Thinking About My Art

As discussed in my previous post, it took about 2.5 weeks in residency before I started feel like I was getting a grasp on the painting I wanted to accomplish.  My approach for doing these paintings evolved over and over again.  One visiting artist told me that she really appreciated how willing I was to follow the path provided by the work itself.  I really believe that one must follow where the work leads as you never know where it will lead and it beats trying to force something that just isn’t working.

These next images I’m going to share are for work that I felt become more consistently successful.  I began to figure out how to apply paint evenly across a large surface.  I learned how to get the hard edges I wanted.  And I learned how to compose the image so that the color and wood grain worked in tandem.  The next batch of images is below:

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#1 is the first piece I made where I used Tracy Helgeson’s feedback, both in terms of simplifying the composition and also using mucky colors.  I was happy with the result and Tracy was too.  We worked out a trade and now this piece is in her personal art collection.

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#3 above is the first piece where I took the strategy to have the paint follow on a specific grain line in the wood.  In other words, I counted out from the “center” of the grain five rings.  I then applied the paint right on that fifth ring.  This allowed the paint to truly “work” with the wood and also gave the paint a more organic feel.  I liked this solution and leveraged it many times.  It reminded me of my approach to an older piece, Shadow.

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #4, there were two areas where I was able to leverage the woodgrain to define where the paint would be applied.

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #5, I am working with the grain, but not being defined by the grain.  Both ways of working interested me and I was intrigued by how each approach felt similar yet different at the same time.

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #8
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #8
Acrylic, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

#8 is clearly a bit of an outlier in this group.  Here I wanted to use the color form to impose more upon the wood.  I’m still thinking about the wood grain and about what I want to be visible, but I let myself be less organic than before.  As a result, I think this piece may have more tension than the others and that may be something to further explore in the future.

Not Yet Titled #9
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #9
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Acrylic, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

By the time I completed #9 and #10 above, I felt that I had a pretty solid grasp on the technical aspects of these paintings and I also could allow myself to be more experimental with color.  I felt these last two pieces were well-done and that I could then tackle the larger panels I had been saving up.  In the next post I’ll share the six 16″ x 16″ maple panels I completed and another that was 24″ x 24.”  For me, things started to get much more exciting at this point.

Before I left for VSC, I decided that I wanted to spend the majority of my time experimenting with painting on plywood.  I came up with a set of rules for myself to follow and prepped about 20 pieces of maple and walnut plywood to work with.  I often work in a rule-based manner and I was excited about the rules for these paintings:

• Paint a number of lines on the panel equal to the size of the panel (i.e. for a 12″ x 12″ panel, paint 12 lines of color… for 16″ x 16,” paint 16 lines)
• The lines can be in any color or width and at any angle
• Once all lines have been painted, drill holes into panels so that the holes and lines work together

As I began working in this direction I quickly discovered that my plan was flawed.  Fellow resident, Tracy Helgeson, helped me understand the problem by pointing out that not only was painting fairly new to me, but in this work I was trying to work with three dimensions (the panel), woodgrain (color and composition), color (the paint), and holes.  In other words, I was taking on more than I could realistically handle and as a result I was becoming frustrated with the work as a whole.  She made the suggestion that I simplify.  I took her advice and things began to go much better.

In this post I want to share some of the first paintings I finished and talk about my struggles with them.  Keep in mind that there were other pieces not even interesting to make it on the studio wall, much less to be shared here.

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #1
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

This first piece is the best example I have of the issues that arose when trying to talk my initial rules.  I started by painting the blue, pink and gray lines.  I had 9 more to paint per the rules, but based on where this piece was headed and where others had already failed, I abandoned the plan.  I decided to paint the inside of the lines a solid white to give it some structure and weight.  Then I drilled holes in a line that bisected the painted lines.  These larger holes were meant to serve as the foundation for a larger form made of holes.  However, I noticed two problems.  One, the drilled holes weren’t perfect and some of the paint and plywood chipped out.  Two, these first holes already started overwhelming the overall composition.  Given all that, I decided to stop drilling holes and let the piece be complete at this stage.  Although I would not have drilled the holes in this way if I had known this was the final composition, there was something about the piece that interested me.  It stayed on the wall.  Many visitors to my studio felt the same way, the piece wasn’t fully resolved – it wasn’t successful – but there was something intriguing about it.  It was a start.

