Her she comes...

She is changing, this Siren.
It's sometimes, as if I'm getting to know someone.
I think this is a room not just one painting. Well I know it's more than one anyhow...it's left behind things.
It's trading cards. I'll give you this if you give me that.
Jose and Brian isnt childhood kind of a no-mans land?
Everybody wants it, while nobody claims it.
It seems to me that we value the idea of children far more then children.
Maybe it's more about making and storing memories.
We like it in memory, so safe and warm.
But it's late and I'm just going on.

Naomi CarletonI love this train of thought. There is so much that is given up. Feeling secure without the knowledge of evil in the world and the fear of it. Comfort and peace with one's body...Susan Bainbridge

I am glad you are continuing to explore this issue.... would be nice if you could make an impact. Nice drawing and snakes!Maria Hennig

I loved the movie 'Hound Dog' and the layers of meaning. your drawing represents what made me sad about the story - the little girl pushed into growing up too fast and (I think) the wrong way...Kyle The cliché letter from Paul to Corinth is what comes, immediately, to mi mente. What does putting away childishness mean? What is the difference between childish and child like? … light hearted and light minded? There is too much ambiguity in the idea to make any absolute assertation, at all. I truly believe that there is an inherent error in any culture that presumes adults are, innately, any different than children. Add insult to injury by implying that adults are better, in any way shape or form. Let whatever God may be help me, should I ever deliberately leave anything at that altar. Is it too hard for people to suppose that in the universe adults and children exist on the same plane? I venture to submit that an infinite number of adults leave their desire to learn and create (which are synonymous), unsuspectingly, as an offering at the shrine of the quasi noble designation of “grown-up.” I know that’s a tangent and perhaps I’m too arrogant and not introspective enough to realize what I’ve sacrificed, but I suggest that our egos have the resolve to recover whatever it is we stand to lose. And that makes me happy.

Great, just the comments I'm looking for. I need to really think on this one. I want an altar and things left behind. At this stage the sleeping girls are gone and the siren is changing. I used clear gesso first, because in the end I want to leave the painting unfinished looking. Because yes Kyle it doesn't need to be this way.

The Altar of Adulthood

After a pretty intense nightmare and the movie Hound-dog...I got to thinking.
It's a long way from thought out and is not a completely new vein for me, but...
Who and what are the Sirens of Adulthood. What did we leave at the altar of childhood?
What are the costs of coming into your own body in a society that tends to always view anything sensual as sexual advance. Were personal desire is transfered to the object of the desire even before the object has become aware of an another.
What did you give up too easily to the siren call of adulthood?

Next...

Eden is the next in the nieces and nephews series.
The photo is picked and the canvas is ready.
I think she needs an animal with her,
but I don't know what yet.
Any suggestions?

New Studio mates

My two new studio companions. They are brothers, we have named then Lover and Leaver. They and 7 days of being sick have gotten me working in the studio.  The start of classes always a distraction in Sept. These two are so far a good influence. 

I'm going to do something I don't normally do. Reveal one of the persona's of one of my babies.

It just seems right. The archetype for Ted was a politician and was indeed Ted Kennedy.

I just feel like I need to honor the man and the inspiration.  

And here is the final project from the class I'm teaching tomorrow night...

A Drawing Intensive.

Start of a new school year. I love teaching art....

Here are some images from my Artist Sketchbook/Journal class.

Painting Intensive

Nancy and I are teaching a workshop in St Helena, CA. Come join us.

Arianna

Instead of dealing with archetypical Personas in this new series, I’m working from my own relatives, my nieces and nephews. I’m from a large California Liberal Catholic family of eight who are now on the second generation of children. These are the children of my bothers and sisters children.

Arianna is the first finished painting in this series. Fifteen possibilities are waiting in the wings. Whether they will all come with an attribute, I don’t know. I only know Arianna came with an owl.

While grand scale has played a part in my previous infant paintings, I have reduced the size of these paintings simply because I needed to feel that they could all be lined up together down a long family hall.

More babies to rattle

With five rattles done and a few more underconstruction, i'm starting to get clearer on a few things. They need special boxes, special homes to rest in and creation myths and stories to be told over and about them. So if something comes to anyone, if they tell you something that they have not told me yet, feel free to pass it on. 

The white ones are the new ones and after they get back from the oven i'll start figuring out what else they need. 

Shetaur

At 4' x 4' each, the girls are much bigger then I had imagined. I've been working on this idea of young woman's energy mixed with the horse for some time now. The first thought was that this would be an etchings...but they needed to be bigger. So I'm drawing them large for now. I'm getting there but they are not there yet. They are still hanging around fantasy to close. It's not a question of reality for these creatures do exist for me,  but in the two separate bodies. I'm not dealing with the animal nature and the higher mind of man as the Greeks put forth. For a young girl, it is being so close to such power while remaining safe and learning to control and relate in a right way. I've been a riding Instructor for years and watched young women relate and learn about power and it's relationship to them. 

I think? One never really knows.

Oliver

I've finished the new baby. I  decided to start back small.  But I really think the scale of the image is important and will move back up again. I was thinking of this child's aloofness. His separation he seems to have traits of  an  aristocrat. He made me think of Bronzino's Young Man with a Book. 

New Toy, Ponyboy

Just finished this toy with breast necklace. I wanted a feeling of the mother powered breast instead of the breast as male toy. So I went to the Goddess from Ephesus, Turkey Artemis. For me the skeleton is the frame work, this child's  foundation is the horse. I'm not the first to think of Artemis, Louise Bourgeois for one found inspiration there.