My Painting, Dante in Oakland is a Artist Closeup feature in the Contemporary Art Magazine page 103- Check it out.
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Birds-Finding peace in nature.
Birds-Finding peace in nature
Out of the cold, the remnants of melting snow,
The crackling of ice on pavement
a familiar sound of birds…
I was seeking peace,
doves above me, rise and fall
the sound of morning
and all I needed was peace
A Snowy Day with the Birds
I have been isolated for the last four days. I feel like my whole life is a reboot with snow and ice as the catalyst.
It’s embarrassing, a comparison of New York in the snow versus Texas, but this isolation is everything I needed to recreate myself or maybe, more like get back to the person lost in the turmoil of daily life.
The sound of toil on a telephone pole
the incessant builder,
digging a hole.
I was seeking purpose
nothing stops in nature, every Machine
says its so, I was desperate for purpose
with no specific place to go
How often do you listen to the sound of nature, the cracking of snow, the sound of birds, it is a simple, easy and yet so difficult for most of us. Our lives are filled with things that need to be done.
Sometimes the greatest accomplishment is simply stopping long enough to listen, to hear our inner child. This is something I’ve been struggling with for many months.
Birds-Seeking Peace & Purpose: Finding peace in nature.
Birds-Finding peace in nature: Poetry
The richness of red in a winter landscape
remembered as a child, they call them a soul
seeking attention,
a high pitched chip as I walk home
the realization of joy, is knowing
we’re never alone
so why do we feel so, alone
I’ve been fighting depression for all my life, in the last few months, it’s been a constant. Even while I was doing what I love, going places and exploring the road, depression kept a hold on me.
This morning, the chore of walking the dog introduced me to my young self, a need I might have overlooked, the simple act of listening to the birds finds peace. The next obstacle or summit is probably joy-that has more to do with God than nature.
I was seeking silence,
I was wanting joy, a familiar soul
in the sounds of birds among the trees
a small child I used to know
From a Canvas: Getting Back to Painting
Getting Back to the Canvas
A Disturbance of Birds
A painting about a suicide in a field. I wanted the sudden disturbance of the birds to be a warning. I am still working on finishing this piece.
From a Canvas: Back to Painting – I wouldn’t trade being creative for anything but there are parts that can be a curse. If you approach it with the wrong attitude, it can be frustrating. I am writing a book about the process of finding happiness and contentment when brain chemistry has a mind of its own.
My biggest obstacle is knowing where to start. Do you write poetry, prose, paint something or go disappear and photograph for a while. The problem is the desire to do which doesn’t always align with inspiration.
Pastels Just Beginning Again
Sometimes the image happens. There isn’t always a clear and perfect image in mind and that’s okay. This pastel is of the city at early evening. I wanted the lights reflecting in Lake Ray Hubbard to show movement.
Creating without inspiration is like painting a wall. Push the paint back and forth, end up with a solid color with no intricate shadows and detail; not exactly creative.
When the inspiration meets the desire, suddenly the paint does its own thing, you can be in another room if it weren’t for the hand being your vehicle for painting. The photograph finds its own light and models itself a composition that was already in place before you found it.
This painting sat on my easel for quite a while. I just recently finished it and it will be a news item soon. I have had a very intense and productive pastel series in recent months.
Even more interesting is how words create their own, without thinking of the right word or seeking a rhyme-it just writes itself. The feeling is euphoric and being unable to get into that feeling is where depression, mental block and so much frustration begins.
Allow the Inspiration to Grow
The way I handle this process is to realize you are exactly where you need to be at any given time, what needs to be written, painted, etc. has not formed yet. The panic you feel is you’ll never have that amazing feeling again and a hopelessness grows.
Realize depression, anxiety and frustration are all part of the process of discovering the next work and it will be already developed because through all the empty moments, it was slowly developing itself.
If you consider yourself just a lightning rod to the inspiration and a humble steward to explain that which might be as simple as a flower or something that could potentially change the world or at least the world of an audience that receives it, you may find hope in the darkness.
I believe creativity is a great burden that we are given to explain things in a different way-there goes my humility, but I do feel we have a responsibility to be true to the vision, honest with its execution and without preconceive intention.
That which we create is no longer ours, it is the property of the viewer. The audience, will discover it and make it their own from their own experiences, I don’t believe the creative needs to explain their intention unless the viewer wants more background, art is in the viewers eyes.
It’s been a long time, I feel like I’ve been knocked down, floundering on a canvas, this is my moment of getting back, picking up my tools and describing what has been developing for far too long.
Random acts of creativity: Where Inspiration meets kinetic
Random acts of creativity: Picture the most euphoric state you can imagine; the birth of a child, flying down a ski slope or a rollercoaster or the view of an awe-inspiring sunset and realize how transient that state is. This is what creativity is for me.
