Killer on the Road

This is a sketch of a painting I'm doing. I thought I would try something different and walk you through the process of how I paint. I'm not trying to teach anyone how to paint like I do, since I believe every artist should express their own view, but I might talk about some techniques along the way.

I was listening to Riders on the Storm by The Doors while I was falling asleep, and when he sang the line "there's a killer on the road" this idea popped into my head. The next day I sketched it out.

I usually sketch on anything at hand, but a cheap notebook for some reason tends to bring out my muse. I carry a notebook with me everywhere I go because you never know when an idea will hit you. All I know is that there must be some graveyard out there for lost ideas, I never seem to be able to remember them if I don't write them down within a short time.

A painting usually starts out with an idea and then I sketch it. Inspiration usually finds me when I'm in a slightly meditative state, like listening to music, sitting listening to a speaker, or about to fall asleep at night.

When I hear a song that wakes up my muse I usually put it on repeat and soak it for all it's worth. And then when I'm painting I play it again on repeat, or will make a play list for that painting with songs that seem to have a similar mood.

The next thing I do is find something to paint on that's about the right size and shape. I paint on all sorts of surfaces but I like MDF. It's an absolutely smooth board made from sawdust and glue and I can cut it into any shape I like. I like MDF since its thickness allows you to hang it without a frame.

After finding the right surface, I usually set it on my easel for a day or two while my subconscious gets comfortable with the idea of painting this idea on this board. I know that sounds weird, but if my mind isn't happy with it there's nothing I can do about it. After all of me agrees that it is the right surface for the job I'll start to paint.

(to be continued.)

Uprooted

The Fountain: Not a Movie Review

(Sorry it's long and rambles a bit.)
When I go see a movie I always step into the situation without preconceived ideas. When I saw the previews for The Fountain I thought it looked cool. I went online and read some article somewhere about it saying it was scifi, which is my genre of choice, and that the director, Darren Aronofsky, used bacteria grown in petri dishes instead of computer graphics for as many shots in the movie as he could. I thought it was something I would have to see for myself, and that it would be interesting at the very least.

When I say I like scifi, I don't mean that I like giant cyborg chihuahuas running around destroying mankind with the help of evil one eyed aliens from Hell. What I mean is I like scifi with meaning and thought behind it. So when The Fountain started I was more than willing to let it unveil itself.

It started out with Thomas the conquistador finishing his quest, and I thought oh no, not the old show the ending first trick. (It's like reading the end of a book first. What's the point of reading it after that? You might as well save your money and just read a review.) After finishing the movie, I could almost forgive Aronofsky for the trick, but I still think it would be a better show if they would have started with the journey and not the conclusion.

Besides the tricks of story telling, as I was watching the movie I noticed that throughout the show people would periodically get up and leave, never to return. I've walked out on my fair share of movies but usually for offensive reasons, and so far I couldn't think of anything offensive about the show. So I started thinking that there must be a disconnect between what people thought they were going to see and what they were actually seeing.

This made me wonder why people go to see movies. Do they see previews, form an idea of what the movie is about, see the show, and go home to compare notes, checking off where the movie did and did not conform to their view of things? Do people go to movies just to forget for two hours how crappy they've made their lives? There are many more questions I could think of, but without an official poll, (assuming people even think about why they see movies in the first place) I couldn't guess their reasons.

But I do know my own reasons. Number one on my list are the looks. Film is first and foremost a visual medium and if it doesn't grab my attention visually I might still think it a good show but I feel the lack of decent visuals.

Second, I love a show with a story line, a.k.a. a plot. A plot is defined as, a situation is revealed, there is a struggle over the situation, and the situation is resolved. This could involve people or lumps of play dough, but it has to come to a conclusion. I am not a fan of the "slice of life" genre.

One other reason I watch movies, but certainly not the last, is when it provokes new thoughts. If a movie can make me think about things I haven't thought of before, especially things beyond the here and now, it gets extra marks.

Given a choice between saying I hate The Fountain, or I like it. I would have to say that I liked it. For most people I believe they would say they hate it, since it lacks the typical Hollywood predictability. But I will say that this isn't going to be a movie I watch repeatedly.

