We made it!
Inauguration Day (01-20-21a)
01-12-21a (pencil, charcoal, ink, watercolor)
Martín Ramírez
One of my favorite artists is Martín Ramírez. He was definitely not included in my survey of Western Art History when I was an undergraduate art student. The closest we may have gotten was a mention of Jean Dubuffet and post WWII art. Ramírez was a Mexican cowboy and farm hand caught between various bits of lawlessness who went to El Norté in 1925 for work and eventually got swept up in the Byzantine immigration detention processes in California. He spoke no English. One bad thing led to another and he was eventually diagnosed as a schizophrenic and, starting in 1931, spent the remainder of his life in state psychiatric institutions where he started making drawings and collages on which is posthumous fame now rests.
About a decade or two ago, I saw a show of his large works at a museum in New York City. And I keep a postcard reproduction of one of his train and tunnel images near my work table.
The train emerges from the tunnel on the left and will traverse an open section of tracks in the center before disappearing into the tunnel entrance on the right. It’s a mysterious, surreal, hopeful and sinister dream-like image. One of those predicaments that offers no resolution. The only comfort, if you can call it that, is that we are only observers and not participants in the predicament.
The top image on this page is my own and it is more hopeful. Parallel lines and and colors start to define a space. Is it a map? Is it a subterranean tangle of tunnels? The birds (all for one and one for all!) will investigate. Their combined good sense will save them.
Still, I am moved and heartbroken when I think about Martín Ramírez’s life and the unfair things that befell him. At least he had art to help shape his tangled life experience for himself and others. It’s aggravating that he’s been swept up again into the art collecting machinery of this world. But how else would the story have come to me, to the world ? Recommended reading: “Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art” by Víctor M. Espinosa (University of Texas Press, 2015)
Looking for Trouble
Illogical behavior makes total sense, if that’s all you know.
Heh, heh, heh…
Whistling…
2021 calendar poster
My 2021 calendar poster has just returned from the printers. I’ve put it up for sale on Etsy (here). You can also contact me directly if you’d like one for yourself. The cost is $8.00 US + postage. I can ship it folded and flat or rolled in a sturdy tube for a few pennies more. It is offset printed on semi-gloss 100 lb paper. It is 18 x 24 inches. Here are some pictures:
Me and Qi: best buds!
When the Mona Lisa is having her bath, my calendar is sometimes on view in Paris.
Inclement Weather
We’re getting a ton of snow today. Here are some pictures of inclement weather for you. Stay warm and dry!
A drenching rain transforms the moment.
A long, wet commute if you live in a city.
Stillness and fog.
Snowbirds make the best of it.
Vacation property for sale!
The old ship plows through the waves and wind.
After the storm, everyone can come out to play.
2017
I was browsing through work from 2017. This is all uncommissioned, personal work. Some interesting developments. Here are a few things to get started.
11-13-20a: crayon, watercolor, ink
On The Edge
A little maxim that gives me comfort comes from Alexander Giroux, “Repetition is not duplication”.
In most of my drawing/paintings I start out with no idea what will ultimately end up on the paper. But I tend to make the same choices and come to similar conclusions. It can be a frustrating process where I’m frequently reminded of my imaginative limitations. Every work has its mistakes and some spur original thinking or sometimes, the remembering of some deeply forgotten thing of personal importance. It’s nice when those things find their way out into the art. So maybe, like exercise or therapy, art making is a path to some greater comfort or integration.
The interplay between my limited means (paper, choice of media, format, problem solving abilities and imagination) end up equalling what we know as “style” which can comfort the artist and their audience. But make no mistake, style is not the goal. The goal is the integration of the self and the proclamation of its beauty and potential usefulness to others. Can other people incorporate some of it into their own worlds? Can they support you and see the ultimate value of the artist’s selfish enterprise?
11-13-20b: watercolor, ink, pastel
11-10-20a: watercolor, ink “Beasts of Burden
10-25-20a: ink, watercolor, crayon
10-20-20a
Empty Cities
When the pandemic invaded our cities in the spring, the streets were empty and people were sheltering inside their homes and apartments. Who fed the pigeons? // It was quiet and lovely and spooky. Definitely not right. Cities have come back …and so has the virus. Maybe this time around the outcome will be a bit different.
04-13-20a: watercolor, chalk, ink
09-17-18a: crayon, watercolor, ink
09-20-18a: crayon, acrylic, watercolor, ink
09-12-19b: watercolor, ink
08-15-14a: mixed media
08-29-20b (ink, watercolor)
Waiting
What do animals do when humans are not around? They watch and wait. They sleep. They look for things to eat. But most of all, they wait in the eternal Present for the next thing to happen (which is probably more waiting.)
When the Wolf is Hungry, Nobody Eats
With limited graphic means one weekend in a vacation home, these characters appeared in my sketchbook. Who are they? What is their dynamic? How will things turn out?
We are not exactly in the Garden of Eden. This place is scrubby and rocky. The stems are spiny and thorny. The sky just is agitated and can’t make up its mind. A pair, or sometimes a trio of crows pal around. They are participants and observers. Into this stasis, swaggers a very hungry wolf who has one insatiable desire: to gobble up smaller animals.
The nimble birds are always one step ahead and soon they begin to feel sorry for the wolf. It is the wolf’s nature to be scrawny and hungry. How can they help the poor thing? Can they do it safely? Can they live happily ever after?
The Wolf and the Three Crows
The wolf has perhaps outgrown his magenta cave. He’s so big and he barely fits and scrapes his scrawny vertebrae on the hanging stalactites. The three crows have been wondering about the unpleasant noises coming from the cave. Will they depart, terrified? Or will they stay at a respectful distance and offer to help the wolf find someplace a little more commodious?
10-29-20a: watercolor, pastel, ink