Poll Results

Should I trash this painting?
Edges...aaaaaaaaaaargh. I am wanting to trash it.

Only two people took the poll and both were for keeping it. I guess is two people on the planet thinks it's worth keeping...I'll keep it...for now.

New Year Art Resolutions - 2009

1. To first straighten up my studio and make it more conducive to creating art.
2. To prep canvases with rabbit skin glue which I have been putting off.
3. To work with more consistency and thus be more productive each week.
4. To learn how to paint a painting in one hour.
5. To take a life drawing class in January.
   
6. To produce 20 finished pieces of art this year: 7 still life paintings, 7 landscapes, 6 portraits/figures.
7. To stop being so critical of myself; to pray for divine artistic inspiration; to trust that my best effort is good enough for me and the Lord.
   

Resolutions are nothing more than goal setting. Without goals, little can be accomplished. To accomplish this goal in 52 weeks I would have to complete 1 painting every 2.5 weeks. When you look at it in that way, it does not seem so impossible.

The Coming Reign of Jesus...

***
" For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace."

Jesus is that prophesied child.
He was rejected by his own...
His Jewish brethren for
our sakes.

"Of the increase of [his] government
and
peace [there shall be] no end,
upon the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom, to order it,
and to establish it with judgment
and
with justice from henceforth even for ever."

The zeal of the LORD of hosts
will perform this.
--Isaiah's prophecy Chapter 9:6-7

***
May Jesus come soon to establish His government
upon this earth at last.

Consider that during the time that Jesus walked
upon this earth He never had the government
"upon his shoulders."

This is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled and He is
the Messiah that every Jew has been looking for; this special people
whose eyes have been blinded for a short time
for our sake ... so that the Gentile Church may be brought into
the Kingdom of God...that "twig" grafted into the olive tree...
and
In that latter day Jesus will indeed place the government
upon His shoulders, then every Jewish eye and every Jewish ear will
at last be opened to reveal Jesus the Messiah who is and
has always been their Messiah and ours.

Jesus may come very soon now because
what was prophesied concerning
His second coming to earth
has almost been completely fulfilled.

"And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up,
and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh."
Gospel of Luke 21:28

Seeing....

Why can't I "see" in works of art what other artists see? (i.e. artists whom I respect very much) Other very skilled artists see so readily fantastic things ... in modern art? Yet, I can't "see" what they see. Why is that?

Often I am tempted to wonder ... whether this is truthfulness or a bias issue. Then I think .... no ... they must be "seeing" something that I am still not trained to see...I guess. Now I am no novice. I have been trying to "see" this in modern contemporary art for 30 years. Read books tell I'm cross-eyed and so bored I'm nearly brain dead. Goobbly-goop.

I just don't get the fascination with the 2 dimension surface...the canvas surface. Haven't we explored that enough? Where is the interest that grips the viewer in this abstract "power art" that is suppose to be "telling" some sort of "story" in a "powerful" way .

Do you have to have a PhD to understand it this stuff...is it snobbery or an invention of taste that blinds the eye?

Well some of this art is not saying anything to me ... but I defer to the experts. I guess I do not have the intelligence to be a "great" artist in their eyes.

But, why then is it that I can in fact "see" dynamism in J.M.W. Turner's landscapes/seascapes especially his later works? Powerful, big, dynamic paintings.

While one artist is berated for being "dull" with no variety of strokes, and labeled a method painter, unimaginative ... another painter is praised for being brilliant with BORING shapes ... yet I don't see a variety of strokes in their paintings either ... nor do I see anything so dynamic that my interest is held more than a few seconds?

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggg

Maybe it is my monitor or a need for new glasses.

THIS is why I became a graphic artists in the 1967 and not a fine artist. I was NOT fascinated with abstract expressionism and it was do or die then.

December Life Drawing

Frustrations of Struggling Artist...
It is no wonder that I cannot get much done. Constant interruptions and family duties call me away from productive painting sessions in my studio. Then when I have a day or two, I am still so distracted that my sessions produce nothing worth keeping. In frustration I usually start tearing up my work. In fact, I have made the mistake of trying to take unfinished works only to end up destroying them. Everything ends in the trash can.

Painting for me requires me to be in the right frame of mind (I think). I have tried so many times to just push through a bad session but ultimately I'm driven to quit and walkout fiercely frustrated. Then that fear makes it hard to enter the studio again.

