Following Wind

An exhibiting artist

To show or not to show. If you  fancy yourself an artist, you may wonder about the importance of sharing your work. Art is so often personal, and it can be really difficult to put yourself onto a stage where everyone can see you. But what is the alternative? Not showing relegates your creative efforts […]

Legacy, what does it mean?

It is what lingers after we are gone, it is the significance of our lives as it affects others
It is the Karma that we create, the ripple effects of our lives
For some, legacy is just the memory of those we have touched
But for those who have consistently worked for and achieved influence in the lives of others, legacy is essential
This is because the work is not over just because we die, our work is too important to die with us
Who decides this importance?
It is the individual that does the work and those who believe in it
The fact is we are truly all connected, our thoughts matter because thoughts lead to actions and actions have consequences
When I think success is measured in self respect that is a thought that immediately implies that my self respect must be intact before I can respect others.
When I respect the person next to me, she in turn respects me back and the effect of having respect for one another spreads and makes the world a better place. It all starts with a simple thought, success is measured in self respect.
As an artist, it is tempting to think that success is selling well or in acclaim. These things matter because they are more understandable for most people and with out them it is difficult to have lasting influence. But acknowledgement and making money are the means not the end.
An artist is a free thinker and has a role to play in society. It is to explore and discover new ways to think and to see, hear and understand the circumstances of our lives.
These are essential contributions and elevate the artist to the very top of the hierarchy of professions.
“How does one measure success?” It is in the quality of one’s self respect.
As it happens, I see myself through my work. A painting is a mirror and when I look into the painting I see myself. What a curious sight that is! It changes before my eyes. I want it to be resolved so badly, to be the person I am destined to be, but it only teases me. A little insight here, a little illumination there. And when I think now I understand what it is I am supposed to be it flies away and taunts me with how miserable a failure I am again.
But with each iteration, I grow less attached more able to make bigger changes.
Being an artist is hard work, but being an abstract artist is the hardest of all. A painting. That should only take a few hours can go on for decades. It is because it is not just a painting but a person that is being created, and not just one person but by extension all the people my life touches. I am a prototype, an experimental model, someone that is trying to push the envelope. My success is your success. We are in this together.
This is the artist as teacher. We tend to believe what we see. I set an example, I have an insight, I apply that insight to my work, you see it and then you start to believe it too. This is the evolution of thought. It is power, the power to effect change.

Maybe I never finish the painting and maybe being unfinished is a good thing. After all, that is the nature of living things. I am always trying to finish it but it never feels finished. But it is alive. Can you live with it? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”. Living things make good companions.

Well, a painting may be like a person in its layered qualities but does that make it a good painting? Not so fast. Everyone is made up of layers of experience but not everyone is a good person. It takes good ingredients as well as effective manipulations to make an outcome that could be called “good”. To make a good painting or a good person takes a lot of caring and sustained effort. There needs to be an intention to be good in the deepest and most meaningful way. Little by little over the course of a lifetime the quality becomes evident. Artists need to live a long time because it is such a difficult task to make one’s self a great work of art.
And then we die. Now we can talk about legacy. There are over seven billion people on the planet. What difference is one? Not to be overly simplistic, but all journeys begin with one step, all change has to start somewhere. Why not here with me? Let my life and my work be a light.

We all agree the world is a beautiful place but is getting messed up badly because there are too many people acting stupidly. There needs to be a change of consciousness. The best way to change others is to change ourselves. How can this be? It is a fact that all people, all beings have a common consciousness at some level. We have common ancestors, we are related genetically. We really are more alike than we are different. But mostly, it is a belief that our lives matter. This is the hardest part and why I said that success is measured in self respect. I am the embodiment of my art, my work cannot succeed until I succeed. Making art is the tool for self discovery. It is a secret that good artists understand all too well. Great artists are so present in their work that they can be felt as alive and well even when they have been gone for centuries. This is legacy. It is the meaningfulness of the work.

Being meaningful is mostly a matter of intention, the goal of being fully present in the work. Content matters, but so does technique, mastery of media and style. Perhaps the hardest part of using art as a mirror is keeping the surface of the mirror clean. Multiple layers of paint can just look cluttered and busy. It is why so many amateur artist’s work looks dark. They may be getting depth but are loosing clarity. The meaning of the work is lost in the mess.
Something like watercolor is a good discipline for learning to stay focused. It is a very linear process. Without white paint, the surface only gets more opaque. Lights must be preserved from the white of the paper. And although other media like oils and acrylics can be made light with white paint ultimately, the work can only be resolved when the intention of the work is understood. This is why I like working in different media, I learn different lessons which give me deeper insights into the art making process as a whole.

Art is really philosophy. It is a way of understanding who I am and what role I am playing in this time and place. Perhaps, this thought is my legacy.

 

Soft Touch 1/3 by George Woollard

Soft Touch 1/3
30×40 mm on canvas

Collaboration

Mary Philpotts-Mcgrath, Kathy Merrill Kelley and I were challenged to come up with a piece that spoke to the printmaking process but also incorporated the resources we each could add in a complimentary and collaborative way. The results are these five panels. Mary supplied the wood which she had saved from some other project and we worked as a team slowly discovering the “print” in it. 

