Budapest: Day Seven: Cosmos in the Chaos

Today is day seven of my residency here in Budapest. I have just finished lunch ( a Hungarian potato and bean soup with a fresh baguette, a nectarine and sparkling water) and am sitting in my apartment listening to Agnes Obel. I haven't really wanted to write for the last few days, I haven't slept great yet, so that may be a little of the no writing angst. It also could be the stories of the local people and the generations who suffered under the hands of German Fascism and the Russian Communism. I have experienced both sides in other countries and lived in a communist country for a while. I do feel a new confidence amongst the youth, but also feel the years of suffering and worry of the elder generations.

I took these two pictures in the dome of Buda Castle.

For the first 5 days I explored the city with the other residents, from Canada and San Antonio. I could probably write about all the museums, streets, architecture, and beauty that this magnificent city holds. But I am here for art. To grow as an artist, in another culture. Taking everything that I feel and observe and transform it all into artistic growth. This can be easy and difficult as an artist. For me, creating art is often times more a time of prayer than a subject. As an abstract expressionist I often need to empty myself to experience as much of the divine that I can come close to grasping. 

Madeline L’Lengle writes, “It is a frightening thing to open oneself to the strange and dark side of the divine; it means letting go our sane self-control, that control which gives us the illusion of safety. But safety is only an illusion, and letting go of it is part of listening to the silence, and to the Spirit.”

Taking some time to enjoy some literature and Hungarian wine.

This may be why I have refused to write over the first few days. I have felt emotional “heavy”, I have experience magnificent art, art that was created in forms that is longer practiced. Stood before Mogdiliani and Picasso exhibits. Two artists who have influenced generations and that will continue to do the same, long after they have died. As I paraphrase L’Engle and add my own words, “Each of these men, whose paintings I stand before and admire in a great fashion. They are just that, all men, and all dead, Their distance from us in chronology seems to give them an overwhelming authority. But they were not dead when they painted, and they were as human as the rest of us.”

I moved from powerful exhibitions of the created and spent a day in the Terror House Museum, that walked you through the history of German Nazi rule and Russian Communist rule. The power of death, betrayal, hatred, and ugliness has virtually left a small stain on my heart as I moved through relics of Nazi Germany, the torture chambers connected to tunnels under the city from Russian Communist rule. I needed to experience a visual representation of people that overcame these cruel moments in history. I have heard the stories from our Residency Director of her family suffering at the hands of both Nazi Germany and Russia. Family in camps, bombings, raising chickens in the house, hiding in the basement, moments from books and film. I am changed, again. My eyes have observed many peoples and my ears have heard similar stories first had, all over this world. “Leonard Berstien says that for him music is cosmos in chaos. And it is not true only of music; all art is cosmos, cosmos found within the chaos.” (page 17) I have truly found cosmos, here in Budapest, cosmos that is resting amongst the chaos of history and story. And this has led me to create. The reason I my journey has led me here to this specific moment in time.

Yesterday, I set up my tools of the trade in my momentary studio. This is were the cosmos met my soul and my hands. My working space is in our Director Beata’s studio basement. This space holds stories from Hungary’s history, from her families history. The house was built by her grandfather, and during German occupation the house was bombed. There were multiple families seeking refuge here in the house. They kept chickens upstairs, for eggs and food. One evening her grandfather was upstairs checking the chickens and he was spotted from the Palace moving around in the window. Orders were given to bomb any house where people were seen moving. The house was bombed. The families were able to survive by taking refuge in the basement. Where I now sit, amongst their memories of fear, joy, tears, laughter, love and chaos. As my hands reach for pencils or pastels, I think about children playing amongst these stone walls and bricks, not knowing the chaos that existed above. 

I knew coming into this residency that there would be challenges for me as an artist. Challenges that I knew if embraced fully would only help me grow in my craft. The first is working small. For the last two years I have primarily worked no smaller that 4 feet in scale, with multiple paintings in the 9 and 10 foot range. The second is the theme. Since I have been working in bodies of work from my personal writings and literary classics, having a theme outside of my current idea sphere would be a challenge. Our theme is environment. Not something that has been in my working map before. The challenge for any artist is creating a piece that truly speaks, that allows the audience/observer fresh eyes to see. 

