Not much to say, but groundbreaking :-)

Oh… haha Not groundbreaking too much. But I’m encouraged by art of the last 3+ years, and the blog and website are coming together well. I haven’t had such good feelings overall in quite a while.

First about my artwork itself. It’s coming together in some new ways for me. I see combinations and recombinations… and brand new, creative ideas appearing in the work. Well I couldn’t ask for more, really.

Not only in the work itself, I’m finding ways and means for it to leave the nest that feel more secure for me. And more open to experimentation. And more open to the wider world of creative expression. What am I trying to say? It’s too early to tell. I just fell more open to new expressions of art showing. And this is all important!! (two exclamation points here, for IMPORTANT 🙂 ) A naturally shy individual artist like me needs as much exposure as he, she, or they can make happen. When it doesn’t flow naturally and easy, it needs to flow just the same. Art needs to be seen, as a general consensus. Some artists don’t care too much. But i want my individual artworks to find homes and find their forever homes in the world.
Sometimes i have to go through a mental process to let them go, but still, I know their homes are for most pieces, out in the world, and ultimately, for all.

There it is. I simply needed to make a new post. The website, and blog, really, have new energy – in the design, and very soon, new art.

I have quite a few artworks to upload to the website and here on the blog. It won’t be too long, hopefully. I’m painting, and working on the website and blog every day. This with determination and goals.

GALACTIC SNACK 3.006 (fiddle-faddle nebula)

Bas-relief painting – synthetic polymer paint on wood
15″ x 30″ – 2001

The Milky Way is hungry again. The super black hole in the middle of our galaxy is gobbling up … everything!!

 

Ex Nihilo et al

Bas-relief painting – synthetic polymer paint on wood – 1996 – 48″x98″

Ex Nihilo et al aka Creation Once Removed was shipped down to Houston for my show at Goldesberry Gallery in 1996. The shipper was me in my artmobile – Moby Dick! Moby, my trusty old 1976 Chevy pickup with a big shell (RIP l’il Moby). All white like the mythic whale – Moby hauled my entire one man show to Houston, at 9 point something mpg 😦 yikes…

Are we still on the glamorous art career topic? The show was in July and a very hot one. I was feeling the effects of heat exhaustion by the time I got all the art loaded. And as I passed through Cameron, TX, hours later, a bank sign read 110 degrees. Oh! The glamour! haha

Still the show was hung successfully the next day and many, many people saw my artwork. Reconnecting, (I’d been active in Kauffman Gallery 10 years earlier) looked like it was a happening show indeed!!  Though I didn’t sell too many pieces at the show, I did get a nice commission from Compaq Computers. Good job Bob!

And there you have it – a pedestrian nuts & bolts account of this Ex Nihilo artwork and its entry into a Houston art show. Perhaps you fell asleep two paragraphs ago (Hey, I tried to spiff ‘n spice it up a bit, there, dude!! ) If so, enjoy the nap 🙂 But what about this art piece, really? The title is weird, right? Not many people seem to like the title very much.

Ex Nihilo – is a Latin phrase meaning “out of nothing.” It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning “creation out of nothing. (fr. Wiki)

Did this bas-relief painting come out of nothing? I’ve created many abstract paintings before it. Did creation come out of nothing? Perhaps God created many universes before this one. Or if there is no God (gotta keep the modern thinkers happy) then perhaps creation came out of ummm ohhhh wellll nothing. And I’ve some full circle in this circular “logic-illogical” wheel. Clear as mud to me.Perhaps I can say with semi-thority …

Random is a thing after all 

I kind of knew that already 🙂 I still leap out on faith, though. I took a big leap of faith and a big (several) leap(s) into random (probably more intuitive painting, color picking, etc. to make Ex Nihilo happen 🙂 I can’t tell you what my art process is exactly. It’s creative art intuitional stew. Some of us art peoples like that word intuition. It sounds so much more “informed” than random. And this batch of intuition cookies turned out to my liking. And some other people’s, too!

 

Metamorphosis ~ Transmogrification !!

