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.

Dispatch from the Wilderness

Several months ago I posted my intention to begin a new painting  The Temptation of St. Anthony of the Desert ; these few months later the painting is progressing well enough that I feel able to post an update. I have been working on it in between class assignments and several other smaller paintings.

It is a rather large painting, 36 by 48 inches. The image is a bit fuzzy as I’m having difficulty photographing the painting ; but as the painting is still unfinished a bit of fuzziness allows for progress. The sheet of paper, which I use to wipe off excess paint, hides the Abbot, he is of yet  just a sketch.

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Temptation of St. Anthony of the Desert

unfinished

oil on canvas 36 by 48 inches

As I have been noodling with the painting,  I am  as usual kept company by the pugs Rose and Viola. This image below explains my slow progress, Viola just demands a certain amount of attention, she is my greatest Temptation.

562180_10200625206982204_1520932710_nViola, the vigilant studio assistant

I’m taking a break, my eyes grow weary with  the tight work, I have a Dead Mother  I am working on,  a far looser painting; I  will switch off after my dinner break.  Viola is at this moment in the study with me, snoring away, delightful company as always.

Until next time, take care, LG

Strange Fruit,II

Just a short post, this is the revised print that I posted on Easter, link, this time with the second color.  I’m hooked, if reduction relief did not  work for me, individual color plates do. A certain obsessive compulsive inclination is satisfied by working each plate meticulously so that the image aligns. This is by no means a perfect print, the alignment is most noticeably askew when looking at the Princess’ upward reaching hand. But now I have a better grasp on the process and feel confident enough to work with more color, quite a relief -lame printmaking pun intended.

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Strange Fruit, II

relief print on paper

I am attending a Mesoamerican conference this week in LA, I’m very excited, two days of Meso fun. Starting off with a workshop deciphering  Mayan glyphs, I haven’t great expectations, but if I can recognize just a few glyphs I will be pleased.  The spouse has arranged a vacation in Mexico City for the Day of the Day festival ; I’m eager to check out the museums and the ruins, planning a trip to Teotihuacan as well.

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Until next time, take care,

LG

St. Kevin and the Blackbird

Fresh off the Press: St. Kevin and the Blackbird

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St. Kevin and the Blackbird

relief print on paper

12 by 12 inches

I have been intrigued with St. Kevin since having seen Clive Hicks-Jenkins  wonderful depictions of the long suffering saint.

Falling in love with Seamus Heaney’s poem St. Kevin and the Blackbird closed the deal.

I have been doodling this wonderful fellow ever since, what isn’t there to love?,  a pious man yet all too human,  stuck in his cramped hermitage, in conflict (or perhaps not) as to how to proceed in life, which path to take. Happily charity and compassion triumphs over self-interest.

 I was unfamiliar with this saint, perhaps he is an Anglican saint ; I do not  know, but I do know I am smitten.  I imagine a few more images of the fellow will pop now and then.

Until that time, take care and may St. Kevin bless you with patience and grace,

LG

Spring Arising

In the spirit of Easter I cobbled together this relief print .

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Regeneration

relief print, ink on paper

After my last post on Good Friday I went back to the studio with the specific desire to just paint. not to fuss, not to sketch, employing a limited palette, not to overthink; just play with paint and linseed oil.  I also only allowed a specific amount of time, the few hours before I needed to prepare dinner for David. The result is far from stellar, in fact I hesitate to post it at all, but in the spirit of honest exploration I will anyway.

Let’s just call it an experimental daub, awkward, tentative, but an effort to change- that is what spring signifies anyway.

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 Good Friday Daub I

oil on board

Happy Easter,

LG

Post Script: I noodled with this daub a bit more, resisted fussing but I felt it needed more definition. My intention was to accentuate the projectiles coming toward the Son of God.

I’m happier with the painting, I can now let it be. I appreciate the kind words of encouragement I have received concerning this experiment.

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Strange Fruit: a Mayan Alternative to the Passion

I am in my second semester of printmaking and frankly it has been disheartening. The exhilaration of the first few prints, successful or not, has been eclipsed by technical problems, some seemingly insurmountable . I recently finished a labor intensive, time sucking reduction relief print, a technique in which one linoleum plate is used, and each color is ultimately scraped away for the next. Engineering the color seqquence was daunting enough, but I think I was able to resolve that issue; but  by my final press, down to final color, a sepia, the finished result was disastrous .

