Blog

Painting again. (with some Trepidation....)
I will try to summarize my thoughts for you dear reader on Thalo blue.

Painting almost every day
Mostly on a ladder, High and scared
but getting better with my left hand
Scrapping, Primer, Exterior Semi Gloss

Baseballs Opening Day was April 1st.
Aprils Fools
I was throwing a change up.

Hiding in plain sight, pushing the subterfuge as subject
"Grand Confusion, Grand Illusion, Grand Contusion."
A yankee tradition, maybe of giving bad directions,
"you cant get there from here,etc. on a fools errand.

Obfuscation, Camouflage
Starting Points
The visual point of Confusion
Following patterns, Printing
Clues in constellation like formations and faces in stone.
Trails, Roads, "Centerline", Skid marks, First tracks, Moguls
Trees as explosions, Double images

I d forgotten the use of flowers, planting annuals with the deadheads.
It wasn't for their beauty, it was to be closer to you my muse.
My hands in the Dirt.
You came to me in daydreams.
at first a land o' lakes princess in the clouds
a psychedelic fantasy
So strange I believed it to be true.

It was written on the back of the grocery list, from the money you gave me.
It's funny the things you do, waiting for the paint to dry...

The Clouds came in and gave us their love,
The Lilacs sang out in relief
from the dry and dusty warm week of spring

     I always remember hearing a story about Albert Pinkham Ryder retouching one of his paintings in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts long after it was hung and celebrated. I guess Im musing on when to call a project done.

     Ive recently been cleaning up and sorting through some older works. I enjoying cutting back into some of them or trying to finish some projects that never really took off.  Theres a moment of peril, like picking wounds, something of the impulse of the first piece is destroyed. The hope being the thing will take off and a new better whole will emerge. Maybe it's a little like back tracking trying to find something I left along the way.  Im leaning toward the statement that a work of art is never done it keeps changing. You can send it out into the world, and it develops a relationship with it's new owner or more likely it gets shown and comes back.

     The piece in the photo is one such.  The frame was originally a floor sculpture but seemed in the way and was maybe in need of repair anyway. Both pieces I really liked at the time i made them. So we will see.?.  

 This photos shows the same painting in mid stride. The major shapes are begining to be fleshed out. Some colors have been layered over desperately trying to build form with light and darks.

Trying to let some of that underpainting sing through. Still lots of work to do.

A new painting starting. I usually begin with a warm, abstract underpainting, or an underpainting the oppposite color of the finished scene.  The more loose or sloppy the better, to a point. Big Brushes and rags. I like to try and pull out some features of this abstract field into the final piece. So it can be seen through thin paint. This is the point where squinting and "seeing" other recognizable shapes helps me. like saying," that cloud looks like a turtle or......"

 The longest days of summer are upon us and the weight of their importance is magnified by the short appearance and their great beauty. The garden is in full production.  It seems to rain every other day but the intrepid lawn mowers are out on the weekend trying to tame the yard before it turns back into meadow or forest.

The studio is busy too with new work.  Some times trickling but often just a drip, like a leaky valve on the garden hose. Summer seems to be the perfect occasion to throw open that valve and turn on the sprinkler full , to water the gardens of the world with artwork from the heart. 

There seems to be a point in the creative process where a good piece must be put into peril to really grow and flourish into your best work. 

The first example I've chosen is this butternut carving. The piece started from a log chainsawed in half, for bowls, the resulting slab was cut from near the center of the log to remove some checking and get the bowl blanks to a pleasing size. 

After sketching out the image of the birds I rough carved  the outline and began trying to find the rest of the piece in the grain of the wood. Its easy in this stage for me to be seduced by details in the imagery and skip past the fleshing out of the form. Much of the back round material that eventually got cut out was a result of this romance. It was scary at first to put the whole thing back on the bandsaw and really cut back into to it; but like thinning back the seeds when they first pop up and weeding out the garden I hoped that this cutting would help me focus the piece toward the inspiration that got me carving on this slab in the first place. Whether it's "better" or not remains to be decided.

Im hoping to use future blog entries to examine and highlight moments like these within the studio practice. 

      I believe in the power of art to break through the darkness of despair and cynicism. If making art is a leap of faith the belief is in communication. The great strengths I see in the arts is the ability to reach beyond the words and limits of language to offer new possibilities, directions, and to raise consciousness.  I like to ask questions and voice notions like these I my artwork.

      I am interested in playing between the lines of format and media.

