Journal Entries
Beginning with earliest entry:
Nashville, TN 3/30/02
I’ve been on a roll lately. I do art everyday now. In fact I have a streak of 40 weeks going without missing a day. I feel like an artist but it hasn’t always been that way. Last spring I had a 25 year retrospective of my art. The exhibit consisted of 52 pieces and went back as far as High School. It looked great. “I sure was good,” I thought. The emphasis was on “was”. I had done so little art in the previous year or so that I didn’t even feel like an artist anymore.
I was down. Besides not feeling like an artist I had recently gone through some major life changes and I was not adjusting to any of them well. An opportunity to acquire an old cobblestone building that I plan to make into my studio compelled me to move. I had lived in a large country home for the last 11years and had I intended on spending the rest of my life in that old house. I loved it there and I had never dreamed I would ever move. Then there was the death thing. I watched a close friend die a slow and painful death. Then I had to put my old dog Huggy down. I held my old cat as she died. Then there was the death of a close relationship that left me sad.
I hit the road...like I always do. It was good medicine. While in Nashville I started drawing again...as a form of therapy. It was good for me and I decided that I would try and do some art everyday and see how
days in a row I could go without missing a day. I haven’t missed a day yet and my streak is up to 40 weeks now. This streak idea has been brilliant. It makes me produce no matter what. I keep
materials with me at all times and I have eliminated all the excuses. There are times I don’t feel like doing any art but I don’t want to ruin my streak...so I produce. I’ve even drawn pictures with a migraine just
so I can keep my streak going. It makes me produce. The only rule I have is that I have to do some drawing or painting. It doesn’t even have to be good so the pressure is off. So its fun. The art isn’t
always good, but I always learn something. I keep my hand in it. I always have new work to show somebody and best of all.......I feel like an artist again.
Celina, Tennessee 4/2/02 I’ve been making the rounds and visiting friends and doing my art. Saturday night I had dinner at an old friend’s house in Kingston Springs. After dinner I walked outside. It was rainy so I stood on the porch and did a sketch in ink of a row of trees silhouetted against the diffused light from a streetlight. I went inside and painted it under better lighting.
The next day I drove out to Celina near the Kentucky border to visit friends. While at my friend Michelle’s I did one of my watercolor nocturnes of a lit window that was dominated by a lamp and a mirror. Later that night while walking from my friend Doug’s house I saw some interesting scenes with the moon and the fog. There was no light other than the moon to draw from. I did two “blind drawings” where I really can’t see what I’m drawing. They left enough of an impression where they can be turned into paintings later. The next day (Monday) was a beautiful day and I shot 2 rolls of film and did some drawing from life in the daylight for a change. One was an ink drawing of some bird feeders in the woods. I also went up into Kentucky to see some new land that one of my friends Catlyn had just acquired. Very beautiful. Lots of horses running around. I shot a couple of more rolls of film. Later that night while visiting friends Pam and Dan I did a large (11” x 18”) drawing of an interior. This one also had a lamp and mirror dominating it. I painted the drawing which was very challenging as it had a lot of detail and the lamp shade was a cool color instead of the usually warms that I do. It is an unusual picture for me. Its still a night scene but its kinda of cozy and welcoming. I like it a lot and expect to make prints of it down the road.
Today I took the drawing of the birdfeeders and went back to the location and painted it. It was another beautiful day with butterflies and flowers and I took some more photos. I knew it was still cold and snowy back
home in New York. I did some finishing touches to my interior scene and think it might be finished. I’ll know better tomorrow when I look at it with a fresh eye. Tomorrow I plan to visit some
friend’s in Smithville and then head back to Nashville for a few days.
