Balancing Act: Apollonian form, Dionysian ecstasy

New Giraffe Portrait

2008-12-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a new work to share.

The title is "It is Well" and was derived from reference photo's I had taken of a baby giraffe from the Living Desert.

The enclosure for the giraffes at the Living Desert takes full advantage of the nearby hills and mountains to create a very immersive place to watch the giraffes. As much as possible, fencing and the giraffe barn are tucked out of sight behind berms and other landscaping features, creating a very natural setting for these animals.

Mutombo, the giraffe in this portrait, was born in 2006 and it was an incredible adventure watching him grow up. For several years now, I've participated at the Living Desert as a docent, helping guests to the park hand feed our giraffes. So I had front row seats to watch Mutumbo grow in both size and in his abilities. Letting him go off to Zoo Boise was hard, hearing that he had died from a sudden and mysterious illness, even harder.

More than just the loss of a creature with a distinct personality is the sense of losing his potential. V0lunteering at a zoo provides a constant reminder of how many species are in danger, and how challenging it is to protect them. Losing one, like Mutombo, seems to make the future just that much darker. For me, it helped to realize that there was hope in the effort itself, that so many people - educators and keepers, adminstrators and gardeners, volunteers and donors and guests, invested time and money and emotion in these animals.

This painting was created a gift for a friend who is a breast cancer survivor. I wanted something that would convey both a recognition of loss and struggle, as well as a sense of resolve. The title comes from a favorite hymn. To me, it expresses acceptance with resolve. Mutombo is lit from his backend and his front is in shadow, just as the brightest days for giraffes are in the past and their future is in doubt; but he faces into that future with resolve.

"It is Well" is 8x10, acrylic on canvas panel. The original has a home, but giclee' prints are available.

New Work: Internal Landscapes

2008-08-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

So I started something new. Yeah, I've got a couple of animal portraits progressing slowly through the grisaille process, and needed something a bit more spontaneous to do for balance. And I've been thinking alot lately about what is necessary for something to be art, particularly the element of deliberate communication. I began to wonder about painting not from a specific location as in plein air, but from a specific text. My first thought was that I didn't want to just take a descriptive passage from a myth or Bible story or work of fiction. I wanted to dig a little more into what communication is. We use words in language as the smallest unit of concept, and assemble them into larger units, sentences and paragraphs, statements and phrases, poems and essays and diatribes and pleas, much as atoms are assembled into molecules, compounds, proteins, carbohydrates, crystals, etc. What if I took the "molecules" of a text as the locations for a series of landscapes? I found this poem by Robert Frost:

FIRE AND ICE

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

I broke it into a series of pieces or textual molecules, for example: "Some say" and "the world will end" and "in fire".

Here is "Some Say".

In thinking about these two words together, I recognized that they are used conversationally to imply a level of ambiguity and distance, rather than stating "I think" or "The facts are", we use them to introduce some idea while leaving room for doubt. There are choices, options, and some say this, and some say that. "Some Say" is 16"x12", acrylic on stretched canvas, and in the 'living with it to see if it is really finished stage'. Stay tuned for subsequent pieces. I'll be adding a new gallery to my website for these paintings, and will post the titles/pieces of Mr. Frost's poem, in advance, in case you are curious about how I've chosen to disassemble its component textual molecules.

Meerkat with a Pearl Earring

2008-07-06T16:49:00.001-07:00

I've been busy painting.

Not much of an excuse for months without updating here, but its all I have. Hopefully the work I have produced will make up for it a bit.

To the right is my newest piece, "Meerkat with a Pearl Earring", inspired by the masterful portrait by Vermeer, "Girl with Pearl Earring".

I've been giving a lot of thought to wildlife painting. One of the things that interests me is capturing the personality of the individual animal, as well as something of the nature of its species. So I've been trending toward a portrait approach.

I volunteer as a docent at a zoo and botantical garden, and one of the nuances we encounter is the line between anthropomorphizing the animals, and recognizing the complexity of their behavior and their individuality. It can be a challenge to see a meerkat or giraffe or gazelle demonstrate body language that has a recognizable meaning in other humans, and not project a human motive onto that behavior. At the same time, there's a tendency to strip such behavior of any emotional meaning, and I think that is unfair.

Not only is there a growing body of evidence indicating that the internal life - the thought processes and emotions of animals are more complex that science is used to recognizing, it doesn't make sense, when every other trait we humans have has an analog in other species, less sophisticated perhaps, to pretend that emotion and higher functions like goal setting arose only in us.

"Meerkat with a Pearl Earring" is my look at meerkats in a less austere fashion. I've entered this piece in the Showdown at the Saatchi Gallery website. For a few more hours, you can vote for my work by following this link: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=146871. The first round of voting ends at 9 AM UK time, Monday the 7th. If she makes into the run-off, you will then have another week to help her into the next round.

After you've give her a nice, friendly 2 digit score in keeping with the indomitable spirit of meerkats, check out the other artists in the competition. There is a wide variety of styles, techniques and skill levels.

Lastly, "Meerkat with Pearl Earring" is available for sale on my website; I'm offering her in limited edition (100) Giclee' prints, as well as the original.

Update: Monday, July 7, 2008: Meerkat with Pearl Earring made it to the first run off phase of the competition, going head to head with one other painting. You can support her by voting for her at: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=149834

New Work

2007-09-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I got to send a new work out to its new home. I always hate to let 'em go, and yet, am happy that my work has found a place in someone's life.

To the right is my newly completed painting "Sabi". It is a portrait of a Cheetah named Sabi, who had lived at the Living Desert until she passed away this spring. My painting is based on several photo's taken of her when she was a kitten.

Sabi was an ambassador for her species and for the zoo, appearing in the Wild Life Wonders show at the zoo, and making other public appearances.

