Preps for an Upcoming Exhibition

I've been asked to be a part of an exhibition opening next week in Asheville.  The show is titled "Thought-Provoking Art by Six UNCA Alumni".  When Robert Tynes, the curator, asked me to be in it, I had nothing on hand that hadn't already been exhibited in town.  So I said, "Sure, I'll participate!"  This was a way to get my ass in gear and paint something.

But the pressure is on.  Not only does it have to be exhibition-ready, but it has to be thought-provoking as well.  That's a pretty high bar in my book.  So what to do?  I thought of maybe doing something about the current disaster of North Carolina's idiot governor and state legislature, but I really don't want to go back to satirical political paintings again.  Thinking of politics just makes my blood boil.  I then thought about doing the first of my intended new series on "Survivors".  The problem is that I don't yet have a survivor to work with, and I'm not about to just make stuff up.  Eventually, I decided to do a painting based on my experiences in Afghanistan.  I went back through my photos, thought about how they might be used, came up with some ideas, and finally whittled them down to two.  Of those, one is now underway.

The painting is tentatively titled "Negotiation".  Three Afghan men are sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking directly at the viewer.  One is a white-bearded elder who is carrying on the conversation, one is an adult, and one is maybe a teenager.  An AK-47 leans against the wall behind them, while a plate of treats and cups of tea sit between the viewer and the Afghans.  I'm trying to make the setting ambiguous: are they a threat? friendly? what's the viewer's role? what might happen?  In other words, it's typical of most any negotiation with Afghans, particularly villagers.

I'm posting photos of the development of the new painting on my website in the "Development of a Painting" (duhh) section.  Normally, I'd do this after the painting is done just to make sure (a) the finished work is something worth looking at and (b) I can make it look like I knew what I was doing all along.  This time, though, all that's out the window.  I don't know what it'll be like, whether it'll be worth a look, and it's showing how everything keeps changing.  So in addition to the pressure to make a "thought-provoking work", I'm upping the pressure on myself, showing you the ugly side of the sausage-making process.

One last note.  I mentioned photos.  I much prefer to work from life, but that's impossible in this case, so I have to use what's available.  This painting is not a copy of one photo, it's being put together from parts of many.  At least 12 photos have contributed something so far: an expression here, the position of a hand there, the shape of an AK-47 from two others.  The overall idea and composition, though, is straight out of my head.  There is no way I could have taken a photo like this.

So go take a look and let me know what you think.  I can still change it.  Next week at this time, though, it'll be too late!

End of a Line

I spent last week up at Muscatatuck, training another group of State Department and USAID folks who are heading to Afghanistan.  My luck held out: once again I had a team of really sharp people.  They made my job easy.  I could just suggest a few things, make a couple of recommendations, and ask that they consider this or that aspect, and they would take it and run with it.  If anything, they made things a bit harder on themselves because they over-prepared themselves for the different events.  They did their research and knew what was going on every time.  In some cases, they had actually worked relevant real-life situations and knew much more about what would have been going on in reality than we presented in the training scenario.  So I learned from them as well.  And they definitely came a long way last week.  At first, they were a group of students sitting around a table.  By Friday, they were a tight-knit team, able to divide responsibilities, work with each other, handle anything we threw at them, and generally kick butt.  And it is so cool to see that happen.  So I'm wishing all the best to Mark, Amanda, Bernie, Bill, and Chris as they head downrange.  Good luck and stay safe!

There was a sadder note to this week, though.  This was the last of these classes for the State Department.  The drawdown that has been accelerating over the last few months means that there won't be many State Department people going out to the field in Afghanistan anymore, and certainly not enough to justify continuing this course.  So it has now ended.  That's life, of course, but you hate to see a good thing go away.

I have to say that this training program has been one of the highlights of my professional life.  Every once in a while, you get a perfect storm of an important mission, one that's fun and worthwhile in itself, and also get to work with a great group of teammates.  We had that at Muscatatuck.  The mission was critically important to those who were going to Afghanistan.  It was so much fun to do.  And my fellow trainers are a great group of people: dedicated, committed, experienced, sharp, witty, creative, innovative, and always put the mission first.  We worked like hell to make the training scenarios the best experience for the students that they could possibly be.  And we had a helluva lot of fun doing it.  I'm going to miss working with them.

But there's always the chance that one day the phone will ring and somebody will say, "Hey, we're getting the band back together.  We're on a mission from God and we need you at Muscatatuck."  I'll be there in a heartbeat.

New Painting

The Figure Drawing Session

Oil on canvas, 22"x24" 

I finished this painting today.  This was a fun one to do.  It started during a figure drawing session, with what was initially just an oil sketch, but things were clicking with it.  So I continued to work on it, refining, changing, adding, and subtracting.  Finally it's done.

Here's what it looked like earlier.  During the initial session, I worked on the figure and roughly sketched in the couch.  The next day, rather than wipe everything out, I laid in the initial red of the couch and added the easel and light.  At this point I knew where it was going.  The next steps were to bring some more depth to the couch and figure, and to revise the easel since the angles were all wrong.  It took two tries to get the position of the easel right.  Then I needed to add some more things that said "artist studio", so I added the rug, the jar of paint brushes, and the drawings on the floor and wall.   The lighting also needed to be adjusted so that it was clearly a spotlight on the figure.  Finally, I went around the picture to bring everything up to snuff: refine the figure and couch (again), rework the easel and light, and minor touchups all over.

This is the first real painting I've done in over two years and it feels good!

Studio Work

We had a life drawing session in the studio this past week.  This was the first evening session I've run in over two years.  And as it's still summer, I had a typical summer result: only one other artist showed up.  This didn't really matter to me, though, since I schedule these sessions for my own practice, and open them up to others because it's fun.

Claire was our model.  She's been working with my groups for maybe ten years now.  Claire is an artist, a performance artist, and a dancer, and she has a good feel for what makes an interesting pose.  This one, for example, brought out the muscles around her neck and collar bones.

