Details from a small painting on paper, I’m experimenting with a paper from Arches specifically formulated for oil. It’s a bit porous for my taste, I’ve had to thin my oils considerably. As I said, it’s only an experiment .
Will post finished painting soon, until then, be well.
Lg
I’m delighted that two of my paintings have been selected for a group exhibition of visual works and poetry here in Los Angeles, called the UNCANNY, OBSESSIONS AND delusions. It opens March 1st 2015.
Please join us for the Opening Reception for
The Uncanny, Obsessions and Delusions
A Juried Art Exhibit and Poetry Slam
March 1, 2015
3:00-6:00 PM
New Center for Psychoanalysis
2014 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Exhibition Coordinator: Esther Dreifuss-Kattan, Ph.D., Chair NCP Art Salon
Co-Curators: Suzanne Isken, Esther Dreifuss-Kattan
Exhibition Jurors:
Suzanne Isken, Director CAFAM (Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles)
Ashley Myers-Turner, Associate Editor at Outdoor Photographer Magazine &
Digital Photo Pro Magazine
Poetry: Bettina Soestwohner, PhD, Comparative Literature
It seems fitting that the following works were selected by a bunch of psychoanalysts!
Actually the judges were well respected judges in their own right; the artists are in the field. I am the only non-shrink, just married to one.
Genesis
Tlazoltéotl, a difficult birth
(this one should open up conversation!)
I’m thrilled, my only disappointment is that David will be at a conference in D.C. that weekend; my consolation being that our lovely and glamorous friend Meme will be my date. I’m looking forward to it.
LG
Last evening I completed a small painting, I like to think of it as an icon, an icon to a dreadful god. Once again, the great war god of Tenochtitlan has captured my imagination, this time expressed in oil.
The Great War God, Huitzilopochtli
2015
oil on canvas
8 by 12 “
I had previously made a series of relief prints depicting the god, link HERE.
The Great War God Huitzilopochtli
2015
relief print on paper
9 by 12″
This isn’t the most fearsome depiction of a war god , Ares seems far more terrible (and cowardly) in the Iliad. Somehow my war god translated into something gentle and bumbling, I’m thinking that is a good thing.
Be well, Lg
Last evening I attended a New Moon celebration(see previous post), great fun, but during the day I was at hard at work on a new painting. I made good progress, perhaps Artemis was on my side.
I had posted on the painting ( as of yet untitled) previously HERE, but it has languished in the studio gathering cobwebs. I have since dusted it off.
The following images, mostly preparatory renderings are the fruits of my labor.
Blocking in the painting, oil on canvas, 40 by 56″
The painting is complex, an array of Old Gods toppling a sanctimonious New God. The following are character studies, graphite on paper.
Judas Iscariot
The Magdalene and her Scapegoat
a New Moon God
a Sun God, helmet now omitted
a host of Mesoamerican Old Gods
So that is it, busy at the task at hand. I have a few smaller paintings in various stages of completion, but this painting should take me through the summer when I begin the summer critique program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art- I cannot wait, just check out the cast room, the largest collection of first casts outside of Europe.
Heaven!
ONE wing of the cast collection at PAFA
So a new day, a new moon, a new painting, wish me luck.
Be well,
Lg
I’ve been struggling with the flu for well over a week, in spite of my first ever flu shot, I succumbed sometime during my recent trip back East. I find the flu to be a memento mori ( although it could be argued that everything is a memento mori to me). I wallowed lavishly in misery. But for the last few days I have been able to pull myself off the fainting couch and put the finishing touches on a painting I have been working on for the past few months, Persephone.
Persephone
2015
oil on canvas
24 by 36 inches
As is so often the case, my inspiration for the painting was yet another literature course, this time, World Mythology. We were focusing upon the Greeks, with a translation of the Homeric Hymns (c.600 B.C.E.) by Andrew Lang, link to text HERE. The opening passage was so beautiful, particularly as read by my professor, that I knew a painting was to be found amidst the flowery prose:
“Of fair-tressed Demeter, Demeter holy Goddess, I begin to sing: of her and her slim-ankled daughter whom Hades snatched away, the gift of wide-beholding Zeus, but Demeter knew it not, she that bears the Seasons, the giver of goodly crops. For her daughter was playing with the deep-bosomed maidens of Oceanus, and was gathering flowers—roses, and crocuses, and fair violets in the soft meadow, and lilies, and hyacinths, and the narcissus which the earth brought forth as a snare to the fair-faced maiden, by the counsel of Zeus and to pleasure the Lord with many guests. Wondrously bloomed the flower, a marvel for all to see, whether deathless gods or deathly men. From its root grew forth a hundred blossoms, and with its fragrant odour the wide heaven above and the whole earth laughed, and the salt wave of the sea. Then the maiden marvelled, and stretched forth both her hands to seize the fair plaything, but the wide-wayed earth gaped in the Nysian plain, and up rushed the Prince, the host of many guests, the many-named son of Cronos, with his immortal horses. Maugre her will he seized her, and drave her off weeping in his golden chariot, but she shrilled aloud, calling on Father Cronides, the highest of gods and the best.”
