Tag: writing

February 3

Compulsively, I read biographies on painters/artists and movements. I never restrict myself in regards to medium nor era. I notice that starting at about the time right before the impressionists, there was a common occurrence. A lot of artists had the same life trajectory with variations according to their personal temperaments and artistic voices.

There would be the years of learning followed by chrysalises period from which they would emerge with the base of what would become their distinct individual voice. Often, this would be followed by years of trudging forward while suffering through various slings and arrows of critics and the general public.

If lucky to still be alive, then once through this phase is the first blush of fame. Often times the fame would grow but it becomes sort of a trap. An artist starts to second guess themselves trying to hold onto all their hard fought for gains. This includes the temptation and pressure to merely repeat what had brought them their initial laurels.

From an artists point of view it becomes pandering where one pantomimes the familiar as to hear applause. Galleries don’t want to risk sales by the artist striking off in new direction. There is the danger that critics won’t understand or appreciate any deviation from what they like about an artist.

Even artists who mange to navigate all of this, when you read their biographies or “the letters of” type books they all comment on the same sweet spot of their careers.

It is when enough “fame” has finally happened so that they have met all of life’s basic needs (food, clothes, shelter et al) and can buy art supplies without having to think about the impact of any purchases on the rest of their lifestyle. The long gestated voice is recognized and appreciated but not to the degree that there can be no further evolution to it.

With no distractions from practical considerations towards daily living nor external pressures of audience, gallery or critics the artist is free to explore and follow their own North star.

This golden time is too often recognized only after it has passed.

In an attempt to buck the trend I try to take advantage of it as often as possible. Aside from a way of showing appreciation for my situation, it also fosters evolution.

Rarely do I do studies before doing a painting. This time I decided to, as to play around a little with compositional balance. Also, I decided to greatly increase the size of my work from the usual 11×14 inches to 25×30. when I paint it is usually flat upon my table. Because of the size, this time it was on an easel.

I have a great, heavy wood and brass easel which could be used for massive sized pieces. As I worked on lower sections of this piece, I sat on a stool with my feet on the bottom cross bar of the easel so that it looked like I was a windsurfer.

With my paints I always use half pan sets. I had been given a few tubes as a gift and decided to use those too. they required very much a different touch.

overall, I was very pleased with the results of this piece.

by Wayne Wolfson

(small) Murmured Songs

Tom Verlaine just recently died. His career had the dichotomy of he & his band Television even now constantly being cited as an influence. Yet he never broke big in the way that some of his direct CBGB’s peers like Blondie and the Talking Heads did. This isn’t a bad thing, as it allowed him to always do as he pleased with zero consideration for hits or video’s which would prove popular and remain in rotation.

One of the better remembrances I read was not by an artistic peer or current star who had been inspired by his work. It was an account given by a book seller that resonated with me and seemed one of the most appropriate send offs.

Strand’s Book Store in New York is, at least in America, one of the last of it’s kind. It is an institution. Tom haunted it’s aisles and the bargain carts out front year after year. People might have occasionally nudged one another with their elbows while nodding with their chin as he passed by but other than that he was treated as just another bibliophile on the hunt.

The book seller recounted the diversity of what he bought and cumulatively, the number of books he must now be in possession of.

I saw aspect of myself in all of this. When there is nothing that I need at an art supply store, if I happen to be passing one I will go in and wander around. This always leads to me buying a few pocket pads. I have one whole drawer in one of my tabourets that is full of small, odd sized pocket pads.

I always leave my preferred methodology to shake things up and foster evolution. Different exercises/series done besides my regular work as to learn more.

In my coat pocket or book bag there is always a pocket pad but I tend to use the same brand/size. There is no reason to be saving all the other pads and I am starting to run out of room. So I decided to just start randomly grabbing one and using it.

For my first series I added the challenge of not doing any shading and only using one specific pencil. These drawings are all intentionally executed quickly, often plein air.

125×90 MM

by Wayne Wolfson

Where’s My Stuff?

As I wrap up various projects for 2022 time feels oddly accelerated. There’s not enough hours in the day.

I was recently turned onto the Post website. From what I have seen of it, I like it. By way of saying thank you and showing appreciation to all those who have bothered to seek out my works I posted a free essay from my last collection Funeral Clothes.

