December 07, 2009

I guess this entry is about the ends and beginnings of things. I just got flirted with by a guy on Facebook who was born in 1995. I'd finished college, come out, got a state job. That was such a life time ago. The world seems to youthen.

I just  talked to a friend who was a contractor who reported me on a 160$ million dollar project. He reminded me that it was 5 years ago when he was first at Corrections. Just odd. I didn't remember that and he mentioned that when he was there he remembered the beginning of my back pain. I won't bore you with my life, but my life have been wasted by mysterious back pain. It had started that long. I remember telling people, that I just run over it and that I don't notice it. Well three years later I had a complete neuropathic meltdown. For a month, I was flat out in bed. The did every test in the world. Two years later its less bad than it was at that moment, but worst that its been other than that moment. Morphine, Norcal, Flexeril, Lyrica, Ephexor, Welbutrain, Testosterone, and Cialis my daily regimen to keep my life to-f'ing-gether.

Now I'm barely able to keep my analyst job for the state because of the all that AND I'm in constant pain of about 8-9 on a 1 - 10 scale. I reserve 10 for times greater on purpose.

But I am grateful. I am grateful that I finished and had an art opening. Such as it is. It felt scattered. I will post the pictures of the art here as I get them taken of the work and perhaps I can put up some show/gallery candids, if anyone took any.

This is my NanoWriMo for 2009. I got a show "done" and up. I got a 0030 Motion Picture. I missed the date for submission and I'm still struggling with the gallery it was due to. But now I need to focus on two books. I have one book which has to be done by the end of  December. This year I swore that I was going to do Christmas. I bought an Advent Calendar. At my friend Anci's "oh, we're lighting the advent candle tonight and I'm making molasses cookies. Cool. That is a first for me. Peel back something different each day and eat a piece o shitty chocolate. But next year, I want to make one and be buying things through out the year and put them in identical sachets. And then number them and have them be total sur-pis-es... For this year, I want a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and I have blue lights and red bows to put on it.

NaNoWriMo 2010 is going to be a noveling year. I feel I want to say some things verbally. Really, I'm ready to pick up my novel from 1993, clean it up. And finish it. Secondly. My last NaNoWriMo novel is needing to be worked on. It is a part of some crazy drive. And then I believe that third novel that I have in mind is the Novel of Die Zeiberflute, that I started last year or before as an idea and tucked away. I have language to pay this year. But how do I it wiht my state job? And the final novel for the trilogy is the Orpheus and Eurydice, Hermes, story. As the next piece. I really want to go back to the novel as the long and most direct method for them to be done.

My birthday in November was very sweet. It took a month to figure out that last year I was 43 so this year I would be 44. It took me until the 15th of  November to figure it out. I did take two days off and I made art in anticipation of my show. It was LOVELY. I was off sick really, but I had a couple hours in the night each night of those few days and I worked pointedly. Then one of my very closest and bestest friends in the whole wide world turned another year older. He told me that we started dating when he was thtirty, and he just turned a week and a half before me, 47.  We've now known each other intimately and later as best friends, even more intimately for 17 years. I do feel that I some how failed in that relationship. But we know many of those people who are great, but aren't great together. I am not nearly a nag, I stay out of his business, but we talk about the same things just with  lest investment. He's a good man. I want him to find a hot young man who thinks bald guys with a belly and a crazy thing for neighborhood cats and is the kindest and giving person they'll ever meet. We've got to be friends for 17 years 4.5 of that being in relationship. So we've been  friends 12.5 years. That is 17 years of craziness!!

BodyTribe, November 14, 2009

New Work by Damon-Eugene Rich

Selected Images

“The Voyage of the Titanic? Did It End Well?”

(July 2009) 22” x 26”

Acrylic and Ink on Paper with Encaustic

“A Part of the Sky is the Size of the Mouth of a Well?”

