faun whisperer / gaze 27 transforms /  by Philip Tarlow

4 PM: stopping work for the day. the image is now inspired by a detail of one of the figures in vermeer's love letter. her gaze reflects her question as to the nature of the letter she's holding, but goes deeper than that. the picture surface, layered as it is, reveals hints of the paintings and collaged elements beneath, creating a complexity that goes, one hopes, beyond the subject. the picture plane itself becomes the subject, invigorated by my intense response to vermeer's use of his characteristic dots of light, formed, one suspects, by the optical device he used for most of his paintings: the camera obscura. with his unique, even for the 17th c., style of working, plus the way he capitalized on the optical device considered by the church to be of the devil, he transcended his time and rose to the realm of the gods of painting.

i'll continue work on gaze 27 tomorrow morning, but it will be a short day, as we are having an actionlab meeting at one of the schools across the valley.

2 PM: i scrumbled gaze 27, then began working into it, with a furious passion i might add. it's now in a pregnant state, waiting, as it were for godot.

DETAIL: gaze 27 as it looked this morning, pre-scromble

11:20 AM: when i entered my studio, gaze 27 was hard to look at. it's destiny is to become one more layer of a painting in process. how does my experience with the faun relate to this? dimitri says it wasn't a faun; rather a messenger wanting to whisper something in my ear. now look at the woman in gaze 27 about to be scrombled. is she not whispering something in my ear? i need to listen.

 

Faun Whisperer: about 20 minutes up the trail, i looked up and saw a faun about 50 feet in front of me. she was looking at me and her legs were trembling slightly. i said "Good Morning! Come say hello!" while her mom watched nervously, she approached and nuzzled against my leg. i patted her head & watched as her mom backed away, probably concluding i was safe. this continued until i made a move to keep walking up the trail. the faun clearly did not want me to leave.
mikela was about 5 minutes behind me, so she didn't witness this. as i continued up the trail, i looked back and saw the faun following me. i stopped and she ran up again and nuzzled my leg. it was hard to leave, but after a few minutes of patting her head, i continued up the trail, looking back every few minutes to see her continuing to follow me. finally, i went round a bend & when i looked back she had joined her mom. the whole thing still seems slightly surreal, but i do feel changed by the experience; hard to put into words....

a new gaze painting today? / review of "gaze 26" process on yesterday's post /  by Philip Tarlow

3:49 PM: while experiencing more interruptions than you can imagine, i did get gaze 27 to this point. it's VERY odd, after all these decades, to be doing a self portrait. my mind keeps saying "you're not making a self portrait; you're just fooling around....this will be painted over with some other image," i don't think so. it's just that time; time for philip tarlow to do a self portrait. that's all. so far, i find it visually interesting, and it seems to define where i'm at with this whole series pretty neatly. the collaged elements are there. i'm standing in front of gaze 16, as she peers from behind my right ear; a collaged map appears in the lower left. when i cast my glance, it takes me by surprise. let's see where it goes tomorrow. we plan on doing our trail walk at 5am, then i'll do an hour of editing, so i'll likely get to work late.

1:52 PM: FILIPPAKI starts a self portrait while listening to markos sing hasiklidika. it's all he can do not to throw down his brushes and start dancing. even though wendy said "don't paint over that portrait of your friend with the red hair." why did you do that filippaki? "because i FELT like it!"

 

 

 

1:13 PM: stage 1 of gaze 27's journey:

 

 

 

 

 

noon: un-stretching the canvas so i can re-stretch on board backed stretcher bar.

DETAIL of an early june 21 phase of gaze 26

 

 

 

 

7:45 AM: if you scroll down to yesterday's post, then scroll to the very bottom of that post, you will find a grid showing 21 of the stages gaze 26 went through before reaching it's final state yesterday afternoon. the process began on june 20th, and illustrates my way of working in layers, switching images along the way and using collage to introduce unpredictable shapes and colors into the composition. some of these peek through the final version, creating a final surface that looks a bit like an ancient frayed fresco or in some cases like a billboard with it's many successive layers revealed when it is finally scraped down to provide a fresh surface.

if you've ever seen one of these billboards in the process of being peeled, scraped and prepared for fresh layers of ads, you may have noticed what a beautiful surface it can be, with bits and pieces of faces, legs, motorcycles, wine bottles....

we once saw one while waiting for the train in the paris metro, and i couldn't stop looking at it. that moment is a core piece of the puzzle that is my recent work in the gaze series of paintings.

today, i'm going to begin that process by painting & collaging over a painting i began a few weeks back based on a photo i shot of our friend tamar cooking at a friend's dinner party.

