 The Strother School of Radical Attention wants your attention! They are asking all to consider just how much we have capitulated our vision and time to external sources. How might intentionality come back into the mix? What would it mean for humans to pay thoughtful attention in relationship to everything around them? While it is easy to set up a diametiric, SORA wants you to integrate and engage. Their upcoming book outlines how you can do that. Pre-order here.
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The brilliant Dr. Maria Fee convened our reading group recently with this lovely rendering of Joy Harjo's poem "Remember" given visual form by Jessica Sanders. It prompts reflection about the importance of collaborative creative work. How are you participating in generational conversation? What are you constructing with others?
Originally published on Substack in October 2022 and included here as an archive practice.
As dining with friends came to a halt in early 2020 due to the pandemic, and my external studio space closed and my dining table became my studio and host to another kind of relational event, that of materials, learning about each other. The personification of material in the contemporary context can be drawn from Walter Benjamin’s essay which asks the maker to consider “What does this picture want to be? How do these materials relate to each other?” For two years, I consistently hosted this conversation. The timelapses of their creation (which are observable on my Instagram and YouTube) document the getting-to-know-you phases of the materials and how the relationships evolved over time. The dry paintings are a result of those “dinner parties.” They stand as remnants and reminders of the way in which relationships change us by way of question and possibility.
Allow me to introduce you to the primary conversation partners of this dinner party. The first guest to arrive is paper. Rives BFK is traditionally a printmaking paper, relatively heavy at 280gsm, and a cotton mold-made paper, which means that the cotton rag slurry is rolled onto a continuously moving woolen felt. This allows for the paper fibers to dry in multiple directions, yielding a very strong and smooth surface, placid if you will. Without this kind of strength, the paper would shred and disintegrate given the amount of water used to create these images. Rives BFK is similar to fabric in many ways, it bends but does not break, it is not easily torn, a stalwart companion, and foundational to the success of this gathering. The next guest at this proverbial dinner party is Winsor and Newton Payne’s Grey Professional Series Watercolor. According to the Winsor and Newton website “Payne's Gray is a dark blue grey made from a mixture of Ultramarine, Lamp Black and sometimes Crimson. It was named after the 18th c. water-colorist William Payne who created the mixture and often recommended it to his students as an alternative to plain black.” It is a semi-opaque paint with staining properties. What I love most about this paint is the range of opacity and transparency. Payne’s Grey always has a je ne sais quoi element, making it mercurial and transitory as a conversation partner. And yet its allure keeps the invitation extended, because no other paint can do what it can do. I still remember the first time I was introduced to salt as a watercolor companion, 8 years ago. I was in Barnes & Noble leafing thru a book on urban watercolor sketching and came across a page that suggested spit or salt for adding texture to a painting. I had never considered salt (or spit) before, as I was more interested in printmaking and pattern design at the time. But I quickly became obsessed and tested every salt in the cupboard at home and then purchased a few more. Now most people that view my work have no idea that my original training was in printmaking, because this watercolor and salt relationship has taken over so thoroughly. Salt is a relationship that pulled me away from everything and everyone else, but proved to be such a good companion that I can’t imagine my life without it. What emerged as my salt bae, specifically, is Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt because of its size and reactivity with the chosen paint. The Princeton Neptune Line 3/4” oval wash paintbrush is a true companion. I am in love with this brush. There I said it. We can debate the theological ramifications of loving objects in a different talk, but suffice to say the Princeton Neptune 3/4” oval wash is the brush of my devotion. It is what artists call “thirsty”, meaning it holds A LOT of paint. This is particularly useful, because it is a rather small brush when covering sheets of paper 22”x30’ or 30”x44”. A larger brush picks up too much paint and leaves glumps on the paper, and the smaller brush is too dry when covering this sized surface. The 3/4” is my best friend, always there, ready and willing to pick up the conversation wherever we left off and wherever it leads, hence their presence at this dinner conversation. Water and Time are also in attendance. Both constant companions to human existence and integral to this party. I think that