Back to L.A.

Posted on October 12, 2008 by pearce

We escaped from the incessant “bingbingbingbingbing” and the stench of cigarettes throughout the casino and drove out to Red Rocks, a beautiful canyon just outside town. It was fantastic to get away from the casino, where the daylight never enters into the building, where despite the flashing lights there’s a perpetually gloomy cast to the halls of the building. Ultimately I thought it was better to walk around the building than to go inside.

Cameron and I made it back to the big city this evening at close to eleven thirty. It’s a four and a half hour drive from Vegas, so there was plenty of time for reflection. 

The conference was fascinating, dare I say life-changing. I learned a great deal about practical alchemy and the techniques used to do the distillation of herbs and other materials. The practical demonstrations  were wonderful. I had been hungry to understand the science part of the alchemical exploration, and I can see how this work makes sense.

I got no drawing done at all, but I did make a couple of realizations: skepticism is good, but open-mindedness is also important if you are to make any progress in understanding the mind of God; Creative work made in the pursuit of the mystical mind of God is the most productive, wonderful work.

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Alchemy Conference ii

Posted on October 12, 2008 by pearce

Las Vegas is a long way from my home, both spiritually and physically, and driving towards the city’s mock New York skyline and gilded towers I felt it’s one of the vortexes of human sadness in the world, where we think everything will be beautiful, but the delusion is complete.

I feel tired when I walk past the rows and rows of slot machines, with almost catatonic players automatically pushing their magic buttons, attempting to beat the system at any time of day or night to claim a small victory over chance; it seems like such a completely futile pursuit. There are so many better things to do, to spend time producing things that make the world better, improving the situations of our poor and hungry people, making art or music, writing and thinking – simply raising children to live full lives.

But Vegas isn’t just a place for gambling and satisfying our desires for bright shiny things – like Disneyland it’s one of the great installation art pieces in the world. Here, we are enveloped in an artificially created environment that encloses us from the natural world. Sensually overwhelming, the lights and sounds are reminders that we are in a place where our everyday lives are separated from us; this is not your tract home in the suburbs, your apartment with the noisy neighbors. This is the monstrous daughter of television, a giant screen that slides effortlessly before us in three dimensions presenting the spectacle that this life is better than our ordinary lives at home.

Here and now, however, within the plastic facades of this casino the alchemy conference shines a little light into the shadows. We’ve learned about the distillation of metals, how to create an essential oil of frankincense, and the spiritual quest for the prima material.

I was honored to speak to the assembly about the symbolism in my paintings and the background of the renaissance alchemists and Neo-Platonists. It went over well, with plenty of positive comments about the work. A lady told me that the paintings moved her to tears.

I’m really grateful to the organizers of the conference for their grace and kindness in allowing me to participate. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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Alchemy conference

Posted on October 9, 2008 by pearce

The truck’s loaded with four easels and paintings, ready to go. Cameron and I will leave early in the morning. I guess I should pack a bag now. I’m speaking about my work to folks at the conference tomorrow evening, showing a powerpoint and revealing some hidden secrets in the images.

Loading the truck was very fast, moving paintings isn’t terribly hard as long as they are well padded and well secured. Crating them is essential for other people to ship them of course, but for a trip like this I’m content to wrap them in plastic and blankets, then tie them securely to the sides of the truck.

I’ll show Bombers, Fama, The Aviator’s Dream and The Reluctant Death of Modernism.  Fama  The Death of Modernism  I appear to be lacking a decent picture of The Aviator’s Dream in it’s completed state on the blog. I’ll try to remember to post one after the conference is over.

 

Posted in Alchemical work, Exhibits, Performance / lecture | 2 Comments

Newspaper article

Posted on October 9, 2008 by pearce

Some very nice coverage on my current exhibit “The Principle” in the Time Out section of the Star this morning.

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Four Cardinal Virtues

Posted on October 9, 2008 by pearce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice as they appear in a nineteenth century card deck, the Etteilla.

Strength is a little unusual as it doesn’t show the woman holding open the jaws of the beast (which looks suspiciously like a beast-like man). The angel of Temperance has her feet on a golden sphere and a triangular stone, while the sun radiates upon her forehead, she stands beside a cliff. Prudence is represented in typical style, with snake and caduceus, but lacking her mirror. Justice’s scales balance the same triangular stone and a golden sphere. Nice checker-board floor for strength and Justice.

 

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oh no

Posted on October 8, 2008 by pearce

I don’t usually put stuff on here that has nothing to do with art or alchemy, but I have a dark secret to share – I love Pacman. I play it most nights before I go to bed. The reason I’m telling you this is that I found this, the smallest Pacman game I’ve ever seen. Very entertaining and completely impossible.

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What a day!