I began processing what this could look like a few months back and my thoughts led me to begin working on a thesis based upon the harmony of matter and spirit, asking questions based upon the relationship between creation and the created, nature and humanity. 

How does life outside of humanity react and live alongside of us? 

Do our actions/spirit/emotions/relationships affect our natural surroundings? 

What is at work in the air, in molecules, in the environment that we cannot see?

When we feel happiness, sorrow, anger, joy, hope, distrust, love, hate…does nature feel the spirit of these feelings as they come out from our souls, mentality, attitudes, actions and reactions? 

Does tension, reconciliation, discrimination, judgment, hate, mercy, in our communities/cultures seep into to the air and disrupt nature’s harmony- having an affect on climate change or environmental deconstruction? 

Could these things add to nature’s disruption? 

These thoughts are all built upon the theory that the Creator of the Universe is in a love relationship with all things created. All things created continue to create themselves towards the image of the Creator.

I am only beginning to write, read, study, think and paint through these thoughts. I will write more as they develop. Here is a video from my first day in the basement painting. Please leave comments, thoughts, ideas that you have. I would love to talk through these ideas and this world with you all! Here is a short 1:00 video from my first day working through a few studies.

i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun’s birthday, this is the birth

day of life and love and wings; and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth…

now the ears of my ears are awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened. 

e.e cummings

"An Attempt to Breath" a new painting.

Here is a time-lapse of me working on my latest piece, "An Attempt to Breath"-

Would love to hear your thoughts below:)

Tension. A new Body of Work.

I recently began work on a new series titled "Tension".  In this series of work I created 4 large scale pieces ranging from 5 feet to 8 feet in scale.

We recently started working on my film "A Canvas of Sound" after a year hiatus and have been interviewing musical artist's about tension in their work or craft, where it exists, when does it exist and how they combat or work through it.  I decided I would create a body of paintings that deal with the tension that I feel when creating. 

The first piece of this series was  titled "Tension Here" and was created out of the emotion between my art and myself, how that tension exists in a small space between my heart/soul and a piece of material that I struggle to give life to.

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Tension Here: 60"x34" Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas  $2125.00

The second piece of the series is titled "/tenSHen/" which represents a "pulling tightly", the tension that I often feel inside myself as a creator. Always wanting to create, every waking moment, it builds and builds and pulls my mind away at times, and stretches my soul in a moments breath. The only escape or release from that tension is to paint.

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/tenSHen/: 76"x40" Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas $3150.00

The 3rd piece in the series is titled "Breathing Through", it was based on a short poem that I wrote while thinking through this body of work. " Breathing through dusty lungs to (2) create here admits this tension." This piece holds heavy truths for me.  I have journey'd all over the world in my 40 years of existance and I have experienced heavy truths that exist in our world.  With my own eyes I have experienced genocide, rape, hunger, poverty, child soldiers, communism, fear, hatred and many other atrocities that have shaped my soul.  There is a tension as an artist to be able to shed light on the truths that exist in this world, that many people do not get to observe, discuss or feel. My lungs have collected dust from all over the world, and so I breath through those lungs as I create.

Breathing Through: 65"x72" Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas $4800.00

The last piece in this series is titled "Tumbleweeds", it is also named after specific prose that I wrote on my studio wall prior to this series beginning, "My tension exists here amongst the tumbleweeds and distant memories, so I live on." 

The depth of this piece is wrapped up in a literal tumbleweed. Tumbleweed: any of various plants, as Amaranthus albus, A.graecizans, or the Russian thistle, Salsola kali,whose branching upper parts become detachedfrom the roots and are driven about by the wind.  As the tumbleweed gets blown across distance with the wind it gathers up other plants as well and scatters their seeds on its journey. There is much correlation to my life experiences wrapped up in this definition.

Tumbleweeds: 62"x94" Acrylic and Graphite on Canvas $6000

Here is a short video of me creating "Breathing Through" in my Austin Studio.

  I truly feel that the Tension series has opened up new direction and confidence for me as a painter as my work evolves.  I am currently working on ideas, sketches and studies for a new series titled "Healing Wounds".  I have experienced many wounds in my life, seen others experience heavy wounding and I feel as if our society is struggling with decades of deep wounds that continue to plague our unity as a melting pot of other cultures and people groups.  I am excited to start painting this week!