1 00:00:18,85 --> 00:00:22,57 Hello again and welcome back to SR perspectives 2 00:00:22,86 --> 00:00:29,80 a show about by elders here on the north coast. Brought to you by the 3 00:00:29,81 --> 00:00:34,86 redwood Coast Senior Center I'm Charles Bush I'll be your host tonight and I will 4 00:00:34,87 --> 00:00:39,28 very special guest tonight David Jenks and you're already slightly acquainted with 5 00:00:39,29 --> 00:00:43,39 him even if you've never been to the senior center because those were his paintings 6 00:00:43,40 --> 00:00:47,79 those were portraits of folks in our community that went flying across your screen 7 00:00:47,80 --> 00:00:51,60 at the beginning of the program David welcome it's 8 00:00:51,61 --> 00:00:57,01 a delight to have you here. Thank you tell me about that all those paintings when I 9 00:00:57,02 --> 00:01:02,22 first came into the senior center while they were all up and down the hall how did 10 00:01:02,23 --> 00:01:05,96 that get going how many and just tell me about tell me the story of the paintings 11 00:01:06,04 --> 00:01:11,84 actually it is an interesting story because. Print paint portraits is one of my 12 00:01:11,88 --> 00:01:17,53 favorite things to do and. On the other hand it's very hard to get people to come 13 00:01:17,54 --> 00:01:23,90 and sit for you. And I ran into an opera who came to my 14 00:01:23,91 --> 00:01:29,50 studio she set for me one day and I was complaining about how difficult it was to 15 00:01:29,51 --> 00:01:33,06 get people to sit so she said I know a place where there's 16 00:01:33,07 --> 00:01:39,83 a lot of interesting people that you might like to paint so he spoke to Joe 17 00:01:39,84 --> 00:01:45,68 Curran and. I went that was it I went to the senior center and it's been seven 18 00:01:45,69 --> 00:01:48,72 years I think is if I was that's what I was going to say how long they're going to 19 00:01:48,73 --> 00:01:52,72 have here is right and do you know how many paintings there are up there on those 20 00:01:52,73 --> 00:01:56,05 walls No I think at least a hundred at least 21 00:01:56,06 --> 00:02:00,55 a hundred Yeah they're beautiful you know when when I meet new folks who come from 22 00:02:00,56 --> 00:02:03,75 other places and are visiting this the Center for the first time we walk down that 23 00:02:03,76 --> 00:02:10,45 hall I have to say the usual response is often they just can't believe that someone 24 00:02:10,46 --> 00:02:15,38 has done that and that we've captured all of those souls and have them hanging up 25 00:02:15,39 --> 00:02:19,56 on our wall that they're at the Senior Center What an extraordinary thing having 26 00:02:19,57 --> 00:02:21,74 gone through the process with you it's 27 00:02:21,75 --> 00:02:26,00 a fairly intimate exchange and I suspect way more intimate on your part because 28 00:02:26,01 --> 00:02:31,63 you're seeing so intently I was just sitting there but you were doing something 29 00:02:31,64 --> 00:02:33,61 altogether different What's it like to paint 30 00:02:33,62 --> 00:02:39,69 a portrait. It's very hard work actually as much as I enjoy it takes tremendous 31 00:02:39,70 --> 00:02:42,08 concentration over 32 00:02:42,98 --> 00:02:47,97 a few hours that can can really drain you but. There's something about. 33 00:02:49,57 --> 00:02:56,44 Bringing. A person to life in two dimensions. Very satisfying if 34 00:02:56,94 --> 00:03:01,70 you know if it works succeeds or some better than others and your to your 35 00:03:02,20 --> 00:03:07,64 sensibilities definitely I like about maybe five percent of the One is that right 36 00:03:07,69 --> 00:03:09,32 really I want 37 00:03:09,33 --> 00:03:13,72 a bar I mean I think they're glorious but I it would seem that some would you 38 00:03:13,73 --> 00:03:17,91 sometimes you feel like you capture it and then sometimes not so much or what makes 