Second Beginnings

Well it took some time to start blogging but I’ve finally started. I’ve written three blog posts in a day, and have get around to editing them next. One of the posts is about a new painting that I’m quite thrilled about. It’s fun to play in the paint again.

I hope to have additional news in the next few months. Something else that I’m quite excited about. There seems to be a lot of ideas percolating around in the old brain cells lately.

The great thing is that I’ve started painting again. The passion and thrill seem to be back. And for a time I was struggling with narratives but I think I have a process in place to kick start that when I feel like I’m knee deep in mud. My biggest problem is time. But time rules all things for so many tasks... time to work for money, time for a family life, time for house repairs, car repairs, groceries, washing, cleaning. Time for painting and compositional development is often relegated to isolated and compressed periods. The good thing is the ideas are coming during those periods.

The ideas for narratives in my paintings have always been there, whether I’ve internalized them as I was attacking the canvas, or whether they existed as a conscious effort, as something I was passionate about. I’ve always believed the narrative of a painting can be felt by the viewer, or they may even interpret the narrative differently, but the painting should engage the viewer; it should draw in a viewer to feel something, to experience an emotion. Hopefully a bit my emotion or passion.

“The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point”, Mark Rothko.

I think the worst fate for a painting is for it to languish, hanging unappreciated somewhere. Where nobody can experience its story.

From now on I hope I can share my paintings, my narratives, my poetry (which I’ll talk about in another blog post), my process, and all the other bits of life that go into what I do. I'm also going to talk about previous paintings that hold meaning for me. Sometimes paintings take on more life than you expect.

In the upcoming blogs I will use the word “we” a lot. I am talking about my spouse, Patrizia Brasch. Pat is well known mosaic artist. Her pieces are amazing. Please check out her artworks at www.patriziabrasch.com