Thankfully, this life drawing session is saving the day for me. With absolutely no planning, no expectations, I just go and do it. If something good happens fine but if not, it doesn't matter. Now it's the holidays...forget doing anything serious for me.

December Life Drawing...


This is from December Life Drawing ... I wish I could get better images. These are somewhat overly contrasted next to the originals.

November Painting After Renoir

The above is a painting...a copy I made of the famous child's portrait by Renoir. I was hoping to learn something of the brushwork by painting after Renoir which was indeed informative as was the coloration. It needs some tweaking but I am pretty happy with it so far, and also what I have learned.

The portrait is entitled Mademoiselle Legard (painted after) Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(Original is at Philadelphia Museum of Art)

November Life Drawings

These are the current life drawings for November.

Success Found in Failure

Lately I have been experiencing a lot of failures.

The words that I spoke to my children to encourage them are ringing in my ears now. "It's the failures in your life that breeds success. How you handle failure is far more important than how you handle successes. You cannot grow spiritually without failures."

That is so true. It is the failures that build character and strength.

But, when it is your failure, well that is another thing. Never teach someone something that you are not ready to experience yourself. I guess you think that failure will end but it never does.

Last year I decided to learn a very difficult (over 10 page) piano piece -- Carl Von Weber's famous Perpetual Motion -- to be performed at the Ladies Music Club, Pianist Division meeting, some of the best pianists in the city. I practiced that piece which is performed at blistering speed so much, that I memorized it. The day came to perform it. I got there early and played it thought almost to perfection.

When I performed it, I got to the second page and totally went blank. So flustered was I that I could not go on. I was crushed, humiliated, defeated, and in tears. Self sabotage thoughts ran through my mind, "it doesn't matter how hard you practice, you will always fail."

For about six months I could not touch the piano. It literally made me anxious to think about. I thought of resigning from the club and wondered if I would ever want to play again ever. Over reaction? I guess some could say so but for me the whole point of joining the club was to overcome my fear of performing and improve my playing. I wanted to play with confidence and now I am feeling completely shattered.

Recently, I thought of those words I spoke to my children. Hypocrite, practice what you preach. I went to the piano with some anxiety and begain playing that very piece. It was full of mistakes but I was beginning to not take myself so seriously. "Oh that is really bad but I guess it can only get better." Right then, I decided that I would not resign the club, and I would play again. Next time I will pick a less ambitious piece but I will not let any poor performance totally defeat me. With my ego adjusted, I will take myself less seriously, and in the end I will play and perform with greater confidence and I will have to work even harder at it and sooner or later I will again be successful at the keyboard.

The same is true with my art. Sometimes criticisms are helpful; sometimes they are destructive and discouraging. It is, after all, someone's subjective opinions. In the end it is I who will have to be the final judge. As I work, I will gain self confidence and improve. Don't we all want the approval of mankind yet, that in itself can be very destructive to creativity. Once again my ego is well adjusted and in the end I will finally produce art that I can be proud of. If I can please myself, that should be enough for I would have done the very best that I can do.

The sketches I posted are from a life drawing session. There is great joy in just fulfilling the process of making art. Success and that little elusive red dot "sold" only serves to augment that present joy but if that is all one lives for, that monster can never be satisfied.

So it is in the valley of despair that we grow. Joy comes in the morning.

October Art In Progress

This is the most recent version of a painting I am working on and I see that it stinks. I think I will just start over. The skin tones are not that blue-ish. The first version had lots of vitality but then I over thought it...now I am trying to recover but it still does not have the punch that I want.

What I love about this image (see reference) is that it tells a story. I want to do justice to this young very handsome black man. His body is perfection, but his life is not ... and his face is full of defiance and his body full of tension. The white paint does not mask the struggle of a person moving begrudgingly toward changes in thinking. It is about influences, tensions, and it is wrapped in an absurd situation that uses fun and silliness to drive home a serious life changing point. This is a summer high school age Christian camp. Thankfully, this young man was won over by a group of caring kids and leaders who just simply loved him unconditionally. The first thing they do is teach each kid not to take himself seriously...and the reason for the goofy face painting...it worked

Floral Bouquet

I received a bouquet of flowers...so here is my alla prima (wet-into-wet method quick method) try that is not yet finished. I have some more work to do on this so it is still a work in progress.

I don't know how I feel about this piece.

September Art

Gerber Daisy

Achievement ... is in all of us.

This young man, a few yards from the finish, is my son. He is about to complete a two year long life goal and is finishing a grueling 14 hour Iron Man course in Louisville, Kentucky (August 31, 2008).