Actually, it was a tough pose to hold.  To get the strain, she carried her weight on her arms and tilted her head back.  So she'd hold it for as long as she could (five to ten minutes), then relax for a few minutes, and go again.  She was a trooper.  We gave her an easy pose after this so she could recuperate.

Meanwhile, I'm about to wrap up the latest "model in the studio" painting.  Only need to do some work on one small area and then it'll be signed, photographed, posted here, and put up on the rack.  I've got some ideas for the next one.  We're going to have another life drawing session this Wednesday with a different model, and she might give me some more ideas.

I'm going to be part of a show at the Asheville Area Arts Council next month.  It's "Thought-Provoking Art by Six UNCA Alumni", curated by Robert Tynes.  Since almost all of my "thought-provoking" work has already been exhibited here in Asheville, I want to make something new.  I've tentatively decided on an Afghanistan-based image.  But I needed a canvas and didn't have one of the right size available.  So I stripped an old painting off its stretcher bars yesterday.  It was one of those paintings that was a little too good to throw away, but not good enough to be pulled out and shown anywhere, so it's been sitting on my storage rack for ten years.  (If you're an artist, you know that kind of artwork: you've probably got several of them on your storage rack, just like I do!)  Then I reworked the frame a bit because my standards for stretchers have gotten a lot more stringent since it was first made.  Now it has a tight canvas with three coats of gesso, and another will be laid on tomorrow.  Then I'll lay a tone on it and let it dry for a week or so while I'm off in Indiana.  When I come back, I'll have two weeks to get it done.  That's not a lot of time for me - some of mine can take months.  Deadlines are deadlines, though ...

  

The Last Bele Chere

Can't believe it's been so long since my last post.  I've been delinquent!  Seriously, though, there hasn't been that much new that bears wide dissemination.  There are a few highlights, though.

Right after my last post, I went up to Indiana to do another training session at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.  This time, I was the mentor to a group of three guys heading to Afghanistan under the US Embassy.  They were the best team I've had so far.  They were motivated, forward-looking, and hard-working.  I really didn't have to do a whole lot to guide them along.  Mostly, I'd just suggest: "maybe you should consider this ...", or, "what do you think a Provincial Governor would want to learn from you from your first meeting?".  And they'd run with it.  In all the training scenarios, they were extremely well-prepared.  When we threw curve balls at them (like a simulated insurgent attack, or really dicy interviews), they kept their cool and responded like pros.  It was great to be a part of that.  I wish Eric, Steve, and Deon all success in their Afghanistan assignments.

Since returning home, I've been working in the studio a bit.  I've got a painting that's almost completed now and might only need one more session.  Then it'll be at the stage where I set it aside for a few days to look at it with fresh eyes and see how badly it's screwed up.  Once it's signed, I'll post it here.  This is the first real painting that I've done in two years, and I tell ya, it feels good to be working this way again!

On Friday, Janis and I went to Bele Chere.  For those of you who haven't been to Asheville, Bele Chere is a huge, 3-day outdoor festival held downtown.  There are several stages with live bands, hundreds of street vendors (food, artists, and bric-a-brac), thousands of people, and potentially a great time.  It's the largest free street festival in the southeast.  But this is its last year: the Asheville city council has decided not to fund it next year.  Bele Chere started 35 years ago as a way to bring people back to the dilapidated downtown area.  Since then, the festival has grown from a one-day event to a 3-day monster, and downtown has changed from near-abandoned into a thriving, lively center.  But downtown merchants generally don't make any money from Bele Chere.  In fact, many close down, because the crowds generally stay on the street except when looking for rest rooms.  There have been grumblings for years about whether it's worth it, and this year the city's financial issues forced the decision.  Bele Chere may continue if somebody steps in to fund it (maybe the tourism businesses?), but chances of that are slim.  So this is probably Bele Chere's last hurrah.

So we went early Friday afternoon.  It was a good time: it wasn't too hot, it didn't rain, there weren't too many people out yet, and most everybody was in a good mood.

We had lunch at Farm Burger, which is a restaurant we'd been wanting to try anyway, and had some fabulous burgers and beer.

The Ultimate Air Dogs were doing their thing, chasing after their tennis balls and jumping into a big pool.  We're thinking of getting a small inflatable pool for the backyard and seeing if our two Shih Tzus would like it, too!

The only thing marring the festivities was a group of street "preachers" in Pritchard Park.  I put that into quotes because they weren't preaching love, they were screaming purely hateful anti-gay rants.  They were as bad as the Westboro Baptist Church morons.  Not only that, but they had their bullhorns turned up as high as they would go.  The poor vendors around them had to listen to this bullshit all day long.  Some of them fought back by setting up speakers and amps and playing songs like "I'm Sexy And I Know It" as loud as they could.  There have been street preachers at Bele Chere every year, but this was the worst lot I'd ever seen.  As to the noise, I asked a policeman if they couldn't get them to turn down the volume, and he said that they could not.  Bummer.

On the positive side, I ran across two really good artists.  One of them is Shelagh Forrest, a Florida-based photographer, whose photo business is Sacred Spirit Photography.  I found her images of the Buddhist way of life in northern India and Bhutan to be stunningly beautiful, with a message of serenity, calmness, and dignity.  Unlike the rest of the artworks at Bele Chere, her work has something important to say, and she says it very well.  The other artist is Brian Vasilik.  He's a caricature artist.  Unlike most street caricaturists that I've seen, Brian understands facial anatomy and really looks at his subjects.  I watched him draw a young girl and he skillfully captured the nuances of her face as well as her spirit.  He's easily one of the best I've seen and it was fun to watch him work.

So goodbye, Bele Chere.  We had a good time, but I think Asheville will be able to get along without it next year.