I was also inspired by the type of synoptic composition that the Roman’s excelled in, found often on sarcophagi relief carvings, and silver work; where the narrative just tumbles forth every which way, paying little heed to logical time sequence or proportion. I love the puzzle of guessing what the hell is going on . This detail from a Roman beaker (1-100 A.D.), recently on view at the Getty Villa in Malibu is typical of the sort of compositional puzzle I am speaking of.
I set aside for myself the task to include as much of what I loved about the Hymn to Demeter into a relatively small canvas, playing upon the logic defying compositions of our dear Romans.
First off, there is “slim-ankled” Persephone , “deep bosomed, low slung hips”, such sexy play of words. Everytime I read the Greeks ( I just finished the Iliad) I am reminded of their absolute love of fleshiness. I wanted to capture that with Persephone.
detail of Persephone
A character I found curious was that of Hekate, she of the “shining head-tire”, who witnessed the soon-to-be abduction (once again, logical narrative sequence be damned); she and Phoebus Apollo are the only two to see what the hell went on , and the mad with terror Demeter turns to the “daughter of Persaeus”.
I love the passage of Hekate, serene and separate from the madness of lust, “thinking delicate thoughts”.
Hekate “thinking delicate thoughts”
Demeter, in her afore mentioned terror is described as having “tore the wimple about her ambrosial hair, and cast a dark veil about her shoulders”. I admire how that description alludes to her complete withdrawal from god and man and how in time, Mother Earth herself will suffer the consequence.
An interest of mine is how the Greeks, and later Blake , would anthropomorphize natural elements such as mountains, streams, clouds, turning them into sentient beings. I wanted to play with that as well. This mountain shudders as to what will come.
Another mountain harbors the “deep-bosomed” playmates of Persephone , who cowardly run off, abandoning our heroine.
The text describes how Hades, Lord with Many Guests ( yet no bride) seduces the “fair-faced maiden”. As Persephone gathers flowers, Hades seduces her with the floral mother load of all flowers, for there “wondrously bloomed the FLOWER, a marvel for all to see, wether deathless gods or deathly men”.
A handsome youth should sufficiently beguile dear Persephone.
Of “deathless gods”, many feature in this tale of sacrifice, redemption and rebirth, yet Prince Helios, the glorious Phoebus Apollo is always a delight to render.
As is the Father of Gods, the supreme Son of Kronus. Homer in the Iliad repeatedly reminds the reader how shifty this great god is , that only a fool would rely upon the Dark-browed god’s word. Persephone soon learns this harsh lesson when her cries for salvation fall upon her father’s deaf ears. He too busy collecting accolades from man:
” But he far off sat apart from the gods in his temple haunted by prayers, receiving goodly victims from mortal men”.
Frankly, Zeus just reminds me of any number of sexy, cocky Italian guys I have known in my day!
But I suppose in many ways this painting focuses not on Persephone but on Hades (first image). In some ways it turned out somehow “redeeming” the rape into an act of rectifying desperate loneliness. When the three great brothers were dividing the Universe, Hades certainly received the short straw. Zeus in his hubris received the heavens and earth, Poseidon the azure sea, but poor Hades, the dank Underworld-and without a bride. Apollo himself tells the bereaved Demeter, that although he shares her sorrow for her loss, she should see the sacrifice in a brighter light, that Hades is a god worthy of Her divine daughter:
“But, Goddess, do thou cease from thy long lamenting. It behoves not thee thus vainly to cherish anger unassuaged. No unseemly lord for thy daughter among the Immortals is Aidoneus, the lord of many, thine own brother and of one seed with thee, and for his honour he won, since when was made the threefold division, to be lord among those with whom he dwells.”
