Tentative Anxiety

Since my return for the United Kingdom last month I have been having an extensive email correspondence  with my brother, he is also an artist and lived over here in the US for six years , doing his MFA at Ohio State University in Columbus. We have been talking among other things, about the links and problems with our work. He mentioned that he and I have a similar issue with the shape and the ground , in other words what does the background end up becoming, merely an afterthought. He suggested that I make sculpture again and release the shape, from its ground.

Here is a link to my brothers website  http://duncanssmith.com/

I have been feeling of late that I want to make sculpture again, unsure of how to start . This idea of my brothers is a way into the medium again. I  I recently saw a video of Judy Pfaff talking about a recent show. I have admired her work for a long time. She usually does installations, this show is more wall based and more contained than other work I have seen.

Here is a link to the video    https://vimeo.com/35771492

Here is a small maquette  I made today.

Nancy Spero

When I was  staying with my friend and fellow artist Sasha Ward and her husband also an artist Ray Ward ,on my recent trip to England. She works in glass and has done a huge number of large pieces in hospitals and other public areas.  Here is a link to her website,

http://www.sashaward.co.uk/biography/

They showed me a recent purchase, a catalog of Nancy Spero's work- I loved her work very much,at one time and still do, more so than her husband Leon Golub, although in a way both had some  similar themes . I found her depictions  of the warlike aspects of humanity to be so very effective. She uses this image of a head with its mouth open and tongue stuck out as a metaphor for the revulsion of war, I feel.  She uses this image over and over as well as the erect phallus with its direct reference to the gun. The drawing with the figure astride a helicopter holding a huge gun between his legs is fantastic. Her work is timeless- mans folly throughout the millennia . I love the confidence in her drawings. There was a show in a gallery full of ancient Egyptian artifacts, using her 2 D work on the walls. The work paired so well together, giving her vision  the stature of mythology. Ray originally thought of my work when he looked through the catalog ,as I seem to be doing a lot of horizontal work lately, plus there is something of a love for gesture in her work , that reminded him of my work a little.  Here is a link to some of her images of her work.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nancy+spero+artwork&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CD0QsARqFQoTCLf66NW8lccCFYSciAodAQUC3w&biw=1504&bih=867

Inner Worlds

I started this piece, now called "Inner Worlds", about six months ago, originally it was a triptych, so three pieces of paper. I found a vehicle for the myriad feather shapes I had cut out obsessively , along with an image of the planet earth. At first it seemed too simple to leave it at that.

I continued refining the planet earth, until I was happy with it. I ordered special tracing paper that was large enough to cover the earth, it needed a layer to push back the image and make it more coherent. I added two more pieces of paper and the eye slit shape, once more emerged. I like this reference with its inherent question, " am I looking outwards through an eye shape, at the world, or inwards ,at the inner world?"  The title directs the observation, I want the viewer to take.

Adding the small white circles is a nod to the idea of the space between atoms. The relationship of the nucleus to the atom , is similar to saying ,if the nucleus were the size of a golf ball the atom would be the size of planet earth. See the finished piece below.

Vagina-Eye

I'm tempted to sing, "the eye of the vagina" (to the tune of "the eye of the tiger"), but I won't . I will say that the vaginal shape has been present in my work for a long time. I am currently continuing my interest in dark matter. I have finished a series of drawings that seem to be heading off in a new direction. In the drawings the vaginal shape is either an eye or an empty, boat shape, collage .on top of the dark matter, which in its turn seems to be ,atop a vaguely plant shaped structure

A while ago during a guided meditation , we were asked to go into a clearing and see Divinity   (whatever, idea or image was to come to us ,without judgement). I immediately saw a large very colourful , visceral ,divine, vagina shape in the sky above the clearing, Divinity is all its female elegance and power. I have been thinking of this powerful image for some time wondering how to incorporate it into my work. As often happens, images and shapes insistently push themselves into the work , invited or not.

Agnes Martin and Sonia Delauney

Just returned from a two and a half week trip to the United Kingdom. I was lucky enough to see two shows, both at the Tate Modern- Agnes Martin and Sonia Delauney. I say lucky because London was so damn hot, its a miracle I actually made it so see this art.

I am so glad I got to see the Martin Retrospective, what an extraordinary artist. I really had not seen enough of her work before- always thought of her as the minimalist who drew pencil grids on paper. In this show there were a lot of her large paintings, one called, "Friendship" , a grid of gold leaf was extraordinary. All of her work deserves a long look and the reward of the looking is immense - such lively work , so dynamic. I found out she suffered from schizophrenia as an adult and the serenity of the paintings were products of personal and spiritual struggle. I really loved the striped paintings a subtle kind of unworldly glow emanated from them.

Delauney's work was altogether a different kettle of fish. Things that struck me were the consistency of her jewel like color choices. I also loved how her life and art merged so successfully, her first abstract work was a pieced quilt she made for her baby son. Her fabric designs were exquisite. She seemed to have a hand in so may art forms, fashion, theater, costume design, magazine covers, painting and drawing and always with this consistent vision.

Now back to my own work, I left black holes and dark matter behind in California , here is another one.

Black Holes and Dark Matter

I am trying to grapple with what projection is, as we all do it, we create  everything in our world- it all projects outwards from us. So when a homeless person comes up to us in a parking lot and begs for some money - we need to look at where we are begging in our own lives. This a complex concept and one that I teeter on the edge of understanding.

I can see some comparison with projection, black holes and dark matter. It seems to me that they are all things ,not possible to see, literally. The  knowledge of their existence depends on watching how they affect other things. Dark matter is estimated  to constitute 84.5 % of the total matter in the universe  and if you add dark energy to that, its 95.1 % of the total mass-energy content of the universe .

