The Playing Field

The Playing Field, 2012, 20" x 17.5", mixed media on 90lb archival paper.


Pierre-Marie Cœdès commented at Facebook: 'It is funny you name it The Playing Field, since I see them hesitating and very much interrogative ...'

Ah, I answered, that's what the playing field is like, then, Pierre-Marie. I would like the title on this one to be interpreted however the viewer reads it and sees the painting. This series seems, for me, to have resonances with Tarkovsky's "Zone" in his movie, The Stalker. It isn't really anything, but it represents what you see and perceive about who you are, and it changes you, that process of realizing more of who we are. Now, yes, you are helping me to say what these paintings of the men mean in the way I think about them. I like the way you think about them and I especially like that you share your thoughts, for I always learn from your kindly perceptions, Pierre-Marie.



The whole album, with original sketches, may be viewed here:

Figure Drawing at OCAD

The Men Who

The Men Who, 2012, 23" x 18", 58.5cm x 45.6cm, mixed media on 90lb archival paper.

If I can, I like to finish my life drawing sketches. These were one minute poses - which I tend to place all on the same page (being into doubles, doppelgängers, clones). I have to consider placement on page, how the gesture of that pose fits into the overall rhythm of the figures, and the particular anatomy of that pose in a nanosecond and hit the track running, like, Draw! :laughing:


The whole album, with original sketches, may be viewed here:

Figure Drawing at OCAD

Figure Drawing at OCAD

After a poetry meetup group friday night, with an open mic, and a post-poetry pub visit, I dragged myself off to OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) the next morning for a drop-in figure drawing session. I carried a large board with a canvas sheet taped to it, my large drawing pad, 2 sets of paints, watercolour and acrylic, brushes, water jars, palette, etc. since I had been unable to determine in Internet searches if OCAD offered a long pose or not.

Unfortunately, it was a typical life drawing session, beginning with half a dozen 1 minute poses, then onto 3 - 5 minute ones, a few 10 minute, and ending with two 20 minute poses. A format I do not enjoy, and I would not have gone if I had known. So many poses of such short duration do not work for me, and I now look for sessions with longer poses.

Because I had a few things to do downtown (like visit my favourite art store, Above Ground Art Supplies), I ended up walking home, trudging 4km loaded like an elephant. All in all, very exhausting.

Still, in the posts to follow, you will see that I am working very hard to turn these pages into viable paintings.

These were all done in charcoal on 18" x 24" 90lb archival paper.

(ps. The paper is bright white - I took the photos late and it was cloudy, not enough light for my iPhone camera.)

Charcoal Sketches

Right before going to bed last night I grabbed my charcoal pencil and began a few 'tests' - all tiny, like 6" x 8" - watercolour brushed in afterwards. The self-portrait done in a dark room is overdone but you can't undo charcoal; the woman in the middle, well, what can I say, the pencil is clumsy to use, it needs larger paper; and the final one is exactly what I wanted.

Though I drew her last night, I wrote a poem for her 6 years ago:

Gaze

Yesterday,
the bus stop,
all the people's heads
turned, watching.

Gaze of anxiety.

The blind woman tapping
her way forward.

Little Magnolia Tree That Is Now Blossoming

Little Magnolia Tree That Is Now Blossoming, 2012, 6" x 10", conte, watercolours, Grumbacher acid-free journal paper.

Just a little experiment... I found a dozen or so tubes of watercolour (Windsor and Newton as well as their Cotman line) in a dusty old box under my desk, tubes that must be 25 years old. Some of them are still usable! A quick watercolour sketch of an even quicker street sketch a week or two back.

Sloth at the Keyhole

From the Madame: "The Keyhole Sessions: the raciest arts community you'll ever experience."

The Keyhole Sessions are life-drawing with edge. With a hunger for the erotic, our community of artists gather for a few hours of debaucherous drawing on the second Tuesday of every month.

Hosted by The Madame, TKS is not for the faint of heart: our models come with attitude. Trussed up in rope and restraints, they’re here to have as much fun as the artists.

Most sessions will see our models exquisitely wrapped in shibari-inspired rope bondage. Keyhole Sessions Head Rigger, JP Robichaud, displays his talents by binding our models in sensual rope to add that extra flair to your drawings. For those unfamiliar with this art, look it up and then come to our class to witness this beautiful craft up close.

Divided into 3 Acts, you’ll see multiple models in varying degrees of undress and restraints, all to a soundtrack of some pretty sweet beats.

There are chairs for 60, and the women-only models obviously appeal to men, who are the majority, and, though I was quite scared to go, I am happy to report that there was a good sprinkling of women artists too. :)

These drawings and paintings were done at the Keyhole last night. It may be a raunchy life-drawing venue, but those beautiful women and erotic poses are a lot of work to draw! As art, I'm thinking of Toulous-Lautrec. The lifestyle alluded to in the props and poses is a bit out of my range - I've never had a Mowhawk or ever tried a hookah or been tied up, and aren't thinking to either. :))) I am drawn to the exploration of the body through unique poses and models. I had to explain to my 25 year old son where I was going to draw and what I'd likely come back with, and not to worry about what might appear on the walls of my apartment! I wasn't... falling into Sloth (they're doing the 7 Deadlies, and last night was sloth).

It was a huge amount of work drawing the models last night - they start out with one model and 3 minute poses, then move onto two models with longer poses, and finish the evening with a 45 minute three model configuration. I like how my little series began, but trying to finish them so I can get back to what I was working on before the session has been exhausting, along with quite a bit of stress in my life, and perhaps it shows in the final painting, which I feel is the most worked and the least successful. Or is it my tired eyes?

Three, On The Edge, 2012, 20" x 16", mixed media, 90lb archival paper.

And Then, 2012, 20" x 16", mixed media, 90lb archival paper.

Better Left Unsaid, 2012, graphite on 90lb archival paper, image digitally finished.

This sketch is on the back of Three, On The Edge and which is now hanging on the wall. Better Left Unsaid is in light pencil, and I coloured it digitally.

Shadow, 2012, 20" x 16", mixed media, 90lb archival paper. (This is the dusting of charcoal on the back of the sheet facing the first drawing. It is the shadow of the figure on the right, and I quite like it.)

Take It Easy, 2012, 20" x 16", mixed media, 90lb archival paper.

Women Models, sketch, 2012, 14" x 14", graphite, 90lb archival paper.

A Tangle, sketch, 2012, 17.5" x 15.5", mixed media, 90lb archival paper.

A Tangle, 2012, 17.5" x 15.5", mixed media, 90lb archival paper.

Drawing at the Keyhole in April 2012. 

Photo by Susie Caboose. (I was working on And Then.)

The Living Carry the Souls of the Dead

The Living Carry the Souls of the Dead, 2012, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", charcoal and oils, Moleskine folio Sketchbook A4.


The spirits of the dead are held aloft by the living.

My grandmother's spirit was my father's memory of her in me and projected by me into a nurturing maternal spirit of safety.

Has she been with me all my life? Yes. But she resides in the energy of my understanding of her through my deceased father's memory.


The figure I have drawn, that I made from bones, who is an experiment in charcoal, seems not the narrator of the writing, and yet she is carrying the souls of the dead, look at her.

Notes on process: First I drew her skeleton, all her vertebrae are there, and her rib cage and sternum, clavicles and humeri, radiuses, and ulnas, femora, and bony pelvis. Then I drew her major muscles, her craniofacial muscles, pectorals, abdominals, femora, the wrap of arm muscles, tendons over the phalange of the fingers. I traced her body's outline with charcoal, and poured some sizing medium (Gak100, for the paper) over her, smudging and sweeping the charcoal with a brush. Red seemed to be her colour, so on my table of oil tubes, used paper towels, half a dozen water jars, a real mess, I searched through a box for the Alizarin Crimson, and began to dry brush it into the wet solution. I tried other colours, delicately, but she was insistent, and so I rubbed them out. After some indefinable time - the clock stops when you are working with a fast drying medium - a few sweeps of orange seemed permissible in her sheer dress, and the white highlights, composed of charcoal white, white oil pastel and Titanium White water-soluble oil paint. My son says she looks like she could be a cover for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

She is a bit scary, but she has fine bones, a good musculature. :)

She is somewhere between life and death, where the soul resides.

A Spring God, in-process

A Spring God, in-process, 24" x 30", 61cm x 76.2cm, mixed media on stretched canvas.

