Beginning outline for a residency at Tenjinyama………

With to do list 

Looking up the meanings of shrine and temple in an English dictionary…….I have no way of looking these up in a Japanese dictionary and will have to rely on a native speaker of Japanese but would also like to find an English speaking person who can read Japanese to also translate.

So I am being asked questions by people around me as to what I might do with my three weeks of residency and to organize my thoughts around answers to these queries. At first I was bothered by the questions but then realized was procrastinating which is always my first creative response to anyone trying to pin me down to a static state of thinking.

So I am coming up with terms using words to begin the articulation of where I am taking all this

Shrinage……….creating a mental state of hope, prayer, or desire using physical objects or space at hand for set amount of time which can be (maybe a “brief” amount would be a better way to see it)

Templelizing ………..socializing safe space, trying to describe maybe circumscribe safe space as a social function…….example using a cell phone as connection to a community or others

More to come

May 29 Carrboro, NC USA.

 "Reader/Perpetual Motion No. 4"

  oil on canvas 

This is from an ongoing series that started with a drawing from one of the numerous drawing sessions I have had over the past few years. The model engaged with reading is light years away. More and more the subject of these paintings has been about the simple fact that where the model is at becomes a temple, a safe spot lost in time among many others.

I see slowly articulating (by writing) about the focus of my meditations as a way to organize what I want to emphasis in my work. To sharpen the focus, but not necessarily the understanding.  

These were done in 2010 and I alternately want to destroy these and go at the project again but larger....These types of inner conflicts go on all the time and take time to resolve...I call it the problem of the local trap...needing to expand the field and see how things add up. I am always envious of the artist who can narrow down and focus on one idea as a life's work, sharpening their vision using a singular style if you will like an armature to build upon.

I think for me, I would quit if I had to do one type of artwork day in and day out.

This is one of twenty that I did in series as an experiment, The figure as a landscape well kind of