Paintings and Drawings

 

In the larger art world, current arguments seem to revolve mainly around:  pleasure in the sensuous elements of art v. a rather puritan focus on ideology, significance, politics; personal vision v. painting to a market; art v. craft - ultimately these will not be resolved.  People take positions and defend them mightily, but who is to say that any of their hotly defended stances is correct?  What is correct, anyway?  Aren't these views fairly much conditioned by social placement and competition? 

 

I have heard that there's incoherence in the direction and world views of ambitious artists and critics these days, and I notice a lot of friction and attitude coming through.  In several ways this is really good for artists, who are not straight-jacketed into a dominant style or ethos of painting (compare the absolutist earthquakes, when Renaissance painting with its linear perspective and sudden introduction of oil paints, overthrew older Medieval styles; compare the triumph of Abstract Expressionism over Social Realism in 20th century American painting).  But if we want to be negative we could look at the demand to always be new, as a shallowing and hastiness in most work.  This current chaos is uncomfortable, but healthy nonetheless, like eating your broccoli and climbing stairs.  So let's argue more, I say. 

 

For me, I'm not very minimal in my painting.  My work isn't currently fashionable.   So it goes.

 

I have been drawing since childhood, and painting for about 9 years in oils, 4 years in watercolor.  My teachers included notably Charles Emerson at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art (oils), and Gina Clapp at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (watercolor).  I have also taken classes from Juliette Aristedes, Michael Howard, and Robert Liberace in oils, and from Tom Hoffman, Jackie Saunders, and Steve Fleming in watercolor, among others.   I've read a lot, studied many paintings in Europe, America, and Japan, and thought hard about paint application and about meaning.  What is the point? I ask myself as I paint.  What am I trying to say?

 

I do love painting, but then I discovered glass.  Now I haven't been painting in any serious way for over a year.  But I've been getting an itch to draw and paint, so stay tuned.  You never know.