When you start working, everybody is in your studio- the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas- all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.

If these words from John Cage are true, and I believe they are, what is the role of the Goat Rodeo? How to manage the the chaos that proceeds most projects? I have watched myself pursue wrong headed paths—sometimes for days—while transforming interior babble to bold, useless forays with paint.  And yet, there may be something there—and maybe that thing is something I’ve never thought of, something new that may possibly emerge, a way to push at the edges. The chaos is rich, nourishing and in no small part crazy-making.

I like to invite artists I love into the studio. This is an ever changing group, Right now I’m entertaining Cy Twombly’s mythological scribbles, Gary Komarin’s imaginary narratives, Thomas Nozkowski’s fabulous paint handling and Kiki Smith’s haunting prints and drawings—and of course, the usuals, Ellsworth Kelly, Anselm Kiefer, Catherine Cassidy and that light wizard, James Turrell.

What thread runs through all this? Something about owning your work—knowing what you care about, letting that inform what you do. Finding ways to befriend both gods and demons. And then, without looking, to make the leap, to let them all go.

 

Goat Rodeo

When art and life intersect--
Art as a way of life, a way of "moving through this world".
Lynn Beldner is a diarist whose subtle sculptural pieces "pair the fragile, interior and domestic with the dangers of the external world".
A photographer's moment of intense awareness...
"At what moment did you become an artist?"
Who and what is contributing to your artwork?
What is it about green?

04/09/2021

Zoom portfolio reviews--worth it?
Painter and painting--who's really in charge?
Art with a message--experiments with a word challenge.
Revise, renew, reinvent...
Walking to the studio, looking around...

12/28/2020

Concerning art and angels
Learning from artist's block
How do paintings come together? Do you end up with what you had in mind when you started?
John Cage informs the process
Making art. Hard enough to do it. Should I write about it? Yes? No? But what about...

Goat Rodeo Part 2: Artists In The Room

11/20/2020

When you start working, everybody is in your studio- the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas- all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.

If these words from John Cage are true, and I believe they are, what is the role of the Goat Rodeo? How to manage the the chaos that proceeds most projects? I have watched myself pursue wrong headed paths—sometimes for days—while transforming interior babble to bold, useless forays with paint.  And yet, there may be something there—and maybe that thing is something I’ve never thought of, something new that may possibly emerge, a way to push at the edges. The chaos is rich, nourishing and in no small part crazy-making.

I like to invite artists I love into the studio. This is an ever changing group, Right now I’m entertaining Cy Twombly’s mythological scribbles, Gary Komarin’s imaginary narratives, Thomas Nozkowski’s fabulous paint handling and Kiki Smith’s haunting prints and drawings—and of course, the usuals, Ellsworth Kelly, Anselm Kiefer, Catherine Cassidy and that light wizard, James Turrell.

What thread runs through all this? Something about owning your work—knowing what you care about, letting that inform what you do. Finding ways to befriend both gods and demons. And then, without looking, to make the leap, to let them all go.