I had a great conversation yesterday with fellow artist Josh who had just returned from a gallery hop  in New York City. I couldn’t make the trip and feel so sad that I couldn’t experience the artist Zimoun’s installation.

“We walked around this wall of cardboard boxes and entered the cardboard enclosure,” Josh said. Suddenly they saw the repetitive motion and heard the soft thudding sound created by hundreds of cork balls on wires, agitated by dc-motors. This was one of Zimon’s kinetic sound sculptures. A combination of mechanics, engineering, and sound with sculpture. His works are a true sensory experience. I really would love to experience this in person!

This is Zomoun’s,
294 prepared dc-motors, cork balls, cardboard boxes 41x41x41cm
Zimoun 2012

121 prepared dc-motors, tension springs

Zimoun 2011

There is a wonderful video on Zimoun’s website showing many of his kinetic sound sculptures in motion that is hypnotizing to watch and fascinating to hear. Check it out for a visual and audio experience. Enjoy!

http://zimoun.ch/index.html

This beautiful snowy day was a good day to stay inside my studio and paint. Light snow floated by the studio windows as a robin and goldfinches returned to the feeders.

I added some light and shadow to Painting number two in the series and developed Painting number three. Once the three are together I need to decide the order they will hang. Painting number three represents the memory of having just held the inflated sphere . . . or does it represent the memory of the anticipation of catching it?  Which of the paintings comes where in the order they are hung? I’m not sure. Others’ thoughts on the order they should hang as a tryptych will be interesting to hear at the critique on Monday.

In what order do you think they should hang?

Paintings Number two and three

Here are close-ups of the paintings . . .

Close-up of painting Number 2Paige Painting Number 3

Work on the tryptych I’m working on continues. I have a critique on the three paintings this coming Monday led by my painting mentor Heather. She saw the first of the three in Sage Art Center the other day and suggested I leave the first two at the sketchy, faded-paint-stroke-edge stage they were now, and paint the third to the same level of the first two. Then, I can look at all three and decide if I want to add any details that would add to the meaning or leave them as they are. She thought that the background’s unfinished strokes suggested the faded memories my work speaks about. The dark colors I’m using will always be close in tone and of not of much contrast . . . to suggest memories fading into the dark corners of our minds—as time passes.

Below is painting number two in the series. I’ve used photos I took of grandaughter Paige with an inflated sphere my own fading memory thinks was a balloon she and her sister were tossing around.

Painting 2 in the series with Paige and the inflated sphere

Come back to see how the series progresses and what Paige does with the inflated sphere.

Some time has passed, the studio is finished and I’m making art there.

Building a new studio, as is normal I’m told, takes much longer than anticipated or promised. With the talent and flexibility required of a few good local craftsmen as I perfected the layout, working around unexpected blueprint flaws. This very workable space is finally finished and I’m becoming comfortable in it. The windows remind me of the artist’s loft windows seen in old movies and my old loft in the Smith Gormley Building on St. Paul Street in Rochester. This wall full of tall windows provides beautiful light to work by.  My orchids, African violets and banana tree are thriving in their light. Let creativity thrive in it too.

I’ve started painting a new series that references memories associated with childhood. I’m exploring my own loss of childhood in my work I’ve been told. That certainly is true as another recent anniversary of my birth has passed. The memories portrayed in the images I’ll add to the paintings will fade into the dark canvases, just as memories fade over time.

A photo of the early stages of the paintings in progress in the new studio can be seen below.

New paintings in the new studio