It is when everything aligns naturally and suddenly the strange riddle you’ve been deciphering becomes completely discernible. The riddle is inspiration-I equate it to craving something to eat but not quite able to decide what you are craving.
Photography: I have experienced this state of clarity in each medium I work with. My photography used to be, a love of landscapes which weren’t always available to shoot depending on the quality of light and time of day.
I would find an abstract pattern in nature but the image never quite meshed. In a landscape, you can plan for shapes and composition allowing lines to create depth and dimension for the viewer but how do you explain objects and make them have interest to the viewer.
So many attempts failed because I was missing the crucial aspect of the image-it wasn’t the shape, it wasn’t the color, instead it was how it interacted with light.
you just know you’ve captured something beautiful and the excitement is that transient state of seeing what’s invisible and showing it to the viewer.
Artbygordon 2019
As I continue to see nature beyond the larger scope of a landscape, the isolated image becomes more clear. I find myself noticing, even in the flattest, blandest afternoon light how something evokes an emotion or at least interest from a chaos of details.
After I shoot a landscape or an object, sometimes you just know you’ve captured something and the excitement is that transient state of seeing what’s invisible and capturing it for the viewer.
NEXT Post Creativity in Painting: Pushing Paint
The Artist’s WIndow: Isolating Light
Isolating Light – Light separated glistening white blooms of winter jasmine this morning. The image was beautiful as a whole but it was difficult to simplify and accentuate details that could explain what originally inspired me.
Finding light amidst darkness and chaos is a privilege I never take lightly.
Artbygordon 2019
This is a problem the artist often has with separating the ordinary from the extraordinary. We are bombarded with details and often a beautiful image of nature can be quite overwhelming to the viewer.
It is the artist’s job to separate light and shape from the background where the viewer is often left with a chaotic mass of line, form and color. The essence of beauty is often just simplification of the whole.
I have always been a landscape artist but often a flat afternoon light does not offer anything dramatic, this is why I have learned to not only see light but to isolate it and allow it to be the main focus in my photography and art.
As a painter, in the past, I was more impressed with the whole or the peripherals to evoke mood. Now I tend to see shapes and how light accentuates them creating drama.
Light becomes its own object in an artwork and much like you don’t paint water, you must paint that which interacts with the clarity of water, light is not easily defined, it is more it’s reaction with objects that is important.
Because of a growing passion for photography, I have learned more about seeing objects and painting objects. Much like writing teaches us how to think and explain our experience such is photography to the artist, it teaches us how to see and describe the intangible.
Yesterday I made a trip to Daingerfield Lake; it was a wonderful trip with my brother and nephew. Lately I miss the electric hour and either capture the sunset or afternoon light but we had two things, time and shared interest.
I haven’t enjoyed photographing quite like it, it’s amazing to share seeing with others, I love the solitude and introspection but having family to share that passion was an incredible experience for me.
The light as the sun dipped into the horizon created a spectacle on the landscape. The blues were cold and rich, the green reflections were charged with depth and intense green color.
Almost 400 photographs later, I was able to capture Lake Daingerfield in a way I’ve never seen it before. Usually we kayak and fish but this time it was solely a photography trip and a memorable one at that.
To complete the perfect trip, my son called from Oklahoma, although I wished he were with us, it was the next best thing. We will definitely get back for more photography and kayaking, it is truly a beautiful lake to visit.
Daingerfield State Park is 150 miles east of Dallas. Texas. It is a small intimate lake for kayaking and offer a wide variety of fishing opportunities including pickerel which is what we go for.
It is quiet and perfect for the get away from the city without feeling too far remote. For more information go to https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/daingerfield
Social Training, SEO and building a following, part 4 of 5
Social Training – You have some pictures, paintings, words and thoughts, you’ve invited a crowd of people to see your stuff, unfortunately you have no stage, there are thousands doing the same thing and let’s just be honest, you’re not the tallest in the room.
It is a chaos of information, trying to start a conversation with clients when there are louder voices, bigger personalities and reserved stages for those that have known the venue for much longer than yourself.
It seems a bit daunting but I believe that’s why it takes time. First of all give them information that is fresh, content that is easy to digest and use words that no one else in the room is using.
Whisper while all the other marketing people are shouting. Do something that sets you apart from the rest of the room. Start collecting smaller groups of the large crowd and slowly but surely they will become a large portion of the room where your voice is not lost in the chaos.
Now you have a following, that following will share you with others that aren’t even in the room. That following will build a stage so you can now speak over the others who are marketing the same product or idea.
Here is where you can stand out, don’t only talk to them, talk with them, be there for them and suddenly you have customers and relationships that last. You have just turned an audience into a client-base, now make sure you know who they are.