Laughing Matters

About 20 years ago when I was president of our local art group, “Southern California Artists, Inc.”, I could not find another member willing to take over my previous year’s position as editor of our monthly “SCA News Letter”. So I gave it a try for another year, but sometimes came up short on content. Here’s one of my postings on the humorous side about art one-liners, including some of my own: (TJW)

ART QUOTES AND MISQUOTES

Art, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.  (Mark Twain)

Dying is easy.  Art is difficult.  (Actor Edmond Gwenn on his deathbed.)

To create good art is no big deal.  (Red Foxx)

Until art arrived, this was a man’s world.  (Richard Armour)

Art is more fun than fun.  (Noel Coward)

Some people say you can’t make art, but sometimes it doesn’t always work.  (Casey Stengel)

Bad art is cheap, because supply exceeds demand.  Good art is dear, because an art agent priced it.  (TJW)

Everything in art is in a state of flux, including the status quo. (RB)

After sex, art is the biggest nothing of all time.  (Andy Warhol)

The future of art isn’t what it used to be.  (TJW)

If in painting, less is more, is no painting perfect?  (TJW)

If asked to choose between art and sex, is there a dilemma?  (TJW)

Artists should be heavily taxed.  It is not fair that some people should be happier than others.  (Oscar Wilde)

If you think real art is expensive, call me.  (TJW)

Good art is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.  (Gail Godwin)

Whoever said money can’t by art didn’t know the URL’s.  (TJW)

Art galleries are getting so crowded nobody goes there anymore.  (Yogi Berra)

Ideally, art is what you make it.  (TJW)

There’s so much art in the world today that if it weren’t for art museums there’d be no place to put it all.  (Robert Orben)

There’s nothing wrong with being an artist that reincarnation won’t cure.  (Ed Sullivan)

Artists rarely have time to eat well, and that is why they prefer Hostess fruit pies to pop-up toaster tarts.  (Carrie Snow)

Show me a bad artist and I’ll show you bad art.  (TJW)

The only good artist is a dead artist.  (Patrick O’Connor)

Art is obliged to stick with possibilities.  Truth isn’t.  (Mark Twain)

In the art business, you either make art or you don’t make it.  (TJW)

To be an artist takes long years of training and the willingness to forget it all.  (TJW)

Make a little art each month and at the end of the year you’ll be surprised at how little you have.  (Ernest Haskins)

A painting is never finished, only abandoned.  (Paul Valery)

It has been my experience that artists that have no vices have very few virtues.  (Abraham Lincoln)

Having an Irish coffee in an art gallery provides all that life has to offer: alcohol, caffine, sugar, fat, and art.  (Alex Levine)

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of painting, very few survive.   (Wallace Irwin)

You are where you paint.  (TJW)

My doctor gave me two weeks off to paint.  I hope they’re in August.  (Michael Phelps, M. D.)

Jesus was a creative artist, but only on his father’s side.  (Archie Bunker)

Art is useless.  It can only give you questions.  (Pablo Picasso)

Artists start every day with a smile, and get it over with.  (W. C. Fields)

He was the world’s only armless painter.  He let his hair grow long and his wife dipped his head in paint buckets.  (Fred Allen)

If art looks good and the price is right, it doesn’t need to have a purpose.  (TJW)

My taste in art is whatever I’ve painted last.  (TJW)

Most of my paintings are mysteries, usually unsolved. (TJW)

Everything has been figured out except how to paint.  (Jean-Paul Sarte)

If my paintings make one more person feel miserable, I’ll feel I’ve done my job.  (Woody Allen)

Art is in the eye of the artist.  (TJW)

To make original art, you simply copy great art the wrong way.  (TJW)

There is no pleasure in having nothing to paint.  The real pleasure is having lots to paint and not doing it.  (John Raper)

Anyone can sell a painting, unless there happens to be a second entry.  (George Ade)

If you haven’t got anything to paint, you might make art.  (TJW)

On Experimental Drawing

By Thom Wright June 25, 2020

So much has been written about drawing – as an art form in itself, as an art practice to improve painting, and as a way to stimulate artistic creativity.  In experimental drawing even these aspects are limiting, where it can become a mixture and hybrid incorporating multiple media in an exploratory fashion.  Generally speaking, it still remains a 2-D graphic work of art that is concerned with the design elements of space, shape, color, line, tone, texture and material.  Once one starts on a personal direction, then it quickly becomes original and creative.