Few friends or relatives have bothered to call to congratulate him. Why is that? .... when less than .1% of the population will ever achieved such a great test of endurance.

For those of you who might not know what an Iron Man course is like, in 14 hours, Darren swam a little over 2 miles in the Ohio River (half of which was against a swift current), completed a 112 mile very hilly bike ride, and ran 26.3 mile on an also hilly course in stifling heat and humidity. He did that sick and not at his physical best.

I understand human nature for with everyone who achieves a great goal, the rest of us are tempted to succumb to the feeling of smallness and insignificance?

In a world that operates with a "if you are up, then I am down" mentality, truly achieving anything great is a lonely pedestal upon which to stand.

To take that attitude is to miss the real glory of this moment for all humanity.

I love my children and they are very special to me; growing up, however, they were just ordinary kids with a mixture of strengths and weaknesses ... like the majority of us.

What is amazing to me and the great glory of this moment is that God is taking these two ordinary kids and working out extraordinary achievement in their lives. That is miraculous.

I knew that God took some really ordinary men and women in ages past and did glorious things through them. So we all have the capacity to do great things.

I am hoping Darren will blog his experience and that he will relate what a miracle of God's Grace was upon him to do the impossible. When he does, I will add a link and let him tell in his own words how the Apostle Paul's words became a revelation in his own life experience: "My grace is sufficient, says the Lord, in your weakness I am made strong."
Darren sent me the following ... which I thought was quite thought provoking too:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in all of us, in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~Nelson Mandela

Merlin - Lesson in Composition (Con't)

Cennini Forum: Remember the Merlin composition that was started last June? Finally, I am getting back to this task. Having read nearly four books on composition, I finally was able to design a drawing that Rob Howard (Cennini Forum Moderator - Master Teacher) finally found acceptable. And I quote Rob, "The basic composition is solid. From this point it's just add more information that helps to tell the story. That's not to be confused with mindless detailing."

So I am posting. I chose the part of the story where the white dragon has defeated the red dragon and Merlin's prophecy has been declared true, the tower regained, and the soldiers rise up to go out and defeat the enemy.

Now all I have to do is add more information to help tell this story without adding details... mindless details that might cause confusion. "Oh vay." I'm still working on it.

Books on Composition

In preparation for Landscape Boot Camp with Gordon MacDonald in Nova Scotia, I am reading quite a number of books on composition which I highly recommend those being:

Composing Your Paintings by Bernard Dunstan
Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne
The Power of the Center by Rudolph Arnhein
Composition by Cyril Pierce
Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John Carlson

As I am discovering, composition is a visual language that over the ages of artistic development and analysis, natural fundamentals have emerged that almost all art critics and artists agree are principles that must be followed in order to create quality paintings.

These principles are sometime rather complex to put in to words. I find that many authors in an attempt to write in an academic way...often lose their audience. I will review the following books two of which I have completed and one I have just started.

Rob Howard has been harping for months now on the importance of "speaking" to the viewer though not only subject matter but also the very construction of the art. All of what he has been saying on the Cennini Forum is confirmed in all that I have read.

REVIEWS

Composing Your Paintings by Bernard Dunstan
This is a book that I did not outline but just read from cover to cover. It is very good and I would recommend it. The substance of his information is packed with practical methods every artist should know. His explanation of the "Golden Proportion" is very clear and easy to remember. Once you see this fundamental perfect proportion, you see it in almost all of the masterpieces. Dunstan is a very clear writer and it is easy reading and it's only 103 pages. This will support the other books that go in greater depth.

Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne
Currently I am at the center of this book and I can say that the information here is spot on. The only thing about this book is that Payne is not a very fluid writer. He inverts many of his sentences and places the most important information at the end.

Topics include:

• "The Approach To Art" -- the purpose and aesthetics of art, emotional impules , nature, discipline, influences, etc.

• "Selection & Composition" -- critical selection and judgment processes, mistakes in composing, simplicity; painting various objects including marine, mountains, trees, clouds, etc.; fundamental principles, styles, value, color balance, interchange, scale, etc.

• "Harmony" - color, pigment, rhythm, repetition, etc.

• "Types of Composition" -- symbols, steel yard principle of balance, the 'O', the 'S', the 'Pyramid', the 'Cross', group mass, the diagonal line, the 'tunnel', the 'silhouette', the 'pattern', etc.

I will update this when I have finished the rest of the book.

