iPad Project 1-4-11

A project for 2011: Every day for one year I will make and post a new iPad artwork. It begins with the image for January 1st and then I will change that same image each day, not starting a new one but building off each subsequent day's image. Thus you will see the evolution of one artwork in 365 stages over a year's time. Sometimes the changes will be subtle, sometimes drastic. We'll see what happens. Enjoy! Reminder: images from this site can only be used with the permission of the artist. Email to contact.

iPad Project 1/3/11

A project for 2011: Every day for one year I will make and post a new iPad artwork. It begins with the image for January 1st and then I will change that same image each day, not starting a new one but building off each subsequent day's image. Thus you will see the evolution of one artwork in 365 stages over a year's time. Sometimes the changes will be subtle, sometimes drastic. We'll see what happens. Enjoy! Reminder: the use of any images from this site can only be used with the permission of the artist. Email to contact.

Apps used: Inspire Pro & Sketchbook Pro

iPad Project 1-2-11

A project for 2011: Every day for one year I will make and post a new iPad artwork. It begins with the image for January 1st and then I will change that same image each day, not starting a new one but building off each subsequent day's image. Thus you will see the evolution of one artwork in 365 stages over a year's time. Sometimes the changes will be subtle, sometimes drastic. We'll see what happens. Enjoy! Reminder: the use of any images from this site can only be used with the permission of the artist. Email to contact.

Dot Painting #1

14" x 13", oil on canvas

Light moves, color moves, dots swirl like blowing leaves and dust. Dot Painting #1 pulses, extends itself forward and back just as it is stabilized by left and right verticals and a horizontal mid-line. Transitions between earth tones

are close, the off-white canvas is bare, harmonizing with the lighter colors. The lower left corner is held by a pink dot while diagonally opposed by an area of red.

Painter Lois Dodd in a YouTube video says she sees things other people may not see just as musicians probably hear things she doesn't. I think this painting is an example of the unique way I see and is stronger for it. It is this same quality that may make it esoteric. I stand by what I make no matter the degree of accessibility. People like different things. My job is not to guess what they like, be part of a think tank, but to make good art whether it is liked or not. That is the luxury a fine artist has over a commercial artist. The same quality interferes with cash flow, so perhaps it is the only luxury. It is sometimes discouraging and many artists quit from the compounded factors of money and lack of appreciation of their work. I don't regret my choice. I can't rest without making the images. Here is my personal declaration, a reminder of what I am doing. It's my raison d'etre and I take it with me into 2011. It was done on the iPad. I give permission to any artist to print it out for themselves (not to reproduce). Happy New Year!

The iPad Project 2011

A project for 2011: Every day for one year I will make and post a new iPad artwork. It begins with the image for January 1st and then I will change that same image each day, not starting a new one but building off each subsequent day's image. Thus you will see the evolution of one artwork in 365 stages over a year's time. Sometimes the changes will be subtle, sometimes drastic. We'll see what happens. Enjoy! Reminder: the use of any images from this site can only be used with the permission of the artist. Email to contact.

House and Red Tree

18" x 15", oil on canvas, 2010, PRIVATE COLLECTION

This week I have two musicians to mention with accompanying quotes relevant to the creative process. The first is gospel singer Mavis Staples who released a new album called You Are Not Alone. Her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples said, "What comes from the heart touches the heart." Art made from the heart will be received as such.

Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash started painting to see how she would express herself without language and found that it is similar to writing and performance for her. She likes a quote from musician Linda Ronstat, "Refine your skills so you can support your instincts." Improvisation has to hang on something, knowledge and clarity. House and Red Tree has structure while it sways to its own tune.

Merry Christmas!

Hydrangea, Window

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Play

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Pale Green 1

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Circle and Dots Green and Black

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Red Rectangle Blue Circle

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Red Mountain

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

Snowing Over the Town

Snowing Over the Town, 26" x 20", oil on canvas

I had the joy of visiting the ICA Boston for the first time last week and saw the James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition, the work of Mark Bradford, and the film A Fire in My Belly by David Wojnarowicz which was censored by the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery.

Mark Bradford's paintings/collages have the existential light of Rothko combined with the grittiness of the streets of LA where he collects papers for his work. He also uses the tissue paper used for permanents from the hair salon where his mother works. They are semi-transparent rectangles which he applies shingle-fashion similar to silver and gold leaf. It is very exciting to see new paintings to love that are so about what painters love about paintings AND they are by an African-American artist who incorporates his background and experience. In an interview with New York Magazine, Bradford says when he says he is a painter, some people think he means a house painter. His paintings are selling for $250k, not that I write often about pricing but in this context it is ironic.

