A New Art Movement

White

2011-12-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Déjà vu accurately describes my life. Missouri, Montana, New Mexico. Missouri, Montana, New Mexico. It is the circle of life I relive every couple years – until now. There is a new plan. However, don’t get too excited for the new plan is the same as the old ones.

“I’m done moving I tell people, the kids are bigger and have school friends.” Of course, everyone knows it to be a lie; but they are polite enough to pat me on the back and feign belief while I am in the room. It helps me and certainly helps my family to have a hopeful outlook free of the burden of packing boxes and broken friendships.

Winter and snow have made the desire to transition easier to contain. The hard season of midwinter is what draws me to the north. I’m not sure if it has more to do with my surname or simply my desire for that feeling winter brings to wiping the slate clean. This week, New Mexico is trying its damnedest to keep me here and despite the inconvenience, I am grateful for the perfect white. There are already two inches of snow across the foothills of Sandia and the forecast through tonight is expecting another half-dozen.

Without even a mention of fire, the studio is still warm as I prepare to slip a few more layers of paint upon canvas before my children are released for winter break. The flawless white is freshly falling and for the moment I am home.

-North

Opening November 4, 2011

2011-11-04T13:45:00.004-06:00

The top framed drawing is a Sol Lewitt, the bottom enamel on an easel is mine.

Opening tonight from 5-8pm at Palette Contemporary in Albuquerque, New Mexico. - North

More is coming, busy living to the fullest...

2011-09-13T08:38:00.000-06:00

I wanna see what's never been seen,
I wanna live that age old dream.
Come on, lads, we can go together
Let's take the best right now,
Take the best right now.
-Neil Young

Summer of Fire

2011-08-04T09:55:00.000-06:00

This summer, the fires surrounding Los Alamos glowed across the miles as I witnessed the desert’s death and rebirth through my studio window. Man and the universe are intertwined. Humanity is the best that life has to offer and like the universe, our capacity to exist is forever expanding. Only our fear can contain the scope of creation. - North

Puccini

2011-08-03T13:26:00.000-06:00

I spent the morning listening to La Bohème, while my thirteen-year-old finished reading The Iliad. I have long loved opera because it is all consuming. Also, I must admit that I have always been partial to how Puccini plays toward my romanticized sense of the world. -North

Constructivism

2011-07-11T12:27:00.003-06:00

I’ve spent the past few weeks: reminiscing with house guests from far-flung states; recovering from an annoying case of strep that interrupted my nightly pipe ritual; and exploring the self-imposed philosophical basis of my paintings. I have also been searching for a justification of continuing. My earliest mentor, Ronald Clayton, used to ask… “why does the world need another painting?” The moment you could not answer was the moment to reevaluate your own essence.

"And, irrespective of what one might assume, in the life of a science, problems do not arise by themselves. It is precisely this that marks out a problem as being of the true scientific spirit: all knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no question, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed." - Gaston Bachelard (La formation de l'esprit scientifique, 1934)

I have long reflected my work against the backdrop of redefining “what is common or accepted knowledge? and does that preclude change” … the shared generalization of a tree is just a tree because we have been told it is a tree. Rocks are only rocks because we inherited the knowledge and built ideas from that point forward. Constructivism leads my painting as a relative working theory. I want to adapt the rocks, trees and empty riverbeds from the accepted realist understanding and reinvigorate them as fresh malleable matter. A common statement that tends to reflect a bias against originality is “why reinvent the wheel?” My reply is that we do not reinvent the wheel to make it better or worse, but simply we do it to make it unique. The world is full of monotypes. Not all streams flow between the same hills, yet they still feed water. - North

Fire by Night

2011-06-26T22:42:00.001-06:00

View of the Las Conchas Fires outside Los Alamos... photo taken from my back portal (patio). - North

All Quiet on the Western Front

2011-06-23T10:28:00.000-06:00

Currently recovering from nearly four weeks of house-guests from three different states. A great time was had by all. The meaning of life was pondered and ideas storm the recessed beaches of thoughtful intellect over summertime bowls of pipe tobacco... but actual painting was only intermittent at best. Have no fear, new work is coming. - North

