11

Usually on New Years Eve, I start an acrylic painting, with absolutely nothing in mind, just playing, and working on the process, not the product. Then, on New Years Day, I finish the painting. This year, I finished it on January 3, but that is OK . Here is my completed 33" x 48" work, titled 11…

2010 was a good year art-wise for me. Six of my prints were published in a wonderful 256 page book featuring 63 contemporary printmakers titled Printmakers Today. I had a photograph that I took in 1983 published in a wonderful new book on Frank Zappa's music by Ingo Meyer. I also printed editions of 4 new prints, each of which is printed from 4 Solarplates using the 4-color process technique, which was quite challenging. And, 2011 promises to be another great art year for me.

Artist's Statements

Artist's Statements.

Yes, I have one. Yes, I followed the highly suggested rules and no, I didn't want to.

But it is there. For all to say 'Huh?', maybe chuckle at or ignore.

Here, so I can get this out of the way, is my Artist Statement...

My artistic quest for exposure and acceptance is fueled by desire, emotion and effort. In this quest, I have come to rely on two forms of inspiration. The first being thought forms, or mental images. The thoughts and images produced by the subconscious world of daydreams, reveries or perhaps intentionally entering a theta brainwave state. The second form is daily visual experiences. These outward experiences can range from a color scheme jumping out at me, seeing a reflection in glass, to noticing an interesting arrangement of items.

With most of my art being experimental, I have found that my ideas and artistic concepts progress naturally by not letting myself get caught up in the conventions of failure and success. I believe the purpose of art is to capture ones attention. In pursuing this as a goal, I believe that my purpose in creating art is to release my intention, allowing things I didn't know were possible to come to existence.

...fabricated, pretentious and preposterous. OK, maybe it is not that bad. But I would like to point out a couple of things.

1) The required sources of inspiration: Like anyone else, I'm rarely inspired by anything. Someone's art does inspire me occasionally, and I will say to myself 'I wish that I had done that', but I don't start making art like it, that would be copying. If I had to rely on inspiration, I would never create any art. I read a great Chuck Close quote recently - 'Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work.'. I have a recurring dream, where I am looking for some really creative art that I made, no doubt, the most creative art in the universe. Despite looking through all of my cabinets, closets and piles of stuff, I never find it in the dream, but I know that if I do, I will be really creative forever and be able to make the art that I want to. I'll just work in the meantime. There are quite a few formulas representing the creative process, my formula is... Desire + Effort + Trust = Success.

2) The required response to the question - Why I make art: To entertain myself, but no one wants to hear that. People want to think that for some wonderful reason that they have to hear, that I am making art for them and the rest of the world. Not so. Once I am satisfied with a piece of new art, I usually do choose to present it to the world, and if it ends up on a gallery wall, or is accepted into a juried exhibition, or someone decides that they want to own it, then I feel good. And, as a result of my efforts, I am fortunate to feel good a lot.

Now for some fun. Years ago, a friend emailed me a link to a random bluegrass band name generator web site. Click and names such as 'The Kentucky Outhouse Boys' and '5 String Bloodhound' would be generated. How about a random artist statement generator? Used to death cliches like 'Through a contrived process', 'Created naturally through inspiration' and 'Captured spontaneously' could be combined with phrases such as 'Multi-dimensional phenomenon' and ' Essence of the unconscious being'. Classic artist statements such as follows could be produced just by clicking...

Art for me produces feelings of intense desires to create art of desirable artistic intensities. Not only do I feel intense when desiring to feel desirable artistically, I intensely desire to feel artistic at times I am not desirable.

Moving forward without the past in mind, I strive to keep past artistic movements as future considerations for inspirational art. That is to say, future artistic movements may be based on past considerations for artistic inspiration without consideration for the future. Considering past inspirational artistic movements based on the future is what truly inspires my art.

Quotes From Unknown Artists

The following quotes come from unknown artists. See if you can match the quote with the unknown artist.

1) If you are going to use orange, then use lots of it.

2) I have never drawn anything, but I have seen everything.

3) Stop. Then stop again.

4) Don't let anyone try to tell you that you can't try to tell someone how to tell someone how to make art.

5) Picasso.

6) Seeing doesn't help matters and neither does thinking about it.

A) Rob Boss

B) Rob Ross

C) Polly Jackson

D) Tony Pouch

E) Bob Boss

F) Witaker Ross

The $79.95 F. Johnson Experiment

A couple of years ago, I created a painting, among other experimental works at the time, that I decided to put into an invitational art exhibition (the first 50 pieces to show up were accepted). The venue is a predominate Denver art school located in a old school building built in 1893 (and whose attic is a seasonal home to about 3,000 bats, really).