39 00:03:17,92 --> 00:03:18,67 it good what makes 40 00:03:18,68 --> 00:03:24,39 a portrait really please you well it's interesting I think. Everybody likes the 41 00:03:24,70 --> 00:03:31,37 paintings on the wall but they don't like their own. And I think. Which is 42 00:03:31,99 --> 00:03:33,92 kind of interesting in 43 00:03:33,93 --> 00:03:40,19 a way I guess people don't really see themselves from the angle other than looking 44 00:03:40,23 --> 00:03:47,09 head on of themselves in the mirror right but. I think for me 45 00:03:47,17 --> 00:03:51,15 it has to be a good painting. As well as 46 00:03:51,16 --> 00:03:57,84 a good likeness and. That something that's. Even more 47 00:03:57,85 --> 00:03:59,09 elusive than a good likeness 48 00:03:59,10 --> 00:04:03,96 a good likeness you get by drawing drawing very carefully measuring very carefully 49 00:04:04,34 --> 00:04:08,82 so the proportions are all and that's where the progress in tracing comes in but 50 00:04:09,43 --> 00:04:13,47 the handling of paint is what I really care about and some of them have that as 51 00:04:13,48 --> 00:04:18,93 well and some but then there's the proportions but then and I know I will get into 52 00:04:18,94 --> 00:04:19,11 this 53 00:04:19,12 --> 00:04:23,07 a little bit later because I you know your paintings are so beautiful and you paint 54 00:04:23,08 --> 00:04:29,35 like you you you capture this theory of thing called light and I see that in the 55 00:04:29,36 --> 00:04:34,40 portraits too that must be interesting to again it's not just the proportion this 56 00:04:34,41 --> 00:04:40,17 but but there's something else magical and alive that you're trying to capture 57 00:04:41,97 --> 00:04:48,09 or you talk about the light in the person Yeah well and and the light of the skin 58 00:04:48,30 --> 00:04:53,71 and the way the wrinkles and the curves and the contours of the face so delicate 59 00:04:53,72 --> 00:05:00,15 and so intricate that's probably because of the set up and you know I close all 60 00:05:00,16 --> 00:05:06,60 other forms of other sources of light off from the sitter and just have one one big 61 00:05:06,61 --> 00:05:13,42 light that's lighting both the siddur and in my canvas right and. That's. 62 00:05:15,13 --> 00:05:20,61 If that happens it's because I'm painting I guess painting light is really what 63 00:05:20,62 --> 00:05:24,66 it's all about right right because that's how we were able to see and distinguish 64 00:05:24,67 --> 00:05:31,42 between form and one form and another when I spent some years 65 00:05:31,43 --> 00:05:36,20 in Northern New Mexico and the painters there I think are all obsessed with light 66 00:05:36,32 --> 00:05:36,99 because in 67 00:05:36,100 --> 00:05:39,86 a certain sense the landscape although there are mountains the landscapes pretty 68 00:05:39,87 --> 00:05:46,04 flat light is mostly what it is and I came to love. The physical presence of light 69 00:05:46,72 --> 00:05:53,52 is that tower in Toph's right exactly you you paint the ocean and the 70 00:05:53,53 --> 00:06:00,41 sky and where we live in such an expansive and very exquisite 71 00:06:00,42 --> 00:06:01,98 way can we talk 72 00:06:01,99 --> 00:06:07,70 a little bit about that because I think that your work is extraordinary and and 73 00:06:08,03 --> 00:06:12,77 just exquisite and luminous How do you do that what is it that you're capturing. 74 00:06:14,55 --> 00:06:21,49 Well. I had two different ways going about it and. One 75 00:06:21,50 --> 00:06:27,64 is actually sketching outdoors. Which is very tricky. 