Refugees of Eden

Refugees of Eden. Those escaping a now dead tree. This is a "serious doodle" based on an idea I had while all of the debates regarding the Syrian refugees were trying to find new countries to escape to.
A land that was once home, is now no longer hospitable. Now their new reality is a cold, hard land of un-receptive people that see them as inconveniences.

Hidden Decoy

An oxymoron. A decoy that would lead an unsuspecting duck to its demise. The surface now being camouflaged obscures its intent. This being both something to attract and hide is a curious combination.
It's a mixed-metaphor and begs a question of the purpose. Many times we are attracted to dangerous situations and do not see them coming.
The camouflage style being of the digital style adds another layer to the idea and the hand-painted application can bring yet other layers of questioning.

Math Lesson, A Tale of Two Cities

pyramids.

Math Lesson, A Tale of Two Cities

If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

“If I loose my grip, will I take flight?”

“If I loose my grip, will I take flight?” a lyric from a Bruce Cockburn song called Strange Waters.
This is quite wonderful double entendre regarding holding on to things that either hold you down or potentially keep you safe vs the idea of hanging on to a branch on a cliff, or an airplane wing that once you have let go, you will surely die.
The imagery here is about hands, arms, etc. They are also of different colors. This is intentional and supposed to call you to compare.
Both scenarios are different intentionally too.

Sisyphi

I have this thought that has been progressing and I am starting to get more of a positive feeling about the combination of figures. A lot of talk with this work has been centered around the contrast of the two scenes. Thoughts about location and activity. How we are not naturally able to coexist. While there’s the aspect of work and war, there is also the concept of how work vs. play can be derived here too.

Triggers Murmuration

This canvas is a work in progress utilizing some of the symbols from my “anti-flag” which I am now considering more of a “trigger” flag. Flags tend to be some thing people are for - this flag is about what people are against.

The murmuration is a way of capturing an initially beautiful image that gets progressively less beautiful when looked at closer.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on this.

Life Remote *more*

These are in progress. I have somewhat of an idea that is not quite ready yet, but I am still working on this concept. To me it's like a poem of words that we use in an automatic way. I think it can be a fun idea to think that our lives are managed in a “remote” kind of interaction.

We sit in one place and try to make things happen in another place. Using this bit of technology to assist us. This is our phone or our computer that becomes an extension of us. Although, many times there are not buttons for the things we wish could happen. Or events that we cannot control or undo.

My goal is to have the surface of this allude to life. The worn, random effects of living through life. The inevitable wear-and-tear that happens to us.

Because UX (user experience) is important to us in our daily lives, and my job many times is largely associated with a user's experience, I wanted this to be less user friendly; on/off buttons are randomly placed in the midst of banks of buttons. Also, purposely dis-organizing usage, so it would be work to locate the correct button for the desired result. Chances for errors are increased.

Triggers flag or Anti Flag

Anti-Flag

I have been thinking about what it would look like to combine a bunch of trigger symbols that create “anti” sentiments. It really started when observing the public recognition of the hatred represented by the confederate flag. Especially the unthreatening ways the confederate flag had inadvertently been used. Political figures have used the flag when campaigning in that part of the US, and Tom Petty had used it as a backdrop to enhance the feel of his 1980 tour.

Navajo Nation Flag

This attempt has been inspired by many of the Navajo Nation chapter flags that I have seen while working on the rez in recent years. The circle aesthetic is the main derivation. I also was hoping to create a hierarchy of images that are seen in a way that unfolds slowly to reveal layers of symbols.

I don't come from this part of the country, and being from California the Confederate flag means little to me besides representing a few states, and a type of rebel mentality. It is interesting how quickly our vernacular will tilt and a word or a symbol become verboten. I can understand an outpouring of sentiment in all of the recent horrible shootings and violence, but it seems to me that we attribute too much emphasis on identifying a symbol to separate a problem. The gun is the problem, the flag is the problem, money is the problem, drugs are the problem, fast food is the problem—when it’s really a humanity problem.

The symbols only have the power we give them. In time, none of them may carry any cache at all. It's provocative how these become such hot buttons and are so divisive.

Idea Mass Idea

Idea-Mass idea.

we live in a digital age.

we have knowledge of things, but less understanding. more information, less investment.

there was this thought about a history of knowledge and information. some things last. some don’t.

it appears the information we are surrounded by has less density. less importance—affected by volume and change. I care less about certain information because it can be acquired in short notice. less stays in my mind.

what is worth keeping in my mind?

is there understanding that will be essential?

one question I have carried with me for around thirty years now is “what will remain of this society” when it is found later? will all that remains is the most dense material we produced? porcelain toilets? fire hydrants? dams?

without electricity this current culture will become invisible.

