Author: babylonbaroque

I am a painter and printmaker working towards creating a body of work that reflects my own developing aesthetic. New work ,first link. The second link is an on-line portfolio.

Yorick

I’ve mentioned I’m taking an English composition course which I am enjoying a great deal. Revisiting old “friends” such as Oedipus, but meeting new as well. I’ve never read Hamlet before, I’m familiar enough with the play, but I never sat down and actually read it. Good grief what a fantastic bit of work. I’m still spinning from it, terrible tragedy and yet zingers worthy of Monty Python. I’m going to need to re-read it just to feel more immersed in the drama.

This little print (quite small, the plate is only 4 by 6 inches) of Yorick was inspired by my enthusiasm . 

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Yorick

2014

relief print on paper

plate size, 4 by 6 inches

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? “(Hamlet, V.i)

Until next time, be well,

Lg

Oedipus Rex

I’m taking an English Composition course, I’m hoping to transfer to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and I want to get the academic work out of the way. I gripe about CA but its junior colleges are wonderful and affordable. My last assignment was to write an essay on Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King; what a treat, if one can delight in such abject misery. I enjoy writing and re-reading the play brings me tremendous pleasure. At the end of the day, after researching  source material (the psychoanalyst W.R. Bion, the mythologist  Robert Graves) just  being steeped in the narrative; after such a day of writing and thinking it felt good to just make.

This little watercolor of  the young king beseeching the Delphic Oracle for insight is the result. 

IMG_5727Oedipus Rex

2014

watercolor on paper

5.5 by 8.5 inches

From Grave’s The Greek Myths 2:

“…Oedipus went to ask the Delphic Oracle what future lay in store for him. ‘Away from the shrine, wretch!’ the Pythoness cried in disgust. ‘You will kill your father and marry your mother!’ (105).

With that cheery thought may your day be bright.

Be well, Lg

Descent : fragment of a dream

I know it is boorish to go on about one’s dreamworld to anyone but your analyst, but sometimes a dream is so spectacular, it finds its way into my work. Such is the case with Descent.  In this recent dream I found myself descending from Heaven, and although I squirm with self consciousness in admitting this , I had seen God  (and Jesus) and love was the message from both.

So I am descending into the Night, not with regret in leaving Heaven, I’m too awestruck by the wonders below. I am with a silent companion who will remain with me until I land. Below, is a gorgeous city , clouded by fog , a rich ornate city chock-a-block with 18th and 19th century buildings.  

 I will not bore you with more details, I will leave them for my analyst ( my silent companion?).

But this is the painting.

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Descent

2014

watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper

12 by 23 inches

IMG_5724 detail

I haven’t  a great fascination in depicting architecture but I do have a great fascination in how architecture is depicted by the German Expressionist filmmakers , particularly F.W. Murnau. I had recently seen his Faust and David and I were both blown away by the opening scene.

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With that in mind, I rendered my dream city. In the process paying homage to my friend and inspiration Clive Hicks-Jenkins , who shares my love of Murnau and has developed his own  wonderful technique in depicting architecture.

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The dream was cinematic, long and exhausting, but inspirational.

Be well, Lg

Upcoming opening: XV Present Art

Two new relief prints were selected to be part of an upcoming group show, opening December 6th, 6-8 pm at the Couturier Gallery (link HERE) 166 N. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles.

Would love to see my friends there.

the show runs from December 6th 32104 through to January 3rd 2015. 

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These two prints were selected:

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Blue Krampus!

The Great War God, Huitzilopchtli
The Great War God, Huitzilopchtli

The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

Thanking J at Couturier for thinking of me once again!

Lg

Krampus Fever

My friend Ken recently gave me a few 19th c. “scraps”,  once popular for Victorian keepsake albums. Usually they are gooey eyed children holding posies but Ken knows my taste and gave me Krampus ephemera. I was delighted and inspired. The following is a sampling of what I have been up to.

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 Blue Krampus!

2014

four plate relief plate on paper

total dimensions 9 by 12″

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Blue Krampus II!

same as above.

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Krampus!

artist’s proof

I’m enclosing the wonderful little scraps Ken gave to me, my studio is awash with happy blue devils. I couldn’t be more pleased. Thanks Ken!

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Until next time, be well,

Lg

Death & the Maiden, in the beginning

I just pulled a proof of my newest print Death & the Maiden. I’m going to continue exploring with multiple plates, but for now, I’m pleased.

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Artist’s proof

Death & the Maiden

2014

 relief print;plate 8 by 10, print 9 by 12

The print is based upon an oil painting I did some time back.

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Death & the Maiden

2011

oil on canvas

I will get to work on adding other plates, but for now…

be well,

Lg

The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

Strife, discord and anxiety never seem to take a holiday ; beheadings, fear of  yet another plague, discord afar and close at home.  Our patron saint seems to be Huitzilopochtli, perhaps that was my motivation in crafting these prints. 

The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli
The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

2014

9 by 12 inches

two plate relief print on mulberry paper

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The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

2014

9 by 12 inches

Five plate relief paper on mulberry paper

This five plate print was my most ambitious so far. I’m happy I gave it a shot, but it needs tweaking. I think the two color plate is more effective.

My studio looked like a Chinese laundry during the curing times.

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Of all my prints I think this is the one I have cut the best, I’m beginning to slowly feel more confident putting blade to plate.

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 IMG_5675The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli

artist’s proof

2014

9 by 12 inches

one plate relief print

I’m submitting a few of my prints in an upcoming holiday show, the War God will amongst the offerings, wish him well.

Take care, Lg

Genesis

Last evening I finished a new painting, Genesis. As is so often the case my inspiration was the Popol Vuh, the sacrifice and resurrection of the Maize God , the Hero Twins,  and the narrative of the Creation of Man.

An added inspiration was AIDS, I am of that generation where many of my friends and loved ones from my youth are now long since dead.  Not too long ago Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart was on television. My visceral reaction was of  a resurrected  fear, long suppressed, reborn at the sight of so many Spotted Men.    Those  past  days of Act Up meetings in NYC and Philadelphia; those handsome men speckled with death and anxiety; demonstrations on the street, at St. Patricks…; anxiety and selfish terror, would I be next?; and yet the excitement of activism, these  were all faded memories in my now relatively carefree life.  Until that film.

I was  confronted once again with that incessant gnawing deep within, a true existential crisis. So in a simple way, my Hero Twin Hunahpu, who is  traditionally depicted spotted, as he too encountered Death,  represents all those struck down. Somehow I missed the scythe, I bear witness like Xbalanque, Hunahpu’s brother in arms.

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Genesis

2014

oil on canvas

30 by 40 inches

My Spotted Hunahpu

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The inspiration for this painting is also from a previous painting, Primavera a relatively small water color. My friend, the incredible artist, Judithe Hernandez suggested I rework Primavera either in grissaile or as a larger composition. When in doubt I always choose larger. The original version:

Greco_Primavera-watercolor copy

Primavera

2014

watercolor on paper

In this painting there is a nicely perverse little subterranean flowering plant, symbolic of life in hostile situations; today my lovely little Stapelia-Carrion flower offered up a gorgeous maggot filled blossom. A Boschian treat if ever there was one.

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This morning’s Carrion  blossom, more on the way.

IMG_5478 2 My imagined Carrion Flower.

Tomorrow I return “home’, Philadlephia, to visit family of the flesh and those of brick, and paint and marble. Philadelphia is so architecturally rich: Furness, Richardson, Queen Anne, 18th c; plus the museums, I will be in heaven.  I think I will print out this “prayer card” of the Maize God , Hun Hanahpu to keep me safe.

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Be well, Lg