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
24″ x 24″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
24″ x 24″ x 1″
2010

This larger piece followed the same path as #1 above.  Here, I abandoned the lines after 4 (with 20 left to be painted according to the rules) and I also used white paint to fill in areas created by the lines.  Based on prior experience drilling holes, I decided not to risk it at all with this piece.  Instead, I opted to fill in the large wood area between the blue line and the dark purple with glossy clear coat.  The rest of the piece is finished in matte.  The glossy finish doesn’t play much of a role in the piece even when seen in person.  Ultimately it’s more of a conceptual interaction.  This work did provide one big advancement for me.  This was the first time I painted lines that weren’t connected all the way across the surface (i.e. the blue and yellow lines).  I was quite please with what happened in the lower left corner and this informed future pieces.

Not Yet Titled #3
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on walnut plywood
16″ x 16″ x 1″
2010

In #3 and #4 above, it would seem that I took a step backwards.  Well, in a way I did.  Remember Tracy’s advice to simplify the work?  Both of these pieces were in very early stages when Tracy provided her feedback.  While each piece should have had 16 lines, that rule was no longer driving my work in the studio.  Instead, I thought about simplifying.  #3 has a simple composition of four lines while #4 only has two.  My final touches to these works was to use glossy clear coat to fill in the center form on #3 and the left and right sections of wood on #4.

The important things to take away from these in thinking about later pieces made at VSC are the pastel colors of #3 and the mucky colors of #4.  These will reappear in future posts.

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #5 and #6 above, you can see how I altered my direction in the way I applied the paint to the panels.  I was interested in the subtle organic curve to the paint in #4.  I realized that the organic form worked better on the wood instead of the hard-edge lines.  The hard-edge lines worked against the wood whereas the organic forms worked with the wood.  My next decision was to cover the majority of the wood with paint.  This allowed me to do two things.  One, I reduced the impact of the wood grain on the overall composition (again, following the suggestion by Tracy to minimize the variables I had to deal with).  Two, by selectively choosing what wood grain I allowed to be visible, I could focus the viewer’s attention on the most interesting wood grain.  With these discoveries, I was once again excited about the paintings.  I had something to work with now.

As part of this new work in painting, it was important to me to work with color.  Though I had a big area of color in these paintings, I wanted do something more.  I came up with the solution of using a pinstripe along the edge(s) of the larger color form.  I liked that this created some depth to the composition and allowed up a dialog between colors.

Unfortunately, all was not well in these pieces.  Given my inexperience painting, I didn’t know how to apply a solid area of color to the surface.  The color is splotchy in both pieces and it’s a real detriment to the work.  Fortunately, though, I was in the right place to learn how to fix it.  A quick tutorial in using mediums as an extender to the paint and I was once again in business.  The problems I encountered in #5 and #6 would be fixable in future pieces.

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Acrylic paint, polyacrylic on maple plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

In #7, I was able to apply a solid area of green paint.  Well, mostly solid… it was much better than #5 and #6.  However, another problem I encountered in #5 and #6 was how to apply the pinstripe in a perfectly clean way.  In #7, I tried a different solution of hand painting the pinstripe instead of taping it off.  I thought this might continue the interest I had in using organic forms on the wood.  Instead, I found the imperfect edges to be a major distraction.  I would need to figure out how to get a perfectly edged pinstripe in the next paintings.  In the next post we’ll see if I was able to solve that problem.

Thanks for looking!

Before going to the Vermont Studio Center for a month long residency, I spent a great deal of time thinking about what I wanted to make while there.  Ultimately I decided that I wanted to spend the month experimenting with paint on plywood, something that would be entirely new, challenging and exciting.  Just prior to leaving I had begun new work with wood veneer and clear coat on birch plywood.  I’ve discussed this work here before and as you know, I think it’s promising.  Since I had a fair bit of materials available for that work, I decided to take it with me to Vermont and work on those pieces as a break from painting.