In my approach to experimental drawing, I “draw” upon my past experiences and trials in new approaches, including my first twenty years as a watercolor painter.  Like most other artists, early on I took classes in 2D and 3D design, watercolor painting, experimental watercolor.  Visits to modern art museums always inspired me to pursue my new discoveries.  Being left-handed, my handwriting was bad, and my drawing skills were slow to develop.  As a result, I tended towards abstraction and gestural expression, even in my representational painting. 

To illustrate some of my recent work, I will present images of three mixed media drawings that began in an experimental drawing class taken in 2009 at Coastline Community College, and discuss some of my processes and directions to complete them.

“Garden Grid #2”, 18” x 24”, Mixed Media on 90 lb. smooth bond paper,
Thom Wright, 2009 – 2020

In this first piece shown above, I began it with a graphite stick rubbing on the paper that was positioned in various places on a large plastic milk carton. I was attracted to the combination of ovals and geometric lines that made the external ribbing of the sides of the carton.  The light weight paper provides enough give to make only these structural lines and ovals to be drawn with the 4B graphite stick. Just replicating the milk carton design is too repetitive and static. I already had a vague design idea where I kept the central area of the paper empty.

Next, I added pencil grey tones and colors to some of the oval rectangular shapes using Prismacolor pencils and drawing left-handed cross-hatching. Before going too far with the pencils, I then selected torn color papers and glued them into locations in what became a mosaic grid design.  For many years I have kept all kinds of special art papers on hand to do collage.  There are handmade Japanese prints and colored papers, translucent colored papers from India, and even selected colors from various magazine pages. In addition, I really like the white US postal express envelopes with some red and blue lettering.  By carefully slicing the edge of these envelopes, they can be torn into two to three layers of translucent white.  It does take patience, but usually they rip apart into many organic shapes and show the striated fibers within the paper.

In the empty central area I had saved for a large translucent black-paper square and oriented it at a 45 degree diagonal to repeat that angle that occurred from the milk carton ribbing.  In addition, I had saved a similar sized area of white paper of about the same square shape and 45 degree orientation as the large black square.  These two large shapes together form the beginning of the movement of the smaller colored squares.  Thus, the design idea takes shape and becomes its own composition in combination with the drawn lines and turning forms.

“Garden Grid #1”, 18” x 24”, Mixed Media on 90 lb. bond paper,
Thom Wright, 2009 – 2020

In my second work shown above, the same techniques used in the first piece are repeated, but with variations.  The saved white central area is mostly visible, but here contains several movements.  One group is just a pencil rubbing and another is a darker, charcoal rubbing from the milk carton. Next, another group of squares is made with collaged color squares, and almost all organized at 45 degree diagonals.  The whole composition emphasizes diagonal movements.  The dominant color is green, both in drawn and colored areas as well as in the different green papers. By keeping most of the shapes in greens, the quite small additions of darks, reds, blues and paper-bag browns holds it all together and makes it bounce.  Just as in a spring garden, full of greens that set up the striking blues and reds of the flowers, this composition relates the parts to the whole and the movements and rhythms among the parts.

“Dragonfly Garden”, 18” x 24”, Mixed Media on 90 lb. bond paper,
Thom Wright, 2009 – 2020

In my third experimental drawing shown above, a different design space is used, having mostly the open white paper space below, and an upper horizontal pattern of octagonal pencil rubbings, taken from a plastic strip having these raised shapes.  Next, I did pencil rubbings of a dragonfly taken from several porcelain tiles that are in my tiled shower walls.  My design concept suggests dragonflies emerging from a honeycomb of octangonal cells.  I further developed the dragonfly shapes using pencil and charcoal markings.  However, there was too much white paper, empty space and random positioning of the dragonflies in it, altogether feeling incomplete and needing more structure.  Accordingly, and eleven years later after I looked at it again, I did two more pencil rubbings, one placing small circular arcs from the top of a tin can in front of the dragonflies, and two, a broken rubbing from a man-hole cover in the street of concentric circles of squares.  These two rubbings pushed the grey markings with more density, but also added complexity.  I liked the circular arcs, because they reinforce the spreading direction of the dragonflies.  From there, I shifted to collaging colored paper shapes as added wings of the dragonflies, and small bits of greens and blues into the octangonal honeycomb shapes at the top.

Adding the variety of colors to the dragonfly wings makes a big difference in emphasizing the emanating pattern of the composition.  Humans tend to see color first before light/dark values.  Both the variety of colored wing shapes and the variety of mostly cool colors, these bits of paper help to make color and shape movements within the bouquet of the grouping. 

