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REPEATING PAST MISTAKES PAINTINGS

I revived a painting from 1976. I pulled it out of the drawer where it’s been laying for almost 40yrs. I always liked the piece and thought I would come back to it sometime and flesh out the issues it raised. It had some elements of that cool detachment that was popular in some abstract painting as well as some geometric elements from Al Held, Frank Stella, Ed Moses and the wonderful Don Sorenson, I knew there was a whole series here but I was working thru these images so fast at the time that I didn’t have a chance to flesh them out. What I mean is I didn’t have time to do any clear cutting in that section of forest because I had to move on up the mountain.

BRING DEMOCRACY has a beautiful grid that pillows nicely and ends at the edge. The little yellow windows are W&N Yellow Ochre under black lines and a stopper of gold leaf all formation flying on some carefully constructed Splattobscuro. I like to imagine I’m standing on one and looking down into and endless landscape.

HOPE THE WHEELS DON’T FALL OFF This was actually the second to last in the series so I wanted to put all the “motifs” I had used so far. The bottomless base layers, splattobscuro, formation flying, seemingly calligraphic brushwork (taped off too), random pareidolia, etc.

I’LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU As you can see the grid (in fact the whole image) starts and ends at the edge, nothing lives outside this. The “grid” lines narrow to a point at the edge and the larger windows are completely contained within. These windows also, as well as the calligraphic shapes, sit within and/or line up to major vertices on the foundational grid. Working on this scale (small) precision is important. The edges are precise to help with the illusion of cutting through or floating miles above. I was thinking of Ed Moses’s crackle paintings when I made the delicate little crackle elements (thanks Ed.) I love fake wood grain and stripes too.

JUST ONE WORD PLASTICS Is not quite as “cool” as the painting from 1978 but retains the same color scheme. The grid tape was sealed with a viscous, transparent mix of reds and yellow earth tones so there is a lot of optical action as our cortex tries to rationalize the flecks of color bouncing around behind the black grid. The flying rectangles have a calligraphic donut around them that makes them both separate and stick to the grid. Like the first one from 78 I put down some base color on the rectangles and started over them with some nacreous white and slivers of gold leaf. The gold was laid down as I added layers of white to make a nice foggy effect that might help us imagine we’re looking into a little floating world. The gold leaf glows in oblique light so when we walk by we get some nice flashes of light and a subtle indication of multiple colors embedded in the rectangles.

KEEP DIGGING is another step closer (or farther) to perfection, I don’t know which. I started this with a slap to the face via a little tiny grid of black lines with a tiny bit of color peeking out here and there. I un-taped it and slapped another grid on top. This one had some red, yellow and green gradients smeared into it and a definite outline like some kind of racing stripe gone crazy. I taped off the floating rectangles that were previously set at strategic vertexes of the golden mean grid, and threw down some meaty, colored calligraphy. On top of that some nacreous white embedded with bits of Color aid paper cut into what I thought were evocative shapes that seem to cut into and through the thick, oscuro of the nacreous white.

MEASURE ONCE I put some intimately detailed little grids into a larger grid combined with some splattobscuro to a make beautiful jewel of a painting. Like in the first one – I work the seal color for the tape so we get a little glimpse around the edges of each color container. This gives a more solid feel, I and makes it look like a slab of color instead of thin film. In a little homage to the great Ed Moses I laid down a couple of delicate patches of crackle

PUT IT ALL ON BLACK I like to think the search for absolute black (Kapoor beat me to it) and absolute blue resides on a plane floating over a bed of seemingly chaotic shapes almost like signs and architecture in front of and enclosed in a wildly colored forest seen from a speeding car. Or like the thoughts that rise out of the background and like a mantra subtract dimension and direction.

PUT IT ALL ON RED Much like “PLASTICS” on a seemingly simple grill that you will see dictates, by magnetic attraction, where the ‘floating” windows will be located. Trying to paint absolute red is also a fool’s mission and a mistake that bears repeating. I enjoy looking at fake woodgrain, sky and clouds, gold leaf, cadmium red medium and deep ultramarine blue.

THE SAFETY IS ON Could mean a really bad mistake was about to happen or that I was using the ‘safety” of “RED” and “PLASTICS” to give a shout to my old professor Jack Whitten by dragging some colors across the screen with a squeegee. I can see sky and clouds and a chaotic but peaceful landscape with elements flying in formation. It makes me wonder are the thick stratified color bands on top or are we looking through windows in the grill. Again they are magnetically attracted to the grill and though seeming to be disembodied are actually inescapable.

MY TRUSTY RANGE ROVER Like the gift that keeps on giving “RANGE ROVER” lulls you into thinking it’s going to be easy from now on and there won’t be any more problems but lo there seems to be puddles of chocolate, mint and strawberry left behind. Don’t worry there's blue sky up ahead if it can just get us there.

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