Lopsided grin not visible but the splashing of the water did not drown out the song that she sang to herself. The traffic, one driver in anger or celebration leans on his horn and through the closed door could almost be Fats Navarro taking a chorus. W.Wolfson
Last Painting of ’18 9×12 Watercolor & Multi Media Paper
Hustle & bustle of commissions plus holiday social commitments. In lieu of proper blog post here are some recent quick guerilla sketch things from my ever present pocket pad.
3×5
We all carry in our heads the idea of ourselves, the self image. Desires and faults which we try to keep close to the vest aside, a componant to the truth lay outside of ourselves.
This is why often no one thinks their recorded voice sounds like them, as they think it is. The same goes for images. If the pose is not one set up as the subject imagines to be ideal, then it often seems “off” as it’s not inline with the self image.
I prefer to not work with professional models as the poses that they have worked so hard to learn have an artificiality to them which freeze dries the emotions which are the raison d’etre for all my work.
Often, I use same people over course of many pieces and years. As our history grows, a sense of trust develops. They know that, whether they like how some aspect of their visage is portrayed, it is the truth and the truth, an honesty, is always beautiful.
The trust allows for natural body language which helps facilitate emotions.
For this piece, I wanted a delicacy but also the sense of blood rushing and hot just below the skin.
This is only my third painting in my new studio. I was very pleased with results.
“Reds” 5.5×8.5 watercolor and paper
Please my friend, Nothing happens here ’till after10.We will meet at the Metropole and I will make you a party the proper way.
All my muscles twitched in anticipation but also preemptively in sympathy to how I would feel tomorrow.
They call it the sprawl. People seeking their fortune, power over others, their past, themselves or simply distraction come here.
Often it doesn’t work out. Either to settle debt or naively thinking they will work way up to better money and position people become window shadows, living come hither ads.
One grows used to seeing the writing silhouettes but always upon first entering the sprawl and encountering them one looks up, not necessarily a good idea here.
The higher up window shadows had to go further than mere writing & dancing to get attention. In compensation for attitude, entire acts could be witnessed occurring perhaps a floor or two before the rooftops.
Both my cheeks were kissed in the proper way as is only right. He clapped his hands together. Everyone nodded to themselves sensing the expansiveness of the boss’s joy to once again see me and hear me talk.
(Notes & images from the sprawl December 2018 W.Wolfson)
Entertaining a child at Starbucks.
“Put the tablet down a minute and check this out. Do you like comics?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like the Hulk?”
“Yeahhhhhh.”
I took out my lead clutch. I have just started experimenting with soft lead (2mm). A quick sketch, maybe it was ego but i thought there would be fascination for her to see an image appear out from under the lead.When she saw that it was not the Hulk from the movies, unimpressed and without saying another word her head bowed back into whatever the tablet had to offer.
The original Hulk is often talked about in relation to a type of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In truth he was, in his nascence closer to folklore Golem & Frankenstein’s Monster.
A cursory glimpse of his history online and it seems like every decade he was interpreted via that time’s problems & fears.
Originally he seemed to be feared because he was different and misunderstood. The revulsion he caused partially on account of physically bringing to the fore the part of ourselves kept tucked away out of sight.
I do not read comics but if in keeping with the trend of him representing aspects of each era, i would imagine that now he is loathed not out of fear but because he is a hindrance to some desire/ambition (“The Hulk is rampaging across the city, the airport is closed but I was supposed to go on my vacation!” “He is stomping on my new car!” “He got in way of perfect instagram moment i was about to create.” ) Or he could be the reality discordant with how someone/place/society envisions itself. (akin to when people use really old photos of themselves in some online function despite no longer resembling it. The ideal still what they see in mirror contrary to the truth otherwise visible.)
(This is from a new series “Songs About Women”)
First Song: B
Did glitch art
As university student she sat at feet of a professor who was for her, one part jesus, one part father figure. He was infallible in all things which upped her worth by acolyte association.
She mentioned a tome, one of the dead Roman’s that I am into, which he had turned her onto.
I had just finished writing an essay on translations. This was the worst translation, full of errors. Politely pointing this out caused discord in her established narrative.
A picture I found while pruning my papers of no longer necessary accumulation. the drawing from it to serve as a tombstone.
9×12 Quick Sketch
It was magical in that the rain held out every day, aside from minor flare ups, until I was home for the night. I would lay in bed and see the lights of other people’s home’s flicker through the sheets of heavy Parisian rain. The steady rhythmic sound as it hit the zinc tiles made music unnecessary.
I was reading Harold Bloom’s “Falstaff Give Me Life”. A meditation upon the character & literature. Some of his pronouncements (in general) are controversial but he always walks the reader through his thought process. Unlike a lot of essayists of later generations, he does not insist he is correct because it is how he feels but instead presents evidence cited to back up opinion.
Of course personal taste enters into it too. I confess some works of which he is passionate about do nothing for me. The mark of a great thinker and essayist, I am still interested to read what he has to say.
For me, Shakespeare is not the same end-all-be-all. I prefer my Greeks & Romans. It did prompt me to revisit the bard and also the Verdi Opera. (In the book he mentions the opera, making a specific point of “that Falstaff not being the one written about”.
I got more enjoyment from revisting the bard. I already owned the opera, bought originally solely because Bryn Terfel was in title role. I delved into it again and found I enjoyed it much more than at the time of my original purchase, now listening to it at least once a week.
Falstaff, just under the surface of his merriment can be glimpsed a bent to self sabotage or a fatal purity, to not play the game of politics & ambition but rather stay true to himself via appetite. Appetite that is not always to be satiated but the attempt to do so being the best way to honor & live life.
It all makes for some great base material of art in any medium. Here are some quick sketches, riffing upon the theme.
Paper Life Painting 