Should It Be Better?

There are so many scrumptious post on google + plus that it is mind boggling to try and compete with those who’s visual professionalism is quite apparent.

Mine is always a bit like the French Cabin on the hillside, not quite swept, weeds not pulled;  a cup of coffee sitting on a bench with the paint chipping off of it. 

I have worked with this medium, Caren D’ache for over 25 years.  I studied in London at the Tate Gallery and had the fortune of viewing the most famous art during the back backing journey’s across the European continent.  So much incredible that it has taken many years to appreciate the glory of it all.

My vision at this point in my life is a master’s hand approach.  I don’t feel I need the razzle dazzle to pitch my work. 

 

I Paint With Pigments that look like Crayons

NeocolorsII by Caren D’ache

 

I begin painting by choosing a bright white sheet of Archival Paper that is Hot Press which is smooth to the eye and touch unlike cold press which has bumps or texture on the surface.

The 140 pound paper weight provides enough thickness for the needed layers to begin the basic structure of the piece.

If the paper is too thin, it simply won’t absorb the pigments correctly.  

Playing with the foreground and surface color adds dimension and saturation to the surface which means that the colors that come forward are a different hue then the ones that recede

 

I often use black and white as a sort of yin and yang struggle in my work seeking to balance the play between dark and light. 

Each swirl and arc is a process of painstaking baby steps.

To understand that it has been and that it has arrived is the very nature of the creating artist.

 

 

It is not a stagnant moment from one completed piece to the next. It is

a continuous conversation.

Clowning Around …

the ancient purpose of humor and what we can learn from it today. 

325 × 350 - Clown Kachina with Watermelon by Hopi Neil David

 

In an Ancient World still alive today in Arizona,  you too may find yourself rounding the corner of a Hopi Mesa Top and bumping into a person with black and white stripes and possibly all the joy in the world. 

I might be lost and it will be my character that gets me found or possibly loster. 

How you interact with the sacred clowns is as vital a question today as it has been as long as humans have been together. 

The Sacred Clowns exist to gently nudge you towards being a better person.  They exist to tease those who are being … well …. a little bad. 

The journey with the embodiment of this spirit is a journey of love and humor and correcting problems that are causing a lack of harmony.  They do not fool you or harm you unless you are doing the same. 

The point is to gentle nourish your spirit so you begin to see the humor or point of the teasing and learn to correct your actions. 

Having been in contact with this way of teaching, is to understand the true point of humor … to lovingly teach your friend, mate, or family member. 

Clown Kachina  by Hopi Neil David

Oh Yeas ……

News From The Couch ... Black Unicorn ...

This is turning out to be quite the project and I think after a great journey last night and much nail biting ... I might have possibly gotten the work going in the right direction.   Shhhh don't tell my creativity that ... the whole thing might just crash and burn.   O the perils and woes of creativity.   That's the news from the Couch ... How's your day going?  

Put a little Pumkin in Your Life

Finding the Tao

I've always found that there is something to be gained by mixing tough and gentle ... mostly to show that what is the most basic need in all of us is somewhere between the light and the shadow, the soft and the hard, the gentle and the silent.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt