All Roads Lead Somewhere

Life is just one long path. Everyone is on some road all the time, we just tend not to give it much thought. Artists have the advantage of being able to physically see how their road varies and twists over time. Their work is a roadmap of their emotional evolution with all the little deviations and adaptions they have experimented with during their journey. The journey can be physically portrayed on a gallery wall to allow for introspection and reflection.

I first noticed this idea after I finished my thesis project, Mythic Journeys Beyond Midnight. 

Dream 59. Agnes in the Washroom
Dream 51. Persephone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started a project that used many of the same connections and physical elements of my previous work. However, I wanted to abstract the ideas more focusing on symbolism and tactile elements in presentation such as encaustic wax. My images still had a dreamlike feel, but were more symbolic and connected to the idea of land. We are all connected to the land both physically, emotionally and spiritually. If you have ever been stressed and taken a walk in the woods, you recognize the spiritual connection and release of stress.

Fence

So, Land became a project about unseen connections and spirituality. The first eight. images I printed, put on cradle wood boards and used encaustic wax to add that dreamlike separation. I noted that these images were lighter both in feel and color than my last project — moving towards the light, sort of. While working on this project, I started noticing old structures on the land that captivated my attention. They seemed to have a sense of something. Sometimes, it was the element of the unseen while others expressed something in exposure of the elements.

This led to the next project, On the Land. While Land is a more abstracted, symbolic

Barn

representation, On the Land is a more physical expression of abstract ideas. Similar ideas but expressed in a sort of flip-flop of technique. The subject matter seems to be moving towards a more representative element and away from the symbolic, though both are symbols in reality.

The third evolution came in the form of a memory. With Land and On the Land, I worked on both projects simultaneously. Then, I found an old image I had taken of a tree that I would see on my walk every day. While working on this image, I started moving in a new direction that included dimensionality. The memory of this tree was both in the past and present. This image had a link to the tree, my memory of the seasons, my walks and of changing of time. I realized, that the tree existed for me symbolically and in the real. It was a connection to place, my memories and to the land around me. The tree became “Memory of a Tree” and a new project was birthed…Place.

Memory of a Tree

As soon as I started working on Place, I stopped working on the Land project. It just felt like I had moved off that pathway and onto a new road.

So Place is more amount memories of places and times. It is an emotional link to our past and events. Fond memories of walks, the sensory beauty of spring, the crispness of winter and falling leaves and of a myriad of other connections that have happened in the area of this particular tree. It is also rooted in the present as I still see this tree daily. There is a history of this tree as it has changed. Other plants have grown up around it and the tree has grown and changed shape. This project has land, objects on the land and elements of fantasy.

Moon Mustards
Roadway
White House

I am still adding images to this series, but it is slowly moving out of the picture also. I became engaged with the moon and a sort of painterly feel and started the project “Luna,” which only has four images presently. I am not sure if I will keep adding to it or not.

Bare Branch
Olive Branch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Luna was more a diversion with only four images to the series. I am not sure if I will add more or not? It is interesting that in these images I am looking up instead of around me on the ground.

Next, I moved back onto the path with Beyond the Screen Door.

Pole Road

Moving my work back again to a more representational feel with documentary aspects while still keeping elements of the etherial in abstraction and color.

Robledos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I started working on this latest work, I looked back at the year’s images and realized that there was an element of the land and how we are connected through memories and other emotional connections. This last project being more like memory polaroids of the area I inhabit. It is both a record and collection of emotions. Looking back at images from 2019, I see how I keep circling around the idea of land, home and memories. The projects bounce back and forth between conceptual ideas and tangible representational elements.

It is record of my time in this place as I work towards moving to a new place. I feel like I have been exploring my connection, history and emotions to where I live in a way to pack them up and move onto something new. I am hoping to move to a new area and start new memories. In this way, these series have allowed me to contextualize my life in order to move to something new.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Land

Seems a while since I last chatted here. Currently, I have about four projects I am dabbling with. I believe this is a transition time for my work and that is why I have so many different ideas I am trying out. This is a good thing for an artist. We get to points in our work where both the work and the artist is evolving and things can get a bit strange here. It is the flexibility to try and fail that makes us grow. Trying new things that may not work now, but we may possibly come back to these ideas later, and with a more clear head.

I have noticed that sometimes I work on a project as a sort of meditation. My “Land” project seems to be one of these. It really is tangent to two other ideas I am playing with. One is about how place and person are interconnected (my Mannequin series I will talk more about later) and the other touches on larger issues of how we use and are connected to the land. Possibly, how transient our existence is here in the larger scope of the land as a persistent entity.

Fence

The image above, Fence, is about a sort of intertwining of land and sky with the crow connecting us to the land. Ravens are messengers in many forms in my images. They can also be tricksters trying to show us the ironies of life. The fence divides yet somehow becomes a lyrical element in the land. Even though we may try and own and contain the land, it incorporates and changes our attempts at defining it.