(October 2009) 22” x 26”

Acrylic and Ink on Paper with Encaustic

“In the Old Days I Could Produce Extraordinary Miracles. Now the Miracle is Just Doing the Everyday with My People”

(October 2009) 22” x 26”

Acrylic and Ink on Paper with Encaustic

“Queen Zadolbala"
(September 2009) 22” x 26”

Acrylic and Ink on Paper with Encaustic

October 22, 2008

November 2008. For those of you who don't know, you have friends, some are writers, some of which are in the closet, some are even novelists. Artists want three things, sex, money, and adoration forever. Did I mention that artists have some of the greatest strongest nature on which they will likely try to self imolate. Save an artist/novelist/writer. So if you wonder where I am during the month of November besides my best friend's wedding. Oh, and my number 43 birthday. I will be banging computer keys  to keep up with my monthly word count.

NaNoWriMo

This is month for the kick ass writing where if you are lucky you may see at near midnight throughout the month smoking on the stup. It is to most likely to have a cup of coffee in the other hand. I don't want to glorify caffeine usage, but this most likely a NaNoWriMo participant. If you try to approach, they might jibber at you excitedly or just vaguely looking in your direction. Then there is the scream and more garbled tallk that they wont go down the hidey hole. At this point just nod knowingly that tomorrow is another day and its okay to spend the night in the habbitrail. NaNoWriMo.org

If you or a loved one has wanted to write a book. Fictionalize your mother-in-law. Tell how you became the miniturue of infrastructure of Rawanda. Or perhaps how you escaped both. You might be interested in completing the first draft, balls or overies to the wall in one month.

You might just be the candidate for NanoWriMo. Novel or fiction adventure check out nanowrimo.org. Scriptwriting must for these purposes must wait for ScriptFrenzy.Org.

So if you wonder where I am during the month of November besides my best friend's wedding. Oh, and my number 43 birthday. I will be banging computer keys  to keep up with my monthly word count.

September 15, 2008

What has happened to me is a mysterious facet condition from which I don't know if there is delivery like the children out of Canaan. I've been working on a great many projects. I am putting up very rough drafts. I've had to alter my medium and pain treatments and crazy drug prescribers and still work and try to make art. I've begun working in encaustics, and I'm slowly working with the medium to either get it to behave or at least treat me like a lady. People would probably encourage me to focus. To whom, I've just decided to say no for now.

History of Encaustic Art

Encaustic:
Derived from the Greek word: enameling
– to burn intoThis term, used by ancient authors, is somewhat misleading, because heat is not absolutely necessary to attain the effects seen in the encaustic panels. Therefore, encaustic has come to mean any painting method in which pigment is mixed with beeswax.

Researchers have found that a great variety of methods were used to achieve the desired effects in the encaustic paintings: hot or cold wax, under-painting with various colors, and a variety of soft or hard tools that were used cold or heated.To the modern viewer, part of the attraction of encaustic paintings is their similarity to oil painting, since the wax medium could be applied in thick layers showing a great variety of tool marks and free brush strokes. An important characteristic of encaustic mummy portraits is the use of wafer-thin gold leaf. In some pieces, the entire background is gilded, in others, wreaths and fillets are added, and jewelry and garment decoration is emphasized.

Earliest Evidence / ca. 800 B.C.
Wax is an excellent preservative of materials. It was partly from this use that the art of encaustic painting developed.
Encaustic art dates back almost 3000 years to Egyptian & Greek times when heated coloured waxes were used to decorate warships and the walls of tombs.

The Greeks applied coatings of wax and resin to weatherproof their ships. Pigmenting the wax gave rise to the decorating of warships. Mention is even made by Homer (800 B.C.)of the painted ships of the Greek warriors who fought at Troy.

The use of a rudimentary encaustic was therefore an ancient practice by the 5th century B.C. It is possible that at about that time the crude paint applied with tar brushes to the ships was refined for the art of painting on panels.Plinius Mayor / 1. century A.D. éMost of our knowledge of this early use comes from the Roman historian Pliny, who wrote in the 1st century A.D.