***

The Power of the Center by Rudolph Arnhein
I have read and outlined this book. The first few chapters are a bear to get thought because Arnhein is introducing the concepts of eccentricity and centricity and it is rather complex. If you stick with it, it will begin to make perfect sense and fortunately though out the book the author continues to overlap and restate this principle so you do finally get what he is saying.

My pet peeve is that many authors write to impress their academic counterparts. As a copy writer for years (self taught), I had only one desire in my writing and that was to communicate my point as clearly as possible. I wasn't ever trying to impress anyone with how educated I was, or how wide my vocabulary is. In fact, I tried very hard to write at the level than anyone can understand what I am saying.

By the way, I had to pay $48.00 for this book which has been reprinted. An original copy would be between $100 to $300 a copy if you could find one. What does that tell you?

This book seems almost written for students studying architecture. However, the principle is crucial to all art students. It is rather academically written and a slow read. With that said, it is essential that artists understand how powerful indeed are the centers found in a tondo (square/circle) or a rectangle, or any geometric form.

The center is powerful and being unaware of that natural "bulls eye" is to open oneself to making huge blunders in composition.

I highly recommend you read this and study the principles of centricity (formal, direct, centralized compositional devices), and eccentricity (informal in-direct compositional devices); the power of vortexes (arrows), and the pull of earth's gravity.

***

Composition by Cyril Pierce
I lack one chapter finishing. This is just a classic book and be prepared to pay $80 to 300 for an original copy. What does that tell you? It is out of print and hard to find.

This book is a really easy read and the information is presented with such simplicity that it literally "sticks" in your brain. Pierce presents the very fundamentals in this little simple book and the illustrations are easy to comprehend as well. It is very well written in that it communicates a very complicated subject in a great simplicity. A must have for any artist.

***

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John Carlson
I have just started this book but I can say that John Carlson does not know squatt about painting mediums. I ran this by Rob Howard on the Cennini form and he stated that all of the information on mediums was wrong...dead wrong. However, one member on the forum knew Carlson and his paintings and felt that his ideas on composition and landscape painting were right on. So I will read the book and report back when I have finished.

July works in progress....

Finis.

I finally finished these studies (left) and signed them. I've left them to compare.




These shells are suppose to be one hour paintings quick-ees but for the life of me I just can't get anything done in hour.My plan is to keep doing these until I quite obsessing for perfection. The little pink shell just needs some highlights and I am done with that one. The yellow shell has about three hours on it. I am improving my speed though.

July Drawings

Here is another drawing...this time child. Strathmore gray/green, charcoal, cream pastel pencil.

These are recent drawing done on toned pastel paper Strathmore 11x14; CarbOthello Pastel pencil in Caput Martuum Red #645 and white. The object of these studies is to find pictures of fashion models that represent today's idea of beauty, and to reproduce them correctly in shadow and highlight, to learn to identify today's idea of beauty (this ideal changes as cultures change).

Portrait Boot Camp - with Rob Howard

Click Title to View Slide Show




Haverhill, Massachusetts - June 6-10, 2008

Rob agrees with the philosophy of the military: recruits learn best under intense pressure. I attended the third art boot camp and once again came away a much improved artist. This was art school on steroids along the Merrimac (River).

What I had to do was swallow my ego and face my fears of failure....accept the pressure of painting about six and half hours for four straight days as fast as I could. It was going to be good for me and I was going to learn a lot and I did.

This was a very special camp. George, Susan, and I had Rob to ourselves for four straight days. (Frankly I was shocked that the camp wasn't packed out....and also thankful Rob decided to put it on anyway. How fortunate for us. Later Rob said that he didn't usually teach such a small class but wanted to try out some new ideas on us.)

Over the next four days, we all worked so hard that we literally broke out in a sweat at the easel. Everyday we made plans to go out to dinner together after camp only to cancel due to exhaustion but we did get to know each other over our lunches.

We were to experience a different challenge just about every four hours over the next four days.
Day one went fairly well for me. I was painting fast for me and encouraged. Once again, Rob showed us what great colors we can get with simple palettes.

We all know what a master Rob is at the easel but there is something about seeing him in action before your own eyes that brings a new appreciation for what he can do.

The first day we learned about lighting, the importance of a plumb bob, the importance of representing the range of values, the importance of edges, the "bump" and anatomy of shade and light. A draped mannequin was to be painted with the view of glazing her on day 3. The afternoon we moved to the next mannequin to study further the effects of light and more study of the anatomy of shadow and highlight and mass tones.

