La Verguensa

Translations

Sometimes ideas translate from drawing/painting to Architecture in a fairly direct way.

Sometimes it is more abstract.

Shalom

Equilibrium

You can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation

rests within yourself.

Pelican

Sketching is an important part of the process to me.

Resurrection and experimentation

This painting was one of the first to go through a resurrection. When the first idea did not satisfy. I stored the canvas for later use.

I tend to reuse canvas if I dont like the first or second painting then I just paint over it. This time I let the first painting show through. That was the beginning of this idea of letting every thing show. Recording the history of the process as well as creating an image.

Conceptually, watercolor is challenging this way. First, watercolors are often very planned out. Additionally, there is an ingrained belief that the goal is some kind of perfection. For example, there is a code that, whites must be preserved. Or  that mistakes can be scrubbed out or lifted out. But hose are just words and formulae not laws of nature. An example of natural law is that blue and yellow make green.

This kind of thinking runs counter to the way I like to paint and what I appreciate in painting. I like the act of painting its self. I don’t want to be worried about making a “mistake”. So I reject that notion. I prefer to just think of the direction I want the painting to take. I try to preserve the hint of directions abandoned, and follow the paint where it leads. This reinforces the notion of travel and adventure in painting. It also encourages experimentation. Experimentation is where personal notions and boundaries are extended.

To that end I tend to view watercolor just like any other pigment. It has its own tendencies of course. But it is just pigment. I like to use gesso with it to aid this process of exploration/changing of directions.

Pirate and Apple

I do not see things as they are,

rather I see them as I am.

Mando Mess

Hear No Evil

Life is infinitely stranger than the mind of man could invent. We could not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplace of existence.

Sherlock Holmes

Recurring Themes

Love.

Music.

Freedom.

Progress

Sometimes I keep paintings around for a long time. If they are autobiographical then I add details as time goes on. “Morning coffee” started out as a self portrait, after 9-11 I sketched in the collapse of the twintowers and re-dated it.

Creativity?

If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

Clint Eastwood.