I Pray

I pray

Yeah I’m hoping that if I pray

Maybe You’ll talk back

Cause I pray

For some faith

Some faith, today.

- Sia

When we recognize ourselves

I think there is some inherent connection to a work of art when we recognize ourselves within it - or when we feel understood by it. I know there is a certain reaction I have when I, in an unexplainable way, feel understood.

 

2020

Setting ambitions rather than goals or resolutions.

To What End,

For what purpose.

A bucket of white paint

And this thought created

White End Studio.

To White End.

Page 112

“Tom,” said Douglas, “just promise me one thing, okay?”

“It’s a promise. What?”

“You may be my brother and maybe I hate you sometimes, but stick around, all right?”

“You mean you’ll let me follow you and the older guys when you go on hikes?”

“Well…sure…even that. What I mean is, don’t go away, huh? Don’t let any cars run over you or fall off a cliff.”

“I should say not! Whatta you think I am, anyway?”

“‘Cause if worst comes to worst, and both of us are real old — say forty or forty-five some day — we can own a gold mine out West and sit there smoking corn silk and growing beards.”

“Growing beards! Boy!”

“Like I say, you stick around and don’t let nothing happen.”

“You can depend on me,” said Tom.

“It’s not you I worry about,” said Douglas. “It’s the way God runs the world.”

Tom thought for a moment.

“He’s alright, Doug,” said Tom. “He tries.”

Farewell July

Beloved July - the epitome of summertime. I love you and I will miss you come morning.

Art is How

Art is how I move through and resonate with the world. It is how I communicate, explore, and define my own thoughts. Art is a reason for living, a reason for being. Art is breathing and breath.

Familiarity with a newness

On being back in an old place but with a new life. The recognition of this new life is freeing and a fresh energy has ignited. Perhaps it is possible to re-enter and find joy where once too much difficulty dwelt.

This is my summer of reinterpretations.

Being Back

Being back in the place that took such effort to leave is weighing on me and I am feeling numb. The routine is too familiar to my past life I wanted to move on from, even disappear from, and not knowing how temporary my stay is feels debilitating.

Art is

Art is a quiet, unseen conversation. Between the artist and the art, the art and the viewer, the artist and the viewer.

Though I don’t know if I am quite okay with the term, ‘viewer’. Maybe a better title is, ‘participant.’ But sometimes there is a connection stronger than even that.

I don’t think you can own art - and art can’t own you. It’s a companionship, a friendship, a loyalty. It’s an understanding that you are there for each other in such a way that the life of each is elevated, recognized and valued. Maybe instead you pay to be the caretaker of a piece of art.

Currently, I am the caretaker of 7 pieces of art.

The Lake

I grew up looking out over the distant lake every single day. That was my childhood. Those were my teenage years and into adulthood. And just now, as I stand in an upstairs room at my parents’ house, lost in view gazing out my old bedroom window, I realize maybe that’s why it feels absolutely imperative and ingrained in me to have bodies of water always in my life.

Art is

Art is communication at a very emotional and elemental level. - Jason Horejs

Black and White Photographs

Black and white photographs.

There is a distillation in black and white photography, a distillation of soul. The expression on form or shape through light and shadow. It may also be patterns or compositions.

There is an atmosphere of singularity I seek after in my photography.

The thoughts and feelings I have are so elusive and inhabit no body of words…most often I am speechless.

*******

I have a hard time talking and writing about my black and white photography. Which I find perplexing since I usually am good with words, especially written words. I will be making a deliberate effort to express my thoughts on my work over the coming months. And while it’s tempting to research online what others are saying about black and white photography, I will refrain and look first to myself, listen intently to express what I feel inside about my art.

Art is

Art is a dedicated and exploratory practice of a thought.