That may very well be posturing , defensive, patriarchal bullshit, but still, worth considering lonely Hades position.
But for now, I am finished with the Hymn to Demeter.
Be well, Lg
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.
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.
Death & the Maiden
2011
oil on canvas
I will get to work on adding other plates, but for now…
be well,
Lg
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.
Genesis
2014
oil on canvas
30 by 40 inches
My Spotted Hunahpu
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:
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.
This morning’s Carrion blossom, more on the way.
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.
Be well, Lg
Having first finished Flaubert’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony and then having gone to the Getty Centre to see the spectacular Ensor exhibition ( twice, and not at all too many visits ) where I encountered Ensor’s interpretation of the poor anchorite bedeviled by worldliness, I was inspired to paint yet another Temptation.
Flaubert’s work influenced Ensor and that is apparent, from the writhing Byzantine whirl of Temptations to the floating, glowing head of the Savior (Freud was also heavily influenced by this amazing and odd little book). If you are inclined towards visual excess as I am, Flaubert’s text offers endless inspiration. One of the many temptations that poor Anthony encounters is the personifications of Lust and Death, in Flaubert’s description they are an inseparable duo, one cannot be without the other.
I found this magnificent and horrifying, his description of the two is chilling:
Lust: “My rage equals thine. I also yell ; I bite. I too, have sweats of agony, and aspects cadaverous.”
Death: ” It is I that make thee awful! Let us intertwine!”
I love that, it is so terrible, so damned, and yet Anthony resists them and they flee.
This painting unlike the last Temptation of St. Anthony of the Desert ( link: HERE) is a small little oil painting, only 16 by 20 inches. I painted smaller frankly because I am running out of studio space and I have two other large canvases that I am working on occupying two easels .
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
2014
oil on canvas
16 by 20 inches
I wanted to commit to grissaile which at times has been a challenge; my love of color so great. Given the theme I resisted the siren’s call.
detail of Lust and Death
I explored Lust and Death previously with my relief print Lust und Tod.
The idea of Anthony carrying the mask came from a dream, which given Freud’s love of Flaubert’s Anthony, I thought too important to omit.
I will close with this image, the handsome hermit tempting Temptation.
Be well, Lg
I recently finished a decorative project for a certain blond mega pop star who everyone pretty much knows; as glamorous as all that may be, I really did not want the project. I do however hold her designer in high esteem and count him a a friend ; PLUS money is nice. Money is really nice for buying oneself gifts. I have been itching for a press and I now have one.
Some fellows, when they have a mid life crisis buy a flashy car ; I buy a printing press, but is absolutely testosterone driven.
The work station is pretty fantastic gift as well, a birthday gift from the spouse man, welded steel, capable of supporting 3000 lbs, overkill, as the press is under 200 pounds, but again, testosterone driven on very impressive wheels.
Source Uline : source
This press actually intimidated me a bit, and my chum the talented artist Deborah Lambert graciously walked me through the process; incredibly simple and it works like a dream, the following is an afternoon’s leisurely output.
The relief print I worked on this afternoon was inspired by Flaubert’s The Temptation of St. Anthony, in one scene the poor beleaguered anchorite is tormented by Lust and Death, representing the eternal circle of life.
I really love that idea, without Lust , Death cannot be fed, they need one another.
So hence , Lust und Tod.
Lust und Tod
2014
relief print on mulberry paper
9 by 12 inches
I have not been posting because I have been working on a large painting, once again dealing with life, death and salvation, apparently I never tire of the theme. As much as I love printmaking, painting gives me the greatest joy. I have existential angst at times as my prints are well received and my paintings, well, not so much. I may in fact not be terribly good, my landlady told me frankly I shouldn’t bother with paintings, focus on printmaking. I know she means well, though it did indeed sting; but the fact is I love painting. So good or bad, well received or not, I continue my practice. the following is a detail.
be well, Lg
Yesterday in between a job and printmaking class I sketched in a new painting. My friend, the influential artist Judithe Hernandez (http://www.judithehernandez.com) suggested I paint my recent Primavera on a larger scale, perhaps in grissaile.
As I respect her immensely, I’m doing just that.
The original painting is far smaller, the new painting will be altered a bit and will be diptych .
The original Primavera follows:
I must finish another (paying!) project first, but while the passion burns I was eager to put pencil to canvas.
LG
Boondocks Babylon 