A Letter to My State Representative, Michele Presnell (R)

I've tried over the past several months to keep this blog focused on art and life and away from politics.  The North Carolina legislature, though, has turned into a national embarrassment.  The most recent elections swept a large Republican majority into power, giving them the House, the Senate, and the Governorship.  In the past few months, they've been like going berserk, rolling back decades of progress.  Some examples:
- Kicked 70,000 people off the unemployment rolls on July 1st, and cut benefits from a max of $535/week to $350, and cut the max time from 26 weeks to 20.  Governor McCrory says he cares for the unemployed.  Yeah, taking away their lifeline is a sure bet to help them out.
- The "Gun Rights Amendment" would allow restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in only seven specific circumstances and would prohibit the state from conducting any general confiscation of weapons.  The goal?  "Fight federal tyranny."
- The "Monsanto Protection Act" took away the authority of local agricultural boards to control what gets planted in its local area.  This legislation came from Monsanto and other Big Ag companies who want to force farmers to buy their seeds.
- Forced all welfare recipients to undergo a background check and a drug test, for which they would have to pay.  The stated goal was to reduce welfare fraud and save the state's money, but a similar action in Florida wound up costing the state a lot more than it saved.
- Tried to seize control and ownership of Asheville's water system from the city and turn it over to a separate non-city board without any compensation to the city.  Asheville has filed suit to keep this $1B asset.
- Repealed the ban on gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers.
- Slashed the budgets for public schools, and shifted a large chunk of the remaining funds to charter schools.  At the same time, they eliminated the requirements for charter schools to run criminal background checks and have licensed teachers.  Yes, that's just what we need: unlicensed felons teaching our kids all day long.
- Slashed the budget for higher education.
- Taxed parents if their college kids voted anywhere other than their home, and requiring people to vote where car is registered.  The goal?  Keep them lib'ral college kids from voting in large blocs in places like Chapel Hill.  Or, better, from voting at all.
- Tried to allow a state religion and declare that the state was exempt from the US Constitution and court rulings.  Seriously.
- Tried to make it a felony for a woman to expose her nipple in public.
- Is currently debating competing budget plans that slash taxes for the wealthy and raise them for middle and lower income groups.

The most recent embarrassment (as of this afternoon, anyway; they may have done something else since then) is an effort to essentially eliminate abortion providers in the state.  They slipped some anti-abortion amendments into, of all things, an "anti-Sharia" bill.  Really: they drafted a bill to make it illegal for foreign laws to apply in North Carolina, a really pointless bill if I ever heard of one.  So they slipped these anti-abortion amendments into the law literally late at night, at the last minute, without telling anybody (or at least, anybody that might have a different idea).  The resulting hullabaloo made NC's legislature (again) a national embarrassment.  Even Governor McCrory had to issue a weasel-worded threat to veto the legislation.  Within a few hours, a Senate committee had re-worded the anti-abortion amendments and slipped them into a bill on motorcycle safety.  Again: last minute, no warning, didn't tell anybody, not even the Democratic members of the same committee.  I mean, it worked so well for them before, didn't it?  (NO.)

I've been regularly writing my state Representative and Senator (both Republicans, of course) to tell them what I think.  Not that it makes one iota of difference.  So now that this ridiculous motorcycle safety/ant-abortion bill is moving to the House, I wrote my Representative (Michele Presnell).  Here's the text:

I learned that a House committee is debating SB353, a motorcycle safety bill, that is now loaded with restrictions on women's access to abortion.  The NC legislature is a national embarrassment for its efforts to sneak abortion restrictions into completely unrelated bills, including an anti-Sharia law (which is an unnecessary embarrassment all its own - foreign laws do not apply here) and now a motorcycle safety law.  Worse, the Republican-dominated legislature is slipping these amendments into legislation without any public notice, or even notice to Democratic representatives ON THE COMMITTEE DEBATING THE BILL.  

Please: the Legislature should behave like adults, not first-graders.  If you want to debate abortion restrictions, draft a law and debate it on its merits.  Republicans have certainly proven in this session that they can write a gajillion laws in no time at all.  Quit sneaking anti-abortion restrictions into completely unrelated legislation.  All you're doing is embarrassing yourselves once people find out what happened.  There is a growing sense that all of you need to be thrown out at the earliest opportunity simply because you have no idea how to legitimately run a legislature.

Meanwhile, VOTE NO on this ridiculous bill.

The Republicans in our legislature have definitely succeeded on one thing.  They are turning me from a guy on the political sidelines (I bitch and moan and vote) to a Democratic activist.  These idiots in Raleigh are rolling back decades of slow, painful progress.  They must go.

Gettysburg Anniversary

Today is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gettysburg.  A couple of years ago, while researching my family history, I discovered that one of my ancestors was wounded and captured there.  The fact that he survived at all is something of a miracle.

Lorenzo Whitaker was 19 when he joined Company K of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment in Iuka on Saturday, March 1, 1862.  Company K was known as the "Iuka Rifles" from Tishomingo County.  His first action was the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia on May 31- June 1.  It was quickly followed by the battle at Gaines Mill, then at Second Manassas in August, where they routed Union forces.  Two weeks later, they routed three more Union units (4th and 8th Pennsylvania and 6th Wisconsin) at the Cornfield at Antietam, while losing almost half their men killed or wounded.  The 2nd Mississippi then retired to Goldsborough, North Carolina for the winter to recuperate and reorganize.

In the spring of 1863, Lorenzo and the unit laid seige to Suffolk, Virginia.  In June, they moved north as part of General Lee's plan to take the fight to the Union.  The 2nd Mississippi was in the vanguard of Confederate forces moving southeast along Chambersburg Pike towards Gettysburg when the fighting started on July 1.  The 2nd Mississippi hit BG Cutler's brigade of the Army of the Potomac head-on.  Cutler's unit lost about 500 men and were driven back.  Confederate troops captured one gun and limber and routed the Federal troops (the 147th New York and the 2nd Maine Artillery) from the field.  The Confederates chased the Union forces toward Seminary Ridge, but the chase became disorganized.  Much of the unit was trapped in the Railroad Cut by the sudden arrival of Union reinforcements.  This cut, which was too deep to allow the Mississippians to shoot effectively, became a killing ground.  Some escaped, but many more were killed, wounded, and captured, and their battle flag was lost.  Lorenzo Whitaker was probably one of the wounded and captured.  The unit rested on July 2nd.  On July 3rd, the remnants of the regiment participated in Pickett's Charge, where they were disciplined and effective, but decimated nonetheless.  Total casualties from Gettysburg are difficult to pin down.  It is estimated that there were just under 500 men at the start of the battle, but suffered approximately 380-390 killed, wounded, captured, or missing (about 80% of its complement).

