I posted the words below the picture in another blog comment and I reproduce them here as it’s a subject I’ve written about before in ETC., A Review of General Semantics in a dialogue form with children. This photo of a wall in Oaxaca seemed to say it visually. : Though it may seem obvious, it isn’t: People can see/hear in a word/image a shared meaning, but often they don’t. The word or image becomes the presence of their past, a projection of their experience. The latter includes everything – fears, wishes, uncertainties, ignorance, knowledge, beliefs, default assumptions, etc., which project out and create meaning not shared by others. It’s a real bummer for communication, and probably why the world is often a quarrelsome and difficult place. Projection of this sort is like the water fish swim in and are unaware of. We all do it, all the time. So did Clinton and Obama arguing in loud voices yesterday in South Carolina. Words/ Images! And we can watch/hear them both on YouTube.

Yesterday writing group met at our house. Glenda had a very humorous piece about the difficulties she experienced on her trip to Oaxaca and Hub had one about a February snowstorm which will be a chapter in his upcoming book. I showed a few pictures. Rebecca made a great main dish, and everyone brought yummy additions. We meet about once a month. It’s always a great time. Here we are below (I’m the picture taker.) From left to right: Carl, Rosalind, Rebecca, Glenda, Laura, Hub, Mary Jane… and Toby in the cap in front.

I posted a reply to Norma, regarding word transcriptions, subtitles and difficulty hearing. I include it here (slightly modified for context):

Words! Being one of those hearing challenged folks (even with my blue tooth, high tech, digital “hearing instruments,”) I relate to your post in several ways. I’m thinking right now of those interesting subtitles necessary for me to “hear” the DVD’s I rent, and listen to/watch the news on PBS each evening. Behind those cool words is someone like you, communicating the world to those of us who have trouble hearing it. And the typos (do you call them that?) are often the things I enjoy most, those misunderstood words which make the world a crazy, funny place sometimes.  My hearing often is faulty as I go about my day: “Would you care for more marbles on your salad?”  “Several of the thieves escaped in a glue umbrella.” “Rioters climbed the side of the hippo before dispersing into the cream.” So the older I get, and the less I hear, the more enjoyable my days? Not always. But it’s good to look on the fright snide.

Put another layer on this and am going to stop till I can get some feedback. I can unify it with a wash of umber perhaps, or sand it down, or add more layers and refinements, but it needs to sit for awhile at this point. You can see from looking at the images below that I covered over much of the viridian from the previous layer. It didn’t fit the color scheme. Today’s image is made only with ult. blue, perm. yellow and perm. rose. The greens are all mixed from these. Lots of marble dust and walnut oil in this mix too. But I made way too much paint mixture and hope it will keep if covered. I’m using no solvent or medium (other than walnut oil.) I’m cleaning my brushes in vegetable oil as well in order to avoid the solvent I am reacting poorly to. I use it in the garage now and then.

If you take a look at the previous post below with the link to the original Corot painting “Road to Serves” you will note that it is a much cooler one, with a blue/green tone. I can’t get this with the RYB I’m using, but I like my warmer tones enough.

I can see a few problems (i.e., sky holes on the top right don’t match/fit well. Road is still a little to straight on the edges. I may also need to darken the shadows more to get some better contrast. And detail needs refining. Today is gym time. Heard from Ron Swanwick today, who hasn’t emailed in ages. He is not feeling well at the moment and I wished him the best.

Still working on this and added another layer of paint after another layer of packing art materials for the France trip.   Also got some more 2 MB cards for my camera so I don’t have to burn CD’s in Paris.  The value of the $ makes a even a cup of coffee there $6.   The big parts of this oil painting are down now and I’m looking forward to putting in some detail.  I’ll wait to see if Tad will comment before proceeding further.   He always sets me down on a good path.  The clouds in the upper left corner are bothering me just a bit, and that dirt road looks too much like US 89 (paved in dirt).   I can fix that later by working on the edges where the green meets it.   On looking at this, there are too many  straight lines for a painting with very few buildings.  I’ll work on that too as I proceed. The light is ok, but the shadows need work.

Wow… that header sounds like the title of a grade B- Western!! Actually it’s just the ARTPATH exhibit, half of which is on the floor and left hand table of my studio, below. (That one oil painting in the back on the right is another layer on the Corot copy I wrote about two posts below, and is not part of the ARTPATH exhibit obviously.) I’ll be glad when all these are up and titled. Creating titles is a lot of work. I’m going to try and hang them from the rail with transparent nylon line (from the sporting goods store.) This is a tip from the folks at Artist’s Mediums. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just use wire instead. My buddy Tony M. thinks this art is “dayglo from the 60′s” and doesn’t like it. “Return to your oil painting” says Big T. He’s probably right. That’s what I had planned anyway. The colors, as you can see below, do have that essence of 1960′s kitchen furniture and appliance color. We’ll see what kind of response there is, if any.  Maybe there are a few dayglo fans out there. 