Waiting for the Calm

2011-05-26T08:04:00.002-06:00

While waiting on the wind to die-down, I started two new 18"x80" canvases. Once stretched, the pair of completed paintings will each measure 10"x72". - North

In Process

2011-05-25T10:00:00.002-06:00

These twelve pieces (boxes) are oil on burlap. They are currently about half-way through the painting process. The wind has been heavy the past week and has cut into the outdoor "baking" time I require between the layers of paint. Once finished, they will hang together as a single composition much like "Baked Desert Composition 6" from a couple weeks ago. - North

Weekend Studio Tour

2011-05-09T08:10:00.005-06:00

My friend Hank was a huge assistance over the two-day affair. Helping field questions from customers and greet all as they entered the studio.

My best side as I observe the guests. - North

Baked Desert Composition 4

2011-05-05T08:49:00.000-06:00

"Baked Desert Composition 4", Oil on Canvas, 14"x21", 2011 - North

Baked Desert Composition 3

2011-05-04T17:22:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert Composition 3", Oil on Canvas, 14"x21", 2011 - North

Baked Desert Composition 6

2011-05-03T07:03:00.003-06:00

"Baked Desert Composition 6", Oil on Canvas, 21"x29", 2011 - North

Baked Desert Wall

2011-05-02T08:24:00.001-06:00

The previous posted images combined to form a singular installation of paintings 21"x66" total size. - North

New Work Soon

2011-04-27T13:31:00.003-06:00

Baked Desert 16

2011-04-21T10:26:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 16", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3"(depth) - North

Baked Desert 15

2011-04-20T09:58:00.000-06:00

"Baked Desert 15", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 14

2011-04-19T11:35:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 14", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 13

2011-04-18T07:56:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 13", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 12

2011-04-17T10:15:00.002-06:00

"Baked Desert 12", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 11

2011-04-14T09:06:00.002-06:00

"Baked Desert 11", Oil on Canvas, 6"x^"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 10

2011-04-13T07:52:00.000-06:00

"Baked Desert 10", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 9

2011-04-12T10:27:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 9", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 8

2011-04-11T15:25:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 8", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 7

2011-04-08T10:24:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 7", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 6

2011-04-07T10:24:00.000-06:00

"Baked Desert 6", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 4

2011-04-06T08:52:00.002-06:00

"Baked Desert 4", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 3

2011-04-05T08:39:00.002-06:00

"Baked Desert 3", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 2

2011-04-04T16:16:00.001-06:00

"Baked Desert 2", Oil on Canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth) - North

Baked Desert 1

2011-04-03T10:15:00.002-06:00

"Baked Desert 1", Oil on canvas, 6"x6"x3" (depth)
-North

2011-03-16T08:52:00.002-06:00

"Bather", Oil on Burlap, 24"x70", 2011

"Bather (detail)"

Working on a series of life-size figures that give the illusion of the paint as in-motion.
-North

New Mural

2011-02-24T09:44:00.007-07:00

"Perpetual Growth", 9.5'x3', 2011

I spent the past week-and-a-half painting a new mural at Palette Contemporary Art & Craft Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My goal was to build a non-traditional-format landscape based-upon the Golden Section, an ancient compositional tool used most notably by Renaissance painters and early adopters of Cubism. At nearly ten feet tall, it took me most of the entire first day to work-out the math for the composition of the under-painting. - North

Now some information on how I attained the composition:

Fibonacci numbers and Phi are related to spiral growth.

If you sum the squares of any series of Fibonacci numbers, they will equal the last Fibonacci number used in the series times the next Fibonacci number. This property results in the Fibonacci spiral seen in everything from sea shells to galaxies:

1² + 1² + 2² + 3² + 5² = 5 x 8
so
1² + 1² + . . . + F(n)² = F(n) x F(n+1)

The Golden Section is a ratio based on phi.

The Golden Section is also known as the Golden Mean, Golden Ratio and Divine Proportion. It is a ratio or proportion defined by the number Phi (1.618….)