Metamorphosis ~ Transmogrification !!
bas-relief painting – synthetic polymer paint on baltic birch plywood
22″ x 60″
1997

This was a big success of an artwork for me 🙂 It sold out of Goldesberry Gallery in Houston in 1998 for $3200. The price tag was $4000 but the buyers asked if I would go down to $3200. I didn’t really want to drop it. But I hadn’t been selling much in the Goldesberry, but even with the 50/50 gallery split I would be netting more than a month’s take home from my safety coordinator job at TTU School of Arrrrt. Couldn’t tell them no!!

Yes, I’m spin-splaining this a tiny bit. I wanted to sell it but I had my usual conflicting emotions about the sale (about 38% level – so, not too bad for me). It always feels like I’m selling a car when the buyer wants to deal. I’m not quite financially independent from my art! YO! someday, someway…

So… It was the last piece they ever sold for me at the Goldesberry, and soon after, I met Dawn & Chris Wolf-Taylor. They loved a big piece, “Ex-Nihilo et al” (I changed the name for them & other normal people to: “Creation Once Removed” and I made a deal with them to drive down to Houston to pick up all my art from Goldesberry and pay me some sick dough (see, when I use slang of today, it just doesn’t translate 😦 ) for the piece. It was a groovy deal (dead slang is also a no-go!) for me and them, too.

Still, Goldesberry did sell several pieces of my work during my tenure in their gallery. Unfortunately, I didn’t try too hard to cooperate, really. Oliver Goldesberry said I needed to make much smaller works which he could sell, but I just didn’t make any. Bummer! (I rate this a 8.9 on the slang-o-meter). Not too sure why I didn’t but I was feeling a lot of stress at my jobby job (You rate this one, dear reader :^)

That job stress was NOT helping too much. Menial work is good for some artists perhaps even l’il me. Menial is not a bad word for some creative people. My daddy dad dad did NOT understand where I was coming from. I remember him getting so upset that I was a janitor when I was “graduating from college,” he pounded the kitchen countertop during breakfast on morning so hard the silverware did a little dance of daddily F-rustration. Ho No! Golly Gee daddy dad. I certainly wasn’t the little adoptee sonny boy you had in mind…  But that was all part of the Transmogrification of little Bobby. It can be a long haul when daddy mean bux thinks sonny boy is a little loser who needs sports and boy scroats shoved down his throat 24/7. Ok that’s more of my spin-splaining. Better grab onto something solid, like this here couch or the spinning might just keep on a spinnin.’

There now,  getting back on the art horse – if you check out my website archive page #1 you’ll see several small wall sculptures. (And yes! “check out” was a worm hole direct flight to that page aka hyperlink!… ) Those little wall sculptures basically launched my art career in Houston about 10 years before I joined Goldesberry. And the Goldesberrys remembered me from when they worked at Kauffman Gallery. So they KNEW I could make it happen.

Well, it’s time to skip the coulda shoulda woulda paragraphs and move on to the reality of my artwork. So watch me take a flying hop, skip and jump… ha ha ho ho

This piece, Metamorphosis ~ Transmogrification !! is a rather characteristic “style” of mine for most of my life. I’ve often designed with heavy lines and solid, vibrant colors, starting with a landscapish design. From there I’m able to launch a painting far and away. But my process, that process, is a very good match for me, and, as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Still I continue to experiment with various art jams ‘n jellies. I’ll spread them on with multifarious scrapers, brushes, squeegees, etc. And from this experimental “outlier” process I  do find a new tool and method. So it’s good for me to continue to experiment. And I can’t say that this “outlier” process is an outlier at all. It certainly is not.

The experimentation is a vital part of my art process. I just don’t include it into the direct painting process 24-7. More like 23-6.33 🙂  It’s always there, or just went out for a cuppa coffee (be right back!!) . …

Yes, I painted many a painting with practically one brush, a #8 sable round. If I can locate one of those brushes, I’ll take a photo. I’ve worn several down to a bare nubbin’ from brushing  away the happy hours after hours.

Keep the tried and true. Experiment with the new. Works for me, and always has. This has created and sustained my Metamorphosis  ~ Transmogrification !! art process through the years.