Target Workers

Target workers is an idea I have had regarding the use of illegal laborers. They are targeted to do work that others would not do. These same people are targeted as people who need to be deported. Targeted as outsiders. They stand out and might as well have giant targets painted on them — or wear shirts that have targets or crosshairs on them. Crosshairs carry too much cache as death, but to them their life depends on being able to have this work opportunity.

Personally, I think we should make work visas readily available and welcomed and easy assign a person to legal work. This would be their identity that makes them “legal” to work and contribute to our society. At the same time make hiring illegals or black market workers more prosecutorial for the companies. Both of these would go towards helping the workers.

I have been working, experimenting with doing transfers to wood for the this imagery. The process has been one that has given me less than promising results so far. I like the ghosted quality that comes with the process. I believe it speaks to the etherial quality of the lives represented here. I also like that the targets seem to be from a different world; opaque, colorful, etc.

Life Remote

To have a remote that would help in life situations speaks to our dependence upon the technology around us. I am particularly aware of this when my analog life seeks an “undo” when there are none available. Looking for the particular way to make this remote, and while considering some other ideas along the way, this seems to be a fun and worthwhile project to continue with.

Currently, I am experimenting with scale for this project and some other ways of application of the imagery. This approaches some of the particular desires I have to use all of the tools I work with every day. Both digital and analog. Especially considering a way of having words play into my concept as well.

The other remote concepts are not mocked up yet, but as I get into this one I plan on evolving into the next remote ideas as well.

Decoy Concept

Temptation Concept / Sin Concept

In thinking of the dilemma of life's journey, I have been seeking images that describe the challenges with which we are daily faced. An idea I had was to show temptation in a way that could be depicted in a graphic form.

The oxymoron of a camouflaged decoy is one that I have been designing and am starting to build as a sculpture. What is shown here is my concept for how it can look. Currently I am seeking some decoys to purchase and paint, with an idea to build one that is oversized. Also, I have been researching camouflage patterns that will give the most ideal read to the concept. My first inclination was for it to be digital camouflage which speaks to a more contemporary look, but the jury is still out on this.

I hope this will read clearly and quickly. This series of concepts are exploring what it means to employ graphic design in the process of making an artistic statement that hopefully would continue into a more profound realm of object.

Life Story

Life Story - Jeff Del Nero ©2015

Thinking about an approach to painting that is at once out of my usual approach while incorporating some disjointed thoughts that have been strongly passing through my mind. Lately, with words like “sublime” rattling around in my head, this piece seems to capture an ugliness and level interest that made me think differently about my work.

“Sublime” has been a word that started my desire to capture a moment of loss while seeking the potential discovery and gain of a path towards new imagery. There has to be a point in any work of art that a moment of absolute destruction is imminent, but like pulling out of a nose-dive in an aerial acrobatic maneuver or in the second act of a play, where all hope seems lost. Likewise, I think of this painting as the experience of being on a midway ride, where throughout the ride you feel as if you’re going to die, yet you somehow survive, and feel exhilarated.

This particular work was not something I immediately liked until spending time with it. It reminds me of my first experience with Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings and Food in 1978. I kept playing it. Over and over. But it sounded so different and weird, initially I didn’t like it. For a long time the album compelled me back, and slowly I entered in, so by song, until the sound captivated me, and affected me in a new way. It took an effort, but it was worth it.

Terry Dobson selected this for inclusion in a show at the Exhale Unlimited Gallery, in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. The show was an extension of the Recolor Recover exhibit. During what was called Chinatown Summer Nights, promoted by KCRW. On the night of the opening I spent some time with a young couple that had been standing by this piece. I had been meeting with someone nearby and noticed them looking at, pointing and talking—and not moving away for possibly 10 minutes.

The amount of time they spent there was highly unusual for me, since my experience with people standing by my work has been one where unless they are at our house during a meal and have time to focus on one painting at a time, no one settles for that long to observe. Later, I approached them and gladly they were happy to ask questions about it. In talking to them, I was suddenly aware of the new way I was seeing this through their eyes—and mine at the same time.

The story, reading like a panel from left to right lends itself to the ideas that I was trying to make a map ambiguous enough to seem like a constellation or a molecule, yet when you connect the dots you begin to see a mirror image of the figure situated in the middle like a fulcrum between one life and another. The materials, the layering, the application of other paneling to the surface and then the carving into the surface all allowed me to move in X, Y & Z directions. This is not what I “envisioned,” but in many ways better because of the surprise it gave me in the end.

