Art Writings

9"x 12" pencil

Passing Glances in 3 steps

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I didn’t think to take a photo of this piece until it was pretty well set, so there isn’t a real early stage photo. But it is interesting to see a couple of intermediary steps before the finished look. I didn’t try to make the colour of the stages look like the finished piece. I think that is part of their attraction, actually.

Passing Glances – I knew how I wanted it to look and used an image that was very close to the final layout in order to give me a good proportional drawing.

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Synaesthesia is another word for Experience

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I remember a man describing the colours of songs. For him all songs had a unique colour arrangement – every compositon had a retina print, so to speak.

I wondered if that was similar to the way conversations and concepts swim in my mind as an ever-flowing imagery – a flow that is both important and difficult for me to express in visual art.

I think we all swim in seas of sensory overlap. We have congenital or experiential differences in how our various senses feed our inner understanding.

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Best and Worst Inventions of All Time

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Best invention – I have to go with the wrap. Using the hide of a kill to gather up the important parts you separate out to take back to your shelter was such an enormous step. Imagine the divide before that meme. The efficiency in that discovery – being able to expend only the energy needed to carry the best parts instead of whatever you could sling over your naked back or in your hands is enormous. You could keep those hands free for emergencies or for clambering into hard to reach places.

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In The Same Place

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11″ x 14″ Pencil

We tend to live our lives unaware of the alternative spaces which are knit with our own. The world around us contains us as we contain the particulars which make up our minds and bodies. There is existence beyond and above us. Eventually, we all have to deal with this great unknown. A vantage of time may tell us what defined our moments of truth. The moment itself is without definition. There is only realizing we are in the same place as always .

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Family Round – end game of a painting

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This acrylic piece has been sitting on the easel for far too long. I’m including it as part of a juried submission that accepts works in progress, which means it can make it into the Blog as well. I’m betting the end result will not look too different from what I have here, but it will take forever to achieve that small difference. That’s just the way it goes with some work, I guess.  20″ x 20″

I noticed that I never posted a final image of the painting in this post –

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Taking Part in 2 Shows

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I’m happy to be taking part in the Don Valley Art Club’s Annual Spring Show. There will be quite a range of work by the members, including my new piece Reflections II.

Place Todmorden Mills, Pottery Road, Toronto Ontario
Show Dates April 30, May 1, 2, 8 & 9, 2010

Opening Reception Friday, April 30, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Awards Presentation 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Weekend Shows Dates and Times
Saturday, May 1 and Sunday,

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Reflections II

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I decided I wanted to do a variation of Reflections, going with the energy and ideas that were still strong from the original. So, working on a larger scale (36″ x 24″) in acrylic, I will be trying extra-hard to make this piece a fully functional painting when hung in any orientation. I’m interested in following up on where I was when painting Reflections.  So while not trying to be cute about it, I’m reflecting upon the reflections of things, the reflected image,

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Icons and Water Element

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11″ x 14″ pencil

People have a reliance on and a relationship with the animals that share our world. Our bodies, our natures and the very roots of our existence are conjoined. There is a natural correspondence between this ancient interrelationship and the iconic gestalt that we consider when we think “bear”, “bird” or “fish”. These creatures have acquired connections in our perception which include the cycles of life and death. The primeval forests we roamed were the domain of the bear.

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Art on Deck – February 21,2010

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The Song – 12″ x 16″ finished size in micron pens and colour pencils. This is the first stage complete before I colour it in. The show is coming up and I feel the crunch time, so I will see how quickly I get The Song complete. Hopefully there will be a final version hitting the gallery today.

The finished piece – learn as you go when it comes to this particular art board and these pencils and pens I think.

… Read more Art on Deck – February 21,2010