Tag Archives: matthew DG

Glad of My Day

I am glad to have had a traditional studio practice of making art and sculpture. In the end, the urge to make things and touch people’s lives with them has disappeared entirely, replaced by connecting with my own inner life, for myself and only myself. My whole social media arc, from this blog to FB, Insta, YouTube and more only returned me to the beginning again; working in the studio, refining the essence and transforming to Qi.

I don’t say I’m a hero of anything. I do think that I am of the last generation which can say they created with only their own perspective in mind, feeling like they were original and pioneering in their observations and creations. I am glad I had my day.

Will anyone ever again make art from a purely personal perspective without regard for the audience and their social relation to the world at large? The difference in time from now to when I first came up, is as the difference from now to the 17th century. I felt closer then to the Renaissance than I do now to American and European Modernism.

Where are we now as creators? The panic over AI slop and fake music seems trivial to me compared to the massive wave of cheap and easy imagery enabled by digital tools like Photoshop, digital photography, and ubiquitous pointless video. The endpoint we’re at now was predicable in 2000. I did not deviate from my path and purpose then, nor will I be distracted by the promises that new tools offer, for their own sake.

The goal is unchanging; discover the self and cultivate our essential nature. All things withdraw to their core, retreat to their center, and return to their original form.

Pathway to the Original Self

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I am recovering the path back to my original self, before work & school & family, when I was 9 years old, and first aware that I was an individual, whole and independent.

There is always the same question. “What are you doing lately?”

I am un-conditioning my mind and becoming elementary and obvious in the way I see and act in the world.

The Way ►

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But… I don’t want to make an Art about the fury of chaos and apocalyptic energies. It is too negative. I muddled over this for nearly a year. How do I make this a positive expression for me the creator? I don’t want to drudge over this. This was while carving the Ouroboros Snake and I already had a set idea of change as circular and self-completing. I didn’t want a distraction.

But I definitely heard the message. Gradually at first, I thought to make a video short of the blast moment from the point-of-view of the survivor, in watching their shock and following their reactions. There would characters who would not be told that without warning they would be blasted with loud sound and blinding light… um, this way I could record their raw reactions and a narrative would follow? OK, slow down… What the hell Matt. How are you even considering this?

By Summer I’d thought of a million things while I basically was getting stoned and swimming at the lake. Still, the idea sat there like the pile of rubble at the site, untouched with an orange fence around it.

One day as I floated in the water, I began to think. Me, a small clot of self-assembling and somehow sentient proteins, immersed in water, surrounded by forest and earth, under the deep blue sky, overlooked by the radiant yellow Sun.

WATER – EARTH – AIR – FIRE

At that moment, I believed these fundamental symbolic elements of matter-enabled-by -energy, in vast concatenation and generation create reality – a creative force which is equal and opposite the explosive. It is the melting together. And that little blob, me, is the witness of this conclusive assembly and integration of parts, which is the World.

Now I have two drawings to do. One of rapid dissolution and one of steadfast concretion. So as not to be overwhelmed by the energies of either, I am working on them together, in balance. It is just a thing I do for my own discovery, like in a sketchbook, meant for self-study.

Exploded What?!

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What do I mean, the Exploded House? Not too recently a house in my neighborhood blew-up! 2AM! The old guy there was using propane tanks in the basement to run his furnace… and well, there was a leak. That’s what you do when the gas company cuts you off. Apparently, he’d been doing it for years. He survived with injuries.

The next day I went to see it. Four main walls were flattened like pedals of a perfect lotus flower, inner walls neatly stacked and aligned with them. The roof sat, semi-intact to one side, as if a soap bubble had burst. Pop! At the center, the basement, was an empty box. Everything else was blown in shreds about the yards like mist and rain. The perimeter trees were singed, the truck’s tires were melted. Smells of dust and charred wood.

I keep thinking about him, at 2 AM being shot out there, like from an ejection-bed. What did he hear or see or feel of that brief bright light and thunder! Sensations of abrupt and maximum intensity and overwhelmed perceptions doesn’t begin to cover it.

So, imagine the total blast of his momentary experience was YOUR experience, every day, all day long, you hear, see, and feel the fires of stars burning. That’s the exploding house. That’s reality being continuously torn apart and reassembled, and that’s your inner-self and spirit also. A supreme example of the Way, it is the elementary fabric undergoing transformations everywhere at all times. It is the engine that drives the Way and upon which the Way is formed.