76 00:06:29,05 --> 00:06:35,52 Procedure because the light is constantly changing so one either has to get 77 00:06:35,53 --> 00:06:37,89 a quick impression or use 78 00:06:37,90 --> 00:06:43,40 a good camera lens like I do. That's an interesting question because you don't do 79 00:06:43,41 --> 00:06:48,31 portrait work that way very much do you know right but you do do you take like 80 00:06:48,32 --> 00:06:50,55 a series of photographs or is it 81 00:06:50,64 --> 00:06:55,61 a photograph that you then paint from how does the camera how does it participate 82 00:06:55,62 --> 00:07:00,59 in that creative process of capturing the world and putting it on 83 00:07:00,60 --> 00:07:03,44 a canvas and we have one of the oh sure let's take 84 00:07:03,45 --> 00:07:07,66 a look you got some stuff to show us which is by far the best way to to get at this 85 00:07:07,79 --> 00:07:13,08 the best way to talk about OK. So this is 86 00:07:13,22 --> 00:07:17,10 a painting these are paintings this is an outdoor spit carry. 87 00:07:21,90 --> 00:07:22,66 Which is 88 00:07:22,67 --> 00:07:29,62 a very quick study from the headlines and Mendocino late afternoon in 89 00:07:29,83 --> 00:07:36,36 September. And. The trick is 90 00:07:36,40 --> 00:07:42,62 to. Somehow I think the inspiration for me was the light shining off the water and 91 00:07:42,63 --> 00:07:49,48 the house somehow the rock seemed purple in the shadows. So this 92 00:07:49,49 --> 00:07:56,19 was May be this took maybe forty five minutes or so and then 93 00:07:56,73 --> 00:08:01,24 I took I took transparencies thirty five millimeter transparencies at the same time 94 00:08:01,24 --> 00:08:07,68 . And back in the studio I used those to touch it up and put it all 95 00:08:07,69 --> 00:08:14,29 together. And then I used this as a. As 96 00:08:14,30 --> 00:08:20,35 a study for a much larger finished piece which I did by actually projecting 97 00:08:20,89 --> 00:08:25,79 a transparent transparency onto the canvas in order to get the drawing in and then 98 00:08:25,80 --> 00:08:30,40 I use this for color wow. And this is this is 99 00:08:30,41 --> 00:08:36,41 a critic now this now this is the oil painting oil only now how do you and you do 100 00:08:36,74 --> 00:08:38,42 something at one point you worked 101 00:08:38,46 --> 00:08:44,82 a lot in acrylic. You know before I put in oils I started painting oils and but one 102 00:08:44,83 --> 00:08:48,63 thousand nine hundred seven but before that it didn't acrylic for years and years 103 00:08:48,64 --> 00:08:54,53 and years and when I moved to the southwest I decided to try oil the trials partly 104 00:08:54,54 --> 00:08:59,75 because acrylics are very hard to keep moist in and that he was in the right time 105 00:08:59,76 --> 00:09:02,43 and right so I paid in both mediums for 106 00:09:02,44 --> 00:09:08,15 a while and then finally switched oils just because it seemed to be. Does I know 107 00:09:08,16 --> 00:09:08,44 this is 108 00:09:08,45 --> 00:09:13,37 a little technical question but but you know we have an audience that has four 109 00:09:13,38 --> 00:09:20,01 artisan does the oil capture light differently does it does it does it work 110 00:09:20,02 --> 00:09:22,32 differently then then acrylic is there 111 00:09:22,33 --> 00:09:26,81 a difference between those two media and what you can make the canvas give back to 112 00:09:26,82 --> 00:09:33,42 us. Well acrylic can be very sort of 113 00:09:33,76 --> 00:09:39,03 opaque flat kind of medium. But I used it with 114 00:09:39,04 --> 00:09:45,64 a lot of. Transparent acrylic medium in the paint to 115 00:09:45,93 --> 00:09:52,29 kind of like water color to you can switch that down actually if you want OK. I 116 00:09:52,30 --> 00:09:57,14 brought another one you know good let me just set the stone over here OK great and 117 00:09:57,15 --> 00:10:04,12 we can switch to the next one here. This one is actually. 