Ultimately, during the first few days in residency, I found myself very frustrated with the early progress in painting (to be discussed in a later post) and decided to switch gears focusing instead on the wood pieces.  With each new wood piece completed, I became more excited.  Before I knew it, I was deeply involved with the wood work, cranking out new pieces every day.  Eventually I ran out of materials, but I am pleased with what I made.  I’d like to share with you the completed wood pieces in the order that they were finished.

Not Yet Titled #1
Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #1
Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Padauk, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #2
Padauk, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Rosewood, Maple, Black Ash, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #3
Rosewood, Maple, Black Ash, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #4
Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Rosewood, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #5
Rosewood, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Black Ash, Purpleheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #6
Black Ash, Purpleheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Yellowheart, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
13″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7
Yellowheart, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
13″ x 12″ x 1″
2010

Not Yet Titled #7 resulted from a problem in the gluing up process.  There ended up being a portion of the piece that was completely ruined.  I cut out that section and settled on this configuration as an experiment.  I thought that perhaps stacking the pieces would open a door for me, but so far, it has not.

Not Yet Titled #8
Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #8
Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #9
Walnut, Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #9
Walnut, Rosewood, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Padauk, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 11″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #10
Padauk, Yellowheart, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 11″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #11
Black Ash, Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #11
Black Ash, Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #12
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 9″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #12
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 9″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #13
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 3″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #13
Maple, Walnut, Polyacrylic on Birch Plywood
9″ x 3″ x 1/2″
2010

Not Yet Titled #13 was made after it was requested by a new friend at VSC (I’ll eventually post something with links to these friends so that you can see their great work) to make them a piece out of any scraps I had.  It was nice to work outside the square format and perhaps I’ll explore that further in the future.

…and then I was out of materials to make any more.  Being forced to focus on the paintings really advanced them faster than I expected.  The next post will be of the first few paintings I made in Vermont.  You’ll see how quickly I was willing to abandon a path that was not promising in order to try something new.

Thanks for looking and, as always, I welcome your feedback.

Well, I survived Vermont.  As you know, I spent the month of January taking part in an artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.  I lucked out since it was a very mild January.  One day even hit 50 degrees!  I’ll be writing several different posts describing my experience at VSC, but for now I’d like to share some images from the studio.  The studio portrait was taken with four days remaining.  The rest of the images were taken on the last day right before everything was packed away.

The studio portrait was taken by Howard Romero.  Howard is working on an ongoging project where he photographs VSC residents in their studio.

The view from my studio window.  There is a small river that was often frozen.  The red building is the Barbara White Studio which houses painters, printmakers and photographers.  I was in the Schultz Sculpture Studio.

The same window as above.  These wood panel pieces are approximately 12″ x 12″.

Barbara White Studio can be seen in the window.  Wood panel pieces with clear coating highlighted by window reflection.

More wood panel works.

Second window of studio.  12″ x 12″ installation of new paintings exploring variety of ideas and compositional approaches.  Piece on the right is 16″ x 16″.

12″ x 12″ paintings on left.  16″ x 16″ paintings on the right.  Mixture of maple and walnut supports.

Better view of 12″ x 12″ paintings.  Individual formal studio shots will reveal color, texture and subtle details.  Hopefully these images will be posted in the next week along with more discussion of the process resulting in this work.

Click for larger view.  These paintings are 16″ x 16″.  I completed two additional paintings measuring 24″ x 24″ that aren’t shown in the above images.

I hope this provides a glimpse into my productivity at VSC.  I counted 42 completed pieces in 24 working days.  I’ll eventually share them all with you.  Please keep checking back for updates.

It has been evident in the images of my recent work that certain subtleties are not easily seen.  Admittedly, I am not the most skilled studio photographer in the world, but these subtle changes in clear coat sheen are sometimes hard to see in person, much less in a jpg.  When I share my work with you on this blog, much of the most important aspects of the work are not seen at all.  This is not a good thing.

With the increased use of the internet, art is most commonly viewed on a computer screen.  We know this is no way to view art, but it’s just the way it is.  We know that art cannot be judged by a digital image, yet we are forced to do so anyway.  Perhaps the image is just not well done.  Perhaps texture and physicality are lost.  Perhaps one viewer’s monitor is calibrated much differently than someone else’s.  There are many unknowns when sharing a digital image of your work, but it’s a fact of life for a contemporary artist.  Posting images online allows us to reach a bigger audience than we would have otherwise, so we continue to do it.

