The work you do..

Hey all.

Been awhile since we've blogged together. 

I've been painting my ass off and the insights and inspirations are coming on intensely these days. So I've not as much energy for blogging. 

Fear not though as I will never completely cease this blog. As long as I am breathing anyway.

Onto todays topic. 

The work you do as an artist is vital to the health and well being of our culture and the universe at large. It is more than a commodity of whatever value it is ascribed. It is an expression of the universe that must occur.

"Along the Path" by M Francis McCarthy

I'm aware that this may strike some as airy fairy but none of us has all the answers. This blog is one place you can find a few that I've gleaned and hopefully they'll resonate if not, no worries. 

The identified self (often referred to as "ego) has a multitude of valuable uses for us as people. Without it we could not exist. 

However the ego makes poor art.

And yet even poor art needs to be created. And destroyed as well. As cliche as it sounds both are equally accurate statements.

If thats true, why should we try to create "good" art?

We should because it feels like the right thing to do at a core level of our beings. If your attitude as an artist is in alignment with the will of the universe, great art will be the by product. 

It is the individuated self that blocks this process in an attempt to do a job it was not created to do. That job is to CREATE and that is the work of the actual self not the ego.

We get in our own way. 

Often we are our own worst critics as well. As we paint we kill the baby as it's being born in our attempt to control the result or conform to misguided internal expectations.

This is why I'm reminding you that your job as an artist is valuable and important work. Even if you must struggle to let the great art come out. Rest assured that it's important or at least connected to something important.

Cheers,

A bit about "Along the Path". This is one of the high points of my old way of working and actually the culmination of many years of perfecting my old painting method. 

The reference was a photo I'd taken out here in Northland New Zealand. I've cleaved quite close to it too. There is a lot of imagination in the colors and fracture though and it's straddling my old and new way of working for that reason.

Lately I've been reworking canvas' from imagination. I'm freely improving or enhancing many paintings I've done that had issues usually related to using photo reference. I've blogged about this process and it's unfolding still as self imposed restrictions are abandoned in favor of Art.

"Along the Path has a few of those issues but I'm letting it be as it's a nice painting as is and also represents the end and the peak of an old way of working.

Assumptions

The art we create is the sum total of all of the assumptions that we have made our own.

This affects our work in positive and negative ways.

On the positive side, we need assumptions so that we are not forced to reinvent drawing or painting every time we sit down to work. We all have a collection of techniques, formulas and stuff we recall other artists saying that we bring to bear in our work all the time.

"Baz on Bass" by M Francis McCarthy

On the negative side, those assumptions often create blind spots that we are unaware of. 

If you think you know something it's both natural and easy to ignore any information that might conflict with your assumption. This is a big part of being an artist as well as a human being. 

Trying to create work that is more than formulaic rehashing of our old work and that of our influences is a real challenge. It requires questioning our core assumptions at the same time we are using them to support what we are doing.

Is there a way to see that which we cannot see?

One good way is to seek out a teacher that can point things out to us. If no teacher is available then I recommend studying a few books that go deeply into the type of art you want to do well. 

Even if you've been doing your art a long time and have some mastery. Relearning your area of expertise or trying a different approach can definitely reveal blind spots in your way of seeing that you were not aware of.

Also we must have an attitude of humility and a reverence for the mastery of great artists that have fought the good fight before us as well as respecting and learning  from fellow artists. 

Every artist to improve and move forward has to actively engage with their own assumptions. Constantly be reevaluating them, and tossing out those that no longer serve, embracing better assumptions based on real insight and hard won experience.

Do this and watch your art prosper.

Cheers,

A bit about "Baz on Bass". This is an illustration I did recently of my friend Barry. I used a Wacom tablet to do the inkwork and manipulated the reference photo extensively to provide a framework for the tones. 

This is fast and clean illustration and took me about 90 minutes to do. I like to keep my digital illustration chops sharp and I enjoy using the skills I developed after 13 years of illustrating in an art department everyday.

Illustration - Graphic Quality

For years in my art I pursued what I'll call a "Graphic Quality".

This quality is created by the placement of blacks and also very much by the type of hatching used to render the halftones.

I look at my work from a quarter century ago and I notice how carefully each stroke is placed. Back in the day I always worked in ink directly with a deep reverence for line.

I still have a respect for line and that graphic quality but after decades of doing art commercially and otherwise I'm not as precious with things now.

"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec" by M Francis McCarthy

Is that a bad thing?

Sometimes I think so, but looking at my old work I can see the "try" in it. I see the effort to stretch my limitations.