He is in oils, and when 'he' dries I'll use a whitewash to make him a wee bit less flesh and more statue. Fiddling with the background, added little references to spring flowers, but not sure if I'll continue in the direction I had thought to go in.

The Saluki Returns

Painted this more than a week back, and wasn't sure about the way it scanned, but then I took a photo in sunlight and the colours came up properly, so sharing now.

She was the smartest dog I ever met. The sketch underlying the painting was about her paws, which were almost like elongated hands with thick black fingernails.

The Saluki is an Egyptian desert dog, and often travelled with nomadic tribes across the Sahara.The Saluki is the oldest domesticated breed, representations of Saluki-like dogs can be found on Sumerian seals dating around 7,000BC, and they are depicted in the paintings on the walls of tombs of Pharohs from 2,250BC-1,650BC. Thousands of generations to now, an extraordinarily ancient and intelligent breed.

Painting of a Sleeping Saluki, 2012, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, graphite, acrylic, India and acrylic inks, Moleskine folio Sketchbook A4.





Sketch of a Saluki, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, graphite, Moleskine folio Sketchbook A4.

You remember this one from a bit back. I had intended to paint it also, but a few people, including the owner of the dog, who is considering a commission of it in a large size, asked me to leave it as a simple pencil sketch.

Seated Man (in progress), TSA March 30th

Seated Man, 2012, 16" x 20", 40.6cm x 50.8cm, graphite on stretched canvas.

Sketch from TSA Friday night in pencil on a small canvas, 16" x 20", that I will finish as an ink painting.

Seated Man, in-progress, 24" x 30", 61cm x 76.2cm, mixed media on stretched canvas.

When I go to TSA non-instructional, drop-in lifepainting sessions, I usually spend the first 3 hours working on a larger painting; then I leave it to dry for the last hour while I sketch the model on a smaller canvas. At the top of this post you see the sketch that will become an ink painting. Below is the larger painting I did first. At TSA, I use thin layers of acrylics - they dry fast. To the left is what I completed at TSA on Friday night. At home, I finish the painting with oils - oil sticks, oil pastels, oil paints.

On the left is where the painting is today. It's still unfinished.

I'm considering putting a figure in black line only behind him, and some purple crocuses at his feet. To me, he seems a spring god, the spring rains and sap greens around him, a garden god who represents the fertility of the onrush of Nature's awakening after the long winter months.

Before the light was gone, on my walk through my neighbourhood this evening, I saw yellow tulips, small star-shaped blue flowers (which are? not phlox, or asters, but...?), yellow forsythias, and small magnolia trees just beginning to blossom. I may go by in the next few days with my sketchbook and see if adding a spring fauna to this painting will give it a fullness.

'Labour of Love' Poetry Magazine published by Norman Cristofoli

On my second open mic reading ever, last November, after all the writers had read, when the lights came back on, a man came over and handed me a card and said, "I want to publish that poem."

This is how I met the Toronto poet and publisher, Norman Cristofoli.

The issue of Labour of Love with my poem is now out, and, since the story of how the magazine itself  came to be is so interesting, I thought I would interview Norman so you could hear it too.

Labour of Love publishes poetry, prose, short short stories, artwork and photographs. Norman formats it himself and prints it twice a year, each issue having a print run of 400. The magazine is given out freely. It is fully funded by Norman himself.

He has published 35 issues since 1994! Labour of Love publishes high quality work. Norman himself is not only a great poet, but is said to be one of the best editors around.

The interview takes place outside the Annex Live at Brunswick and Bloor, just before a spoken word reading, on Wednesday, March 21st 2012, and was recorded with my iPhone4.

To enquire about submissions to Labour of Love, or to request copies (he only asks that you provide postage), please go to Norman's website, labouroflovemagazine.com.

Direct link: 'Interview with Norman Cristofoli on 'Labour of Love'' (13:48min)

PLEASE NOTE: It is now July 2016, and Norman has published the last Labour of Love.