Pliny seems to have had little direct knowledge about studio methods, so his account of techniques and materials is sketchy. But his discussion gives us an idea of its general usage. According to Pliny, encaustic had a variety of applications: for the painting of portraits and scenes of mythology on panels, for the coloring of marble and terra cotta, and for work on ivory (probably the tinting of incised lines). Pliny mentions two artists who had in fact started out as ship painters.The use of encaustic on panels rivaled the use of tempera in what are the earliest known portable easel paintings. Tempera was a faster, cheaper process. Encaustic was a slow, difficult technique, but the paint could be built up in relief, and the wax gave a rich optical effect to the pigment. These characteristics made the finished work startlingly life-like. Moreover, encaustic had far greater durability than tempera, which was vulnerable to moisture. Pliny refers to encaustic paintings several hundred years old in the possession of Roman aristocrats of his own time.The nature of encaustic to both preserve and color led to its wide use on the stone work of both architecture and statuary. The white marble we see today in the monuments of Greek antiquity was once colored, probably delicately tinted like the figures on the Alexander sarcophagus in the Archeological Museum of Istanbul.

Pliny says that when the sculptor Praxiteles was asked which of his pieces he favored, he answered those "to which [the painter] Nicias had set his hand." Decorative terra cotta work on interiors was also painted with encaustic, a practice that was a forerunner to mosaic trim. Fayum Mummy Portraits / 1. – 3. century éPerhaps the best known of all encaustic work are the Fayum funeral portraits painted in the 1st through 3rd centuries A.D. by Greek painters in Egypt.

(Pictured Above)

Fayum Funeral Portrait
Mummy Portrait of a Woman,
Antinoopolis, End of the Reign of Trajan, 98-117 A.D.,
Wax portrait on wood.

The Fayum, a flourishing metropolitan community in ancient Egypt, consisted of Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Libyans, and others.

A significant Greek population had settled in Egypt following its conquest by Alexander, eventually adopting the customs of the Egyptians. This included mummifying their dead. A portrait of the deceased, painted either in the prime of life or after death, was placed over the person's mummy as a memorial. These are the only surviving encaustic works from ancient times. It is notable how fresh the color has remained due to the protection of the wax.Like many of their contemporaries throughout the Nile Valley, these people embalmed their dead and then painted commemorative portraits of them, usually on wood or linen, to be placed over the mummies. Looking into the well-preserved, startlingly lifelike faces collected in this beautiful volume, one can trace the earliest roots of portraiture as it began in these Greco-Roman Fayum, or mummy, portraits, and continued through the Renaissance to the present. Despite their ancient history, the stylized portraits appear strikingly modern and painterly, with echoes of Modigliani and Matisse.

Decline of the Roman Empire / Middle Ages until 18th century   In the great period of economic instability that followed the decline of the Roman empire, encaustic fell into disuse. Some work, particularly the painting of icons, was carried on as late as the 12th century, but for the most part it became a lost art. The process was cumbersome and painstaking, and the cost of producing it was high. It was replaced by tempera, which was cheaper, faster, and easier to work.

Revival of an ancient art / 18th century  

In the 18th century the French archeologist Anne-Claude-Philippe Comte de Caylus paved the way for the Encaustic of our modern times. He studied old writings and the ancient murals of Pompeii to experiment with Encaustic techniques. He wrote several papers on Encaustic. In the Paris Academy he found followers of his methods and in the library of the convent Saint-Germain-des-Près a statue was erected to honour him for his efforts to rediscover the Encaustic Art.

Unfortunately the artists and scholars of the 19th century had not enough sources to reconstruct the antique ways of the Encaustic. So they started to “re-invent” the techniques to establish the “New Encaustic Art”. A center of Encaustic Art developed in Munich: inspired by Leo von Klenze and Georg Dillis King Ludwig I of Bavaria sent the artist Georg Hiltensprenger to Italy to study the Encaustic.The most famous Encaustic paintings were made by Carl Rottmann (1797-1850), who captured his impressions of Greece in his “Greece Series” in 1838. (Samples in the Pinakothek, Munich).

