Painting 1 2014 January.

Here is the first months painting in the aforementioned year long project. I intend to put this and the other posted painting in the Washington count teachers art show tommorow. This painting is entitled "Where your treasure is, there is your heart: the calling of Mathew" pardon capitalization errors etc. it is really hard to get my iPad keyboard to work well.

I'd rather not over explain what I am doing here other than to sayi start with the inspiration of the title. I've been pondering the action moments of the call of Jesus disciples. These are pivotal spiritual moments that meet and demand an immediate earthly response. My paintings and thinking for the past 20 years have been meditations on these two ideas, spiritual existence within an earthly confines for the a finite time and the tensions experienced between the two. These two paintings are an expression of that pondering of those events. On the other hand, just as the lives of Nathaniel and Mathew unfolded, the life of a painting unfolds and it becomes what it becomes for me and anyone who views it. the inspiration is just the starting place for the life of the painting.

I intend to end the life of this painting after February and paint over it and start again.

Day 1 part 2

Below are a couple pictures of my Middle School students creating a leaf line across a park. Our intention was to use one art element and the material available in the park. Extending the line across the landscape seemed like an interesting way to explore the contour of the land and see it, experience it in a new way. Later, we will see what happened to our line. We just got about 8 inches of snow, so that will be interesting!
     The connection to the 12 month painting is the shortness of the life of the painting. We thouhght it would be an interesting, challenging, and maybe even a spiritual meditation of sorts to go through the process of ending the previous painting consciously and moving on to what lies ahead, a new inspiration. I anticipate that being a little difficult as I get attached to things I make. My students expressed some of that angst over making something that would' last.why do it?
I think about the process of making a mandala out of sand...something worth looking up. I will see if I can share a link to a video on that.

Day 1

I completed a painting yesterday. I was pleased with it. It was fairly spontaneous, but responsive to an idea floating in my head since September. I will upload that soon. My wife and I were chatting about it and a project I was working on with my Middle School students based on Andy Goldsworthy's artworks. Andy Goldsworthy creates artworks in nature wit only things he finds in nature, in the place he is working. The artworks have a lifespan dependent on the environment. I.e if a work is made out of ice, when it gets warm out, the artwork melts and is no more. Goldsworthy photographs the life of the artwork and may show this documentation as the representation.  So, we had this idea...

     What if I painted a painting each month, documented it, and, rather than buy a new canvas, just paint over it and start again. We discussed options or self imposed rules. Each new painting must maintain one part of the prior painting. The painting at the end of the year would serve as the final painting, and each underplayed painting would be documented with it.

    Our discussion continued and settled on the idea that blogging the process, writing notes and thoughts on each painting here, with video and pictures, would be a nice way to do this documentation. It could be shared easily with whoever is interested and would be fun to share with my students at school. Therein lies the explanation for this blog! I hope it is a success, and I hope you enjoy and follow along this year!

Thanks,
Philip Shaer