      I am looking for a visual connection to the world outside my door. The symbolic themes I found to explore these relationships are houses, cities, rivers, trees, and machines. I see the world filled with beautiful things maps, birds, bridges, light, stars, and mountains: but also filled with hazards: blind tragedies, senseless conflict, environmental destruction and greed.  I feel privileged to live in this exciting and perilous moment in history. I'm trying to find a balance in my artwork between this beauty and peril, where we're all necessary and dangerous.

*revised 4/2010

 "A rough smack of resin was in the air and a crystal mountain. It came pouring over these green slopes by the oceanful. The woods sang aloud, and gave largely of their healthful breath. Gladdness seemed to inhabit these upper zones, and we had left indifferance behind us in the valley....There are days in a life when thus to climb out of the lowlands seems like scaling heaven."

                                             -R.L. Stevenson

Certainty had escaped me, times got tough and I took a job. 

I don't deal well in yes or know. I prefer the thousand or so subtleties and colors between . The business wanted an answer. There was, perhaps a phone call or two I missed, too too many missing words. Words would not have been my first choice. A portrait of the artist in the day job. 

Im done arguing with myself about the necessecity of art. It'd be nice to see you face to face, my muse, but we're both so busy. Leaves to rake. Static and more music, let me play a song for you. 

The summer passed cold and now it's warm. The studio is re open with children's drawings and paintings, they're smocks and finger paints a wild mural on the floor. As I ramp up to start perhaps a new painting of my own, their energy filling my heart. 

I have added most of the latest crop of turned wooden bowls to a folder in the collections page. There will be a few more in the coming days.

They are all one of a kind and hand made by yours truely in my Winooski workshop.  I envisoned them as a utilitarian product. 

The journey of a bowl like this starts with the eye. I carefully select wood from reclaimed or fallen trees. They are all made from one log, turned green, and slowely dried. They are  then re-turned, sanded and finished with a food safe tung oil, and waxed with a bee's wax blend.  This process is time consuming and touch intensive but I feel it gives me the nicest end result and brings a product to the user that will be beautifull and really usefull.

If your are intersted in purchasing one of these bowls for yourself or as a present just send me a note on the contact page and I ll get right back to you.

Spring slowly marches on in Northern Vermont, and though we never seem to be past the last possible frost,  most intrepid gardeners have planted the delicate tomatoes, peppers and other expensive mediterianian fruits that we try to eck out of the short summer. I'm distracted easily from studo work in the spring. The large amount of pride I gain from growing the handfull of radishs that I could buy at the super -market for under a dollar seems worthwhile.

I tend to plant a lot of these cold weather crops when the ski season ends in april.  I dilegantly protect  the tender seedling from the varicous seedlings of the box elder and maples. It's just great to be out digging in the yard on those first spring days. Mothers Day comes along, the Lilacs Bloom and the spinach, beets and swiss chard are still way smaller than the dandylions and crabgrass growing in between the rows. 

Weeding is hard work and the hardest part of gardening for me is having to choose which plant deserve to live in the garden and why others have to go. I invariably plant too many seed and grow a hundered or so inch long carrots instead of a few less real ones. Im still learning to choose. My apppitete for things like wine far outpaces my appility to grow grapes; but gardening teaches me things about the world, and inspires me to get back to work.

     The process of wood turning seems foreign to the cyber landscape of blogs and tweets. The dust, moisture, and vibration associated with the wood turning shop would create havoc with the precise engineering of even the hardiest of lap tops. 

     As a tribute to the many folks who've enjoyed my wood turnings over the years, I have envisioned this blog as a forum to discuss the creation and care of wooden bowls.

     Many people have contacted me as a former employee of Woodbury's to have their wooden bowls re-finished. This is often possible. While different wood finishes require different kinds of care, I ll offer a few general guidelines to begin the discussion. If possible contact the woodturner who made your bowl, for specific care instructions. 

     Never dishwasher woodenware, handwash, if necessary with mild soap, then towel dry.  Highly polished cured finishes, like the classic woodbury bowl, are susceptable to scratches from knifes and forks. Once the finish has been compromised in this manor the woodgrain is opened up to food, oils and changing atmospheric conditions. Bowls with a oil finish, like tung oil, can be re oiled, after washing with a food safe mineral oil or beeswax blend.

The kitchen environment is full of perils for prized wood creations and many folks chose to enjoy their woodenware simply as a art form, and some are made only with that purpose in mind.  Having said that, I see no reson that a cherished wooden bowl can't be used in a modern kitchen. The small extra effort required to maintain the piece seems worth the value and enjoyment of seeing  your healthy food served in a natural, beuatifull vessel.

"The quiet words of the wise are more to be headed than the shouts of a ruler of fools. "