Blog
sand in pocket
"it is harder to paint than you'd realize" - Daniel Balderas
ps - did you know an idea can come from anywhere? sometimes by telephone?
push play to watch a little video of an idea realized...
i hope well
daniel johnston sings as giant woman walks by - tb
1) everything i do creatively is absolutely spontaneous and comes from who knows where. take for instance this blog post. it was just this morning while sitting at one of my local coffee shops, a place i get the day rolling over a cup, a pen, a pencil, a note book all to write something, write anything. anything. where the goal is to finish that anything before i become aware of what it is i have actually been writing or doing. it was at the coffee shop that i got too thinking for some reason what would be the answer to that all important question "Where Has The Great American Blog Gone?". well, i aim to find out. this first post of 2022 is an example of that spontaneous process. here's how it goes this time.
i begin a new blog post from within this here website and just start writing that simple first word "hi" in the title space. needless to say the next three words flowed off the keys naturally "how are you". then of course the only thing that came naturally to mind after those words was the name "Daniel Johnston".
Daniel Johnston, the preeminent master independent low-fi outsider musician and visual artist of our time. below is his website link and other links to a couple of of his songs. mr. Johnston had a tremendous impact on me and of course he had no idea and most likely would have cared less about that fact. what i can say that i care about is i was fortunate enough to have seen him perform on a couple of occasions before his death. posted above is a photo i took of him with the guitar at the mic at a newberry park, ca show. i shot the pic from a low angle so as to catch the image through the legs of a passerby. yes it was a spontaneous moment and i have no idea what made me think that might be an interesting way to photograph someone. perhaps it was a subconscious way to convey the fact that most folk would probably just walk right past a guy like Daniel. a guy like Daniel who was giving his honest gift to the world. peace!
see tomorrow!
tom
mr. Johnston's website:
a tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKW2H0WBqW8
another tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4mCcF3jRG0
Bernard Chaet
(born 1924, Boston, MA - died 2012) was an American artist; Chaet is known for his colorful, dynamic modernist paintings and masterful draftsmanship, his association with the Boston Expressionists, and his 40-year career as a Professor of Painting at Yale University. His works also include watercolors and prints. In 1994, he was named a National Academician by the National Academy of Design.
-Wikipedia
I love finding paintings by a painter that lead one to another... here an example by Bernard Chaet of a still life studied from two different points of view. I suggest these are samples of a painter more interested in study than constructing a work for entertainment. art made for entertainment is not art. I think I'm onto something finally.
here is something to watch about a good man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5GyLIhVRyc
on a side note - I often hear that one needs to be careful not to make a painting all too Busy / all to Active. I have come to question what is one to do if they have an active / busy mind? perhaps take a lesson from Bernard?
KEVIN AND MARK
one a favorite musician
one a favorite painter
both IrishMen
both making stuff on their own terms
Mark Shields is a leading artist of his generation.
http://www.markshieldsartist.com
White In the Light
Suresh Thimiri
White has often been said to be the absence of color. In order to make white convincing we need to express first white in the light as well as the shadow.
Above is an example of Henry Hensche’s recent auctioned painting shown at the PAAM.
Clearly a typical silhouetted outdoor portrait, Henry painted the white blouse very cool without being just some blue formula.
The White on the shoulders is not the white of the board it’s a particular color, that relates to all the light planes.
Clearly the white is many colors and their reflections holding within the mass.
Students hate to paint simple blocks because they aren’t as exciting as the model or landscape; the struggle with white can be reduced through those exercises.
Dulah Evans a student of Hawthorne, expresses an almost tour deforce of white in “painter’s on the beach” above.
Henry Hensche always said, “white in the shade is deeper than blue in the light. You can see all the reflections of color expressing the shade.
The Hat above is a great example of this fundamental truth.
Here is what little I could find about the Author:
https://sureshthimiripainter.wordpress.com/tag/suresh-thimiri-painter/
Why I Am Not a Painter
Frank O’Hara, 1926 - 1966
I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,
for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
“Sit down and have a drink” he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. “You have SARDINES in it.”
“Yes, it needed something there.”
“Oh.” I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is
finished. “Where’s SARDINES?”
All that’s left is just
letters, “It was too much," Mike says.
But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven’t mentioned
orange yet. It’s twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike’s painting, called SARDINES.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpROGn_n058
It was February of 1983 when this article was published. Enjoy!
Drag these images to your desktop and print for easy reference.
I never met him. My teacher knew him very well. My teacher studied with him for years and years. My teacher passed down what he learned from him to all of his students. Myself included. I do feel a sense of a connected lineage. I am extremely happy for that!
Here is an interesting document about some of his ideas for your enjoyment!
* DRAG THESE IMAGES TO YOUR DESKTOP AND PRINT FOR EASY REFERENCE.