This ratio has been used by mankind for centuries. Its use may have started as early as with the Egyptians in the design of the pyramids. The Greeks recognized it as
"dividing a line in the extreme and mean ratio" and used it for beauty and balance in the design of architecture. The Renaissance artists knew it as the Divine Proportion and used it for beauty and balance in the design of art. It was used in the design of Notre Dame in Paris and continues today in many examples of art, architecture and design.

It also appears in the physical proportions of the human body, movements in the stock market and many other aspects of life and the universe.

Placitas

2011-02-14T09:08:00.001-07:00

"Placitas", Oil on Canvas, 64"x72" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-02-08T08:10:00.002-07:00

"Moonlight Record 24", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Coffee and Fresh Canvas

2011-02-03T10:15:00.003-07:00

Lost in a psychosis that places painting slightly ahead of breathing in the natural order of importance, I have trouble justifying my existence when that rare downtime appears. This is not an everyday occurrence, just those moments when the coffee pot is full and I’m caught between paintings, waiting for my next shipment of supplies from the Daniel Smith catalog.

At this moment, I have stretched a 72”x80” canvas with a couple coats of gesso and while it needs at least three more layers before I start my under painting, only one more coat rests in the bottom of my container. The bottle of linseed oil has only a half-inch, at most, of liquid remaining.

I find myself literally scraping the bottom of the bucket for that last stretch of glorified white-out. “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III, Shakespeare). That’s how it happens, a million perfect ideas and only a stick and bit of paint to apply them. - North

Madeline's Sky

2011-01-31T07:52:00.001-07:00

"Madeline's Sky", Oil on Canvas, 24"x60" - North

Snowbound

2011-01-27T08:35:00.002-07:00

"Snowbound", Oil on Canvas, 18"x24" - North

Whiptail

2011-01-26T07:53:00.004-07:00

"Whiptail", Oil on Canvas, 26"x68 - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

"Moonlight Record 20", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-24T09:35:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Record 19", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Winter Recordings

2011-01-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

"Winter Record 34", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-20T11:55:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Record 18", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Paint Like a Man

2011-01-18T10:03:00.003-07:00

"Winter Record 26", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6"

Paint like a man. The delicate traditions of Victorian ladies creating nature scenes from small brushes and even smaller rings of social experience, is not what I consider painting. Now, I’m not distinguishing between what is art and “not” art. That concept has been overly bastardized at both ends of the spectrum. I’m simply side-stepping the issue by asking if the artist can have that “aha” moment during the act of painting - the process-oriented action of discovery.

Just look at the early painted sketches of the accepted masters of art history. Their blocked-out color roughs have ten times the energy of the completed masterpieces that simply seem tired in comparison. Painting only works when you get caught-up in those innate Zen rhythms, something absent from the process of creating hundreds of glazes for a “realist” work. The machismo of the abstract Expressionists was an act of “throwing-down the gauntlet” to traditional painters. Jackson Pollock, like others of his time, grew-up in a house dominated by a small Victorian-minded mother. She painted dainty scenes and draped the family home in doilies, lace knitting and other “pretties” (a southern term I absconded from my mother-in-law). The excitement of acting upon reckless impulse is the motivating force that drives and sustains the artist’s ability to create literally thousands of paintings without limitation. - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-16T11:34:00.002-07:00

"Moonlight Record 16", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight reciord 13", enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2011-01-12T09:08:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Record 23", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Winter Recordings

2011-01-11T08:32:00.001-07:00

"Winter Record 31", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Moonlight Record 4

2011-01-10T10:26:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Recordings 4", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Winter Record 15

2011-01-07T09:08:00.001-07:00

"Winter Recording 15", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Winter Record 12

2011-01-06T09:31:00.001-07:00

"Winter Recording 12", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5"
-North

Winter Record 17

2011-01-04T10:23:00.001-07:00

"Winter Recording 17", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5" - North

Moonlight Record 8

2011-01-03T10:12:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Recording 8", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5" - North

Moonlight Record 7

2010-12-30T08:49:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Recording 7", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5" - North

Moonlight Recordings

2010-12-28T09:50:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Record 5", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010
- North

2010-12-21T08:52:00.001-07:00

When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time. - Cy Twombly

"Winter Record 7", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010 -North