Happy and Healthy holidays to all!

https://post.news/article/2JKHi8u5FG0ywYjyn7DObbTTiSb

by Wayne Wolfson

Lyra

I have been unexpectedly tied up with various things. Even with a full tilt boogie schedule, I draw or woodshed every day. All the various mediums which have become synonymous with me I fell into by complete happenstance while exploring. Each of these things, no longer new to me, I miss if I got too long without doing (or should I say crave?). My next big project is a large painting. While I can’t start it yet, I get the same pay off emotionally/intellectually/spiritually doing Lyra pieces. Although monochrome, they have a painterly feel to them and the touch required in making them is similar. An additional plus is, if I can achieve the desired feel utilizing only one color, then when using my paints proper, it feels easier.

All pieces are 5×7 inches.

A Pal of mine is doing great concert for those of you in the UK. Highly recommend
by Wayne Wolfson

Victory

I do not often paint large pieces. There’s a completely different physicality involved. The way I have always worked, when I see a piece in my head before starting out, included in this vision/conception is its size. If I envision it small, it’s not merely a matter of using larger paper to make it big. I can only make a thing as I saw it in my head.

With Victory I saw it big.

I enjoy the challenge of leaving my comfort zone. Most of my paintings are 11×17, this one would be 20×30. I have a large wooden easel. It has heavy brass machinery. I pull on a loop below the ledge upon which the canvas sits to raise or lower it on the wooden axis. There is a wooden crossbar on the bottom which connects the two front legs of the large tripod.

While painting the lower section of the piece, I sit on a stool leaning forward. My feet rest on the crossbar. It feels as if I am on a ship, brush in hand. Seas calm, seas stormy, call me Ishmael.

Victory 20×30 inches watercolor & Paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Maggie

I had been in the middle of a full sized Cinefield® when my computer of six years gave up the ghost. This rendered my needed printer into an expensive paper weight. I switched to doing a painting. This is 11×14 watercolor & tan paper.

“Maggie” 11×14

errata thought on the elderly: In media & especially television, a shorthand for “old people” they often will reference big band music (usually Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman). A few Rolling Stones albums just hit their 50th anniversary mark. If you do the math, an “old” person was not swinging their gal arround on the dancefloor to “Take the A Train” but rather Hendrix’s electro lament for a decades turmoil & new found freedoms.

by Wayne Wolfson

Paris Painter 4 : Like Sonny

Lyra water soluble graphite sticks have become one of my favorite mediums. That with a brush and pocket pad and i can do painterly pieces even when sitting at a cafe table. And I need not sprawl out taking over the table. I am also able to maintain discretion as I would hate to be like one of those people stateside who feel it necessary to go to Starbucks to show everyone that they are “writing”.

Aside from fully realized works, i continue to woodshed, hands, feet, whatever is in front of me. It is akin to a musician practicing scales. Both Renoir and Matisse when in the twilight of their years said something along the lines of it being a shame that they did not have a few more years left as they both felt that they were finally starting to get it. Coltrane before and after a concert or recording session would still put in time practicing. This has been my overall approach too. Regardless of how my day is spent, an hour or two at night woodshedding.

I do not go for the outwardly dramatic thing in my sketching. I let the organic truth of whatever the thing is create the emotion. A sort of raw reportage without any preconceived agenda. All pieces are either 3×5 pocket pad or 4×4 pocket pad. My 3×5 pad has circled the globe with me more ties than I can count and is always besides my bed or in my pocket during the day no matter where I am in the world.

How it began

Selfie

Kini in Cap

The End: selfie freaked out & tired @ Heathrow

by Wayne Wolfson

Cinefield® Go,Baby Go

My collage work in a very short amount of time became part of who I am. I lamented the fact that for longer trips/residencies I would not be able to do them. I began to investigate ways to perhaps make it happen.

The easiest thing would be to just use magazines/newspapers from wherever I was. This didn’t appeal to me as I have always prided myself on only using images from photos which I personally took. I researched pocket printers.

My Cinefield® are very time consuming and how to get the images aside, I had already had it in my head that were I able to do them on the road I would go far smaller as it would render a trip pointless were I to spend entire time alone in studio working on a piece. I also have other creative things that I want to do while on the road and the way my normal Cinefield® are made would have eliminated that possibility.

Another practical aspect of going smaller is that all the pocket printers I was finding seemed to utilize types of film. I did not want the raw materials to become cost prohibitive in constructing them.

For obvious reasons it was important that the photos not be laminated which eliminated many of the choices.

I found a device which literally fits in jacket pocket and feels solidly built. It connects to phone via blue-tooth which allows me to use any/all my own photos. The film is not exorbitantly priced although I will stick to my normal paper when not on the road.

