Organ Players and Storytellers

?

2012-01-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

do blogs still matter?

dreams

2011-12-10T13:43:00.001-08:00

if I could paint as well in my waking life as I do in dreams, well, I don't know, I would probably have paintings in Moma or something.

perseverance, courage, and replaced fenders

2011-11-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

in the last two weeks i have painted five of the best paintings i have probably ever painted.

there were days i painted poorly as well, but i was aware, more than ever before, that my temperament was just not right (i was also aware of its "rightness" on the good days, and painted hurriedly to capitalize on the fleeting feeling). on the day when my temperament was right i felt a sense of control over the process - that i knew ahead of time which mark was needed and how it would look before i laid it down. i had no fear of "losing" the painting and had a renewed confidence that if i did, i could revive it.

those days were like clear skies while the others were fog.

looking today at yesterday's work (sheffield 35) i remember being generally happy with the painting but being displeased with a few areas. for a moment i hesitated, unsure how to improve them and fearful of destroying the entire, otherwise successful, image, should i attempt to fix them and fail. the moment passed quickly, the confidence returned, and i addressed the areas, sometimes making them worse than before, but, persevering, ultimately improving them to harmony with the rest of the painting.

that is the kind of courage that i would have lacked before - leaving the painting instead at "good enough". however, the longer those inadequate areas are left unaddressed the harder it is to fix them. it is nearly impossible for me to add only a few marks to a dray painting days or weeks after i last touched it. those marks appear too obvious, or conspicuous, to me, and seem false - like a replaced car fender in a mis-matched color.

painting is just so much fun

2011-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

on friday i was able to dedicate several hours to painting, which i have not been able to do for a while. it makes such a difference to have a chunk of time. painting for an hour, while nice, just doesn't allow enough time to iron out the wrinkles. on friday, i worked on two bigger paintings (30 x 40) and just kept working them over; destroying them and bringing them back, until i had something i was happy with.

it takes (me) a lot of time, and really that time needs to be continuous, in order to start a painting, let it go, and then bring it back around.

on friday i also returned to working from a scene after a period of working from memory or imagination. i think i'm probably a better painter when i work from a scene. i think that there is something about limiting the choices that gives me more freedom to focus on the paint.

Is it just me?

2011-07-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

No matter what I try I can't post comments to this blog, the very one I myself created. If you are reading this, try to post a comment, so I can determine if there is something wrong with my browser settings, or if there is something wrong with the way I've got this thing set up.

I used to be able to post comments here, but not lately, and I want to be able to say things like:

"Congratulations on your jury selection, Dave! It's nice to get that kind of validation from jurors, even if we all know you entered this competition in hopes of getting a deep-fried Twinkie at the fair ..."

KD

2011-07-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

I frequently submit work to juried exhibitions solely on the basis of the jurors. By submitting my work I am guaranteed to have my art seen, studied, and debated by a respected handful of art-world professionals, and that to me is worth the price of admission. Even if they hate it.

I submitted two pieces to the Oregon State Fair because the powerhouse jury consisted of Tom Cramer, Jack Portland, and Rod Pulliam.

They ended up choosing one of my pieces to exhibit in the fair. Icing on the cake! But the icing is the really good stuff, not just a bunch of Crisco and sugar. Check out what they said about the pieces they chose:

“The works that we chose for this exhibit have the following characteristics in common:

They show sincerity and a sense of focus. The work exhibits a strong connection between the artist and his subject matter. How the artist portrays the subject matter lets you know how he feels.

They exhibit an instant hit of content followed by a residual slow stream of information. The artwork reveals more over time.

They reflect a regional “Oregonian” sensibility. They are influenced by and connect to the place and people around us

They are resolved and to the point. Good editing choices make for tight focused work.

They are intentionally participatory, requiring the viewer to bring something to the interaction. On balance, if technique or subject matter is overworked, then substance/content suffers.”

Holy crap! Are you kidding me? These five points articulate precisely why I paint. If I could have written a decent artist statement to this point, it would have looked exactly like that. I am thrilled and energized to know that my work was recognized as having achieved these objectives, by these jurors.

We work in our little studios or basements or garages or wherever, mostly alone with our ideas and dreams, and we often wonder if what we do is hitting the mark. We look for validation through exhibitions, press, remarks from fellow artists, sales, wherever we can find it. Today, I got mine. Thank you, jurors.

Come Sale Away

2011-07-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Busy calculating cubic feet of storage space. Won't someone buy my paintings?

They're taking up space.

Which brings me to this: Many, if not all, artists will at one point describe their works as their 'children.' Which of course means that those who want to make a living off their art are at best shameless liars or at worst the most venal bastards of the art world for begging to sell their children to the highest bidder.

A3

2011-07-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Still working on distinguishing between being satisfied with a painting and being done with it.

2011-07-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hi blogger pals,

There has been radio silence while I was spending way to many hours at work and eeking (sp?)out a show this month. But I miss you all and am ready to think about art without feeling overwhelmed. I am embarking on a drawing project. No painting for a few months, feeling like I want to try to push myself. I keep making the same choices when I paint and wonder what will change if I try to draw the world for awhile. I'll keep you posted. Plus, I am enjoying the drawing app on my I-phone. Beers soon?

stuck in the middle

2011-07-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

Killin' time and fillin' space/

2011-07-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

After that 10-day stint in the basement I took about 5 days off, though I can't say for sure if, during that time, I didn't come down and check out the work once or twice. It was mostly a conscious split. I couldn't take that much interaction. (If I'd remembered the two+ other streams of work I've got on the burners I might have kept going.) Any road, it was good to move back for a bit, and now I've been working again the last three nights.

