diversity discussion, again!

8:52 AM 5/16/2008 [original draft]

diversity discussion, again!

my art work is like handwriting; all from the same hand, just different content.  There are distinguishing identity marks embedded.  Sometimes they aren’t readily apparent.  Even when I use a particular artist as a filter or aid, the final results come close to the originator, sometimes, but most often my handwriting will come through in the way I handle the brush or something similar.

I don’t know why the diversity issue bothers me so.  I have had this issue bouncing around in my brain for over 40 years; since graduate school daze.  When I get off this treadmill and just work, everything comes out fine.  I think this issue,for me, is an insecurity issue.  Also it is a product of my impatience.  Also it is a product of my interests in never stepping into the same river twice; i don’t like to repeat myself; making more than one image look-a-like tends to become a boring activity and I want painting to be exciting and dynamic.

12:23 PM 6/13/2008 Update:  While reading an article on the paintings of Sam Francis [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_37/ai_54169955/pg_3] , these words rang a bell for me; “And it was when the assembly line really started cranking that his work began to turn a bit stale, a bit predictable.”  Translating these words to fit into my scheme of making art, to me I have a long running fear of making stale and predictable art by making images that are similar; or making images in long sets;  by repeating myself.  I don’t want to repeat myself.  On special occasions I want to explore an idea in-depth,  then I will create images in series.  Example, I am working on a set of paintings on paper, wood, and cloth centering on a concept of mantle (fireplace mantle I guess — dunno, just like the idea of a mantle).

12:45 PM 6/13/2008:  Also as my mind jumps from place to place revealing only what it can reveal, so do my paintings throughout a session- jump from one image to another (sometimes).  Usually, as I work each painting influences the next one.  I see something that I just painted and it sparks energy to make something else.  I just follow the impulses and paint.  If I procrastinate the intuition, then the process stops dead in its tracks and the session is dead.  I have to start all over again.  Sometimes it never restarts for that day.  Automatism makes this so.  Automatism creates the life in my painting.  Questioning the first solution idea/move automatically stops the process.  This is what I observe and experience in the studio.  This is what makes all of this so exciting.  It can be a problem for a viewer who wants to see logical progression from one painting t another over a period of time.  Well, there is logic.  It comes in the form of Dada and Automatism.  Wrap your mind around this and you can wrap your mind around my painting.  It is that simple.

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