Kali Yuga dance

Here in the Kali Yuga epoch Shiva and Kali dance the dance of light. In spite of myself this painting has come out the way it has, dragging me behind it, oblivious to any attempt on my part to effect its trajectory. At one point I did try to assume some sort of control and modified the composition and content. I had to paint it all out. Towards the end it threatened to spin out of control and splash itself on the surrounding walls. It allowed me to nudge here and there: tailoring a skintight set of duds.
...you may click to enlarge

...in the studio

I started the under drawing on the new painting (click to enlarge):



...and then worked on it again the next day:




looking in the other direction...out the window in the late afternoon light:

details and visitors

Drawing/watercolor with the shadows from the wire catspider above it:



Collage/watercolor/ink of a bottle that was my mother's and the ripped up pages from on old physics book of my Dad's:




Ink/watercolor image from a story I wrote years ago:




This weekend I did a two day open studio with other people in Tribeca. People wandered in, wandered out, stayed for 15 seconds, hung around for conversation. Some obviously want nothing to do with you and others pronounce you the best of the tour. One woman told me a story about her painter Dad who supported 5 children with his art out in Pennsylvania. He had his own gallery in a separate building and then built a Japanese house to add to the mix. The kids would go to sleep whenever and wherever. We talked about the ability to paint and to draw (not synonymous) and about children's books.
..and then you get some people who bring with them an aura of actual weirdness, their words always at an oblique angle to your own, their laughter rushing in to make puddles in between.
Now I can start on the new painting with its foliage, Hindu dancer-gods, illuminated edges and chaos at the end of the Kali Yuga.