As an experimental artist, I decided to do an art sales experiment. Seeing how I have had several of my prints for sale in a variety of exhibitions at the school over the years, including a solo exhibition, I had yet to generate any sales (except for donated work at their art auctions). My experiment was to display a painting for a really, really low, yet reasonable price, and have the artist name on the painting be something other than my name. I signed the painting F. Johnson, and the information card next to the piece confirmed, that the painting was an F. Johnson original. Would it sell, is this what it would take to make a sale?

The painting, an acrylic on canvas, which I'll call 'Summer Rain', a lively, colorful piece, was on display for the exhibition. Here's some detail of the image…

I received a call from the schools business manager. A woman wanted to buy 'Summer Rain', but wanted to make sure that the price listed was correct. 'Yes', I replied, '$79.95 is the correct price'. A few seconds of silence on the phone, then he replied 'OK, I'll tell her that the price is correct'. I decided on the spot, not to divulge my experimental approach. I stopped by the school a week or so later, and the painting was absent (usually sold pieces remain on display for the duration of the show, with a red dot on the information card indicating 'sold'). A sale was made!

The experiment was a success. Or, was it? Was the buyer a bargain hunter? Would she have paid more, and if so, how much more? Was I short-changing myself (and the schools commission)? Did this scheme backfire on me? Either way, it was a sale, and someone has a painting on their wall.

Future experiments await.

I Know New Ideas Will Come

A new thing is coming. But, without being prepared, I wont be ready for it.

How do I prepare? Effort. Work. Perseverance. Being diligent. Trying something new. Approaching something old in a new way. Approaching something new in a old way. Playing with new media. If I've seen it or done it before, I don't do it. Knowing when to start and knowing when to stop. Not being afraid to ruin something that has a good start. Attempting to make something out of something that starts out disastrous. Purposely breaking the rules. Mistakes are progress.

I know there is a next idea or concept waiting. Where exactly is that idea or concept now? It's there now, and has been, and is about to be here now, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

What is a Print?

A year or so ago, I received an email that was addressed to a group of printmakers, that asked the question 'What is a Print?'. A list of 36 answers was complied from the responses and sent out. Quite a variety of answers from a variety of people. Not to subject anyone to all 36 responses, below are some of the responses listed by number. My response is number 34.

4. Any mark made by pressure.

13. When I was a young boy, maybe eight or nine, I got into a fight with my brother. He was winning (whatever that means), and so I threw out a barrage of cuss words at him, real cuss words. My mother was standing at the door and overheard me, every word. She stormed out the door, grabbed me by the neck, turned me around, and smacked me on the face, leaving a bright red impression of her hand across my face. It may have been that defining moment that got me into printmaking. It was my first exposure to printmaking; it was a print.

17. Looking at a print from a 21st century point of view, from a philosophical point of view, from the aspect of Life, the print for me is not simply bound to ink, paper, press and so on. It depends what one wants of it.

As I was preparing homemade sauerkraut for the winter, in a large plastic 100 liter container(I live in Slovenia), I thought of a print, of editioning the print in the same way the cabbage is prepared to be soaked in the water, the salt is added, and so on, it references cooking that many printmakers reference when talking about prints or printmaking. However from a life perspective every day is like a monoprint, it is simply a question of what to choose to record and what not to and what technique to use and which one not to. Dieter Roth chose to record all of it in his video installation that depicts his every movement in the house. So to me the (ultimate) print in this case is a monoprint of a human generation. It has a matrix, it leaves an imprint on the environment, it is somewhat editioned over the years, and than the outcome or the prints in various shapes and forms are collected, displayed and accumulated in private residencies, museums, galleries, homes, streets and so on. Some go through editioning/survival and some are simply rejected by the test of time.

19. A print is the spoor of the mind as it travels, repeatable, readable, and often resonant.

22. I feel a print is a piece of yourself.

24. A print is a good friend.

34. Something from somewhere, transferred to something somewhere else, causing something new to come into existence.

IT

IT. Lots of people do IT, perhaps too many. I don't do IT. I tried doing IT, but thankfully, I wasn't very good at doing IT. You've seen IT, because IT has been done to death.

What is IT? According to Miles Batt, in his wonderful book 'The Complete Guide to Creative Watercolor' (which, I believe might be the only necessary art 'guide' book no matter what your media may be), he says 'Beware of books that show you "How To Do IT." If you are eventually able to do IT, what is IT worth? If you can do IT, and the author can do IT, lots of other people can do IT. Each person doing IT drains IT of creative potential. IT is the last thing you should attempt to learn how to do'.

One of the first books on watercolor I bought has 'You Can Do It' as part of the title. The book is full of all too familiar watercolor paintings, the barn, the battered row boat, the silo, the stream, pine trees and all the other things you have seen done countless times, pretty much the same way. IT, IT, IT and IT. IT can be a very good starting point for some people, I tried IT, but found IT boring.

Other artist's books proclaim a way to make art their way, so you can too. Their methods, their techniques, their way and their approach can all be your's too. Mimic someone else's technique, style and subject matter? Not me. I like to think that my art is for those who have outgrown IT.