Sabbatical 2010

I have been teaching at the Art Institute of Seattle now for over 13 years and have just recently been awarded this wonderful opportunity to have time off to fulfill a creative photographic ambition I have had for as many years as I have been teaching.
I will begin the sabbatical in the spring of 2010. The focus of this journey will be to digitally photograph what I think are beautiful places with a working title “America Still Beautiful”.  Using totally digital equipment I will be shooting high dynamic range panoramas as well as other sophisticated but less demanding compositions on a Canon 5D with a fibor carbon Manfroto tripod with a Giotto ball head.
For processing the images I have a Mac book pro laptop using Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 software products for processing after capture of the work.
I am pleased and excited to have the opportunity to do this creative work and am grateful to the selection committee of the Art Institute of Seattle for their faith in me. I will soon begin planning my travels and as time permits I will post the results. Stay tuned…

Summertime

It's hot out and i'm thinking that it's too hot to work today. I wish I could work all the time on my art but hot summer days like this make it difficult to get into the studio. If I could be anywhere, I would love to go a white sand beach of some blue water Caribbean Island... but that's not going to happen today... the daydream passes and I am back at my desk, a bead of sweat roles down my cheek. I have a trace memory of seeing a fim about Picasso walking on the beach he has an umbrella and a stick and is drawing images in the sand. A creative mind finds a way to be expressive where ever it is.

Fall is coming soon and when it gets here I will wonder what happened to those warm long summer days filled with light from early morning to late evening, memories are often better then the reality. It is natural to forget the pain in favor of the sweetness don't you think?

New Day New works

Sometimes I find it hard to go into the studio. I don't feel very creative or i'm just not in the mood. I'm sure this happens to every artist at one time or another. How we deal with it determines whether we will get our work done or simply avoid creating altogether.

I can come up with all kinds of distracting thoughts that will keep me away from the studio. I need to go to the Gym or I have errands to run, etc. any distraction will do. All seem to be justifiable and true.

But then I think, what if this is the day that inspiration will strike, that I will surpass my own expectations of what is possible. Or that I will solve the problem with that painting that just doesn't seem to want to come together. Will I be available today or will I be gone into the mediocrity of my life? If I am not creating today... will it matter?

Well it's getting late in the morning now and I need to get away from this blog and get to it. Guess where you will find me?

more on content

I wonder if we don't all search for meaning at some point in out lives.

I know that I can only speak for myself when I say that enlightenment is found right where you are and it is only for you as you can see it.

For me, knowledge of life and why I am doing what I am doing comes from years of soul searching and meditation. As to how that manifests in my life it is multi-directional. I work on my paintings. In my studio, I face the great challenges because this is my personal work; it must ring true for it to be worth painting and eventually showing to others. It must express something I want to be known about my experience. I must see how it looks in my life and how this vision can be of help to others. My work often expresses a visual understanding of an abstract thought. To this end I often use metaphor as a tool to form, that which is formless into shape.

I also manifest it in my classroom, with my students. Teaching young minds is a constant evolution because they often do not understand the terms of my generation. I must find new terms that they can understand so that the meaning of what I am saying will not be lost to them. Teaching like painting is finding the meaning and images that will communicate to your intended audience.

The world is becoming full of meaningless images, movies and sound bits, limited visions of empty content that can occupy our senses with hours of spiritless meaninglessness. Anyone who makes a picture can call him or herself an artist. What makes an artist is up for argument and long semantic conversations over single malt scotch and Absinth often going nowhere and helping no one get any closer to become a better artist.

I believe that all art is spiritual. It is art that manifests a personal truth obtained through an experience of searching for meaning. I believe the quality of the art is to be found in how well the artist understands that meaning and uses the medium of choice to express it. It is the responsibility of each artist to own the meaning behind what they create.

I see my artistic life as a personal responsibility to do the very best work I can, no matter what the medium. I would love it if everything I made was the very best but that is not possible. I choose to not allow lesser work to be shown. I only show work I am sure meets my high standards of excellence.

If you are reading this blog I can only hope that you to will embrace your excellence, that you will sit in judgment of your work with clarity of meaning and not weigh the hours spent slaving over it to determine it’s value. Time spent is of no value to the result.

new ways to work

I cant help wonder how I got so much done before computers, it must have been my youthful exuberant blind devotion to making art. I was on a quest to discover who I was, so the more I made the more I found out. I am grateful to Steven Jobbs for his hand in bringing about the computer age in time for me to take advantage of it. Today, I use my digital camera to capture imagery, my brushes to shape style and Adobe Photoshop to organize the composition. I can't believe how much time it all saves me and the compositions are symphonic in complexity.
With less experimenting on the canvas I save time and money. I know that many artists long to hold on to the old ways, the smell of terps and oil paint in the studio is a necessary evil, I know that we love the hand crafted mediums we add to our colors, The color mixing on the palette to get the pant just right. The daily drawing in our sketchbooks to perfect an image. But I have not given up any of that, I have only added a marvelous way to save time and effort, and produce more better work in less time then I ever thought possible.

Thoughts on Content

I have been an artist all my life and have like every other artist made many works that I wish I never made. This is because in my early years I was unskilled, unclear about direction and meaning and without experience in life itself. Youth is filled with energy,  passion and devoid of life lessons, Expression often lacks meaning and a clear vision. At the time I believed that the sheer volume of work would eventually define the value and justify it's existence.

But now that I have lived long, and in retrospect see that there have been many works that have made others pale, I am glad for all those smaller ideas that lead nowhere and produced nothing. Without them I would not have the clarity of vision I do today. Age is wisdom only if one pays attention. Energy levels change with each year that passes, and I think of what time I have remaining. What do I want to create in the limited number of paintings I have left in my life? I think about subjects of importance in my life and seek to express those topics in a way that encapsulates the depth and breath of my skill. I look to painting or sculpting or digitally manipulating images by orchestrating symphonic compositions instead of some small pop single. I believe these are the works that will define me as an artist. If I am to have any impact in the arts there must be works that create a focal point of idea, design, concept and execution. Works that bring 40 years of creative process together into a summery of self.

This is not to say that simply living long will justify this outcome, rather living long will provide the time for dedicated study, practice of excellence in skill and constantly expanding the envelope of ones experience. Taking chances, walking on new paths and seeing new places. One must develop tolerance of other ideas, test theories and be open to evolve and change your mind. To seek spiritual awareness, push physical limitations, and intellectual concepts. I believe it is the goal of art to teach us how to live in this world. Great art inspires us in spirit, makes us think of ways we can do better, and charges us with energy to do so.

It is the shape of content (Ben Shaun) that delivers meaning to a visual image.