Job: Contemporary Artist

I was spraying angular segments of mat board for a new piece, having first placed them on some scrap black mat board.

The sprayed pieces looked great, kind of crude but evocative.

The patterns left on the scrap underneath were incredible.

Suddenly I had not one, but three new pieces. Two of them are featured below.

This little experience was just one of many good surprises I have had the past six years. Since I started making art, in treatment, in the summer of 2019, rarely has a week passed without me working at least a little on art. The only exceptions have been when I was traveling.

As a result, I have made several hundred pieces, not all of which are on the website. More times than not, I have had a pleasant surprise and rush of excitement when something completely unexpected and really good happened. Out of the process came a jewell.

I thought I would be composing music in my later decades. I never expected to be making art. And yet, having put composition away for now, I find I am working more steadily and contentedly as an artist than I ever did as a composer. And I have found that some aspects of music composition translate well into visual art.

And I still write; hence this blog.

Dimensions

This was the first surprise piece, a fortuitous byproduct of an artistic process I am continuing to refine. (A similar thing happened several weeks ago, resulting in Accidentals and Study in Pink and Black.)

I love the yellow and green; perhaps my farming youth comes through in the classic combination used by John Deere.

This may be the best piece I have done. Or maybe the next one below is the best one yet.

Angularities

This was part of the original piece I was working on when Dimensions emerged. I intended to layer and interweave it with additional material, but it was too strong on its own to break up. It is crude, torn, dirty, and full of intrigue. Where are those lines going? What dimensions are implied in the ghostly forms created by deliberate overspray?

Flow

This was another surprise, which began with angular forms of mat board glued to wood panel. I ended up stripping off the top layer of mat board, leaving a rough paper surface underneath broken up into the geometry you see in the final product.

I sealed and spray painted the individual segments, which gave me something with a bit of pop art feel. But then I had the impulse to grab a Home Depot latex brush and see what would happen with little strokes of acrylic paint I had recently purchased for no particular reason.

It came alive. Maybe THIS is the best piece?

Can’t wait to do more.

Inspirations

I recently visited the Adam Pendleton Exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. Pendleton is a major figure in the contemporary art world, and I feel a kinship to his approach. He works consistently, creating material that he frequently layers, something I do as well. He is creating on a scale that I do not, but his work is powerful and if you are in Washington in the next few months, you should check it out.