Author: leefeller

Platos Cave as the Matrix?

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Platos%20Cave

Quick accounting of Plato’s Cave

“Plato has Socrates describe a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to designate names to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.”
“Allegory of the cave” from Wikipedia”.

Now I did not read all of the synopsis written from Wikipedia…I recall the person who was freed (escaped in my version) from the cave returns and tells the others about… real reality and they do not believe him and end his life, which seems hard to fathom when they where chained up? I sort of look at Plato’s Cave as our Mass Media… especially biased news, always calling wolf.

Anyway I painted Plato’s Cave from me minds eye and it is oil on panel, if I recall I used a pallet knife and mixed all my colors from the basic color wheel back when I was determined to mix my own colors.

Oil on board 36×36

The analogy of Platos Cave came to mind recently when I saw this on UTube, a poem called the Matrix. I find it cogent:  

Jughandle

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jughandle

When I feel the urge to try something different in my painting, this is an example. I took this photograph of a declining cypress tree at a place called Jughandle State Park in California. For some strange reason I wanted to try doing a watercolor using yopo paper, because I had heard the name yopo before. (My uncle served in the army with an alleged Samoan Prince named Yopo… whom I met as a small kid). So I painted trying out the Yopo paper, which is a slick shiney paper, the watercolors are not absorbed like in most watercolor papers, so painting on yopo required a different approach, like nothing else I ever painted on before. I may have to try doing a watercolor on yopo paper again.

For some reason the painting came out as an oval, actually it is full sheet matted and framed, but I find it a real challenge just to take a photo through glass. I will attempt one more time to take another photo of Jughandle. Painting the cypress tree was interesting…I could not capture the water in the background as I wanted, but over all I am pleased.

Moon over trees

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Nocturnal moon over trees

Nocturnal moon over trees

Acrylic/oil on canvas 18×24

After my negativity about acrylics, please let me apologize…I have had some fun with acrylics also. This work was done from me minds eye and done quickly using pint jars of acrylic paint on canvas. I like to use a large brush and paint fast to get the basic work done and if I am not happy with it I finish it in oil. Now, I do not remember if I finished this in oil so to be safe I will say I did and this in mixed media. Soon as I find two other acrylic works which I am sure I did not finish in oil I will post them, one is called the “tree of life” and the other is named “Carob” (name of a horse).

I find doing this blog helps me focus on my art and forces me to pay attention to what I have done in the past.

Acrylic Bear Creek

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Bear Creek

Bear Creek

This was my first acrylic work and it was not my last, but I find acrylics annoying because they dry so darn fast and seem to scratch on the canvas compared to oils which flow. This is from a photograph I took which was a practice in capturing moving water and using acrylics.

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cropped-waves-and-rocks.jpg

One of the few seascapes I have painted, this was done several years ago, it was from a photograph I took at Monterey long ago. Seascapes can be challenging, particularly if one does not do them regularly. I need to do another seascape, recently I visited a motel in Westport Ca. where there was a seascape which really attracted my attention. If I can find the photo I took of the painting in the motel, I will post it, the artist really captured the mood and energy of the sea extremely well done.

Oil on canvas 18×24

Abstract in Wax

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Encaustic 14x18

Encaustic 14×18

Okay, just finished this Friday… I know it is not great and is not my favorite choice of colors, we had where working together and had a limited pallet to choose from, even so it was a hoot to make and I learned much.

This is on Encaustic on board 14×18

The new buggy whip…Newspapers

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Farwell Newspapers

Okay…I had used this painting as my header for a very short time, but I wanted to have a more generic abstract which is what you see for the time being as my blog header.
When I saw this as a colored photo in a local newspaper, which was covering the topic about the demise of newspapers.  I suppose, my experience delivering newspapers for 4 years as a youngster caught my eye and I fell in love with the contrasting colors. This is called farewell to newspapers… mixed media on canvas, 18×24

Hope and Change?

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O’Say can you see
Tis… only me?

Filthy rich and filthy poor
No guy in the middle any more

Be gone all things decided on
Idea is to make money on the rise of dawn

No taxes, the idea is to Pay for everything directly
The past has been done most incorrectly

Privatize everything under the sun
Now privatizing air has just begun

Oh, privatize this or privatize that
Do you have proof of pay for spat

Slackers expect government to do
Privates should really set the screw

Women’s rights a thing of the past
I knew it was too good to last

Schools down the tubes
taken over by rubes

Call it socialism means they must go
because Chamber of commerce says so

Public anything is not acceptable
Call it  Pinko Commie makes it detestable

Social Security, is next up to bat
get rid of it says the hack

Short changed it seems to me
for this is not the hope… I wanted to see!

                                                            Leefeller Guy

One of my favorite artists…John Singer Sargent

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Sometimes I find an art work which inspires me to paint or emulate it,in this case one of my favorite artists John Singer Sargent.
Recently I emulated one of John Singer Sergeants paintings in mixed media it was one he called Black Creek. Soon as I find the Jpg file I will post it for you to see.
Right now I am intrigued by one of Sergeants paintings called Street in Venice, I found it so intriguing for two reasons. One the composition really strikes me and two, I recently saw a photo of a displaced mother and her child in a war torn street in Syria which was just as striking, but screaming sadness as opposed to Sergeants work, which is amusingly sexist… I would paint the Syrian displaced mother, but I cannot find the photo. Anyway here is John Singer Sergeantsjohn-singer-sargent-paintings--street-in-venice-87905 work which I plan to paint in oil on linen.

Encaustic Wax Painting…Abstract maybe?

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Encosticdragon

Been practicing with encaustic wax painting for the last several paintings and I am pleased with this one though it was intended to be an abstract but turned out to be a dragon.
Encaustic wax painting is an old technique which entails using color and heated wax to paint with. For this one, I started with a black background and was intending to use only three colors for my abstract…but I could not help myself and used more color and it turned out as you see it.