Haskell View

paint
look
change
relate
complicate

knees
ache
from the squat
i use
to get
this view

down this hill
up that one

our lady spires
telephone poles
lines
rigging

killed the color

there are two
no,
there are three:

one night color
with my window
reflection
suggested

second:
black and white
day
no clouds
value, plotting

third
black and white
night harbor

soon i will
go to
the studio
maybe tomorrow.

oh.
i forgot to tell you:
i use acrylic as a meaty watercolor
very good for value studies
i use it as a drawing medium
i do not like acrylic color
and i do not like the way brush strokes flatten out
what i do like
is the easy soap and water clean up.

The St. Peter's windows begin

i'm being lazy and distracting myself with words

i started a drawing
it is a big drawing
the paper is cream stonehenge
i don't have a pencil sharpener
i don't have an eraser
i am at ellen's
i have woodless pencils
i started a big drawing of houses
the view down haskell street,
across the old boley's place,
connolly's fish market
the portagee hill
wall street,
the crow's nest
friend street,
mount vernon street
the boat yard

so many wires
so many telephone poles
so many windows
so many rooftops
so many boats
so many houses
so many rolling paths

choose, choose, choose

my eyes fight me
too much information
simplify simplify

my gut says overload, overload
abort, abort

so why do i feel guilt
and the necessity of going
back downstairs to the window
and figure it out

my kingdom for a sharp blade
and
an eraser, the preference is white.



Mar. 25th, 2008

found some color

duh.
worked with the paint, the ground is too absorbent for this job.
it will work with the window pane projects.
must look for packing tape and set up a grid.
got eggs to make some glazes.
this will size the current 'watercolor'
too much prussian blue
found another package of colors
acrylic, but in fun kid colors
Posted at 04:18 pm

Shalom! Self portraits 3/24/08

Gloucester Windows, St. Peter's Square

Artists Be Aware!

Following is the transcript of an email received through my Saatchi gallery. I suspect this is an attempt to entice me into losing money, that i don't have, through a check cashing scam to buy my art.

The email address of the purported buyor of my work, identified as Christy Lohan:
christy_uandi@yahoo.com

We have received a message from someone interested in your work on the Saatchi Gallery Saleroom. Please login to your Saleroom inbox at: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/saleroom/login to view this message. HELLO, I AM INTRESTED IN PURSHACING THIS PIECE <3RD EYE>PAYABLE BY A CHECK FROM MY CLIENT IN THE UNITED STATE ,AND I WOULD WANT YOU TO REPLY ME DIRECT COS AM NOT REGISTERED TO THE SITE Thank You Saatchi Gallery Webmaster

I wrote back asking for full details: identify self, identify location, identify US client. This morning I received anothe SHOUTING email, that my contact should be direct, not through Saatchi. I wrote back that I could not do business with them.
I should have SHOUTED.

If they are legitimate buyors, what is all of this cloak and dagger, and why not register with the Saatchi site.

American Artist Self Portrait Competion

Call for artists
deadline: May 1st

self portraits that you assert is a reflection of yourself. click the link for more info. lots of art supplies for prizes, some cash and an opportunity to appear in their hallowed pages.

Sanctuary

this is yesterday's self portrait. today i drew the card of sanctuary within the court of the high priestess. the deep calling of the everyday, a re-connection in right relationship with community. sobeit.

Active Healing free screening

The next free diagnostic screening at Active Healing in Magnolia MA is May 10. Contact office manager Elaine O'Rourke to arrange for an appointment. This screening assessment is for ADHD and other brain developmental issues.

The Heart Mandala

i love this mandala. it has a three dimensional,time quality about it that i find lacking in the verticle charts describing the chakras.

A friend of the Paintbrush Sage asked for a recent self portrait

this is a mirror image. so my left eye is on the right and the right eye is on the left. folk always tell me i get an intense/odd gaze when looking/painting/drawing. my left eye is wide open and my right eye appears to be hazed, looking at something else. a lot of artists say they 'see' differently through each eye. i used to call it the inner/outer gaze. it is evident in lots of artists self portraits and portraits of artists/writers. i think of gertrude stein's droopy eye via picasso, ethel's portrait series of cape ann poets, kathe kollewitz, max beckmann, egon schiele, rembrandt...er, Debbie Clarke!

i perceive spatial relationships with my right eye, i see flatly in a value scale with my left eye. i perceive color in my peripheral vision.

Gloucester Beginnings

i was born on the centennial hill with a view overlooking the high school, the river, the marsh and onwards to the west gloucester hills.


mumu's house. she had the upstairs. various assortments of aunts, uncles, cousins lived downstairs. the front room was only used on the holidays. all other times sheets covered the furniture. the living happened in the kitchen and the dining room. flush toilet. bathing facilities: a round tub on the floor in front of the stove.

Brilliant Idea of the Day!

i want to paint the story of my family and friends on cape ann by painting/photographing various houses of said family and friends, then attach short paragraph to each image. the paintings will reflect the way i 'knew' the house, the photo will show the state of things today, the paragraph will be my sojourn.