After leaving the movie I kept thinking about it and what Aronofsky was trying to say. One review I read says, it's all about the "cycle of life", but this trite answer ignores many of the details of the show. Yes I believe that that's in there but it isn't an accurate summation.

Another review tried to simplify things by saying that there are three separate Thomases, but this doesn't fit with the movie since clearly the doctor and the space faring Thomas have the same tattoos, same pen, and same wife with a brain tumor. And at the end of the movie space Thomas is clearly recognised as the Mayans First Father, (sort of like a cross between Adam and the Norse god Odin, if you haven't seen the movie.)

So here's my take on it, (subject to change of course.) I believe that doctor and space Thomas are the same. The doctor does find a way to stop death, using the tree, but living forever doesn't answer the question of death. After humanity gets to a certain level of technology he sets off to the place where he believes Izzy, his dead wife, will be resurrected by the dying star by pulling her spirit from the tree.

The tree is the key to living forever and the conquistador Thomas and the other Thomas are linked spiritually at the least. In the movie time is like a circle, (actually it's more like a sphere but that's another post.) Space/doctor Thomas is actually the Mayan First Father, and the tree he creates to keep him alive turns out to be the tree of life of the Mayans. (Hey it's science fiction. If it was simple, more people would be reading it.)

But by dying space/doctor Thomas starts the cycle up/over and if you listen carefully to the Mayan lore in the movie, becomes the First Father through sacrifice of his desperate clinging to life, his preconceived ideas, and his belief that he knows everything.

Domestic Expedition

Why am I taking photos at three in the morning? It's the banana's fault. It's always the bananas.

Late Spring

I took this up at a small reservoir last March. It was quiet and cold and reminded me of one of those western movies. I half expected Clint Eastwood to come riding by, cigar clenched between tight lips.

I played with filters a little bit and got this partial b&w, partial color image. It made me think of a cold Winter turning into Spring with great reluctance, like trying to pry a few grains of sand out of Father Time's grasp.

Later on, Search and Rescue came down out of the back country with their fancy snowmobiles and gear. It looked like they had just finished training for the day. They stared to pack their stuff onto trailers and into trucks. One of the recruits thought it would be fun to try to take this four wheeler that was towing a snowmobile over a ten foot high mound of snow the plows had piled up.

You and I could have both predicted what happened, he got stuck. I didn't think it was appropriate to laugh at a Search and Rescue team, especially since one day I might have the misfortune to need them, but it was sure hard waiting until I got in the car before I let it out.

Time ≠ Great Art

As an artist, one thing that I often get asked and overhear, is that people will ask how long it took for an artist to create the work of art.

If time was the best indicator of good art, the greatest painting would never be finished. And what does this say about photography? With the click of a shutter lasting 1/60 of a second or faster, by the more time equals better art method, photography would be the lowest form of art, if it would even merit such a label.

I heard a story once where a customer went into an art gallery to buy a painting. The customer found one he liked but its price was a little out of his price range. The customer called over the gallery owner and asked if he could lower the price since after all, how long could it have taken the artist to paint it anyway. The gallery owner replied it took sixty years. The artist was sixty years old when he painted it, and up until that time there was no way he could have painted it before that moment.

The point of this is simple. An artist's work is a reflection of who they are, the environment around them, and the skill they have acquired, not the time it took to create it.

A good thing to remember is if you like the artwork, then whatever time it took to make it was the correct amount. Any more or less would have produced a different work. And if it is a different work of art, who cares how long it took?

I Invented Pizza...

I keep getting email purportedly telling me things I don't know. For the past several years I've gotten the "Mars will look as big as the Moon" email hoax. But the latest one is telling me 50 things I don't know.

I admit to a couple of facts on there I didn't know. But apparently neither did the person who wrote them. Two of my favorites are about dragonflies and scissors.

One of them said dragonflies only live for 24 hours. I thought hmm, interesting, I'll check it out. It turns out that they live for several months and the shortest lived among them, live several weeks, even if you only take into account their adult stage.

The other one said that scissors were invented by Leonardo Da Vinci. The only way this could be true is if Leonardo was extremely long lived, (let's just say he would put Methuselah to shame,) and was probably Egyptian.

But the email was correct about a few things. I did learn things I didn't know, or at least relearned them. If you get an email telling you things, check the facts and try to remember to do it before you send it to all your friends.