Last year was incredibly busy for me–probably was for many of you. I am looking forward to producing a lot of new work this year. After an intensive, year-long focus on lithography, I hope to continue expanding my printmaking skills through hybrid techniques.

This year I will be focused on my newest series, The Archaeology of Being. Expect news of it soon.

In the meantime, I wish all of you well and hope you’ll have a harmonious year. You never know what can happen.

Pre-sketch for a large-scale book.

This Moment

Slapdash trickery
of fading blue
who once touched the moon–

stepping out

letting go and

lost in the obsessive experiment

of image-making

Making hot
red-ink
madness
from quiet corners

ACTIVATED
Hidden mastery
of the subtle,
supreme,
supernatural.

WE ARE THE SUPERNOVA.

WE ARE THE TOTAL FORM.

Intertwined
Activated
The 10,000 things.

Radiating
Dust of
vital breath
permanence.

–Ren Adams, 2011.

Some weeks, days, even hours, can be trying. When “bad things” happen, it can seem like they are serialized. Sickness in the family. Death. Robberies… You name it. And sometimes they do arrive in sets. We have to endure and find a way to smile, to see through it.

Remaining compassionate, yet detached enough to see the horizon. Letting things come as they will and leave when they are ready.

Sitting in a doctor or vet’s office, I see people aching, crying, worried. I don’t know them personally, but want to hug them and tell them things are moving, things are okay the way they are.

It reminds me of a story from the Chuang Tzu about the farmer’s horse.

近塞上之人有善術者，馬無故亡而入胡，人皆弔之。其父曰：「此何遽不為福乎！」居數月，其馬將胡駿馬而歸，人皆賀之。其父曰：「此何遽不能為禍乎！」家富 良馬，其子好騎，墮而折其髀，人皆弔之。其父曰：「此何遽不為福乎！」居一年，胡人大入塞，丁壯者引弦而戰，近塞之人，死者十九，此獨以跛之故，父子相 保。故福之為禍，禍之為福，化不可極，深不可測也。

Translation (see above link for annotations and comment):

Among the people who lived close to the border, there was a man who led a righteous life. Without reason, his horse escaped, and fled into barbarian territory. Everyone pitied him, but the old man said : “what makes you think this is not a good thing?”

Several months later, his horse returned, accompanied by a superb barbarian stallion. Everyone congratulated him. But the old man said: “what makes you think this is cannot be a bad thing?”

The family was richer from a good horse, his son enjoyed riding it. He fell and broke his hip. Everyone pitied him, but the old man said: “what makes you think this is not a good thing!”

One year later, a large party of barbarians entered the border. All the valid men drew their bows and went to battle. From the people living around the border, nine out of ten died. But just because he was lame, the old man and his son were both spared.

And I look at nestling birds, leaf-shedding trees, and sleeping cats and remember that things flow, move, change, and exist. It’s okay to worry, but better to relax into the moment.

I wanted to touch your hand, originally uploaded by plasticpumpkin.

…because we had hands.

Original Chinese brush paintings done on ultra thin thai kozo and moon palace rice paper, bound together by hand in a formal book. In honor of Frank Bidart’s “In the Western Night.”

A Night within the Night, originally uploaded by plasticpumpkin.

The center of the center folio of an art book that I painted and hand constructed, in honor of Frank Bidart’s poems – “In the Western Night,” and “The First Book of the Night.”

Brush painting of a cityscape, with field of lights and distant mountain. It reminds me of the Sandia Crest or the San Gabriel Mountains, looking south.

On Friday, December 18th, 2011 (4 – 6 pm), the opening reception for “Never-Ending Patterns” is taking place the UNM Fine Art Library. The show was juried by Dr. Jonathan Wolfe and features a small, select grouping of works by various artists.

The show is located on the 4th floor of George Pearl Hall, inside the Fine Art and Design Library, which is right on Central.

Dr. Wolfe will be speaking about the show’s theme, and several artists (myself included) will also be talking about their work.

The official post – http://news.unm.edu/2011/11/unm-fine-arts-and-design-library-presents-new-student-exhibit/

The Barque of the Sun, Ren Adams, 2011

The Empty Boat

Who can free himself of achievement and fame

Then descend and be lost

Amidst the masses of men?

He will flow like Tao, unseen…

He will go about like life itself,

With no name and no home.