118 00:10:06,92 --> 00:10:13,53 OK let's see here and there we go. This is this is the 119 00:10:13,54 --> 00:10:16,48 kind of work that I do I paid 120 00:10:16,49 --> 00:10:21,61 a lot of sunsets over the ocean. Course the sunset is something that's very 121 00:10:21,62 --> 00:10:24,98 ephemeral and very transitory and it's gone in 122 00:10:24,99 --> 00:10:31,53 a flash so these I do strictly from photographs OK And I 123 00:10:31,65 --> 00:10:37,96 actually project the photograph on the canvas and trace in the composition and then 124 00:10:37,96 --> 00:10:44,70 . Look taped the thirty five millimeter transparency to a little viewer in that 125 00:10:44,71 --> 00:10:51,43 a light box well in painting for the colors. It's kind of taking process and the 126 00:10:51,44 --> 00:10:58,28 trick is to. Cover up all the numbers. So before you put 127 00:10:58,29 --> 00:11:01,83 that down now just if we can if we can get a camera back on that for just 128 00:11:01,84 --> 00:11:08,54 a minute when I. You know I happened on an exhibit that I think it was in 129 00:11:08,55 --> 00:11:11,70 Mendocino remember even which the gallery as I mentioned to you when I saw it as I 130 00:11:11,71 --> 00:11:18,34 was just I just walked up the stairs and went Oh my gosh and ran over because the 131 00:11:18,57 --> 00:11:22,48 paintings did something to my heart I mean it was if they're so 132 00:11:22,49 --> 00:11:28,27 a femoral there just the light is palpable and what I what I wanted to ask you 133 00:11:28,28 --> 00:11:35,09 about is lots of sea painters it seems to me paint water primarily you 134 00:11:35,19 --> 00:11:40,31 paint light primarily and the mysteriousness of the air in some of these paintings 135 00:11:40,51 --> 00:11:44,59 the ones that you know this is an exception this says more water and most of the 136 00:11:44,68 --> 00:11:51,65 Right right but even the water has the quality of the sky. Is that 137 00:11:51,66 --> 00:11:58,36 unusual and unique I think to your perspective and it's so impressive. Well the 138 00:11:58,37 --> 00:12:05,35 sky is what it what I'm really interested in right and. Most most 139 00:12:05,36 --> 00:12:06,55 escapes have had kind of 140 00:12:06,56 --> 00:12:14,27 a crashing crashing wave. Theme and that's. Been 141 00:12:14,28 --> 00:12:19,47 overdone right in the big curl of the big wave in the light coming through but and 142 00:12:19,48 --> 00:12:26,32 I think that. Any success that I have with this kind of painting is partly due to 143 00:12:26,33 --> 00:12:29,94 the fact that I'm painting from transparencies because when you're looking at 144 00:12:29,95 --> 00:12:35,26 a transparency is opposed to a print photographic print you're seeing 145 00:12:35,27 --> 00:12:38,07 a light coming you actually are seeing the light coming you're seeing the light 146 00:12:38,08 --> 00:12:44,63 coming through color. And very very analogous to looking at 147 00:12:45,45 --> 00:12:48,16 a monitor looking at an inch on 148 00:12:48,17 --> 00:12:53,09 a monitor it's the same same effect and I sometimes pay for monitors using digital 149 00:12:53,10 --> 00:12:59,86 photographs. So that's in trying to reproduce to me to thirty three 150 00:12:59,94 --> 00:13:03,62 thirty five millimeter transparency is the closest thing to reality in photo in 151 00:13:03,63 --> 00:13:10,61 photography. It invokes the actual sense of being there much more than that 152 00:13:10,62 --> 00:13:15,71 and then getting kind photographic prints right so in trying to reproduce them 153 00:13:15,72 --> 00:13:20,66 because the light is actually coming from cycling it's not yeah which is the way it 154 00:13:20,67 --> 00:13:27,19 is in real life right and so trying to reproduce that effect of the moon luminously 155 00:13:27,25 --> 00:13:30,46 and just using the transparency as 156 00:13:30,47 --> 00:13:37,22 a subject matter so to speak right gives the painting that kind of quality 157 00:13:37,54 --> 00:13:44,48 of light. This is again maybe goofy question because I art is something I just 158 00:13:44,49 --> 00:13:51,46 appreciate and I