2023 MoonBlog
This isn't really about the moon, I call it a moonblog because a new homepage image appears twice a month on the new and full moon. The home page shows a featured image —sometimes freshly minted, sometimes seasonal, sometimes from years past— along with improvised ruminations, something like a leisurely blog. Some while ago I started adding short musical compositions to each moon entry, music is a second calling I've been working on - mostly in secret - for years.
Previous years’ entries are here for your perusal; see the links, above. The sharp-eyed visitor will notice that the year 2020 is entirely missing. I'll let you guess possible reasons for that. This year's will fill out as the moons go by. Meanwhile, let's get back to it.
Sunset, Kilhooley's Lagoon
I just made up the title Killhooley's Lagoon. It's part of a new series of paintings I've been meaning to get back to since we moved four years ago. I suppose it's not really a new series, it's a scaling up from a series of small paintings I did several years ago, some of which can be seen right here on this site at Pluvia and Dawn Studies. These new paintings are in the range of 26 x 28 in.; the earlier ones are in the 8 x 9 in. range. They all look pretty much the same on a computer screen but quite different in real life. For the moment I'm thinking of calling them “Implied Landscapes” since the detailing is quite loose, you might say incomprehensible at close range. This is based on a very early aesthetic surprise in my life. My mother took us to the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, perhaps the first memory I have of visiting an art museum. I vividly remember seeing paintings that when viewed at close range were very loose smears of paint but from a little distance were luminous scenes of hills, horses, people, buildings. As I child I thought, “How could the artist know it would work?”. Now as a teetering old man I find myself replicating the excitement of that childlike amazement. I do worry that some of these paintings might look like things you could buy at Target or Walmart, but who's looking?
Music of the Moment
Here's one I've been working on recently, another one named for one of the moons of Jupiter. This one is called Ananke. This one has a variety of electronic and sampled acoustic instruments including mbira, guzheng, and percussion, along with a women's chorus.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
New Moon ~ March 20th, 2023
Southwest Dreamscape
Here's another one of those accidental paintings. It suggests the kind of parched and lonely landscape you might encounter in Arizona or Utah. Are those clouds or pterodactyls in the sky? Whatever you like. This image is really a photo detail showing many layers of peeling paint on an old bench. Making images or designs out of randomly occurring surfaces is an enjoyable pastime. A visitor here noticed the landscape on the old entryway bench.
Music of the Moment
Here's one I've been working on recently, another one named for one of the moons of Jupiter. This one is called Eirene. This one has a variety of electronic and sampled acoustic instruments including mbira, guzheng, and percussion.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
Full Moon ~ March 7th, 2023
Ringling Brothers
This painting - a triptych - is from the collection of side trips, probably from some time in the early 2000s. I was at the time intrigued by various interlocking patterns. This one is based on a very old pattern called wedding ring. The trio shown here was part of a much larger, multiple panel piece that resembled a sewn quilt in some ways. A sewn quilt would probably have been much more appealing; and you wouldn't get warm trying to snuggle under a painting. I did hang on to these three because of the way the surface was developing into something I wouldn't consciously recognize for some years to come. These paintings don't exist anymore. I painted over them recently to make way for newer things. I've been doing a lot of that lately: pulling paintings out of storage and, if they're not up to a certain level, painting over them. Why pile things up, really?
Music of the Moment
Here's one I've been working on recently, another one named for one of the moons of Jupiter. This one is called Harpalyke. There seems to be a variety of opinions about how this is pronounced. I liked "har-PAH-liquor" the most so far. Anyway, this piece features a chorus, trombone ensemble, mbira, guzheng, and percussion.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
New Moon ~ February 20th, 2023
Mississippi
I've been reading Eudora Welty lately. Apart from a few excursions away to college, Europe, and brief spell in New York City, she was a life-long a native of Jackson, Missippi. One of the many pleasures of her writing is the vivid descriptons of place. She conjures the sights, weather, sounds, topography, and people with such poetic economy and vividness. I dug out this small painting a few days ago during a reading of The Ladies of Spring, one of her short stories. The painting echoed something of my being steeped in a literary journey to Mississippi and rain falling after a long dry spell.
Music of the Moment
This is a short piece called Dia. Dia is the name of one of Jupiter's moons. In Greek mythology Dia has family connections too complicated to repeat here, but she is sometimes conflated with Ceres the goddess of grain. This composition is one of a set in which each piece is named for one of Jupiter's moons. Did you know that Jupiter has eighty moons? This should keep me out of trouble for a while.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
New Moon ~ January 21st, 2023
Area Sixteen
This was one of those moments of noticing an accidental composition. In this case it was a mess at the bottom of our studio sink, a deposit of previous painting cleanups, along with the imprint of a watercolor palette. I named it Area Sixteen in the manner of an affected aesthete; it's really just the bottom of a studio sink in need of a cleaning. But do look for these fortuitous coalescences; they are everywhere and they can add a little zip to your day.
Music of the Moment
This is a short piece called Metis. Metis is the name of one of Jupiter's moons. This composition is one of a set in which each piece is named for one of Jupiter's moons. Did you know that Jupiter has eighty moons? This should keep me out of trouble for a while.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
Full Moon ~ January 6th, 2023
Hand #4
I used to teach a class called Advanced Drawing at Naropa University. We had a semester-long assignment to produce one hundred drawings on a theme or subject, a project that I would do along with the students. Some time in the late 1990s I chose hands as a subject. Many of them were of women's hands in various positions. I worked from magazine advertisements and, as you can see in the image, I was relying on a grid to assist with the precision, a technique I learned in grade school from our visiting art teacher, Mr. Bowker. For this project I worked on gessoed, unstretched canvas with charcoal and acrylic paint. I still enjoy looking at these more than twenty-five years later. See more of this series elsewhere in the section called Hands.
Music of the Moment
A short piece for piano, cello, viola, harp, and bass drum. This is a sketch I've been working on this week. It's called Belgooly. Belgooly is the name of a village in County Cork, Ireland. There is no connection between Belgooly and this music. So there you have it.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
New Moon ~ November 23rd, 2022
Pluvia 14
This painting lurks elsewhere on the website in the section called “Pluvia”. Pluvia is the Latin word for rain. I did lots of these in a burst a few years ago. They're small paintings done quickly with lots of frantic wiping and spraying. They're acrylic on prepared cotton muslin. They still yield things for me to look at and be pleased. I guess that's one of the big pleasures of “being an artist”. I put that in quotation marks because being an artist is a strange and possibly modern designation. Really, I was just wiping paint around and having a good time!
Music of the Moment
A short piece for marimbas, cellos, viola, and piano. I put this one together about five years ago and have recently re-worked the audio settings. It's called Camelopardalis. Camelopardalis is the name of a lesser known constellation in the northern sky. It's hard to see and is designated mysteriously to look like a giraffe.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
New Moon ~ October 26th, 2022
Worm Works
This is a photograph of worm or insect tracings under tree bark. I noticed this yesterday while I was stacking firewood for the winter. I have no idea how these creatures are able to trace these designs so precisely, especially in total darkness. This reminds me of certain kinds of art activity based on tuning into something quite other than “expression”, creating reality rather than saying something about reality. Whatever reality is.
Music of the Moment
Some music for marimba, cello, viola, piano, and synthesizer. I should probably give it some programatic title but for now it's Start #298a.
I add one of these compositional sketches with each Moonblog entry on the new and full moon. I also have a page with more of this musical work in progress. Go here for a listen.
Full Moon ~ October 9th, 2022
