Mega Blackberries

All you could want from a blackberry and more. Except a bowl full of them and a little freshly whipped cream. This piece, I still sink into it. Caught myself mesmerized. In all humbleness I say this. When in the zone, time flies, paint is applied, there's a hum between the observer and observed. Looking at it later I meet myself with surprise and grin. Wow. I nailed it. Especially when it makes me hum again. When you hit that sweet spot, when you're in your groove, it just feels alive somehow, palpable, smooth. It is process at its best. That's the spot an artist wants to be in. We are documenting that. But here's a part that may not be apparent. There's lots of preparation, lots of targeting. We set the compass in advance. Before we take the trip. Know where we want to go. But ahh the getting there...requires some innovation, some play if you will. Set it free and bring it back. Nail it, don't you see? So here's a trip I just took. And here's the picture from it.

Inside The Box

Metaphors. Symbolism. Clarity of speech. All tools to make a point. Pictures, images, the tools of my trade. Inside the box. A place I rarely stay. No, no, it's much more fun to play. A wise man once said, ..."There are no disconnected facts only complex structure"....so I go explore. With paint and person, brain engaged, eyes upon safari. What speaks to me? What holds allure? What can engage? What grabs me heart and head? A curiosity. An idea. I like lots of those. Creative people are a different breed you may think. What sets us apart? Is it our radar? Our ability to translate across a multitude of disciplines ? Or is it just that we like to enjoy ourselves? To romp with all our gifts? You know it must be fun to stay inside, cozy, familiar, and structured. Ignorance might be bliss. A nap, a pleasant time. But look over here, did you see that? Do you know where this could fit? Oh yeah, that would be brilliant! And we go along. Until we find another thing. Puzzle for a while. Paint. Enjoy sheer beauty on its own. Make it all look easy. But here's a clue you lovely ones, you who know can see...we give you just the tip of the iceberg ( Hemingway) we tend our tool kit well. But one thing, one thing most of all is that we let you see our joy. The joy of our play. Of taking chocolate to gold. Of painting geometry in a way that let's you in on the secret. We really really like our work. We really like to play. See chef did and so did I. And we serve it up to you. Play somewhere. Spend some time outside the box. Let the structure go. And when it is time. Return. Keep the child inside alive. That box might start to glow.

Banana Choco Mousse

Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Cow Jumped over the Moon, The Little Dog laughed to see such sport and the Dish ran away with the Spoon. Has she gone nuts already? No. Here's the deal. I don't plan the commentaries. NOOOO. Yes. As I look at the image I painted and recall the essence of what it actually was or is, words or thoughts come to me. Yep... Hey Diddle Diddle. It stumped me for a minute too.Then I looked again. Okay, the chef put a tempered chocolate lattice on top of a glossy deep chocolate banana and chocolate mousse filled dome. Then placed a banana chip slice on top. There's no why to his delightful madness. Just why not?He's an artist. But look at the shadow it casts. For some reason it kicked in a visual memory for me this morning. And face it. Hey Diddle Diddle is a memorable story. Many night times spent imagining that jumping cow, the giant orb, that silly laughing dog and that dish and spoon on the lamb in my childhood. Lattice. Fence. Banana. Moon. Shadow....you get it. What we have here, thanks to chef, is an access point. And I being the wonderful soul that I am, wanted to paint it. At the time not thinking at all of cows and dogs, but it had lots of potential. There were possibilites. Art, no matter what kind, is kind of a portal. If you're looking at it, making it, or collecting it, the best art, in my humble opinion, is transporting. I can literally fall into Julien Merrow-Smith's paintings from Provence, or one of Cy Twombly's anything. And when I paint my own work ,no matter what scale it is, the aim is to get to that zone. You know what I mean, the chi flows, time passes and you are so perfectly attuned to the essence of the piece. Invariably, and unarguably,imagination that isn't squelched in the "what if" stage is key. So chef, whoever authored HDD, and me. Not so far apart. We all want you to join us, if just for a little while, believe in a little magic. Be pulled into a little silliness. And go enjoy your day.

