Sunday, April 27, 2014

Horror vacui

Drawing is easy.
Drawing is hard.
:-)

I told myself a long time ago that it was okay to repeat myself. As long as there was something in the image that felt fresh, I could live with that work and keep moving forward as an artist.

But blankness is a rough and relentless taskmaster. We've all heard about the artist's terror of the pristine white paper. Oh those poor artists! So, you sneaky boy, you ding it up a little, spill a little coffee on that snowy expanse and get to work making another frivolous picture. To what avail? There I am, drawing ANOTHER decorative but abandoned and sterile Crystal City. They are stage sets waiting for actors and if I persist at it, maybe an audience even. Does this audience ever get their money's worth? By my warped accounting method, probably not.

The city gets built anyway and then I'm left with that too-familiar horror vacui yet again: I've gotten over the blank paper problem but what can I add that brings an element of Life to the streets? Well, I could add a car or two. Maybe a truck even. But then the cars need people (or animals) inside them. And, still they demand more reasons for existing! Oh, the never-ending tyranny of the Narrativity Elves™ in the human mind. Nothing happening? Then nothing-doing and we move on to something more interesting. Oh, we are easily bored creatures!

Even made-up problems can be a means to an end! Bonne journée mes amis. Keep working!

"End of the Line"
06-04-10
mixed media
"Car Collector"
04-25-14
mixed media, collage

"The Commandant"
04-25-14
watercolor, crayon, colored pencil

05-25-10
colored pencil, watercolor


06-06-10
magic marker, watercolor, ink

06-08-10
magic marker, watercolor, ink

07-09-10
ink

07-24-10
watercolor, ink

08-08-10
ink




Friday, April 11, 2014

Floating Flowers

Beneath the bowery bougainvillea, whose blossoms fell and were not reflected…
4/8/14
mixed media (watercolor, ink, colored pencil, crayon, tusche, collage)

detail

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