I have been walking around in somewhat of a daize as of late. Ideas come in bits of clips, it’s almost like trying to build a house when all you have are screws and a couple of wooden boards-nothing materializes but the parts seem to overwhelm you. I should be patient by now having gone through this process for so many years but it seems the older I get the more profound and extreme the stages seem to be.
I have played with multiple ideas and images in my mind, stories and poems need to be written out in notes just to keep the initial inspiration but nothing gels. I have actually recently walked into my studio after insisting I was going to paint thisparticular weekend and when I am faced with empty canvases or even canvases well on their way to something I stare vacantly with nothing there. I even try to rotate a canvas out for another and switch to pastel but then end is always the same-NOTHING.
I can even force myself through and get to that point of pushing paint around but it is like painting with no instructions. I have compared it to someone painting by numbers and suddenly all the lines and numbers disappear. Than there are days like yesterday-a painting that sat there staring back with discontent and suddenly we are on the same page again-or canvas. I almost equate the canvas like a teen that can’t explain what is bothering them and suddenly we have that cathartic talk and not only do I know what the problem is now I have a way to solve it.
Urban Sunset
I sat in front of four paintings for short bursts of time and than suddenly within hours I have several different clarified paths that actually seem to be heading in a great direction. The problem with the creative process is that tomorrow they can all seem like disasters-it’s almost like the creative eye opens and you can see the details that the logical eye seems unable or unwilling to connect. Suddenly the big blob of paint becomes the shadow that instinctively knew where it needed to fill and the form that seemed so cryptic previously lends itself to the correct perspective and the right hues and values. I am about to go in and paint again-not only has this weekend brought lots of painting but my words are actually falling off the page as well-in the creative realm it rains or it shines but oh when it shines it really seems more brilliant than anything in comparison.
Carmen’s Delicious Catering has this as a tag line for their product, it comes from the fact that during the process of the business becoming what it is today she had lots of interactions with artists such as the pilchuck glass school. In truth cooking in the hands of a passionate artist heightens simple food to the essence of a work of art.
Consider the cook as a painter only their palette has even more colors than the artist, their colors are the many flavors they weave together much like a painting-each flavor supporting or interacting with the other. The wonderful thing about food is beyond just the flavor there is texture, presentation and aromas-when done correctly the simple meal touches all parts of the senses even further than the two dimensional canvas.
The secondary dimension of food is much like the flavors in wine, the fact that you don’t only see, smell and taste-you experience. Food becomes the tradition; the amazing memory-it attaches itself to places and people.Food reminds us of our relatives, it brings back conversation and a sense of tradition.
Food colors our vacations, our travels to far off places and instills itself in culture and tradition, Which brings us to another of carmens’ tag lines-Bringing people together through food-it is often the centerpiece for good times. It complements our celebrations and brings comfort to our difficult times, it is the warm soup after shoveling snow, and it is the cool ice tea and bowl of fruit in the heat of summer.Speaking of the bowl of fruit, how many artists have painted the still life and showed us how food is art and art in response is food.
I have never been much for the still life-I tend to paint landscapes, seascapes, anything nature oriented but recently because of Carmen’s’Delicious Caterings’ food as art and art as food tag line-the first of many still life became a necessary project.
It’s hard to paint on demand, for me anyway-I either feels it or not. The first painting was of a still life of an August picnic, complete with watermelon-kind of the centerpiece, grapes, tomatoes, peppers and the corn on the cob to finish off the picnic. I set up the still life on a wooden board and stared at it intently with nothing moving. It was one of the hardest paintings because it just didn’t do anything for me. I had the basic idea of the sky and the warm greens in the background and the foreground seemed to just lie there. All I can say is through discipline I found a place between capturing the still life as it is and weaving in my own feeling of the late August picnic seemed to fight against each other-logic and simple rendering fight as it always does with the creative and the figurative idea of the day. This is what I paint, even in the landscape-I rarely paint the place, it’s more the feeling of the place and usually when the logical rendering becomes stronger than the feeling of the place it seems colder to me.