This is the Railroad Cut today.  At the time of the battle, of course, there was no bridge, and the railroad had not yet been laid.  The 2nd Mississippi was trapped by Union forces on the ridge at left and the sudden arrival of reinforcements coming this way along the railroad bed.  The southern soldiers had nowhere to go.  Some at the far end of the cut got away, but most of the unit was killed or captured.

Lorenzo was sent to Fort Delaware, a prison camp.  Fort Delaware was a horrible place, on par with any concentration camp in any war.  It was a Union fort on Pea Patch Island, in the middle of the upper reaches of Delaware Bay, off Delaware City.  At one time, it held up to 13,000 prisoners, many from Gettysburg.  Water was putrified and food scarce.  Rats were a delicacy.  Diseases such as scurvy, smallpox, malnutrition, measles, dysentery, and diarrhea were widespread.  All had lice.  One prisoner wrote that he shrank from 140 pounds to 80 pounds during his time there.  Approximately 2700 Confederate prisoners died during captivity; 2436 are buried there.

Lorenzo survived Fort Delaware, though, and on June 11, 1865, was released, two months after Lee's surrender.  He returned home to Mississippi and became a farmer.  He married Jennie Billings on May 30, 1866, and raised six children.  He apparently died sometime around 1896 at about 55 years of age.

I wish I knew more about Lorenzo.  I wish there was a photograph of him, along with Jennie and the kids.  I'd like to know more about this man than what can be gleaned from a few recorded census and muster records and history books.  He must have been tough as nails, but he must have retained his humanity as well.  His daughter, my great-grandmother, was a cheerful and gentle woman who nonetheless had her own iron will: she defied her parents and eloped with her beau at age 21.

So as we commemorate Gettysburg over the next couple of days, and think about its impact on our country, I'm going to think instead about it's impact on me, personally.  Had anything been different there, had a bullet gone slightly right or left, or an order been given a second earlier or later, I might not be here.  The individual strength of one man, though, pulled him through multiple major battles, two years in a prison camp, and into a farmer's life in the reconstruction South, where he successfully raised a family, one of whom eventually led to me.

Studio Developments

Things are still in the "spring training" mode in the studio.  I've been doing some painting, trying to work the rust out and re-learn all the painting motor skills and instincts.  Most of the paintings have been done from old sketches - some from Afghanistan, some from old life drawing sessions.  Most get wiped out as soon as they're done.  Here's one exception:

You may recognize this from one of the pastels that I did in Maiwand.  I thought it turned out a bit better than most of the others and gave it to an Afghan friend last week.  But this was the exception.  All the others wound up on paper towels in the trash can, where they belonged.

My painting skills are improving, though.  I can see that.  Now I'm getting antsy to start on real paintings.  For the moment, I'm resisting - I'm still in "spring training", and well aware that I'm very impatient, so there are still a few more training paintings to do and throw away.  

Meanwhile, my drawing skills are doing okay.  My last post mentioned that I'd stuck a group of figure drawings up on my studio wall.  Here's what they look like:

Some of these drawings were done as far back as 2000, and two were done earlier this month.  What's interesting to me is that you can't really tell which is which.  In other words, my style of drawing has been pretty constant over at least 13 years, even during a time when I was studying art full-time at UNC Asheville.  Guess I'm an old fart, stuck in my ways ... but I don't consider it a problem.

I had an idea yesterday about re-photographing a lot of my figure drawings and putting them together into a book.  I am going to do the same with the "Faces of Afghanistan" drawings.  Both would be for sale on my website, in the studio, and at any exhibitions there might be in the future.  The price point would be well below the price for a single original drawing.  What do you think?

I went to another life drawing session at Frank Lombardo's studio yesterday.  The model was a young woman with beautiful green eyes and a great head of hair.  Here's one of the drawings:

Sarah

Charcoal on toned paper, 15"x11"

Today, though, is going to be an admin day.  I've got some consulting business to take care of and then work on some promotional efforts.  I'm trying to get the "Faces of Afghanistan" artworks out on gallery walls somewhere.  I've let that slide for too many months and it's time to get moving.

Making Progress

Things are slowly coming together for me in the studio.  The day after my last post, I went to a life drawing session at my friend Frank Lombardo's studio in Marshall.  The model was a lovely young lady with a very regal profile.  I did several charcoal studies of her, and here are two:

Bobbi 1

Charcoal on toned paper, 15"x11"

Bobbi 2

Charcoal on toned paper, 15"x11"

Both of these are pretty much up to spec with the figure drawings I've been making for the past 13 years in terms of quality, finish, approach, and composition.  I've got a bunch of these drawings tacked to my studio wall, and these two fit right in.  You can't really tell which ones were done in 2000, 2006, or now.  So I think my drawing skills are back up to snuff.

Last weekend, Janis and I headed up to Boone and Blowing Rock, NC.  It's not too far, about a 90 minute trip.  We do this occasionally and generally hit the outlet mall, our favorite British-pub restaurant, and Cheap Joe's Art Stuff.  I'm a kid in a candy store when I go into a good art supply place like Cheap Joe's.  Came out with several tubes of new paint, some new brushes, some Gamsol solvent (more on that in a minute), and the Big One: a new easel.

It's about time I got a new easel.  The one I've been using is the original Ugly Easel.  I built it out of scrap wood in 1984.  And some of the scrap wood came from (get this) a plant shelf that I built for our temporary home in 1980!  Quality wood and quality woodworking is NOT my specialty: all the holes were drilled with a handheld drill, and if you tighten down all the screws and bolts, it warps all out of shape.  But it's heavy and works and doesn't move around, and I'm a cheapskate, and so 29 years later I'm still using the Ugliest Easel in the World.  Until now.  Now I've got a really nice, well-made professional artist easel.