These days I'm more comfortable with my artistic limitation. Being older and more aware that they exist helps. But also, I enjoy communicating with art directly, confident that my unique approach as an individual will more than suffice.

Are you enamored with the graphic quality of your art and that of other artists whom you admire?

If so, no worries but be aware that the best graphic style is the one that comes naturally as by product of you as a unique artist. As I've stated before and no doubt will again. Your time is best spent doing so much art that it becomes second nature. Then style, graphic or otherwise, will manifest brilliantly.

Cheers,

A bit about Mr Lautrec: I did this back in 1988. I had found a photo in a book that inspired this illustration. I inked this on vellum with a rapidograph. 

Vellum sorta sucks as an inking substrate. For starters the ink dries slow so is easy to smear. Also the ink just kinda lays there and you have to will it about. Still in the pre computer age it was one way of preserving you're original pencil drawing and I did use it once in awhile.

Dark Night of the Soul

It happens to all of us as we journey deep into the realms of art or spirituality at some point. Heck it could happen on a daily basis for some.

What is a dark night of the soul?

It is when you feel lost in the dark. When you think you may not be going the right way with your art or life. It is a lapse in faith and a questioning of judgement. In short, it sucks, it's a bad time.

It happens to me. As a young man I'd say it happened a few times that lasted for months on end. These days it happens to me in sporadic bursts that I have to ride out.

"Clearing Up" (8x8) by M Francis McCarthy

Is it just depression? 

Maybe, but it's probably much more than that. 

It's a necessary readjustment of the self at a core level. All things change as they progress from their beginnings to their end. We must change when it's time as well.

Not one thing in this universe is stationary for very long. Even seemingly permanent rocks when viewed through an electron microscope are hives of energy disguised as solid mass.

"Clearing Up" (5x5) by M Francis McCarthy

What can you do when you feel lost and unsure of your path through the darkness? 

I believe it's best to stay your current course in those tough times while absorbing and contemplating the shock of being unsure.

All the meaning that's felt by you in this life has been created within yourself, by you. Others may feel as you do about any perceived meaningful thing, but you cannot appreciate the meaning in anything without first opening your heart and mind to it and accepting that it may indeed be meaningful.

How does this bear on our topic today?

Simple, You have picked an apparently meaningful occupation and you have given it your attention. If you're despairing because things have gotten a bit sticky now, it's probably best to just see the hard time to it's natural conclusion. 

If you jump ship in a search for something else while experiencing the dark night, most likely you will fail in your next endeavour also.

Better to keep your head down and keep working until the light starts to break on the horizon and you come into a new day filled with the light of understanding.

A bit about today's painting: "Clearing Up". Really, another sky painting. I never tire of painting clouds. I've considered doing paintings with nothing but clouds and no landscape but somehow I can't see it working. 

"Clearing Up" was painted last year and is part of the series I embarked on early in 2012. I'm closing in on finishing that series in the next few months. It's been a lot of work and I've certainly had a bit of a dark night of late as it seems to be dragging on and I have other paintings I want to do. No worries though I'll persevere...

Cheer,

Style - A Byproduct

At some point I think every artist becomes obsessed by artistic style.

My first awareness came as my interest in comics grew back in the 70's. One artist would have a realistic style like Neal Adams while another like Jack Kirby could verge on the abstract.

It's often too easy to get caught up in the surface aspects of style. It's easy to disregard strong draftsmanship and structure in an over fixation with style.

Boss Tweed by M Francis McCarthy

Ultimately, style should be and is naturally, a byproduct of who you are as an artist. It should not be worn like a suit of clothes that is put on, changed often then discarded for something else.

As a hired gun illustrator I was called on to mimic many different styles as part of my job. So many I can't count them all. 

I'll admit I took pride in my ability to mimic the styles of others but such work can become tiring. It drains the soul and as a consequence a toll is taken for the wage earned.

Mimicking the style of an artist you admire for a drawing or two is something I recommend all beginning artists do at times. It can really open your eyes to the means of craft that artists you admire use to create their art. It can also become a terrible crutch, if the learners spirit is coming from the wrong place.

Jim Fisk  by M Francis McCarthy

This becomes a real problem only if you're copying the style of only one artist. An attitude of exploration and learning on the other hand can pay big dividends.

Regarding developing your personal style in various mediums, I feel that it comes best as a natural result of doing tons of drawing. Piles of paintings and practicing both as often as possible.