This was my attempt. Note how far to the left I placed the head on the canvas a mistake. Need lots more thinking before I start. Rob reminded me, "we are not making art we are studying." I felt better and kept going. Learned so much about lighting, shading.
All week, Rob set the standards high expecting our best effort, and gently he guided us individually with our unique needs.

Day two we were pressed under a deadline with a new setup that concentrated on drapery.
The day flew by with a second setup in the afternoon and more demos.

This is my attempt at drapery and glazing.

Day three we were glazing.... Rob demonstrated the proper way to apply a glazes to a grisaille (left & below) and a verdaccio (center) under-painting methods.














Then we moved on to the "beauty" ... a contemporary fashion model mannequin with a plaid hat. This time we were painting directly. Oh boy I will shine today...I can do that I thought.
Unfortunately, I made a huge mistake on my palette ... mixing the wrong white (titanium) into the mass tone and watched my skin tones die before me turning into a chalky dead mess...(oh no!!! I know better than that. What was I thinking?) Then I couldn't get the drawing right ... it was so far off I just cringed and no time to correct it. She looked deformed. UGH!! I felt totally the fool thinking "why did I think I could draw anything?"

Seeing our discouragement, Rob ... (with that impish grin said) ... "so you hit the wall did you?" And everyone agreed; it was a brick wall....an ugly end of the day for me.

Rob began blocking in the little "beauty" in pastel. He worked very quickly blocking in the shapes with fast broad strokes, then slowing, corrected the drawing, and before long had the thing knocked out.

Oh. He was teaching us something very important namely ... to start off loose and slowly tighten as you go to the finish. We had all been tight from the beginning....

Day 3 was over thankfully.
Walking back to our cars Susan, George, and I all were realizing that tomorrow was live model day ... ... well no guts no glory ... nothing to lose. Yet we all had come to the conclusion that lessons learned on that day would never be forgotten.

Day 4 ....we began the day minus our egos and performance anxiety since that was dealt with the previous day all residing at the bottom of Rob's two trash cans. I remember standing in front of that easel ... thinking about Rob's demo at the end of the day ... start loose ... and I started....verrrry loose.

Live Model Setup ... the final day. It was going well much better than the day before. I blocked in the whole canvas and drew the model fairly accurately..
I was moving forward making little corrections and looking for big shapes...

What I had been learning was clicking and the fear was gone. As Rob promised, any fear I had of painting a live model was completely gone.

In fact, it felt easier.

I know this is not a great portrait; that wasn't the point. What is impressive that this is just four hours of work. This was I there to learn. I know now, that I can take this now and finish it and when it is finished it will represent the model quite well. THAT is the point.

It was on that day that Rob came up to my painting and took my brush and applied the ever so slightly warmed tone to the "bump" to the cheek and then the very palest of pinks for the highlight and stroked it perfectly. He took that brush and confidently placed it, then deftly swept it to a feathered end in one long artful swoop.

Wow. I truly understood. That is what I need to learn to do and I know I can do it. Camp was over. We all put down our brushes, cleaned up, packed up, and went over to one of Haverhill's great pubs for lunch and enjoyed a relaxed time chatting with Rob and the model ... and saying our farewells.

I came away from camp grateful and a little sad.

Like the oileo verdi basking in the sun (left) sometimes ya need a little heat from the sun to clear up the cloudiness. That is what the camps have done for me.

This was my third boot camp and Lord willing I will be going to the Landscape Camp this fall. With each camp my skills are growing.

This is a year that I shall never ever forget ... and I know George, Susan joins me in thanking Rob from the bottom of our hearts. I hope more advanced camps will develop...if so I'll be there.

Bluejay On Ground

This is not officially finished but I am pleased with how I am painting. I'm not please with the photo. The brush strokes are very soft and subtle on the original but not on this jpg but it's the best I can do. The bird is done with very few strokes and it says just what I want it to. I haven't decided if and what I will do next but I will not touch the bird.

All that I have learned from Cennini Forum and Boot Camps are beginning to pay off. I am encouraged.

Preparing for Protrait Boot Camp

This is a Work In Progress (WIP)... a Graiselle underpainting technique where the painting is done in monochrome gray. Once it is finished and dry, glazes will be added to color it. This is the first task we will be required to do at the upcoming Portrait Boot Camp (Haverhill Ma - June 6) and I want to be able to finish it. This is a bust of Michanelo's David (plaster casts are used at camp for this) .... I wanted to see how long it would take me. Hopefully I will be able to paint faster as a result and complete the assignment.

