This piece is based upon Jubal, Robert Johnson and the blues.  Wanted to put the image up, I’ll have more to say in a bit.

One of the gifts for my wife for Valentine’s, this piece got me started on the heart series I am working on.  She liked it, it may be her new favorite, which is nice since it was made for her.

Not sure why I am fascinated with the religious iconography of Catholicism, it may be more the folk shrines and art of Latin American countries I have seen that makes it so interesting to me, but I wanted to try a few ideas and this is the first of that series.  The Catholic devotion, Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the inspiration behind the visual elements, though even after reading up on it some, I can’t say I really understand what is meant by a devotion in this context.  However, the title, while being a play on words, is also drawn from the materials, a heart encircled by barbed wire, while a prisoner of sorts, is also guarded.  Wounded and scarred, a make shift stitch job, still shows an exposed, unhealed wound.  The glory that should show from the heart is instead portrayed from distressed, dirty, fading wood.

Certainly a commentary of the condition of my own heart often, if we’ll brave a conversation, we find we are not alone in our fearful, scarred hearts.

So I spent the last few days of the old year and most of the first of this year cleaning up, cleaning out and organizing the office space I use for a studio.  I could spend more time if I had it or the energy.

The months ahead will include some intense stretches of art making, but some is personal, for my wife for Valentine’s, some commercial for some craft type shows and some for a gallery, none of which are really great for sharing here, at least not before hand.  I have kept a non grueling pace of one post per month and expect to continue that pace but not sure what kind of work I will have to post.

But I did want to take the opportunity to say Happy New Year and to document the continued attempt at living my life, growing in faith, attending to work and marriage and making some art as best I can when I can.

Dear Kay,

I never really called you Kay when you were my art teacher in High School, “Mrs. Camozzi” or just “Camozzi” felt more natural.  Lori was fond of saying “Oh, Kay” when you were exasperated with us.  I actually only got the play on words just now (“OK”, get it?).  Kinda late.

Which brings me to why I wanted to write you, though I started studying graphic design in the summer of 2006, and have been pursuing or exploring art as a career since the summer of 2009, I had not thought to write you about it, the only art teacher I can actually say I have had.  Still kinda late.

Just thought it comical that after so many other pursuits since your class I would actually pursue a career in commercial art and think about one in fine art.  Thought it would be fun to share that with you, send some images of the kind of stuff I have done and opportunities I have been fortunate to get.

Even more comical maybe is my decision to apply for an art teaching position at a school this last week (luckily the spot was filled, not sure I wanted the job).

I hope you would like my stuff, I hope you would appreciate it or at least appreciate that I come back and apologize for taking advantage of your good nature and loose attendance policy, I was late a lot.

I appreciate you giving us opportunities to see the way art could be used in commercial settings, though at the time I didn’t have the discipline to develop any real skill, or the courage to be honest about my desire to create or the gumption to just try.

But as a teacher you saw value in the work I did even though I was cavalier about it, just trying to do what I had to for a grade.  You pushed projects back for development and improvement.  Seeing in it what I did not or could not value.

I still have the pastel you entered in the art show that ended up going to DC.  It hangs in my studio space now.

So thank you. Thanks for teaching gifted students, reluctant students, students who knew they had talent, those who thought they did, those who hoped they did and those who acted like they didn’t care.

Better late than never.

I only learned recently that Kay died of cancer two years ago, but I offer this letter to her anyways and will probably seek a way to send it to her family.

Dictionary, letterpress wood block, pen nibs, antique German black letter page from New Testament (Johannes 1 chapter 3), letter.

A tribute I have planned on doing for Johannes Gutenberg for several years now, it only came together recently, in quite different ways than I imagined at first.

I like it, plan on doing a few more of these.

Maybe not balance, but pursuit of balance.  Been really busy it seems with life lately, no more than other people, but less time dedicated to art, and even less time dedicated to the art I want to make.  That’s not entirely new to me, but it is much more frustrating to me now.  However, I can’t say the time spent on other things has not been productive, it has, even approaching healthy and yes, balanced.  So that’s good.

Tried my hand at a block print, “Time Flies,” clearly I wasn’t happy enough to put it by itself,  as I dressed it up with some digital background.  And I am certainly not happy pursuing things that I don’t get good results on but it was a joy just to make something, try something, try a new media and get lost working on it.

Holidays are coming, changes in work, prep for a show, lots ahead that don’t look good for exploring new ideas or new media but for now, for my own sanity felt I should post.

Started leaving these around town today, in honor of the Day of the Dead coming up in a few days.  They are Corona and Dos Equis bottle caps made into little pins with marigolds and skulls or tombstones.  The text on skulls are obituaries.  The Day of the Dead holiday is more a celebratory and commemorative holiday, honoring and remembering the dead but it is still a kind of memento mori and I like the colors. Not sure if I will do more each year but it was fun to try something new.

So I have spent a good part of the late summer and early fall preparing for the Affordable Art Show, my first such event, October 16th.  It has been fun to make things that I can do over and over and get better at, and it has been a drag to make things over and over.  Puts in perspective the idea of making a living at making art.  It’s still work.

It is exciting though to consider getting real feedback, as in do people want to buy it? Not that that is the chief end but you can’t making a living making art if you can’t sell it.  However you can make a life of making art regardless. And so while this manic pace is about to end (only to be replaced by other projects artistic and other) it is nice to know I don’t have to make money (though who doesn’t want to) to enjoy making art.

The above is a display I made to sell my time flies pieces.

Finished this piece recently, part of work for an upcoming small show, more of an arts and craft fair.  It is a concept I happened upon while making a gift for my brother in law for Christmas.  I wrote about the small jar filled with grass and a cutout of a phrenology head drawing,

“The first little jar has the phrenology head you like, sorry I don’t have a spare one I can part with right now, but if I did, you would have it.  But the image is powerful to me because it is a great example of humanity’s attempts to understand ourselves, our behaviors and our souls.  It is a scientific attempt but it ultimately fails.  The jar contains withered grass and a pinch of dust; both from a graveyard, reminders of our mortality and that there is a terminal limit on searching for self knowledge.”

I had not set out to demonstrate anything really, just wanted to incorporate in a small place, the phrenology head image and had learned it’s background as an example of 19th century pseudoscience (however self serving that term is for the modern science establishment) and it’s ernest but misguided attempt to understand ourselves.   But the piece came together and I was very happy with it.  But the image has stuck with me and I have made a few small pieces like it.

I assembled this piece and love it’s simplicity.

I heard also last week of a a man I know of, a young man with a wife and small child and a promising start as a filmmaker, diagnosed with cancer.

It stops me in my tracks and I have been moved to pray for him and he has been on my thoughts through this week.

It seems wrong to make art that seems playful about the idea about our own mortality but it also does focus our attention to the truth that we are mere vapors, our lives short and unpredictable, this man and his family have laid hold of this truth and have come out with the greatest treasure, resting in Christ for their lives and sharing that hope with all they know.

So while it gave me pause to be making this kind of art I take courage that it’s ultimate aim is to point to our need to be prepared for eternity and trust in Christ