This was the sky shortly before dark on the beach in Conneaut, Ohio recently. The jet contrails are unavoidable so I simply embrace them as some kind of emblematic writing or markings. As a painter I make a lot of these kind of marks on my paintings. They serve many purposes both in terms of the content of the art and as formal art elements. I use a lot of science and technology based ideas and imagery overlayed on top of beautiful color fields. I guess you have to look no further than this to figure out where I draw some of my inspiration from!
I always look at the sky- I snap photos from my phone, just to look at them. They are not art, but I have long been inspired by the sky. The sky is the one great eternal thing we all have in common- just look up and there it is- as much mine, yours or anyone's. The clouds in sunset or the dark sky at night both move me, and even during the long periods that I am not actively painting, this looking informs me and keeps the art-fires burning inside.
My hectic life keeps me out of the painting studio for long periods, but I always go back to it refreshed and ready to make new art. That time will be soon; here in the dead of winter I will fire up my encaustic tools, torches, hotpots and hotplates in my unheated attic studio. You'd be amazed at how the tools, hotpots, lights and my space heater can make it pretty tolerable temperature wise. A few more weeks and I will be back in the studio. I have some obligations over these next few weekends, but I am putting in my order to Swan's for wax today!
Here's another recent shot I posted on Instagram:
I usually find myself in parking lots around sunset- the nature of my crazy job sends me out shopping quite a lot, so if I see the evening sun at all in the cold months it is from some parking lot. This stuff keeps me going, creatively.
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