Art of Don DeLeva

As a portrait artist I have come to realize the face is just a part of the body that we tend to focus on. The mind is part of that face. We see the world through our mind, it is only natural that it should be part of the face's physical appearance .

I wouldn't really know if it is easy to do a drawing in one hour. I assume it is a matter of if the work feels like it is finished. I tend to need more time.

Finding places to show your paintings is a good thing. No matter where you so show make sure you let people know you are show there. It will bring the bar or shop more people who will spread the word your are showing there.

My art has always been a log of my life experience, a journal if you will. It has been fun keeping track of my life as a animal being that is fully engaged in the human experience no matter how crazy it seems. It is so exciting to try to live as a 3 party passenger to the human experience. Thus the journal can be more from a journalists point of view. The challenge comes when the human me does not know what to do when the animal me experiences a change to my predictable bubble pattern. I seem to respond with the animal self searching for protection and intuition as a guide to safety and acceptance of my new pattern of existence.    Construction 6 , Graphite on rag paper, 8"x 10",  2004 

The mind seems to build a bubble around everyday life. This bubble seems to offer the protection of predictability. This bubble seems to shrink with time in order to create patterns in behavior that make the everyday " more efficient ". Do I know this? Can I prove this? No, I can't. It just seems that is how my mind works. Blunt Sly,  Acrylic on Skateboard, 2015

The every day creates patterns that are easy to slip into. Maybe try remembering they are just patterns, and will at some point in time change. This might make it easier to accept the new pattern and the change in your life. A red and black pattern changing as you look at it.

As to the Floating Monk, I truly believe he floated in the air forever because I saw it with my own eyes. And from the perspective of radioactive isotopes like Oxygen-12 and Boron-9, who have a half-life shorter then 10 −18 seconds, they have proof that the monk floats forever.  That is a scientific fact.

Sometimes it is easy to believe anything is possible.  On time, I saw a Buddhist Monk float in the air, in lotus position, for what could have been forever. However, from my perspective I saw this phenomenal feat take place for 0.5 seconds. There was no special effects curtsy of  video software. In full lotus there he floated. I watched him leap up in the air about 4feet and before he came back down to earth, he achieved full Lotus posture.

Most times images just spill out of me. This one did not. I did have a relationship with this one. Amy 

It's all about the story. People need a story to give them reference to the abstract a jump off point.

Maybe sometimes the words won't come so easy. Maybe it is because there are no words for what you are experiencing.

It's always been very hard to describe the difference between "Art " and Illustration. You can see it and hear it and feel it, art seems to be ephemeral like it is alive in some form. Illustration seems to just be explanatory, like a snap shot of life.

The mental part of creating can be an incredibly subtle action. The self critique seems to have the ability to take center stage as the driving force of direction. I know for me that my opinions on art history lead me into a corral of what I thought my work should be like. It was subtle, I rarely noticed my inner voice say things like "That doesn't look enough like Dali." or "Add more expression like Munch".   These where artist styles that I thought were "acceptable". This is not a slam against art history. I am saying more that art history is not a guide to create by. It is an example of what has been created so that you can see creativity's diversity. Most of art histories heroes where created by the price someone paid to own the art work by that artist. The Migration: acrylic and graphite on wood, 2012. 24"x30"

If you are on the floor, center of stage, four rows of people back, expect to get shoved. If you are near the perimeter of the Pit expect to be hit. If you take it personal, then you are the person that needs to rethink your vantage point. There are no victims in the pit . Bull and The China Shop: Acrylic on wood, 2014, 22"x 32"

Some days we plan to dedicate to "Really digging deep" into a project and getting a lot accomplished. Some times those days we end up accomplish things that we had no idea we needed to accomplish. As I walk: Acrylic on panel, 4x6, 2017

Some times you will get to the middle of a work and think your almost finished only to realize you are only at the beginning of the middle. I assume it has to do with seeing the potential of what it is you are building. But what if you can't see the potential because you don't know your own ability? Meaning you have never pushed yourself to a place in your work where you felt a sense of full accomplishment. Once again I am assuming you had to have attained the goal in order to know how to get there. What if your finished stage is measured on the comparison of your work to your hero's or mentor's finished phase? Do you know how and why they finished there? What if you don't know how to get to that finished phase you seek? What "mile markers" can you recognize that help you to realize you are in that finishing phase? Maybe these ideas could help. You could use your "Gut feeling" stage where you trust your instincts to tell you the work is

For me some of my paintings are subject to change. Coyote the Missing Semi Colon is one of those paintings. I get to a point in a painting where I think the work is complete, however that doesn't mean it is finished. In the painting below I had stopped working on it for 3 weeks but had not started the vanishing process on it. This is usually a good indicator that the work is not finished. One day I grabbed the work and started painting Ultramarine Blue on it. The next thing I knew I was turning it on it's side and on the road to finishing the painting.  Is this work finished? I am not completely sure, but I will know when I find myself varnishing it.

There are different stages to any creative work I find the middle stage to be the most challenging. The investment of starting the project has passed and the romance of the idea to completion is no where insight.

Procrastination most of the time takes the form of some easy win entertainment diversion, like watching click bait or playing a video game, surfing social media or watching sports. But procrastination can also take the form of teaching yourself something new like a computer language or starting a new hobby or getting your "life in order". I think the trick is making your procrastination benefit your main goal. For Example: If you are selling something online make the procrastination a marketing game and if that marketing game takes a bit of learning code then try learning that code as your procrastination. If this experiment didn't give you the results you though it would then at least you know that method of marketing didn't work.  But at least your tried it instead of leveling up in Mon Danes house cleaning Adventure. Coyote: acrylic on wood, 2019 16" x 20"x .5"

In the phases of creating there is always a middle point.  This point seems to be where you have worked through all of your initial interest in the project, its kind of where the infatuation has faded and you are faced with reality of finishing. Anyone can start a project, few can forge through the romance and fewer still and see the creation to it's end. 

Everything happens all at once, all of the time. Try just to wittiness it. Interpreting it is means focusing on one aspect of  it at a time and applying your opinions to it.

People ask," What are you trying to say? What is the story you are trying to tell people? If i am listening, observing and recording then you already know the answers.  I am more interested in why you might need your questions on your own reality confirmed. My Two Sides: acrylic on wood 2018. 5"x7"

Try twisting the brush as you paint a line, let the line swell and condense. Better yet see if you can forget that you are in the act of painting. Try watching what it is that your hand is painting. What is it trying to communicate to you? Queen Maria, painted by Deigo Velazquez

Knowing what to say is different from having something to say which is different then not knowing what to say and how to say it. Observing the moment is much easier.

When you, work just work.

It can be easy to brush of the people in your Tribe or Squad as friends and family, but the truth is they are your squad because they see something in you or your work that speaks to them.