenge is to juggle words and phrases into a coherent grid.

Of course now the problem is I can’t stop working on it. I get an elegant long string of words like “REARVIEWMIRROR” only to have it fall apart when I try to intersect the last two “down” words through it. It’s very hard to let go of something as clever as “AVOIDCACTI”, but eventually it must be done. Letting go……yet another lesson in letting go. It’s a lot like when a corner of a painting is working perfectly but nothing else is, and I finally have to let go of that precious corner and work with the piece as a whole.

Okay, I have to get back to my puzzle now.

Felines Make Me Happy

I said I would post something more uplifting next, so here it is: my kitties, Bella and Rocco. More on Art and Life later, but for now this is it - mysterious cats and their beauty.