So here's some pictures.

removing the bandages

2011-06-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

a painting that had been dogging me for three years finally gets a makeover. after a small nip and tuck to the upper third of the painting, i think it is improved.

No bloggy-bloggy?

2011-06-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

The friend in the below post asked why I haven't been blogging. Since he reads this blog, I know I'll be satisfying at least one person by posting tonight.

I won't answer his question, but will mention I was thinking of posting something the other night, something horrible. I'm trying to set a new habit, so I've been down in the studio every night of the past ten. I think if I get to thirty I can consider it a habit?

At any rate during this time I managed to push a painting far over the edge, and in the interest of transparency thought I'd trash it here on the blog.

I may not be able to save it, and hopefully if it ends up in a show you won't be able to tell that I was prepared to slander one of my 'children' in public.

If I ever feel that way again - wait, I still feel that way about this piece, despite the changes I made tonight - but if I ever feel that way again, I may confide in strict confidence to one buddy, but I'll never dog a piece in public.

one mark

2011-06-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

done, or not done? that is the question...

how do i know?

is it enough to just make one mark on a canvas?

it's usually more difficult to not make a mark than to make one. it requires more thought and determination, therefore the unmarked canvas should be thought of as more masterly than the marked, no?

wow

2011-05-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

i have just been invited by Randall Tipton to show along with him at this year's Sitka Invitational. the invited artists (Randall) were in turn allowed to invite another artist to show along with them, and to also collaborate on a piece together. if you don't know Randall's work, check it out here: http://www.RandallDavidTipton.com. he's one of the best painters in the area. really amazing stuff. i'm beside myself! i'll post more as the collaboration begins. the show is in November.

flinging paint

2011-04-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

learning a new language

2011-03-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

i made a bunch of marks today. i had more consecutive painting time today than i have had in several weeks.

worked on several canvases simultaneously - all paintings that had been started before which needed work. no white canvases. was fairly brave (by that i mean uncharacteristically willing to destroy a painting in the pursuit of exploration). trying new things in the studio. new ways of simplifying images of nature. new materials. new scale. new process.

my motivation remains the same, but nearly everything else is new, and frankly, it's not going real well. i feel like i'm learning to paint all over again. i probably worked on seven or eight canvases today, ranging from 9" x 11" to 24" x 30", and i maybe like one of them. i'll see how i feel about it in the morning. thankfully i'm meeting with a group of artists tomorrow for a monthly critique of each other's work, because i could use some help with this stuff.

i know where i want to go, and i can picture the results in my head, but i just can't seem to make my hands cooperate. i guess it's a new language and i should be more patient, but i want to be fluent now!

i wonder if this is what raising children is like. some days this can be so much fun, and other times it can frustrate the hell out of me. uncooperative little brats, these paintings are.

pink stripes

2011-03-11T06:52:00.001-08:00

it was a morning of putting pink stripes on things.

standing on the shoulders of giants

2011-02-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

i have had a productive few days. several new paintings are either in the works or completed. i bought a stack of small, pre-stretched canvases from my pals at utrecht the other day so i could set up a sort-of assembly line in the studio. i just line up these small (9x12) canvases and work on them consecutively as needed. it allows me the emotional detachment necessary to not fall in love with them too soon. when i paint large it's such a commitment that i get to a point of apoplexy - i have invested so much time and material into the thing that i don't want to "ruin it". these small canvases seem more disposable.

so i have to confess that the engine behind my recent motivation is a little book that steff gave me which contains fifteen reproductions of Howard Hodgkin paintings. in the ten or so years that i have been painting, there have been a few occasions where i see work by someone that completely alters the way i think about painting. my evolution is owed to seeing the work of Matisse, Beckmann, Guston, Soutine, and Basquiat. with Hodgkin it was even more profound. when i saw his work for the first time i felt like it said to me "it's ok". it's ok to paint in this way that i had only thought about, written about, and sometimes dreamt about, but had failed to actually perform. it was liberating.

i realize that right now i'm sort of dealing with a schoolgirl crush on Hodgkin and my paintings are attempts at respectful aping, but once i work through this i will find a new place where the simplicity, reduction, and abstraction that i have long been striving for are incorporated into my conscious process. until then i am just enjoying making these marks!

a painting or a photograph

2011-02-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was cranky and feeling like I had made a series of wrong decisions in my life, or maybe just paid attention to the wrong things, or not done the right things. Like, if I had painted more I would be better, I mean really good. If I read more I would be smarter. If I stuck with yoga my back wouldn't hurt in the morning. Stuff

like that.

Dell said, we better get in the car and go somewhere. So we went to Sauvie Island. And it was drizzling lightly and everything was quiet and beautiful and full of possibilities. So I took some pictures. To make a painting? Or just to be a beautiful record of the lovely world, while I am here to see it.

Maybe I could still be a really good painter, there is so much to say. Although, there is nothing I can say better than the Oregon light on the bare trees in February.

palettes

2011-02-18T06:51:00.000-08:00

another example of a used palette that is probably better than my last ten paintings...

The Day After

2011-02-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Are you all feeling as restless as I am today? Full and empty at the same time?

The sky tonight was a blue I have never seen before.

I want to drift in a bowl of blue, in that color blue.

We are jamming.

2011-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

OK, the big show is hanging at Gallery 114 (1100 NW Glisan - kinda underneath the awesome new guitar shop) and we are all extremely proud. It's looking good - for a bunch of over-40 artists with lives (if I may be so bold and blunt) - the point is, we do what we like, not what we think you'll to like, and we think it shows.

Or something.

I should quit while I'm ahead.

Here's a small selection of new work from me. See it there, Thursday February 3rd from 6 - 9PM. We'll be there.

SHOWTIME!

2011-01-31T14:35:00.000-08:00

oh dear, i do love this business!