Posted on October 8, 2008 by pearce

I didn’t find a moment to get into the studio amongst all the meetings and administrative stuff I had on my plate. They’re all good things, but very time consuming. After the passing out incident I needed to make sure that all the right people in the administration were aware of what happened. At lunchtime I met with my friend Janet Amiri, the sculptor, who has been incredibly supportive at the University, helping to cement relationships with the local community, introducing me to the lovely Teddy Ilowitz, and the sculptor De l’Esprie, both helping us to improve the campus by giving the gift of their work. Teddy already gave us the benefit of one of her pieces, while we are currently making arrangements for De L’Esprie to be able to create a large monument for us.

I met with members of the Artists and Speakers committee to discuss our efforts to bring varied and distinguished visitors to our campus to enrich the cultural life of both the University and the County. It’s a wonderful committee to serve on, and we enjoy finding out about the truly extraordinary people we are able to bring.

Then…

…rush home, take my daughter to ballet, take Ethan to Scouts, teach the boys how to fuse a rope, run back across the valley to ballet, get Elizabeth, drive back to pick up Ethan, take the kids home and get them off to bed. Blog. Continue working on my powerpoint for the Alchemy conference, ready to present in two days.

Tomorow I hope to get into the studio in the morning for at least a short time, then I’m meeting with our VP for Facilities to make plans for housing our Art Department in the short term as we wait for funding for the new building. Teach a drawing class (some really good quality work going on there) at twelve, then on to painting class, where my students are working on making self portraits in Old Masters style. In the afternoon I’ll go to get a small truck ready for the Friday trip to Vegas.

Fragile art work touching madness documented on the web by Debra Eck. I’m watching this to see what happens next.

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Back in the studio

Posted on October 7, 2008 by pearce

We had a bit of a dramatic class this afternoon, when one of my students literally passed out in my arms. I think she stopped breathing for a few seconds but while trying to revive her and listen for her breath and simultaneously thanking God that I learned CPR when Ethan and I went to camp, she came back to consciousness again, in a cold sweat. Medics were there very fast, and she seemed to recover fully afterwards, so it all ended well. Certainly not the usual dynamic of the painting studio.

The scary part of the experience for me was that she went down so fast and unexpectedly, so there was no time to think through the proper steps, only to react.

In the morning I had begun working on the Golden Bowl and I continued after the drama had subsided and my student was safely taken care of, laying down some flesh tones blended gently over the rougher early layer. I added some warm areas to the skin in areas that are away from the light, which comes from the centre of the painting. The sky obviously got its first layer of blue, which will be followed by a glaze layer shortly. I knifed this layer on mixing some cobalt blue and zinc white together so that the orange of the burnt sienna will show through and make some of the next layer, probably an ultra blue, read a little darker than where it sits over the pale mixture.

Having blended the flesh tones with a soft dry sable round brush I carefully did some touch up work to restore some of the dark tones with a dark brown and a little black. 

I want to get some four foot high boards for the virtues, so I’ll have to get to Home Depot tomorrow on the way to the studio. I’ll have to get them to cut it down for me, stretch some canvas and gesso. I’m really looking forward to getting back to some work at a larger scale. 

Good to get back to work! Crazy way to do it! 

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The Principle Brochure

Posted on October 6, 2008 by pearce

Hot off the press, four boxes full of brochures for the Kwan Fong exhibit arrived today, the first in a series of brochures for the California Lutheran University Art Gallery. I’m very pleased with the way they turned out. It’s a four page brochure with a centre page that’s designed to be pulled out and pinned up. If you’d like a copy, email me at pearce(at)clunet(dot)edu and I’ll post it to you. It’s not the same as the one we had for the opening reception which was only one sheet folded in half.

There will be brochures for all the shows this year with a bit of luck. I’m fortunate to get the first shot at it.

Publicity is incredibly important to the success of any undertaking, this is fundamental stuff. 

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Justice

Posted on October 6, 2008 by pearce

Pre-Raphaelite Amanda came to the studio this afternoon and we spent a delightful time taking pictures of her as Justice. She was a wonderful model! We borrowed a robe from the University chapel for her costume; I thought Justice should be quite formal. The white robe caused us some tricky lighting issues, but nothing too major. 

I know I promised painting today, but there was no way I could find the time to get started between the morning meeting of the Art Department and shooting photos. I got to capture images of Amanda as a muse in the seven virtues painting, and again as a simple allegory of love, tenderly holding a rose. It’s a bit sentimental, but I’m okay with that.

One day I’d like to do my own versions of the classic Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Millais’ Ophelia and Waterhouse’s Lady of Shallot, which were among my first loves as a young man looking at paintings. My father took me to the Tate on a visit to London when I was a child, then I saw the Homer when we visited Washington during a trip to visit our American cousins. It was wonderful to revisit the Tate National this summer and admire the collection of gorgeous Pre-Raphaelite paintings, especially Burne-Jones’ huge The Sleep of King Arthur in Avalon, which inspires me to make a really huge canvas. 

 

Posted in Making work, The Cardinal Virtues | 1 Comment