loud silence

Sitting Pretty

When you have a formula magic can appear magical, when you have magic it can appear misunderstood. It is not uncommon for one of my respected peers to say to me “They just don’t get you as we artists do” or “Not sure what the audience sees but you are an artist’s artist”. It seems that many of my contemporaries have the market and the business of art figured out while I still shuffle through the shadows of doubt and discoveries.

 Now I don’t claim to have magical powers, that would be a formulaic approach. I claim to have an honest approach, an honest magician who’s sleeves are only filled with arms and nothing else. Formulas are like recipes, if you follow the rules the results turn out in a desired way; a predictable way. The first time I saw a magician pull a bunny out of a hat my mouth gaped open, the second time I figured out the trick, by the third time I was bored stiff. Some painters are like a one act magician, they pull the same rabbit out every time. I get it, nobody cherishes a humbling experience of staging an act gone wrong in front of a full audience. And, nobody likes a sitting pretty performance. 

The Daredevil 

 “You are not like the rest, you are NOT a pretty painter” is another compliment I hear and one I quite agree with. Every painting I do is a risk, there is a chance of failure with every step. I do understand what is pretty, it is a safe painting. A safe painting is one that does not challenge the artist or the viewer to see something unusual. It is both easy to paint and sell. What is important to note is the word pretty only defines a timid safe approach. It does not intend to explain that the painting is painted unintentional or careless. In fact it is painted with great thought, observation, and proficiency. A well trained daredevil is a good act to watch, a bad one is what we hope not to see.

Silence of a Bang

 This approach is without a yardstick dictation of what it is. This is the intuitive insight to how the work should be seen and painted rather than a verbal essay on who, what, when, where, and why. A true artist listens to themselves, or that quietness of inner intellect; it is a listening to the silence of a loud bang. It is not adhered to style, popularity, or price. It is not brought on by rebellion or romance of how an artist is thought to behave. It is a way of being, a more of who you are without who I should be. The inner voice as it is called. A voice that has no name or sound.

Instinct Force

Along the way I find that the painting takes me to places over me taking the painting to where I plan to go. I give it a starting point, put it on a path, and set it ablaze, yet at some place along the way it is the painting that directs me of how it shall be interpreted. How it wants to be painted, carved, and dressed. Oh, I’ve tried the other route, taming it, harnessing its wild nature, only to stamp out the fire that gives paintings that honest magician touch. It is a matter of allowing instinct to run free and do what it is naturally good at. So I attain to let my horses run wild, fires burn sinful, and listen to quiet bangs.