Place: Downtown Manhattan
Date: Tueday, 02:42:16 pm, April. 10, 2012"
Event: writing

This time of year I like to be unfocused and wondering. I depend a lot on the good graces of

my Art Angels. They gently point me in the right direction.

For the next day or two I will just search ...

 

v

(11) Untitled, Wed, Aug 11, 6:00:00 pm, 20" x 21.5", mixed media on paper, 2011

 

 

 

Place: Walking the Highline
Date: Monday, 04:11:11 pm, April.9, 2012"
Event: ...searching out the origins of my Black and White work.

There are so many ideas runing a round in my head. The wind of the highline always assists

in clearing my thoughts .

Studying the terrain of the highline, the turning from grey / brown to spots of colorful

flowers, reminded me of a perpformance work of many years ago at the Lab Gallery, where

my black and white focus started.

 

Inside - Out - Lab Gallery / Roger Smith - July 20, 2007

Place: Walking 21st Street
Date: Friday, 03:30:11 pm, Feb.17, 2012"
Event: epiphany II

Walking down 21st to the studio, I was enjoying the morning sun on the cracks and

marks on the street. Thinking What beautiful "street markings". Ah!

"untitled, Mon, 12:28:11 pm, Feb.13, 2012" - 5' x 5'', mixed media on panel

Place: Studio
Date: "untitled, Mon, 12:28:11 pm, Feb.13, 2012"
Event: epiphany

Looking down at my work table, there was a 5" x 5" panel I had been using to lay my tools

on. The marks that remained from my wet tools, have become the base of my language.

 

 

(7) untitled still-life , Dec. 1, 6:58 pm, , 30" x 22", paper, 2011 . enlarge

 

Place: Home
Date: 02.08.12 - Time: 2:39:22 pm
Event: dealing with sleepless nights and obsession ..

Dreams are unusual bedfellows, when one is obsessed during conscious and unconscious

moments by there ideas.

to be continued ...

 

Place: corner 5th Avenue
Date: 02.06.12 - Time: 10:15:00 am
Event: Crossing 5th Avenue, near ST. Patricks Cathedral

This area has always been a great source of inspiration. Street repairs of one kind or the

other are always being started and partially completed.

Due to 5th Avenue being one of the most trafficked corridors in New York City, workmen do

their work quickly, rarely leaving a perfectly manicured surface behind. Their patchwork, one

partially repaired area layered over the other, is truly inspirational when studying urban

terrain.

Actually most of the New York City streets look like this. The narrative between the

construction work, the many torrid elements that tread the streets make for a explosion of

dialects and influences.

To be continued ...

 

detail of "untitled, Thurs, 12:45:11 pm, Feb.2, 2012" - 7' x 14'', mixed media on canvas

Place: 551 w. 21st , studio 210
Date: 02.04.12 - Time: 12:00:00 pm
Event: Rediscovering an Idea

Tonight I will transform this work ....

( last line from my last entry: Date: 02.01.12 - Time: 05:00:00 pm)

One says, they should not get joy from serious ideas; my last work completed on the 2nd

of February, all it does is make me smile inside.

A year ago when I set out to explore my reflections of the Hurban lanscape. My study of

the streets we tread on.

There were many moments I would enter into a state of altered conciosness and visualize

a work that spread across the back of my studio wall, all 18ft, viviidly visualizing the

making of the of the work and the work.

Those images have become a reality.

Now entering the studio left and right are the ideas on paper that are now part of this

new work on my 18ft. wall.

I have told so many visitors to our open door of my plans for this work, almost like idle

conversation.

.... now i sit back and savor ever memory of the moments leading up to this work

and the work itself.

It is just one of those special moments.

 

"untitled, Thurs, 12:45:11 pm, Feb.2, 2012" - 7' x 14'', mixed media on canvas,

 

 

Place: 551 w. 21st , studio 210
Date: 02.01.12 - Time: 05:00:00 pm
Event: walking on a canvas

A 8 by 14 ft ... stretching across the studio floor ... for the past 30 days or so my visitors

have been walking across this work. I wanted to see if their steps would give me a

different sensibility of building a surface. In the end result, only our conversations about

this idea have led me to some new realizations.

At this point the work looks like photographic stained piece of silver halide paper.

Tonight I will transform this work ....

 

Place: 551 w. 21st , studio 210
Date: 01.28.12 - Time: 07:00:00 pm
Event: All about visitors

I really would like to talk about my visitors last Saturday, but mind is racing with new ideas

I am so past that now.

One thing i would like to say about one couple, they got it ... The wife saw the relationship

of Modernism and Contemporary narrative, the husband apologized and said you know

these works look so much better unframed, looking at a room of half framed room of

work.

As to my ideas, "tread's" on my studio floor for almost three weeks lies a canvas that my

visitors have been participating in by making the foundation layer of the canvas ... while

walking on it.

 

I can't get my thoughts off my visitors, one couple from China ( artists ), Sports writer

and his financial analyst sister, two designers, and eight actors who just finished a run on

Broadway.

What I love so much from my visitors is there insight to my world, their comments,

honesty, there likes and dislikes.

 

I will surely miss this experience.

 

 

Place: 551 w. 21st , studio 210
Date: 01.21.12 - Time: 02:16:15 pm
Event: replaying my hallucinations, with risk.

The universe moves in funny ways. We see, we recognize, but we don't see. We imagine

and then we make up the rest.

Over-stimulated by; colors, shapes, shadows, and highlights that ricochet around us.

In the quiet and calm, the sanctuary of our studios we think alone.

There are those moments though, you are with people in numbers and you can't stop

what you see ... so you are quiet ... people at risk, don't know how to respond ...

neither do you.

 

 

Place:551 w. 21st , studio 210
Date: 01.20.12 - Time: 03:59:49 pm
Event: 1st entry in my diary in a year

 

Non_sense:

dripping paint,

Focusing ... on every sound ....

between the notes ... that moment of hand and eye.

always ... 4:06:45pm

 

 

(5) untitled studies, Oct. 12, 6:43 pm, 14" x 11"graphite & acrylic, on mylar - 2011

 

 

 

"This is all about communicating a different way for me , eliminating color, the filtering of distractions and maximizing the surface so as to look closer at what I have always taken for granted. What lies in the shadows..."

Mark Wiener © 2012