Picture of "Sunset" on display

I wasn't able to attend the opening of the LOVE exhibit at South Shore Art Center but my friend did and sent me this photo of my work on display.  I was pleased to receive it as well as to see its placement and delighted to know that it is out there to be seen!
This piece is one of several I did having been inspired by the writing of Raymond Carver.  The short story "What we talk about when we talk about love" was the work I tied this to.
 My favorite aspect of this piece is the depth at the table.  It says something about coming together and exchanging with others.  I feel some safety in the spot created within the frame.

More Sunset

I did lots of drawings before I started the "Sunset" picture.  Here's one in ink on paper.  I recall trying to work out the perspective.  The cabinets here have handles which for some reason I mustn't have thought necessary in the final piece.

Sunset Drawings

Here are a couple of drawings I did several years ago while trying to organize the painting which appears in the previous posting.  I especially like the charcoal.  Also, I've got several ink and colored pencil drawings I did prior to beginning the picture which I'd like to share later in the week.

For me, this is exciting!

From time to time I enter art competitions.  I submit images of my work for review by a juror or group with the understanding that s/he/they will check them out and decide if what I've done ought to be included in the art show they have planned.  In the past I've announced my intention to enter competitions on these pages and have, more often than not, failed to catch the favorable eyes of the juror(s) on those occasions. 
Well, I've revised my strategy.  I decided after a few too many disappointments that I'd keep my applications to myself.  So maybe it worked!  On January 20th I received an email from the director of the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, Massachusetts that one of my submissions to the "Love" themed exhibit, set to open on February 14, 2014, was accepted!
Adding to my excitement and feeling of success was the fact that the juror, Eric Aho, is someone whose work I appreciate very much.  Having an accomplished professional selecting my work to include is flattering.
A copy of the piece is below.  I titled it "Sunset in New Mexico with Alcohol".  It's oil on canvas.

I did many preliminary drawings before actually heading off in the direction resulting in the above and I think I'll post them here over the next several days.  Fun for me to look back and see where this came from.
I got the idea for the piece from reading a short story by Raymond Carver entitled "What we talk about when we talk about love".  What the characters spoke about on a late afternoon in New Mexico included everything from infidelity, divorce, abuse of one sort or another, excesses and the commitments of love and marriage.  I thought the story engaging and took the liberty of creating a portrait of a moment I created, partly from the prose, but in large measure from of my imagination.

South Shore Art Center
www.ssac.org
119 Ripley Road
Cohasset, MA 02025
781-383-2787

"Love" is on exhibit in the Bancroft Gallery from February 14, 2014 until March 23, 2014.
There is an opening reception from 6-8p.m. on February 14, 2014

All the way back in 2013!

Well, 2013 seemed to move too fast...at least it seems that way as I glance into the driver's side mirror. Some successes, upped the painting time, sold some work, learned a number of what I hope will be key marketing tools and helpful skills, met and worked with some delightful people and hopefully grew using what I think is a unique, if not efficient, developmental trajectory of trial and error.  Mostly error.
As I move into 2014, pallet knife in hand (temporary abandonment of brushes?/jury out!) I looked back at my 2013 posts and identified some pieces, using the hindsight method described above, which I here and now choose as my favorite posted work of the year!  A cohesive body of work, not; an algorithm for the next twelve months, unlikely.  But, today, these are my favorites and I'm trying to take lessons from them. 
These are presented in no particular order:

Any thoughts?

Not enough posting in 2013

So, although my attention to this running account of various chunks of my art life has waxed and waned as of late my interest remains and my intention is to grow my work here in the upcoming year.  My art vision continues to evolve and my desire to share it is intact so I don't think I should commit to anything less than resolve to move ahead.
There is always going to be tension between art making and the other stuff of life.  I think.  Maybe there is a way to integrate activity so as to accomplish in all areas......that's what I should try for!  Maybe I should think of art as a means of recording,  so that all worlds are in one sphere!  Ah.  Love that speculation!!
Do questions always beget answers?  Rational people want answers; artists thrive on experience, ambiguity, ambivalence, appearances, illusion, emotion, the expansion or contraction of time and space.  I'm feeling some tension now!!
The piece I'm sharing here doesn't exist any longer.  It's lightness, as I see it, has morphed into something I'll present in the next several days---when I have a photo---something more familiar in terms of style, something with a heavy dose of real.  As I look at this I wish I'd not pushed further.......so now I have some inspiration for another piece!

I especially like the wispy, cotton candy look and "feel";  have to replicate that.

Roughly Constructed Work (Edited 12/28/2013)

The Boston Globe's art writer Sebastian Smee brought sculptor Nicola Hicks to my attention yesterday with a piece in G/Arts and Movies about her exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art.  I was particularly interested to read his thoughts on how she reveals herself through the sculpture she titles "Who was I kidding?" which represents a donkey losing a lion skin disguise and the consequent shame of being discovered as an imposter. 
The roughness of the work itself, as shown in an accompanying photograph, as well as Smee's suggestions regarding the artist's interior life are what interested me as I read.  I've always liked to think that making a series of marks on paper or canvas have a significant unconscious component revealed in each gesture. I wonder if the same is true for building sculpture?
In observing art it seems so difficult to separate, tease out if you will, intention in any equation which might purport to reveal the maker's plan.  Presumably, Nicola Hicks had some ideas about where she was headed when she started the donkey. Did the artist abandon some control as she proceeded?  Did she plan to create something which would appear incomplete in some respects? Is that what is going on?   For her, when was the piece "done"?
This is something I struggle to understand in my own work.  The rough work I do, mostly drawing, might leave lots of ambiguity in sight.  Maybe that's an opportunity for a viewer to solve her own riddles? 
I think "creation" occurs in the act of observation; the viewer's interpretation is so important to the work.  Interpretation takes on a life of it's own and the artist's involvement is, in a sense, static when contrasted with active observation.
These pieces are fairly recent and I feel good about them but I don't want to try to interpret them.  Think I'll leave that to any observers!