TWO LOAVES

A good project for a rainy winter day. We gave a loaf to Kate and Noah and shared some with Michael. This batch carmelized nicely on top.I have been reading The Bread Bakers Apprentice and picking up some pointers. Many questions go unanswered and baking small batches at home produces bread that is in a class different from artisan loaves.

FROST ON THE WINDOW THIS MORNING.

A DRAWING FROM ONE OF MY SKETCH BOOKS.

IT MAY BE THAT THE VALUE OF ANY WORK OF ART IS PRIMARILY THE EXPERIENCE WHICH THE ARTIST HAS IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS. THE FINISHED PRODUCT, WHETHER IT IS A PAINTING OR A POEM OR A PIECE OF MUSIC HAS LITTLE INTRINSIC VALUE. IT IS MAINLY A RECORD OF A CREATIVE MOMENT.

The OBO Sale room.
Like many painters I had a storeroom piled with paintings of all sizes in frames and out, experiments and finished work which I had driven thousands of miles and shown at many fairs and festivals. So when it came time for my annual studio sale I mailed 800+ postcards to friends and patrons with a special offer. I told them they could take what they wanted from over 300 paintings and put as much as they felt was fair in an unmarked envelope as payment. I called it an OBO (Or Best Offer) sale. I had to explain to many friends to ignore the marked prices and that I had paintings that were not doing me or anyone else any good. My main goal was to make room for more paintings and I was not attached to the money in any way. People were thrilled ! They took bags of paintings, telling me they could never have afforded my paintings before. They called friends and neighbors and new faces appeared. I think about 250 paintings are now out in the world being enjoyed by friends. They payed less than 20 cents on the dollar and I put about 8000 in the bank. It was a total win-win event. The secret was non-attachment. I honestly just wanted to get some space to make more paintings. Now it is time to get back to work.

I love shadows. The yellow in the shot reminds me of Van Gogh and his use of yellow.

Winter light warms the house. We are counting our blessings, waiting and watching.

After a hot day at the La Quinta Art Festival Tom Walsh and Scott Roach fix a little food and talk shop at the campground at Lake Cahuilla. Tom makes large fabricated bronze sculpture and Scott combines wood and metal into wall sculpture. I am back in my studio now preparing to do the local weekly Saturday Market.

THIS HAPPY FELLOW GRACES OUR GARDEN.

The plant window

A view from our bedroom looking through a rain streaked window southwest toward the Douglas Firs in the Masonic Cemetery. Buried on the hill is the first governor of Oregon, the first President of the University of Oregon and the founder of our fair city, Eugene Skinner and many more. The cemetery is 150 years old this year.

Journal Entry June 24 1979
"It looks like an interesting summer coming up! The gas shortage has moved from California and the West Coast to New York and the East. The lines there extend for over a mile and odd-even rationing according to license plate and date has been adopted in many states, California included. Most stations are open in the morning and evening for a few hours and many close on weekends."

We were paying about 90 cents per gallon for gas when this was written.

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

"CITY HALL" A LITTLE PAINTING BY JOULE
I think we are in the beginning of an economic revolution. The people in power seem to think we should rebuild or restore the economic system which has recently crumbled. I think it is time to reexamine the old and build a new economy not based on growth and increased consumption but on management and refinement of the existing wealth. We don't need more and bigger things. We need better and more permanent things. We need meaningful service providers, people that care about doing quality work and take pride in doing their work well. We need goods that are made to last and designed for long service and with replaceable and repairable parts. The list could go on and on but you get the idea. We don't need growth. We need to refine what we have and develop well designed quality goods and services that provide a richer and more satisfying life style for everyone. This will take vision and intelligent application of resources. The perpetual growth model will not work. We need the intention to create a culture which is more satisfying spiritually while providing a sustainable high quality of life for all.

PRODUCTION TIME

I AM FOCUSED ON PAINTING. I HAVE TWO SHOWS IN MARCH AND I WILL BE READY TO LEAVE A MONTH FROM TODAY. THE FIRST SHOW IS IN LA QUINTA NEAR PALM SPRINGS AND THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND I WILL BE IN SCOTTSDALE. DEBORAH IS PLANNING TO FLY INTO PALM SPRINGS AFTER THE LA QUINTA ARTS FESTIVAL AND WE WILL RELAX FOR A FEW DAYS BEFORE CONTINUING ON TO ARIZONA. WE HAVE MANY FRIENDS WHO WILL BE SELLING AT EACH SHOW. IT WILL BE A GOOD TIME TO CATCH UP AND GOSSIP A BIT.

I have a nice big window in my studio. I can look out on the world. I see crows and junkos searching in the grass. Buddha sits smiling in the garden. Sun shines on the hills where fog floated this morning. Leaves from fall. It is February and I can watch for crocuses. Dogwood sleeping.

WHY MAKE ART ?

Many times during my life as a professional artist I have asked myself:
“What am I doing this for and does it matter?”
Many people contribute in a concrete and obvious way to the well being and progress of humankind but the artist dances or plays music; some paint or write poetry and many of us ask:
“What is the purpose of art?”
And yet art has existed as long as people have had time to pause and reflect on their conscious existence.There are many factors which motivate artists but most of these are lost with the individual’s passing. Still the work may continue to contribute to the social fabic long after the individual artist is forgotten.

