Tag: writing

Soft Lead Pencil

Some time, way after the fall of mankind. Earth is a cleaner, if not kinder place.

“Bernie…yeah…Bernie…You’re killing me Bernie…”

A knock on the door, a head is poked in and quickly waved away.

“You forget, I cut my teeth starting in the copy room, working under the orangutans. Yes, yes it was very thoughtful of you to have remembered us during the holidays, yes my wife was very happy. No, c’mon Bernie…Bernie… we agreed on five percent…how good a quarter we had has nothing to do with anything…Ok, you know what, i can’t spend anymore time on this, you win, you get your seven percent. So much for ape don’t kill ape…ok..yeah-yeah no hard feelings, of course see you at the club…”

 

pencil & 5×4 Paper Quick Sketch

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by Wayne Wolfson

Pocket Pad

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

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by Wayne Wolfson

Boris Fishman

I have an ongoing Portrait Project. Music, gastronomy and literature are my main sources of inspiration.

By way of thanks, with their direct participation, I do portraits of artists from various mediums who I respect and enjoy.

Like my taste in music, it is a diverse list.

Boris Fishman is an author & journalist/essayist. He & painter Luc Tuysman are the first non-musicians to participate in the project so far.

With my portraits of other artists i do not seek to underscore what their work is about but rather the emotional truth of the moment of the artists.

 

More information on Boris:

http://borisfishman.com/

 

“Boris” 9×12 Graphite & Paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Keith’s Hand

I had read how, for the most part artists do not retire. They do their thing, regardless of medium, as long as they can. I think this is because what gets one into the game initially is that it is a calling. After years of doing it, the process itself becomes a part of the artist.

Keith Richard’s hands show a life of service for the muse. They have become almost sculptural.
They are reminiscent now of the library of congress documentary photos of the first blues men and their hands.

In some ways it is full circle as in this respect, after over half a century, aspects of Keith now resemble those first blues men who were his childhood heroes and initial inspirations.

 

Keith’s Hand 9×12 graphite & Paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Rache

“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

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Pocket Pads

I always have a pocket pad on me, more often than not it is my Midori w/ customized paper. I compulsively try different brands and set ups/ style.

I do in general prefer the refillable ones. There is something about having same pad accompany me all over the world and grow increasingly familiar in touch and sight for me.

There are some great non refillable pads out there too. Within my diverse collection of pocket pads they all fall within the 3×5 size range.

One thing I like about mixing thing up pad wise is that although they all are the same size each company’s paper has different properties. My voice remains present but each type of paper adding something of its own property’s to the mix.

It is akin to a musician using different instruments for different types of songs (think for example, Miles Davis or Jimmy Page)

Here are some quick sketches done on pocket pad of company I just discovered.

 

 

by Wayne Wolfson

Black Eye

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

blackeye Continue reading “Black Eye”

by Wayne Wolfson

One Eyed Face

I read a lot of the old Romans & Greeks. History, philosophy and plays. Often there were the household Gods.

I liked this concept and wondered if in modern times homes were to have these, what would they look like?

Would we see people waiting in long ques in front of Apple store for latest release of Apple Household God (s) ? Or would each house’s look different depending upon factors such as neighborhood and yearly income?

This sculpture is in my imagining what it may look like.I think for the middle class  People would want them or feel obligated to have one but also desire it to more organically blend in with their surroundings. Upper class would go for the ostentatious, as much like jewelry cars et al it would become another status symbol.

With all my sculptures, I approach it far differently than the process involved with my painting. I prefer to have a largely improvisational method.

I have only just started showing my sculptures. They are often a physical souvenir of a moment, an idea that occurred during, and as I often improvise with my sculptures using only what’s around me, the place it all occurred in.

I had just completed a self portrait of myself with a black eye, so I decided to thematically link it by incorporating something to do with eyes, in this case the face having only one, with this work.

9×12 (4′ off the wall) Wood (maple) brushed steel

 

 

by Wayne Wolfson

Patricia

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

 

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by Wayne Wolfson