Wall to Wall: Richmond » Converse

Wall to Wall: Richmond » Converse

One of my favorite take a minute exercises involves finding a piece of challenging art and having a few deep breaths while absorbing the work. In Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings i like to contemplate his painting process in the use of his home made squeegees and un naturalistic colors that are dictated by clues and a dialog with the canvas itself. I like comparing his photo realistic scraped paintings to his 70's abstract work. These paintings( 70s abstract), though fully abstracted and process based gives us, in my mind, a kind of meditative landscape that creates a bridge that connects our ideas of what natural realism could be , and what our reactions to natural landscapes dictate . It is human nature when looking at a painting to automatically search for a horizon line or a facial feature, or anything we can become visually fixated to, but to approach a painting with a open frame , and meditative mind we can break away from these fixations and find our way into the beautiful worlds and thematic battles created by Richters paintings. This approach is obviously quite useful in any endeavor. Breath in, breath out folks

Take a minute to shoot a short movie

I call this movie" Loudon conquers his fear of frogs and slides all at once"

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What a great year

WOW..Man what a great year it has been.. I know i'm supposed to be putting out "take a minute" excersises , but i thought i would try and find some examples of my year. Take a minute to reflect. I am the luckiest person to have work streaming in.. I have done murals, signs, commissions, gallery paintings, community murals, Gallery talks, taught kid classes,worked as a consultant, made posters, and so on.. i put together some of the images from this year.. some of the examples were un-finished when the photo was taken. There is a bunch more , but i need to go on a photography spree. Once again I just can't show enough gratitude for the people that bought paintings or gave me work this year, I'm so damn lucky! If your bored take a look.

http://gallery.me.com/edtrask#100116

Bernays

Oh Bernays, how would he manipulate the masses in such a crazed world of information . Fifty years ago information that would take 50 years to obtain ,today ,takes 50 seconds. Information has become a commodity , a direction changer , a necessary tool ,and a destroyer. Today let's take a minute to think of how information rules our lives.





In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

A good artist is

A Good Artist Is
I received a best of type thing not long ago and it sparked some people to write some long winded , well thought out bashings of my work, my name and so forth. Funny thing is i agree with most of what was written. There are so many superior painters in richmond, and yes, my mural compositions are sometime jumbled and awkward, in the academic sense, i use the wrong colors constantly, my conceptualized thematics are quite often shallow and over- literal , and yes i am a poor speller and a shitty writer ..So what does this mean?

It means having the label of being a good artist goes way beyond being judged by the standards of one discipline in the arts. I truly believe that a good artist is a person that wants change, A good artist is a designer and curator that can weed through never ending information and influences, and find their own style A good artist will always find their outlet ,legal or not. A good artist is the perfect amalgamation of this found style , ego, selflessness , stewardship, craftsmanship, love, hate . A good artist spreads his or her light and is always willing to help a fellow artist. A good artist knows there will always be better artists then themselves and will always learn from their shortcomings or failures. A good artist knows that once he or she has declared themselves the best artist, they are fucked. A good artist loves music and literature, A good artist researches ,works constantly, and is never afraid of criticism. A good artist is never affraid to change direction, and experiment . So what is the difference between a good artist and a good citizen ? Not much in my book.

As an artist I want to be a good dad, I want to inspire people,consult companies, i want to teach kids, i want to give speeches, write a book , i want to make paintings the way i have taught myself and not the way others think i should. I want to produce murals that can leave a lasting impact , sense of optimism , and community pride. I want to leave this city with a legacy of public art and public gardens that take over this city. Have these public art sights connected with endless bike paths and mobile and augmented reality tours.. i want richmond to be nationally known for these gardens, bike paths and public art.. After all, a mural, or a creative idea, is simply a transitory object, BUT , to start a never ending dialog between needy neighborhoods, the creative masses, innovators , corporations, the public, and the next generation, can leave a lasting impact..

Change doesn't happen by sitting around criticizing others, change comes from humbled hard work, and in this constantly changing world I will always strive and try my damndest to be a good artist and citizen,,,, i can hope and dream everyone else will too!

Samuel "sambo" mockbee

Take a minute to think about the genius life of Samuel Mockbee



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