The personal style that results from that kind of effort is far harder for other artists to replicate as it is based on a titanium foundation of hard work.

Today's drawings we're done with pencil on paper back in 1990 or so.

Boss Tweed and Jim Fisk were crooked politicians in New York back abound the turn of the 20th century. I enjoyed trying to capture their smug self satisfied expressions.

I've given the drawings vignetted borders to sort of help along the sad fact that these are scans of photo copies. You get a sense of the drawing at least. It will be great to scan the actual drawings in one day.

Cheers,

Art and Imortality

Why do you create art? What is the reason? Is it to impress girls or for some chance at fame? Money? Therapy?  Recognition from your peers? What is it?

We all must have our own answer to that question. One answer is all of the above. But that doesn't seem to address the deepest cravings of artists to create, to communicate and relate. 

In many cases all we have of our ancestors besides their DNA is their art. It reaches to us across the millennia and connects us to the minds, thoughts and feeling of those who lived before.

Yuzex by M Francis McCarthy

In a sense this has rendered those who created art from the past immortal. Or, at least their thoughts, ideas and visions have attained that state.

What is it in us that causes this drive to interact with the future? To leave something of ourselves behind that will last? What drove those ancestors of ours to do the same?

My personal answer to these questions is: Yes I want to leave a bit of something behind. Something good. Something that will be worth keeping around by people living in the future I can only dream about. I'm not obsessively fixated by these ideas. But, these things do cross my mind.

Being a working artist/hired gun for those thirteen years, I was often engaged in creating the temporary, the ephemeral. I know many other commercial artists that must do the same everyday. 

It's hard to create something great only to see it discarded later. Not that there's anything wrong with artists who set out with that intent. Go ahead and build sand castles or hire your art gun to the highest bidder. Nothing wrong with it. But...

It's a fact that we are all here for a time, then we aren't. One can deny it, make light of it or ignore it but the wise person realizes that their life is an expression of the infinite and that every moment of it is sacred. 

Life cannot be denied and art is the ultimate expression of creation. Every artist creates and communicates what their time was like. What their feelings were. What they saw or wanted to see and what they believed in. Cheers.

Inspiration - Past, Present, Future

Every artist must face their own best work. Whether their previous artistic highs inspire or torment them is one of the greatest factors in determining their success as artists. I have seen many friends and even other professional artists hit this particular block.

As for me, I am always aware of my previous work and I like to keep the best of it around to contemplate and appreciate. That said, I try to wear my work lightly. Ultimately I feel that good art is an expression of not just the artist alone, but of the Universe itself. 

When one recons with the effort and different elements that must go into even a bad work of art, the mind boggles at the complexity of creating a high, artistic achievement.

By the Brook  (12x18) by M Francis McCarthy

I've written in the past about artistic blocks. The best way to eliminate blocks is to keep your breaks from creating art, brief. In other words, you should be making art all the time. Inspiration does show up for those that are actively pursuing their vision as an artist.

There is many a talented artist that is unable to produce consistently high quality work. For the most part these poor folks are laboring under a certain type of belief in "inspiration". Their belief? That inspiration always strikes the artist like a bolt from the heavens, compelling them to rise off their bottoms to engage with their waiting easels and finally create that masterpiece.

Sure, we've all had an experience similar to the example above. The truth is that those sort of inspired moments happen most frequently in the early part of our artistic journey. As an artist progresses and creates a body of work, they taper off. What replaces these "lightning strikes" as the artist matures?

By the Brook  (5x7) by M Francis McCarthy

The answer for me is that I see inspiration as a collaboration between myself and the Universe. I have a desire to create beauty and I conspire with the universe to do so. I feel a "flow" well up from within. This feels natural like breathing. Creation should feel like that. Like a natural occurrence, like eating or breathing. Something you can do, something you must do. 

Ideally, just like breathing you let your work come and go, ebb and flow, unselfconsciously. Expressing easily and naturally in the moment. 

In closing, look at and learn from your best work and also the best work of other artists that may be doing things that you admire. 

However, always keep your reflections positive. Fear and art are a bad combination. Nature favors the brave. 

So, be present with the art you're doing now and make art a flow in your life, not a stop, start and struggle. I've more to say on this topic in future posts. Enough philosophical rambling for one day.

A Newer new dawn...

Michael here. Been meaning to start blogging again. It seems that a focused approach has not worked in the past so I've decided to make the blog about anything I'm interested in talking about.

I will deffo do some painting
stuff here but also i want to talk about being an american artist residing in New Zealand and any other topic that comes to mind or hand...