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After shooting some detail photos of my 48" x 36" Aartvarkian III painting, I am now creating new digital pieces that could be printed up to about 40". The printing industry is on board with museum quality printing of fine art, which makes the affordability and availability of art much improved. Art patrons could order small prints, or large ones. Getting my art to a printer, and then online to sell is a current project. Below is one of the detail shots of the above mentioned painting.

I am starting to play with superimposed images in PhotoShop and create some digital art. This is very much in the development stage! Lots of learning to do and lots of possibilities...these are good things, as always.

So, this is a detail of how my latest painting turned out. I titled it Aartvarkian II.
Another pictogram you could say. Another glyph, as I prefer to call it. A painted image of something both ancient and new; something that alludes to a merged world of both seen and unseen realities.

Starting a new painting: a sketch is the beginning. At this point, I don't even know which way is up! That's part of the beauty of art: it's the exploration, the voyage. I have no idea how this painting will turn out.

The stages of a painting, the evolution that pushes the artist to keep moving forward, the changes that pop up, the excitement of a new ending. In the photo below, the early stage of the painting on the left, the final version on the right. My gratitude to an artist friend who pushed me to create that last layer.

Towards the end of 2012, I thought I had finished a painting called "Visitation #2". Only to look at it in early 2013 and realize that it was not right. It needed something more. With a certain fearlessness, I dove in, despite the risk of totally ruining it.
A detail of each of the two versions, side-by-side, is below. The re-creation is on the right. For me, the painting now rests in the realm of completion and is now called "Visitation/celebration".

If you had to choose one small image to represent yourself, what would you select? This icon could change with time. I have chosen the below picture, for now!

In another look at a recent "mixed results" painting experiment, I chose this detail as one of the salvageable sections. It just goes to show that even if an end result is less than stellar, there can be something of worth in the effort. Something to inspire one on to the next step.

For the first time ever, I painted on silk. When held to the light, the colors take on a life of their own; and it is this that is so enticing. This photo is a detail of this first go-round with silk.
How to "frame" this piece is still up in the air. Am considering attaching it to some small square dowels in such a way that it can stand on its own and be placed near a light source. Displaying it up against a wall would cut off its vibrancy...and so it goes for many things!

After many many hours of work on an experimental piece last month, I finally decided it was, overall, not that great. However, I played with photos of it and stumbled upon numerous detail shots that are definitely interesting; and informative as to what a "good" composition can be. This one photo here is an example of how "going to the edges" is often much more dynamic and engaging than traditional compositions.
This detail shot is one little section of the maligned painting/collage on plexiglass, with fabric attached to the back side.

Another of the many ways to do transparent type paintings is to use bleach to draw on colored fabric, and then hold it to the light. The one shown here was actually done many years ago on green canvas. Working outdoors, I quickly brushed these designs using bleach as the "paint"; a reverse kind of painting, for sure. Other than the stink of bleach, it was quite fun!
The ultimate type of transparent painting is probably dyeing silk. This medium I have not used before; but that will soon change. As soon as the supplies arrive, I'm off to another art adventure.

Lately, I have been working on some new pieces that involve holding them up to the light and letting the transparencies reveal themselves, both of the painting and the fabrics. Not the normal way to go about painting for me! These pieces are definitely works in progress and time will tell where this all goes. If I don't experiment, then I am not taking chances, and that is not good. My current experiments may fail in the end, but I believe I will learn something anyway.

Recently, my mother passed away after living a long and full life. She was ready for this "next adventure" (in her words). Her positive attitude to death has helped me accept her passing, and welcome her step into whatever this next adventure is. She had been on the verge of dying for a number of days; and on one particular day, at dawn, I looked out my window and saw the sparkling Venus so bright in the eastern sky. I thought: Mom, this would be a beautiful morning to go. It turns out that a few hours later I got the call that she had just died. So special.

Now that I am fairly settled in my new home in the mountains above Corralitos, the art is starting up again. This first one is a spontaneous experiment; the finishing of which ended up in even a more un-premeditated look. Now that it is done, what is it? Maybe it is depicting the usually quiesent thoughts/feelings that arise as the night falls. Living in the quiet mountains can do this; the breeze causes veils to drop to the ground.

As of the middle of May, I packed up and moved to a new job and a new home; still in northern California, but much closer to the city (SF). The change had been brewing for some time and it all came together in a way that stills leaves me in a bit of awe. So many little pieces had to fall in place. Many months before this move, I had created a painting with words about "the wind inside". See the photo-detail below.

Like no other ink drawing I have done, this one pictured below takes the cake for being completely honest, spontaneous and intriguing.
I created it years ago, and it still speaks so clearly and simply of the possibilities inherent in "letting go".

The below photo of something I drew back in 1989 is just a detail; the rest of the drawing got damaged. Fortunately, the best part of the piece survived!
Every time I look at this image, I feel like leaping in the air out of sheer exuberance.

Reaching into a shelf full of unfinished art pieces recently, I picked up a wild one. The original layer of colors had been done some years ago in a strictly spontaneous surge of activity. Recently, I had added some 3D Doodle lines in another surge. And, very recently, I took out this unfinished piece once again and pulled the disparate elements together.
I named the piece today, calling it "Irrepressible". The layers of activity on this piece have fortunately kept its basic feel of the unbridled joy that I experienced in this creation. I hope others can also sense this irrepressible power of being in the moment and loving it.

There was a postcard making the rounds (in the 70's?) that had an arrow pointing to a miniscule spot in the Milky Way galaxy, with the words: You Are Here.
As I looked at one of my new-yet-to-be-titled paintings (see "You are here" in Recent Paintings), that perspective leaped out of my brain. I added an arrow to a small dot in the painting. A bit later I added, in very small type, the words you see below.

Back in 1988, I created a series of large black ink drawings; done extremely spontaneously. As I held the sumi ink brush, the urge to create an interplay of positive and negative spaces seemed to propel my hand; and in a wink of an eye, images in white and black appeared. There is something especially liberating about working in ink on paper; the ink flows freely, there is no going back, there is no room for regret. I look at drawings like these now and am reminded of the appeal of working without concern about color. Just lines and forms. Very basic.
The image shown here is a detail of a 40" x 26" drawing.