It was a surprise to be able to view A Fire in My Belly, shown by the ICA in support of the film, freedom of speech, and against the Smithsonian's decision to pull the work after controversy broke out. The AIDS crisis is the content of the short-film and the controversy is a reaction to the few seconds of footage showing ants crawling on a crucifix. Republican Congressmen Eric Cantor and John Boehner, and William Donohue, president of Catholic League lead the charge.

The imagery is shocking because it is so visceral and the crucifix is a sacred object. My personal interpretation of the film is that Jesus is a symbol of human suffering and injustice. During the AIDS crisis people with the disease were condemned for the way AIDS is transmitted. Many ignorant people, some religious, thought that it was a deserved death sentence, some taking it so far as to say a judgement by God. The illness is harsh and in the beginning very fast at attacking the body; it desecrates the physical self. The ants are like a plague like the disease and also insects known for their societal organization, thus perhaps a metaphor for society's reaction to the person affected with AIDS.

The film also addresses sexuality, religion, and death, always scandalous. [It is a combination I have worked with, having a show in 2006 at the Bowery Gallery called "Sex, Death, and the Spirit". Click to see From Adam's Rib, an image from the show and see below* for a description from Image: A Journal of Religion and the Arts.] Even in cases when art criticizes religion it is important to allow for freedom of speech so that a majority does not gain the power to suppress others and provide the only opinion. Part of the debate is whether it is appropriate to use public money for art that some see as offensive, as is the case with the Smithsonian. I say that it is because "offensive" art is often politically charged in which case voices should not be rubbed out. Diversity and debate are American values that should trump religion which is supposed to be separate from government.

Don't forget history. Pythagoras, Plato and others were accused of heresy against the Greek gods for their idea that mathematics and music have a structure that relates to the universe. Aristotle was executed. NPR has a story called "A Musical Message Discovered in Plato's Works".

Snowing Over the Town is relatively peaceful, having the charm and beauty of snow falling over a community. The trees are edgy and press in, perhaps clues to emotions that may exist between the walls of otherwise homogenous homes.

*Sex, Death, & the Spirit

Fair warning: you’ll see some graphic images viewing the work of painter and printmaker Nicole Maynard on display this month at the Bowery Gallery in New York City. Just consider the subject matter of the exhibition: sex, death, and the spirit—or “all the things we are not supposed to discuss at a dinner party.” The title painting is a creepy mixture of eroticism, dread, and spiritual ecstasy. One painting portrays Eve with both male and female anatomy, a snake as a penis, and a look of enjoyment on her face. Many of the works in this exhibit draw inspiration from the book of Genesis to explore religious and political themes. While we cannot predict the range of responses our readers might have to these paintings, we don't believe Maynard's work is gratuitous. Some will call it misguided, but others will praise it for courage and insight. -  Image: A Journal of Religion and the Arts

iPad Advent Calendar!

Purple Bands

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Fall Pine #1

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Tree Trunks

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

ipad Advent Calendar!

Maple Top

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Trees #1

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Black with Circles Series and Spiral Stones

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Ground

Circle and Fence

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

Dreamed Winter

6" x 12", oil on panel

It's a December themed post this week. No snow here in Rhode Island yet except the white blanketed hills and sleigh bells I have in my head. The Nutcracker is there, too, specifically Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. One could imagine a ballerina twirling around in a tulle skirt, flitting gracefully among the dots in Dreamed Winter like colored snow.

Damien Hirst puts diamonds on a skull and I'm talking about faeries. Everyone is charmed, enthralled, transported when watching The Nutcracker performed live. The music, dance, story, and set design leave our cynicism out on the brown snowed curb. Mr. Hirst can work with excess, a financial circus in art that is not without merit. I will be daydreaming all by myself.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Blue Circles and House

Circles #3

Circles #2

Circles #1

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Black and White Tree

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Pink, Yellow, Green

Folk Fest Tent

Fence with Magenta

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

Cloud #2

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Abstraction Yellow Center

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Hand and Flower Petals

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar!

1. 

Iron Grid

Arch

Orange-Yellow in the Middle

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Woman Reaching for Stars

Woman By a Window

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Maple 2

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Windy

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad Advent Calendar

Flowers

Flowers Under a Bench

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.

iPad December Advent Calendar

Blue, White, and Black

Green Square Blue

Check in daily to Art Weekly for an iPad Advent Calendar! Each post will feature one or more of my artworks done on the iPad using the apps Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, Inspire Pro, Art Studio, or Type Drawing.