Blog Title: Modern Art Quotes

Thankful for the Oppurtunity to Give My Self to Art

This week of thanksgiving what am I thankful for? Well in addition to the usual things like my girlfriend, my family, my cat and dog, being alive, etc., what comes to mind is something that I have always been grateful for. My creative drive; my need to express myself, that for as long as I can remember as always been there. I am not alone in my family in having this streak, as a child I remember

Beliefs and Rules

Belgium's famous painter James Ensor (1860 - 1949) was also a printmaker and used many political, literary, historical and social references in his paintings. (Check out the They Might Be Giants Song Meet James Ensor). His work is a bridge between post-impressionism and outright expressionism, really though you can't make a generalization about his style, but don't take my word for this: "My art

Drawing: Not an Angel

This just another doodle from several years ago. It's funny looking back through my work and seeing what worked, what sticks out, what I liked. Sometimes just the quickest scribbles turn out to be the most interesting work. Trying to capture that free mode of expression can be tricky though, so often my mind is analyzing, over-thinking, trying to hard. That's why I like sketchbooks, they are at

Are quotations Purple? These Ones are in Green

I was just doing some research the other day and came across this quote from Rudyard Kipling. It was a little disheartening to read it, I felt like I was being called out, lol. He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors. - Rudyard Kipling I am not sure if

Non-Objective Art, Reason, and Freedom of Expression

As I have said before, in my style of art I usually waver between total non-objective abstract painting and figurative abstraction. Figurative in the sense of not just figures or faces but portraying anything that is from life, or refers to or symbolizes anything from life or nature. Recently I have been creating more figurative work and therefore thinking a lot about what I am trying to say with

Working At Being an Artist

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, sorry about that readers. I guess you could say I have been uninspired, at least with my writing. I have been working on some pen and ink and colored pencil drawings, maybe I'll preview some of those in the coming days. Let's talk about creative inspiration. A common idea in talk of and by artist's, writers, musicians, etc., is that notion that

"Shapes and Figures"; Combining Ideas

'Shapes and Figures' by Ed T. © Another entry in my endless series of sketchbook drawings; this one also is from several ago. It stuck out to me because I like the contrast between the large abstract colorful shapes and the figures and line drawings. I have always wavered between total abstraction and figurative abstraction in my drawing style. I really like the look of combining the

Drawing From My Imagination

Although I find the following quote from Georgia O'Keeffe inspiring (she is one of my only favorite landscape artists, I'm not real big on landscapes usually, although it's her large flowers she is most famous for) I'm not sure I completely agree, at least for me on a personal level. To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage. - Georgia O'keefe I've always had an active

5 Guidelines to Choosing Mats for Pictures

Keep in mind these are guidelines to choosing mats for your framed pictures, not rules, I hate rules. There is a kind of rudimentary science to design and color choosing, and the following tips are from years of professional picture framing experience. As a service worker, your job is of course to give the customer what they want, but as a framer it was also my job to steer them away from doing

Thoughts and History of: Die Brücke

Die Brücke (The Bridge) is a group of German artists who played a major role in the development of the expressionist movement in early 20th century Europe. They sought to create a bridge between old styles like fellow German printmaker Albrecht Durer and a more visceral, free, raw, direct form of personal expression. A metaphorical bridge to a better, more free future both in life and in artistic

Jumbled Faces

Jumbled Faces, drawing by Ed T. © 2008 This sketchbook entry of mine dates from a few years ago and is from the same book as other recent entries featured here at Modern Art Quotes. Like a lot of artists and people in general, I am sometimes drawn (pun intended) to drawing faces. As humans, face recognition played a vital role in our evolution as a species. Astronomer and author Carl Sagan

Archival Mounting Methods

One thing I noticed in my work as a professional picture framer is that a lot of artwork brought in to be framed or re-framed was not mounted properly. Archival mounting means securing the artwork to the matboard, and/or backing board using completely reversible (no damage to the art) acid-free materials. Proper archival mounting is essential when framing a piece of artwork. I'll go over some of

"Divided Sky" - 4 x 5' Acrylic Painting

Divided Sky, 4 x 5 ft acrylic by Ed T. © 2008 This is another fairly recent (about two years old), experimental, acrylic painting of mine. None of my titles for my paintings are really permanent but I have to refer to them in some way, and I call this one Divided Sky. I have done a number of these non-objective, large acrylic paintings over the past few years and they aren't what you would