I was taken aback by my visceral disappointment to the final image, I frankly had to walk away. I still have not have had the will to face the sad pile of wasted paper, ink, time, effort and optimism; spring break ends Sunday, perhaps I will face my demons on Tuesday.

In the mean time I am determined to avoid that sad route, eliminating reduction reliefs with individual plates for each color. This was my initial instinct but the assignment demanded the one plate approach.

The following, the first printing thus far, is the line work. The second plate, most likely red, is still being carved out. I post this unfinished print as it is appropriate to Good Friday, a day of sacrifice and reflection, frankly my favorite holiday of the christian calendar . This image which is one I have explored several times is that moment in which the Maize God,  the savior character from the Popol huh,is discovered by the princess of the Underworld Xquic. This fateful encounter results in a miraculous virgin birth, the severed head of the Miaze god spits into the open hand of the virgin princess (subtle Freudian imagery). Clearly I am fascinated by this twist of our familiar Christian sacrifice & rebirth theme . 

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Strange Fruit

relief print, ink on paper

Some sketches prior to cutting:

IMG_3831Wishing all a happy Easter if so inclined, certainly happy spring Sunday.

Take care,

LG

From Today’s Notebook, The Dead Mother

As David and I have very little time together, just the weekend, we try to find ways of integrating our interests. Lately David has been joining me in the workroom on Saturday evening , I paint, he chats,  drinks wine, but sometimes he reads an analytic article that piques his interest. This weekend the theme was the Dead Mother by the French psychoanalyst Andre Green.

I will not pretend  that I comprehend much of  the complexities  David found so thrilling ; but it did strike a chord- like many folks I have issues.

My instinct was to create a painting around this archetype. After discussing the Dead Mother with my own psychologist, I was determined to at least get some idea on paper. Ultimately I would like to  create a small secular, analytic icon, gilded ground with glowing green figures; but for now, this sketch will suffice.

For David, The Barren Breast.

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The Barren Breast

graphite and watercolor on paper

Until next time, take care,

LG

Black Smoke, White Smoke, Same Old Bigotry

Moments after the papal decision, one of the first tidbits that surfaces about His Holiness is his active engagement in opposing same sex marriage.

Nice.

Can’t I have just one small moment of optimism, that maybe this  new fellow will be a generous chap and not a bigoted asshole?

I guess not.

I  had been frantically trying to finish up a small watercolor I had begun last evening, working against CNN and its breathless coverage of the gathering of Cardinals.  Alas pretty Anderson Cooper beat me to the finish line.  

So now, several hours after the election of Francis, I post this little daub in honor of the new pope, hoping against odds he will shy away from the Church’s  traditional  stance of misogyny and homophobia and instead focus on what the Church does best, honoring the poor and the forgotten.

For Francis

photo

Holy Smoke

watercolor on paper

13 by 19 inches

2013

For Clive,

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St. Ignatius of Loyola

Peter Paul Rubens

Norton Simon collection, Pasadena, CA

http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_artist.php?name=Rubens%2C+Peter+Paul&resultnum=6

The Perfect Man, birthday greetings

Today is my husband’s birthday , he is quite frankly an amazing man- too bad we are many miles apart at the moment. But seemingly, to compensate for that fact, not one but three Perfect Men arrived in my mailbox. Three perfectly constructed, anatomically ( although rather neutered), little grey plastic men. 

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Although diminutive in scale, they are gorgeous in their detail. They are three anatomical models my thoughtful and often extravagant husband purchased as part of my Christmas present. They have just arrived and I am tickled by their beauty. This flayed mannequin has the most beautiful glass eyes.

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source: http://www.anatomytools.com/allmfv2-1-6scale-p517.php

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the skeletal mannequin

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the flayed mannequin

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the flesh and blood mannequin, although with a Barbie “package”

I am tickled by my gift , typically thoughtful of David, investing in my painting career with the proper tools. They now stand at attention in my studio.

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My beautiful skeleton reminds me of my recent trip to LACMA. Although we have been going to the museum for years I have never visited the Pacific Oceanic collection, my loss. One of the most delightful and strange objects, in a gallery full of many wonderful oddities, was this Skull Rack. I was struck by the whimsy of the fellow which contrasted sharply with the dangly skulls. I was of course delighted.

