The Triangle is the Sign for Fire

I must have spent 4 hours making this today. The triangle is a sacred geometry. It of course relates to the Christian Holy Trinity, but is also widely used in Islamic Art, Pagan symbolizm and of course the Hebrew Star of David. It also represents stability. This piece to me looks like it’s alerting you to something. Like the button on a starship that you ONLY push as a last resort!

The frame is hand painted to match it’s contents which is a re-constructed 3 color lithograph I hand printed in the 90’s under the tutelage of Eileen Foti.

Damn, Another Mistake

The sign for the Earth is a circle with a cross. The symbol in the piece in the last post, circle with dot, is actually the Sun. So….I make errors more than I’d like to admit…everyday, essentially. Anyhoo, that piece is now called Victorious Sol.

EARTHSIGN (VICTORIOUS)

I tend to work in spurts. When I’m ‘spurting’ I just go with it. Currently having fun filling these old frames with pieces of my past artwork which has been altered by my ‘today’ self. Kind of a melding of past and present. The background on this one it from a lithograph I did in the 90’s. I added the wings, and the Earth sign…the circle with the dot.

All the planets, including earth have an astronomical symbol. The Earth’s is the circle with the dot. Despite what we have done to the planet and the biosphere, everyone has to understand that the Earth will be victorious, it will mend the errors of mankind’s short sighted blunders. It’s been around for about 4.5 billion years, whereas humans have been around for about 300,000 years. Although we’ve managed to fuck up the place pretty quickly, the Earth will recover, we might not. In a geologic sense, 300,000 years is the blink of an eye. Intelligent life hasn’t even been around long enough on the planet to have proven itself as a good idea.

Eye

I’ve been drawn to the image of the All Seeing Eye for a long time. First and foremost, it’s just a cool looking image. Despite it’s emotionless gaze, it feels invasive, spooky. It’s an exalted eye in a triangle, a simple geometry and of course, it’s on the back of OUR DOLLAR BILL! Having done some research, the version of THE EYE, on the back of our dollar bill is known as the Eye of Providence. It is supposed to symbolize the eye of God watching over humanity. It’s also associated with the Free Masons…..It’s also associated with the Bond Street Bar in Asbury Park, which is not particularly godly, but plays great music and makes a great patty melt. (Their motto is GFY, Go Fuck Yourself, gotta love it). I also make the association between this Eye and the Eye of Sauron, which was such a terrifying symbol in the Lord of the Rings. Yes, it’s a nerdy reference…GFY if you don’t like it.

Glad to have sold this to my good friend Tracy the first day I made it. It’s constructed of a piece of a lithograph I did in the 90’s. I added the gold leaf triangle and blacked out the rest with acrylic black paint. The (tin?) frame has been spray painted with color shift optic paint. Something new I found and love. The colors change with the light. I’ve only seen it used on some jacked up hot rods.

Talismans - ON SALE ON ETSY

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/stats?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Trying the Etsy sight. Give it a look. Link is above.

Oct 3, 2018 Arizona

Travel/ vacation both inspires me an allows me the time to sketch. My usual subject matter is the landscape in a new and beautiful spot. On the bus to Canyon Lake, AZ, with fellow swimmers, I had time to sketch the passing roadside during the unusual occurance of heavy desert rain in October. The resulting drawing is a bit more sinister looking than the real landscape, and given the speed of car travel, impressionistic. I quite like the result, though. (pardon the affected tone of the last sentence. I’ve been traveling with British tourists for the last 4 days and I’m picking up their accent).

Somewhere Unforgiven, sketch, 2018, Charcoal from somebodies campfire and graphite

Desert Rain, (on the way to Canyon Lake), sketch, 2018

September 27, 2018

Tilly Glimpse

The image in this frame is from a larger hand printed lithograph I did about 20 years ago. Making a lithograph by hand is a time consuming process with many steps. The creation of this piece probably took about 25 hours. The image originated from a photo of the Asbury Park funhouse. The funhouse was famous for having the giant leering face of Tilly gracing its side. The photo was made into a graphic film that was then part of a collage that became the lithograph. The litho was hand colored and for this piece a color transparency is layered on top. I like that I was able to give at least a piece of this litho new life in this antique frame.

Sept. 14, 2018

Here’s an installation view of work I donated to Joshua Tree National Park as part of an artist residency I did there a few years ago. I remember not liking this work so much at the time, but looking at it now, perhaps I was being overly critical of my own work…which is my Standard Operating Procedure. In time, meaning a few years, I can be more objective of my own work and see what’s good about it instead of what’s wrong with it. When enough time has passed, it’s as if I’m looking at another artist’s work.

Work based on plantlife in Joshua Tree, CA