The Open Studio says thanks.

TALISMAN 7, (2009) oil on canvas, 24" x 24"

This past weekend saw many of my friends coming up, over and out to visit the lair and see what I've been doing instead of hanging out with them. My thanks to you all for the kind words, support and generosity.

I ended up selling a few paintings, a "Happy" print, and had some nibbles on a few other pieces, so it was a good weekend, considering the limited amount of traffic I had.

That will change for the (I hope) better in September, when Atelier One will be having a building-wide open studio event, featuring many of the artist/inmates showing their stuff. Still in the planning stage, the idea is to have dee-jays, bands and a lot of publicity surrounding the two-day event September 12th & 13th.

In the meantime, after a short break, I'll return to the studio to finish the last two of the Talismans (one of which was sold in its fetal stage of development--never had that happen before) and to begin a new series of works.

But, like I said, many thanks to everyone who stopped by. As for the rest of you, you can check out the new stuff on the website.

Why Does My Food Co-Op Hate Me?

As everyone knows, the purpose of a blog is to make any slight, affront or incident which happens to the blogger a matter of global significance. To that end, I am going to relate a shocking expose of a situation happening at my local community food co-op and perhaps at yours.

I am referring to the practice of buying certain products in bulk, or, more specifically, buying dish soap in bulk. A couple of years ago, I decided that it made more sense to buy a soap bottle once, and refill it from the bulk dish soap bin at the co-op. Cuts down on the plastic in the world, and would save money in the long run, right? Better for everybody, and creates the illusion that I am "part of the solution", right?

So, I've been doing this for a while and feeling pretty good about myself, and yesterday I decided to see just how much I was saving by reducing waste, cutting down on the production costs of the dish soap manufacturer and the store, and trying to determine exactly how much dish soap I'll have to buy to get myself out of debt.

A lot more than I thought, it turns out.

Buying 32 ounces of dish soap from the bulk bin, using my own bottle (bought from the co-op, by the way) runs about $6.20. The same amount of dish soap in a plastic bottle sitting on the shelf costs $4.69. So, if I understand, I am paying 25% more to reduce the production costs of a dish soap manufacturer. Cool.

I'm certainly no expert when it comes to capitalism, but it would seem that if you wanted to encourage recycling, re-using, reducing plastic waste, bulk purchasing, and all the other things that make shopping at community markets so great, wouldn't you want to incentivize, as they say, your customers to buy from the bulk bins? Long, long ago, when Patti Smith was new, and I first began to shop at these kinds of stores, you actually SAVED money by buying in bulk. Peanut butter was cheaper. Granola, too. I'm sure of it. Or, goddess help us, perhaps the entire thing has been one giant holistic scam.

On the other hand, maybe somebody should talk to Costco.

Fishy Go Swim Swim (studio version)

TALISMAN 1, (2009), oil on canvas, 24" x 24".

The long gap in posts here results in some part from working in my new Graton studio. In April I moved into #28 at Atelier One. This was the space formerly occupied by Adela Akers, who had added sheetrock, track lighting and other details to make it seem as much a gallery as a studio. It is a beautiful, inspiring space, and one that encouraged me to open it up to show my work.

In May, I began a series of paintings which were based on an encounter I had a few years ago with a feng shui consultant. While in our old home in Albany, she commented on my paintings and suggested I make one with eight red fish and one black one, as that would encourage prosperity. I was one to other things at that point, and sort of forgot about it (which probably explains my finances, I suppose).

My wife reminded me of the idea as I was unpacking into the new space, and I began to contemplate the idea of "chi" being able to recognize fish on a painting, let alone the "correct" number and color of those fish. That led to wondering how recognizable the fish had to be, and to whom (or to what). What are the cognitive functions of chi and what does it mean to create artwork for the pleasure of some kind of energy. If the existing depictions of these arrangements are any indication, chi favors fish that anyone can see are fish.

Or so one would believe.

Some additional research showed me that in actuality the fish (as well as their surrounding water, also a wealth attractant) only need to be understood by the owners of the art to be nine fish in order to be "effective". Freeing up the sensibilities of the human involved is a relief to all concerned, however more questions began to pop up.

The artwork now functions as an intermediary between the spiritual and material realms, and, wrapped in the mystical "other", takes on a new value aside from its intrinsic properties. Imbued with alleged powers from both ancient beliefs and a current agreement with its owner, the painting works as an object more inline with a fetish object or charm.

So, I decided to create a small group of paintings exploring these ideas. They are all identical in size and shape, though they use varying levels of representation of the nine fish. As they are finished I'll post them up here and on my website. I certainly can't make any claims as to their ability to generate prosperity, at least not yet, but I invite you to come by and check them out.

My studio will be open Saturday and Sunday July 25th and 26th from 1 to 6 p.m.

Its located at 2860 Bowen Street in Graton. Discount refreshments will be served, and know that there are plenty of other great things to do in the area should you want to make a day of it.