Thoughts on Dreaming and "The Dreamweaver"

I want to write about something that is a fascinating subject to me - the world of dreams. Dreaming is an immense and infinite subject, but I want to touch on a few key points at least. Dreams (the actual sleeping kind of dreams, not goals) can be many different things to many different people, the important thing to remember is that they are very subjective of course. Although some have tried to

Chi, Energy, and Painting

Have you ever felt drawn to a particular painting, sculpture, or handmade thing but you weren't quite sure why? It could be that the item was made by an artist who infused his or her chi into the work. The spirit energy per say of the artist; focused emotional energy implanted in the piece while it was being made. The artist puts an impression of his spirit and mental energy into the work. Even

"Face, Foot, and Hands"

Face, Foot, and Hands, by Ed T. © '08 This old drawing of mine (2003) is really just a quick hand, foot and face study that I added some color to, more of a play with figurative design than anything else. In class I always found myself doodling my hands because there was never anything interesting to sketch from the classroom, (I guess I could have paid attention to the lesson). Anyways, I

"Colored Pencil and Ink Drawing"

I have always been struck with the way that Wassily Kandinsky used color. I mean really in my eyes he revolutionized the use of color in painting. He launched an all-out assault on objectivity you could say even. So it's no wonder I consider his artwork an influence on my own. "Colored Pencil and Ink drawing" by Ed T. © Here we have yet another entry from an old sketchbook of mine; just an

A Recent Painting of Mine: "Mad Night", With Words From Whitman

Frankly, there are a lot of Walt Whitman works that don't inspire me, but there are more than a few very striking stanzas of his poetry that absolutely do inspire me and my creative spirit; this is one of those stanzas: I am he that walks with the tender and growing night; I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night. Press close bare-bosomed night! Press close magnetic nourishing night!

Two Old Sketchbook Drawings

The two images below are drawings from a sketchbook of mine from about five years ago (2003). In addition to these, I still have a lot of unpublished work from a lot of different sketchbooks. I'm slowly going through and photographing the best works from these old books. The drawing below is a kind of sequel to a piece I call Third Eye. It's similar to a lot of brightly colored works of mine

My Collection of Notes and Ideas

Do you ever write notes to yourself? I find myself constantly writing down my thoughts, ideas, whims, and odd observations; often times on bits of scrap paper or whatever is on hand. In fact, this is going to sound a little crazy, but I have a few boxes full of these collected notes. I don't know what I'm going to do with them - maybe some day go through, archive the good ideas and then throw

Large Acrylic Work: Visceral Composition #1

This piece is fairly recent - from 2006, and until this point unseen outside of what you would call my studio. (I'm kinda slow sometimes finishing and photographing my work). It's a large (about 4 x 4-1/2') acrylic painting with just a touch of collage. It's part of a bunch of large fairly experimental acrylic paintings I've done in the last few years, all in a very kind of raw and visceral

The Role of the Collective Unconscious in Expression

What is that inner voice that tells you if you like or don't like something? I mean the aesthetic quality of things, like when you look at a painting and like it or don't like it; what is that? I know as far as my own work goes I can look at the painting or drawing I am working on and immediately decide what I like and what I want to change. But where does that voice come from? What particular

Painting Has a Process of Discovery

The process of creating art can be viewed as a kind of therapy, a release, a celebration, meditation, reflection, exploration; among many more things. The last one; creative process has exploration is what is most interesting to me. Non-objective expression especially is for me a vehicle into the unconscious, the self, a deeper reality, a process of experimenting and discovery and a tool for

Unfinished Ink Drawing Entitled "Akward Man"

This is a recent work of mine, currently unfinished and done with ink pen. I have always loved pen and ink and have recently returned to doing more figurative work depicting actual things and people, (rather than purely abstract work). The is called tentatively "Akward Man" because of the pained or rather determined at least expression on the man's face and the awkwardness of the hand gesture in

The Symbolist Movement of the Late 1800's

My last post included a work from French symbolist painter Odilon Redon. I would like to discuss the Symbolist movement in more detail with this post. They are a group of late 19th and early 20th century artists and poets, including Jean Moreas (who published the symbolist manifesto in 1886), Charles Baudelaire, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, and Paul Gauguin among many others. Odilon Redon,