Tag Archives: matthew DG

The Way ►

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

Pour

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The big day, again. The scene at H’s foundry studio

Bronze melting in the furnace, tools waiting on the line, mold preheating in the kiln. No action pictures, sorry, too busy. (video of another pour here)

The ceramic shell molds just filled:

As the metal cools, it shrinks, and begins to fracture the mold apart.

After lunch, we return, anxious to roughly smash up the shell and see what we have.

Front

Back

What I’m looking for is; the casting is complete, no voids or freeze-out of metal in any part, a generally smooth consistency of metal and good surface details faithful to the original. There is the customary small amount of pitting or scaring caused impurities in the bronze, which gives character to the material, and nothing much in terms of flaws from/in the shell molds which would require much repair or patching, there is a nice fire scale and color to the casting.

I have a tremendous feeling of satisfaction well-earned. I grateful to be working on a team with guys who can produce such things as this. I feel it is a rare thing to be working at this level of excellence in anything, and I’m glad it is happening to me.

Next day, back at my shop, I take apart the second piece more thoroughly.

The shell mostly flakes away easily, and the deeper crevices are cleaned out using a chisel and hammer.

I have two fine castings.

Next, I cut off the sprue system.

Now I can see the completed piece, the complete general idea. It is excellent, what I hoped for.

Inevitably there is still much to do to detail or “chase” the casting; more cleaning, maybe sandblasting in places and patching\repairing some areas, and choosing whether or not to patina the piece and how. I’m leaning towards keeping the natural fire-scale finish, rather raw now, but it improves after a year or so naturally. Otherwise I’d considered that classic black with green haze patina we all know from museum pieces. Think about it. Another weekend and this will be ready for my show in October.

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

Burnout

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The accretion of shell continues for 15 layers.

The finished shells have their cups cut open to release the wax when it goes into the kiln.

They’re placed in the kiln, and fired up to 1500 degrees for 30 minutes to completely burn-out the wax and and any small wood pins used to support the structure sometimes. Now this is the true test to know that the shells are strong enough.

The wax doesn’t just melt out, it actually burns, which assures the mold is completely empty and dry, when the hot bronze is poured in later. Any combustible material remaining in the mold during the metal pour could cause a dangerous explosion.

After the kiln has cooled, it is opened and the molds removed.

Everything looks great. No hairline cracks or flaws in the molds’ integrity. I had been worried up to this point, that the molds would be strong and sound.

H. and I are ready to setup for the pour next. The kiln stays nearby; we’ll preheat the shells again later when we pour metal, which is required to prevent a shock from hot metal hitting the relatively colder shell. We move some fixtures around, and then, while digging a hole in the sand pit to place the molds into, I strain my back, which happens to me from time to time when I am not careful, unfortunately. So we must wait another week before we do the actual pour event.

What’s another week? My show’s still six weeks off, so, why, uh, worry?