Floating World, art series

 

Floating World

Gentle Breeze

Yoga, Square, Centrifuge

archival ink jet print, 7/2020

Yoga with Pelicans

archival ink jet print, 7/2020

Opal Woman

archival ink jet print, 2013

Yoga, Symmetry

archival ink jet print, 7/2020

March 11/2020

archival ink jet print

Dance, Lyri, Drago

digital, 4/21/2020

Three Graces, an Experimental Series

Three Graces, Jitterbug

archival ink jet print, 6/2020

Three Graces, Foursome

Three Graces, Crystallized
3/2020, digital

Three Graces, Three Lines
4/2020 

Three Graces, Joy
4/2020, digital

4/17/2020

I began working on the "Three Graces Series", late last year, 11/19.  In February, I made "Three Graces, Realistic, Painterly", picture in digital.  One thing led to another.  I call that following my muse.  After the painterly digital version, I desired to do the same image in different styles, and created many versions of the figures.  Here, I am posting my favorite three versions of the continuation of this series. 

I am continuing the process of creating, "Three Graces, Realistic, Painterly", on a 36"x48" acrylic on canvas.  I worked on it for a few weeks, it is almost finished, I hope.  I have turned it to the wall for a few weeks, so that when I turn it back around, I will look at it with fresh eyes.  I will be able to see ways to improve it, that i would not have seen three weeks ago.  A bit more painting and it will be finished.

 I have two quality 36x48" canvasses gessoed and ready to paint.  I will probably paint the "Joy" version and the "Crystallized" version.  I will be busy with this for several months.

Also, I have collected some beautiful drift wood treasures from the creek.  I want to paint them.  Dave is making boxes.  I paint the tops of some of his boxes. That is fun and satisfying.   

Dave tends the chickens.  We got chicks in the mail today!  They are adorable.  Fit into the palm of my hand.  Still unstable on their feet. One tried to scratch her face with her claw and fell down. They fall asleep standing up and topple over.  Just a few days old, they will change rapidly into teenagers, and lay eggs in the fall. 

We are in isolation for prevention of the damn corona virus.  There is plenty of room to move around here and lots of things to do,  such a wonderful blessing.   

Three Graces, Realistic Painterly

digital, 2/2/20

There have been many renditions of the Three Graces.  The inspiration for  this one is Jean Baptiste Renault, 1793.  The inspiration for Renault's painting was a very ancient statue at the  the Libreria Piccolomini in the Duomo at Siena.  

https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/three-graces

One of the oldest depictions of the Three Graces is an archaic depiction from the seventh century BCE. I like thinking that my modest stream of this image is part of a nine hundred years stream of human thought and creation.

Why did i make this?  To make something beautiful.  To work with the anatomy.  Something to do.  A pleasurable activity to do.  I felt inspired.
  A theme of beauty, grace, charm and creativity.

An image of ideal attributes.

I placed the three beauties in an adapted NASA space, nebula, background.  I added a background that is relatively  new to the image stream.  The Graces are in a modern scientific heaven.


3/10/2020
"Three Graces", so far has turned into a triad of digital images.  "Cubismo", that is what I called the next reiteration of the classic image.  The style is related to cubism, but I like the sound of the word in Spanish.

"Three Graces, Exploded",  is the title of my third interpretation.  I am having fun working with different styles.

I have begun an acrylic on canvas,  48"x36".

3/27/2020
I am working on "Three Graces, Painterly" acrylic.  Hope fully finished in another week.  I am serious about staying safe from that damn corona virus.  Taking time to plant spring seeds.

"Three Graces, Cubismo"
digital, 3/10/2020

"Three Graces, Exploded"
digital, 3/10/2020

Three Graces, by Jean Baptiste Regnault, 1794, painting in the Louver, Paris

Here is a link to wikipedia page giving history of Three Graces:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charites

Peach in the Window
2008 painting and photographed, 1/10/20 digital

While perusing my computer files, I found a photo of a painting that i did in 2008.  I wanted to work it up in Photoshop.  I worked on it about a week.  The digital version emerged different from the painted version.  Each medium presents its own style, similar, but different.  The art path leads me and grows me.  In my work the images reoccur over the years, over the decades.  An evolution of creativity.  

Three Graces, Good Vibrations

digital, 12/14/19

THREE GRACES
12/2019, digital

What a pleasure it has been to work on these images.  The inspiration for the px's is a Hellenistic,  ancient Greek sculpture.  The marble sculpture is about four thousand years old.  Sadly the ladies have lost their heads.  This seems "normal" to me, because I have lost my head many times.  

I looked up the symbolism of Cardinal birds.  I scanned three sources, they all attributed different aspects to the Cardinal, but, all the sources assigned positive attributes.  Good vibrations are coming your way. 

