Tiny Bubbles

I remembers the entertainer, Don Ho, made this song famous. This song is playing over and over again in my head. Perhaps it has to do with the way my thoughts have been lately. A great stress has been removed from my life and my mind is free to relax. Tiny bubbles of thoughts, random ideas, and obscure memories are escaping from the recesses of my brain and rising to the surface. Like leaves blowing in the wind, I never know what will come by next. It doesn’t matter what or when is coming by, I am just enjoying the show. So, my comments may seem fragmented and disjointed, this is okay. There is a thread somewhere that ties them all together. I just haven’t found it yet and I’m in no hurry to get there.

I have been reading the book, PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY: THE MASKS OF GOD, by Joseph Campbell. Campbell was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who had a lifelong interest in mythology. From him there is the thought, “When Housman writes that ‘poetry is not the thing said but a way of saying it,’ and when he states again ‘that the intellect is not the fount of poetry, that it may actually hinder its production, and that it cannot even be trusted to recognize poetry when it is produced,’ he is no more than reaffirming and lucidly formulating the first axiom of all creative art – whether it be in poetry, music, dance, architecture, painting, or sculpture – which is namely, that art is not, like science, a logic of references but a release from reference and rendition of immediate experience: a presentation of forms, images, or ideas in such a way that they will communicate, not primarily a thought or even a feeling, but an impact.”

I also have been thinking about what I recently wrote about my grasshopper mind. Jumping here, there, and everywhere. How at times I lament the lack of forward progress. As I look at it now, the zigzagging has created many interesting marks and patterns in the course of my life. That there has not been this straightforward logic of references but relying much more on what has had an impact on me. This is, perhaps, the unifying thread. And what has had an impact on me has been a great variety of things.


Jafabrit commented on the “Jack-of-all-Trades” and how culture downplays that role. Sadly, this is too true. The Jack-of-All is no less focused, no less competent than the Master-of-the-Trade. They are just two different methods, two different paths to the same end.

I also think back on the comments by Lori Witzel. She said the Impressionists had their Salons because of the rigidness of the Academies. I am guilty of becoming rigid because of how many galleries think and function and because I wanted to be able to be accepted and fit into them. To that I can only say, SIGH and mea culpa!

It is time to take lessons from my grandson as I watch him play. I watch him explore his world. He examines the things around him and accepts them for what they are (most of the time). He has a willingness to try many things and not limit himself. No concerns of will it work, will it be accepted, and will I suffer rejection? He makes things and with a great, HAH he presents it to everyone and then goes on to the next thing. So, I need to go back and start making things that have some sort of an impact on others and me. I need to start making things again where when I am finished that I can stand back and go HAH!

There are too many thoughts running through my head right now, like a runaway train. I need to go sit and meditate and reflect. To let things settle down and see what new bubble rises to the surface this time. Also, as an alternative to the academies, salons, and galleries, my wife decided that she would start a small part-time business as an artist representative. She started, if you will, a cyber gallery to show my work and to see if she can make some money from my obsessions. You can find it at www.emfineartstudio.com. All feedback is welcome.

The first image is part of my Winter Walk series. It measures 10” X 18” (25.5 cm X 45.75 cm) and is oil and oil pastel on prepared paper. The second image is a piece that I did for an exhibit at a church. It is titled, “Let Them Fall Where They May” and is based on the Christian parable of the sower and the seed. It measures 38” X 36” (96.5 cm X 91.5cm). It is mixed media. The landscape is oil on panel; the birds are made from steel wire, masking tape, paper mache, and spackle; the vines are cut from a bush I found on one of my walks.