(by 6 people)
Thoughts On Art
- Since I am an abstract painter, I am continually turning the natural world around me into abstract compositions. On walks near my house, I follow the patterns of shadows on the ground, or the sun's reflection in puddles. I look up at the web of branches overhead forming an intricate pattern of criss-crossing lines. I study the texture of bark on the trees. Any of it might form the basis for an abstract design.
- As I struggled with my latest painting, it dawned on me that one of the driving forces behind my art is opposition. I am opposing accident to purpose, chaos to order, precision to casualness.
- The term "abstract art" is like the term "modern music" in the sense that it is a very broad umbrella sheltering a wide variety of art. But like "abstract math," the general sense of the term is that it is the opposite of the concrete, or "realism." At one end of the continuum is a painting of a violin so perfectly rendered that we feel we could reach into the frame, pick up the instrument, and play it. At the other end is a canvas painted pure white or black all over. There is nothing in it to reach in and touch.
Books About Art And Life
De Kooning: An American Master
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 07/26/2008)
The Bipolar Dementia Art Chronicles: How a Manic-depressive Artist Survives Being the Primary Caregiver for Her Father And Ex-mother-in-law - a Memoir
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 07/26/2008)
The Traveling Artist
A traveling chef will be tuned into the tastes and smells of food in new places, or especially observant of cooking tools and equipment in restaurants and homes. A traveling musician will be especially aware of sounds and their combinations. As an artist, my visual sense is the most acute, and as I travel, the changes in color, light and patterns are what attract my attention.
When I left Ithaca, New York, this past Friday the temperature was 16 degrees and there was ten inches of snow on the ground. The landscape I saw around me was toned down to simple stark contrasts, presenting a spare "black and white" tonality that influenced my painting this winter. It's an inspiring view, actually, and interesting in its own way.
But this week in Los Gatos, California, my eye is feasting on lush spring greens with sprinkles of bright colors. It's been raining a lot here, and everything is growing. The brown hills to the east, normally fascinating to me in their golden dryness, are emerald green and sparkling fresh after a downpour. The air is wet and fecund, and when the sun shines through the clouds, I feel birth and rejuvenation all around me.
In the summer I enjoy leaving the east coast, crowded with grass and leaf greens, for the dry desert sand and rocky coast of California. I love the freedom and sparseness of it, the sense of wide open space. I love the dramatic palette change. Now that I've spent the winter with Ithaca's sparseness, however, I welcome the lusciousness and bright colors of spring in Los Gatos. We have a way to go before it comes to Ithaca.
When I left Ithaca, New York, this past Friday the temperature was 16 degrees and there was ten inches of snow on the ground. The landscape I saw around me was toned down to simple stark contrasts, presenting a spare "black and white" tonality that influenced my painting this winter. It's an inspiring view, actually, and interesting in its own way.
But this week in Los Gatos, California, my eye is feasting on lush spring greens with sprinkles of bright colors. It's been raining a lot here, and everything is growing. The brown hills to the east, normally fascinating to me in their golden dryness, are emerald green and sparkling fresh after a downpour. The air is wet and fecund, and when the sun shines through the clouds, I feel birth and rejuvenation all around me.
In the summer I enjoy leaving the east coast, crowded with grass and leaf greens, for the dry desert sand and rocky coast of California. I love the freedom and sparseness of it, the sense of wide open space. I love the dramatic palette change. Now that I've spent the winter with Ithaca's sparseness, however, I welcome the lusciousness and bright colors of spring in Los Gatos. We have a way to go before it comes to Ithaca.