Choco Pecan Triangle

Perverse? Or Pointed? I am so usually about soft edges and round. I was comparing notes one time with Mark Grote (a fabulous New Orleans sculptor) about marks. Recurring marks,to be exact, that artists make in their work. I had noticed that I was doing round. A lot. He laughed and showed me in the corner of a piece, a mark he cannot seem to escape. "We all do it", he said. We laughed and scratched our heads. If you think of Braque or Picasso, you may see those sharper edges, cubes of fractal space.Think Guernica. Or if you think of Joan Miro, more amorphous things. John Marin had a problem keeping things upright. He liked to slant. Could Basquait be content to be contained. Or Thomas Hart Benton paint Kings and Queens? Who is Kiki Smith without her body parts? Her graphics? We all have them, our own sweet perversions, our preference if you will. It isn't that we can't or won't. We can. We will. But when it comes down to it. When we find our visual voice, it usually resonates more powerfully than anything else we do. So I liked painting a triangle. Found it enormously fun. Tagged all the bases, danced a bit, and then when I was done...doggone if there weren't two circles, two elements of round.

Tiramisu

Simple. Clean. A dream to paint. A wonder to eat. Some things should not be messed with. And tiramisu is one of them. Flavor, texture, color. Has it all. Like good design. Form and function married. The best design tickles all five senses and is useful too. Maybe helps us do something we really need to do. Or entertains while teaching. Or nourishes us in a number of ways.Eames did it well.So did Le Corbusier. I have seen a remarkable thing this week. Someone designed it. And someone else (in Dubai don't you love it ?) showed it to me via the internet ( a design in progress). I will give you the link over there on the side ( Go See This Now) A brilliant designer is behind this. It mesmerized my designer brain and tossed out possibilities. The subject is about who has cake and who doesn't, delivered in a fascinating way. And a brilliant chef put it to use to show us something neat. So kick back, stay with it and you'll see. Some things should be messed with. Dry stale charts and graphs are one. Find a chef who knows a little alchemy. And he will bring your world to you in a way that is like eating or painting tiramisu. Form and function happily engaged make us smile and dance. And then perhaps roll our shirt sleeves up and get to work, make choices. To think and then to act. Simple design is powerful when it is put to use. Good chefs employ it. Look at the tiramisu. Chef knew just what to do. Simple rich and flavorful. Cut in a clean smooth shape that echoes the taste my eyes tell me it will bring. Just enough mocha, hear the sound I make? Now, what is it that I can do to see that others get their cake?

Cornucopia Lace

Lace. And Fruit. Butter standing up. With chocolate smeared inside and cream. I played with gold this week. Working through ROYGBIV. Remember him? Reds last week. This week orange and yellows. Gold. Ballerina's have their bars, jocks have their two a days. What do IT's have? A stroll through logarithms? I am taking a romp through the color spectrum. And like this cornucopia, it is filled. Not with calories, but with hues for play. Move this way and it is warm, the other way is cool. Lighten, darken. Tweak them here and there. Toss in a compliment. Or make two colors seems like three...Itten has some games to play, some choreography. He tosses in the physics too. This is how we see. Color is a tool. A vocabulary of steps in which we lead the eye. Or ask for an emotion, a visceral response. It is a signal. It is how we lead the eye to tell your brain think this. It works with line and shapes. It can say here is warmth and richness. Comfort, filled with berries ripe for you. Bounty, fullness, grace.

Lemon Curd Cake Deux

Cake. Yummy lemon cake. Why cake? What is a respectable, credentialled artist doing painting little bits of cake and dessert for several months now? Why on earth should you collect them? How does this help my career and what is in it for you? Let me just get the fork outta my mouth... Why not cake? There. Brilliant, huh? Yep. Putting that Phi Beta Kappa brain to work. Ahh, but grasshoppers, the point is valid. Not to mention tasty. There is an old story about drawing 10,000 things. The moral of the story is that the act of drawing is more important than the items themselves. After the practice one will know a bit about line. I needed to know more about paint. Oils in particular. The gatekeepers all over the country,love my large scaled watercolors, but people, for some reason like to buy oils more often than watercolor.Same in Santa Fe.Well, while I search for that Leo Castelli of my painting life, I decided to come up to speed in oils. It isn't enough just to be acquainted. My relationship with oils has to be such that the impact of the work reaches the level of my work in watercolor. In an existential fit, I chose cake. It is portable, doesn't take much space and is gone afterwards. Until I have my own space. All good features. And has that added bonus of making a statement. Or many of them. And besides, there's a bit of a revolution going on inside me. So a good little bit of cake can nourish, well until they decide to cut your head off. And besides, what's not to like about cake? So what is in it for you? One day, someone will remark at the painting of cake on your wall," Is that a real Cartier?" And you, being brilliant will say, " Yep."