One last addition began as I was searching my bag of colored papers for something else to fit in and be different.  I found a small, elegantly made paper of light fibers and preserved, small brown leaves.  I cut them out and moved them around the drawing, until they found places near the top at the mouth of the honeycomb.  Yes, they worked there, but now added maybe too much brown, I thought.  So, using torn pieces of a light-brown paper sack, I first did a pencil rubbing on them of parallel lines, taken from a piece of corrugated cardboard. Finally, I added these two large paper wing shapes at the middle-right edge of the drawing.  Now I had more browns for balance and also added a new large scale of a suggested half of a dragonfly on the right.  And there I stopped, because knowing when to stop before going too far is always the better choice, yet it’s always relative to the whole.

From these three experimental drawings, it is important to draw some conclusions about them.  For sure, an experimental drawing is quite unique and different from other 2D drawings and paintings.  Also, seeing the actual work has more impact than looking at their images on a computer screen.  Of course I did include some of the matting and framing in the image to assert their graphic and harmonious contribution, but there is still the intimacy and fragility of seeing the real drawing up close.  And lastly, I am pleased that I showed patience and care in evolving each work to an integrated whole, eleven years later.    

For followers and newcomers to my art website, I invite you to comment and respond to this posting.

Thom

Drawing in the Age of the Corona-Virus

A big part of every painter’s studies involves drawing on paper, lots of it. Ideas begin as a drawing evolves and generates additions, modifications and erasures, seeing the whole and the parts. And during this stay-in time of the corona-virus, we have had plenty of time on our hands to draw. A few days ago, as I was reviewing my saved and uncompleted drawings on paper made over the past ten years, I saw this life drawing that I began in an experimental drawing class in 2010. It was unfinished, but a good start.

“RLM MyLM”, Charcoal, ink and watercolor on paper, 24″ x 18″, Thom Wright, 2010 – 2020

Shown above, I first continued the drawing by strengthening the charcoal lines, then added a light-valued ink wash, followed by some blue washes to increase the 3D modeling on the figures and the background. On the two mailing labels that were already there, I added text, “RLM” on the robot figure and “MyLM” on the male figure on the right, with these new symbols referring obliquely to the present rise of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and BLM political protests against police brutality and particularly to their recent shootings of Black Americans. Applying this language here, the RLM stands for “Robot Lives Matter”, and “MyLM” stands for “My Life Matters”. This drawing addresses this coming future crisis when a large percentage of human jobs are replaced by robot jobs. This is an issue of global magnitude and about what may happen to the economic value of human life versus the benefits of smart robots. Just as in today’s corona-virus crisis, the US economy suddenly closed down, and the unemployment rate sank from about 4% to today’s 16%, how do that many unemployed people cope with life for what may last for an economic recovery that takes years.

When I began this drawing, I remembered my direction at the time concerned the political/social issue of the coming age of robots, when machines will do most of the physical labor and who knows how much of the mental labor. Technology is driving our future towards an unknown period of dramatic change in our culture, and there are political and ethical issues of displacing a large fraction of working people with more efficient machines. And what do we do then? Even working artists may be replaced. Even the current stay-in period presents similar challenges and is creating social, cultural and political changes.

Concurrently with the BLM movement today, there are the corona-virus threat and its social and economic upheaval, our current political dichotomy and its approaching national 2020 elections in the fall. In addition, the ongoing and growing threat of climate change continues unabated, which many believe is the greatest threat to mankind, and it has influenced much of my art making.

Thom Wright with a recent drawing and its art statement on his front yard billboard

One of my personal approaches to dealing with these issues is shown in the photo above. For the past four weeks I have presented my art during this corona-virus period at my sidewalk and street, changing the work each day, to show neighbors, friends and passersby that art is happening here, and in particular my kind of art and what is important to me. I first read about other artists doing this, and how their local communities responded positively and with appreciation and some art sales. Here and now on this new art website, I am also presenting my art that concerns contemporary issues to broaden this dialogue, especially about climate change, that as Senator Bernie Sanders describes it, “the greatest existential threat facing mankind today”. I do not intend to provoke argument, but believe it is important to relate my art making and its influences. I also believe that good art relates to its time as well as deals with aesthetic values.