PROGRESS REPORT:
location
anna's studio: photoed and up-loaded to lj on 3/11/2008
beacon/centennial hill house: photoed and up-loaded 3/11/2008 blogger & lj
east main street: photoed and up-loaded 3/11/2008 to lj
mumu's house: photoed and up-loaded 3/11/2008 to lj and the magpie nest
pine street: photoed and up-loaded 3/11/2008 to lj
sadler street: photoed and up-loaded 3/11/2008 to lj

TO DO:
location:
alper road: no longer exists, now haven terrace
atlantic street
bass ave
blackburn studio
burned house
capel's
concord st
east gloucester square
haskell street
jebeka lane
katy's house
lexington ave studios
linsky's house
magnolia ave
main street studios
maple rd
marble rd
nana's house
nancy's house
Niemi's friend st, western ave
norman ave
pew court: which no longer exists. contact museum librarian
pigeon cove where mum was born
ramon's
richard's
rio drive
rocky neck
rosie's
sadler street
school street
summer street
the bars
the brick
the cottage
the gas station
the irish mariner
the ramparts
tia's apartments
renee's house
totten lane
uncle moe's house
wittemore house

wow, how many breaths do i have?

Alek Razdan and A Train

Alek is a 15 year old sax sensation. My partner David 'doc' Vincent is the drummer in A Train. They are working on their new CD "Something Different". I just listened to their version of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Volunteered Slavery" and it just knocked my socks off. If you like jazz, go take a listen!

Artist on Art: Summer 2005

This digital print is an accident from the summer of 2005. The self portrait painting in the window is what I saw through the lense of my Olympus. The Camedia revealed something else. Manipulated via crop only. There are a few more images in this series. 5x5" prints, archival Epsom inks on acid free paper, mounted on cradled board. limited signed edition $100 each.

Up-coming workshop at the Flint Library

I will offer a two day workshop to older children and teens. We will explore various drawing materials from brush to pencil, charcoal on paper and papercutting.

The Lottery Paperdolls: Pinball Wizard

Re-Purposed spent lottery tickets. free-standing paperdolls. first batch shipped yesterday. second batch ships today. some stand solo within the cello wrap. weight bottom with hairpins.

looking at shadows

my eyes continue to work. i'm looking at shadows. in paint the light is yellow and the shadow is violet. my photo editor is not very sophisticated. may move to a gray value format, much more useful for painting. this photo is useful. sort of primal. the set-up is always there, after dark. the light source is fixed. the model does not move. my $100 camera shows its limitations, the depth of field cannot be finely adjusted. i finally, after 30 odd years, get the depth of field. when painting the eye moves around, the experience is in and out of space. my camera flattens it out. this is okay, because i like the tension between linear surface and a perceived depth, either through perspective, thickness/pressure in the application of the paint, value, hue and intensity. something is forward, because something is behind, and then the ambiquity of visually beside.

all of these last arguments must be left for the time when i have a loaded brush, a canvas, a wash bucket, some soap and water and some good clean lines.

Summer in the Nation's Oldest Working Art Colony

There are lots of live/work gallery spaces available on Rocky Neck in Gloucester MA for the 2008 summer season. click the title link to find out more, there are lots of great pics of available digs. If you want to live and work in a beautiful summer place, this is it. Sales? Some artists sell, some don't. The tourists come here to see the art, so if you have what they want, it is worth it.

I can't afford any of these spaces. I know very few artists that can afford this kind of money for short term space. My studio rent in under $500 a month. It is a shared studio space, and off the beaten path in the Magnolia section of Gloucester. Occassionally the tourists find me, but very few buy. Why? because I don't sell any $25 re-prints of my work. Originals only. and the work in progress is usually not what they are looking for. Seascapes and landscapes capture my interest for short spurts throughout the year,then I go back to what I love. process, not product. Most buyors of art around here don't get that. They want the quaint, the over the couch, art that sits on the wall requiring minimal engagement with the work. When folk visit I use it as an opportunity to educate them about the making of art.

Heh...a few visitors last year got very angry with me because I do not sell prints of my work. One day, perhaps I will. When money is a bit more abundant and not dedicated to paying rent, transportation, art supplies and food.

2006/07 'life on the river' mixed media, egg tempera

http://www.google.com/base/a/3321073/D15893999284168136380

the code above leads one to a description of my first product listed on google base. this will appear for 31 days. then, it will come down. i can post a lot of items. 10 is a good start. looks like i have my work cut out for the weekend.

this is the end of my 6 hours marketing today.
my accomplishments: answered email.
uploaded and later found my product via google web search.
visited lj, made a few comments. (not technically business, although one comment was business related. this comment to [lj user="absolutearts"], and another was in response to a fellow ljr's experience setting up etsy, and another earlier one was about another ljr's comment to my blogspot.

noted: Big Red and Shiny has produced two responses. very good.

a few folk have left through my photobucket.com account. i must reconsider an earlier decision to keep the account private. i can go through and make some albums public. again, something for this weekend, or start tomorrow night.

tomorrow: check in on the youtube developments.

and consider entering a laptop with my website address in a show that has limited wall space, although they want 2d images. thinking, thinking, thinking i am brilliant.