So here's my painting arrangement in the studio.  The new easel is in the center, my Sears rolling tool chest turned taboret on the right, and a catch-all table to the left.  In the background against the wall you can (sorta) see Ol' Ugly.

I mentioned Gamsol.  It's a special solvent for oil paints.  I've been using regular odorless mineral spirits (OMS) that you can get at any hardware store.  Very cheap and readily available.  In my old studio, which was about as air-tight as a sieve, it wasn't a problem.  My new studio, though, doesn't have good ventilation, and I quickly discovered that the OMS made me woozy.  Gamsol is advertised as a better and healthier alternative for artists, as it's based on the same petroleum distillates used in cosmetics.  So I got some, and the difference is huge.  I kept a clear head with no wooziness.  Okay, so I'm sorta woozy all the time, but this was no more than normal.

I was back in the studio today to try out Robert Liberace's approach to painting.  I pulled out one of my pastels from Afghanistan to work from, taped one of the gessoed and toned papers onto a board, and started painting.  First was a grisaille drawing in burnt umber.  I roughed it in quickly, then refined it about as far as it needed to go.  Then I started applying flesh tones in the lighter areas - again, roughly at first, then refined with color, value, and brushwork.  I brushed in a pale yellow over the background. Then I went around the whole thing for a while, gradually refining it until it was done.  At one point, I was about to wipe the whole thing out, but reconsidered it, made some changes, and it actually came alive after that.  Sometimes the best paintings are the ones that I want to destroy about halfway through.  This isn't one of the best, but it's certainly better than others I've done recently.  Of course, I didn't take a picture, so you can't see it.  So while my charcoal drawing skills seem to be about up to speed, my painting skills are still improving.

I started another painting after that.  It's an experiment with Odd Nerdrum's approach: a really dark grisaille underpainting in a cool dark blue (phthalo mixed with burnt umber to tone it down).  In a couple of weeks, once it's fully dry, I'll come back to it and build layers of lighter flesh tones over it.  It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

Working the Rust Out

I've been focused a lot on artwork ever since finishing the training session in Indiana last week.  I started by pulling the book "Portrait Painting Atelier" off my shelf and reviewing it.  The book has a lot of great technical information in it and, after my recent experience of trying to paint in the studio, I needed a refresher.  And that's where I found out about Robert Liberace, a young artist with a beautiful way of putting a painting together.  In my last post, I mentioned all that, along with links to some YouTube videos of his.  Right after that, I bought his "Alla Prima Portrait" DVD.  This is a 3-hour demo of an alla prima portrait, and he maintains a running commentary on what he's doing the whole time.  It's not cheap, but it's a seminar in which you can stop, replay, and take over and over again.  I've gone through maybe half of it and have taken a ton of notes.  Especially now that I've started pushing paint around again, I've got recent experience that relates to what he's talking about.

Every artist has his/her own quirks and I'm no exception.  I tend to make hands a bit too large, for one thing.  I also tend to start with the head and, as I work my way down the body, make the body bigger and bigger, so that when I stand back, I've got a small head on this oversize figure.  Been doing this forever, and since I know about it, I can watch for it and correct it as it happens.  Another quirk is when the model's head is tilted to one side.  I'll draw the head tilted, but then the eyes, nose, and mouth will all be level.  Very frustrating.  And while watching the Liberace video, I saw him doing the exact same thing!  It was quite amusing to see that I'm not the only one who falls into that trap.

Yesterday I went to the studio and banged around a bit.  I took a sketch from Afghanistan and did a portrait study in oil from it.  There were lots of issues, of course, but I played with it for a couple of hours and it actually started turning into something decent.  The moment that I started thinking about keeping it, though, I took a rag and wiped it out.  This is "spring training" for me, a time to get back into the rhythm, get the juices flowing, and nothing I do here is going to be a keeper.

Today, I was in the studio again, prepping some gessoed sheets of paper for use in studies and color swatches.  I also did a charcoal self-portrait.  Here's the way it looks on paper:

I'm a pretty good model for myself: I know the pose needed, and I can hold it as long as necessary, and getting back into just the right position is easy.  None of which would apply if I was modeling for somebody else.  This image looked about right to me, but then, it's a mirror image (what I see in a mirror) which is not what others see.  So here's a mirror image of the mirror image:

The wife thought it was "okay ...", which isn't exactly a rousing endorsement.  Not sure if the image missed the mark or if I made myself too stern or what.  No matter, I needed to make something today and this was it.

Tomorrow: back to the drawing board.  Literally.

"No Bad Wine" Day

May 25th is my own personal Memorial Day.  I wrote about why that is so in this blog post.  Terry and Maged, you are not forgotten.  So tonight, my wife and I are going out to dinner, and I will have a glass of fine wine and a glass of iced tap water in honor and memory of you two.

Cheers, my friends!

Looking at Artists: Robert Liberace

Since my last time in the studio, I've been re-reading my journals and painting books in order to get myself back up to speed on the painting process.  I brought along one of my prime reference books on this trip.  It's "Portrait Painting Atelier" by Suzanne Booker.  It is packed with a lot of technical information on painting in general and figures and portraits in particular, from preparing a canvas, to choosing brands and colors, to learning how colors work (hint: color charts are a good thing), to drawing and painting.  It includes portraits from a variety of artists and has several step-by-step examples at the end.  In all, a good reference book.

If you're familiar with me and my style of painting, you know that I like works that are loosely done, that clearly show the strokes and process, and that are done from direct observation rather than photographs.  Unfortunately for me, the examples in the book were all done from photographs, and were slowly built up through many layers.  Not exactly how I like to work.  One of the artists in the book, though, had a number of portraits that caught my eye.  He was Robert Liberace, and here's a sample from his website:

John

Oil on board, 12"x9"

© Robert Liberace

The image in the book more clearly showed the brushwork and beautiful color usage.  There were several more works of similar quality that really impressed me.  So I googled him and looked at loads of images, all of which were beautifully done.  And I found his website.  The more I looked, the more I was blown away.  This guy can paint a figure and a portrait.

