Sisyphus Revisited Again and Again

So the last fall ended with a sixty foot wall along the bluff and a sloping incline of stone running up the bluff surrounding an oak tree and stair-stepping its way up.

 The winter locked up the shoreline with ice-dunes and the destructive winter storms were checked by the dunes. In all of the years I have lived here I have never seen the dunes this high. Easily 20 feet mounds. This photograph was taken from the top of one of the dunes.

During the Spring I spent most of my energy just working upward. This photo was taken in April as I was making some serious progress upward . I kept going pretty steadily all summer. Significantly higher than this photo records.

 Fall 2019 storms began to wreak havoc on a regular basis. The sixty foot wall disappeared in sections and was regularly replaced only to be washed away again and again. I was just desperately trying to keep the oak.

 Finally, in an act of liquid malice the lake just absolutely pounded the shit out of the bluff and took that oak and about a half dozen larger trees along the shore and swept them away like so much chaff and left only the structure that stepped up the bluff.

 In one final act of destruction another storm sucked out a huge chunk of the bluff and everything came down. It is hard to imagine the force of these storms and what they are doing to the shoreline here.

 And then Sisyphus started again...I have yet to go down to see if the first storms of 2020 have swept this new start away, but what are new years for?

La Vie

The new year has started and I have survived another year of Trump. It is hard to lay low under all of that stupidity, malice and indecency. The passing of the solstice always gives me hope though. The days get longer, there is more light and I like to believe that metaphorically is going to be true of the future. 

I had surgery on my right hand in November and I have been rehabbing it aggressively since then. Dupuytren's Contracture, a genetic condition which in my case affected the tendon of my little finger. My first surgery, my first stitches, my first time under anesthesia...in general it was a pretty interesting experience. One of the surgeons took a photo of the hand while it was opened up, which I had him send to me. So here is my most recent self-portrait. My hands are the middle pair. Two students modeled for the top and mother's hands are on the bottom. She also has Dupuytren's, but never had the surgery. This was my last painting of 2019.

Portugal

Spent about a week in Lisbon area over the summer, soaking up Portuguese wine and sun. I also did quite of bit of prep work for a batch of paintings that are now in a solo show in Erie.

 The piece above is contrived of elements of architecture seen around town...Torre de Belem, the Monastery of Sao Jeronimo, the Igrejo do Carmo, etc.and some tile patterns from Lisbon facades. The rest of the paintings are some little snapshots of things seen while out and about. Lisbon was worth the effort. Go.

Hopefully a More Popular Wall

I got a commission for a piece of public art of the stone variety from the Sisters of St. Joseph. I began work on it last Fall, delivering stone to the site, but bad weather halted the project at that point and I resumed in the Spring.

 I had a substantial amount of money available and in the end there was at least 60 tons of stone involved. The original plan was altered several times for a variety of reasons and this is what I ended up with.

 Two walls running parallel to a walkway that splits the property. The first three pictures show the smaller wall which undulates from the corner of the lot, around a tree and then connects to a big pier of masonry that was on the property

 The second wall is about the same length but much thicker and higher. It goes around a stand of birches and the western part is pretty much at the same level and serves as a bench that faces a concrete pad that will serve as an area where performances can occur. The eastern part is twice the height and is thicker and curls off at the north entrance to the lot.

 It was a lot of fun and I had some help from some soccer players on a couple of days, but mostly it was a solo job requiring some sweat and smashed fingers. I liked working with this type of stone, Laurel Mountain blend it was called. In each palette there was quite a bit of junk stone, but I was able to incorporate it without too much trouble.

 The neighborhood people who passed and took the time to talk a bit were all very positive and a couple of them stopped by on more than one occasion so it was clear that people appreciated what the sisters were doing.

One more load to deliver and then some tidying up and that will be that. It is on 19th Street, behind the Erie Cemetery, just over from Chestnut.

Still Here

Another big piece I worked on in the Spring. Exhibited at Brown's Farm at a show with a nature theme. It is a tree on the edge of the bluff  just above the way down to the beach. Along the bottom are some assorted bones I've found on the beach with some interesting forms. I'm going to submit it to the Biennial in October along with the previous piece. Lots of stuff going on right now, but I will catch up at some point.

A Moment

It has been a while, but I haven't been able to come up for air often. I'll try to get a few posts in the next week to catch up. The summer has just been a fecking free for all, out of control, downhill sprint. Here's how bad it is. I'm down to 160 pounds...I think I weighed that much in ninth grade...I can't drink enough beer to keep the weight on.

Here is a big piece from June. A reworking of the Roman architecture piece from a while back. In the same vein as the painting posted a while back of Ghent and the one from Lhasa. I like the feel of these works.

Another Year in the Mines

Been a busy year so far, so just a quick art update. Here is the piece from January. Inspired by architectural elements in Ghent, Belgium. Took a couple of trips there in the last couple of years and finally got around to doing a little architectural piece. Turned out OK.

I have been cutting apart some old paintings and putting them back together and mounting them on pine board. They are roughly 7" by 11" and here I have photographed nine of them in random order. I think I will have about 15 by the time I am done.

So now that initial post is out of the way, I'll try to be more diligent in recording things.