I think artists are becoming more and more accustomed to the challenges of sharing work digitally.  Because of this, I wonder if any artists have been inclined to change their work in order for it to look better on the Web.  I’ve dealt with this issue for as long as I’ve been an artist.  But with my most recent work, the pitfalls of showing my work online can no longer be ignored.  I’ve had to ask myself, should I continue to pursue this work knowing that every single online viewer will miss a huge part of the work?  Will this prevent me from getting show opportunities?  Will collectors hesitate to show interest in the work?

The decision I ultimately reached is that I cannot change the course of my practice solely because the jpgs of my work fail to communicate some aspect of it.  I believe in my work.  I think in general it is showing promise.  And I realize that because of the failures of the image, I may lose out on opportunities.  My hope is that what viewers do see in the work is enough for them to remain open-minded about it, at least until they are able to see it in person.

When I think about contemporary art, work that makes use of some sort of subtlety does not come to mind.  In fact, I can’t think of a single artist whose work loses some key detail in digital images.  Is there no place for subtlety in contemporary art?  Have artists abandoned it?  Are there artists who I’m forgetting who face this same issue?  Certainly no artist is completely happy with digital images of their work, but how many completely lose a key part of the work?

Have you faced similar issues with your work?  Does some key component of your work simply not appear in digital images?  Have you been tempted to change your work to something that will photograph better?

I’m just full of questions about this topic, aren’t I?

I can’t recall if I mentioned this prior to yesterday, but beginning Sunday, January 3, I will be doing a four-week artist residency in sculpture at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.  This is my first residency and I am both excited and nervous.  As I often like to do, let’s breakdown both of these feelings.

Excited

• This is the first time that I will have an extended opportunity to pursue my work with complete focus and attention.
• I am going to pursue a new body of work as well as dabble in some of the things that I’ve been posting about lately.  The new work will involve plywood (two types: Maple, Walnut), acrylic paint and lots of polyacrylic clear coating.
• I will be surrounded by many other artists from a wide variety of disciplines.  Living in the suburbs does not afford me this opportunity very often.

Nervous

• Four weeks away from my beautiful wife… what more do I need to say?  I will miss her terribly.
• Will my four weeks in residency be “worth it”?  I feel some self-imposed pressure that my time spent at VSC has to be extremely fruitful.  Not only must I make great work, but lots of it.  Unreasonable, I know, but it’s how I feel.
• Tackling a new body of work.  I think I know how it will work, but what if it doesn’t turn out as expected?  What if something in the process just won’t work?  I’ll have to adjust on the fly and move forward.
• January in Vermont?  Yikes!

Overall I think I am more excited than nervous.  I am prepping up to 40 panels to take with me as well as about 5-8 projects similar to my new work shown here.  It’s probably way more than I will be able to finish, but I want plenty of material to work with.

From what I understand, there is limited internet availability at VSC so I’m not sure how much I will be able to post about my experiences.  I will try to provide periodic updates as I can.

With any luck I hope to find a new place within myself as an artist.  I hope to meet great people and see other interesting work.  I hope to learn more about myself and my work, and I hope to come back with some interesting new pieces.

I’m eager to start this experience.  Vermont, here I come!

I apologize for the long delay in posting something new here.  Between a five-day Disney trip, the Christmas holidays and preparing for my upcoming residency (specific post coming soon), things have just been hectic.  However, I have been able to create some new work in the studio and I am excited to share the images with you.  These four pieces follow in line with previously posted works using 1/16″ veneer on birch plywood and playing with different sheens of polyacrylic clear coating.

Not Yet Titled
Padauk veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Padauk veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Walnut/Maple veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Walnut/Maple veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Spalted Maple/Walnut veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Spalted Maple/Walnut veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Black Ash/Padauk veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

Not Yet Titled
Black Ash/Padauk veneer on birch plywood
12″ x 12″ x 1/2″
2009

I hope these images provide some insight into what I’m currently working on in the studio.  What doesn’t come through in these jpegs is the increasing complexity of clear coating.  In the top image, it is clear that I have alternated bands of matte and glossy finish.  In the second image, you can get a hint of a subtle vertical bar of clear coating that is the same width as the piece of maple.  In the third image, there are alternating bands of glossy and matte finish that do not show up in the jpeg.  Also, in the last image, the top half (Black Ash) has 1″ wide horizontal bars that alternate between glossy and semi-glossy finish.  The bottom half (Padauk) is completely finished in matte clear coating.