Robert Liberace is a young guy who apparently lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, and regularly teaches at the Art League in Alexandria.  He also does workshops around the country several times a year.  He's represented by several galleries, all of which you can find off his website.

What was really cool was finding videos of a figure painting demonstration on YouTube.  In a 3-part series recorded at the Art League, he painted a model in a Civil War outfit.  Robert started with a really loose application of paint, roughly blocked in the figure, and then gradually refined it.  Watching it develop from a mess of burnt umber to a strong image of a soldier was fascinating.  Here are the three parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Many years ago, when I was my late teens, I met an artist in Memphis, Tennessee.  He would set up on a sidewalk in a busy nightclub area on Friday and Saturday evenings and do portraits.  His style was visually somewhat similar to Robert's: he would put a bold slash of watercolor onto the paper, then work in pastels from the large shapes and gradually refine it into a really beautiful image.  When I say "really beautiful", I mean this guy was good.  Working the sidewalks was a way of having fun, meeting people, making a few bucks, and gathering clients.  Watching Robert's videos reminded me of those nights in Memphis, watching that guy work.  

I like finding artists who know how to paint.  Robert Liberace is my newest find.

A Drive to Indiana

I'm in Indiana again to train another batch of people heading to Afghanistan.  Our presence there is shrinking fast and I don't know how many more of these training sessions we'll do.  Pretty soon, there will be no US government civilians outside the Embassy and a few of the main bases.  All we know right now is that things are changing fast.

As with last time, I chose to drive up here rather than fly.  The total time in transit is about the same, but driving is, for me, so much more enjoyable.  Passengers on airlines these days are just cattle in a cattle car.  Airlines don't give a hoot about you, your bags, or anything else besides how many bodies they can shoe-horn into a Boeing.  Since the company I'm with was happy for me to rent a car (it's cheaper than a plane ticket), I made a reservation with Avis.

And I hit the jackpot.  This time, through the luck of the draw, I wound up with a Volvo S60 T5.  This is a small sedan with outstanding handling, lots of power thanks to a turbocharged engine, a 6-speed automatic transmission, great handling, leather seats, taut but smooth ride, bluetooth, great handling, sun/moonroof, and lots of other features.  And it had great handling.  We have a Volvo and so we like the brand already, but this S60 is a sweet bit of machinery.  You should never buy a used car from a rental agency, but I'd buy this particular Volvo in a heartbeat.

I put it to good use during my drive north.  Rather than hop on the interstate and do a roundabout loop to the south, west, and then north, I headed straight northwest on 2-lane roads through the Appalachian mountains.  The Volvo was the perfect car for the trip.  We romped up and down the valleys, along rivers lined with fisherman and parked pickups, snaked through mountain passes, and generally had a great time.  We went through Cumberland Gap, which a spectacular area.  The mountains there are like a vertical wall between Tennessee and Virginia to the south and Kentucky to the north.  Then the Gap is a narrow slice through the wall.  Easy to see why it was such a strategically important spot during the Civil War and why it changed hands several times.  I finally hit I75 in Corbin and headed north.

In Lexington, I ran right into a nasty rainstorm.  Great place to do it, huh?  Heavy traffic and heavy rain, which forced everybody to slow way down because we just couldn't see anything.  The heavy rain lasted for about an hour while I headed west to Louisville.  Definitely not fun.  But it finally cleared when I got north of Louisville - still gray and occasionally drizzly, but not the dangerous drenching from earlier.

So now I'm at Camp Atterbury, which is a pretty large training base a bit south of Indianapolis.  We've done our preparations and are now just waiting for our new crop of students to be finished with their check-in.  Then we'll have at it for the rest of this week.  It's going to be fun!

Making Artworks Again

When you haven't done much artwork in two years, you really get rusty, y'know?  That concept was pounded home to me this week.  I went to a life-drawing group early in the week and made some charcoal drawings.  Yesterday, I had a model come to my studio so I could work with oil paint.  Results both times were less than spectacular, which is about what I figured would happen.

Our model in the life drawing session was a lovely young woman.  This pose had a good bit of drama to it, with strong lights and darks, the V formed by her arms (V's are unstable visual elements, so they bring a dynamic quality), and the serious pensive look on her face.  My drawing is a bit off, and now I see a number of things that I would do differently, but I think the drama came through.  Maybe I'll go back into it and correct a few things ... famous last words, as any artist will tell you!

A later pose was much quieter.  We still have the strong V shape, formed by her arm, but this time it's in a horizontal format, and part of a longer zig-zag formed by her hip, back, arm, and blanket.  Altogether, not too bad ... the drawing doesn't jump out at me, but it's not so bad it goes into the trash right away, either.  It'll wind up in my every-growing collection of figure drawings that sit in a box for years.

Then on Thursday, I had one of my favorite models come to my studio.  I wanted to play with oil paint again.  We started with a bunch of short 30-second poses to loosen us both up, and I drew quick gestures with the paint.  You can't see any of those gesture drawings because I wiped them out as fast as they were done. Later, we did a few longer poses.  This one was nice because of the flowing lines from her dress, the tightly-contained yet relaxed pose, and the light/dark contrasts between her skin, the dress, the chair, and the wall.  Painting this was an exercise in remembering my painting instincts.  It wasn't just the color mixing, it was the color selection, creating shapes with areas of color rather than lines, getting my eyes to see what was really there (versus what I thought was there, which is something different), getting my hand to follow my eye, nailing the proportions, when to clean the brush, which brush to use for which areas, whether to use painting medium or straight paint, right down to how to hold the rag in my left hand.  Most of these decisions are things I shouldn't have to think about, they should be automatic, but they aren't.  Not yet, anyway.  I need more sessions in the studio.