“Surprise” is another word that popped-up this summer. I realized one of my joys in making art is the surprise ending. I rarely believe I can replicate a work when it is over. This is a joy to me, but it also creates a bit of anxiety in thinking of making a body of work that looks like it’s from one person!

Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp, 1608

Then a funny thing happened with some of the artwork from the Rjiks Museum Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp, 1608. I started messing around with this image found on the museum website. The Rijks Museum has been encouraging artists to work with images from their collection. I was happy to oblige. This particular scene matched some thoughts I had about social media.

The environment shown here of a whole town out on the ice together. All classes mixing outdoors enjoying Holland’s national pastime of ice skating. According to Wikipedia, there is much more going on in this painting than a casual observer of our generation would gather. I like the metaphor of this particular painting to describe what our current society may be missing. This painting has in it layers of activity including candidly cultural scenes along with some indiscretions. More importantly is the idea that this painting was a “motion picture” of its time. People would sit by this and “experience” each event and be reminded of the activities, while the rumors of finding the hidden circumstances could be a scandalous conversation to share.

What happens in 2008, four hundred years later? I picked the year (2008, with its digital camera time/date stamp in the lower right corner) arbitrarily, but also as a particular time when Facebook started to really become more commonly used. With social media, video games and a more cerebral, less active culture… the same spot is quiet and deserted..

Other variations include “People as Weapon” a murmuration that points to the real culprit in violence.

Isolating the people of this scene, and making a rubylith mask alludes to special effects in film. In how we are accustomed to seeing a special
feature about putting people into a scene, or taking them out an our convenience while telling a story.

A System of Words - self portrait

Is This What I Do? Or, is this What I Am?

Some *more* Thoughts.

“Is This What I Do? Or, is this What I Am?”

~ thoughts

“I am offended. The Art World Favors Dead People.” ~ thoughts

“Is there any art form that is so powerful that it cannot be surpressed?” ~ thoughts

Non-Gnostic

“No Special Knowledge… Non-Gnostic”  ~ thoughts

********************

Unmanageability of Visual Culture

a series of repeated "frames" with stencil of a bone.

Thinking of the reality of a still life. It is no longer alive, it's “still/dead” and waiting there to be painted. Put upon multiple frames, reminds me of the video culture we have become. Unless it moves, people tend not to look at it.

other quotes to think about:

Christopher Stackhouse:

Insidious Reproduction of Art

Unmanageability of Visual Culture

Crowd-sourcing Quality

Macha

Current Culture Tools

Guy Kinnear

find: Flaneur

see: Walter Benjamin -

Phsychogeographic Review (blog)

Charts of Knowledge

WTF

My thoughts lately have been about using graphic design as an expression. I have looked up the term “graphic expression” and it's not necessarily a widely used term in the arts, but it does help me start to place myself in a “conversation” in the art world. 

I am not a street artist, and not of this generation with their willingness to be out on a ladder, up a wall or over a fence to make a statement. But I have realized that the artworld is very influenced by artists who bring a digital/design sensibility to their art. This is a genre where I am curious how far I can go. 

I do have things to say in respects of symbolism or semiotics of how our society accepts certain truths such as “guns kill people.” I feel like there are numbers of icons like the gun that people jump to conclusions instead of thinking it through.

Why The Firearm? WTF — a flag that questions our view of weapons.

I thought if I was to make more iconographic objects like flags and shirts that start to question our stance on weapons. If we didn't have guns, murders would happen via blunt force trauma, like hammers or stabbings with knives etc.

APU Studio 5 - July 2015

Studio #5 at APU this summer. I jammed in all of the different work that I brought. This configuration allows me to parse out the different items, and speak to how I arrived at some of these visual conclusions.

One area, the unstretched canvases to the right are based on maps from throughout my life. Then the back wall is balanced with the print on plywood panel, which is a direction I feel strongly about due to its employing digital aspects with analog mark making too.

The framed canvases on the left side of the back wall is an entry into a world where I can explore some humorous tendencies that I am finding very fulfilling.

Some Thoughts & Writings

“A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing”

~ Susan Sontag (as seen in Birdman)

------------------------------------------------

“Q: Why the rhombus shape?

I have worked in a rectangle before. This shape compels me forward,  making one challenges me.”

“set apart for its intended purpose.”

“…find the purpose of a mark. Each mark has a lifetime behind it.”  ~ Bill Catling

“rust is a clock, tree’s growth rings are a clock” 

“connect marks to meaning”  ~ my thoughts

“personal archeology”  ~ my thoughts

------------------------------------------------

Some doodles while reading for Summer Residency 2015