Does it always have to be this way?

2011-01-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

Do I have to be in the studio at the eleventh hour, making a mess, ruining perfectly good tubes of paint and cheap Chinese brushes? I always want to begin again, but end up just adding on. Maybe we just have one good tale to tell in our lives. I am still waiting for the moment the last piece comes together. Like a miracle, you make a mark that you didn't know was in you and it's just right. Let's hope there's one more mark...

Sean Scully says "It seems to me that there are highs and lows, and that there have been periods that are, I would say, less creative, where you're simply holding a position, and there are other periods where you feel you have breathed enough air to be able to exhale again, to be expansive again."

I'm filling my lungs....

Lindsay Lohan escapes rehab - Again!

2011-01-23T14:17:00.001-08:00

OK, so the Ke$ha thing didn't work too well, maybe this title will work.

But really, I just want to post a picture of the painting I'm donating to the Cascade Aids Project Art For Life auction. It's out to jury, and I sure hope it makes it into the show, because it's always a fun time, and such a good cause.

All of us OPST artists should be donating this year, and hopefully we all get in, so we can be grouped together and get a wall sign!

Say a little prayer for our demos, so to speak.

Ke$ha

2011-01-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd see if I can draw in some random readers with the title. If you're a Ke$ha fan, welcome! I hope you enjoy what you find here.

Anyway, I'm bummed that I feel like I know what I'm doing with only one of the five paintings I'm working on now, and I have like a week and a half to whip things into shape.

Also, I wouldn't describe any of these paintings as more than 'begun' ...

Calm B4

2011-01-16T23:53:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, I haven't really worked on any art in about a week, and a scant two weeks remains before the show. I used to consider the month prior to a show to be a forbidden zone as far as working on pieces was concerned. Publicity was reserved for the last month.

Now, if I can finish a piece before the reception, I'm lucky.

Why am I sitting here blogging while 'watching a movie' at midnight on a Sunday?

new year's resolve

2011-01-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

Just meandered in from the studio to check in with you all. Not sure where I am headed yet, but feeling like I am all over this show, I mean it's not for 3 weeks (I think, right?).

I made one new year's resolution. To take a picture a day. I know, it should have been a drawing, or to work every day in my studio, but I decided I just had to start looking. That, and go outside, because I refuse to shoot with a flash, so in this dark month I have to go out to find some (any) light.

So here are a few observations from the first week of the year. I guess I should go paint, but everything is wet...so maybe I'll just lay back on the couch with my novel.

blasting the core

2011-01-10T13:54:00.000-08:00

In an effort to lose my gut, and increase my energy, I' hittin' the Nordic Track again, which is in the basement with my studio. I took a break from painting today to bust it out on the Track and listen to inspirational music.

Once I build up enough stamina that I'm not all woozy after 15 minutes, I'll see what it's like to actually get BACK to painting after the Track!

I hope to eventually paint while on the 'runner's high.'

Anyway, still working towards the February show at Gallery 114 so I should have many chances to hit the Track for the next three weeks.

Here's a picture of the next step in painting: the joint compound has dried, and I begin to make gestural marks all over the place with a pencil. Nobody better copy this technique.

the new sketch pad

2011-01-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

it will never replace the joy of pencil against paper, but this iphone app sure is fun. i have used it to create at least one study for a painting, and to work through some compositional issues. and then there are days like this where i just wanted to recreate the yellow of the street light on a gray morning. it's great for expressing light.

a new year

2011-01-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

"ALL ARTISTS ARE VOYEURS,

NOT PEOPLE OF ACTION."

robert motherwell

Gallery 114

2011-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Got a month to go before the Organ Players and Storytellers show at Gallery 114 for February. Furiously working on stuff (tonight furiously watching the Seahawks, though) and thought I'd share some process. Here's a panel getting its first dollops of joint compound.

I'm trying.

2010-12-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

I'm always keepin' it real in the studio, even to the extent of posing a frosty brew on my slick table. I'm slowly refining my support making technique. Viva cheap trigger-clamps from Harbor Freight!

It's always nice to speed up the craft part to get to the art. Yes, arts and crafts!

Look forward to our new show coming up at Gallery 114 in February, where you'll barely recognize some of this work ...

at Staver Locomotive

2010-12-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

show prep

2010-12-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

the gang gathered tonight to get ready for our exhibition that opens friday night. the warehouse we are in is a wonderful building in the nw industrial area of portland. close enough to be convenient (just a couple blocks west of montgomery park) but far enough to be outside of the northwest congestion.

no art hanging would be complete without a few beers. kurt gets serious about the alignment of kate's paintings.

kurt, kirsten, and steff collaborate on the exact positioning of steff's small photograph.

kurt gives the go-ahead to kate and steff.

it has turned out to be a very handsome show, in a terrific setting. i can't wait to see the tree lit up and the steam trains running on friday night. last year an estimated 500 people attended the event, and we may top that this year. it should be a lot of fun.

the details of the show are:

5:30-8:00 friday night, december 3rd, at the Staver Locomotive warehouse at 2537 nw 29th. there will be live music, small scale steam trains running all over the warehouse, a raffle, and our art.

back in the studio

2010-11-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

funny how i forget everything i was going to write as soon as i sit down to the computer.

so i'm getting ready for the next show with my five fellow organ players and storytellers, which is december 3-4-5, by the way, and i have moved back into my studio as of last week. i am thrilled to have a space where i can paint some large canvases again. painting plein air is a blast, but it's tough to do these big ones out there, and of course the fall weather is less than ideal.

today was great. i stretched then touched up a big painting (56" x 48") that i started last week, and worked on a new one as well (54 x 45).

i like how the paintings go through a metamorphosis. first the unstretched painting which tends to look a little rough. then, after determining the edges of the image and stretching it, it looks very different to me. more complete. then adding a frame at the end really does change the appearance one more time. it takes this messy sprawling thing and says "it's right there". it goes from here, to there, and that's it.

painting while the canvas is unstretched gives me some freedom to expand or contract the image while it's under way. i also like to show some of the peripheral marks (drips, splatters, or thin underpainting) along the edges, in the final presentation, as a sort of peek behind the curtain. those marks are an intimate look at the raw material and the process.

cold stressin'

2010-10-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

I suppose bloggers should be people who like to talk about themselves. I'm not that way. Tried to post some real thoughts the other night, but blogger wouldn't let me log in. So instead of stepping over to my secret stash of passwords, I gave up. Too much to do these days, so I must sit when I can ...