We finished the session, I photographed the sketch, and then wiped it out.  This painting isn't a keeper.  I probably won't have any keepers for a while.  This to me was like spring training for an athlete - a much-needed session to get warmed up and back on track.

Whitney was the model for my last painting, "Impertinence", completed two years ago.  She hadn't seen the finished painting, though, and I hadn't realized until now that the painted image was bigger than she is!

So it's great to be painting again, even as rough as it is right now.  More to come.

Myrtle Beach

Last week, I celebrated a rather big birthday milestone.  It's one that ends in "0" and no, I won't tell you what the first digit is.  Janis and I celebrated by jumping in the truck and heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  We had never been to Myrtle Beach, but we needed to get some sand between our toes, and we thought that hitting it in late April and early May would be just the ticket.  It's late enough in the spring so that the weather should be fairly warm, but not so late that all the kids get out of school and go to the beach, with or without their folks.

Janis found us a small 1-BR rental just a couple blocks off the ocean that takes pets.  Turned out to be a nice little place, certainly better than the last rental we experienced (where the only thing stopping us from falling through the rotten floor was the linoleum).  It's in a quiet residential area in North Myrtle Beach, which is far removed from the boardwalk, bars, and T-shirt shops just to the south.

We had heard that this area is cheesy and tacky.  I gotta say, those reports are accurate.  Most of this area seems to be geared towards cheap food, cheap entertainment, and cheap stuff.  I suppose it works for families with hyper-energetic kids, or college students still learning how much beer they can drink before passing out, or those who might be looking for as much as possible as cheap as possible.  But if you're looking for, say, quality food, you have to really look for it.

But (speaking of quality food), we did find some gems.  In this area, we found it at P.F. Chang's, Tommy Bahama's, and (gasp) Olive Garden.  Seems like some of the chain restaurants are more careful about their cleanliness and quality standards than most of the independents in this area.  All three of these gave us really well-prepared and well-presented meals along with first-rate service.

We did a bit of exploring and discovered that the area to the south, particularly Pawley's Island and Georgetown, were more to our liking.  There were more independent businesses, shops, and restaurants, and they generally carried more interesting, and higher-quality, stuff.  There were fewer people and everybody was moving at a slower pace.  We even found some interesting art and are heading home with a new sculpture piece.  A far cry from the "Show Us Your Hooters" attitude around here!

I don't think we'll ever come back to Myrtle Beach.  Just not our cup of tea.  But we will come back to the coast, and when we do, it'll probably be to Pawley's Island or Georgetown.  

New Studio

My new studio is finally ready for business!  Today I finished putting all my stuff more or less where it needs to go, cut up a bunch of boxes, threw out old packing materials, swept it down, and arranged things pretty much like they needed to be arranged.  I can walk in there tomorrow, squeeze out some paint, and start working.  

The main room has about 600 square feet.  I've got a desk, workbench, and storage rack for large paintings at one end of the room, and my easels and painting area at the other.  There are built-in shelves high on two walls, where I'm storing my smaller artworks and some random supplies.

There are no windows in here, unfortunately, but I've installed special daylight fluorescent bulbs that provide plenty of light.  Not shown in these photos is a small storage room off to the right in the above photo, which leads to a bathroom as well.  One thing I really appreciate is that this place also has an effective air conditioner and heater.

It has been a long road to get here.  When I signed the lease, the walls and ceiling had been spray-painted a hideous mustard yellow.  It also had computer network cables running all over the place.  Janis and I spent a lot more time refurbishing the place than I anticipated (surprise), but it has finally come together.  As a reminder, here's what it looked like when we first started:

Quite a difference, huh?

And to top it off, today a lawyer bought several of my courtroom drawings from the Bobby Medford trial five years ago.  He worked on the case and was great friends with the judge and prosecuting attorneys.  So this was an auspicious start to my new studio.

Can't wait to start slinging some paint!

Studio Developments

For the first time in two years, almost to the day, I have all my art stuff in a studio rather than a storage unit.  Woo hooo!  It's been a long road.  One of my early posts said that it would take about a week to get everything done.  Wrong.  It's been a month.

You may recall that the space was painted a fugly bright mustard yellow (even the ceiling) with a cold gray floor.  And it had computer cables running everywhere.  Janis and I set to work painting, ripping out cables, and patching things up.  Once the ceiling tile supports were painted white, the landlord came in and replaced all the ceiling tiles.  The last step was painting the floor.  Now the space has light warm gray walls, white ceiling, doors, and trim, and a dark brown floor.  It's a nice-looking space.  Today, I finished hauling everything from my storage unit into the studio.  Wore myself out, but now the storage unit is empty and the studio looks like the aftermath of a rummage sale.  Tomorrow, I'll start putting the shelves together, getting everything arranged and organized, and turning the rummage sale into a proper artist's workspace.

Pulling all the artworks out of their 2-year hiding places was like seeing old friends again.  Most of them were wrapped up in one way or another, and too many suffered various sorts of damage, either from poor wrapping, elements, or banging around in shipment.  It's clear that I have some repair work to do.  But hey, they're back in a place they need to be.

Photos?  No, you're not going to see any photos until it's somewhat presentable.  You don't take pictures of a lady until she's properly made up, and a studio is the same way.  I'll post a few pictures once things are looking better.

Wounded in Afghanistan

I've learned more about my State Department friend who was wounded in Afghanistan on Saturday, in the same blast that killed Anne Smedinghoff (a State Department public affairs officer), a DoD civilian (whose name hasn't been released yet), and three soldiers.  My friend, Kelly, suffered massive damage to her skull along with shrapnel embedded all over her body.  She was medevac'd to Landstuhl hospital in Germany, where she is now in a medically-induced coma.  Parts of her skull have been removed due to swelling of the brain.  In other words, she is in bad shape.  Fortunately, she's in Landstuhl, where she's getting the best care available anywhere.

