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blackening bloom

after working and reworking and looking and relooking i think that this piece is finally finished. or at least i am finished with it. overall i am pretty pleased with the final result considering it started as just an ink drawing that was kind of stuck and then i decided the best thing to do was glue paper all over it. at least it forced me to make a next step with it.

fire sale

in the process of purging a lot of small artwork i have done over the past couple of years. i have drawings, paintings, collages, etc. basically looking to unload some small work that is cluttering my space and my mind. check my page for more items.
go to

http://rockycanonica.etsy.com

to see what i have up so far. i would check frequently. as i uncover more i will be selling more. hope you are well.

go

layering

a new painting i am working on in various stages of layering. i am thinking about creating a skin with a combination of softness and hard edge drawing. i began with an ink drawing on bristol board and layered tracing paper with watercolor and more ink drawing on top. you get a little ghost coming through.

alumni

i will have three works on view at the new art gallery at the college of new jersey from sept 15-oct 13 2010. the exhibition will be featuring various alumni. opening reception will be held on friday oct 1.

contagion 1
ink and watercolor
14" x 18"
2010

tiptoe transfer
acrylic and collage
7" x 7"
2009

mc1
acrylic and collage
6.5" x 8.75"
2009

finally a statement

To proceed with difficulty or great effort. Creating art is about looking and finding. Art has always been basically about agony, desperation and helplessness. That is why it is so important. It is this elusiveness and intangibility that keeps the search alive. To generate something new in this world inspires love and embarrassment in equal measures. It is this high threshold for embarrassment that reinforces the love necessary to make something which is genuine. Within this work I am both reassured and constantly longing for faith in what I am doing. It has become a stalemate, although one that remains fluid. In these circles I can search forever. While I cannot define what it is I am feeling it is real nonetheless.

contagions and antidotes

i have posted a lot of new work on my site (http://www.rockycanonicaisstillalive.com). i think that finally i am getting somewhere in rectifying drawing with painting. oddly enough (to me) it is through very small watercolor paintings.

the lesson

zelle

"For artists who must start over each day without any assurance that the success or failure of the previous day's work will reliably indicate what comes next, possibility is the product of intuition, trial and error, and an instinctive trust in the voice that says Yes or No to each option that presents itself."

"But while aesthetic prognosticators are prone to declaring certain artistic practices obsolete based on their waning power in a given period, artists, whatever their public positions might be, seldom write off any possibility once and for all. On the contrary, the ability to see fresh opportunity in neglected or abandoned models is one of the basic ingredients of innovation."
Robert Storr Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting

among wolves-back catalog

beechfields record label (http://www.thebeechfields.com) has released "in the beginning" a collection of unreleased songs from baltimore based band "among wolves". i have collaborated with billy wolves of the band in the past, designing the album cover for their 2007 self-titled album as well as the cover image for this release. this collection is available for free download (donation) on the label's website under digital-only downloads. please visit the site they support local music in the baltimore area and allow artists to create the music that they want.

please

tangles

this "takes its place in a stream of some hundreds of paintings and exists for itself alone as well as in the context of the rest of the work."
quote by marcia hafif from "after the end of art" by arthur c. danto (1997)
http://www.rockycanonicaisstillalive.com

chickens

today, 29 july, i passed two chickens strutting around on a residential front lawn on my way to school. i grew up in the country but i can honestly say that i had never seen that before.

yim yames

just received an email about the upcoming tribute album to george harrison. all songs are performed by jim james of my morning jacket. definitely worth a listen or a thousand.
http://www.yimyames.com/

progress

newest small painting...in progress. a bit blurry.
acrylic over collage
moleskine notebook about 6" x 6"
painting in the background is by colleen stepanic (back in tyler days). i like it and so does leo...

rothko's reason

i have been reading (periodically) the artist's reality by mark rothko and while there are definitely some difficult concepts discussed most have to do with verbage than concept. the manuscript was written while rothko was still working through surrealistic tendencies but it lays the groundwork for his more fulfilling and honest fields.
while reading it yesterday i was struck by this passage..."They [Renaissance artists] must study the organic construction of all the objects which they portray in order to mirror them properly. This approach displays the ultimate faith in appearances. It implies that the artist, in addition to portraying external appearances, can depending on his skills, also portray internal truths by noting and depicting the profound subtleties of those external appearances. So far so good."
While this statement is offered in his discussion of beauty, it strikes me that it has little to do with beauty at all. Instead it has to do with experience. and this experience (both consumer and creator) is the only thing that can move you. It isn't about truth at all, but movement.

turning over a new leaf

i am going to make every effort to update this blog on a semi-regular basis. we will see how long that lasts.
-r

too good