Have been busy with a bunch of larger projects (including getting next short story collection ready!) but that would never keep me from compulsively reaching for ever present pocket pad when out and about (nor hour or two of woodshedding every night)
Give me a scrap of paper and pencil nubbin and it is one of my greatest pleasures in life, serving the process.
3×5 per side
“Serbia is the new Paris.”
“Every city wants to be, claims to be the new Paris.”
“It is very true of here.”
“Dance with me, it is one of things Serbian girls are best at.”
“Maybe we will have a drink later.”
The pen felt cool then hot as it rested in my breast pocket.
W.Wolfson’19
Rache 7×10 Watercolor & Cotton Paper
I had the pleasure semi-recently of seeing a fantastic show in Paris of Tintoretto at the Musée du Luxembourg.
His mannerist style emphasized emotion over perfect harmonious proportions which had been the de rigueur template for (early) Renaissance painters. Some of his self portraits are among my favorite paintings. He showed himself, warts and all so to speak.
In this social media-Instagram age, everyone goes for presenting an idealized version of themselves in self portrait. Or a faux-playful imperfection such as the pretty girl with her tongue sticking out.
My mantra has always been that truth is beauty and that truth is always in service to emotion. Emotion being my personal raison d’etre for all my work.
When I do a self portrait, i do not look to send a message via symbols or program but stick to my raw reportage. It is me, as I am which is real, which is interesting.
“Black Eye” 5.5 x 8.5 Watercolor & Paper
One of her grandmother’s last wishes was that she get in shape. Although she liked her body as is, she agreed.
Photos are exacting in their detail so that the mind does not retain the memory of feelings and other acute emotional detail.
I was asked to document the body that she was leaving behind. No matter how much a portrait matches the subject, there is that component of space which we all fill in ourselves.
Capturing her with brush and pencil will keep her past vivid in memory and not merely a perfect reproduction from which all emotion has been freeze dried out.
Patricia 7×10 Watercolor & Cotton Paper
Emotion is a truth which is always beautiful.
Collecting art has become rarefied. Where as formerly passion and an eye (personal sense of aesthetics) were the main & most important prerequisites, they have been supplanted by space and money.
The size of my works is intentional. I have in mind new collectors for whom space is at a premium. Apartment dwellers should not feel it an impossibility to start a collection.
I also have in mind burgeoning collectors who are just starting to delve into the myriad genres of art out there. A large piece starts to dictate what directions a collection will go in for people living in normal sized spaces. Smaller works do not create a visual limitation.
I want the collector to live with my works and not (feel as if) under them which may occur in apartments.
Always is the striving for emotion to come across in my work(s) and this size bolsters it by almost creating a senses that one is witnessing a scene, the viewer as a voyeur.
” ‘Nita” 9×12 Watercolor & Cotton Paper (1st painting of ’19)
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
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
Watercolor and paper 5.5×8
I have always needed to be engaged with what I am drawing/painting. However, it need not be an overly dramatic thing, snapshots from my daily life often do the trick.
This is because most of the joy and excitement for me comes from serving the process. This perhaps is indicative of what is referred to as having “a calling”.
I just found a great fishmonger near new studio. Here is dinner.
All set up in new studio. It has been overcast, so I am still getting a feel for the natural light. I was very pleased with both these pieces. The first two in my new studio.
“Two” 7×10 watercolor & cotton paper
“Facial” 9×12 watercolor & multi media paper
Honey Child wanted me to touch her face, the lines of her body, memorization as a blind man might.
I took one of the rooms higher up as I felt it safer. The trade off was that unlike some of the better rooms, my one window did not look out into the courtyard.
At night when not actively pursuing anything, the Hyenas walked softly, their paws crunched on the sand as if it were snow.
This did not seem to bother anyone but myself. To my shame, when the sun was at its most brilliant a pair of little boys would get the disregarded scraps of leather from the cobbler. They would then almost completely bury them in the sand, leaving them there until the end of the day.
They would then go back and dig up their treasure. Over the course of the day the sand became hotter and hotter. Each grain burnt the leather so that it became dimpled like a more expensive version of itself.
While drinking mint tea these would then be made into wallets to sell to tourists at the medina.
I had my pen and paper to keep me company but sometimes that was not enough. I would play my records but not too much as i worried of some misfortune befalling the player for which i knew I would not be able to get parts easily.
Mostly I played James Johnson, Willie the Lion, Fatha Hines. Their looping frenzy seemed of another world to the locals. No one ever complained as they were sure that it was part of some incantation similar to that of the men up in the mountains with their rams horn instruments.
“What do you call it?”
“Boogie.”
To them, the word had a deeper, primal, meaning and i think it was better.
Fini
“Boogie” (1st painting new studio) 5×8 watercolor & paper
Paper Life Painting 