Early Forest Warning Paintings

I began my “Forest Warning” series in 2018, and started as usual with some small studies. At that time, a rather new painting approach was becoming “popular” on the web, called “paint pouring”. The major characteristic of this approach has to do with its completely unpredictable outcome, because of the rather free of hand pouring method that seemingly mixes and separates color layers that are sequentially added in the pour. At the beginning, most results are chancy or quasi-successful, but for a trained artist, it is not rewarding to accomplish a painting by chance. Thus, I continued with a few more pours, but then added an experimental touch with a brush.

poured paint and hybrid poured paint processes
“Earth Tree Ballad #1″, 16″ x 16”, Acrylic on panel, Thom Wright, 2018

As shown in my small hybrid of poured paint above, I wanted a tree design with a compliant medium of viscous paint with the panel ground showing also. At the bottom, I added several pieces of masking tape to save two horizontal unpainted lines. My choices of colors was kept simple, with red, white, and two shades of blue. There is very little control of the process, but I stopped the “pour” early, and made selective gestural shapes that suggest a tree. At the bottom, I included a black pouring, but in the upper tree section, I switched to a large round brush and dipped it in a thinned black paint, and painted into the poured red, white and blue area. As my additions of black took shape, I noticed too that I could manipulate the gestures of the existing colors as well. By stopping early in this brushing process, the whole of the poured paint still has an integrity of shape and playful swirling lines.

“Earth Tree Ballad #2″, 16″ x 16”, Acrylic paint on panel, Thom Wright, 2018

In my second attempt at this hybrid process as shown above, I did a more complex mixed and poured and stirred painting to begin it, then added the black lines at the end. Again, I think that this hybrid process combines the rich organic mixing of flowing paint with the suggestion of the drawn tree.

In my third and fourth tries at larger pieces and more complex color schemes, I met with failures. Having experienced the process, I came to the conclusion that my own gestural painting process is almost as rich, is better composed in both color schemes and in mark making, and leads to an integrated whole design. Thus, I abandoned the poured paint process and returned to my education and personal experience to pursue painting with meaning.

An Student Artist’s Global Warming Research Project

By Thom Wright   (2005 – 2020)

Summary

Thom Wright, as a graduate art student at Cal State University Long Beach in 2005, investigated a potential solution to Global Warming (now Climate Change), which is caused by increasing levels of green-house gases in the atmosphere due to human activity. While taking an art course in Intermedia Art, he researched one of the possible remedies that considers ways to reflect more sunlight from urban areas.  He documents his findings in a student art show at the school art gallery in 2006, and in 2020 he submits his findings to the Trump Administration for recommended implementation to begin a test program in always sunny Palm Springs, CA.

Early Research

            In 2005 when Wright was researching Global Warming at the CSULB Library, he came across a newspaper article published in the New York Times concerning NASA research on Global Warming.  One of the NASA projects noted that urban development generally increased the absorption of sunlight and raised urban temperatures about +5F versus natural areas, because of the structure rooftops and paved roads that are grey to dark grey in color.  They proposed that if all the cities of the world would paint dark rooftops with white paint, that it would reflect enough sunlight to completely remove the effects of global warming due to green-house gases in the atmosphere.

            Figure 1  Global average temperature versus time to the year 2000    

This proposal seemed to be a rather easy solution to the future threat of Global Warming, and Wright came up with an idea to expand this solution by painting all the black asphalt streets in the world white also.  This idea led him to investigate the actual aborption level of sunlight by rooftops and asphalt streets.  In order to estimate the percentage of absorption of sunlight with the changing angle of sunlight during the day, he decided to build a new instrument called a solar diffuse reflectometer, and make these measurements himself, using different street materials and paints.  Figure 2 shows his first instrument as it is being used to test black asphalt and white-painted asphalt.

Figure 2  The diffuse absorption reflectometer being used in an actual materials test setup using fresh asphalt and white-painted asphalt.

            Wright also did experiments on roofing materials, because most colors of materials are a lighter shade of grey or brown.  He started with the shingles on his own house that were a light grey color, as shown in Figure 3.  Note that at this time he began wearing on his hat, white plastic coffee cup lids from Starbucks, with the letters “SGW”, indicating “Stop Global Warming”.  He is shown applying a piece of aluminum foil on his roof top to make comparative measurements of the foil absorption versus the rooftop absorption.  He found that as expected, the roofing shingles were about 50% more absorptive than the foil at most sun angles.

Figure 3  Wright making sunlight absorption measurements on his roof in 2005.

Wright next turned to his own street (Erwin Lane in Huntington Beach, CA) to test the levels of absorption during daylight hours.  Figure 4 shows a patch of fresh asphalt applied to his own street that will compare solar reflection levels of new black asphalt versus older asphalt.  Figure 5 shows Wright making a preliminary assessment of the street asphalt electrical properties.