4/14/02 Albion NY. I’ve been back home in Western NY for about a week now. After I left Celina I visited my friends Kirby and Robin in Smithville, Tennessee. Before dinner, after the sun had started to go down I did a vertical ink drawing of an interesting pine tree with distant trees in the background making a nice pattern. I painted it after dinner. The next day I went back to Nashville to say hello and goodbye to some more folks. One night my friend Charlie took me over to introduce me to an artist neighbor. While there I did some drawings from the neighbor’s back porch. One was a drawing of his kitchen that I drew through his window from outside. I liked it and decided to give it a quick once over with some watercolor washes which I did from inside. Saturday... my last day in town I did a nice ink drawing of a cat sleeping under a lamp on a piece of furniture. The scene caught my eye and I drew it relatively quick as I didn’t know how long the cat would be still. I was getting ready to go back to NY and was short on time. I took a photo of the scene to use for a color model. When I got back to New York I used the photo to help me remember the colors. I was quite happy with the painting. I have noticed that I have done a number of interior scenes. I think its funny that I have done interiors shots where the weather was nice and I pretty much painted outside scenes during the cold winter.
My streak is over 42 weeks now and still going. Thursday I spent the night on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation where I did a nice drawing of a dying campfire that had some interesting trees in the background that gave an interesting abstract quality to the piece. I didn’t start any artwork until after 11:00 pm. I cut it close but I got I something started...before midnight to keep my streak alive. I did a couple of sketches of the “Old House” where I stay when I’m there. I also did a sketch of a friend of mine who was asleep on the couch. There was a cat sitting on the couch with him. A rough sketch but I think it had some dignity. I went and visited my friend Al. While there I noticed the abandoned fire that had been left to expire and I did the drawing in ink from life. I went into Al’s house and painted it. I had an audience there and I enjoyed the company and the interest that was expressed by the others. The lighting was dim and it was the middle of the night. I looked at the painting the next day I had to make some adjustments, but not much.
Yesterday, while driving through Arcade, NY I stopped for Chinese take out. While waiting for the food I did a vertical ink drawing of one of the old fashioned streetlights they have there. Tonight...I painted it. I’m not satisfied with it yet...but I’m not done with it either. I guess that catches me up for now.
4/17/02 Medina, NY I had an interesting evening tonight. I started off following a pattern that had developed over the winter. On Wednesday nights I would drive around my hometown looking for an interesting night scene to draw. I like to feel comfortable when I draw. So, with it being cold out, I usually found a scene I could do from the comfortable heat and light of my car. Of course this does limit your options. After doing the ink drawing from life I would go to my favorite tavern which is usually very quiet on Wednesday nights. I get out my paints and with the help of the pool table light and a little Etta James I paint at the corner of the bar. I paint the picture from my recent memory. Well, tonight I drove around the streets and saw many interesting things but nothing jumped out at me. I didn’t see an “Arthur”. I went to the bar and pulled out one of the drawings I had did in Nashville. I worked on it as best as I could remember it. Nothing great.... but I’m still not done with it. I decided to walk around downtown as it was unusually warm out. It didn’t take me long to see great scenes all around me. “Arthur’s” everywhere. Without the confines of the car I could see compositions everywhere. By the time a crossed the block I saw a scene I wanted to draw so stood there on the sidewalk and drew for about 20 minutes. A nice scene of one house overlapping the other. The one in the back is very dark and has windows lit in it while the house in the foreground is lighter and has a porch with no lit windows. An interesting contrast that gives the piece some depth. It’s interesting. Definitely got promise. On the way to get coffee at the restaurant I found a perfect scene for me to do. It will be large and a pastel probably. Plenty of light in the parking lot to work from. It’s a close up of one of the smaller pictures I did over the winter. Very abstract. While at the restaurant I drank coffee and worked on the drawing which has really turned out nice. I hope I don’t ruin it when I paint it. I wanted to start painting but I wasn’t sure if it would be cool in a restaurant and it was passed midnight. Could be a real nice painting.
With this warm weather has come a whole new subject matter for me to explore. Now it’s just finding the time.
4/23/02 Runcorn, England Life is funny. Just a week after my Nashville trip I find myself unexpectedly in England. I had hoped to be coming here later this summer to visit my Uncle Wilf who was having some health problems. He was worse off than anybody knew and he suddenly passed away. I was really close to him and he often told me I was like a brother to him. He could have been a great artist. I have some watercolors he did as a teen and they are quite good. One is a night scene similar to what I do now. But the suffering he experienced as a young man in W II tore him up and changed him forever and he never painted again. “Life is sweet,” he told me once. I believed him. But now I am here to pay him my last respect. Life is funny…but I ain’t laughing.