Through history the artist has been the guardian of the human spirit. The poet, the painter, the dancer....we have all been charged with creating work which will preserve from one generation to the next the warp upon which current events are woven. Among those spiritual threads which wind back through time we find love, honesty, beauty, truth, community and compassion. This guardianship is the work of the artist because we cannot trust any social institution with that job; not government, not historians, not big buisness, not religion (At least not yours !) not the media, not even the schools. Only the work of the artist can be trusted with the human spirit.

I GOT CLARITY THIS MORNING AROUND WHAT DIRECTION TO GO WITH MY PAINTINGS. IN THIS ECONOMY PEOPLE WILL NOT BUY ART AND PUT IT IN THE CLOSET TO FRAME NEXT WEEK. THEY WILL NOT BUY JUST TO HAVE A PACKAGE TO CARRY AROUND THE SHOW. I THINK THE COLLECTORS WILL LOOK FOR MEANINGFUL ART THAT SHOWS EFFORT AND INTELLIGENCE. ART THAT HAS INFORMATIONAL CONTENT BEYOND THE VISUAL. I KNOW THE GEMS ARE WHERE I NEED TO MOVE. THEY ARE READY TO HANG COMPLETE TREASURES, FRONT, BACK AND SIDES. THEY HAVE A COHESIVE STYLE AND SIGNIFICANT CONTENT.

RULES ! There are rules from day one. If I want to make a painting or write story someone will always tell me the RIGHT WAY.All the rules do is slow me down and get in the way of creativity and self expression. Of course there are rules that protect other people or property or protect us from ourselves. I am not talking about laws. I am talking about painting fat over lean or lean over fat, "avoid detailed descriptions of characters" and eyes are not almonds.
When teaching, I always tell the class "there is no right way or wrong way to do anything but there are consequences." The paint may crack or the apples may seem to float above the table and if that is OK so be it. It is not wrong. It is just what happens.

WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE?
As I listened to the news on NPR this morning I wondered how long will it be and will the economy ever get back to where it was?
And then I wondered how did we get here and is there an easy way to understand what happened in the past year or two?

The other day I heard an "economist" say that we need to start buying again ! Isn't that what got us here? Don't we have enough "stuff ?"

I think that in order to keep the economy expanding the financial powers have given us more money. The way they have done this is by helping us buy houses, driving the home values up and providing home equity loans for additional spending. Just owning a home necessitates spending a lot of money which stimulates more business. The problem is that we couldn't afford those homes. We couldn't keep buying stuff just to have more of it. The cost of houses was driven up beyond their real value which created imaginary wealth. We might have been able to slide back and adjust the economy except that the financial institutions began to "bundle" that imaginary wealth and sell it to investors. This got really confusing and with computers it started to accelerate. Instead of going downtown and talking to your banker about investing a little extra cash it was a click of the mouse and millions of dollars jumped around like popcorn. When we finally realized the Emperor had no clothes all the investors tried to call in their investments but very quickly the fat was in the fire and the imaginary wealth evaporated.

CREATIVITY IS USUALLY THOUGHT OF AS A POSITIVE ATTRIBUTE ASSOCIATED WITH GENIUS AND GREAT ARTISTS. PARENTS WANT THEIR CHILDREN TO BE CREATIVE. TEACHERS ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY IN SOME AREAS, NOT IN SPELLING OR MATH BUT IN WRITING AND ON ART PROJECTS. CREATIVITY IS NOT EASILY TURNED ON AND OFF AND BECAUSE THINKING "OUTSIDE THE BOX" MEANS STRETCHING OR BREAKING RULES IT CAN OFTEN GET A KID IN TROUBLE.

CREATIVITY IS LIKE ANY OTHER SKILL. IF WE PRACTICE WE GET BETTER AT BEING CREATIVE. IF WE MAKE IT A HABIT IT BECOMES EASIER.

A GIVEN PROBLEM ALWAYS HAS ANY NUMBER OF SOLUTIONS. WE USUALLY START LIMITING OPTIONS VERY EARLY. IF WE WANT TO EXAMINE NEW AND CREATIVE SOLUTIONS WE NEED TO SUSPEND ALL LIMITATIONS UNTIL WE HAVE A NUMBER CHOICES.

I AM OFTEN ASKED WHERE I GET MY IDEAS AND I TELL PEOPLE IT IS MY JOB TO HAVE IDEAS. IT IS NOT A TOTAL BLESSING BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS I HAVE TO DECIDE WHICH PROJECTS I HAVE TIME FOR AND MANY VERY GOOD IDEAS MUST BE SHELVED. I HAVE SKETCHBOOKS FULL OF IDEAS THAT WOULD TAKE SEVERAL LIFETIMES TO COMPLETELY EXPLORE.

We might write about anything. Robert Frost was inspired by the snowy woods. Van Gogh painted old shoes and he painted them with feeling and did it several times. The work doesn't tell us so much about the shoes or the woods as it tells us about the poet or the painter. We get a clear view of how their mind works. In a way each good work of art becomes autobiographical.
I reread a book by Natalie Goldberg recently entitled LIVING COLOR. In it she tells of how she thought Picasso was a "genius creator" until she read a biography and decided the man was cruel and she no longer cared for his work. Natalie might have taken a hint from the way Picasso painted women. The way he twisted their faces and moved features around. Using distortion and sacrificing realism for artistic expression. The man is all there in his paintings.

Getting my feet wet in the BLOG pond.

With the dark of winter and the quiet of the house I thought I might make an effort to write. A journal sounds good but the computer and the internet add a little more of a contemporary feel to the project. It seems like someone is out there in the world reading this already although I don't want to write for anyone else. I want this to be simple and not scary. However it is a stretch.