The following are contemporary encaustic portraits which vary in size from 5ft x 5ft to 7ft to 7 ft. You can imagine my excitement.  I apologize. I will have to look up the citations.

09/15/2008: Acrylics, the white devil, It was mean to be squired into the nostrils of the enemies, Only to awaken wake in puddle pink dragon drool.And having to reign in 8 ft panels to 12 inch panels. tragedy. you record. And then they are all bloody small pieces. Less than 8 x 11. Acrylic, land of the shiny back: With a departure from oils much of the innate differentiation in my style are missing though some remain. More and better words as well as more images in progress are forthcoming.

09/06/2008: Art Blog, your 15 minutes of fame to 15 people.Mine should be my friends: (1) Leigh Hannah, (2) Allen Pugnier, (3) Michael Raymond, he owes me, Michael Raymond my dear sweet Michael, who knew you named after an archangel. And possibly Craig Smith if perhaps I managed to get him a note and asked for some response, Bruce Fairbanks, he is an art hound. Perhaps Chris-of-the-rip-away-pants, since he is the Society for all seasons. Perhaps Myk C. because though a skinny Lady Bunny, is buried in the burbs. Linda Fairbanks, my other mom, tries to keep up with her other-other-other-other-other kid,16 years later. And if she she hasn't died, my deaf friend emma, if she can push open the door at 4:20 any evening to check in and check out . My dear friend Maureen, no longer mother of my children (Echo, Nigel, Graham, Pieter, and my youngest son, little man) Once perhaps Carolyn Kennedy might have ridden by to peak in on oddities and her Dad and Mother's portraits. In the end to Freud had established the artist hierarchy of needs as money, sex, and adoration of the universe.

08/01/2007: Modern Art History Lesson: French Symbolist, Odilon Redon

On of the oddest and more interesting artists that I've run across is Odilon Redon. His paintings are something like a  cross between Chagal and the Addam's Family. I had the great fortune to have fallen in love prior to my last visit to Paris and at the Musee d'Orsay, saw a whole room of his pastel drawings. Though many do not hold together compositionally, I love the feel, the color and the oddity.

Odilon Redon
The Fall of Icarus/Upadek Ikara, date unknown
Pastel on paper

07/07/2007: Modern Art History Lesson: Harlem Renaissance

Three of my most favorite artists of all time are William Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Beardon. They all are associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance, an African American cultural movement of the 1920s and early 1930s that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.

The Harlem Renaissance emerged amid social and intellectual upheaval in the African American community in the early 20th century. Several factors laid the groundwork for the movement. A black middle class had developed by the turn of the century, fostered by increased education and employment opportunities following the American Civil War (1861-1865). During a phenomenon known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of black Americans moved from an economically depressed rural South to industrial cities of the North to take advantage of the employment opportunities created by World War I. As more and more educated and socially conscious blacks settled in New York’s neighborhood of Harlem, it developed into the political and cultural center of black America.

Dr Alain Locke, American educator, writer, and philosopher, best remembered as the leader and chief interpreter of the Harlem Renaissance. Locke energetically supported and was a staunch advocate for the black visual arts. He firmly believed that the black artist should draw from the roots of his African heritage for themes reflected in his works.

Jacob Lawrence
Ironers, 1943
Gouache on paper

Jacob Lawrence
Paper Boats (Paper Sailboats), 1949

Tempera on gessoed panel
17-7/8" x 23-7/8"

William H. Johnson

Army Training, about 1942–44
oil on paperboard with pencil on canvas
63.6 x 83.3 cm

William H. Johnson

Cafe, 1939-40

Oil on board, 36.5x28.3''

William H. Johnson

Off to War, about 1942–44
oil on plywood
63.9 x 83.0 cm (25 1/4 x 32 3/4 in.)
Gift of the Harmon Foundation

11/15/2006: Recently I've begun working with Charcoal, Chalk Pastel, and Oil Pastel again. This more immediate application of materials makes my work more spontaneous. The attention in these pieces are more on their subjective process, perhaps even more than my paintings which tend to be a little more finished looking. I'm hoping to include the electronic images of new work here as I produce the work.