I am probably only here for 3 days due to a conflict back home. Today I did ink drawing of a row of chimneys going across several rooftops. I plan on painting it at a later date. The large amounts of chimneys I see here are quite typical of English houses I think. They are interesting abstract shapes to me.
At dusk I went for a ride with my cousins Karen and Donna. As we drove about I saw many interesting scenes that would have made good pictures. I had so much to choose from. They took me to an old church, which certainly had character and would have made a nice picture. But while we were sitting in the car looking at the church I was attracted to the red glowing windows of a nearby pub. So I sat in the car and did ink drawing of it. We went back to my Aunt Doreens’s house where I began to paint over the ink drawing. I worked on the painting until I was too tired and then went to bed. I still haven’t adjusted to the time change. I could only sleep for a couple of hours. I find myself awake at 2:00am writing this journal entry.
4/25/02 Some where over the Atlantic.. Flight # 197 My three days In England have come to an end and I am on my way back home. Yesterday, I think it was yesterday, I stood in My Uncle Wilf’s front yard and did another ink drawing of the chimneys on the rooftops of the council houses. Similar to the other one I did, I hope to paint them both at a later date as silhouettes. Two days before I had spent the day at my friend Phillip’s family farm market. I took a lot of photographs and did nice ink drawing of an old oak tree. It is reminiscent of a Rembrandt etching to me. I am a big admirer of Rembrandt’s etchings and I feel my drawing style would be suitable for etchings. I have an old etching press that my friend Jim had given to me and I hope to utilize it at some point soon. I have decided to keep this drawing B & W even though I am itching to paint it. Later that evening Phillip took me out to dinner with some of his Dutch friends. We visited a very interesting village with ornate streetlights. I saw many “Arthurs” but did not have time to paint. It was a very charming place and I made a mental note to come back here again some day and do some artwork.
It was late when Phillip dropped me off at my Uncle Wilf’s house. I got to sleep at 1:00 am only to wake up again at 2:00. I had too much on my mind and I couldn’t sleep. Uncle Wilf’s funeral was the next day. Here I was sleeping in his bed. He would always insist on it. But he wasn’t sleeping on his couch like he usually did. I drifted back to sleep at 6:00 for a couple of hours.
The day of the funeral was emotional. I got to meet up with most of my English family before the funeral and it was so good to see them all. I had the honor of being one of the pallbearers and I helped carry Uncle Wilf in and out of the church and helped lower him into his grave. I was glad to be there for him even though I felt I was late…. too late.
After the service we all met at Aunt Doreen’s house. I had brought a bunch of prints and I gave them out which brightened up an other wise sad day. I was glad to share my work with my family members who all seemed proud to have some of my work.
Later that night a bunch of us gathered at a local pub to have a drink on Uncle Wilf. After a pint I left the pub and went to the park across the street and did a drawing of a lonely street light with some thick woods forming the background. The trees in the front were partially lit up from the street light. I went back to the pub and finished up the drawing there.
This morning I was dropped off at Manchester Airport. While waiting for the flight I made a new friend. A very impressive looking man sitting across from me intrigued me. By his appearance I figured he was some kind of athlete. He was wearing a “Boxing Ministry” cap and was reading an USA Today newspaper. “Are you an American?” I asked him. “Yeah “, he responded and we started chatting. He was very friendly and sincere and I liked him right off. I soon found out that he was Earnie Shavers, the former boxer. He told me he was developing a marketing company. I told him I was looking for someone to market my artwork and I showed him my book of prints. He liked them. He told me that although he wouldn’t be able to market my work he knew some famous artists and could hook me up with someone who I could trust… that could help point me in the right direction. Finding someone I can trust is important to me as I try to live by the honor system and unfortunately a lot of other people don’t and I get burned at times. Up to this point I have just been building up a body of work and I have not tied myself to any gallery, agent, publisher or marketing agency. I would hate to get tied into the wrong people and then be trapped in an uncomfortable situation.