The style of painting for the figures are different in each picture.  In "Three Graces" the women are popped.  In "Good Vibrations"  the painting is realistic impressionism.

photo of Three Graces, Hellenistic statue

Tree Me

acrylic on canvas,  24"x18", 9/2019

Tree Me, close up

What can I say about this painting?  She looks a bit like a superhero.  She is a nature spirit.  A being of energy and light.  Similar to a superhero?  After painting a picture, an artist must think of a title.  I gave the title a bit of thought, not to much time, I wanted to move on.  "Tree Me", popped out and so that is the name.  Yes, she is a bit of me.  I am a bit like this picture.  This is an idealization of who I would like to be.  

Deities, saints, superheros, superstar celebrities, and fantasy creatures, all have attributes in common.  We create them, or are they real?  We desire to have admirable images, something to look up to, even something to worship.  In our minds they are guiding harbor lights.  We need direction.  Which way should we go?  We have desires, longings, to be our best.  We have more questions than we have solid answers, so maybe we just make up images to satisfy our needs.  

Or, are they real, these super beings that are worshiped world wide?  Are they hallucinations?  Maybe aliens?  Or, are they, just wisps of neuron connections?   

 

Nike Popped

acrylic on canvas,  24"x24", 10/2019

The bottom, grey pattern is not part of the painting, I used the pattern to make the square digital image standard letter size.

 

 close up of Nike Popped

This is a painting of Nike or Victory of Samothrace.  First i did the digital version, which was used as a sketch for the painting, and for prints.  Also, i did a few pencil sketches to further develop the lines. 

I re-imagined the ancient highly admired statue.  She has been imaged thousands of times.  This is my contribution to a stream of visualizations of this Goddess that has captured human interest for more than a few thousand years.  We love her.  Love her strength and motion.  Love her as a metaphor of victory.  To me she is The Victory of Peace. 

There is a long and very ancient line of goddesses.  Over the years, there was an evolution of deities.  A recycling of ideals embodied in human like images. An evolution of human desires. Before the Greeks, about 2350 BCE. the Sumerians worshiped Inanna, who was the goddess of love and war. 

I am not a scholar.  I have read a lot and have interests in art and various historic and global religions, and i have spiritual experiences.  Curiosity drives me to explore the deeper aspects of human existence. My creativity drives me to express the evolution of my ideas and ideals, in images.

The painting is named "Nike Popped".  The figure is done in a PoP style. The lines are sharp.  There are only four colors on the figure: yellow, orange, red, and purple. The areas of color are sharply defined.  The shapes attempt to convey the majestic stance of Nike, and the drama of her drapery. 

 The landscape is more impressionistic. Lines are soft and colors are mixed in the various loosely defined shapes.

I am thinking that deities are the personification of human desires, and human ideals, and  are guides to becoming the people that we want to be on this annoying planet. Deities are metaphors of our ideals for human existence. 

 Photograph of Nike, Victory of Samothrace

Nike, Winged Victory of Samothrace

digital, 10/10/19

Creating this picture of a classical statue was a humbling experience.  After I started the picture, I realized that I could not do justice to my inspiration.  But, I had started, so I continued, trying to capture the majesty, the movement, and the subtle and incredible anatomy.

Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called Winged Nike, was created in the second century BCE by the an unknown Greek sculptor.   She is the  divine  Greek Goddess of Victory , commemorating a navel battle victory.  I am in my own little bubble of denial, so in my myth she is the emblem not of a victory of war, but, the emblem of the victory of peace.

Audrey in the Louvre

digital,  5/2016

This is a picture from 2016, I found it while perusing my Photoshop files.

Nike is placed on a landing, in the middle of an impressive marble staircase.  You climb the stairs, looking up at her.  She is nine feet tall, and stands on the prow of a boat.  In my digital picture Nike is in a PoP style, but I left the prow of the boat in realistic stone. 

A few years (2016) after admiring her in the Louvre in 2008,  I came across a photograph of Audrey Hepburn descending the staircase.  I reinterpreted the photograph.  My apologies to the photographer for not finding his/her name, and for messing with the beautiful photo.

As I started working with the interpretation of the Nike statue, I discovered the swoosh shapes of the Nike shoe brand.  Very interesting! The swoosh shapes are embedded in the drapery on the statue.  I want to do some research about how the swoosh was created, but Dave has the boiled shrimp ready now, so I might get to that later.

10/11/19

The shrimp dinner was delicious.  Cooked the Louisiana way with corn on the cob and potatoes boiled in a broth of seasoning, lemon, lime and a whole head of garlic.  Drained from the broth and poured directly on a spread of newspaper over the table.  Casual, informal, almost primitive.  Pealing the shrimp at table, dowsing the potatoes with butter,  a roll of paper towels on the table because it is so messy.  Dave and his brother Bill and myself. Good company, good food.  Satisfaction guaranteed.

My own little bubble of denial.  I don't watch the "News".  People say that I should be aware of what is going on in the world.  I say, "Politicians spouting lies, is not "News" There is nothing New about the "News", it is just S.O.S., Same Old Shit."  I am aware of the dark greedy, power grubbing nature of humans.   I am aware of the dark competitive nature of humans.  The will to be "Alpha" and lord it over others.  The basics of our evolutionary DNA to survive by being the fittest.  I know this well.  Nothing New about that.

