The summer has proven to be a productive one. I have completed 3 sculptures and 5 paintings. This is pretty good for me considering that I juggle the responsibilities of being a husband, a father, and working various jobs to scrape out a living. These areas of my life compete with my time to be creative, but also have come to realize how it fuels my creativity. There is something to be said for working through adverse situations and in inadequate circumstances. For one, I have grown to appreciate the time more that is allotted for my personal work and squeeze those moments for all it’s worth. I have also become quite accustomed to working at night. Everything is so still and life seems to cease just a little bit more than usual. I’ve learned to cut out all distractions by leaving off the radio and music. To some degree, I feel like these outside things have more influence on our bodies and minds than we give them credit-so I have eliminated them altogether. I find that this has really opened up my ability to think wholly about the particular piece I am engaged in and to rather converse with it in my mind-a kind of coaxing as to what it wants to be. This is an important practice for me since I work abstractly. So often the question is, “what am I doing here?”
I often tell my students that I teach drawing to, “be specific, but don’t be particular.” At first this may sound like a cancellation to the statement, but in fact I believe that it is one thing to be specific with something and being particular about another something. To be specific is, in my mind, to be direct and intentional in what you do. It has to do with stating the facts-show us what is there. To be particular is, again in my mind, to do with choices-being choosey or stuffy. Being particular slows down ones intuitive nature and replaces it with doubt, or second guesses at best.
I have really tried to live by these words and to practice what I preach. For me, this has meant that I needed to set up some rules for my work-boundaries. These boundaries are so that not everything becomes permissible otherwise everything can become polluted. These rules have boiled down to the shapes I’m allowed to use and the materials I implement. It then becomes a great challenge to find invention within the purposeful limitations. In turn, these limited means also become very liberating. No longer do I need to concern myself with questions over which, “does this painting call for a circle?”, “will I put a pair of antlers on this sculpture?” Circles are not in the rules nor is anatomical anomaly. Distractions are removed and is replaced with assuredness. The simplistic becomes complex but not perplexing. It is not about reduction, but about resistance.
I often tell my students that I teach drawing to, “be specific, but don’t be particular.” At first this may sound like a cancellation to the statement, but in fact I believe that it is one thing to be specific with something and being particular about another something. To be specific is, in my mind, to be direct and intentional in what you do. It has to do with stating the facts-show us what is there. To be particular is, again in my mind, to do with choices-being choosey or stuffy. Being particular slows down ones intuitive nature and replaces it with doubt, or second guesses at best.
I have really tried to live by these words and to practice what I preach. For me, this has meant that I needed to set up some rules for my work-boundaries. These boundaries are so that not everything becomes permissible otherwise everything can become polluted. These rules have boiled down to the shapes I’m allowed to use and the materials I implement. It then becomes a great challenge to find invention within the purposeful limitations. In turn, these limited means also become very liberating. No longer do I need to concern myself with questions over which, “does this painting call for a circle?”, “will I put a pair of antlers on this sculpture?” Circles are not in the rules nor is anatomical anomaly. Distractions are removed and is replaced with assuredness. The simplistic becomes complex but not perplexing. It is not about reduction, but about resistance.
*recent works will be posted shortly
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