The second in the series is an autumn gathering of pumpkins, squash and a cornucopia of good colors and flavors. Again the feeling of the sky was the first things that really jumped out at me and the under painting seemed to capture it so perfectly that it jump started the next step. This time I did not set up a still life-I gathered images and relied more on memory. The sudden and rich flow of paint seemed to surprise me. The painting pretty much did itself. The colors of autumn work so well against each other and the fact that I love the cool answer to summers’ heat seems evident in the way the painting took shape-also I must admit that the previous painting was done during a time of great creative block and this second in the series is at the beginning of the unraveling of my creative slump. Several other paintings began to take shape at the same time, but even still I weigh the difference between painting from passion and memory versus painting a set up still life and for me the memory works better than the real thing.
I photograph things that don’t make sense. It’s when you question their sense or try to alter the basic idea for the sake of others interests or the sale of such photographs does the image become plastic and contrived. I used to shoot fences in the field, sunsets on the edge of simple roads without the idea of selling them. My only downfall was actually selling a photograph and changing the way I looked at shooting.
At one time it was trying to find abstract images to show interesting patterns in nature but if you’re not really excited about them, how can you possibly convince the viewer to be. I shot a photograph for an electronics firm which I worked for a week trying to get it the way it needed to look for the ad-unfortunately for me was that the success of that photograph stirred my ego. Suddenly instead of an artist with a tool, I became a professional photographer looking for the next image to sell and nothing good would come of this.
I remember I had connected with a stock company and was trying to find an image of a taxi in traffic or a police officer standing near a crowd, the scavenger hunt does not lend itself well to creative spirit. I remember the last photograph I didn’t take that really messed my whole sense of photography-a bouquet of flowers on a gravestone was reflecting the early afternoon sun, it was in Palestine Texas and instead of shooting it, I thought about it, how and why should I shoot it and where would I sell it-I passed it by and my punishment was a lack of being able to see beyond the obvious.
This weekend I got away from my life, I feel almost like a ghost in a sweet purgatory, I got to look back as a child would on photography with not the slightest fear of getting it right or wrong and suddenly simple things become photographs to me, they say things beyond what they are at a basic level and that is what I believe elevates the snapshot to the insight on our everyday lives.
With the feeling of peace and confidence I have begun shooting freely and I see a bit of a difference in the outcome, it’s less about how the photograph comes out and more how I initially see it. The scavenger hunt of photography is how objects, images and their colors appear to the artist eye tell their stories-it is our jobs as artists and photographers to tell their stories and let the viewer find their own stories in those images. I am excited for the future of my photography as I have learned to see again.
It is amazing to watch a writers’ vision become reality. I have been fortunate to work for a few years now with a writer from Tucson Arizona; R.L. Clayton. We started with an image for his first book, an image that was only as clear as a photograph in his mind, this is where the artist becomes the mind reader. What’s most important in this step of the process is to truly listen to the client, not just create what you think would be great but listen to what they see and make it reality for them. We worked together to create the image of a new form of humanity that lived on the sea in large ship-like crafts that looked more like cities. He had the vision of the DNA Helix and how the man’s DNA was evolving into a new species of man. The cover for the first book in the evolution series was born; Sea Species.
What followed was an initial website dedicated to the book Sea Species and exciting updates on the books to be included in the trilogy. The next installment was the Envoy, a book about how man has left the sea and reaches to the universe as his species evolves. The cover pretty much painted itself, it was a planet scene and the vision was a bit easier to describe than the previous cover. The colors were vivid and where initial book cover was predominantly red, violet and green became the color scheme for the second book. The colors of both books worked together to complement each other and in the future that would be very important to tie the series together.
We weren’t far into updating the site and adding the cover to the list of products he was creating when the third in the series was to be described. While we were working on the covers, the books were being perfected and even now the last in the series was on board to be written and perfectly finessed as only the passion of a writer would insist. The third book in the series made the first book seem as if it were an easy image to perceive from word to picture. The idea was a network of lights, a glowing tendril of creation that would finish off the series with the same mystery and drama that started it. Over several weeks of going back and forth with images that kind of worked, that definitely didn’t work and finally and ultimately the image of Genesis was created. The writer had a strong image of what he wanted and would not bend from the original idea and concept and in the end we were able to create an image we were both proud of.