looking back / tweaks to gaze 26? /  by Philip Tarlow

2:49 PM: despite what i said earlier about leaving the painting as it was when i came in this morning, i couldn't help going back in. so here's how it looks as i end my painting day; much warmer in tone, with more defined, sensual lips. can't believe i'm saying all this, when at the same time i'm always stressing the importance of the overall integrity of the picture plane above all else, and the dangers of sacrificing that in the slightest for anything content related. never having worked before from the image of a native american teen, i find her gaze compelling in an entirely different way than, for example, one of vermeer's women, or the fayum portraits. don't know how to characterize it...

in the end, a painting has to work. exactly what that means is and will remain a mystery, but you know it when you see it. you begin noticing stuff that bothers you, whether that's the expression on a mouth or a shape or stroke or element of the composition; you notice that stuff when the painting is not working! stand in front of picasso's demoiselles d'avignon for an hour or two. does anyhting grab your eye and pull you away from the magic of that picture plane. a color; a line; a stroke or shape?

10:33 AM: my all important first glance tells me that gaze 26 is just fine as is, and does not need further work. knowing when to stop has always been a big issue for me and, as i gaze at this many layered painting, it seems to me the wise thing to do would be to stop. bring it to the house & give it the acid test of all-hour gazes & comparison with it's siblings, then make a final decision.

1974 peugot wagon; mine was a gold-ochre, and looked, somehow, more exciting than this drab stock photo indicates

 

 

 

 

7:27 AM: in 1974 i flew from athens to paris to pick up my new peugot 304 station wagon (πουζοδακι or little peugot as poet embirikos nicknamed it) from the factory and drive it back down to athens. it was stunning to visit the factory and see my brand new vehicle roll out, with zero km. on the indicator, then drive it, oh so carefully, to my low budget hotel in the 6th arr. i remember it was raining and i went often to the window, drops rolling down, to check if my beautiful gold ochre peugot was ok. the walls were paper thin, and i heard the moaning of the 2 gay parisian women in the adjacent room.

the drive paris-athens remains strong in my minds eye: the car-train over the alps; the fabulous italian road side snacks; the ferry from brindisi and my triumphant arrival in athens. the parking guy on haritos st in kolonaki provided my first scrape. so sad.

at about 10 i'll be back in my studio, do an hour of actionlab curriculum editing and see where gaze 26 goes next. LEFT: a detail of gaze 26 as it looked yesterday at the end of my painting day.

"gaze 26" is close / trail walk this morning /  by Philip Tarlow

3:58 PM: above right: i worked over the most recent state, which i talk about in my 3:20 pm post, and softened it. the latest version is on the left, above. i may work back into it tomorrow.

3:20 PM: once again, the skies have darkened, the wind has picked up and the temperature has dropped abruptly to 64F, and we're having our daily afternoon thunderstorm. so i'm calling it a day. here's the current state. i think it's at that stage where it's become too specific. i liked it better this morning, when it had a softer more mysterious look about it. that will all change tomorrow no doubt. but it continues to be a striking painting with a strong presence. 

 

8:32 AM: we did our thrice weekly trail walk this morning. after yesterday afternoon's thunderstorms, the fragrances were powerfully intoxicating. you can actually feel al the predicted effects 2 hours in the wilderness has on your mind, body & spirit.

 

on our way back we stopped off at the studio to view gaze 26. mikela agreed, it's very close. she raised some questions as to how much it diverges from the spirit of the rest of the gaze series. i'll look at that more closely once i get to the studio, about 10 am. 

i may want to give more definition to her large gold colored earrings, which don't quite read as earrings right now, but not of course at the expensive the the integrity of the picture surface. 

here's a detail of gaze 26 as it looked this morning.

 

 

 

 

BELOW: stages of gaze 26 starting on the upper left, june 20, 2016

judy's eggs / resuming work on gaze 26 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:13 PM: right on schedule, thunder is heard in the distance, the light is fading and dark storm clouds are moving in rapidly. so i may call it a day, albeit a short one. but satisfyingly productive, i'd say. 

she now has a distinct presence, and when i cast a quick gaze at her, i like who she is becoming.  the little symmetrical colored dots are becoming increasingly part of my language. i always check in to make sure the painting is asking for them, as there is a distinct danger of using them repetitively in a mindless way. that little phrase could describe much of our lives, sad to say. 

2:51 PM: here's the first layer of work for today. beneath it, if you follow these posts, you will know there are numerous layers of gaze paintings; none of which really made the cut. this image is derived from a series of beautiful photos of native american teenage girls, shot in the late 1890's, which i discovered in a link posted by a friend on facebook yesterday. her gaze is indeed mysterious and haunting; we'll see if it translates.