I will post updates in the progress.

Painting Mediums - Fantastic Stuff!

Studio Products has three great painting mediums that I am loving. The catalog copy says:

Contains 50ml each of our fast drying Underpainting Medium (Base #9), our pre-mixed Maroger's Medium (pronounced Mair•ro•jay), a smooth gel for all-around painting, and our unique Glazing Medium. These three mediums will clear the confusion about painting mediums by providing a specifically formulated medium for each step of the painting.

Where can you buy it? Only on line.
https://store.studioproducts.com/3-Part-Painting-Mediums-Kit-p-16157.html

For the past few weeks I've been working with all three mediums and now I wonder how on earth I could ever paint without them. There are other mediums I want to try out but they are for specific effects.

The Raphael Painting Medium is another essential medium for working in details and is making my brush work sing.

I LOVE STUDIO PRODUCTS!

Iris Against Wall

Watercolor pencils 11x16 Strathmore Cold Press 400 Series Heavy Weight

Watercolor pencils are rather difficult to control when it comes to the chroma (the green leaves). I tried to add some red and gray over the green to tone it down but it is still too intense and I fear going further would deaden it.

Still, for some reason I like this one though it is not technically where I would like to be on it. The reddish purple is not reading in the photo but it is a subtle color that I really like on the iris.

I'd like to do this in oils.


This is same paper and water color pencils.

"Sitting on couch: Whats Before Me"
Not a great piece ... the chroma is still not right but that is water color pencils for ya. Good practice however. Piano, egg collection, antiques, kids, art books, crystal, art, plastic bag wadded up, coffee, wine, and doing art sitting on my arse -- my life.

Be "Expelled" today...

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/home.php

I just saw Ben Stein's "Expelled" documentary that reveals how political correctness is building a wall of silence around the whole academic community. Academic freedom even free speech is being suppressed through intimidation, loss of tenure, and black balling professors and researchers at the mention of ID who simply want the freedom to research findings that seem to be taking scientific knowledge in a new direction. The argument is "we don't have time for this." Apparently a whole lot of professionals are willing to risk their careers and seem to desire to spend time studing this concept.

This is equivalent to banning and burning books in America.

No matter which side of the argument regarding Darwin's origins and intelligent design you are on, I urge everyone to see the documentary. I hope you will ask the same simple questions Ben has asked in his movie and judge for yourself.

If people insist on the argument that "intelligent design" is only a nonsensical religious or philosophical argument rather then a legitimate scientific subject of research, then I say these people have not read what some pretty brilliant molecular scientists have found through the eyepiece of their microscopes nor have they been made aware of what some outstanding astrologers have discovered as they look into the universe eyeballing areas never seen before using the Hubble telescope and the astonishing information that has been uncovered about our very unique planet and the universe.

That should make you curious shouldn't it?

This research convinced a very smart Jew - Ben - to risk his career and reputation to go against the tide. It is in fact, the findings coming from new research that is being suppressed because "these findings are inconvenient information" that may point science away from Darwin's theory of origin. It is casting a new light to bear on the conventional wisdom that has been embraced setting aside Darwin's chaotic theory of life's origins and replacing them with the idea that it is impossible for this high form of design to have evolved into such ir-reducible complexity of design. (This is about origins and not evolution ... changes in species.)

The odds are three trillion to one that a single cell could have been put together any more than all the parts of an automobile could also have organized itself and put itself together correctly in order. It is simply not possible.

Now. Shall we figure out the designs?

As Stein shows in his documentary, scientists cannot talk about their findings without fear of being censured and losing financial support. In the film, Stein presents just one little bit of the research and if that doesn't "wow" the viewer, I would wonder if any gray matter were up there.

Why not just look at the findings?

No one can deny that this is a controversial debate and has a religious component to it but should that stop the investigation? However, let the evidence take science where it leads?

Scientists can't bring themselves label their findings as "the discovery of an intelligent design." Apparently it is too politically incorrect to say call it "the discovery of an intelligent designer?" They won't call it "the handy work of God" because they simply don't know what they have found yet.

Refusing to even entertain that evidence is simply many smart minds with doctorates that have become sealed with intellectual glue.

Suppression of new ideas is nothing new?

When Charles Darwin's hypothesis led away from "conventional thinking" of the day regarding life's origin, a great effort was made to suppress his ideas when religious people of faith aghast at Darwin's ideas attempted to quash these ideas and ban them from the schools. The academics types however, were gleeful and hoped for secularizing both science, education, and government had finally a catalysist. Should it not then be surprising that the same thing might happen in reverse when today's scientific community's "conventional wisdom" is a bit challenged. Now it is people of faith who are gleeful while the scientific community are aghast and trying to quash these ideas?