800%

2010-10-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm lame to make you click more, but instead of posting a link, I'll ask you to google Justin Bieber 800% Slower, and listen to the MP3. It's on Soundcloud. Though over 30 minutes long, you'll be glad for no matter how much you hear, it's pretty cool.

I think I've finally made it to the Bridge just now.

Anyway, me and the missus have been working hard on the basement, of which a portion is dedicated to my art. Though we won't be 'finishing' it any time soon, we are making it the type of functional we need, and I'm thrilled.

I've started two new pieces in anticipation for 2 upcoming OPST shows, and will be kicking down a pair to the PoBoy Art Scorpio Show in November, about which I will inform you ASAP.

Just take it day-by-day, and be the best person you can be each day.

productivity and momentum

2010-10-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

after a period of slumber, i have had two of the most productive weeks of the year. two weeks ago today, stuck without my painting kit, i bought a canvas and a tube of white and a tube of black from my pals at utrecht and went out to sauvie island. ever since i read about dekooning using black and white house paints (because he was broke) i have wanted to try that in a plein air environment. it was as i had expected; tough to express the greens, reds, ochres, and blues with just two
tones. impossible to describe cool and warm. it was all about composition and texture. a fun exercise and something i will do again. i learned from the experience. had to do more with less, which is something i strive to do anyway (and usually end up pulling every tube out of the carrier).

all the while i am also playing with painting on my iphone. it has become my new coffee shop past time.

say what you will about this, i know many painters poo poo it, but i think it's every bit as informative as sketching. i have already converted two of these small sketches into paintings,

one of which isn't half bad. pictured here is a view out the window of the coffee shop in oceanside.

last week i read about an artist using walnut stain, and that sparked an idea to use various shades of wood stain on a plein air piece. i bought three colors, a golden oak, deep red cherry, and dark ebony. i worked on three small (24 x 24) panels last week, and four more panels today. all were done out on sauvie island.

like the black and white piece, i find it good to limit my material choices. again, i have no way of defining warm and cool (only warm and warmer), and everything is in a tone of red or yellow. the first week i introduced some white chalk to provide some additional contrast. this week i brought the spray paint with me, which was fun.

the spray paint and the stain really don't play well together, but that's part of the fun. of the four today, i think there are two with potential. i'm still figuring out what to do with this medium, and really these are just experiments in how the materials react. i have done some drawing (either with a fine brush or a "stain pen" (from home depot, used to fill scratches in furniture) and some big abstract washes. in all the material is more workable than i first thought. i figured i would have big ambiguous puddles of red and black, but really it's not unlike painting with watercolor.

for some reason i keep thinking the "puddles of abstraction" will be the more exciting pictures, but so far each trip has included those as well as a couple of more traditional representative experiments which have been the more interesting pieces.

i don't have a problem...

2010-09-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

someone said "art is what sells, everything else is a storage problem".

admitting you have a problem is the first step toward healing.

me? i don't have a problem.

palette as painting

2010-09-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

maybe it's just a reflection of the quality of my last couple of paintings, but i actually like this canvas that i used as a palette more than the painting it was used for. it has a fresh and modern look, whereas the painting had a stuffy, overworked appearance.

Back home

2010-08-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hey blogger pals,

I am back from 2 weeks in beautiful Oregon, a much needed rest, time to look. I thought a lot about space and how to find it in life. I have been visualizing a daily calendar where the the block of time for painting is the biggest block, well, at least bigger than it has been.

Here are some things I saw while I was away....

I have been reading Resistance and Persistence by Sean Sculley. He says "I was always looking at the horizon line, at the way the end of the sea touches the beginnings of the sky, the way the sky presses down on to the sea, the way that line is painted...I think of land, sea, sky and they make a massive connection. I try to paint this...coming together of land and sea, sky and land. Stacked in horizon lines endlessly beginning and ending, the way the blocks of the world hug each other and brush up against each other, their weight, their air, their colour and the soft uncertain space between them."

When I was young and I drew pictures, there was always a gap between the land and the sky. The sky was at the top of the page and the land at the bottom. I wonder now, what was that mysterious space in between?

first exhibition

2010-08-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

the organ players unleash themselves on portland!

thanks to the generous folks at Cascade Aids Project, who have dedicated their comfortable and welcoming PIVOT space (formerly Mens Wellness Center) to our group, we have hung our first exhibition since our inception.

i love seeing our work together, and seeing threads of commonality in the pieces. it doesn't matter that some of us play organs and some tell stories, or that some work figuratively, or representationally, or abstract - there is something about the pieces that relate. at the core, we all love marks. gestural marks. and simplification and reduction.

i also like showing pieces in a space that resembles a real human space, like a living room. we were going to put labels on the wall next to the pieces, and it just looked ridiculous; completely destroyed the experience of just being with the art.

Pictures?

2010-07-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

Some day, some day.