don't understand the process very much. Do you did you 159 00:13:52,33 --> 00:13:58,22 study and develop a certain set of skills and then discover 160 00:13:58,40 --> 00:14:05,17 a vision and create the technique to make that vision happen. I 161 00:14:05,18 --> 00:14:12,16 did study in college. And here in there afterwards but it took 162 00:14:12,17 --> 00:14:16,12 me a long time to get around to painting. I had 163 00:14:16,13 --> 00:14:22,21 a lot of other things to get my sister like. And I'm going to lot of. I was very 164 00:14:22,22 --> 00:14:25,62 nervous about being able to make it as an artist and still in the actual. 165 00:14:27,44 --> 00:14:29,78 Financially speaking so I want to talk about that 166 00:14:29,79 --> 00:14:33,80 a little later about the commerce of art but but please continue it so it was 167 00:14:33,81 --> 00:14:38,29 probably wasn't until I was about four years old that I really started painting 168 00:14:38,30 --> 00:14:45,20 seriously and I think that. It is that late as artists go do you 169 00:14:45,21 --> 00:14:52,20 think. I think so. I mean how old are you how old are you 170 00:14:52,21 --> 00:14:59,19 now sorry sixty sixty six OK and proud of it I guess twenty six years 171 00:14:59,65 --> 00:14:59,81 as 172 00:14:59,82 --> 00:15:07,02 a painter Exactly. And. I guessed I've always 173 00:15:07,03 --> 00:15:13,16 taken I've always taken. Slides of what I'm working on outdoors 174 00:15:14,07 --> 00:15:17,97 I started up painting just still lives because it was something that I could 175 00:15:17,98 --> 00:15:20,49 control and write sort of kind of 176 00:15:20,50 --> 00:15:27,18 a little bit. About things and wanting to get everything just 177 00:15:27,19 --> 00:15:33,85 so I think. My painting life has been an odyssey from. 178 00:15:35,32 --> 00:15:42,01 A kind of super real. Very detailed approach to representing the 179 00:15:42,02 --> 00:15:48,79 subject matter to constantly trying to. Break out of that and and be freer 180 00:15:48,80 --> 00:15:55,42 and and I think that's you can see that. Many artists work through 181 00:15:56,16 --> 00:16:02,04 at least in the last hundred years or so it seems like to me being an artist 182 00:16:02,90 --> 00:16:06,50 your eyes are precious in 183 00:16:06,51 --> 00:16:13,22 a very unique and special way. I know I've been told I can't drop I 184 00:16:13,23 --> 00:16:17,46 mean I don't have that facility having practice but but so often I've heard 185 00:16:17,47 --> 00:16:23,50 instructors say you have to see first then draw Does that make sense. 186 00:16:26,10 --> 00:16:32,72 Yeah it does. I I I drew as 187 00:16:32,73 --> 00:16:37,28 a child and I could I just drew an isometric projection without even knowing what 188 00:16:37,29 --> 00:16:43,23 it was and you know I was drawing drawing came very easily to me and my mother was 189 00:16:43,24 --> 00:16:48,23 a commercial artist so that So you were around and saw my earliest memories of her 190 00:16:48,24 --> 00:16:49,84 were working in 191 00:16:49,85 --> 00:16:56,03 a drafting table in the living room doing freelance greeting cards and airbrush 192 00:16:56,51 --> 00:17:01,27 airburst kittens and puppies but she could actually do anything and draw circles 193 00:17:01,28 --> 00:17:07,70 around me but. Drawing is definitely be the foundation 194 00:17:08,30 --> 00:17:11,51 and portraiture is. I mean I spend 195 00:17:11,52 --> 00:17:17,20 a lot of time painting from photographs for the marketplace but. Painting people 196 00:17:17,24 --> 00:17:22,08 sitting right in front of me is really. The thing that I get the most. 197 00:17:24,60 --> 00:17:30,19 The most. Most joy out of in terms of the actual act of having 198 00:17:30,20 --> 00:17:32,46 a relationship and making that making that happen on 199 00:17:32,47 --> 00:17:39,32 a canvas it's incredibly challenging