Creating works with such subtly – even sometimes difficult to see in person – has me thinking about subtleties in contemporary art.  Expect a post on this topic in the near future.

As always, I welcome any and all feedback you may have.  Thank you for taking the time to look.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my wonderful studio assistant.  Here he is:

He’s quite attractive in his alien space mask, isn’t he?  This man is my dad, Sam Kirkland, and what he lacks in style he more than makes up for in woodworking knowledge.  He’s been helping me realize my work for many years now, either during the few times we’re together each year or via phone consultations.  He’s seen here sanding a walnut frame made while we were home for Thanksgiving.  Notice the tongue sticking out?  This is evidence of extreme concentration and I do it too.  Like father like son, they say.

Our collaboration in the woodshop hasn’t always been so, well, collaborative.  As a young child, he would bring me out to the shop and encourage me to help.  One time, I tried to help.  Given a piece of wood and a sanding block, I began to sand the board.  However, I made the catastrophic mistake of sanding against the grain.  The horror!!!  My dad sternly reprimanded me for my mistake and being one who didn’t take constructive criticism well (I’ve gotten better since, I think), I threw the sanding block down, stormed out of the shop to go play a video game and never returned.

I’m not sure why I became an artist and even less sure why I decided to work with wood.  I’m sure a psychologist could figure it all out, but we’ll save that for another time.  Regardless of the reason, I have become a woodworker.  I don’t make furniture but I have a lot of the same needs as a traditional woodworker.  And my dad provides the necessary guidance and know-how.  He has almost singlehandedly provided every power tool I have.  In fact, for each birthday and Christmas since my interest in wood began, I have received a new tool.  This year it was an 18V cordless drill and sawzall.  Sweet!

Anyway, we got started on a rough note some 20+ years ago.  But I am thrilled that I get to share wood with my dad.  He’s been working in wood for 6 decades now.  I’m still in my first.  I’ve learned a lot and I know I’ve taught him some things too.  I look forward to many more years of collaborative woodworking.

Thanks, Pops, for being a great studio assistant.  I couldn’t ask for a better one.

Approximately two weeks ago Stacey and I made a big decision.  Well, I guess it’s not that big.  We decided to join a gym and we’re now proud members of L.A. Fitness in the Dulles Town Center.  When I was growing up I played baseball and basketball all the time.  I played baseball for my college team and very often played pick up basketball.  I lifted weights most of my senior year.  I was in pretty good shape.

After graduation, I moved to Washington, D.C. and continued being active.  Eventually I took up cycling and even raced for a bit with a local team.  Again, I was in pretty good shape.  Since then, however, I haven’t been nearly as active as I would have liked.  Lately, I have felt quite out of shape.  The time came to look into joining gym.

Since joining the gym two weeks ago I have gone there 8 times (I missed 5 days due to the holidays in Kentucky).  And I am loving it.  Already I feel a bit better physically and mentally.  Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost.  I struggle with knowing that those 15 hours or so could have been spent in the studio.  That’s not including the time to commute to and from the gym, or the exhausted nights recovering on the couch after a challenging workout.  Ultimately I have lost a lot of studio time and I’m not thrilled with that.

I think there are certain times when life pulls an artist away from the studio.  It’s a difficult decision, choosing something over art.  But we make the decisions we feel we need to make when we need to make them.  My belief is that although my time in the studio may be diminished, what time I do spend in the studio is of greater quality.  I will feel better about myself and I’ll be able to work harder and with greater focus.  I already feel a greater clarity about my work and I have some interesting things happening in the studio as we speak.

I recently re-read Anne Truitt’s “Daybook.” In it, she talks about how she had to prioritize many things above her work in the studio.  I think the list included family, friends, employment, house chores and her garden.  All of these came before the studio.  Once her responsibilities were taken care of, she would spend what time and energy that remained in the studio.  I think we can all agree that what came out of her studio was remarkable regardless of the time made available for its creation.