Now, the question is… What would I do to incorporate these ideas into a work of Art? Do I need to? Is this a part of my narrative? What do I want to say?

Crocodile Balances the World, preview

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The world had fallen out of balance. 
The Dragon King of the South Ocean is missing (Where did he go?) 
Nothing is on its axis. 
Who will hold up the world? 
There are no more Dragons.  

A Crocodile offers to try. 
He says, “I am large, and the closest thing to a Dragon. I will try”. 
He steps up onto the back of the Great Turtle and grasps the World
And lifts it up and balances it on the end of his nose. 
As he does this he himself becomes a Dragon.

“Crocodile Balances the World and Becomes the Dragon King”

The world had fallen out of balance as the Dragon King of the South Ocean had gone missing (Where did he go?). Nothing remained in its proper axis, and there were no more Dragons to uphold the world.

Amidst the imbalance, a Crocodile stepped forward and offered to try. He stated, “I am large and the closest thing to a Dragon. I will give it a shot.” With determination, he mounted the back of the Great Turtle, seized the World, and carefully balanced it on the end of his nose.

In this selfless act, the Crocodile underwent a transformation, becoming a Dragon himself—the savior the world needed.

The style of this tale draws inspiration from my Bee micro-dramas, where the Crocodile embodies the role of an Everyman, earnestly striving to restore equilibrium to the World. His humility only enhances his noble efforts and aspirations.

El Jardin Studio

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The new studio was finished February. It turned out much better than I expected. “A.” seems mostly happy with it. We’ve named it El Jardin, “The Garden”, and it’s an incarnation of a Tango clubhouse. We’re now set up to host Tango events, art and music shows, house guests, and more. For the past months we’ve been running a twice-monthly practica with our neighborhood tango friends. It is a private space by, so we’ve working on a balanced policy about who’s invited to come there.

These pictures show the progress from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022. First the wood floor is installed then it is covered while the painting takes place. After that the floor is “finished” and then we’re dancing! (without countertops)…

uncertainty

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Why can I work with such certainty on intricate involving processes, but being spontaneous seems so difficult and confusing? You know how I work – being on step 37 of 77 gives me the structure of confidence to create without doubts about the outcome; the process covers up the reluctance to commitment to an idea and creates faith in the eventual results, brick-by-brick. But trying to be serendipitous with a new material and different imagery, means not completely knowing the ground you stand on, and wondering where you’re at and what’s next, much less, “is it finished?”

The Winter was so cold, I didn’t get out to my shop much. Even with the wood stove, I couldn’t get warm enough to work. But I did some drawings inside, on canvas, aside from the Venus idea I’ve shown here, that I’ll probably do as a wood carving. It’s underway whenever I can get to the tree trimmer’s and see what they’ll find for me, now that the snow’s melted

Meanwhile, this other thing showed up. I was drawing Roosters. Roosters, really, I don’t know why.

My guess is, once you’ve proposed the universal Feminine principal, that it must inevitably call forth the Masculine element.

Chase and patina

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When the cast piece is complete, and the sprues are cut-off, there remain scars where the grinder or saw was used. These areas need to be finished to match the look of the rest of the surface. To chase, is a metalworking term, to ornament metal by engraving or embossing. From this:

To this:

Just mess it up with chisels, punches, files, hammers, stones, whatever, it don’t try too hard to make a match of the texture. It’ll look fine when you heat the spot with a propane torch, which darkens the metal by oxidation I guess.

I leave it all outside for several weeks, and I spray it down regularly with a teaspoon of cupric nitrate mixed with 12 oz water.

..and it slowly turns this nice color. This is patina.

When I’m ready to commit to the patina, I give it a light wax to stabilize and protect it. This darkens and warms up the colors, and brings out the shiny highlights both at once. Real nice.

A and Q supply a nice rock for a base, and Eureka! It is finished & ready to show.

October 4 – November 1, 2013

Main Gallery: Joyce Brienza & Matt De Genaro
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4 – 7pm – 9pm

Paint Creek Center for the Arts
407 Pine Street
Rochester, MI 48307

Gallery Hours: Monday – Thursday 9am – 9pm, Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 4pm