As in a woodcut, we first carved the plates with our gauges and knives. We then inked them up with acrylic paints and transferred the images onto dampened mulberry paper. The resultant prints were then glued back onto the plates so as to echo and refer back to their origins. After more thought and deliberation, some stencils were used along with sponge rollers to reinforce the graphic qualities we were looking for. As the panels came readymade with the large crosses  already in place, we wanted to capitalize on this motif by emphasizing the structure of the grid in our composition. There were many hands at work here and it would be impossible to say who did what. It works because there is complete trust between us.

Please join us for an informal artist’s talk about our exhibition at the HISAM shop and cafe Wednesday 14th of March between 6-7 PM. Mary Philpotts-Mcgrath, Kathy Merill-Kelly and I will discuss our collaborative work pictured here as well as our individual prints. Wine will be served by the Friends of HISAM, 250 S Hotel Street, Honolulu, HI 96813.

 

Hands on -3 by George Woollard, Marry Philpotts and Kathy Merrill-Keely

Hands On-3 /
36”x36” hand printed collage on panel / by
George Woollard, Mary Philpotts-Mcgrath and Kathy Merrill Kelley

Boat on the Bay

Being finished is really just being in a state of grace. You have arrived at a place of equilibrium, everything that needs to be there is there and there is nothing that does not need to be there. In principle, you could be finished at the very beginning or it could take years to find that resolution you are looking for.

Being finished may in fact mean leaving some things unsaid. You are left with a question mark that leaves open the possibility of still more to come. Finished is more like complete rather than polished. A drawing is complete when it takes you somewhere, a painting is complete when it makes you feel something. These are states of mind that are open to interpretation. It is precisely that openness that invites, and it is the open invitation that makes your work finished.

Boat on the Bay by George Woollard

Boat on the Bay / 10”x17” / watercolor on paper / 2018

Monumentality

To be monumental is to feel grand in scale.  Even something small can have this feeling. It is a proportioning that has a correctness about it. Monumental things seem large, or they  could be large. A monument is a kind of icon, it has clarity and simplicity and is easily grasped. This attribute is something to strive for in making art. A monument commands attention, it is singular and has authority. There is no one style or medium that must be used. It can show up as a painting or as a sculpture. There is a “thingness” about it. It has presence even grandeur. It takes practice and strong intention to make monumental art. All the parts must be scaled up, filling the space so that there is no weakness in the relationships. A  monumental thing puts tension into the space it occupies. It gets noticed.

 

“Deep Water Explorer”

Now being shown at the Punahou Carnival Art Gallery along with other works by George Woollard.

Deep Water Explorer by George Woollard

60″x40″/ acrylic and collage on canvas / 2018

Hindsight

I am curious, I want to know the unknowable, I want to see with touch and even with sound.

What would happen if —-

Some old plywood is given to my students who then build up the surfaces with bees wax and then abandon them.

Do I throw them out or embrace them into new configurations that I would never have thought of otherwise?

Well then, let’s gang them up and mount them onto a frame, that should give them more authority.

And if I transform them again with repeated applications of colored lacquers to make them more unified.

And the first color is black to give the piece depth and the second color is white to lighten and brighten the surface.

Now give the whole thing a light sanding to bring out the texture and let light play on the the bas relief.

In the upshot, what we  have is a hybrid, a metamorphosis of materials, intents, techniques, and moments in time.

What it is is hard to say, it is so many things, but there it is never the less.

In a similar way, any thing picked up at random from the natural world would take quite a while to explain. Like what is a pebble or a flower? It is so obvious, anyone can see it and believe it but who can really explain it?

Maybe this is what is so amazing, the mystery of creation, not what something is but what something is not. It is not mine, it is not your’s, it is not a painting and it is not a sculpture.

Maybe by consistently destroying its identity it finally finds its identity.

 

Hindsight by George Woollard

Hindsight / 4.25″x13.25″ / encaustic with cashew lacquer on panel

Requisite Reasoning

Abstract art requires a certain amount of thinking. After all, if it doesn’t look like anything you are familiar with what is it? Once it is understood that it is wide open to interpretation, you start thinking, well maybe it is about color, or about harmony or perhaps even beauty. Then the question comes up, well what is beauty? And does beauty even matter? So we might get curious and begin an investigation of the concept of beauty. We might even do some research on the subject and look at what other artists have done.

Now, it is getting interesting. Maybe, beauty has something to do with a kind of perfection. There is balance and a harmony of components. All of the elements are working together towards a common goal. Everything you see needs to be there and there is nothing that should not be there. Well, how do we actually do that? To start with, we need awareness. What are we actually seeing? Forget all the rules and lessons you have learned, be objective, is this thing working or do I just want it to work? Beauty is an elusive thing to put your finger on. Music can be beautiful, it doesn’t have to look like anything. Maybe color is like sound, it has a tone to it. Ring a bell, could that reverberation be a color? It is not so far fetched, colors resonate and sounds resonate.