(How did I get started on this rant?  Why?  Oh well.  I will make it brief.)

I don't want to hear politicians slinging muck.  I don't want that muck swinging around in my brain. 

The Holy Land.  Historical center of three of the worlds religions.  The people of three religions have been warring over the area for several millenniums. Each faction claims that God is on their side. There is nothing News about war, nothing new,  war is as old as history. 

I would rather be painting.

Dark things bother me. I don't want it dammit, I wont have it.  I will build a bubble of denial around me.  I will spend my small time on this small bit of earth, where I have a small bit of control. 

On blank canvas I have a bit of control.  I will paint cooperation, joy, beauty, light, harmonious lines and shapes.  Maybe my pictures will have a bit of influence. Hang still on a wall and be a bright light in the darkness. 

Peace, Love and Art. 

Over and out, y'all. 

Floating Dancers

acrylic on paper,  18"x24", 9/2/19

Flower of Life Couple

acrylic on paper, 18"x24", 6/19

detail, with digital input

Art is a path, I follow my muse guide.  Recently my work took a slight change of direction.  The work still relates to my past work, but the emphasis is a bit different.  I thought about making art that is joyful and beautiful.  I am happy when I make it, and you may be happy when you see it. 

Some people may see this as simplistic, but there is enough disharmony banging about.  I want visions of harmony. 

This work relates to the life cycle.  Love making.  Baby making.  Yea, the Cheshire cat, the trickster still throws glitches at us everyday.  Yea, we do not live forever.  Even so, let us try to cultivate joy. 

So, I called this new series, "Floating World",  floating above the discord, the ugliness, that is so often part of our experience.   



Shuffle into the Sunset

18"x24", 8/19

acrylic on paper,



detail

"Shuffle into the Sunset",  refers to the human life cycle.  The baby is protected by a deer spirit, or angel.  The trickster Cheshire Cat is lurking in the bushes, ready to throw glitches into daily life, just to keep things interesting.  The jitterbugging Skelly Cats are off to unknown territory. 

The skeletons are momento mori,  a reminder that out time is limited, so make the most of it every day.

Acrylic on cold pressed Arches paper.  May be mounted on stretched canvas, and sealed well, in order to avoid glass between the viewer and the picture. 

I continue to work on my painting technique.  I start with a wet in wet thin layer of paint for background.  After that, the paint gets more opaque for details.  I like using a fan brush for the parallel lines which follow the energy flow of the composition.   

Boyd Brochure,

Floating Couple with Baby and Deer

9/2019

    Boyd Brochure with Floating Couple,

back side

8/2019

 detail

These past few weeks I have been working on a brochure.  I worked it up with pencil and acrylic paint on water color paper.  Al Carr of The Tylertown Times scanned the images and  printed up 200 beautiful brochures.  It is a trifold brochure.  I showed it to a few people, they were puzzled about how to look at the trifold.  The orientation of up and down and sideways is mixed.  The trifolding is confusing to comprehend.  The viewer turns it this way and that, to find a logical orientation.  The head of the Cheshire cat is upside down.  Hold the paper another way and the cat head is right side up and the body is upside down.  A dancer turns in circles, around up, around down.  Watching people looking at the brochure, turning it up, down, sideways and over,  I realized that I had created an interactive work of art. 

The red circles on the lower left side of the inside are a compass, a tool to assist in finding direction.

This is a narrative image.  It tells a visual story.  The couple is floating in ecstatic love making in the darkened sky.  On the ground, brightened by the sun,  Baby has a babysitter, a deer, while Mom and Dad are off engrossed in their dreamy, floating world.  The deer is a guarding spirit or angel, protecting Baby.

To conclude the narrative, turn the paper over,  and see a jitterbugging skeleton couple, shuffling cheerfully off into the sunset.

 

Floating Dancer, Pink and Blue



digital work, 6/25/19



Three Floating Dancers

digital, 6/2019

 

Floating Couple with Flowers

acrylic on cold pressed paper,  18"x24", 7/2019

 Floating Couple with Baby and Deer

acrylic on canvas, 30"x40",  8/2019

detail

detail

Dancer, Aurora Borealis

digital, 2011

Dancer, Aurora Borealis

acrylic on panel, 2011

I am posting these pictures from 2011 to illustrate how the floating dancer has reoccurred in my practice.  The first px is digital, the second is a painting.





Zatay, Elizabeth Taylor in her Goddess Incarnation  
digital, 1/2011

detail

I have been going thru my files, finding older pictures that fit into this series.  There is a lot of overlap with "Floating World Series" and "PoP Religion."  There are persistant images that appear in my work over the years.  Monkeys, babies, women, trees, landscape, spirals.  More older floating pictures follow here.

Gorilla Buddha

acrylic on paper,  3/2019 

Opal Dakini

digital, 4/2018

Phoenix Flying

digital, 5/13

Floating Tree

digital 2/2014

Thanks for looking!  Hope you enjoyed the px's.

Click here to go to "PoP Religion Series" page

https://janetboydart.blogspot.com/p/pop-religion.html