they need no introduction as they are universally known and acknowledged. All of these materials are in conversation, with each other and with me, constructing a careful measure practice. Deepening the relationships thru deliberate action. They are also a practice that points toward the Christian idea of the new heaven and the new earth, a restored existence. This dinner party of materials is only a glimpse of the eternal feast that is to come. You may be wondering why I articulate the material relationships in such detail? Because we have a G-D that spoke the world into being, we have the ancient word abracadabra, which translates to “as I speak I create” and the paintings are a visible construction of hopes and prayers, creations without words. These paintings are a practice of painted prayers, in the manner of Brother Lawrence who suggests that every action we undertake can be done as a prayer, washing the dishes was his famous example, and painting is my lived example. Done during the various waves of the pandemic the paintings are records of a conversation, missives sent with the knowledge that one-day things will be different, conviction of restoration. They depict reflective observations of the present, echoes of landscapes explored and to be explored. The imagery is biomimetic, referencing bones, shadows, ice, coral, flowers, tree bark, bacteria, and mud. These paintings are a direct result of a years-long studio investigation focused on the interaction between watercolor and salt, prayer and practice. It is my hope in hearing, with specificity, about these materials that portals to knowledge and understanding will stand unlocked and ready for you to explore in your own constructive life and practice. I have just finished reading another 1oo books, bringing the total for the year to 300. When reading this many books across genres distinct themes emerge. These five books highlight the importance of conversive clarity and the need for robust dialectic practice.
What We Remember Will Be Saved by Stephanie Saladaña is a heart-rending account of the stories that remain after people have left their ancestral land and how those stories are literally maps and reclamations of place.
Arguing for a Better World by Arianne Shahvisi is a solid primer on how to have conversations with people who approach the world in some fundamentally different way from you. Talk by Alison Wood Brooks emphasizes the need for preparation before conversation for productivity and connection. The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli is an excellent overview on cognitive biases. Empire of AI by Karen Hao is an investigative journalists account of who and how OpenAI and thus generative AI models are being shaped by those without care for others. Taken together these books highlight the importance of community and considered conversation. If you want to check out my review of the previous 100 reads you can find it here. Mako and I continued our converstion with a reflection on feasting assisted by Jacob Beaird's reflection on feasting from the IAM Culture Care Newsletter. I wrestle with the reactionary nature of creating and wonder how we can be more imaginative in our future orientation? Let me clarify this is not a mechanism of current denial, but a constructive liberative force. How do you work towards envisioning something new? Additionally Mako has a new book coming next month. You can pre-order "Art Is: A Journey into the Light" now.
As I have continued this series from the start of the year, the horizon has shifted time and again. These sketches are a reflection on past spaces and future hopes. Many places I used to frequent are no longer viable places of refuge. They have been closed due to fire or ideological difference, biologic pathogens and plagues of indifference. Some of these horizons are familiar and known, other conjuring possible new spaces. What horizon are you looking towards?
 I have been working on a new series of paintings this year titled "On the Horizon." At this point I have made over 100. Looking out as far as the eye can see, to the place where the land meets the sky. While painting these expansive spaces in relative miniature, I have been thinking thru the logistics of their display and realizing that perhaps the work I have been doing for these eight months as actually only been the preparatory work. I now have a vision of at least 24 paintings 2.5ft x8ft mounted on a curving panel, hung at various heights. The show would be titled "Eye to Eye" and each piece will be named after the friend whose eyes align with that horizon height on the wall. The reason for the curving panel is immersion of the visual field. To see each piece you will need to contort your body in some way, perhaps kneeling, craning, or jumping, a reminder that you have a body, and that others lived experience is different than your own. This idea is definitely influenced by "Level" by Hans Hemmert, wherein he allowed each viewer to be on the same level via shoe platforms, thus facilitating a change in perspective. How are you practicing perspective shifts?
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