My in general goal for doing pieces on road is small in size and utilizing no more than one packet of film per piece. Time wise, no more than two days working on it as this will allow me to also paint, write and absorb wherever I am in the world still.

The small size allows me to also do other things for the hour or so at a time that I am pressing a piece (basically laying heavy books atop it to get rid bubbles).

The film required a completely different touch and technique. In general I have only done several smaller pieces. Surprisingly, they are harder to do than normal size. There is less room to create rhythm/tension & release. What were already small piece often need to be made even smaller.

This is my first piece using the pocket printer. As always, it’s only images from photos which I took utilizing my trusty scissors and adhesive applied via brush.

It is 4×5 inches. surprisingly, it only took seven photos (the photos for pocket printer are about the size of a business card) I did it in two days. I was pleased with result and the fact that I pretty much met all the “rules” I had in mind.

addendum:

The news is bleak. The internet is fertile grounds for scams masquerading as charities or people who want to help. A hero of mine, José Andrés has a charity whose goal is to feed those in need. It eschews any politics for the basic notion that you can change the world by feeding everybody. This charity is not solely concerned with the Ukraine, although they are boots on the ground there now. Over the past few years, wherever there have been natural disasters he and his colleagues could be found trying to help out via feeding those who are hungry for whatever the reason.

I recommend to all to at least take a look at their site as it’s worthwhile.

https://wck.org/

“Cinefield® Go,Baby Go” 4×5 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

Cinefield® – Where the Sauce is Deluxe

Throughout my oeuvre, emotion is my ultimate goal. I want the viewer to feel something. Music is my main source of inspiration regardless of subject matter or even medium.

I have pretty big ears, never restricting myself to one genre nor era.

Although I lean towards jazz & classical I do have some categorization defying things in heavy rotation too. Things like Kruder & Dorfmeister, Kina Rao and Funki Porcini.

Funki Porcini is an absolute favorite to whom I have listened to for years. His music encapsulates various moods. In lieu of one sonic voice ever present on every album which can lead to a feeling of heard one heard them all, he offers up instead, technique which he uses to great effect to create dense dreamlike works.

My Cinefield® vary, from cityscapes to floral explosions to abstracted colors and shapes. The commonality being their density and dreamlike quality.

I now have the pleasure of one of my Cinefield®  being used as a cover for the forthcoming full length album by Funki Porcini. Both share the same title. As is always the case with my Cinefield®all the images I used were from photos which I personally took. There is no digital magic, just my trusty scissors, I applied adhesive with a brush. One difference in my methodology was in only listening to a specific soundtrack comprised of a pile of albums including the new one and a few other favorite of his as I worked. The piece is 11×14 inches.

I will put up details on where the album is available once its out.

Cinefield® – Where the Sauce is Deluxe 11×14

There is a special multi-night gig associated with this going on:

We will be doing the album launch with the Laserium at commonground in Coventry, four nights 28-31st January.

Tickets HERE

1/29/22 The album is now out and available via all the usual digital platforms (amazon, bandcamp et al) bandcamp link:

https://funkiporcini.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-sauce-is-deluxe

These are not the small trusty scissors but the cut last minute chad ones

              

by Wayne Wolfson

Hotel Internacional, Mars

People’s dreams of “The future” are never as mundane nor inconvenient as the reality. I find myself having to head back to Mars, yet again on business.

The first year or so after the war, every soldier was treated like a hero. The drinks were free. Now, a new generation of student activists who viewed the whole thing in less heroic terms. The root of which often was just a contrary streak in regard to their parents’ politics. We all took our medals off the lapels of our jackets, except a few of the older guys. In their eyes, to do so would be tantamount to a defeat.

I pulled my boots off, it served no purpose, it was safety theater for the less well traveled. Inevitably the line would hit a snag, everyone held up as prohibited fruit was confiscated from someone who didn’t want to pay those Mars prices and thought that they were slicker than the TSA.

The bell at the front desk. I appreciated that they managed to not only still have such an archaic device but that somehow even after all these years, they had prevented its theft. My fingertip hit the small nubbin atop the shiny silver dome.

“Ah Mister Wesley, welcome back. We have your usual room ready; Business or pleasure bring you once again back to us?”

“It’s Mars.”

I knew he would appreciate the subtly of allowing each eavesdropper to ascribe their own meaning to my answer.

I adjusted the strap on my bag and headed for the lift. I cast a final glance to the desk, we exchanged nods and I kidded myself that this time would be different.

Text & image W.Wolfson 8/18/21

by Wayne Wolfson