and. But if it works it's just 200 00:17:40,28 --> 00:17:47,11 supremely satisfied. Photography has. Has advanced to 201 00:17:47,12 --> 00:17:53,17 such an immense degree in so many ways that the technologies of. Pointing and 202 00:17:53,18 --> 00:17:59,00 recording visually. And portrait painting is. 203 00:18:02,02 --> 00:18:06,19 I just don't run into portrait painters that often I guess is what I want to say 204 00:18:06,29 --> 00:18:07,64 it's I wouldn't say it's 205 00:18:07,65 --> 00:18:14,30 a dying art by any stretch but but. What's the tension between the 206 00:18:14,31 --> 00:18:17,43 photographer a person and a painting 207 00:18:17,44 --> 00:18:24,26 a person how to talk about that difference. Well it's interesting I think 208 00:18:25,35 --> 00:18:30,91 today we're so used to looking at people smiling in photographs because. A 209 00:18:30,92 --> 00:18:37,82 photograph is it's an instant and it's something that. Is sort 210 00:18:37,83 --> 00:18:42,31 of ubiquitous it's everywhere right photographs of people but now literally 211 00:18:42,32 --> 00:18:45,46 everywhere I mean. But it's hard very hard to paint 212 00:18:45,47 --> 00:18:49,58 a portrait of somebody smiling for me because then I'm kind of slow but. 213 00:18:53,36 --> 00:18:59,61 I think the photograph the camera also distorts. And has its own kind of. 214 00:19:01,61 --> 00:19:06,66 I think usually what happens is everything in the middle of the face kind of gets 215 00:19:06,94 --> 00:19:09,86 pushed forward a little bit. Is 216 00:19:09,87 --> 00:19:18,72 a little bit bigger than. Everything else so. And 217 00:19:18,73 --> 00:19:24,57 yet. It's so easy to I mean I can start painting somebody and then take 218 00:19:24,58 --> 00:19:28,19 a break and see them from the side and think that my proportions are all wrong with 219 00:19:28,20 --> 00:19:30,61 Rush but I think that 220 00:19:30,62 --> 00:19:35,04 a painting and getting to know someone and being with somebody over 221 00:19:35,05 --> 00:19:40,51 a period of time. Especially if you can have more than one sitting those paintings 222 00:19:40,52 --> 00:19:45,85 in the senior center all single mostly single sitting aren't Absolutely and and 223 00:19:45,86 --> 00:19:50,67 relatively short even I would imagine. In terms of if I came and said I want 224 00:19:50,71 --> 00:19:56,18 a portrait painted we would have done it so fast right exactly right if if if I was 225 00:19:56,19 --> 00:19:56,45 to do 226 00:19:56,46 --> 00:20:00,66 a commission for instance I would take several sittings in order to finish it and I 227 00:20:00,67 --> 00:20:05,50 would take photographs to use as reference to finish the clothing and so on and so 228 00:20:05,51 --> 00:20:07,76 forth but. To get back to 229 00:20:07,77 --> 00:20:12,84 a question I. Just think there's something that you can I mean 230 00:20:12,85 --> 00:20:16,03 a good really good photographer can certainly take 231 00:20:16,04 --> 00:20:20,10 a lot of photographs and write come up with the one that captures something more 232 00:20:20,11 --> 00:20:25,87 than just the surface appearance. Of the human being. But in 233 00:20:25,88 --> 00:20:32,63 a painting. I mean I certainly try actually I actually don't consciously 234 00:20:32,64 --> 00:20:39,28 try to capture what. What's going on inside the person even if I 235 00:20:39,92 --> 00:20:45,43 am so busy trying to just write make it look like than that but somehow it's 236 00:20:45,44 --> 00:20:49,49 interesting at the Senior Center people always say oh you really captured so and so 237 00:20:49,85 --> 00:20:54,04 I recognize everybody and there's you know they all seem to have 238 00:20:54,69 --> 00:21:00,07 a certain individuality that comes through but it's really just the sum total of of 239 00:21:00,08 --> 00:21:03,60 all the parts right for me it's it's 240 