2010-12-20T09:09:00.001-07:00

I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. – Mark Rothko

"Moonlight Record 10", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010 - North

Rain

2010-12-16T09:33:00.002-07:00

"Winter Record 22", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010

Tomorrow is snow, but today, the high desert rain embeds its fragrance into the adobe walls of my studio home. - North

Enlightenment

2010-12-15T10:37:00.007-07:00

"Moonlight Record 9", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010

I reside with untainted harmony, on the back portico of my studio home. My evening dose of enlightenment has arrived. A pipe with Almondine tobacco burns in my right hand, a glass of ice water in the left; and I sit with my feet propped on the stone wall separating my life from the desert below.

The even mood and curious relaxation it produces is directly related to the earlier day’s fevered painting prowess. Both activities produced a singular mindset, a manner of focusing beyond the innumerable voices to that one outstanding expression of perfection. The evening’s half-moon is just one more faultless complement to the afternoon’s paintings that served to document the planetoid’s multiple impressions upon the landscape.

Despite popular notions, enlightenment is regularly achievable, though not always easily. We have all attained it at some point or another. The trick is recognizing that occurrence of subtle bliss for what it is… a private moment to rule your world unabated. - North

Livin' the Dream

2010-12-14T08:22:00.005-07:00

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. - John Adams

"Winter Record 11", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010
-North

Composition of the World

2010-12-13T10:59:00.005-07:00

"Winter Record 13", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010

My paintings are only abstract if the entire world is viewed abstractly. There is no god. No grand design to life. Houses, rocks and rivers are all just objects; entities that exist on their own compositional game board, like bacteria.

One must understand the lack of presence to appreciate new existence. Current organization of the realist world is based upon a combination of accepted traditions and the rational assumptions made from casual visual observation. I’m not stating that art must be viewed as abstract or realist… I’m asserting that the entire world must be visually reconsidered. No two trees are identical, yet one makes assumptions to what a tree should look like. My call is to drop the assumptions. Look closer. That 3”x3” square of bark, where the trunk and dirt and root exist… encompass a complete composition of the world. - North

Moonlight Record 12

2010-12-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Record 12", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010
-North

Moonlight Record 3

2010-12-09T11:29:00.002-07:00

"Moonlight Record 3", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Board, 5"x5", 2010
-North

Painting Nirvana

2010-12-08T09:01:00.002-07:00

"Winter Record 14", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010

I’ve reached a point in my work, where the act of painting is the actual end product. Building compositions and theorizing on color is completed on the fly. Sketching and general palette selections are attained in my mind, hours prior to the creation process. - North

Winter Recordings

2010-12-07T08:37:00.001-07:00

"Winter Record 3", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010
-North

Moonlight Recordings

2010-12-06T09:01:00.001-07:00

"Moonlight Recordings 2", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panels, 6"x6",2010
-North

Moonlight Recordings

2010-12-03T16:16:00.002-07:00

"Moonlight Record 1", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010
-North

Winter Recordings

2010-12-02T10:12:00.001-07:00

"Winter Record 2", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010
-North

Winter Recordings

2010-12-01T11:17:00.004-07:00

"Winter Record 1", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6", 2010

While waiting for the newest small oil on canvas works to cure, I started two new series of enamel paintings. New work will be posted daily for quite a while. -North

Thanksgiving Morn

2010-11-25T08:33:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving Morning 2010, view from the studio

Thanksgiving Morning 2010, view from the studio

Woke to a high desert snow for Thanksgiving morn. Collected wood for the fireplace and am now waiting for my first slice of pie... -North

New Work in Process

2010-11-16T10:55:00.001-07:00

Individual 15"x15" canvases will become 6"x6"x3"(deep) once stretched.
-North

New Miniatures in Process

2010-11-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I awoke to a light mist in the desert. I’m still not used to the time-change; five o’clock is still too early but attempting to return to sleep never works out.

