Seems like we are emerging from under some dark clouds these days. The challenges of being a human on planet Earth are many. I haven’t added to my blog here in so many years. In the past five years I have lost many good friends and family members. It’s a consequence of living longer. Everyone just disappears. But where do they go? I have been thinking and planning a series of images based on what people report from near death experiences. I’m probably going to call it Beyond the Great Threshold. At this point in my life I feel I am approaching it. But who knows? I may be here for many more years. My aunt on my mother’s side lived over 106 years. Aunt Marion was featured in a National Geographic issue about long lived people when she was 103. She loved to whistle loudly, worked in her garden and had a vibrant spirit. Quite an amazing lady. This week I am on my way to the SNAG Conference in San Diego which is a gathering of metal artists and jewelry people from all over. I’m giving a short talk on a panel about Human/Computer interaction. My part is about using AI to help design jewelry. I think of AI as an IA: Intelligent Assistant. Sometimes not too intelligent at this point but I expect that will improve. Working with a text to image program gave me some needed push in unexpected directions. I have always love the scale of some ethnic jewelry but was never able to encapsulate it in my work. Just made the leap and it was good. Hopefully no one will throw rotten tomatoes during my talk. My message to the audience will be that we need to know everything we can about AI because it is infiltrating all our electronic interactions. Now is not the time to bury our heads in the sand.
Gaia's Web: The Pollinators
As a gardener, I have a special interest in bees. I let some of my plants go to seed so they can have the pollen from the flowers. I take time to observe them in the garden and leave them some water. Most of us have heard the bad news about failing bee populations. This threatens our food supply and that of our fellow creatures.
With the ongoing drought here in California, we decided to tear out our dying lawns and plant native plants. I have been reading a special book Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy. The author describes how our bees, butterflies and birds rely on native plants as food and shelter. When we import non-native species, they cannot adapt. The premise of the book is that if we took out our sterile lawns and artificial turf and replaced them with native plants, we could help restore our ecosystems yard by yard.
It seems a small thing, but it is working. Our landscaper lives next door and he did this to his yard. When you walk past, you see bees that you don’t usually see in the neighborhood. We can do this. One yard at a time.
The work in this series honors our pollinators. Bees and Hummingbird Moths. They are painted with watercolors, cut out and embedded in encaustic bees wax on pigment fractal prints. Some coloring is done with oil paints. The surfaces are very tactile and the warm scent of the wax is subtle.
All the Submerged Artists
I recently posted a page of black and white fractal artworks titled Darkness and Light. As I was working to arrange the images, I realized how artists I admire from the past surface in the elements of my work.
In Dark Angels Dance, the flavor of surreal oddness of Hieronymus Bosch mingles with a graphic quality that is reminiscent of the fine linear repetition of Albrecht Dürer. These are two artists who have intrigued me for many years and are part of my submerged Art History mental file cabinet. I can't call it subconscious, but it is just under the surface of my thoughts.
The next image is titled The Bride and Her Bachelors because of the forms that remind me of Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors. This work has always interested me because of the interplay of mechanistic elements juxtaposed with the title. It was so far ahead of it's time.
Drawing and painting are still a part of my studio practice. I created the backgrounds for Deep Roots/Old Bones and Tenebris with charcoal dust, watered down gesso and India ink on watercolor paper. Many layers give an interesting depth to the surface. Scanned, this becomes the background for a fractal image. The process reminds me of Alberto Giacometti's drawings where he would layer white into his dark lines like a type of energy line or time dust.
Many more artist muses will surface to give me advice and scaffolding. As my favorite painting teacher Michael Jacques is fond of saying "Every artist is our teacher"
Off to the Warm Seas
Diving in distant oceans of the world is always a transcendent experience. The forms of nature we take for granted on dry land morph into strange and wonderful shapes and colors. Soon I will be able to explore the northern waters of Sardinia, Italy.
Foremost is the geological history of the Mediterranean Sea. When waters broke through the Gibraltar Straits 5.3 million years ago, a great flood was unleashed that became this sea. The sheer size of this event confounds the imagination. Add to this the layers upon layers of ancient shipwrecks and cities that subsided during earthquakes and there is much underwater drama to behold.
Looking forward to seeing some interesting life forms such as sponges and sea animals that I haven't seen before. The sea is so intensely blue and the water so clear.
Past, Present and Future
I was reading about an exhibition by Bauhaus artist Lazlo Moholy-Nage and remembered that I was always intrigued by his work. Surviving the first world war, he went on to find beauty and aesthetic meaning in the processes of industry. His focus on geometry and color were not limited to traditional art materials as he used industrial techniques (like enamel sign printing) and re purposedmetal parts and glass for sculpture.
I'm certain that as an artistic explorer, he would have been an enthusiastic adopter of digital art processes. His experimental photography shows his interest in pushing the boundaries of film processes and materials.
I'm currently working on some animations that were inspired by his work. They combine hand drawn textures and shapes with digital animation. Will post them as soon as I finish. They draw from the past and point to the future.
A Journey Through Wonderland
It was a year ago this month that I began seriously working with fractals. Oh, I played with them when I had my first computer. It seemed more like entertainment than a serious artistic pursuit. But here I am again delighted with the many advances in the technology. My background in 3D modeling certainly helped me understand how to work with 3D fractals. But it takes the skill and eye of the artist to coax these forms into engaging compositions.
Today, I'm sharing some of the best work from the year on this site. I hope you will find the intricate patterns of form as fascinating as I do.