00:21:03,61 --> 00:21:09,50 a miracle that that happens and when it happens it's I guess that's that's one of 241 00:21:09,51 --> 00:21:11,25 the things that such a such 242 00:21:11,26 --> 00:21:18,12 a kick so he said the word commission. The artist in 243 00:21:18,12 --> 00:21:22,12 a certain sense has a gift and presents 244 00:21:22,12 --> 00:21:28,48 a gift back and yet somewhere in that equation in order to have the time and 245 00:21:29,30 --> 00:21:33,32 the things you need to be able to do art. You have to earn 246 00:21:33,33 --> 00:21:37,16 a living too and can you talk 247 00:21:37,17 --> 00:21:42,56 a little bit about that dance the dance of the gallery and the sale and the 248 00:21:42,57 --> 00:21:49,51 commission and. The work of the artist and how do they coexist in your life and 249 00:21:49,52 --> 00:21:53,99 how has that worked for you. Well it hasn't worked as 250 00:21:54,00 --> 00:22:00,66 a portrait painter say that that's interesting right up front because. In 251 00:22:00,67 --> 00:22:07,59 choosing to live here I think I've. Put myself sort of outside of the 252 00:22:07,60 --> 00:22:13,91 mill year where portraits. Are in demand which is I would say in 253 00:22:14,27 --> 00:22:20,84 academia or government. Various and and corporate 254 00:22:21,71 --> 00:22:25,62 situations so kind of where people think they're very important or in 255 00:22:25,64 --> 00:22:30,78 a way. Down south important enough to have my portrait painted Yeah exactly and I 256 00:22:30,80 --> 00:22:35,52 hear that at the senior center so you know I say to somebody and they go Oh I'm not 257 00:22:35,52 --> 00:22:41,21 . You know nobody would want to paint me it's not an interesting idea I think that 258 00:22:41,22 --> 00:22:48,15 anybody is everybody and everybody is is fascinating. So to 259 00:22:48,16 --> 00:22:53,39 me that's not an issue. And but as a as 260 00:22:53,40 --> 00:23:00,39 a marketable thing it's definitely. You and Rob Martin or for me so that's 261 00:23:00,40 --> 00:23:06,57 why I paint you know why focus on the sunsets over the ocean not only because I 262 00:23:06,58 --> 00:23:12,88 mean they're very technically intensive to do but. Interestingly enough you think 263 00:23:12,89 --> 00:23:13,00 that 264 00:23:13,01 --> 00:23:20,56 a sunset over the ocean would be would be kind of. Almost. A trite subject 265 00:23:20,57 --> 00:23:26,83 matter but. Nobody nobody else is doing it so that became for me a kind of 266 00:23:26,84 --> 00:23:33,12 a commercial niche. And even though they are you know very labor intensive 267 00:23:34,04 --> 00:23:37,73 the end result is something that that I find I mean as a as 268 00:23:37,74 --> 00:23:44,48 a. Subject I think it's it has the potential to be 269 00:23:44,49 --> 00:23:51,26 a backcourt of of something beyond just. The experience of being there 270 00:23:51,27 --> 00:23:57,91 it's it's suggestive of you know other other energies and 271 00:23:57,92 --> 00:24:03,21 other other other realms potentially even you know spiritually speaking. 272 00:24:04,45 --> 00:24:11,40 So. The goal is even even through the very technical process of producing the 273 00:24:11,41 --> 00:24:18,00 goal is to is to inspire people to see something beyond it and but in today's 274 00:24:18,01 --> 00:24:24,69 market it's just very tough all together I I today meaning fairly immediately 275 00:24:25,48 --> 00:24:30,46 recession on absolutely the last two three years here definitely artists must be 276 00:24:30,47 --> 00:24:35,37 having a tough time. Well I had I was very fortunate to get into 277 00:24:35,38 --> 00:24:39,13 a gallery in Palm Beach Florida which is sort of 278 00:24:39,14 --> 00:24:46,01 a very upscale market and with my seascapes. And that just just 279 00:24:46,22 --> 00:24:50,35 collapsed old together about two years ago I mean they're still