What are they afraid of?

Ben Stein's "Expelled" is trying to drill a small hole in that very solid academic wall of suppression and intimidation. All he wants is academic freedom to allow the research to go forward freely where ever it takes these scientists.

I'm not a smart person but even I can see and understand this science. With this revelation, isn't the whole world being called into accountability.

How wonderful of the Lord to do that!

It's that pesky DNA and all those 150 different proteins ... those essential tiny entities necessary for building a single living organism ... that's got smart men rethinking Darwin's theories of origins, and it's not creationism or religious fanatics pushing the debate now. These are extraordinary extremely brilliant scientists with credentials out the wazoo.

The evidence is this: it takes over 250 different kinds of proteins, all cooperating together ... doing their unique tasks precisely at the right time in a perfect order to create one cell. Now ponder that. Over 250 separate proteins must line up perfectly in a certain order ... all 250 of those little critters ... did you get that? They must assemble themselves very much like one would assemble a car on an assembly line ... just as an engineer would have designed an automobile and made specific plans to put together.

For that to happen to create just one cell by accident is 2 trillion to one odds. Okay if you did make one, how would you make another? Hum....

One molecular scientist made this statement,"we need the engineering department to help us understand cell structure. The thing looks like a combustion engine."

Logically, a cell is clearly built by a design that has to have had a plan ... and the most intelligent conclusion is that the origin of life could not have occurred by accident. There goes the Darwin's Origins theory of a self evolving living cell. (We are speaking of origin not evolution.)

Instead of less debate there should be more... lots more questions and research. So why not look for more logical intelligent design in research? No. We're going to deny that idea? How absurd.

Scientists are not saying "God's is the designer" ...they can't do that. Therefore, they are saying ... let's leave the god thing open and just call it intelligent designing. The debate is coming from the obvious evidence of intelligent design present in both the biological sciences and the planetary sciences.

Truth shall eventually prevail. Religious people and academics can't stop it. This debate continues to refuse to go away because molecular scientists around the globe are not going to shut up. These scientists cannot deny what they recognize under their microscopes for they are seeing "complex designed structures" in the simplest forms of life. They can no more be quiet about this than could Christopher Columbus.

Please go see this film. It makes a compelling point and it shows all sides of the argument and then you can decide if we need to burn books and destroy a lot of very brilliant careers in science.

If you want to actually see the research, I will direct you to two DVD's and I guarantee you will never ever believe in Darwin's theories of origin again. I will never accept that science because the evidence is so clear.

I challenge you to read this article from a Japanese researcher (hardly a Christian influence there); here is a one paragraph from this article:
"Prof. Namba first saw an electron micrograph of the bacterial flagellum and its motor when he was a graduate student.

He was surprised to see such complex and sophisticated structure exist in living organisms. It impressed him deep enough to switch his research from muscle to flagella after a while.

“Looking at the shape of the flagellar basal body, it is obviously designed to rotate. Looking at a picture of the flagellar motor on the wall every day, I feel up towards revealing the mystery by any means.” The design concepts of protein molecules to realize various functional mechanisms by their three-dimensional architecture are quite different from those we design by our engineering technique with bulk materials.

Folding of single polymer chain into some three-dimensional structures gives a huge amount of freedom and flexibility in both function and structure. Individual atoms are used as functional parts, and this is the essential feature that makes biological macromolecules distinct from artificial machines at present. The design concepts have to be well understood and learned for future nanotechnology applications.

So far, for the flagellar motor, the deeper our insights get into the mechanism, the deeper the mystery becomes. Now the mystery of conformational switching of the filament has been solved, and in terms of the number of protein molecules, the filament makes up 99% of the entire flagellum, it does not mean 99% of the mystery is solved. It is the motor mechanism that is even more difficult to understand."


http://www.nanonet.go.jp/english/mailmag/2004/011a.html

Or google: flagellum

Merlin Revisited

Oh I hate this assignment BECAUSE I am so totally inept. It just reminds me of how average I am and I don't like being reminded of that fact.

This is first of all, a "little boys" assignment. I hate dragons that are right there with snakes .... and everything I do looks like a stupid cartoon. Ugh.

Line Drawing of Times Square

While in New York, I drew this from my hotel window. Times Square NYC. Felt tip pen, 9x12 sketchbook 400 series Strathmore.