I had plans to stretch and gesso a large canvas, today. The idea was a finished painting in the neighborhood of 60”x80”. Last evening I went to bed with thoughts of much smaller works. I dreamt of miniatures along the lines of the past summer’s enamels; nothing larger than 12”x12”. Most in the 5”x5” frame, possibly, creating a mixture of oils and enamels with a goal of 300 new paintings by spring. It is supposed to be in the freezing temperatures, by midnight and remain throughout the coming days. I always loved using my long cold winters for inventory building. - North

WPA Then... Now?

2010-11-05T09:11:00.001-06:00

“We were all young, and there was no such animal at the time as a master of fine arts degree, so the WPA really amounted to a graduate program in art. It was really the first art community I was ever aware of.” – Peter Busa, artist

Roughly, $1.38 then is equal to about $21.57, now. WPA artists were paid $23.86/week (about $350/week in 2010 dollars). A loft in NYC, during the 1930’s, typically cost $20/month. Artists were provided with government-purchased supplies, with the assumption that roughly 20% would be stolen for personal use.

The last few days, I have been reading about the WPA and how it benefited artists during the Great Depression. Visual artists were divided into two groups: muralists and easel painters. A muralist worked within a group, on a preset-project. Easel painters worked from their studio (on whatever project/design of their choosing) and had to deliver a new piece of artwork to the local WPA office once every 4-6 weeks. The WPA office owned and indefinitely stored the works (they have since, obviously, been placed in public collections). In essence, the WPA spear-headed the Modern Art movement, acting as its original patron; and when you think about the contemporary value of work by the Abstract Expressionists of this era… the government made a ridiculously smart investment. - North

Fishing with Marshmallows

2010-10-25T19:13:00.003-06:00

Dylan's 1st Trout

Samuel's 1st Trout and at nearly 2lbs, the biggest of the day!

I thought I had seen it all, until Kodiak took my family fishing with marshmallows. Even now, my best estimate is that the small sugary drops of goo act as bobbers and something to catch the gaze of passing fish. In the preparatory talk, to plan our little excursion, for fish and a family picnic under the shadow of the Sweetgrass Hills. I was warned that the road was a bit rough in spots. While he wasn’t lying, he did forget to mention that the last four to five miles were completely off-road. Cruising at low highway speeds across open pastures in a late ninety’s Ford Taurus, my children sat in the rear of the car; silently, yet steadily, invoking gods that I had previously attempted to shelter from them.

That was a year ago. Now, literally a thousand miles south, I sit in wonder under the scope of Sandia, watching the first winter storm roll across the central New Mexico high desert. The local weather alerts warn of temps dropping to 28 degrees (above zero). I laugh at the thought. I adore my new desert mountain hide-a-way, but curse the damn economy that led me away from my open-court Montana studio.

The Jimmy Buffett song, “Come Monday”, plays through the speakers and I’m back in the cool, late-August prairie, loading a hook with marshmallows and a solitary worm; waiting for my sons to land their first trout. - North

For Jeremy

2010-09-29T08:09:00.002-06:00

At a gallery reception, last year, I walked into a conversation between two friends. They were arguing over how much longer I would remain in Montana. Finally, one stopped the other and said, “You don’t understand how he works. North is the wind.”

I once believed that place was the source of happiness. I simply kept on the move because I hadn’t found my ideal location. What I failed to notice was that over ten years and six cross-country relocations, I have never been without ideas or compositions for my paintings. Often times, we are too close to the situation to recognize our true self. I move to sustain the muse, and the muse nourishes my work. My home is within the paint and canvas, all else is temporary. - North

Dry Land

2010-09-28T08:56:00.000-06:00

From a distance, I’ve seen wild horses; playing at the edge of the squat hills beyond my studio windows. What can the desert offer these lovely beasts? Have I underestimated their capacity to feel and recognize beauty?

In the day, I concentrate upon the earth. This place draws out the playful nature of horses, men and children. The light is different here. Unique not just in how its reflection changes through the hours; but the manner in which it forces beings to adopt its schedule. Force is too strong a word, attraction may be more accurate.

Despite the brush and thorn, there is a magnetism of place. Water is gone. Time of light makes schedules irrelevant. The low-rising trees allow sanctuary to only the humblest of life. In the longest of moments, I desire to meld myself; not with society, not with community – but with the peculiarity of dry land. - North