Figure 4  SGW test patch on Erwin Lane

Wright noticed that there was some white paint lettering on his street (shown in Figure 5), and by comparing the bare asphalt with the white painted asphalt, a higher level of solar reflection was substantiated.  These encouraging results led him to consider the effect of the whole street being painted white.  He also began wearing white coffee cup lids on his hat to dramatize his plan to do something about Global Warming.

Figure 5 Wright making electrical properties measurements on his asphalt paved street.

In a calibration test of his instrument, Wright measures the electrical and sunlight absorption properties of the Starbucks white plastic coffee cup lid, as shown in Figure 6. It is found to be an excellent reflector.

Figure 6  Wright making electrical measurements on a white coffee cup lid to calibrate his instrument.

The following week, Wright, with his wife Linda, went to Palm Springs to make additional measurements in a desert community with lots of sunshine.  Figure 7 shows one of his experiments on a major boulevard in Palm Springs, where his wife Linda has painted a section of the street with white paint to determine the darkening time for a busy street.

Figure 7 In Palm Springs at a major intersection, Mrs. Wright paints the black asphalt white.

To extrapolate his findings to the street conditions found in Palm Springs, Wright first photographed a major street intersection in Palm Springs with its normal daytime lighting as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 Normal daytime view of an intersection in Palm Springs

Next, working with the Maintenance Department of Palm Springs, Wright paints this intersection with a reversed pattern of white painted asphalt and with unpainted asphalt stripes indicating the crosswalk area.  The simulated result is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 Later image of Palm Springs street intersection with white paint applied.

Conclusions

Although Wright’s experiments and simulations indicated promising results that could make substantial reductions in the effects of Global Warming, there were several drawbacks that emerged from the simulations for the entire city of Palm Springs.  First, there is a potential concern about solar reflection off the white painted streets at sunrise and sunset.  The streets of Palm Springs are mostly north/south and east/west oriented, so that near the summer solstice sunrise and sunset periods, the solar reflection off of the white-painted East/West streets would have almost 100% reflection.  Drivers facing the sun at those times would experience complete whiteout of their view of the street. However, if they all wore polarized sunglasses, this effect would be reduced by 50%.  Still, it was deemed insufficient in allowing visibility of traffic and possible pedestrians crossing the street, especially if the drivers were intoxicated at the time.  Although this whiteout condition occurs only a few days of the year and lasts only a few hours, it does happen during rush hour.  Attempts to mitigate this effect or to legislate “solar whiteout” holidays did not appear to be likely solutions.  In addition, the white painting of rooftops was also brought into question, because there would be a wider range of occurrence of whiteout conditions and times of occurrence on all of the city streets with houses with varying roof angles and house facing angle. 

            These findings did prove useful in exposing the limits and dangers of this potential solution to climate change.  Wright presented a report of his findings at a student art show at CSULB, as shown in Figure 10.  And he received an “A” grade in his Intermedia course. It should also be noted that this research was paid for with his own funds. He thanks the city of Palm Springs for supporting this work.

Figure 10 Wright’s art display at CSULB in 2006 of his solar diffuse reflectometer results for white-painted asphalt streets as a potential solution to Global Warming

Deciding to Frame a Painting or Not

An important aspect in the decision of buying a painting concerns whether to frame a painting or not. For Abstract paintings, especially large paintings, the trend towards unframed work grows, even in art galleries and museums. At your home it is a personal choice, and to address this for my art, this posting addresses.

“Dance #1″, 20″ x 20”, Acrylic and ink on canvas, Thom Wright, 2020

Shown above is one of my latest paintings from a new series entitled “Dance #1”, a small work and shown as usual without a frame. Because it is light valued overall, it stands out well without a frame, especially if presented on a toned color wall. In comparison with my present works shown on my website, it has my abstract expressionist elements, where the figures interact with each other and with the “stage” space of the performance. The figures are both dancing and floating, with personal body gestures.

Thom Wright with his framed painting mounted on a light blue wall

Shown here is the same painting, this time with one of my handmade wooden frames with an Early American brown colored stain. I make my own frames and sell most of them this way, because the simplicity and modernity of this frame and its color reinforce the square format and bring out the color and light of the painting. Not all of my paintings are this light, but I tend to favor warm toned paintings and they work well with the wood frame. The frame itself is as light as the canvas with its wooden stretcher bars. And because I make the frame, there is no after purchase investment in a frame required. For most of my art shown here, I include the frame and the shipping in the stated price.