Since the beginning of the series we have created a video that encompasses all of the books. It is an introduction to a very exciting series of books on the future evolution of man and it takes the viewer on a journey from sea to the stars and beyond. Check out the website and let me know what you think of the Evolution Series by R.L. Clayton.
I love to learn how people turn what they are passionate about into a lucrative profession. I met a caterer today and my initial task was to improve her website, what I discovered was an artist whose medium was food and who’s canvas was the upscale clientele she catered to.
Her name is Carmen Cortez of Carmen’s delicious catering and I got more from the interview than just business related stories. She described a passion for connecting with people and how listening to her customers has enabled her to please a large group of patrons with varied tastes and distinct needs.
After asking what I would like for lunch and making sure I had no allergies or specific preferences, she made me a wonderful steak sandwich and chips with a ice cold bottle of Perrier with lemon. Maybe it was the fresh crisp vegetables and how the colors complemented each other on the plate or how the steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned or the atmosphere of the open space on a bright sunny afternoon but eating the sandwich was a wonderful experience in itself.
I was impressed with how and why she became a caterer. She had finished raising her children and ready for the next chapter of her life. She put together the two things she was good at-cooking and connecting with people, that mixed with her love of art and creativity and her catering business was born. We talked about how the foods from other countries became American staples such as beer from Belgium, and spices from India and other far away place. Her knowledge of people and places infused into her passion for food. We discussed her thoughtful process in perfecting her menus that changed monthly according to the freshest produce and meats she could find. As a fellow artist and foodie-I enjoyed being a spectator to the canvas and all I was required to bring was my interest and my appetite, mission accomplished.
I enjoyed a great conversation with a gifted caterer who found a way to infuse her love of food and art to bring people together for a meal, an occasion that her customers would not only enjoy but remember for a long time. Stay tuned for more interviews with other artists, photographers and others who live their lives and do their business creatively.
This is a view from what I would consider a nonathletic person, okay I have two left feet unless I’m scuba diving but I don’t love treading water unless I’m scuba diving but that’s a whole other story. I watch my son who is every bit of the athlete and has a true passion for it and I notice a common theme and an appearance of those that have a passion for athletics.
I had the pleasure of sitting in the stands waiting for my son to do the long jump-track meets can tend to be very long and strengthen our ability to be patient. While I sat in the cool breeze of July-yes it was a very strange day in Texas- a cool, almost cold day in July-2014. It was a regional meet and the energy and excitement was amped up because this is what they’ve worked so hard for all year.
I watched the athletes and the parents, as I tend to do, being alone with no conversation of my own, I like to people watch. First of all, when athletes run track there is a loser, a winner and those somewhere in between, the most amazing thing is that I didn’t see one child dissolving having lost the race. In this generation of making sure our children never feel the slightest feeling of losing, I watched very young children giving their all to be the best they can be. They compete against each other, they compete against their previous times and they compete against themselves and after they all feel a sense of accomplishment not a feeling of shame as some unseen power seems to think they will if they lose.
I have even heard of a team being accused of bullying when the other team wins, I just don’t understand that premise. You learn as much about life losing as you do winning. Keeping our children from loss and the realization that they need to work that much harder is only a negative thing if well-meaning parents make it so. I see kids with real trophies, that are competing for real rewards not some slip of paper that everyone gets just for showing up.
Seeing these young people with a sense of accomplishment and passion for what they are involved in gives me hope for the future of our youth. I also get to see families come together; there is no race here, no rich or poor, no politics, none of those buttons that the government and the media keep insisting on pushing. I believe that a track meet brings everyone together for a good reason and the product is community, true heightened self-esteem and a purpose that you can see just by watching these young kids.
I don’t believe you should force your child into anything, they need to be allowed to pursue their passion and great things will come from it, the biggest task is helping them to find what interests them-I think we are at our best when we are chasing our goals and working to be the best we can be as people, families or in this case an athletes, this is what I feel brings out the best in people.
Artbygordon: Original oils on canvas, Original pastels on paper celebrating the beauty and mystery of nature. Water and night skies are my specialties.
