Medium : Watercolor on Paper
Date : 2019
My featured art piece for this week is a strange picture, and it is a favorite image of mine. I meditated on each new line. I worked on it ten hours every day for six weeks through November and December 2019. I wanted to respond with feeling as deeply and exactly as I could to each detail and each line. I wanted to make it noticeably clear to myself what my feeling was in this image. I focused my intuition to build each of the many layers of watercolor that created this image.
Interestingly, many viewers seem to appreciate this unique work. It's heartening to see that others might connect with the intricate lines and shapes in the same way I do.
Why does this matter? Visualizing from intuition is not usually clear to the artist at first. I search for the line which fulfills my feelings. So here, I experimented with many different lines to see which one felt right. There is little physical accuracy here. Accuracy to my feelings is what I was trying to achieve. I am satisfied, and some viewers are satisfied, too. I hit the mark on that one, I think. I have never been an individual that puts feelings first before the mind, and this piece is a way to change that. A friend called me erudite and that is an accurate description of me as an individual.
While I worked, I sensed a profound, enigmatic force, as though a deity was whispering guidance to me.
How did I perceive this? I felt this mysterious, almost divine nudge. It was as if the universe was dropping hints.
As I began this picture, I saw on the paper in front of me yellow frames for glasses, somewhat like those David Hockney has worn. This reminded me that I saw him recently give a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum. Why does this matter to me? He gave the last lecture of the daylong symposium on the work of J.A.D. Ingres, whose portrait drawings are so technically perfect. Hockney's observations about how this perfection came to be were so vital they overshadowed the discussions by all the very careful art historians. He said Ingres used a small lens which focused the model's face on the paper, and that was why Ingres' drawings of faces are so perfect. Ingres' father, a prominent portrait painter of miniatures, used a small lens too. Just because Ingres did not mention a lens in his own writing does not mean it did not happen. This was a really down-to-earth explanation. Even Leonardo da Vinci, who drew perfectly, used sketchy lines as he searched for the correct lines for his own perfection. Ingres used sketchy lines when he searched out the correct lines for the clothing of his model. He did not have to do this for the tiny faces. He copied the face directly from the focused lens. Why did I bring this up in relation to the picture in this blog? The much-admired American painter Marsden Hartley said, "Ingres' faces have no feeling, no life in them." Yes, I too can draw perfectly from a photograph, and these drawings can be expressive. The difference is that this blog image is focused much more on just feelings. The face is a recognizable structure. The structure is a language that helps to communicate clearly. This is not an abstract expression. This is an expression of feelings balanced and displayed on a structure.
As the image began to unfold, I felt the power of intuition talking to me through my third eye. I feel pressure like a sharp beak pushing. The spoken beak message reveals itself in yellow spirals exposed against black. I have the bird labeled 'god' pushing its beak into the red pool in the center of my forehead. On either side of the bird are grapes and a blossom. What do these details mean to me? Grapes are bountiful, delicious, and beautiful food. The various sizes, shapes, and colors of the grapes show feeling. The flower is beauty itself. Do these shapes indicate joy in life? To me, they do.
In the image, the human head communicates non-verbally with the bird god through yellow spirals emanating from the mouth. The teeth, reminiscent of a medieval Japanese warrior, reflect my studies in karate. Surrounding the head, ethereal fumes rise, evoking the ambiance of incense wafting around a temple. These fumes weren't premeditated; they materialized organically as I sketched. Through this, I felt deeply connected to the profound message of the bird god.
In essence, this piece is a playful dance of introspection and artistic flair. It's a testament to the joy, depth, and sometimes sheer whimsy of the creative process.
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