Art of Don DeLeva

As I design more and more websites I think more about squares. Last night I had a dream that I was rebuilding my face in CSS3 and HTML5. I remember seeing my hands, my fingers were typing out a Div tag with the Id "eyes". Once that happened I was able to see the browser version of my face and the outlines of all the boxes I had created to form the portrait of my face which was actually me alive.

The painting below. Salmon Eater spawn a new direction. Currently I am working on 5 paintings all of which have this collage of images that fade in to the next. I am excited to see what they look like when I am finished.

I have never liked the obvious, my stint with pop surrealism was an experiment with telling people what to see. I came out of it feeling hollow and like a production artist. Honestly I don't have the personality to tell people I am right and everyone else is wrong, only I know what is wrong for me. I don't mean to be cryptic and strange I just think that touching on the vague is powerful. It gives people the opportunity to own their own thoughts about what they are looking at. It is a personal goal of mine to help people find who they are and that they use my art as vehicle to prove to themselves that there vision of life is as valid as everyone else.

I don't have too much news today being I have been working for the last 10 days straight(except yesterday). I do have 4 paintings I am working on right now hopfully I will have some new work to show you in the next month.

I've been working a lot in the last few weeks. All though that means I can finaly eat it also means I haven't been bloging much. Well I have been painting quite a bit. I would say in the last4 weeks I have started 4 paintings, finished 3 worked into 3 and still have not come to a conclusion on " Salmon eater". I have been toying with the idea of leaving the thin veil of white over the image but people seem to mistake the work for not being finished. Its interesting to me how people do not seem to be intersted in coming up with there own conclusions about paintings. Poeple can be so afriad of "being wrong". I say there are some things that are meant to be made personal and my art is one of those things. So if you need more explaining I can only give you what I was thinking of at the time. If this is written wonky its because I did it from my phone and my phone does not display a cursor in this text box. Forgive. Me

This is the next progression of the Salmon Eater. A new title is starting to arise from it, Gold Lust. You can still see the original composition hasn't changed too much but the integration of the bottom part of the painting is starting to become a part of the work. I don't know if the work is finished, I like the misty quality and the sloppy suggestions of shapes that become foundations for defined images. I need to sit with it for awhile.

  I still haven't gone back to Salmon Eater, but it awaits my return. Like I said I finish the Skull, sorry I finished it in one night, Here is it. Title:Summer Nights Medium: oil on clay board Size: 5"x5" Date: 11.2010 It would be nice to say that you can see some of the original scratching or black but all is painted :-).

Title: Rebirth Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 4"x6" date: 11.2010

So the Skull painting is finished. I forgot so take photos of the progress while painting it. See the problem is that I finished it in one sitting, I usually take photos after each sitting. Oh well I will get it right. Salmon Eater has not been changed yet. It needed to dry a little, this time I will take pictures.

1. 2. 3. Painting 1.  is a finished painting called Salmon Eater. Painting 2. is what happens to works that sit in my studio too long. They get sanded and changed into another painting. LOL! Painting 3. This is the 3rd stage in the repainting. Notice how it is starting to look completely different. As I paint my subject changes because I really don't ever have a subject to paint this is why it is hard for me to create illustrations. My mind wanders with my immediate feelings and "findings". I paint shapes and lines or do something to the surface like scratch it. Some times those elements suggest images to me so I go with them until I get board with what I am painting and some times I end the work or end the progression of an image. I am not looking for a finished recognizable image, rather I seek the ephemeral or enigma. I am looking for that place before something becomes a materialized image or thought. I am interested in moment before you label someth...

At this point you can see that I have scratched in a skull and then dripped paint over the panel. I used a very "loose" paint to drip an organic grid for me to work with. ( in the same way that bones are an organic scaffolding for the muscles.) The paint is oil, it's 1 part paint to 6 parts turpentine.  It's called lean paint because the oil has been broken down in favor of flow and dying speed. There is a process of painting called "Lean to fat", it's a process that insures that the paint will dry correctly. For now, just understand that loose paint in the beginning is really important to the longevity of the style of painting I work in, "Glazing". I will go over that in the a little later.

I have had a lot of people ask me to show them how I paint. I am going to try to answer that by taking you through a painting from start to finish. This is a photo of a piece of Masonite that used to be a scrap piece of Scratch board sitting on my easel. Some times I find things and work over them. At this point I have done nothing to the Masonite.

"16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics. " Sol De Witt Numbers are not mathematics in my art. They are representations of emotions mixed with mystery. They come to me as I am painting and I feel it is important to include them in the content of the work because they came to me in the creative process.

Title: Skull in Motion Medium: Oil size: 6"x 6" x.5

This is simply the most incredible video I have seeing in the last 10 years of my life. 2 of my all time heroes in life together playing one of the best songs ever! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLwhnUiNDs

SO my website is almost finished. Actually I got the front page and supplemental pages completed except the Archive and Dollhedz page. These will be finished up in the next month. I created the templates for the pages so it shouldn't take too much time once I get other work out of the way. These last 2 weeks have been crazy. I had 3 shows to put up a cold and 14 days of work in a row. That takes a lot out of you. Today is the first time back doing some painting. I have 3 new works in the studio I will photo them and give you an update.

The show at tasty went well. I sold these three paintings.

So this weekend I am getting ready to Hang at the Auburn city Court house for October. It should be a good show.

Title: Untitled Medium: Oil on panel, gold leaf Size: 42"x46" This painting is comes to me as an abstracted Mecha coming alive for the first time. Title: Untitled2 Medium: Oil on panel Size: 28"x36" I have this thing for abstracting skulls, it's a reference to the fact that our bones supports a bio machine that runs a spirit. The abstracted shapes and colors are the live with in the scaffolding of the bio machine.

Title: 12 Medium: oil on wood, gold leaf. Here is one of the first pieces I painted this year. It's had 3 shows this year. 2 in Seattle and one in Portland. It has one more show before the year is over. You can see the earlier stages of this painting in an earlier blog. It was originally two paintings that I painted over and bolted together.