If you have any further questions about this matter, any other questions about purchasing one of my works, use my “Contact the Artist” page and include your email address. Thom

Does My Abstract Art Matter?

Does My Art Matter?

Now in the 15th week of the corona-virus stay-in in the USA, with some businesses only now beginning o open again, how are artists coping with the drastic shifts occurring in the art market.  Taking much advice to heart, I have restarted my art website, which now includes this blog.  It does help me in presenting my art on-line to a potentially larger audience than available at art galleries or community art fairs.  But it requires patience and some dedication to attract viewers and followers who may refer others.  So I am hopeful that I can connect with abstract art lovers who are interested in art about contemporary global issues.  This subset of the art market may only be 1 – 2%, yet that may be sufficient if I can address its esthetic and philosophical content.

In 1913 Wassily Kandinsky wrote in the first book on abstract art, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, that “the more abstract the form, the clearer and more direct is its appeal.”  His book has been my most important influence in making abstract paintings.  He states the reasons to paint are driven by the issues of the age, and for me the major issue of our 21st century is climate change.  His book describes the basic language of abstract elements, of form, line, shape, space and color.  It has been the greatest influence on Modern Western art since its publication, and I recommend it to all abstract art lovers.

My approach in this dialogue venue is to show an example from a group of paintings or prints with a common theme, and discuss it in some depth.  This art website is specifically designed to quickly access the group of work that I am discussing, beginning on my “Portfolio Page”.  Usually I include my art statement for this group at the top of the page, then go on in detail about the why and how it’s made.  I believe that my readers are familiar with the art history of abstract art, and in particular, would know something of my artists’ influences.  I invite these viewers to comment and ask any questions they may have about my work using my “Contact the Artist” page.

My first blogs presented my “In Balance with Nature” and my “Global Climate Change” series, which are two views of my major theme of climate change.  These two groups are presently accessible on my website, to which I will be adding more pages and more discussion blogs.  My next theme to be presented is “Forest Warning”, which presents another aspect of the impact of climate change on man and nature. 

“Global Transformation”, 12″ x 12″, Acrylic, ink and collage on paper, Thom Wright, 2010 – 2020

Occasionally, every artist makes a “different” new work, or reworks an old work. I made changes to the work shown above, “Global Transformation”, and present it here as a piece that doesn’t fit in any of my existing categories, and it is a small work on paper. The square format is divided in left/right sides, showing light and dark backgrounds, representing day and night. An abstract mapping presents land divisions and man-made objects like factories and ships. Two earths, one before and one after (climate change) use color to convey the total conversion from the past to the future, from natural to abnormal, from cool to hot, from life to death. Thus, even a small painting can address our predominate issues.

Monotypes – Jazz Combo Series

ART STATEMENT for the Jazz Combo Monotypes Series

Making visual art about live jazz music became the source of my inspiration and direction in a large group of monotypes titled “The Jazz Combo” series.  After leaving printmaking for 12 years, I still had my big press working and lots of cans of oil-based colored inks. These one-of-a-kind prints on paper are meant to have the mark of the music, with abstract, interacting shapes and rhythms in the instruments and the figures.  However, monotypes require a rapid working style, limited by the relatively short time that the printing inks remain moist on the plate before printing (about 30-40 minutes).  Thus, the initial composition must be in mind, along with a well-defined process to develop all the elements.  Each piece is extemporary and adds fresh ideas from the previous monotypes, that then come together in the making.

“Jazz Combo #2″, 16″ x 20”, Monotype, Thom Wright, 2016

My first monotypes began with a smaller size (16″ x 20″) to reacquaint me with the whole process again. Above is “Jazz Combo #2”, as an example of my starting place. #1 didn’t make the cut. And I used my previous approach of rolling out the background, then placing stencils inked in patterns onto the still wet background on the plate. These early ones basically were trial runs, kept simple with no mixing and gradations of colors and values. There are the three players with stringed instruments made with cutouts using manila folders. The three wobbly shapes above their heads are also made from manila folders, and used to suggest the out-flowing music from the instruments. At the bottom stage section are torn strips of newsprint. And I have usually used freshly picked nasturtium leaves from my yard to add the rich organic shapes and add to the rhythm of the shapes.