Woman Seated, Waiting

Woman Seated, Waiting, a small, strange painting. She reminds of me the Eight of Swords in the Rider-Waite deck, with thorns and sharp things all around her. She is fairly placid in the middle of it, though. Patiently waiting. It also echoes the Pre-Raphaelites to me somehow, and I'll have to ponder of which of those artists - maybe Hope by Watts, (1886)? , and Medieval mystic, nearly Byzantine, though of course very modern and abstract. This is one of those paintings that I cannot hang at the top of the stairs for people to see when they first come in. Nothing too pretty here. :smiling: And a series is beginning to emerge, which makes me happy.

Woman Seated, Waiting, 2012, 16" x 20", 40.6cm x 50.8cm, graphite, India and acrylic inks on stretched canvas.

Thanks for any kind comments, and I also enjoy more difficult responses that call upon strange inner metaphorical systems and obtuse aesthetics, too. :smiling:

An album with earlier versions of this ink painting as well as the other one I did at a non-instructional drop-in live model painting session at TSA last Friday night. (Click on any image in the slideshow to go to the album and a larger size.)

Ruminations on Mystical Consciousness

'Ruminations on Consciousness' (9:41min) as I prepare to write a prose poem to be called Colour of Near Death for a forthcoming videopoem.

The Falling Room Ends

I'm so sad! I hope Joe Halder develops another venue for the minimalist and avante guard music he filled The Falling Room with. The Falling Room introduced me to many artists. I found his perceptions often so brilliant, and his taste in music echoed my own. Far out, funky, strange, moving, so many ways of describing it, and then the spoken word/acoustic artists, wow, his show was an example of transgenre music!

I deeply appreciate his support of my poetry and music productions, and wish him the best in all his endeavours.

Here is a show, Female Acoustic Artists, from The Falling Room:



From Joe (on March 25, 2012):

Hello all,

I wish to inform you that The Falling Room has come to an end and will no longer be broadcasting from CFBU 103.7FM.

It is time to say goodbye and to move on to different projects and other ideas.

Unfortunately, with the onset of new projects and other opportunities I no longer have the time to devote to the program.

My intention was to finish the currently 12 programs I have in pre-production and end The Falling Room in June 2012, but sadly I do not have the time to finish those programs and produce them for broadcast.

During its existence The Falling Room broadcast 113 shows and introduced over 140 independent artists to the acoustic art community.

You need to know that your art, has been heard in China, Poland, France, USA, Italy, England, Ireland, Russia, Finland and Australia via the internet download site and the distribution of copies of the show over the last 2 years.

I am extremely grateful to the artists who have supported the show and so readily have allowed me to broadcast their material to the community.

I wish you all the best in your endeavors; you are a very talented group of people.

My special thanks to those artists who demonstrated consistent support for the program over the last 2 years, they are;

Michael Chocholak
Brenda Clews
Mickey Zero
William Schaeffer
Richard Dunlap
Mickey Zero
Kraftim
Cometa (Angelo Secondini)
Dr. Memory (Marlon Kempman)

As to the future? I am not sure. I am sure that my passion for your music and art remains strong to give up on it completely. (another program, in 6 months via the internet titled “The Labyrinth”?) who knows, what I do know is that now, its time for a rest and other things.

Again, much thanks and best wishes to all.
Joe (aka Halder)

Seated Woman (one finished, one in process), TSA 23 March 2012

Woman of the Sea Far Inland is finished. I painted a beautiful model at a non-instructional drop-in session at TSA on Friday night. Last night I whipped up the energy of the painting with some oil sticks I had bought at Gwartzman's. Looking at it, I think it might be a painting to go with a poetry manuscript I am in the process of compiling for submission.

I'm still working on the second painting below, Woman Seated, Waiting. She does look like a woman caught in thorns, a jagged and perhaps dangerous situation, doesn't she. There's something Pre-Raphaelite about her, and Medieval Christian saint.

2 Woman of the Sea Far Inland (final), 2012, 18" x 24", 35.7cm x 61cm, 

acrylic, oil sticks, oil pastels on triple-primed canvas sheet.

2 Woman Seated, Waiting (in process), 2012, 16" x 20", 40.6cm x 50.8cm, 

graphite, India and acrylic inks on stretched canvas.

Here is a little slideshow of the album where these paintings from the 

non-instructional drop-in painting session I went to at TSA last Friday night. 

Click on any image in the slideshow to go to Picasa and a larger size.