I wonder how many other abstract painters consistently have a 'dump' painting going on. A painting that doesn't work, and you keep trying to save it, and ultimately just start trying whatever-the-hell, truly whacked out ideas, just to see if something sticks. Ultimately, the painting looks truly horrible, but maybe an interesting direction comes from it.

showtime

2010-07-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Getting new work ready for Thursday August 5th reminds me of the Inertia Twins who follow me around at such times. As the date nears parallel paths of slacking and activity race onward, finding me sweating with the effort of not doing anything up until a couple of nights before when I then have to do everything all at once.

Just sayin'.

jerry, the colonel, and me

2010-07-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

i went out to sauvie island to paint on monday, with my pal jerry. we pulled the colonel up onto this grassy knoll, one of my favorite spots, and i worked on a couple of canvases, one large and one medium sized, while jerry continued his study of watercolor, which he is trying to master before a coming vacation in which he wants to paint with the most travel friendly of media. the morning was gray, and even drizzled a bit on the way out, but after lunch the sun broke through and the skies were blue.

this was my second large scale canvas in the past couple of weeks, and while i don't think this one was as successful as the last, still, it is so much more appropriate for me to work in this scale. at least it is much more fun.

after a couple of hours of painting we ran into our friends jane and catherine, who had been painting up the road a bit under a grove of giant oak trees. small world; but then, it's not so strange to come across a fellow plein air painter on sauvie island in the summer. it is, after all, about the most beautiful place on earth.

that's jerry there, manning his water color station. we were on opposite sides of the colonel, jerry facing east overlooking a pond, sweeping fields, and a small clump of evergreens. i was looking west over an inlet the name of which i am too lazy to look up, on oak island. at lunch we sat and watched osprey dive for fish in jerry's pond. we drank beers and shared our thoughts about art and life.

nature is my studio

2010-07-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

over the last several months i have focused my attention on drawing and a very few very small paintings, due to a change in my environment. ordinarily i prefer to paint pretty large format pictures, three to four feet in any one direction. yesterday i had a few hours free and hauled my gear to the backyard and laid a large piece of canvas on the ground and went to town. this is about three feet by four feet; not huge, but it felt so after the little eight inch pieces i've been painting lately.

it felt good to use my whole body to paint again; to walk around a canvas, to reach far across it to the other side with a long dripping brush in my hand, to kick some dirt on it, to have ants walk across it, to squeeze liberal amounts of paint onto it from the tube and then smash the paint around to mix it with the other colors. it is a process that simply can not be replicated on a small scale.

i wasn't sure what this first, large painting would look like after my self imposed hiatus. my drawing, and even my small paintings employ much more structure and representational marks than my typical large scale paintings do, and i thought that maybe this would influence what came out, but it didn't. it's not uncommon for me to start with one thing in mind and finish with something completely different. the process takes over and one mark influences the next. this painting is evidence of that.

inside looking out

2010-07-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

i am at the beach, sitting by the fire with four of my friends. it is raining & i am reading a book, "color", a history of the palette. and taking photos through window glass and drink glass, and daydreaming of about blood beetles and lapis stones.

Save The Date!

2010-06-11T16:24:00.001-07:00

Organ Players and Storytellers will be exhibiting at the Cascade Aids Project's Men's Wellness Center in August. (OK, don't save the date yet, since I'm too lazy to look up what date First Thursday falls on in August.)

You should come! I plan on debuting no less than three new pieces of work. Or will I? Will the battle between my rehabilitating-the-basement project (wherein lies my art 'studio') and actually finishing some artwork claim me as a victim?

Is this:

More important than crafting a painting. Yes and no. One thing's for sure, getting down to the nitty gritty in the basement has given me a new level of intimacy with my house. Terrifying intimacy.

Nothing says terror better than an unidentified pod in the basement.

back in the saddle

2010-05-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

the last two mondays have offered a couple of hours where i could get away and paint. it has been ages since i have painted, and while it felt good - from the preparation of packing up my gear and loading up the van with paints and canvas to the actual process of making a picture - it also felt awkward. like seeing your summer friends after a year at school. i felt like the canvas and i were strangers. my lines were timid, and my colors amateurish. i think i may have forgotten how to paint, as i had feared.

i have been thinking about painting for months and months, and envisioning this day when i would get back on the horse and how triumphant the occassion would be. how great the paintings would be after months of fasting. my brain, scrubbed clean of the cobwebs that had developed over time, would be fresh and lucid for the creation of new canvases that would encompass all of the theories i have about the new modern painting. that is what i thought, but actually like an injured athlete fresh out of a cast, my first steps have been painful and slow. i am barely walking, much less running and jumping over hurdles. i feel like i am making mistakes and paintings that i made several years ago. my brain has gone to mush, even after all of the introspection.

i can only hope that these are simply the first unsure steps on newly mended legs. i heard an interview the other day of a business leader who said "if you want GOOD ideas, you need a LOT of ideas". i think right now i need a lot of paintings.

forward thinking

2010-05-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

i painted this as the spring colors were just pushing forward, and before the maples outside my studio had come out, and now, today, every window is framed in green.

From The Colonel

2010-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

The Colonel is the name of my vw van (long story). Any way, the Colonel is also my studio away from studio. I often sneak away in it, park next to a park, and sketch. It provides a nice sanctuary from the crazy world, and the windows create automatic compositions for me. The sketching process forces me to focus my consciousness and helps calm my mind. It's a process that's more about the process than the output.

We Want Content!

2010-04-26T11:21:00.001-07:00

Promoting my work is the 'grind it out' part of the art business - something I can hardly think of doing. Like I want to post something on Facebook, and I'm like, "but that will mean I have to FIND A PHOTO and then EDIT IT in Photoshop. Oh No, 5 minutes of work (hopefully). Maybe I should just be better organized. It's always been my dream to spend a few evenings shifting around and retitling digital files!

