Thenot's Practical Perspective

What a find. A friend gave me this book years ago. I have been cleaning/reorganizing my office this weekend and it leapt out at me. I already have plans for these images...can't wait to share them with you.

Panoramic view: Loose Cables

Here is the piece posted below as it looks displayed as a diptych.

New Diptych: Loose Cables (Cables sueltas)

Loose Cables (Cables sueltas)

2(80 X 40 cm) mixed media on wood.

This is actually meant to be displayed in a panoramic composition. I'll hang it and photograph it that way today and post it; it will also provide a better sense of scale. It's very similar to some works I did called Reformas about two years ago when I started depicting these stripped-down building facades.

On Daily Painting: at times a humbling discipline

Look what is cropping up in those cute daily paintings everyone is enjoying so much!

Yes, this newer series is bright and colorful, incorporating my daughter's drawing; surely the shift must be a harbinger of Spring?

This is true, in part. Daily paintings for me are quite auto-biographical, they can't help but be so, given the nature of the project. I paint intensely for a few hours without thinking too much. The work emerges from intuition and I have learned not to question it. I save such scrutiny for my larger works and series that I create and exhibit over time. Both bodies of work inform each other.

The other day, I caught myself trying to avoid the inevitable self-expression that emerges within the constraints of size/materials/and time. I wanted to change the subject. But I didn't really have a good reason, was I avoiding something?

Sadhana means daily discipline and in the Eastern tradition, it is often carried out in increments of 40 days, the time believed necessary to break old habits and mental blocks so that new prospects can emerge. So, this is just the challenge- push through the boredom, the awkward outcomes, uncomfortable moments to see where it leads me.

Then seemingly innocently enough, two pieces came out using writing of my daughter (who couldn't spell at the time of making the drawings) with the word 'ira" Spanish for ire, or anger, then MAD. Was this the part I was avoiding, showing the darker side of this moving story?

Stay tuned.

Molding Display: How did I miss this one?!

Yesterday I spied this little treasure through a rip in a canvas-covered, tall barrier in front of a demolished building here in Palma de Mallorca. How did I miss this treat?! Must have been a shop selling such decorative moldings.

I would love to just take this whole composition and re-install it in my house as a work of art on the wall, salmon colored background included. Do the contractors have guilt pangs when they finally build over such visual delights?

Plaster relief, 3 steps forward, one step back...

Taking a new look at my approach to working with plaster relief. It's been a long time, but the weather is finally good for casting again. Above is an example of some surface play. The electric hand-sander is the best art tool ever. That's why I say, 3 steps forward, one step back - I love over-working a surface, then boldly eliminating most of it in one swift pass, seeing what surprises lurk below.


What you see here is an image from the Castillo Bellver in Palma de Mallorca. The walls on the roof of the castle are covered with graffiti from prisoners from 1400 to 1900. Seeing these surfaces for the first time a few years ago has been lingering in my visual memory, along with the other aging walls that are so prevalent on my blog.
Can you imagine taking the time to carve letters with a serif!? Well, I guess they had plenty of time on their hands.

From Palma to New York City

Slooowly but surely getting back into the studio.
Here's a piece I finished (?) recently as a going away gift for a friend taking an adventurous sabbatical from Palma de Mallorca to New York City for several months.

The moving story excerpts are from "Leaving Lisbon" by Evan, thank you.