1:15 PM: i'll be out of the studio until 10/5, so the changes i see are definitely necessary won't be made till then. my experience has been taking a one week break gives me a fresh perspective, which will reflect in the trajectory of gaze 33. as with it's predecessor, gaze 32, there's no shortcut to resolution.
one of issues you see here is lack of integration of foreground with background. but more than that, this painting simply hasn't yet found it's identity.
1:30 PM: i continued work on gaze 33 today. you can see from the comparative photos below what i did and which areas i focused on. i think it still needs work, but it's a very beautiful day, and i'm way overdue for a walk up the trail. so i might stop early, clean up and walk up to "big rock."
1:28 PM: i got very tired around a half hour ago. so i'm going to stop early for the day. following some collaging, using one of my favorite series of maine maps given to me by my friend dan and a piece of a WSJ article on the aspen gallery scene, sent to me by my friend louis, i used graphite to draw into the image. the red leaf shapes form the WSJ article give the entire painting a new twist.
noon: stages in my process of scrumbling gaze 33 this morning:
8:56 AM: our first official freeze took place last night, when the tempreature dropped to 28F and we had about .25" snow.
on the painting front, gaze 33 failed the test once i hung it in out living room yesterday, so it's headed back to the studio for more work. i wouldn't rule out a radical intervention. it simply doesn't have the right stuff; the result of too much coddling of off limits sections of the painting, like the face. it may be that i never really learn my own lesson: what matters above all is the integrity, the complexity, the juicy beauty of the picture plane. it needs to reflect the process, which eventually leads to a resolution....sometimes more like a truce. it can't be planned, is never predictable and is always visually satisfying in a way that allows, even encourages repeated viewing, with new discoveries every time you view the painting. that's what a resolved painting is about.
BELOW: illustrating my point, unresolved gaze 33 on the left; gaze 32, which was started 9/9 and resolved 9/16 on the right.
12:06 PM: i got to work early this morning and made some changes to gaze 33. my main focus was the area to the right of her head; her neck and hair. a necklace was added as well. as isial i won't be able to get a definitive read until i bring it over to the house later this afternoon. below on the left is how it looked before i started work this morning, and on the right how it looked just a few minutes ago.
7:35 am: we',, be leaving soon fro the school in moffat, where we'll continue to work with the kids on developing their projects. we won't get back till about 1 or 2, which is too late to start painting, so i may take my walk up the trail, which is overdue.
3:43 PM: so i didn't go up the trail; the weather is iffy, with threatening clouds that could mean thunderstorms, and you don't want to be caught an hour up the trail when there's lightning.
Our morning at the school went extremely well. the kids are far ahead of the kids in other schools we've worked with in the development of their projects, all of which are compelling. i shot video of the entire process, which i'll edit and will become part of the story we'll be able to tell at the end of the school year, tracking the conception and development of their projects.
every time we visit the school, i photograph my favorite painting of the ones that have been hung in the main corridor. the theme this time was the snake wound around a tree. out of a total of 25-30 images, this one jumped out. what do you think?
6:34: today we had a very productive meeting with local school teachers, to whom we presented our actionlab360 product. they were enthusiastic, saw immediately how useful it will be to them and wanted to learn more. so we'll have a few more meetings and then begin piloting it here in crestone as well as 3 other colorado schools.
while in the studio working on my gaze presentation, i cast furtive glances at gaze 33. i don't think it needs a lot of work, but i did see exactly where i could tweak it. so that's what i'll do tomorrow morning. as soon as i'm finished putting the final touches on my presentation, i'll find a way to share it with you all here on my blog. i'm creating it in keynote, and although i haven't explored my options on squarespace, i'm sure there's a way! here's one of the opening pages:
2:31 PM: today i continued my take it slow policy from yesterday. the new fayum image i'm riffing on seems to have a longer life than it's predecessors. we can only guess what this ancient greek/egyptian was musing as the painter made her portrait. right now right here, she appears, with her piercing yet soft and empathic gaze, to be interested in me personally. she is here, now. a few hours ago i spoke with my old friend david hockney. i acknowledged him for his tavis smiley interview and for his upcoming major tate gallery retrospective. i especially liked what he said, and he made this point a few times, about the now. that's it; that's all there is. when i reminded him of that moment in the interview, we both cracked up.
tachen is publishing a couple of new books about him. one of them, he said weighs 30 kilos! will i need a wheelbarrow i asked? more laughter. david is always infectiously enthusiastic about whatever he's up to right now, and i so understand that.
