Psychedelia Gothique

A few times in my life, I’ve taken big risks and the results were both world-changing and emotion charged. After the fact, I have never regretted having taken those risks. But as I get older, I find the notion of change and the spectre of dealing with intense emotion more frightening. Over the past 5 years with my day job, I have run into numerous roadblocks where the at least one of the options for getting past them (usually the most exciting option) involved taking significant risk. I have backed away from those – and in almost every case, the result was a perpetuation of the status quo – but with a bit less pizzazz and enthusiasm. Looking back, I have regretted my lack of courage in every one of those instances. I ask myself why am I so risk averse now? Middle age is the perfect time to walk the tightrope across the falls. My life expectancy is relatively short - and with the diminishing relevance that inevitably accompanies old age – my life expectancy as a contribut...

"Earth Magic" was completed at the Rice Lake gallery 2012 sculpting workshop. It stands about 14 inches and weighs approx 30 pounds. It's made of Zimbabwean serpentine - at the harder end of the hardness scale and feels more like a gigantic piece of jewellery in some ways than it does like a sculpture. It bears considerable resemblance, in feel at least, to some of my more representational pieces like "Sorcerer" - which is made of Brazilian soapstone.

The memories of the Who and Led Zepplin were stirred by my reaction to the opening act at the Portishead concert on Oct 10 at the Sound Academy in Toronto. My life-partner, Laura, and I were trying to decide where their opening act, Thoughtforms, should rank on the Armen Ra-Black Mountain scale. Armen Ra is a therimin player who opened for Grinderman in November 2010. To quote JrazyBlog, it was "the equivalent of having Zamphir open for Slayer." Talented perhaps - but the last thing in the world I wanted to hear at a Grinderman concert! It would be a 1 on the scale, whereas Black Mountain, who opened for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds a year earlier, since I bought one of their cds the next day - would have been a 10. Our conclusion: Thoughtforms was ultimately about a 4 on that scale, almost redeeming themselves with their final track, but still failing to convince me that the 2 guitarists could actually play their instruments. They could make lots of interesting and atmosp...

Should one think of it as misremembering or merely reremembering? I think sometimes we rearrange our memories in a more aesthetically pleasing way. For instance, I went for many years believing that I saw Led Zepplin opening for the Who in 1969. Not too far off. I did see both bands at the Edmonton Gardens - the Who in 68 and Led Zepplin in 69. I prefer my original memory, where Zep was an enormous revelation. As far as I was concerned, I had never heard of them before and discovered them at the Who concert. Best discovery ever...or at least it would have been if it had really happened. But alas, there were two separate concerts. I missed the Who as a backup band in 67 (I was too young to go to concerts alone. And I don't have any memory of who opened for them when I actually did see them in 68.) So my memory of The Who and Zepplin together was much more efficient and pleasing than the truth. Truth is highly overrated. After all, that lineup did actually play in Maryland 3 months l...

One of half a dozen hooded figures I have sculpted.  It's carved from red wonderstone and I got lucky with the colours.

Operating on the theory that I will someday figure out how to display all my artwork in an easy-to-view appealing way, I am posting a pic of my sculpture Wild Spirits, which at over 50 kg is the largest sculpture I have done to date. It is made of African Cobalt - and the colours are different on each side, which is why the title is pluralized. There are two very distinct spirits in this piece - sharing the same profile.

I realize I should see what I can do about illustrating my fiction, so I have an excuse to post art and fiction at the same time. In the meantime, I'll just stick with my current formula of posting random works of art. This time, a photoshop piece that I find too challenging to tackle as a painting. My paintings are generally simplifications of the photoshop "studies" - but I'm not convinced that a simplified Dark Woods Woman would be as appealing as this one. It's the details and the subtleties that make this work for me.