Here We Go Again

OK, I haven't done this in a while. I'll keep it short and sweet because its late and I'm feeling shitty. I would like to try and take and blog photos of this new painting every step of the way like I did for previous paintings. I'm sorry if this post tonight doesn't sound all that elegant. In fact it will be kind of half-assed because I just want to get through it, show y'all images from steps 1, 2, and 3, and get to bed.

See below. This will be a view of the Hackensack River from behind Snake Hill (that's a hint right there as to the proposed title of the work). Here goes. Can you guess how many sittings this painting will take? The winner gets to buy me a drink.

Running To Daylight

I love the New York Giants. Their stadium is pretty much centrally located within the New Jersey Meadowlands which gives me another reason why this project is near and dear to my heart. On a photo shoot in the area back in 2009 I stopped in the Vince Lombardi Service Area off the New Jersey Turnpike to finish out a roll of film. Behind the parking lot there's access to some pretty dense foxtails, with some creeks and nice views of the Hackensack River.

The image at the bottom here is my latest work, titled Vince II. It's meant to be the follow-up to another, larger, and presently unfinished work tentatively called Behind Vince Lombardi. Both of these works were painted from frames shot behind the service area. Lombardi, the man for whom the area is named, was a coach with the Giants before he was head coach of the Green Bay Packers, the tenure for which he is most know for.

Lombardi was an innovator, and was the offensive coordinator for the Giants in the mid to late 1950's. He developed new blocking techniques and other strategies, and coined the phrase "running to daylight" to describe how a running back should head towards open holes in the opponent's defense. This is significant to me, since I tend to employ the idea of running to daylight as a metaphor for how I have to seek out small windows of time in order to get in my studio as I slog through my busy life of job and family.

As I duck and dodge for the open holes, and run to daylight through the obstacles life throws in my way, I slowly churn out works like this:

Matthew Green, Vince II, 22" x 30", oil on canvas, 2013

Bare Naked

These dark canvases are hard to shoot with an iphone. Fortunately this one won't be so dark for long. It feels almost barren to me, since I'm seeing the photo, and since I know where I want this to be.

I hate this part. In my head its done, but I still have to stand there night after night to execute it. Its those nights where I'll make some moves without really noticing, and then step back and be nervous about someone seeing what I just did. I guess that's the part where artists feel like they're baring their soul.

We experience those little blackouts where we feel like we're not directly in control, but being guided by some unseen force. I'm not a superstitious person, so I know that's not really happening. Its like the illusion is extended to me, as if I'm an audience of my own work.

I had to wait for Software Update to finish so I could continue writing. I lost my train of thought. Not cool.

Anyway, here's Vince, in progress...

Sh*t Just Got Real

Day 3, and I like where this is going.

Vince II part 3

Soundtrack to tonight's studio session: Simon and Garfunkel Concert In Central Park...

In northern New Jersey along the New Jersey Turnpike, somewhere near the Meadowlands Sports Complex is a rest area called the Vince Lombardi Rest Area, named after the famous NFL coach, after whom the NFL Super Bowl champion trophy is named. Lombardi is mostly known for his time spent as the head coach for the Green Bay Packers, but he is also remembered as one of the early masterminds of the New York Giants, who play in the nearby sports complex.

At the tail end of one of my Meadowlands photo shoots, I decided to stop at the Lombardi rest area to try and finish up my last roll of film. There is a photo which will become a painting I'm planning to call Behind Vince Lombardi. The painting below is being made from a photo which was one of the last frames on the roll, when I was really just snapping off frames to end the roll.

I wanted to call it Two Sticks, but that just felt kind of trite and stupid. The two branches sticking up also form a letter "V", which makes the case for the new title, Vince II. I've only sat with it now 3 times, so things can change. It's still being molded into the image I think it can be, so be patient...

I'm Unapologetic About How Bad This Looks

I've never been squeamish about showing work in progress. I truly understand that first impressions from viewers are completely misguided, simply because what they're seeing is incomplete. I can say with utmost confidence that I will work out all parts of this image to a logical and satisfying conclusion. What seems like a bad attempt at imitating a Sunday painter is really just the foundation for something inspirational.

A painting for the artist is all about seeing. When you begin building layers, levels, colors, and shapes, you begin to see the picture coming to life, as it slowly emerges from the empty canvas. You fall into it and out of it, you begin to live inside of it and grow with it. But it has to start somewhere, and what you see below is the start for this particular piece. I'm carving a space out of a blank white rectangle, and beginning a journey through the next several weeks of my life, and I invite anyone reading this to come along.

And I Thought This Project Was Dead

Its been too long since I've posted on a regular basis. I was on a run where I was posting 3 or 4 nights a week. I stopped because I was working on a project for someone, and was not at liberty to share the progress of the work like I had done with past paintings.

Painting has become a necessary part of my income, and I predict changes. Not changes for good or bad, but changes akin to the path cut by a meandering stream. Painting has a new sense of purpose for me, and the effect on my work will be noticeable. This is not something to fret over, but rather something to embrace as a new chapter begins in my life.

Because of timing being what it is and because of what I'll call "budget restraints," I'm forced to go back into my photo library and grab images from 2009 and 2010. It looks like this Meadowlands project is back in a weird way, not as a continued exploration, but backtracking into previously overlooked images that I feel will make great paintings.

New ideas and new projects will have to be shelved for now. There was an opportunity for a possible new project along the southern Delaware Bay shore in New Jersey, but my subject matter is scheduled to meet up with the wrecking ball in the next few weeks. I had thoughts about exploring South Kearny, an area that is pretty much dominated by roads and truck depots, but being 2 hrs away and requiring film, etc, I'm afraid that will be pinched out of this month's budget.

The 3 photos below will be the next 3 paintings. The first 2 are from January 2009 taken from behind the Vince Lombardi Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike, and was the tail end of my first attempt at a proper photo study of the Meadowlands. The next one is from January 2010 and was taken along the Hackensack River behind Snake Hill. On that trip I had slightly more focus and better planning, which resulted in some pretty spectacular photos.

In my head the paintings are already finished. That's not such a dangerous statement to make, considering that I almost always feel that way when beginning a painting, and considering that the tendency during a painting's natural evolutionary journey is for it to look absolutely nothing like what I originally pictured. I've learned to not only accept this but to enjoy the ride into the unpredictable.

Soak these in, because months from now I will post 3 paintings that may or may not resemble what you see here.