I am now slowly working on the basement studio/playroom/laundryroom/wrappingstation/storagearea, so maybe I'll post pictures of that sometime soon. Yeah, right!

on the road

2010-04-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

just getting back to home and all that THAT entails after 30 plus days on the road, living out of a suitcase and jumbled bags of stuff strew everywhere.

joshua tree and ojai, these are the places i want to revisit. california has its problems---rich and poor stand out in stark relief in cities like santa barbara, where there are beaches you have to pay to get onto. 10 dollars to stick your feet in the sand and who does that hurt? not the rich guys next door who own their own piece of the coast.

colors are banging around vying for attention, accumulated and not recorded.

i have to get back to the studio.

how are you all?

News and Notes

2010-03-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

Yeah, whatever. The worst thing about blogging is coming up with titles for entries.

Working has been sporadic lately. Those two weeks of the flu didn't help. I've been getting confused again between the work and commerce. Having no income will do that to you.

I'm happy to be donating a piece to the CAP art auction again this year. Lately this auction has been my only venue for showing. Hope to begin changing that with my compatriots here playing organs and telling stories.

Also, finally have some affordable art up for sale at Etsy.com (Some new stuff, some old stuff.) I'd love it if you stopped by to take a look!

Dahlke Art

What the world gives us

2010-03-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

About this time every year I head to Art Media and buy myself a tube of cadmium green light. I think, this is a new color for me. I bet no one is using cadmium green light these days. What an unusual color choice. At some point I wake up and look around and see the whole world is cadmium green light. It's exploding overnight, everywhere. And better then what's in my tube.

It's the amazing gift of a visual life.

i forgot to forget

2010-02-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

Eight days ago we moved the last of our belongings out of our house, which now sits with no plaster on the walls and only dust and rubble on the floors. Missing windows allow the cool morning breeze to blow through and the sound of traffic to interfere with our conversation. Everything has moved to my former studio, which is a disconnected basement of the remodel project above, a storage unit, or the dark windowless crawl space below the studio. It’s the crawl space where all of my art supplies lay. Only a couple of sketchpads and Ticonderoga Number Two’s made it to the new dwelling. When spring brings fairer weather the great outdoors will become my painting studio.

It’s strange not painting. I guess the change of medium is good for me, but drawing just doesn’t give the satisfaction I get from splashing paint around. I’m such a messy painter. Making lines just isn’t the same. What if I forget how to paint? I remember after graduating from art school thinking that. If I didn’t keep painting constantly, maybe I would forget. I felt like the ability to paint was tenuous, and just barely remembered between sessions, as though the time between painting was like a battery slowing losing its charge. If that time went too long the battery would drain completely and I’d be left without the ability to start up again. I remember telling this to another artist and he said he thought it would be good to forget how to paint. His comment befuddled me, and I assumed that he was just so much more experienced than me that what he really meant was that he knew he wouldn’t completely forget, that by “forgetting” he really just meant that he thought it would be good to shed his skin a bit and try something new. He knew that his ability was on a strong foundation and not in danger of disappearing completely.

It has been a month since I last painted. My fears of forgetting how from several years ago are no longer there, but I do miss it. When I do begin to paint again, when the materials are brought out of their dark storage and dusted off, I will face another change. I have no space to store any new paintings. The storage units are stuffed full. The walls are covered. I will have to paint small and maybe on paper to minimize the impact on space. Maybe I’ll paint disposable paintings. I don’t know. I need the magic disappearing ink so that each day the paper will be white again. Whatever I do it will be different and challenging. No more huge canvases with broad gestures. I will have to miniaturize the experience. Gulliver with a paint brush. What will that be like? What will I remember and what will be new?

Bleargh

2010-01-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

One of those nights where I don't know if anything I did worked, but I'm sure some of it was a detriment, and plenty was sh*t. Still, it was fun. My stomach-bug induced hops-aversion is gone, which helps. LCD Soundsystem, Stereolab and good reggae on the iPod. Then I got to the last horrible painting. I guess I'm painting a daisy. Oh well.

I'll post some pics someday maybe.

2010-01-27T20:44:00.000-08:00

Recently, I only seem to work either really small or too big (too big for my budget, paint ain't cheap). This painting is 5 x 7. I have never outgrown a fascination for the depth you can create on a tiny 2 dimensional plane. I am the tortoise and not the hare, making variations on this over and over. This is how the estuary at Gearhardt felt this winter, but it's really a tiny bit of paper. Amazing. To me. My needs are simple.

Sick Time

2010-01-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Still working on not letting the world come to a grinding halt when my kid is sick. Now that the wife is sick too, it's more tricky.
It occurs to me that I have seven days to finish my piece to submit to the CAP Art Auction (and six other pieces +/- for other calls). Yep, creating work specifically to donate to an auction - but it's always a good time, and whenever I put my art out there, I want to put my best foot forward.

But I suppose there's vomit to clean up somewhere ...

Interesting dynamic (wait, that sounds boring)

2010-01-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

Since I've actually been working a bit I've noticed some things. I guess it's good to actually look at how you work and think about it. Lord knows I'm on some form of auto-pilot most of the time, considering the number of times I've noticed I'm driving the wrong direction out of habit for going somewhere else.

* I'll always go with an intriguing tangent, even if it derails what I intended to do with a painting.
* That's why I feel like I don't stick with things long enough - half the time I'll start a body of work, and change the direction a few times while working on it.
* To this end, it seems like ideas I want to explore get dropped and forgotten frequently.

Anyway, I have a new piece with a figure/ ground relationship, that's something I haven't exactly done in a few years. Yipee!

