Long Weekend Leads to Little Work

It was a holiday, right?
I'm using that as an excuse for my slow-ish return to my normally stringent work schedule. In the interest of giving myself a break in that respect I do have to say that I had my boys to myself from pretty much Friday through yesterday. I love spending time with my kids so you'll never hear me complain about getting extra time with them. We spent the weekend watching movies, playing games, having friends over to visit, and the obligatory Memorial Day cookout. Outside of a little house cleaning and laundry there was almost no other "constructive" activity. In my opinion that's how holidays are supposed to be spent.

Last night I got back into the studio and was surprised at my own fervor. I turned on the tunes and within minutes "Pursuance" from John Contrane's "A Love Supreme" drop-kicked me into the single-minded state I require to work (here's a portrait I did of him some years back). Some nights it's like being possessed. I know I've written on this subject before so I'll spare you, but last night was one of those nights.

All that aside here's the latest update. Lately I've been thinking more about the relationships of the characters to each other and the viewer. In most of my paintings the figures are solitary and standing with their back to the viewer. Even in compositions with many figures situated in close proximity to each other they all seem to be on their own. There are some notable exceptions, but more often than not they're solitary. It says something about the artist frame of mind. I think it also says something about our current state of mind as human beings. Each one of us can communicate to such a broad audience, but ultimately no matter how much social networking, etc a person gets involved in it's no substitute for real face-to-face interaction. When faced with such interaction many social networkers are at a loss, or are unable to distinguish between the online personality and the person in front of them.

We plug in... We tune out.

I try to use social network in a way that gets me involved with people directly. I like to meet new people and get to know them. At the same time i'm an observer. A voyeur. A perennial fish-out-of-water. Reconcile that.

How do you rank yourself? Are you a social networker? Do you press the flesh? Do you sit and play WoW and eat cheesy-poofs?

What do you do that keeps you from turning into a shut-in?


Cheers,

R