Fitness/health and art are not mutually exclusive.  They are both required to make me the person I am and want to be.  I will pursue both with determined passion and I look forward to seeing what comes from each.  But from time to time, I will struggle with the choice of one over another at a specific point in time.  I will remind myself that life is long and I have time to do it all.

After all, if Anne could do it, so can I.

Not long ago, in an effort to get ready for Halloween, Stacey and I requested Psycho from Netflix.  For anyone unfamiliar with it, Psycho is an American film made in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock.  It’s a “suspense/horror” movie and ranked by AFI in 2007 as the 14th greatest movie of all time.  I had never seen the movie and was eager for the experience.

It did not take long once watching the movie for me to realize that I had been duped.  This film was not suspenseful and contained no horror.  In fact, I found the movie to be one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time.  It should not be found in the horror section but instead in comedy.  Attempts to build suspense were merely boring.  The acting was weak and forced.  Attempts to scare me were met with giggles instead.  The 14th best movie of all time?  It’s not in my top 14 movies that I watched in 2009.

So why the disconnect?  Well, put simply, times change.  I have no doubt that in 1960 Psycho was a fantastic movie.  It probably deserved its Academy Award nominations.  If we’re building a list of the all time greatest movies in terms of historical significance, perhaps it deserves its place.  And maybe this is what AFI means by “greatest.”

One of my favorite suspense/horror movies is The Ring.  Can you imagine if The Ring was played for 1960 audiences?  How many heart attacks would there be?  If The Ring is watched by an audience in 2050, will they just laugh?  Probably.

I’m not writing about this to discuss whether or not Psycho is a great movie.  I don’t think it is.  The reason I think this is because the context around the movie has changed so profoundly in 50 years that the movie no longer has the same impact.  My least favorite word in relation to this stuff, relevance, seems to apply here.  When Psycho came out, it was probably a huge accomplishment in cinematography.  Had there been a scarier, more suspenseful, movie before it?  It was extremely relevant then.  Now?  Not at all.  We’ve seen and experienced too much since.  We may appreciate the movie as a piece of history, but without qualifications (I like to refer to this as “degree of difficulty” – it was great for 1960!), it no longer measures up.  At least for me, anyway.

Now let’s bring this around to art.  Are “great” works of art impacted by context?  Can a work of art be “great” if it is impacted by context?  The best example that comes to mind for me is most Pop Art.  Perhaps in the 1960s it had impact.  But now it just feels like a joke, and not in a good way.  Undoubtedly Pop Art holds historical significance, but because it so heavily relied on its context, can it really be considered “great” today?  I can think of important examples of Pop Art, but nothing that even remotely comes close to greatness, at least how I define it.

It seems we place a lot of value on relevance in art today and I don’t think I will ever understand it.  To me, making something relevant is simple.  It simply addresses the now.  The now is right there in front of us.  And for the now, that’s wonderful.  But what about the then, the future?  When Warhol made his Brillo boxes, I’m certain that most Americans were very familiar with what Brillo was.  Now?  I barely remember Brillo pads, what about people even younger than me?  What about generations to come?  A re-created Brillo box holds no relevance to me.  Why do I care?  Why do I want to look at it?

I’m left to think that the most relevant work of art is something that actually has no relevance at all.  It should not be easily dated.  Anything in the work that dates it, that narrows its context, that places it in a certain place, inherently limits the piece.  The potential audience for the work is reduced.  For many contemporary artists, this is not a problem.  They seem to create work for a very specific audience… perhaps a small set of collectors and curators who play an inside game.  In this approach, it’s all about getting it.  If you get it, you’re inside.  If you don’t, tough luck.

I have no problem with this approach but it’s not the way for me.  I don’t wish to be relevant in the way that many gallerists, curators and critics talk about today.  I don’t want to create work that is tied closely to a specific time and place.

What I saw in Psycho was a silly and fairly boring movie.  I did not see greatness.  Perhaps it’s actually there and I didn’t recognize it.  Regardless, it helped me think about what I want my art to do.  It made me think about context and the audience.  It made me think about how greatness is created.  It made me think about not knowing what the future will bring for how my work is viewed.  Given all that, it was a well-spent 109 minutes.

And hey, laughing is never a bad thing.