Direct transmission

It is a wonder how much a person can learn from Youtube. So many questions are answered on the net. But there is something to be said for direct transmission. It was the way the old Zen masters did it, and the high craftspeople in Japan.

I was updating my web site, looking at my bio, remembering my education. I studied in art classes at three different universities on the graduate and undergraduate levels. This was not a place for direct transmission.

The Art Student’s League of New York allowed students to choose their own teachers. If you went for a five day a week class the teacher came in Tuesdays and Thursdays and spoke, shouted, or said nothing at all. It was closer to a master student arrangement. And days the teacher was not there we had other students, some having studied for years under the same teacher. It was, and I expect still is a true studio school.

The opposite of Matisse

Henri Matisse was filmed as he was painting. The film shocked him. He said, “I thought each brush stroke was spontaneous, but I rehearse each one in the air before I make it!” and he did, making little unconscious movements of his brush that previewed each brush stroke he was about to make.

I saw this film of Yuma. He is what Matisse thought himself to be. Each of Yuma’s marks is direct and spontaneous. He makes his flourishes after making the mark, as if to celebrate it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4WhIV3AlnZE?feature=share

Book Idea

I’ve ben playing with the idea of making a book of the paintings for October’s exhibition

Photographing

To make an invitation card one must photo. It becomes a bigger problem this year. though it was never easy. I’ve watched professionals work for an hour to get it right. And I don’t have their equipment, or their skill.

This year I have long paintings, and frames that shine. It will be a real trick to get a photo that doesn’t have reflections or shadows.

Got to try

I thought I was done with my spring paintings. I had put my things away. But last night I saw a street I could not resist. A dead end alley with a small fox shrine at the end and a late cherry blooming over head.

My raw paper was in the closet so I tried some paper I had painted with venetian red, the way the old gilders used to underpaint before applying the gold leaf.

It changed the touch, increased the flow and bleeding. It didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped.

New Frames - craft

I believe in craft in art. One of my favorite teachers used to say, “He can make a painting that will last a thousand years, but he can't make a painting.

That's a different problem. Art is not craft but sometimes art comes from craft, from procedure and technique.

 Frames are part of my art. I make the frames or the scrolls to match paintings.

I had an idea of the frame being an abstract work of art that serves the figurative art inside.

This year’s frames borrow from frames I made 25 years ago for the Stone Men exhibition. They are build from 9 layers to build integrity and texture. Wood, paper, plaster gesso, silver, finally urushi, cashew, and oil paint.

There is some suspense involved as you can not know what they will look like until the final layer is put on then rubbed and polished, as though it were a copper plate for an etching.