“Jazz Combo #11″, 16″ x 20”, Monotype, Thom Wright, 2017

After getting acquainted with my printmaking processes, I then began to make better work, beginning in early 2017. The piece above shows a significant increase in the colors, values and interwoven parts of the two players on either side with their instruments, a central planter of nasturtiums that also has a blue-toned background, and a mix of organic shapes and drawn lines. The colors interact among the figures and the pattern shapes. Note too that the basic background colors are rolled together and blended to change color and value from top to bottom. I like that their feet are in the air and turning in different directions, suggesting dancing with the rhythms. The player on the left has his guitar showing in two positions of play. I also play a jazz guitar, although not very well. But I’m inspired by such great American music.

This post serves as an introduction to the coming addition of ten of these monotypes to my art portfolio. viewing all of them together provides a better understanding of the uniqueness of each one, and of course the breadth of the “theme and variations” presented. A couple of these can work together too. I would appreciate your comments and feedback. Thom

Analysis of Making a Painting

To introduce myself to viewers as an “abstract expressionist” painter, the goal of this post is to walk through a number of stages of development of a selected painting in order to present my painting process and some of my thinking and decision making at each stage. This series consists of acrylic and ink on watercolor paper, canvas and panel. I chose one painting now on view in my “In Balance with Nature” series, where I documented four stages, from initial design to completion.

“In Balance with Nature #34, initial layout”, 28″ ht. x 22″ wd, Acrylic and ink on panel, 2020

I almost never start with a white blank surface, because it is somewhat confrontational and has no suggestions as to local variations. So after I primer this panel with white gesso, I first add a thin wash of a mixture of yellow and burnt sienna, then add a random wash of thin India ink, and then a transparent thin wash of white paint. I am just breaking up the space and removing the blank white surface. It reminds me of the early Rennaissance Italian painters process for painting frescos, where they initially make a charcoal drawing on large paper, then transfer the drawing to the wet fresco surface.

Next, I spend some hours doodling with pencil in my artist notebook, making small thumbnail sketches, with many alterations as I go. This thinking refers back to previous paintings in the series, and is experimental, trying out design variations. If I am lucky, it may only take a couple of hours. Once I am satisfied, I transfer the linear drawing onto the canvas, making the black lines as shown here. The bottom shapes of triangles and quadrilaterals are derived from my recent earlier paintings, representing a group of trees. Trees for me have become my primary inspiration for many of my paintings for the past five years. They are my symbols of nature undergoing stress from climate change, its increased forest fires, and effects of human generated pollution to their environment.

Notice too in this early stage that there is a hierarchy of rectangular shapes and lines. I try to create spaces and shapes that are in contrast to each other, to heighten an abstract drama and to simplify the organization of lights and darks.

“In Balance with Nature #34, Stage 2 design”

In the stage 2 of my painting shown above, I have added mostly thin and transparent washes of acrylic colors. There is also the thick, black vertical line that begins the major division of spaces. The vertical format for this painting was chosen as part of the initial design. At this stage, I try variations of colors, and look for rhythms of repeated shapes and colors. In addition, there are suggestions of line movements among the shapes and within the open spaces. Notice too how the color shapes are relating to the random staining variations in the initial drawing. To some artists, this stage may seem tight and obvious and without taking chances. For me, I have tried to make bolder gestures early, but too often find that things get skewed, off balance and require further editing. In fact, that is generally the case in my process too, but my chances of success usually are better in a progressive development of change. It’s sort of like “start with something you know, then get creative as you go”.

In Balance with Nature #34, Stage 3

In my stage 3 of this painting, I commit to more colors and richer constrasts of colors within and among the three regions of the painting. For the tree shapes at the bottom, I prefer warm colors that suggest not the expected greenery of trees, but the thermal shifts of trees in distress becoming warmer. The red-orange and light blue at the top suggests a sky landscape for a forest scene. Beneath the upper red-orange are dark spots that I had splashed as a organic gesture. Notice that as colors increase the contrast, the geometry of the painting is set. Only the large lower-left rectangle is still unpainted and open to the painting process by preserving the random under-painting variations.

“In Balance with Nature #34, Stage 3”

In stage 4 of the painting shown above I have developed the large unpainted rectangle with light colors, light at the top, transitioning to a light yellow in the center, and darker values of a green gray at the bottom. Nothing is solid or simple, but allows for more brushmarks with some relationships maintained to the under-painting’s value patches. In a way it gives me an approach that resembles how realistic landscape paintings are made, but that usually follow observation rather than random patterns that I have preserved. In the bottom green-gray area there are also a mix of linear brushmarks that provide additional rhythms to the tree shapes. Also, some of the earlier shape/color decisions are altered to adjust to these new additions. This lower rectangle becomes integral as on of the large spaces of the composition.

