1/25/25 watercolor, 11x13”
1:17 PM: after more than a week of having my focus be on organzing and cleaning my studio, i finally got back to work this morning. i made an 11x13” watercolor, which was much easier due to the fact that my watercolors and brushes are now very easy to access and all in one place. i used tubes and pans of watercolors i had forgotten that i had beacause the were scattered in different places around the studio!
11:09 AM: i made a few more tweaks to creek dance II and cycladic revery yesterday afternoon.
BELOW: the before (left) & after of creek dance II. notice the figure is more defined.
creek dance II on 12-27-24
creek dance II on 1-22-25
BELOW: the before and after of cycladic revery. notice the pant leg of the central figure is no longer hidden by the white of the collaged paper.
cycladic revery on 1/22/25 12-40pm
cycladic revery on 1-22-25 4pm
cycladic revery, 28x32” oil & collage on linen
12:47 PM: the last time i worked on cycladic revery, 28x32”, was last month, december 2. i ahd considerd it resolved and have had it hanging on my south studio wall since then. but something wasn’t working. the viewers eye wandered about the intriguing composition with nothing to anchor it.
so i went back into it about an hour ago, using mostly collaged pieces of paper with black strokes, which i created last year and have stored in a drawer labeled “collage paper.” the only place i used oil paints in todays revision was on the central dancer, whose shoes are now red.
somehow, these relatively simple modifications have completely shifted how the painting appears to me when i cast those all important glances at it. my eye now moves about the composition as if it were guided, and experiences the relationship of the 6 previously unrelated figures as being engaged in a dance.
9:43 AM: i made a few tweaks to watercolor/collage 37, 15 3/4x 6”, which was originally created in 2024.
watercolor/collage 37, 15 3/4x6”
wobble, 38x30” oil on linen, as she looked following an extensive rework today
BELOW: wobble as she looked on december 19 and, on the right, as she looks following the rework today
2:58 PM: i last worked on wobble, 38x30” exactly a month ago, on december 19, 2024. at that time i considered it a completed painting. but not so fast, tarlow! after a week or more of studio cleanup/reorg, so that all my oil colors and brushes are organized in a way they never were before, and are so easily accessable, it was a very different experience when i started painting over large portions of this painting which, we both agreed, had far to much going on, with a number of figures that were not needed.
i daresay, it’s now a greatly improved composition!i which, yet again, illustrates how painting is a process, and you must hang in there until the process is complete, which may take days, weeks, months, years.
in the 1960’s i created a relationship with the renowned karagiozis performer, sotiris spatharis. one day, he invited me to his workshop, where he made the figures he would be using in his shadow theatre performances. he showed me, in his characteristic humble fashion, figures he’d been working on, and proceeded to continue work on his latest figure. these are 2 of the photos i shot that day.
we regularly took our son dimitri to attend these performances, which had a profound effect on his development in theatre. he became a director/producer with his own theatre, POREIA, well known to athenians for it’s excellent performances.
here’s a facebook link to his site: https://www.facebook.com/poreiatheatre
from the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts:
Greek shadow puppeteer, one of the masters of the karaghiozis (Modern Greek: Καραγκιόζης) form of puppetery. Sotiris Spatharis started his career in 1909 by putting up shows using his own figures and plays that he had himself created. He travelled the country accompanied by a singer. He was the first shadow showman to use advertising placards, which he himself painted, to announce his shows; and the first to distinguish himself with epilogues, called “apotheoses with the whole body”, played by the puppeteer and his assistant facing the stage at the end of his repertory of “heroic” plays.
at work on "Gaze 36," 11/27/2016
1:13 PM: as mikela and i progress on cleanup and reorg of my studio, i/m in the process of photographing and cataloging works on paper, of which there are over 150. so far, i’ve done 35. so what you see here is the most recent, which i made a few additions to; mainly the collaged bit on the upper left corner as well as some flesh tones on the figure. so it’s now dated 2022-25.
painted in 2022, this is one of a series of taiko drummer paintings, inspired in part by a mesmerizing outdoor event here in the baca grand, featuring local taiko drummers.
copy the link below to listen to the 1 hour interview
https://imperfectlyhonest.com/podcast/when-life-and-love-dont-have-to-be-hard/
12:59 PM: this is one of a series of paintings i created in 2020, inspired by photos i shot from above, in MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum.
5:56 PM: this is a shot of recent paintings on the west wall of my studio, photographed this afetrnoon
9:40 AM: i’m starting 2025 with a major cleanup & re-org of my studio, which is long overdue. i got a new husky cabinet of wheels, which has 12 drawers. my oil paints, gouaches & watercolors as well as my tools are being consolidated in this large cabinet, so everyhting will be far easier to locate.
today i’ll be working on organizing my brushes, many of which need to be tossed.
SEE PHOTOS BELOW
fear no more III on 1-7-25 2:46pm
2:42 PM: a few moments ago, a small piece of paper was collaged to the right & just above the head of the large female figure carrying the red bag.
fear no more III on 1-7-25 2pm
2:12 PM: so i just dealt with that red i mentioned earlier.
1pm: when i approached this painting this morning, i saw that a corner of one of the collaged pieces of paper had lifted slightly from the canvas. i could eith put more adhesive beneath it, or take my spatula and lift it off. i chose the latter, and a larger piece came off than i had anticipated, revealing and orane shape located in the upper portion of the walking woman with her red bag. it made a lot of sense, both coloristically and compositionally. it was one of those unpredictable events i so love. it’s now a critical part of the composiiton, which has been enlivened. who knew?
it still has a ways to go; right now, that red shape on the lower left is bugging me…
BELOW: the before & after
fear no more III on 1-7-25 1pm
