Furthering the Intermission series

As in all of my artwork, the process of creating this piece relied on a leap of faith. I didn't have a vision of its finished appearance but instead worked in stages of the unknown -- not knowing exactly where I was going while relying on my experience and skills and having faith in my abilities of creation.

Similar to many of my other recent paintings, prior to painting in acrylic and oil, I first formed the three-dimensional surface with clay. As the clay dried, it cracked naturally, creating an effect that resembles fossilized forms, a reminder of our own vulnerability in this world. 

This painting furthers my ongoing Abstract Intermission series: In the battles of life, there is loss, persistence, and deliverance. Some of these episodes, more dramatic than others, serve as pillars or beacons in our own timelines. Then there are the lulls or periods of recovery from and preparation for past and future battles -- the necessary intermissions in between that often feel nameless but impact us nevertheless, sometimes in more important ways than the memorable events of our pasts. Sometimes we meander along our amorphous, cracked, or abstract thoughts. Our plans for the future are never definite and our memories constantly change. Nothing lasts forever. Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club: Even the Mona Lisa's falling apart. 

Fossil I (Intermission XII), 36" x 48", oil, acrylic, clay, epoxy resin, wood panel, 2016

Kandinsky And Matisse Were Also Lawyers

Two of the most prominent artists of the 20th century were also lawyers: Wassily Kandinsky and Henri Matisse. Nice.

I've also noticed a similarity between the philosophies of two prominent individuals in art and law from the 20th century: art critic, Clement Greenberg, and former United States Supreme Court Justice, Felix Frankfurter: 

In the early 20th century, Justice Frankfurter was asked by a young man how to become a great lawyer. He advised the man not to limit his studies to the law, but to embrace the study of all fields, including history, art, literature, science, sports, culture, and the environment. 

About fifty years later, Clement Greenberg wrote in his essay Esthetic Judgment: To keep on expanding your esthetic taste asks that you keep on expanding and refining your sense of life in general. To further develop your taste in art, he advises that you keep on learning from life apart from art. 

I've had some people doubt me as an artist because I'm also a lawyer. I suppose they felt prejudiced by the assumption that lawyers must be uncreative. Although the craft differs (which is only scratching the surface), I find the practice of art and law to be similar -- they're both an intellectual process of analyzing, deconstructing, conceptualizing, building, revising, etc., based on life apart from art or law. 

I think that Kandinsky and Matisse would agree. 

Here is the latest Intermission painting: 

Intermission X, 45" x 45", oil, acrylic, canvas, 2016.

The Float Between The Structures

It was hotter than hell. Their feet burned as they kicked through the sand. Sweat dripped and their sunglasses slipped to the tips of their noses. The coolers were heavy but necessary; when the temperature exceeded 105 degrees they would be rewarded for their extra efforts. When they reached the river's edge they loaded their rafts. They left behind the lurid architecture and floated without motor or sail along the currents that carved about rocky cliffs and muddy banks.

Always moving yet going nowhere, atop the cold water, beneath the boiling sun, they found refuge in their intermission, taking no lead in their direction, allowing the world to pass at its discretion. 

24" x 19", oil pastel, acrylic, and colored pencil on paper, 2015

They met a dolphin wallowing in the river and fed it cherries and sangria. It laughed and splashed them. They joined it in the channel, cooling their heads and washing their bodies of the grease marks from the machines. They found moments of clarity in the clear water, or upon their bubbles of air among the nameless lulling waves, floating like wise spirits on soft clouds to the inevitable structure at the end of the respite.  

(For more info about the Intermission paintings, click HERE.) 

The Intermissions

In the battles of life, there is loss, persistence, and deliverance. Some of these episodes, more dramatic than others,  serve as pillars or beacons in our own timelines. Yet, then there are the lulls or periods of recovery from and preparation for past and future battles -- the necessary intermissions in between that often feel nameless but impact us nevertheless, sometimes in more important ways than the memorable events of our pasts.  During these times we have clarity and confusion, we may have time to meditate on ideas or analyze our circumstances, we make decisions and plans, but we also encounter the unknowable and attempt to resolve our states of being or create some kind of understanding or simplification to the unexplainable complexities in life. The previous sentence needs to be simplified.     

Intermission IV, 45" x 45", oil, acrylic, paper and fabric on canvas, 2015. Part of my Rise Fall Rise series.