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Skull Rack (agiba)

Papua New Guinea

c. 1925

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Detail of some of the skulls, I love the prosthetic noses, the eye plugs; I am definitely using these in some upcoming project.

This is certainly a disjointed post , but I want to wish David a very happy birthday, i am looking forward to seeing him tomorrow evening. until that time I will end with the THE  Perfect  Man ( as a boy) in a box.

davidinbox copy

A Valentine for David

I won’t see David until quite late, after St.Valentine’s Day, so I  thought I would post this online so he would  receive it on the train ride down from LA.

Happy Valentines Day bubala.IMG_3733

This drawing is part of my ongoing infatuation with Achilles and Patroclus, something I share with David.

My inspiration for this sketch is a wall fragment from Pompeii, that of Mars and Venus. As a young boy I felt it to be the sexiest image imaginable; now at midlife I have refashioned the image in a bit of homo-revisionism. I still find the hand gesture of Venus(Patroclus) to be deeply touching and tender.

ares:aphrodite:pompeii,napoli museo archeologico copy

Just one final image, a very contemporary Achilles and Patroclus, again very tender and sweet.

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Wishing all, but most especially David, a very happy  St.Valentine’s Day.

LG

“T” is for Tohil; False Idols and the Death Wish

Like a perverse Prometheus, Tohil gave man the gift of fire, but the price was steep. In an attempt to appease the ancient god and to repay the debt, early man offered up gifts of precious metals. The haughty god refused such paltry offerings, only  flesh and blood would satisfy this god’s insatiable hunger:

“It remains for you to give thanks, since you have yet to take  care of bleeding your ears and passing a cord through your elbows. you must worship. This is your way of giving thanks before your god…” An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (144).

Auto sacrifice wasn’t all Tohil demanded, according to the same source, Tohil ”  insists upon the right to drink not milk from the breast, but blood: to be suckled by Tohil is to have one’s heart ripped out” (170).

This insatiable god would prove a false god, setting into place the sacrifice tradition ; which would cause much enmity between the ruling Aztecs and their tributary neighbors. Ultimately causing the collapse of this great empire.

“T” is for Tohil:

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“T” is for Tohil

2013

watercolor on paper

11 by 18 inches

In my studio,and in my life I face many false and demanding gods , as ruthless as Tohil. These gods, the ideals I hold myself to may in fact be a death wish.
What I strive for, what I value and cherish may be my undoing.  What inspires me may  in fact hinder my progress in life and in authentic expression. What seems so rich  often leaves me feeling impoverished when I am unable to  reach  such lofty goals :physical beauty in the face of my own crumbling shell; envy triggered by the  seemingly golden charmed life of others; the greatness achieved by past masters that  make a mockery of my own weak daubs.
My own country seems  intent upon adhering to an  Ideal that is no longer suitable (or possible) ; formerly represented by the  ruling WASP class, certain angry factions now bristle at an “uppity” black president ,  an”ungrateful , greedy” immigrant class,  “unholy” gays demanding full inclusion ,  fair social programs for the “takers” and woman seeking full autonomy.   Isn’t this archaic ideal a false idol ?, won’t clinging to it surely be the death knell of this nation?  This  stubborn resistance to progress seems a death wish.
I understand this resistance I just experience it  in different ways.
What drove the Aztecs to cling to their false gods, gods that were in the end, their  downfall. It is easy to blame the Spaniards but history is revealing a more complex narrative, how  disgruntled neighbors of the Aztecs, notably the Tlaxcalans, facilitated the destruction  of this great empire (that and smallpox) . Neighboring Indians, weary of offering human tribute to the insatiable gods of the Aztecs, realized the wisdom of aligning themselves to the enemy of their enemy. What would have happened if the Aztecs had looked beyond the shiny facade of their gods with their impossible demands . Was there no point when the  divine demands became too much to bear, too bloody, too insane.  Did anyone think there must be another solution or were they at that time  just too entrenched .
I for one do not want to become too entrenched in my own damaging practices, I hope to break free and reject my false gods and push against  my own death wish .
With that, good night, take care and be well,
LG