Don't get too

2010-01-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

Guess I'm thinking about pushing things or getting into refinement. Even though I'm kind of stuck on a medium, I've changed things every series of work. I feel like I abandon stuff before I actually get good at it, but that's ...

Just Checking In

2010-01-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

I guess we've all been playing our organs rather than telling any stories (rim-shot). Oh yes, and the holiday season blew on through.

But ... the Monday after New Year's Day, I've been down in the basement cradling up two new panels to answer a pair of calls for art. Due at the end of the month, so I have to get cracking. An ill-guarded secret in the world of 'artists' is that many of us work much better under pressure. That is, if we have a show coming up or some other need to produce work, it's a real good motivator, otherwise, many of us might just think about working a lot, and bitch about finding the time.

And then there's Dave Trowbridge, but he's kind of an exception.

2009-12-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

In the studio, making little landscapes for Christmas gifts. Nice to paint with no pressure. Doesn't have to be important, just full of love. Happy Holidays, blogger pals, glad to be painting alongside you all!

it could be now

2009-12-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

CH CH CH CHANGES...

2009-12-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

change is good, right?

I am a person who likes routines, for the most part. I get up at the same time every day, make coffee, and head to the studio for an hour before getting ready for my day job. I have done this every day for probably five years. It’s nice. It charges my batteries for the day. I paint, draw, meditate, read, write … whatever feels right that day; whatever is needed to soothe the soul.

Today however, my studio is torn apart. The floors are covered with muddy footprints and there are scraps of wood with bent nails protruding from them strewn about. All of my paintings have been removed and only a few pieces of furniture remain. It’s cold down there. It is no longer a fortress of solitude, but simply an access point for the foundation guys to get to the house’s footings so they can shore them up in preparation for the pending remodel upstairs.

Today I sit in my living room, also sparsely furnished as we have sold most of our stuff so that our belongings are more portable when the time comes to vacate for the remodel. I did whip out a quick drawing in a small sketchpad before sitting down to write this, but mostly I just have the overwhelming need for a new routine. The drawing is of two empty chairs facing toward me, like small children who have joined forces to ask their father for something. They sit there in silence with blank stares. What??

This time is good, right? I keep asking these things for affirmation. I mean, my painting was kind of going through a change anyway. The wrestling pictures are evidence of this. Maybe this time will provide the space I need to contemplate the next steps for my painting, without just thrashing about on the canvas. I can work things out in my head, and on sketch pads, and through writing down ideas before approaching the next series of paintings. It’s a good thing, right? Hmm. Yes. Breathe…

The new routine begins.

2009-11-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

Will be working on some art for a holiday sale in early december. Works of this type have been proven to be more 'popular' than my fine art pieces, though in truth the only difference is in size and level of work; i.e. I'll tend to work fine art stuff a little more rigorously.

My process aids me in producing things that look similar and have a similar effect, whether they are 8" x 8" or 36" x 48" (or maybe that's just the beer talking).

I'm always worried about diluting the brew, so to speak. Perhaps I should adopt a pseudonym for 'work-for-sale' as opposed to 'pure art'. Is there a difference? It's not like I'm making these smaller more affordable pieces and cackling, rubbing my hands together in the hope of earning about 10 dollars an hour for my time.

If anything, the smaller pieces are more 'pure', since I don't worry them so much. Of course that worrying has its own benefits and demerits - mainly if I worry something too much I'm going to screw it up and then have to work twice as hard to return it to equilibrium.

We're burning our bridges if we talk about this too much, I think. Pay no attention to the man behind the apron.

Giant Heads

2009-11-20T21:05:00.001-08:00

Sometimes it's easier to make giant paper mache heads in the studio then it is to paint.

lost

2009-11-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

i’m lost. lost in a coffee shop. lost in thought. lost in space. lost in that time between breakfast and lunch. lost somewhere after the beginning of the first beer and the end of the second. between elliot smith and iron and wine. lost at sea. lost between abstraction and reality. between the last day of vacation and the first day of that time that happens between vacations. lost in the woods. lost child. have you seen me? last seen wearing levis and 70’s buckle loafers. in bad need of a shave.

nick drake would be happy here, lost with me at this corner booth of this darkly lit café on Portland’s east side, watching the rain waterfall from the lip of the awning which prevents what little daylight exists on this gray, wet day from entering the windows.

religion

2009-11-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

last night I read the remarks of three painters. starting with Jef Gunn’s latest blog entry about the sensation of painting outdoors in front of the ever changing scenery, then my friend June’s accounts of painting a huge seven panel polyptych in Nevada, and lastly an interview on portlandart.net with Tom Cramer.

how great it is to be a painter, I thought. what a kinship we all have. it’s like a religion. in fact everyone spoke of their experiences with religious zeal. consciousness, emotion, passion, a sense of wonder and mystery, connecting with other people, with our higher self, with nature (with God?). these are the themes that are discussed!

Gauguin talked about painting as “lifting ourselves toward God”, and of becoming a “true creator like our divine master”.

when I see something like this painting by Frank Auerbach (from the pages of a recent Modern Painters magazine) it occurs to me that I might be wrestling with the same ideas in my own painting. me … scratching my chin in front of a canvas and thinking something similar to what Frank Auerbach may have been thinking while scratching his own chin in front of this very canvas! I’m not claiming to be half the painter that Auerbach is (or any fraction for that matter), but just to think that I have been privileged to see, and ponder, and struggle with a similar scene and idea as any of the great painters, past or present, is overwhelming. we are all connected. some of us tell stories, and some play music.

spontaneous and deliberate

2009-10-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

the latest in my ongoing struggle between seemingly opposite forces. maybe it’s only a struggle for me, but sometimes when I look at my work the next day, a piece that I “got pretty spontaneous on”, some of the marks look good to me and some look just plain sloppy. don’t get me wrong, I like sloppy a whole lot more than refined, but there is a difference between, say, de Kooning sloppy and your three year old kid’s sloppy. don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of art by three year olds too. it’s just that some of my marks look like they were made with intention, by a real painter, and some of them just look like someone tripped on their way to the canvas with loaded brushes in their hands and stuck them out to break their fall.

look at a painting by Soutine. PAM has that terrific one of the young pastry chef. you talk about spontaneous marks! but there isn’t a single mark that appears accidental, you know?