Ok, I’m trying to keep this mostly academic, but Nicholas and mom Merissa visited today and I’m putting this up anyway.  Us granddads get to do this when we want.   More on painting or some other academic subject in a day or so.

Trying to keep it fuzzy and indistinct, I began to work on the sky and the sky color in the ground and foiliage. I used a small touch of french ultramarine, a little zinc white and lots of putty and marble dust. It’s almost dry already. Eventually it will need more red in it. The light is coming from the right, and here at the beginning of this project, I’m just trying to keep “big” things in mind – no detail. Cool light/warm shadow is how I see it now. Painting with a big brush, and trying to keep my thought/mind on the light and not the objects. The bright yellow will get diminished in further layers as more are added and details develop. Today I’m probably going to mix some greens from the french ultramarine and permanent yellow, put in lots of marble dust, putty and some medium (I’m using Damar Medium A Peindre). I’m not good enough to do this outside all the time. But I can aspire!

Am trying to get back to oil painting this week.  Am starting from a painting by Corot (Road to Serves).  Below is the first pass.  Covered the canvas with a wash of indian yellow and yellow ochre and let it dry overnight in the garage (avoiding filling my studio with solvent vapor).  Then put on the first pass with transparent red earth (called Earth Red from Gamblin).  Mixed this with an equal amount of putty from Tad (his secret formula) and a very large amount of marble dust.  This dried overnight, and I’ll begin the second layer today.  Tad has advised me to continue with as few colors as possible.  I’m doing this whole painting with just the basic combo of permanent yellow, french ultamarine and permanent red… mixing all the needed colors with these (unless I run into trouble with the greens).

Tad also noted to keep in mind the zones of recession he created, and indeed I can see these (aerial perspective).  I can also see the diagonals that drive the eye into the middle distance.  Tad said the sky has a lot in it but reads as one thing: compressed chroma and value from a “real” sky, and that Corot likely did it in one or two layers.  So… I’ll see what happens as I proceed.   Another version will appear posted later.

Well, the Burlington Free Press piece did come out yesterday, and I think Sara did a credible job, though some of my academic colleagues (the stuffy ones) might be make a few harrumph like sounds. Do we have stuffy ones at UVM – oh, just a few. The science got a bit distorted, but from the perspective of the public, I think Sara got it right. The BIG disappointment was that Sara’s editor at the Free Press edited out my website and my email address which Sara had included. Booo, poop and ##*x”^*##* to them for that. It sure would have helped get more students for “Drawing for the Terrified.” Ah well, it was nice to get something in the Freeps. I normally don’t read that paper much, preferring the NY Times, but am pleased that something got in. I’ve had a dozen or so responses by email re: it and the ARTPATH exhibit, and the Feb. 1 reception tally is growing. We’ll see who shows up.

This morning I got involved in a rather vibrant discussion of composition as a guest blogger in the hugely popular blog “Now Norma Knits.” What a great group of bright, dedicated artisans. I met Norma via my friend Willem a month or so ago, and mistakenly cast aspersions on her talent as a court reporter by asking why they didn’t just replace her with a tape recorder (ARGH… Michael, you blew it.) Norma transcribes in Willem’s classes for hearing impaired students I believe, and is very good at that. She is also a gifted and humorous writer who’s mind moves like a speeding bullet I think.

Today I am painting like Corot. If it works out, I’ll post a pic or two tomorrow. Maybe with Tad’s comments if he will allow that.

A pleasant young woman, a staff writer for the Burlington Free Press, visited my UVM office/studio yesterday. She was interested in the upcoming ARTPATH exhibit, as well as the process by which the images are produced. We talked about how to describe this in a non technical fashion. It will be interesting to see how she does it. It should be in tomorrow’s paper, or perhaps Thursday’s edition in the “town” section. We also talked about how I went from teaching chemistry to teaching drawing, and the convoluted path from chemistry to painting. Actually it isn’t that convoluted. Chemistry is in many ways a visual science, and visualization in science is a popular topic these days. Felice Frankel at MIT (click on her name and check out her website) is doing wonderful work which blends science and art, and one of the Gordon Conference areas has been Visualization in Science and Education (or some variation of this – i.e. Image and Meaning) for 5 or 6 years now. In fact at the Gordon conference in Oxford in 2003 I presented a paper on “Drawing to Learn Science” that morphed into a course here at UVM later on. And there were artists at this Gordon conference, as well as scientists from all over the globe. The focus of the content was on ways of presenting science visually which are helpful in communicating ideas and concepts. In the Free Press I don’t expect such a focus of course, but it’ll be interesting to see what Sara comes up with.