Work continues on other pieces, and I took some incredible reference photo's of a number of birds of prey recently, which should lead to some memorable portraits in the near future.

Catching Up

2007-08-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

As you may notice, there's been a lapse in my posts here. Not only have the last few months been hot outdoors and busy indoors, with several paintings all going at once, I haven't finished anything new to post about.

But now I've got some things to share.

First, I've opened a shop at CafePress.com, offering several of my paintings on gift items. I'm starting out small - just a few items, to see if there is any interest. You can check it out at: http://www.cafepress.com/darrsandberg

This little guy is now available on a coffee mug, a "hoodie" sweatjacket for kids, and t-shirts in sizes from toddler to kids large.

Just because someone is small, doesn't mean they are not formidable in their own way.

This portrait of a Fennec Fox, in addition to being available as a giclee print ($200 of which is a direct donation to the Living Desert), is now available on a generic white t-shirt, or a woman's scoop neck t-shirt, also in white.

And this painting of mine is now available on one of four dark colors of t-shirt - Navy blue, military green, brown and charcoal.

Not quite the opulent color palatte of a french chateau, but certainly in keeping with the spirit of the place.

Additionally, I've been asked to teach four art classes for The Living Desert as part of their Living Desert University program. LDU provides a wide-range of classes, on subjects from anthropology, botany and gardening to zoology. The arts program includes native handicraft classes, plein air workshops, and how-to courses. I'll be taking students on a plein air paint out to Pinyon Crest, and teaching three classes on art principles. And of course, there are many, many other worthwhile and fascinating classes offered as part of the LDU program, including some dangerously inspiration gardening classes - so I'll have a link here to the on-line class catalog as soon as it is available.

My portrait of the Arabian Sandcat is very close to finished, as is a small portrait of a cheetah kitten. Those should be done and posted both here and at my gallery site very soon. Every thing else is dawdling along in the summer heat.

Never enough irons in the fire

2007-05-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

I tend to work on multiple pieces at the same time, and that is certainly the case these days.

Not only do I have the Cronus piece mentioned last week going, but there's a watercolor from a plein air day that needs finalizing, a view of the Seine that's half-way done, and my main project, a collection of twelve paintings inspired by The Living Desert, a desert-focused zoo and botanical garden in Palm Desert/Indian Wells, California (not affiliated or associated with Living Desert State Park or Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad, New Mexico.)

I’ve completed two of the twelve paintings; a portrait of a Fennec Fox, and a landscape with Mexican Grey Wolves. There’s a giraffe portrait in progress, several landscapes, and a macro cactus flower composition that I’ve finally decided to abandon. It simply is not coming together. So I decided last Monday, to replace all three of the planned flower paintings, with either animals or landscapes.

Friday, I finally got some really good reference photo’s of the Sand Cats, so out with the stubborn cactus flower, in with these threatened, unique animals.

I’ve also been reading about Sir John Everett Millais. http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/featuredartists/millais/

Inaugural Post: Devoured and Devouring

2007-04-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a piece inspired by Cronus, about those who abuse power, and the role that fears plays in feeding and sustaining such abuse. Later this evening, after my parrot has gone to bed and I have can a piece of peace and quiet, I plan on putting at least a more few hours of painting time to this work. After that, I'll be updating the page linked above. If you noticed, I've posted a black-white sketch of the general composition of this painting, and have started posting on top of that sketch, pieces of passages that I'm working on. I'll continue to add pieces as the piece progresses, and over time, viewers can see the painting develop.

The piece started when I came across Goya's "Saturn Devouring his Son" (to the right) again about a year ago. When I first saw it in middle school, it was a cool-scary mythology painting. All these years later, I saw the archetypical paternalistic leader, devoured by fear from within, devouring that which it was his duty to nurture.

In the decades since middle school, how many times have such devouring leaders arisen, consumed their people in one form or another, and been over-thrown or replaced?

One of the things that really jumped out at me regarding the Uranus-Cronus-Zeus genealogy was the cyclical nature. Each father-figure in turn attempts to secure his dominion in perpetuity by swallowing up the next generation, a pattern that Zeus continued briefly.

It mirrors, if not directly mythologizes, a very common fear in human societies - the fear of being supplanted or replaced by the future - future generations, future religions, future idealogies, future governments.

In the event of the last decade, we've witnessed the fall of one domineering father type leader, who had endeavored to restore the glory of an ancient empire, at the orders of a similar leader also endeavoring to reclaim the glory of a more recent idealogical empire. Both have consumed metaphorically whatever was perceived by them as presenting a potential opposition.

There were examples of this cycle of fear and consuming in the decade prior, and the decade before that, and so on back to the very birth of the story of Uranus, Cronus and Zeus.

Fitting with in all this, the meme' of 'revolutions devour their children'. Post WWII revolutions devoured the children of the nation's involved, reactions to those revolutions devoured the children of reacting nations. The Industrial revolution devoured its own children, the Information revolution devoured its children.

I have wondered, since I starteded looking at this myth and its parallels to our times, if this is a pattern written into humanity itself, all but inescapable. Under it, collectively the individual fears of fathers of being replaced in society by their sons and mothers replaced by their daughters, become the fears of entire generations being replaced and made irrelevant, growing into a fear of entire religions and value systems and idealogies being discarded for the next generation of belief. Perhaps the reason why Psychoanalytic theories of Oedipal and Elektral complexes produce so little value, is that the real heart of the myths of Oedipus and Elektra is one generation's fear of being replaced, of dying.

One last thought for today.

This cycle of being devoured and devouring is one founded, at the core, on fear of death, mortality. Though the world is as pregnant as Gaea before Cronus's castration with religions that endeavor to scour away the finality from death,

what does it mean for us about our many faiths that our societies are still trapped in this cycle of fear and devouring?