I didn't know Kelly that well, but had worked with her during the last few months of my time in Afghanistan.  She is the one who started the ball rolling on publicity for my "Faces of Afghanistan" drawings that eventually led to the exhibition at UNC Asheville.  Kelly is a dynamo, standing barely over 5 feet tall, with a quick smile, quick wit, and intense dedication to her job.  She is also, I think, tougher than she believes she is.  Which is a good thing, because her toughness will be sorely tested for a long time to come.

ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff suffered similar injuries in 2006 in Iraq.  Like Kelly, he was in a medically-induced coma for 36 days at Landstuhl, then spent several weeks at Bethesda, and was finally to a facility closer to home.  He was back on the air a year after the incident, although it was clear that he wasn't quite back to normal.  I am hoping that Kelly is able to follow a similar recuperation.  Like many other traumatic brain injury victims, she will probably suffer some effects for the rest of her life.  But at least she'll be alive.

Let's not forget the others who died in the blast: Staff Sergeant Christopher Ward, 24, of Oak Ridge, TN; Specialist Wilbel Robles-Santa, 25, of Juncos, Puerto Rico; and Specialist Deflin M. Santos, 24, of San Jose, CA.  They died trying to protect the team.

Many people seem to forget that Afghanistan is still a violent place.  Having a friend get hurt so seriously is a stark reminder that it's still going on.

Afghanistan ... Inbound and Outbound ...

So I spent last week training a group of military guys who are heading to Afghanistan.  As mentioned in my last post, my role was to mentor a team of four as they went through our immersive training course.  They spent a good bit of time in classroom training and, more importantly, a lot in role-playing scenarios.  Each of these scenarios is very much like what they'll encounter downrange.

My team were four very sharp guys and they did very well.  Throughout the week, the scenarios that we put them in got more complex and nuanced, with surprises that could trip them up if they didn't keep their heads on straight.  Which they did.  It was very rewarding to watch them develop throughout the week, to learn from their (minor) mistakes, and to become comfortable in dealing with Afghans in an Afghan world.

The role of a mentor is a complex one.  I was there to guide them through the maze of classes, preparations, and scenarios.  Some mentors have "taught the exam" - in other words, they told the students what was going to happen so that the students would know the "right" answers.  I don't subscribe to that theory.  My approach was the Socratic method, to try to guide by asking questions.  "Okay, so you're going to meet with the Provincial Governor tomorrow.  What do you know about him?  Where would you find information about him?  Who do you know that has dealt with him?  What do you want to get out of this meeting?  What will be the roles for each team member?  Will using your sketchy Pashto language skills be good, or will you stick with English and use your interpreter?  Who else might be there?  Will you try for a group photo?"  In Afghanistan, there are a very few things that are black, a very few that are white, and a whole lot of shades of gray in between.  In other words,there is no one "right" answer, so they need to be able to think for themselves as to which course of action is appropriate for them.

One of the other trainers this week used a great word to describe our mission: compelling.  For me, this is very compelling.  It's a national mission.  People's lives are on the line.  The success or failure of a nation is at stake.  And I have the opportunity to help train some of the people whose efforts will affect the outcome.  This work is tremendously rewarding for me.

Just how important it is was hammered home the day after training was over.  Two suicide bombers hit a convoy carrying the Zabul provincial governor and several Americans as they traveled to deliver schoolbooks.  Six Americans, including a young State Department public affairs officer, were killed.  Several others, including another young woman whom I knew in Kandahar, were wounded, some critically.  A number of Afghans were also killed and wounded, although I don't know how many.  It was a routine trip outside the wire, the kind that I had been on many times in my own area, only this time too many of them didn't come back.

The provincial governor said that he was the intended target, rather than the Americans.  Probably so.  The insurgents know that we're drawing down now and leaving soon, so there's not much reason to hit us besides the publicity value of killing infidels.  Their attention is more focused on the Afghan government officials that will be there over the long term: the governors, chiefs of police, Army officers, judges, and so on, who are picking up the fight that we're handing over.  I saw this developing in Maiwand last summer and fall.

So the next time that I go to Indiana to train Afghan-bound teams, this event will be first and foremost in my mind.  

Back at Muscatatuck

I'm back at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, helping to train a group of mostly military guys who are heading to Afghanistan.  We've been at it a couple of days now.  I'm in a different role than last time.  Now I'm a mentor to one of the student teams, trying to guide them along the training process.  This is a fun role: I'm directly involved with the same students every day, helping them gel as a team, and preparing them for both the upcoming events this week and for what they'll encounter downrange.  These guys are sharp, too, which makes my role easier in some respects and harder in others.  A good thing, all around.  America, you should still be proud of the people you're sending in harm's way.

When I came up here last month, I flew from Asheville to Indianapolis, and then hooked up with a couple of other trainers for the drive down to Muscatatuck.  This time, I rented a car in Asheville and drove up.  I figured that the total travel time would be about the same, driving is more fun (to me, anyway), and this would ensure that I had wheels for the entire week.  Good call.  The drive was, indeed, fun, especially the first half, which wound through the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  It's a beautiful area, really spectacular.  Once past the mountains, I-75 rolled along through Kentucky horse country, which was beautiful in different way.  Great drive. 

I wound up with a Nissan Altima for a rental car.  It's a pretty good machine.  The styling is kinda generic, the seats are comfortable, the interior controls easy to learn, and the sound system is strong.  The best feature is the handling, by far.  It's really impressive, with great response and great grip.  The first leg of my trip was on two-lane roads through the mountains and the Altima was a hoot to drive on those twisty roads.  On the negative side, the sound isolation could be better as there was a bit of rumbling coming out of the rear end over different road surfaces.  The steering and brakes are both way too light - Nissan should dial some of the power assistance out.  And I'm not a fan of the continuously-variable transmission (CVT).  It works fine, but I felt like it made too many choices for me, isolating me from much of the driving experience.  If Nissan would give the car a manual transmission, tweak the suspension to get some of that rumble out, tweak the exhaust to put a little rumble in, and make a few other minor changes, they'd have a killer sports sedan.

So now it's back to work.  Gotta do a few things to get ready for tomorrow.