showing my work but 280 00:24:50,92 --> 00:24:55,45 nobody's buying them at this point so what I did is nice I turned half my studio 281 00:24:55,46 --> 00:25:02,40 and I would gallery and I'm selling prints of my seascapes there 282 00:25:02,41 --> 00:25:08,21 and originals and it's turned out to be turned out to work pretty well course and 283 00:25:08,27 --> 00:25:15,02 selling things. Because because you've taken the middle out there and 284 00:25:15,03 --> 00:25:19,68 so basically it had to become my own gallery right in order to continue to sell 285 00:25:19,69 --> 00:25:26,07 work and people turn at concerts down why don't I see that sign out there 286 00:25:26,43 --> 00:25:32,71 and follow the signs and wander up the road and find your gallery you know it's 287 00:25:32,72 --> 00:25:38,74 amazing. It is. Striking it takes it takes the course there's 288 00:25:38,75 --> 00:25:45,21 a lot of tire kickers but right sure but it's amazing people and I've tried to 289 00:25:45,22 --> 00:25:51,43 create an environment that's you know lighting in the. Background colors and so 290 00:25:51,44 --> 00:25:58,30 forth and to to compliment the work but people people come 291 00:25:58,31 --> 00:26:03,05 and they really seem to respond so so if I wanted to find it I basically would 292 00:26:03,06 --> 00:26:08,51 drive south on WANT to one from Fort Bragg even Mendocino and then get to comps you 293 00:26:08,52 --> 00:26:13,08 kind of road which is just past the bridge there turn left up the hill and follow 294 00:26:13,09 --> 00:26:18,38 the signs at the signs out there just call call ahead because I'm always open if 295 00:26:18,39 --> 00:26:24,56 I'm home OK got it I got it even if I'm in the garage making bookcases my. My 296 00:26:24,57 --> 00:26:30,43 favorite philosopher who writes about artist Ken Wilber and the thing that he says 297 00:26:30,89 --> 00:26:35,53 he said to him. In reply to how do you know an extraordinary piece of art 298 00:26:35,54 --> 00:26:40,51 a very special piece of art and he said it's very simple it takes your breath away 299 00:26:41,15 --> 00:26:46,01 and and as soon as I heard him say that I had mused about that I went You mean like 300 00:26:46,97 --> 00:26:50,65 like that and that's exactly what happened when I walked in that gallery and so I 301 00:26:50,66 --> 00:26:55,61 had seen your portraits and then I saw the I saw the seascapes the sign and that's 302 00:26:55,62 --> 00:27:00,22 exactly what happened I literally got to the top assessment and I knew that I had 303 00:27:00,43 --> 00:27:02,79 seen special beauty. That 304 00:27:02,80 --> 00:27:06,89 a pretty good capture of it what do you think that's what it's all about I mean. 305 00:27:07,99 --> 00:27:14,32 That's sixth sense far as I'm concerned Right right. Artists do 306 00:27:14,81 --> 00:27:21,46 hate the meaningful and that is spirit do you feel it that way. Is it 307 00:27:21,47 --> 00:27:25,20 magical when when you make up an exquisite painting. 308 00:27:27,77 --> 00:27:34,32 It's it's amazing it's just. Like I said when it comes to painting 309 00:27:34,33 --> 00:27:40,27 a successful portrait that it's kind of happens seems to happen by itself it's not 310 00:27:40,28 --> 00:27:47,02 something that I think you can. You can try to try to do in a in 311 00:27:47,03 --> 00:27:53,04 a specific way it's just you have to find something that that inspires you but. 312 00:27:55,35 --> 00:28:00,07 You know. I wish we could continue this forever I think probably we better we 313 00:28:00,08 --> 00:28:03,69 better let these folks get back to our whatever they were doing before they turn 314 00:28:03,70 --> 00:28:09,69 into sand. Wonderful to have you here to be surrounded by your work in your 315 00:28:09,70 --> 00:28:15,56 paintings and good night everybody thank you for joining us it's been a good visit.