5/3/02 Harlem, NY Since I got back from England I’ve had little time for artwork. My streak is still alive though. I have been painting the drawings that I did in England. On the flight over I had a long lay over in Philadelphia where I did an ink drawing of the airport from the window in the waiting room. It was just a sketch that I thought little about until I looked at it with a fresh eye at a later date. I liked it and ended up painting that too.
I got into Harlem late yesterday and I have to head back tomorrow. I helped a friend move here and I was suppose to stay for 3 days and my friends here were going to give me a tour of Manhattan. I had hoped to do some new art but I only had time to work on some old stuff. The same conflict that caused my England trip to be so short has also shortened this trip. So no tour of Manhattan. My friends Devon and Deleon took me on a bus ride through Harlem where we saw the Apollo and Bill Clinton’s office. We went out for dinner and I saw many fascinating scenes that would make good paintings…but not this trip.
At one point Deleon pointed down Lennox Street to the skyline that featured the Empire State Building prominently. “See that empty space between them buildings?” she asked. “That’s where the Twin Towers used to be”. Up to this point I guess my feelings about it all were kind of abstract. But seeing that hole in the skyline hit me with the reality of it all. Hard to comprehend. So sad.
5/26/02 Medina NY I must have pushed myself too hard for too long. A few days after my NYC trip I became quite ill…for a week. I was bedridden most of the time and I did little artwork. I did just enough to keep my streak alive. Other than an interesting painting of the living room lamp on the end table there was nothing worth mentioning.
Later that week after I was feeling better I went to the Reservation which is usually uplifting for me. Its kind of like going on a trip to a foreign country where you have a lot of friends who are glad to see you. Its usually slow paced there and I’m comfortable enough to always produce some art. I visited my friend Al only to find out that there was a bad car wreck on the Rez on Mother’s Day and that my friend had been killed. She was only 30 years old and I had known her since she was a kid. She used to tell people I was her uncle. I went and spent some time with her family.
Later that night I was driving around the Rez looking for something to draw. It was very dark and a sad rain drizzled on everything. Not much to see. I came across a house which was not visible except for the lit windows that seemed like colored squares floating in the air. I did a couple of quick sketches and went to the “Old House” where I usually stay and I painted one of the sketches while the scene was still fresh in my mind. It was a pretty abstract piece. The next morning when I drove passed the scene I saw that the house was a 2 story log cabin.
I was invited to a party at my brother’s house that night and I got there a little early. I left to do some sketching before it got too dark. At an intersection that led to the Wildlife Refuge I stopped and did a detailed ink drawing. The landscape in the background depicted distance while the streetlight in the foreground provided the center of interest. It was quite light when I drew it so I had a lot of details in the drawing. I went back to the party and painted it while the folks there got a kick out of watching the painting emerge. I did a series of delicate washes over the drawing to let the pen work show through. It’s a nice piece. Quite different from what I have been doing. More like a painted drawing.
A couple of nights after that I did a medium sized watercolor of a window lit up with a lamp in the lower right hand side. The foreground is dominated by a large dark tree. It’s a fairly warm picture and has a cozy feel to it. Not sad at all. Maybe just a tad on the lonely side though.
Wednesday I went back to the Rez where I attended a feast. I got to see some good friends who no longer live on the Rez and who I hadn’t seen in a long time. After the feast I actually did some drawing and painting in the daylight. Nothing great but it was fun and relaxing. Later that night at the fire at Al’s I did some sketches of the house next door. A young woman arrived and went into the house and her bedroom light came on upstairs. I started to draw it. I asked my buddy Mar to go up there and keep her occupied so she wouldn’t turn off the light before I was finished. He said he would “sacrifice his body for art” but it was too late as the light went out. I went back over to the “Old House” where I painted one of the sketches. It has a looseness about it that I liked. I even liked it the next day when I was sober and the light was good.
Thursday night I drove around north of Medina looking for new scenes to draw and just enjoying the cruising around by myself. I ended up doing a drawing of an old Victorian house with a cupola on top.
