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Texture is Qween!

My paintings come to me like found objects. My painting process is similar to walking on an over grown path, seeing a sparkle in the ruff and excavating to it like an archeologist. This has been the most exciting way to paint for me. It make me feel as if I discovered an image and by supporting it with composition, contrast and color I am revealing something that has been hiding in the chaos of texture. Texture is a big tool of mine it is my muse. 
As I settle into this new job my work seems to be gaining ground slowly. Leaving the world of selling art supplies seems to have helped me concentrate on what it is I am painting. Everyday day conversations never seem to cover art or painting and at this point I don't miss them. Painting has become urgent, unlike it has been in years. It's strange to be painting from the moment instead of the preconceived idea, its like I have started to learn how to make art from the shear pleasure of making a mark again. Now, the mark is not trying to impress the culmination of marks like it doess if you force them. The real question is are you forcing them to empress or are you making marks for the shear enjoyment of their power and elegance?  This is a self doubt all artist feel deeply. 

Malfuxtion 315

FEK315 walks in threw the door, looks up at the clock and sees a wedge of time, then walks a few more steps to see what happened within that chunk. "15 minutes? It took me 15 minutes to walk through the door? What the hell did I do in that pie wedge?" Goth Cindy Turns to him. "See, this is what  am talking about. You have no idea that you were talking to me about Long Range Missiles. You where calling them sniper weapons." FEK315 looks at the ground "Cindy, I am really not sure I understand what you are saying." "You loose time FEK." "How is that?" "Dah phuck I should know, your the lunatic!"  FEK315 grabs Cindy's latex suited hips with grappling hands, pulls her close to his face and dives deep into her eyes.  His zombie stare makes her shutter and slightly surrender. "Goth Cindy I know where you are. I see you in your head with Auto Cannon rounds passing you like light coated street flies, whistling razors c
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Its funny how I tell you I don't work from sketches and then the 2 days ago I doddle some image and now I want to work from the sketch...LOL! I'll post the sketch. my image of Zen: George Condo Artist.

Pifft! Preliminary Sketches!

It's rare I work from sketches mainly because the sketch is part of the work. I usually start on a panel and work out all my ideas there. "Preliminary Sketches" are the being of the work so to leave them out is like throwing away the bones. For illustrators "Preliminary Sketches" are were you work out your mistakes. I am not an illustrator. Every mark I make is an important part of the final work. Sometimes a mark is there from the begin of the work and becomes a pivotal part of the painting. The evidence of the mark is exemplified with the constant rebuilding of the original mark. How many times have you made a sketch of an idea only to realize you like the sketch more then the final work? That is because the spontaneity is worked out of the piece.  The first marks are important, they record the raw emotion that caused you to record the idea in the first place. Even if the original marks are scraped out the evidence of your erassing the marks are still there.
Robert Motherwell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_evtvqBawY
With my new job I am finally working 40 hours a week..it's a good thing! I started working as a large format digital press and digital cut operator.  This has finally given me the opportunity to concentrate on painting.   As far as my art work goes,  I sold all of my inventory last month and gained 2 new collectors who each bought 4 pieces or more. Now my studio is empty, no shows lined up, money coming in and no pressure for sales. Sales pressure is poison to me, needing to sell art to eat really effects my work in a trite illustrative way. Over the last 8 years found out that my audience is limited.   Lately, I have been looking at the paintings of Franz Klein, I find Klein's monumentality and heaviness attractive. His works like "Le Gros" have a permanence like structures of iron. ( Mark Di Suvero comes to mind. ) Looking at them closer the way his grays, blacks and whites interact with the texture of brush stroke give each work a quality of portrait or

SIlent Auction!

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Visit my website for more information www.dondeleva.com .
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Beacon, acrylic on panel, 5x7 2.2013 Control:Beacon#3 has landed and the weather couldn't be better. The Russian meteor can be seen in the upper left quadrant of the painting. Well maybe at this point it wasn't Russian I think it was more just a meteor because it hadn't landed yet in Russia. It was just passing by the planet JimJim 12 in the constellation HeyBroThatsMySalami. side note: Dr Sally Tweezenphoner was eating a salami sandwich when she was tweeting the name of the constellation to a fellow astronomer when her dog ran off with her sandwich .  

Money equalls validity in art.

Lately I have been reading about the Art Market and how it is changing the definition of Art itself. Here is a good article on what I am talking about. http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-02-06/art/uptown-money-kills-downtown-art/full/ It's an interesting read.
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This year I decided to create 6 to 12 of the best works I am capable of, I have one work completed already it took about 4 months and 6 different versions to create. Monarch, Acrylic on panel, 16x20, 1.2013 Last year I decided to switch from oil to acrylic mainly because I wanted to get back into drawing and printing. That's a logical reason isn't it? After 16 years of oil painting I kept coming up with the same answers to the same problems. I needed new answers to take my work in a new direction so I decided acrylics was the best way to keep painting.  (Hold on the printing and drawing are coming) I also really missed drawing and printing and as I painted in acrylics I started to realize that you can draw on the dry paint, not only, that but I started wiping out areas of paint with my hands like I would wipe an etching plate. You can do that in oil but it makes a hell of a mess. In acrylic all it does is dry on you hand, and as it drys on the work you ca