“In Balance with Nature #34, Stage 4”

In stage 4 shown above there are many small adjustments to all parts of the painting. The black vertical is repainted and darker, the bottom right area tries a new pattern of vertical colors extending down the right side, and some of the lines are lightened, darkened and varied. This stage also takes a lot time of stepping back and looking at what’s working and not working.

“In Balance with Nature #34″, 28″x22”, Acrylic and ink on canvas, Thom Wright, 2020

Finally, the finished painting shown above required more adjustments and decisions to clarify and intensify the result. In particular, the upper band with the single red-orange shape is now changed to three horizontal bands. The dark ink spots disappear, not relating to the total painting. And in the large light rectangle the small lines are accentuated with color brushmarks. The blue vertical on the right is intensified to hold up against all the warm colored shapes. Part of this thinking is personal preference and part is an itch that needs scratching. All in all, there is a dynamic balance achieved with many parts relating to the whole and to each other. And that’s my process.

My “Global Warming Cycle” Series

My “Global Warming Cycle” series of paintings began in 2005 when I was a grad student at CSULB and preparing for my Master’s Exhibition at their student art galleries. The subject matter became more important to me, and I wanted to direct my art work towards what is now recognized as the greatest threat to man and nature, and to raise public consciousness about it. My goal then was to raise public consciousness about climate change through these paintings, as well as make paintings that have conceptual significance as well as developing a new abstract style for me.

NASA average atmospheric temperature changes in the north polar region, based on 20 years of atmospheric measurement data, 1996

My approach came from my own profession as an aerospace systems engineer, particularly directed towards early warning satellite design/development for passive-infrared, space-based sensor systems. I was well acquainted with infrared atmospheric physics and IR technologies used to detect and discriminate ICBM missile plumes emitting carbon-dioxide plumes from the natural infrared structure of the earth when viewing it from space. NASA research into climate change included earth weather history and prediction modeling, summarized in earth maps as the above. Thus, my painting approach derives from abstract mapping of the earth. As my basic design format, I selected the “circle in a square”, and developed my own imagined global weather scenarios. An early example of one of my paintings is shown below. Four of my paintings of this series were accepted in a show at the Peter Blake Art Gallery in Costa Mesa (now defunct) in 2009, and the show reviewed in the Orange County Weekly newspaper (now also defunct).

“GWC #1″ 24″ x 24”, Acrylic on panel, Thom Wright, 2006

Of course back in 2006, abstract mapping may have been more appropriate for a public that had little interest or recognition of global warming. As the science improved and as earth weather became hotter and more violent, the public and many world governments began to experience the connection of increasing greenhouse gases with climate changes. Later as public awareness grew, my paintings changed purpose and direction. Below presents one of my abstract paintings from 2009. The combination of large, graphic text “GCC” and the sequential images of the earth changing with time present the future choices for man in acting early versus too late with different outcomes. This painting was accepted into the “Made in California” juried Exhibition at the City of Brea Art Gallery in 2009.

“Global Climate Change #2″, Acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 60”, Thom Wright, 2009

In 2017 I returned to abstract figurative painting, which was my initial direction when I was accepted to the graduate art program at CLULB in 2004. The painting below shows one painting that was accepted in the Special Exhibition “Nature Prevails”, showing art works by members of the non-profit artist group, Southern California Artists, Inc., and held at the BC Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. This painting shows female goddess representing mankind and dumping oil-spill pollution into the earth’s oceans, symbolizing our continuing and increasing, toxic, and greenhouse emissions production and its subsequent virulent effects on the oceans, atmosphere and on all life on earth.

“Man Versus Nature”, 48″ x 40″, Acrylic on canvas, Thom Wright, 2010

During the last decade, I made several more additions and changes to my approach addressing climate change. I will be presenting these as I add them to my art website in the coming months.

The latest painting in this “Global Warming Cycle” series was made this month during the stay-in period of the corona-virus. I combined themes from these two global threats to man into one small painting. We now live in the age of multiple, simultaneous global threats, one caused by human activity with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of human population, and one caused by a mutated microcosm virus. Titled “Polar Contact Tracing”, it uses my abstract mapping design (circle in a square with mixed media). It probably will be used again by me and other artists facing future multiple global threats.

“Polar Contact Tracing” 16″ x 16″, Mixed Media on panel, Thom Wright, 2020

In this summary of this painting series, I have neglected to cover my aesthetics and painting processes. For now, this overview hopefully generates interest for the viewers, both for this series and three others to be presented.

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