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11/14/2006: Modern Art History Lesson: Hitler's "Degenerate Art" exhibition

Max Beckmann

"Still Life with Saxophones"

1926

85 x 195 cm

Oil on canvas

One of my greatest heroes! Included in Entartete Kunst, Hitler's "Degenerate Art" exhibition.  The following is your art history lesson and cautionary tale of the month of November.

Degenerate art is the English term for the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was "un-German" or "Jewish-Bolshevist" in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art entirely.

By 1937, this concept was firmly entrenched in Nazi policy, and authorities purged German museums of modern art now condemned as degenerate. Inventory lists indicate that at least 16,500 works were seized. The entartete Kunst exhibit premiered in Munich in March, 1937, and traveled to eleven other cities in Germany and Austria. The show was intended as an official condemnation of modern art, and included over 650 paintings, sculptures, prints, and books from the collections of thirty two German museums. Expressionism, which had its origins in Germany, was especially heavily represented.

Avant-garde German artists, mostly Expressionists, were now branded both enemies of the state and a threat to the German nation. Many went into exile and lost both their reputations and credibility. Max Beckmann fled to Amsterdam on the opening day of the entartete Kunst exhibit. Max Ernst emigrated to America with the assistance of Peggy Guggenheim. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner committed suicide in Switzerland in 1938. Paul Klee spent his years in exile in Switzerland, yet was unable to obtain Swiss citizenship because of his status as a degenerate artist. The Nazi authority that monitored and regulated culture and the arts (the Reichskulturkammer) forbade artists such as Edgar Ende and Emil Nolde from purchasing painting materials. Those who remained in Germany were forbidden to work at universities and were subject to surprise raids by the Gestapo in order to ensure that they were not violating the ban on producing artwork. Those of Jewish descent who did not escape from Germany in time were sent to concentration camps.

After the exhibit, paintings were sorted out for sale and sold in Switzerland at auction; some pieces were acquired by museums, others by private collectors. Nazi officials took many for their private use: for example, Herman Goering took fourteen valuable pieces, including a van Gogh and a Cezanne. In March, 1939, the German Fire Brigade burned many which had little value on the international market.

After the collapse of Nazi Germany when the Russian army was the first to invade Berlin, some artwork from the exhibit was found buried underground. It is unclear how many of these then reappeared in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg where they still remain. The story of how these paintings survived is not documented in public. They are simply listed at the Hermitage as: provenance unknown.

11/01/2006: In the next few months I'll be finishing my series on David and Jonathan based on the bible stories of in II Samuel. These pieces were intended to explore the ideas of the text and the real interpretation of scripture. This relationship was the first we see in a long line of lovers that David has that are recorded in scripture. David took Saul's son, Jonathan,to be his husband, but Saul was angry because of course he couldn't have heirs to continue the blood line. So David took both the daughters of Saul and over his life had many other lovers. It would seem the music that calmed Saul in his "fits" charmed loves as well. Many people see David as badly behaved sexually, although that might in some ways be true, I also see it as a man's capacity to love. In imagining this painting, I was thinking of a warm day, laying in spring grass, and détente among lovers.

Damon-Eugene Rich

“Raga Bhimpatasi”

Jonathan and David: An Old Testament Story of Love & Marriage: Series

4’ x 7’
Oil on Panel

10/01/2006: I know only a pretentious wanker would even do a BLOG, but since it is fairly long periods between shows, I thought there might be some interest in what is happening in my studio. My intention is to initiate a single monthly blog entry to take some pictures of what is happening on the studio wall and talk either about materials or process.