Friday night was similar. I drove up by Lake Ontario and stopped by the Carlton Grill for a meal and I ended up doing a drawing of a streetlight in the parking lot. I finished it up in the restaurant.
Last night and tonight I painted the drawing I did of the Cupola house. I think it turned out ok. A little loose.
My streak of doing some art daily is still alive...not sure how long it is. I think it will be a year in early July if I can keep it up. It seems like this “death thing” has been a reoccurring thing in this journal. I guess if you know as many people as I do, its only natural you will know a lot of people that die. It only makes life seem more precious and my art more important as it can be something that remains long after I’m gone.
7/20/02 Medina NY
Apparently I tend to be more active in my journal writing when I am travelling. I haven’t been on the road much lately and my last entry was a month and a half ago. My streak of doing artwork daily is still going. June 26th made it a year without missing a day. I had planned on some kind of celebration at the one year anniversary but it was just another day of doing artwork.
My life has been consumed with two major projects of late…putting a roof on my cobblestone studio and finishing up a mural project. I still have made a few trips out to the reservation where I visit friends and do some art. I did a couple of small nocturnal pastels there recently. I have also been exploring Olcott, which is a small harbor village on the coast of LakeOntario. I have filled a sketchpad with drawings of Olcott that I have painted in watercolors. They are mostly night scenes. No surprise there.
The cobblestone, which was built as a Quaker Meeting house in 1841 is just one large room that is 30’ x 40’. The ceiling height is 12 ‘. It is a sound structure but has needed a roof for a while now. I had to replace a main beam that was rotted out and several logs that held up the roof. I was hoping to get plenty of help with the roof but it is over half done and I have done most of it myself. I put in the 30’ beam by myself and I have put all the OSB sheeting up. I had help with shingling the north side of the roof. I have had the electricity connected this week but I need to do some rewiring before I turn on the main breaker. A new roof and electricity will be a major accomplishment for me.
The mural has been very challenging for me. It’s a scene of my interpretation of the historical Erie Canal. It is 15’ X 10’ and it’s a big jump from the small watercolors I have been doing on a daily basis for the last year. I wanted to do it in the loose style I have developed from doing my small watercolors but the medium is completely different. I am using sign paint which I am unfamiliar with. Its oil base and smells and some of it has lead in it…but it is exterior and quite permanent. The fumes do tend to get to me. I have been using a variety of techniques so far. Thin washes overlapping each other in layers, thick paint, dry brushing, etc. I also seem to be using different styles ranging from impressionism, realism and expressionism. The different textures a have had to interpret include wispy clouds and sky, a metal bridge, a wooden church, sunlit trees, shadows and reflections in water, a wooden boat inhabited with people, mules and their leather harnesses, grass and a beaten down towpath. When finished all these will hopefully blend together into a harmonious picture. The mural will then be installed on the exterior north wall of a building in the canal basin of Medina where the public will have a ready view of it. Facing north it should get little exposure to wind and the sun which I hope will give it a longer life.
7/25/02 Medina
My friend LooLee stopped by last Sunday to do some shingling on the front of the cobblestone. He’s a professional roofer and I wanted the front of the cobblestone to look as good as possible. He got about a third of it done and it looks great. I thought of finishing it up as starting it is the hard part and he has already done that. But I know there would a recognizable difference in what he did and what I did so I think I will just be patient and wait for him. We have been friends since I was a teenager skipping school. I was driving around the reservation with a friend of mine. We knew we were less likely to get caught out there. We saw 3 girls with long black hair with their backs to us walking up ahead. So we pulled up and asked them if they wanted a ride. When they turned and looked at us we noticed they were guys. They jumped in and we started to driving around. Their names were LooLee, Goofy and Albert and it turned out they were skipping school too! “Pull over here,” one of them said and he jumped out of the car and went into the bushes and came out with 3 jugs of hard cider. We’ve been friends ever since. Its been 28 years. So now when one of the youngbloods on the rez want to know who I am and what I’m doing on the rez I just tell them “I’ve been coming here for 28 years. How old are you?”