"The existence and properties of dark matter are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, radiation and the large scale structure of the universe. Other than neutrinos, hot dark matter has not been detected directly, making it one of the greatest mysteries in modern astrophysics"  a quote from Wikipedia .

See below for a drawing , part of a series of three where I try to grapple with this idea. Thanks to Gary Brewer a fellow "Water Works ll" exhibitor ,for reminding me of dark matter in a piece he wrote about his work. His piece was next to mine in the exhibition.

The Process of Transformation

I had an awareness of how transformation really works, recently. The example I always think of is the transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. There seems to be no relationship between the two, just an extraordinary miracle that changes a wiggly ,eating everything creature ,into the transcendent brilliance of a butterfly. If you look really hard, you will see links between the two , maybe some markings or a pattern, but its there.

When human beings transform spiritually, the process is one where the person can look back and see a gradual change. There is a process where instead of hating one's life and being judgmental about everything, there is a softening and it all slots into place. You can look back over everything that led to this point and be extremely grateful and appreciative ,of every single thing that happened along the way. What changes is the way you look at your life, your life doesn't do anything different.

The awareness I had, related to my work. I realize I create a transformational process in my drawings. I start off with marks, images etc.. and over time I try different strategies and apply different layers. Along the way I say "I hate this bit of the drawing", "I love this part". When I get to the point where I love and appreciate every part, as necessary ,then the drawing is done, the transformation is complete, a piece of the drawing I may have previously hated now fits in and is in balance. This in a nutshell, is the process of transformation, the real how of transformation remains a mystery to me , its magical. I show one of my sketchbook drawing below.

Open Studio-- the aftermath

Another year, another clean up and sort out of my work space to showcase my recent work. It seems I do this as much for myself , as for anyone else, although I did have  quite a group of people, come visit. Its always interesting to hear what people have to say, and to hear myself saying things I may not have articulated before.

I was talking about using tracing paper in the piece "The Universal Eye", it took the form of  a sperm or serpent going over the top of the nebula form which bisects the large triptych. The result of this attachment process , surprised me, even though I was adding an element, it had the effect of opening a window to what was already there underneath. This layering and moving layers into the background and foreground has become something of a fascination for me. The person I was talking to expressed surprise that I wouldn't know this before I made the decision to glue the tracing paper on , but that is exactly the process, I never know exactly whats going to happen. There is always a surprise and an element of risk.

Someone else asked if I was excited to be having an Open studio. I tried to explain that I find it difficult talking about my work and talking up my work, I find almost impossible. The exciting part for me is doing the work and finding those moments of surprise where I learn something. Below is a close up of the sperm shape from "The Universal Eye".

Weekend in Ojai

Well the Water Works ll show turned out to be a lot more than I was really expecting. What a fun weekend. We drove up on Friday night and in the morning went to see how my piece "The Life Aquatic #4 " looked. It was in the Ojai arts center not the Porch Gallery, as they had so much work it had to spill out to another space, it was in a good location and the lighting  made it look great.  We drove over to the "Farmer and the Cook" for a green smoothie and a look at one of the three sculptures in the show.

Right before the opening, there was a panel discussion with several of the artists, the show's, juror/curator Juri Koll ( to be clear there were in total, 4 jurors for the show, Heather Stobo, Lisa Casoni and Peter Frank) , an art critic ,and a local organic farmer. Interestingly the only person who talked about water as is relates to the human body was Wendy Osher. One of her pieces for the show was a collection of crocheted breasts made out of plastic bags by women around the world, She talked about how toxins are now present in most women's breast milk, because of the pollution, we humans have pumped into the planet. The critic talked about water as a Jungian metaphor for emotion and the men mostly about how this water crisis is affecting the landscape. The farmer Johnny Fonteyn ,talked most interestingly about the challenges of farming in a drought. The next day we went on a tour of the area he farms ,at the Bessant school, where he cultivates 5 acres. It was a fascinating tour and made me sad, we do not live closer, so we could get a box of produce every week.

The work in the show was of a consistently high standard , I feel as though I have found my peers. The Water Works 1 show was originally conceived as a show about mediums that utilize water, so a lot of water colors. This show has expanded the idea, so some depictions of water , some literal ,some not.  There were a lot of landscape photographs and some paintings and drawings of the effects of the drought on the earth . The work was varied and each artist seemed to have taken an individual approach to the subject . The night before the opening I was thinking about my piece and what I would say about it. I realized that as well as the work showing the fourth chakra representing  a part of the body,  the heart, that in the Mother Earth's Chakra system the  fourth chakra represents the crust of the planet,  we live on , so the forests and mountains and also the oceans. As we humans are 67% water, the direct link with our bodies and the planet is clear. My work so often deals with the microcosm and the macrocosm.

All in all a wonderful weekend, grateful to be included in such a prestigious show and to feel  as though I am a part of the Los Angeles art world. The photos below are of me on the  the porch of the Porch  Gallery in Ojai and me in front of my piece, you can see how good the lighting was on my work.

Colour

An old friend from Houston texted  recently, after seeing a photo of a recent piece "You're an amazing colorist! I've always thought so" . Nice comment I thought, but it really made me want to look into this question of being a good colorist. My body of work from the late 80's, early 90's used color, but nothing like the way I use it today. Even the work from 2007 used color in a much more graphic way, adding it to black and white, rather than the color explosion of more recent times.

When people have looked at my work I have heard the expression "I love your colors", this reaction makes me wonder if I have access to some special unusual colors. I think what they mean is "you are a skillful artist who places colors together in pleasing ways". At least I hope this is what they mean.

My use of color I think has been influenced by where I live. As a child growing up in Wales with a lot of muted cloudy sky colors, its affected me as much as living under the relentless beauty of the California sun does now.