Field
 Field,the image above, was the first image in my series. It felt poetic for me and how I feel about the land. There is this vast and endless organic presence topped by the etherial. Being in the land calms and soothes us somehow. Ask anyone who is stressed how they feel after taking a walk in the woods and they will say they feel better. I believe part of our suffering modern culture is created by our disconnection with the land. It feels like cutting your hand off somehow. We truly are part of the earth and need to stay connected and interactive with her. This image felt like meditation for me. I still can look at it for hours on end.

 

Trees
Ahhhh, Trees! I wasn’t sure about this image and frankly I still go back and forth on it. Many friends really love this image and it always confounds me on what they see. I created this for many reasons, one being the symmetry of the land. In this image it opens with three fence posts and moves to two trees in one image. It is sort of like a triad. It also has three levels in the dry grass, the green field and the blue sky. Three is important here and in life. Three is the Trinity, family (mother, father & child) and the balancing element that frees the tension of two.
Ok, so the Landseries is about connection with land both spiritual and physical. After all, we cannot live without the land. There are more images in the series on my site. If you are interested, you can mosey on over there and check them out. It is still an unfinished series as of yet. The big idea for me is the spiritual element and connection…something wonderful can happen at any moment.

 

Strange Spaces

Hello,
I am starting (or really continuing my massive oeuvre) a new dream project.Strange Spacesis about landscapes that express an emotional connection more than a connection with a particular place. These spaces express ideas and ideals, archetypes.  For example, a light post on an empty dark street has a feeling of loneliness, solitary, isolation, desolation and other tangent ideas. Conceptional, symbolic communication is where my work lives. Surreal and cubist visions is how I see the world. Perhaps, I live in a perpetual dream state.

Dreamtime

Dreamtime is actually the second image in this series. It is still evolving and will eventually morph a bit. The first image, Panic Room (below), is about panic, claustrophobia (which I do not have), isolation, control and other tangent emotions.

I will drop in with new images and updates on where my project and ideas are moving towards.
Thanks for stopping by…
CJ

 

Welcome

Wecome! After I lost my last blog to the ethernet, I took a break to work things out and finish my thesis project. All went well and I am now on a new path with many new projects ongoing. Basically, this my space to talk about art and my work. I am excited with the all the new possibilities opening up and all the amazing artists I have been looking at.
For me, art is all about communication. I seek to have a dialog with my audience and hope to connect and touch someone out there. Art makes life richer and opens windows to exploration both inner and outer.
I am a Surrealist and Cubist by nature and much of my work deals with myth, symbolism and idea of the unseen. I have been creating and working with dreams over the last seven years and probably will continue use dreams as a way to tap into the unconscious mind.
Below are a couple of my dreams from my project Mythic Journeys Beyond Midnight. All the dreams in the project are based on a myth that relates to a part of my journey through transition, loss, suffering and finally to acceptance.
Dream 59. Agnes in the Washroom
Agnes in the Washroom is based on an old Roman myth about a 13-year-old Roman girl who made a promise to God to never stain her purity. She was born around 291 Ad into the Roman nobility, but raised as a Christian. This is one of the few myths that is based around a real person. A high-born man fell in love with Agnes and wanted to marry her. She was pressured and even tortured to try and persuade her to marry. Agnes stood fast on her oath and was eventually condemned to death on January 21, 304 AD. She was venerated as a saint and is the patron saint of chastity, purity, girls, gardeners, virgins, and rape survivors.
The dream relates to the struggle to remain true to my inner self. It is a dream about spiritual turmoil, represented by the roiling water in the basin. It represents outside pressures to compromise my own desires in the service of others. This dream is near the center of my series as it is an awaking for me to stay true to myself and not put other’s desires before mine. It is one step on my journey of transformation.
Dream 51. Persephone
Persephone is the first image of my series. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. While gathering flowers one day, Hades (God of the Underworld) fell in love with her and abducted her taking her to the underworld. Demeter (Goddess of the Harvest) was upset and went to find her. During the time Persephone was lost in the underworld, all the crops withered and died creating endless winter. Demeter eventually petitioned Zeus to get her daughter back. An accord was reached where Persephone would split her time between Hades and the world. While she in Hades, the world suffer a winter and spring would return when she was again back in the world.
The flowers in the image represent Persephone. They are in the shadows wilted and dead representing the idea of winter and darkness of life. The sunny window reflection represents the time of light and spring. This is the duality of life and how even during our darkest moments there can also be times of light.
I chose this as the first dream in the series as it represents the struggles going on in my life at the time of the project. My life was in turmoil and I was in distress, but at the same time I was enjoying a revival of my artistic roots and coming into my own professionally. My life was spent half in dark and half in the light.
Duality is ever present in my work and life. It is a subject I keep coming back to. I hope you enjoy my blog and return again in the future.
Cheers,
CJ