I have found this to be a real tightrope walk. if I favor one over the other the painting seizes up on me. if it’s too sloppy, and the next day I try to tinker with it and bring a little refinement to it, bah! forget it. the thing will die a rapid death. but if I’m all bravado and two-fisted paint flinging, it looks like one of those paintings that elephants do with their trunks. maybe worse.

john cage said in his “rules of art” that you must separate analysis from creation. I think he’s right, and to that end this struggle can not be dealt with entirely at the time the painting is under way. you can paint-stop-analyze, paint-stop-analyze, but you have to be careful not to kill the creative process. better to just paint-paint and then look at it the next day and see what you think, then paint-paint again.

September Light

2009-10-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

TMI?

2009-10-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

I think it will be difficult to let go of the secrets of my process to the world at large. Seems like it will remove the mystery and take away some of the power of the work. Who knows? Anyway, I'm not going to describe anything at this point, rather I'll just post this picture of a work in progress. It's about 18 x 24 inches.

What is it?

2009-10-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

I'm constantly amazed and enraptured by the bizarre logic of three-year-olds. Probably reading too much into it, but some of the arrangements the daughter leaves or concocts put me into a more innocent, fractured mindset. Not that these examples really communicate that, it's just weird stuff she does.

wrestling

2009-10-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

i painted last night. sometimes it’s enough just to say that. i went to the studio, turned on the heat, put some bob dylan on the stereo, and then went about destroying a perfectly good piece of canvas.

a monk sips morning tea

2009-10-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Artifice

2009-10-08T20:58:00.001-07:00

What does it mean when the light in the piazza in the hotel is more beautiful then the light outside? I would be happy to paint such a beautiful artifice. Is it wrong to be comforted by the artificial twilight of a Las Vegas spectacle?

a grey on grey kind of day

2009-10-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

grey. a cello is grey, the sound, I think. and the sky at night, I think no matter what, it’s always grey, either with clouds, or split in half with white stars against black that by dawn will at some point teeter along the line of dawn and merge to grey before giving into light. quiet is grey. grey answers probably hold the most truth because they consider all sides. grey fabric on a clothes line, a faded grey photograph, a grey ocean on a sad day, grey stones, grey cats, grey grace, grey salmon scales, grey moth wings hovering in grey wool. raspberries and turmeric, the blues (does she mean music or paint?...), grass stains on white linen. grey could quite possibly be the most necessary of all colors, against which the rest of the world gives into song.

Why?

2009-10-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

I made a piece for the 50/50 show at the 100th Monkey Studios. I didn't photograph it, and it sold off the wall. Now I will never have a record of it. (I suppose I could contact the buyer, if that information is furnished for me.)

I'm not even sure if I feel weird about this. It's supposed to be about getting the art out to the people, right?

Is this an interesting thing, or a 'meh' thing?

represent!

2009-10-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

to what degree to be representational? this is my question! i'm riding on this crazy pendulum, swinging from abstraction to representation, trying to convey the beauty and power and mystery of nature. is it modern to be representative? (should i care?) abstraction is a hundred years old for heaven's sake.

does this ever get easy? (do we want it to?) if it becomes easy, does that mean we aren't pushing hard enough? i love to paint more than anything, but it's no tea party.

turning

2009-10-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

october, go slow, and let us have more days of golden, slanting light.

start

2009-09-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

“Wanna be startin’ somethin’, got ta be startin’ somethin’.”

Going out, looking at other art. (Not nearly enough.) Talking with other friends over beer, about art. (Not nearly enough.) Just sitting by myself at The Hop & Vine, reading the Willamette Week, enjoying a beer. (Not nearly enough.)

Stepping outside at dusk or on a fall day. It’s always Fall when I can really tell that we’re on a planet spinning around, wrapped in an atmosphere with huge water-vapor clusters floating in the sky, and stellar radiation sliding sideways through the gas.

But the basement is full of fur-balls, and cat vomit, and smelly kitty-litter boxes, and piles of junk, and bad fluorescent lights, and spiders, and laundry, and there’s a TV upstairs.

More often than not, it doesn’t get started. Gimme something to work for.

getting started

2009-09-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

those first marks, on the blank canvas, are the easiest. there is no right or wrong at that point. it's just all playful and exploratory. things are just getting fleshed out; you're just laying out a composition or playing around with color or whatever. you're making a painting! it's ok if it's crummy on the first day. the second day is the killer.

susan rothenberg said that 90% of painting isn't actually painting, but sitting, looking, thinking, reading, etc.. amen. aside from those days of first marks, most of my days are of the sitting, thinking, drinking coffee variety. sit and look at what you did. if it's crummy, that's depressing. if it isn't crummy then you're stuck because you're afraid to ruin the good parts. the answer, of course, is to go ahead and ruin the thing, but that is the hardest part.

"how long did it take you to paint that?". aha, trick question! six hours or three weeks...

2009-09-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Mysteriously this week I was painting with colors I never use, oranges and purple-reds. We think our acts in the studio are of a conscious nature.

2009-08-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

2009-08-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I can create anything more beautiful than my ecstatic daughter. Somehow today the marks I make look messy and confused next to the ripple of the water from her long fingers testing the water.