BELOW: the stages of gaze 33, from it's inception on september 13. the images are chronological, starting in the upper left.
gaze 33 at the end of my painting day a few minutes ago
3:28 PM: a scrumble and then on to a different image. BELOW: the scrumbling process consists of covering the painting with a light wash of acrylic color, then scraping into it with a trowel, allowing some of the under-painting to peek through.
then, drawing from a different fayum painting, i began painting over the scrumbled image. my gut today was to take it slow. "you have plenty of time; don't rush" i kept telling myself. i love the mystery of this new face emerging from the detritus of previous layers. i'll continue working on it tomorrow.
here i'm pointing to the only remaining recognizable image from the previous face; the eye.
DETAIL: gaze 33, 38x36" mixed media on canvas
12:48 PM: i'm getting a late start today. my first gaze told me that, although there are beautful passages in gaze 33, it still needs considerable work. i'll post pics, as usual, when they become available.
2:26 PM: stopping a bit earlier than usual. we have dinner guests & need to drive to elephant cloud & pick up some supplies. i don't want to say much about this painting right now & would rather wait till tomorrow morning's first gaze. i will say i feel better about it than i did yesterday. she's a commanding presence on my studio's east wall. right now, i'd say that necklace on the lower right pops too much & needs modification or removal.
1:41 PM: gaze 33 dries on the cement floor following a good dot-ification. better dot than not. more work as soon as she dies. looking rather pompeian at the moment. she awaits further moves on my part, and i have absolutely no idea what the fuck i'm going to do next.....
the naples yellow splashes of color were made, by the way, with the end of a gnarly root poking out of the earth in our driveway, which i twisted and twisted and finally pulled form the ground last week. i learned from the kids who were here 2 weeks ago how to use it.
12:30 PM: my all important first gaze as i entered the studio a few hours ago let me know right away that i needed a new image. so the archeology of gaze 33 is beginning to resemble many of the earlier paintings in the series in that it is accumulating layers and layers of ancient debris, so to speak.
the result, for me, is a particular richness of surface that would be otherwise unattainable. here i'm working on the painting on my table, supported by a box which gives it a slight angle and makes it easier to work. earlier, the box was absent because i was working very wet and wanted to avoid drips. continuing now; more pics as available.
3:36 PM: end of my painting day. i made a few adjustments, pushing back that intrusive alizarin box surrounding the image & consequently allowing it to breathe. there was also a light scrumble. softening the harshness characteristic of acrylic paints. by the way, the reason for all the parallel lines in the original is because these fayum portraits were painted in encaustic which, like acrylic dries very fast and can't easily be blended in the way oils can. the same is true with egg tempera, which was used by byzantine icon painters. so the parallel lines in transitional spaces of light to dark give the illusion of a smoother transition than is possible with these three mediums.
and one more interesting detail: that bit of green on the right falls into the category of the fortuitous accident i mention earlier in the afternoon. it's part of a painting the two kids made on the floor of my studio last week and, right now in this painting's journey, it's critical. without that bit of greeenish blue the painting would greatly suffer. thanks kids!
gaze 33, 38x36" as it looked around 2:15 PM/
2:41 PM: a different image has emerged; male instead of female and moving closer to discovering his identity in the picture plane and in my internal picture plane. the search goes on and making the most of fortuitous accidents plays a major role. this capacity was nurtured for us by our early 20th c. predecessors. how did they do it? the time was right. deconstruction was in the air, as it is now.
the fortuitous accident is only valuable when seen by the discerning eye. and this is, i believe true in all the arts; perhaps even more so in the sciences.
12:50 PM: i was in a very good mood this morning. woke up that way. got to to work around 11:30, and began just fooling around, as i often do. but today was more FOOLING AROUND, if you know what i mean. letting my body move about the studio as it wished, grabbing a piece of paper & collaging it; cutting up one of the paintings the kids made last week here in the studio on big sheets of paper and collaging them; finding a very small image i liked in my fayum book and blowing it way up, then using it as a basis for some sweeping marks on the surface....FOOLING AROUND! and that's where the juice often is; just FOOLING AROUND!
1:04 PM: still working/playing, got another couple of hours in me. more pics as available...
BELOW: gaze 33 at the end of the day yesterday on the left, and just now, on the right:
