ART New Work
 

In general, this work is about how I experience the world. It has to do with the unimagineable complexity of both the universe itself and our ways of perceiving and comprehending it.

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Is it my imagination or do I see simplified figures in there ala Keith Haring??? extraordinary in its execution. Nice work, Art.
I worked with a woman who did complex works of art using letters and phrases almost impossible to see unless you studied it. This reminds me of that intensity.

I don't know. I don't consciously put anything into the patterning. That's really the point of these. I'd been doing this sort of thing for a couple of decades before I met Keith. We were good friends until his death. I think one just does what one does. It's for others to draw comparisons, I suppose.

oops-sorry, wasn't aware......but i did see small figures as such, some very clear to me. subconscious channeling perhaps? i think sometimes the influences of the past come back in the work we do now, no matter how freely we express ourselves in it.

I have no idea. We grew up about 15 miles from each other. He was 10 years younger than me. Our affinity for each other was acknowledged. The collaborations we were involved in were conceptual. There are some things I don't discuss.

I keep thinking of Piet Mondrian's works such as Composition with Lines or Pier and Ocean when I look at these, although he used short line segments instead of curves.

Yeah, structuralists tend to see some sort of pattern of relationships as underlying appearances.

I see those too. They're mesmerizing really. Lovely work, ART. :)

"Mesmerizing" is the right word to describe Mr. Art's....art. They are! :)

I like the second picture, and how all the power is concentrated on the centre, which at the same time reaches out to the edges

Thanks. I do see our experience of the world to be exactly that - mesmerizing. I think we are hypnotized by "reality."

Strange Famous, I'm interested in that aspect of two-dimensional space - and also how it has a strong tendency to turn into three- and four-dimensional space before our eyes...

Truly beautiful stuff.

For some reason, I'm reminded of Crumb's work, possibly because of the "stippled" appearance, although my first impression was also that there was a loose connection to Haring's figures.

Very nice pieces.

Thanks magic_6. Appreciated.

I worked as an artist and writer for the RipOff Press in San Francisco and for about 10 years had opportunities to work with the "underground comix" artists of that era, including the Print Mint and Zap Comics groups. Crumb was part of that scene. There were some shared affinities and techniques that were current then. Pen-and-ink work was the basis of everyone's skill set. I eventually attended the San Francisco Art Institute, got an MFA, focused on fine art and teaching, and moved back east.

Wow!!! You almost worked for Zap... Wow. *Is speechless*

RipOff Press was a competitor and published its own lines of "underground" literature. I was happy to work for them.
My work, called, "Mindstream," was a continuing feature in the RipOff Review of Western Culture. But yeah, it was a very inbred scene in SF at the time. Pretty much everyone did mostly free-lance work for the highest bidder.

ART, I would just like to add this (slightly off-topic) comment: your responses, especially in this thread, always make me marvel at the amazing life you've lived (and continue to live). Your influences and experiences seem to be varied and rich, and I think that may be a large part of why your work appeals to me not only on an aesthetic level, but also as the product of someone who is both wise and well-experienced in the areas they're passionate about.

I admire any artist that uses pointillism as well as you. When I see this technique used; I think "my oh my the patience that must be required" but I also learned when the Samurai would do Shodo (calligraphy), it may take five minutes to do one character or 15 hours; time and space don't exsist in such artistic meditation.

In your older work you used small figures blending to make up the image as a whole; microcosms of the macrocosm; to which I've always been a big fan of.

Your most recent creations appear to expand into more of an interpretive direction. Which I feel capture the senses just as much. Sometimes in this direction I've noticed that when an artist titles their work; it may guide the viewer to seeing what their vision was, whether intended or not. Where in not naming the piece people will see different images invoking various feelings. Was this your intention, or do these have titles?



As always; your work is outstanding. Thanks for sharing it with us.

majik_6, thanks again - most of it comes from simply staying alive and continuing to do work. I don't hang out with other artists as much as I used to - that's a big difference between now and then. In fact - except for internet art projects, I don't participate in the "art world" at all anymore.

Sun Tzu, you're right. The absence of titles in the new work indicates a non-objective preference on my part. But once it leaves my space, it's a free-for-all - interpretation-wise. That's as it should be, I think. I just make the stuff and have my own notions of what it's about. But the "text" itself is an open-ended multivalent thing.

I agree with majik_6. I really like the replies. There's a lot of experience there that gives you a lot of solidity and respect in my eyes. And the work is bold and uncompromising. It takes me some time, looking and being with the work, to see it freely and appreciate it - much as it does for me with artists like Rothko.

I guess that's why your intuitive work 'works', because it is coming from such a deep place, and some other people's intuitive works don't. And that's not to ignore the undoubted talent.

Now that you mix less with others, like me, do you miss the dyamism occasionally. I find I get concerned in case I somehow get too isolated and the communication if the work (if that is important) can get lost. How much does relationship generate identity? I'm rambling....

Thanks Lewis.

Well, the loose communities of artists where I had found myself in the past has been replaced by living in a creative art-as-life situation here with sus and mimi. Our site, our ongoing collaborative work, and our love for each other more than replaces the need for an "art world" in real-life.

Also, our work on the Internet involves collaborations with several sites and art groups, as well as creative online communities -including TFP.

And I immerse myself in Nature here. It surrounds me and is a total situation. In these and other good ways - I'm neither alone nor unconnected from continuous aesthetic dialog and inspiration.

Brilliant. Sounds like just what I am looking for. But there's always that nagging doubt about paying my way if I really am brave enough to go for what I want 100%. Frankly, I'm fed up with struggling, and I want a creative, fulfilled life. I do have the love bit, and I am extremely grateful for that. It's just sorting out the rest that I find a bit tricky.

Er, maybe I should read my own quote a bit more often....:D

Well, I was telling my husband the other day that your work remimded me of that era. I've always been a big R. Crumb admirer. It was just really neat to find out I was close in my call. :)

And it's appreciated. I guess I haven't talked about this stuff for a lot of years. There's a certain distance I've tended to keep between myself and other artists - probably has to do with a wholesale rejection of the "art world" in favor of working somewhat anonymously on the Internet. These decisions are part of my fairly recent past.

In any event, it doesn't make a lot of sense to completely cut oneself off from some of the essential experiences that have been a significant part of one's life, I suppose.

So thanks for all of the comments here. They nudge me to get back in touch with some realities. This is the sort of thing that happens once one becomes more open - again - to inspiration. That's what the new work seems to be doing. And that's great!

what does it say about me if I say that all I see is something that is randomly pretty and that I dont see anything "in" it?

I like that way of seeing a lot.
It's my response to most of what I see in nature when I am able to stop thinking about things - which is a great pleasure to me...

In a way, the statement Jackson Pollack made when asked why he didn't paint from nature - he declared, "I am nature" - is relevant.

Art... I absolutely love the top one. I have been looking at it for at least 10 minutes. Good stuff, thanks :)

rocinante2003, thanks.
... part of what I'm interested in with the new series involves the negative space at and near the event horizon.

The pad on my father's phone table used to covered with work like this... he always doodled while talking on the phone and it was always either points or lines forming random patterns... As a child I would love using the phone when I visisted him because I had the chance to look at his "work"...

My father died several years ago and I had forgotten about his phone pad... You work brought back those memories... Thanks Art.

Charlatan, thanks for sharing that.
I would have like him - kindred spirits and all.

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This new series is satisfying in that I'm seeing something different than I see in my previous stuff. It's subtle but it's enough to intrigue me. So I guess I'll do some paintings and see what they're looking like these days.

Our new studio is just about cleared and ready to set up.

That second one is a really tricky maze, especially with start and finish unlabelled; or is it a dot-to-dot w/o numbers? :D

Ironically (in light of charlatan's phone table tale) I did something similar to my first telephone with a sharpie, only using short, squiggly "s" shapes instead of dots. Made it less boring than plain white.

Edit: sometimes I'm not as funny as I think I am.

These are impressive, ART.
The second piece is amazingly complex...looks like extreme concentration was needed. How long would you spend on something like that?
Reminds me of the pointillism style.
Nice work...

vermin, yep.

Thanks, folks.

Anyway it takes a week or so to do a small drawing like this. I've done this sort of thing for a lot of years, from small drawings to 30-foot paintings and murals. I like making points.

Once again Art, I'm impressed by the depth of your work.

This is an example of a work that changes every time that you look at it; you can't help but study it's movement and ponder it's complexity.

I look forward to future contributions, your heart is always in your work.

-SF

Art! I didn't know you did skretches in your spare time! I must say that you've got quite the talent and I really like your particular style :D

Nancy, yes. It was a career of mine for quite a while. It's a part of my larger life now.

Art, this is fantastic! I've done some "pointilism" work in the past, but there was always some form that I was working towards, whereas these seem to achieve some form only through their randomness. It's funny that I can just stare at the first one and think I see an oriental dragon head eating a snake, with smoke billowing from it's nostrils, but then when I scroll down and then scroll back up I see something totally different.

Thanks Jadey.
I do think form arises from formlessness - and a lot of what we see is about how we perceive things and not necessarily about the things themselves.

that's great Art.