What we need is a way in, how do we understand what we are supposed to do? So we listen to our paintings. They are vibrating, gently emitting waves of energy that affect us in surprising ways. Now we can understand that there is a real and meaningful experience that can be shared and enjoyed. It is OK to be decorative, but it is much better to engage the senses, the mind, the spirit, the emotions and the body. Suddenly, art really is a big deal. That painting you are looking at is actually very alive. By constantly pumping the surface, pushing in and pulling out a pulse is being felt and a sound is being heard. It may be only canvas, paint and paper but it you give it a chance it may become a true friend.

Requisite Reasoning by George Woollard

Requisite Reasoning / 48”x96” / acrylic and collage on panel

Ecuador 2017 Workshop Exhibition

In June of this year, a small group of artists from Hawaii, Canada and California traveled to Ecuador to see for ourselves the homeland of Mary Dikon, one of our friends who invited us to come there. We spent the next two weeks dividing our time between taking in the culture and sights and sketching.

The focus of the trip was to learn as much as we could about our art by first looking and then drawing, principally with watercolor. The idea was in effect to make a journal, a story line that reflected our thoughts and visions. Although watercolor is usually thought of as a painting medium, we wanted to think in terms of lines. Lines tell stories, they start somewhere and end somewhere.

The intention was that each image would have a defined set of movements that touch on a moment of observation and thought. These moments were then strung together, picking up colors and nuances along the way until they came back to where the composition started. It was drawing with color. We were trying to redefine the idea of of what technique is. Rather than following a prescribed set of rules, we tried to see in terms of process. It is the way one thinks that is important.

The watercolor medium does not forgive mistakes. Everything must be done correctly the first time because it is the paper itself that is the light. The paper fibers must be seen not covered by the paint. We embraced this limitation and decided that only a single pass and a single layer of paint on the surface would be allowed. In this way, we would maximize the luminosity and freshness of the art work. Embracing drawing as a means and as a metaphor, has opened us to the joy of gesture.

Every kid loves to draw, but we forget this passion as we grow up and are taught that there is a “right” way where everything must conform to certain norms. At its core, drawing is just dancing, moving through time and space with our bodies. It is a pleasure and not a chore. We can draw with our eyes, with our minds as well as with our hands. When we draw with watercolors, we are moving like a river, flowing seamlessly from passage to passage. What can be more alive than this, to touch on what we see, how we feel, what we are thinking and how we move?

Ecuador is just a place that happens to be high in the Andes and full of people with a proud and distinctive culture. For us, it was an eye opener. We did not just pass through like so many other tourists. We participated in the culture, dancing with the indigenous people during their Summer Solstice festival, getting to know them, and observing closely their mountain home. And through it all, we drew with pencils, pens watercolors, words and cameras.

Please join us as we show some of our work at the Honolulu Museum of Art School in the Hallway Gallery

opening on Thursday November 16th, from 5.30-7.30pm.

Ibarra by George Woollard

Ibarra

Being Big and Being Original

There is a popular misconception that the way to get into doing large format works is to start with little ones and work your way up in size. This is similar to the idea that the way to be more original is to first learn basic skills and gradually get more creative. My experience is that we only get better at what we practice. Little paintings will only lead to more little paintings and technical skills will only lead to more technical skills. It is intention that counts. Your composition will never work until the parts are proportioned to the whole no matter what size it is. And it is also true that originality flows from an inventive mind whether trained or not. The real issues are do you need to work large and do you need to be more original? These two questions are linked. We are talking about punch, the ability of the art work to grab attention.

We could call this quality monumentality. It is the feeling that the work is grand in scale even if it is only a postage stamp. We need to feel like we are working on a human scale that allows us to enter physically into the space. This is an exhilarating sensation.

Being original and being different is a matter of not looking like anything else you know. It is the default of avoiding all the known things. Originality is actually quite simple to achieve. Just be true to your origins, be yourself. Every human being on the planet is one of a kind. We are all like walking works of art.

Of course, art is never so simple. This is because we do not understand what it is  good for. How can we work with purpose and determination if we do not understand the objectives? A portrait artist knows that he needs to make a likeness, a political cartoonist knows that he  needs to poke fun at politicians. But for most of us, why we make art is an open question. Perhaps, art is self reflection. It is way of looking at ourselves that tells us who we are as human beings. We make something, we see it and then we believe it. We are in effect holding up a mirror to ourselves. When we do something novel, when we invent something we are effecting change in ourselves. It is like a mutation has taken place. And if we change ourselves we are changing the world around us at the same time. It is a ripple effect. Maybe large works make our looking and seeing more obvious. But little things can be just as effective and may connect more with different aspects of ourselves. I like to think that art is useful, not just as decoration but as a way to share in our humanity and to move the game forward.  But it only works if it is shared.

Intersections II by George Woollard

Intersections II / 48”x72” / collage and acrylic on canvas / 2017