10:42 AM: just back from picking up 2 dozen of judy's fabulous eggs, which she brings to the kiosk in crestone every saturday morning, first come first serve. can you believe that you can taste that her hens are happy hens? well, you can, i guarantee it.

shortly, after my hour of editIng actionlab360 curriculum. this morning i'm editing the empathy chapter; should be able to complete by 11:30, and then to my studio.

yesterday, july 1, was the day my dad would take me to grand central station in NYC to meet the other campers, sonya & otto, to board the train for birchwoods, 14 miles from northampton in huntington, mass. i attended from july 1-august 31 every summer from age 5 to age 15. here i am with my bunk mates; i'm on the lower right. this was my dream space. it shaped who i am today big time. the experiences i had at birchwoods are vividly alive in my being.

about to dive back in /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: stopping for the day. darkening skies & thunder are making it hard to see the colors. i'll resume in the morning. right now it looks a little strange.

 

 

 

 

12:16 PM: so what does it feel like to have taken a 2 day break from painting. nothing can substitute for it.  here's the painting just now; continuing work as i eat my delicious oatmeal. the image is now based on a 1st c. fayum portrait i found on wikimedia. back to work; more pics soon...

 

 

 

 

11:31 AM: following a several day break, i'm back in my studio preparing to resume work on gaze 26, 32x32". pics as available.the surface  is looking scrumptious right now; lets see where it goes today...

just a little bit of work on gaze 26 today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:13 PM: i had virtually zero painting time today. so i literally just got in a few brush marks before having to leave for a meeting. here's the current state of gaze 26. i should have a normal, full day in the studio tomorrow.

you may be able to make out a sketch in white over the previous fayum inspired image; we'll see where it wants to go tomorrow morning.

actionlab360 brochure photo selection day tsarouchis /  by Philip Tarlow

Just a few reasons why Yannis Tsarouchis is "a major 20th C. Artist." Quote from a letter Henry Geldzahler sent me in 1969, when he saw the book I sent him on Tsarouchis' paintings. At the time, he was the Curator of 20th C. Art at the Metrpolitan Museum in NYC. He asked me to extend an invitation to him for a major show at the newly opened PS1. Yannis, who was feverishly executing commissions to pay for his new Marousi studio/home, and didn't fly, declined, saying it would take too much of his time to travel to the USA by boat.

5:10 PM: i devoted today to locating and selecting photos of students using our product to create their projects for our actionlab360 intro brochure, which needs to go out by the end of this week to someone who is being very supportive, connecting us with individuals who may engage in the development of our product. i chose photos i had taken at a middle school, a high school in denver and at the opening of steamshop, a makers space in alamosa.

off day; today we have a talk to attend / t.j. reid /  by Philip Tarlow

7 PM: this afternoon at the crestone charter school, T.J. Reid spoke to us about coloradocare, which will be on the ballot in november as amendment 69. we watched his powerful, moving PBS documentary "sick around the world." please look at the coloradocare site to learn about this healthcare system being proposed for colorado. no deductibles, doctor of your choice....all the features we love. expensive? yes, but much less than what we've got now, and everybody is covered. his thought is that if, in spite of the strong opposition of the health insurance companies, we can spread the word & get this passed, other states will follow suit.
http://www.coloradocare.org

shot yesterday evening; one of my goodnight crestone posts on facebook. some of these are possible candidates for painting images

i'm spending whatever time i have this morning to edit actionlab360 curriculum; the beginning of a process that will take weeks. normally i'll be doing this at the end of my painting day, but since we have to be at this talk around noon, i'm editing this morning. 

shipping the paintings to houston:  if was far too expensive to have them packed and shipped professionally in salida, so i'm probably going to un-stretch them, send them in a tube and have them re-stretched in houston.

a scrumble before driving to salida to ship 5 gaze series paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

returning to crestoen from salida on the "t road"

7:21 PM: salida was a bust. too expensive to ship the ceramics as well as the paintings. i'm going to unstretch and roll he paintings & send in a tube. we have a solution for the cerater schmics and will know by the weekend if it's going to work. i'm going to have to wait till wednesday to get back into the studio; there'a an event at noon tomorrow at the crestone charter school.

11:59 AM: just a quick scrumble before we leave, giving the painting that mysterious, suggestive patina. the image may well change once i'm back to work tomorrow morning. it's good to have a day away from the studio. generally that allows the painting to settle down and contemplate what it wants to become. 

as i've said many times, more and more i experience these paintings as living, breathing beings, each with their own desires, hopes, vision of the future. as i facilitate this process i don't feel, as some might imagine, that i'm playing god. rather, more like a midwife.