Machine Made versus Hand Made

This is a close-up detail of an appliqued coverlet commissioned in 1937 ... to be made as a matching pair of twin bed appliqued coverlets which is quite an ambitious project that takes months to complete. These are heirloom quality by today's standards because they have handmade 12-to-the-inch stitches and the precision of the parallel quilting is wonderful and difficult. They have intrinsically value, at least to me. No one does this any more by hand that I know of.

A seamstress today could recreate this same art work with a machine and it would be made with even smaller stitches with more perfection, and completed in a fraction of the time with relatively little skill requirement on the part of the seamstress but would it have the same intrinsic value as these handmade ones?

I rather doubt it. Why is that, if the machine made ones are more perfect with even smaller stitches?

It must be the human factor of imperfection.

The best digital images ... no matter how spectacular ... just do not move me as a handmade one does. They are just too perfect. I have the same reaction to retouched photos of famous people or models on magazine covers. It is all so phony and plastic.

Honestly, I would not buy a digital image, frame it, and hang it in my home. I'm not being a snob. It just doesn't say "human workmanship" to me and so it has less intrinsic value. I would value an oil portrait over a photo portrait. Why is that? The photo has to be more accurate.

I've thought about this a lot lately and wondered if I am just resisting change. I don't think so. The too perfect images feel inhuman.

When I have had to create digital images in the past it seemed always a fight to make the image the way I wanted, and there is always the temptation to do things the way the computer wants to do it. Usually it seems that the computer wins because it's tools always render more perfectly than I and that is not satisfying to me as an artist.

To be sure there is a market for digital art, and it will probably grow but it is not for me.

I say, why not just pick up a brush and paint the image? My image will represent the time I have invested to develop my skills, and my imperfections in the painting will be identifiable that it was indeed handmade.

Current Art Work - In Progress

WIP 8x10 oil sketch on canvas board. I hope to do this for mself on on large canvas as soon as I work all the kinks out.  

The picture (face soon to be added when it is dryer) is of son, Darren when he was a little kid and the silver baby cup a family heirloom (Poppie's), and the teddy bear is just there to introduce the magic of "make-believe" associated with childhood; the red background is there to give the feeling of childhood should be like ... full of energy and joy.  I think Darren's childhood was like that.

Here is aWC pencil sketch of Darren, now a fully grown man from a snap shot.  Watercolor pencil 5x8 Heavy WC paper.

Brenden from photo. Watercolor pencil 5x8.


Still working on eggs .... the setup needs something I think.  I wanted to project the simplicity and perfection of form; how something so small and insignificant could bring such great culinary delights to the planet; how it is so strong as a binder for "egg tempera" (it makes a paint film that is strong as iron) and an essential ingredient in many art masterpieces that the world cherishes; how it is used in the drug industry to make life saving antibiotics; how it can produce the little chick who feeds literally the whole world. Something to think about.   I need to find a way to create a visual image...  "In Praise of the Egg." 

OKC Museum of Art - Paris 1900 Exhibit

Here is a drawing (below) as a study I did after a beautiful litho poster (at left) by one of the great artists of this time. To appreciate these giant posters and the artists who created them, one needs, really, to have done some lithography. 

An image is drawn upon giant five inch thick stone slabs ... yes stone slabs ... that have been polished silky smooth. (These are very special stones quarried and sawn into flat slabs upon which images are printing.)  The surface is "opened" with acid and the artist then draws the image on with either wax litho pencils or painted with a thick masking litho ink to make a resist; then the stone is closed causing the background to resist ink and remain "white" or "closed" during printing ... meaning that it repels ink and keeps the area from taking ink. The drawn area is inked with and the edition is pulled.  Paper is dried and re-moistened and the next color pass is made. Therefore every color requires a different stone slab very similar to modern 4-color separations. (My prints were only done in black ink so I can just imagine.)

The stone and paper are run thru a printing press for each color. To make an edition is no small task for all of the color must register perfectly in every color pass and be printed evenly throughout the run.   It's a big difficult chore.  

This Paris 1900 Exhibit is, unfortunately over but you can find current exhibits at this link:
http://www.okcmoa.com/exhibitions/currentexhibitions

I enjoyed the exhibit. Having done lithographs, I appreciated what went into those monumental posters. I love art nouveau and the decorative work from that period.

Here are more drawing from my sketch book (I always do this because it helps my recall) of the other art work on exhibit that I .