Rob

The world is awash in bright, shiny nonsense.  Every day we wade through a glare of misinformation and lazy delusions and irrelevant data.  It can be hard to locate the few specific insights that are actually useful and stimulating.  That's the bad news, Capricorn.  Here's the good news:  You now have an enhanced ability to ferret out nuggets of data that can actually empower you.  You are a magnet for the invigorating truths you really need most.  -Rob Breshney

Well I don't know that I've discovered any except an old old one.  Just do what always attracts you.

It always gets you back on track, back on the search for what may be meaningful.  And that is always the best thing.

It is always frustrating, always encumbering to look at any other artists.  Because I immediately want to do exactly whatever they are doing.  I want to paint not like that but THAT exactly and when I've done the thousands of things they have done, then I will move on...

Move on that is to the next artist.  and then the next etc. et. al. 

all sorts of colors

In the 1840s society wags razzed the aging William Turner, oracle titan-painter of the sublime, alleging that 'Turner's reputation dies, dolphin-like, all sorts of colors. -Graham Burnett

I certainly gazed in disbelief at the Turner's I've seen, almost always reproductions, and wondered at different times, what is this, searching for a title, some clue.  And even then not getting it.

And now of course I would want nothing better than to be able to paint like that.  Above is my sunrise over the lake.

Painting seems to me to be be often mystical, arranged and made by others for other types of people.

Mine seem obvious.  Made for me I guess.   And for some few select others.

It must be interesting to look. and to see. these differing things that show up.  It is for me.

guess what

So. Guess what.  It turns out that they are now saying that artists can do anything they want.  They can have their personality or none at all.  But I know that is not how artists think for the most part.

You see, they are exactly like you and me.  And in art, at least for me, it is a search in the scrublands for something I lost or maybe never had.  Something I needed and misplaced or something I needed and never got.

Do you ever read people talking about stuff like the 10 qualities of strong people?  Well, I find it all garbage for the most part, and in its way very funny.

I mean first of all, who wants to have a strong personality.  It sounds like bricks and stones to me.  I would think it far preferable to have an elastic personality.  And I think I get far more from weak and damaged personalities...

And I don't have to give you examples because if you have read even just a few of my 180 or so blogs, then you know who I mean.

You know I find most of you to be troublesome in your complexity and far too bright in your intellect and immensely too delicate in your affections -for me to understand.

And I think pictures, though always too pretentious by definition, are for me at least the prettiest way to communicate.  As I look at them I think ah yes, this will do it.  Almost as if I am a master key maker (I did say pretentious didn't I?) and as I unlock a door I hang a picture which can tell me the way back as I enter the next dark room.

The picture means it is okay. It is safe here.

bowing out

I'm bowing out.  I'd like not to, but it's okay.  What else is there to do really?

You make many different sizes yet they all come out the same in the camera.  I suppose you could stick them in a room and show the different sizes.  But I don't care right now.  I'll let you guess the sizes.

It's not that hard really is it?  And it doesn't make such a big difference either does it?

And even the relative differences are compressed as you see them online.  Our brains make so many calculated compromises.

They are all from the same hand right?

And today is the last day of February.  Soon it will be March.

Sometimes you know

Sometimes you know but most of the time you know nothing.  Most of the time I go by the rule just turn them out.  Don't think about them.  Don't wonder about them. And don't ask about them.

Occasionally somebody will like one.  And that's good enough for me.

The main goal is to keep the blog somewhat consistent.  That way I know I'm painting.  I'm doing the work.  The work is getting done.

Lovers of painting and lovers of music are people who openly display their preference like a delectable ailment that isolates them and makes them proud. -Maurice Blanchot

Art must remain ernest...Art must be serious. No sarcasm no comedy.  One does not laugh at a loved one.  -Ashile Gorky

We can not express the light in nature because we have not the sun.  We can only express the light we have in ourselves. -Arthur Dove

I like the way things go on and on.  A painting is never finished.  We just walk away for a bit and work on another.  It is the only way to keep from ruining them.