Simple is he, without.

To all appearances he is a fool.

His steps leave no trace.

He has no power.

He achieves nothing.

He has no reputation.

Since he judges no one,

No one judges him.

Such is the perfect man.

His boat is empty.

–Chuang Tzu

Besides producing a ton of new prints and pieces that need to be photographed (I know, I think I’m about 6 months behind, LOL!), I spent the entire summer working on large, multi-color lithograph editions  with Shaurya Kumar (see my portfolio website for details in my CV) and moving into a brand new art studio in Nob Hill.

I’m still getting the studio set up, but we’re planning to build a shop into half of it so local people can stop in and view/buy work in person. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Our new studio space is actually quite familiar to us. Located above the New Grounds Print Shop, it’s part of the Nob Hill Art Complex (3812). It’s much cleaner and nicer than our old studio (no more mice, cockroaches, scary electrical outlets, and mystery dust), and we used to rent here in 2006–but at the time we had a different, smaller studio. Now, we’ve inherited my friend Darla Hallmark’s old studio and gallery space and we literally transformed it. I should have taken “before” shots to show the mess that was left behind by a sculptor who vacated before we signed up for it.

But, we painted, polished, scrubbed and resurfaced the wooden floor, and generally transformed the entire space. These photos show it during the tail end of the cleaning and remodeling phase, before moving stuff into it.

New Studio

Looking the opposite direction...

Yes, it’s hard to get it all into one shot. It’s separated into two sections. One half will be our working studio and the other half (the wooden floor) is our gallery space. I’m sharing the space with Ken Murakami and Jeanette Lyle. We hope to be open for First Friday events pretty soon.

Anyway, I know many of you enjoy reading my blog and I am so sorry to be invisible lately! I’ve just been so insanely busy producing new work and getting studio-related things done, I haven’t had time to sit and write. I miss it.

I am working on my Honor’s Thesis right now, and I hope to share the art and philosophy with you soon.

In the meantime, I wish everyone all the best and hope that all of you have an auspicious, prosperous fall.

Here is one of my summer hybrid printmaking projects. This piece has 9 layers. The hand mudra is a xerox image transfer of an original Chinese brush painting that I painted, then scanned. Layered on top of it are three watercolor monotypes, including a blooming lotus. On top of that are several additional xerox image transfers and chine colle layers, one on top of the other. Collage elements were added next to last. The entire piece was run through a lithograph press twice to completely flatten and integrate each layer, then overprinted digitally.

Transformative Teachings - Hybrid Print

Wu Shu Mountain 2 Color Lithograph, originally uploaded by plasticpumpkin.

I know I haven’t been sharing new lithographs as often as I should. I’m still catching up on photographing almost an entire year’s worth of new work.  So, bear with me and my little camera.

But, here’s a new piece I did this summer.

“Wu Shu Mountain”

A stylized Chinese landscape featuring a figurative, imaginative version of Wu Shu mountain. The Emperor (almost lost among wild trees and grasses) has made a long journey to view this rugged peak. As he pauses to absorb the great mountain’s rocky face, he realizes this was not a journey of the feet, but travel of the enlightened mind.

Tusche wash done with traditional Chinese brush painting techniques.

This hand-pulled, 2-color lithograph was printed on fine, delicate light brown Chinese rice paper, which includes random embedded wood and plant fragments. There is a very light cream flat of color behind the tusche wash, which is nice and subtle.

One of a kind. Artist’s Proof. Signed, titled, editioned on the back.

8 1/4″ x 12″. (21 cm x 30.5 cm).

What is a lithograph?

Lithography is a planographic form of printmaking developed during the late 18th century. It relies on a basic property of matter that we’re all familiar with–oil and water repel each other. Traditional lithography is done on a special kind of Bavarian limestone, carefully grained so that the surface is ultra-smooth like fine porcelain. An image is drawn or painted onto the stone using greasy materials (in this case I used what is called “Tusche” for Tusche washes, which are similar in some ways to Chinese brush painting inks).

The surface of the limestone is specially sensitized using processes which include natural rosin, talc, nitric acid, and gum arabic. The result is an image and surface on stone which has areas that attract and repel oil-based ink.

This complicated process concludes when the artist runs the stone and paper, with ink, through a lithographic press which applies more than 2 tons of pressure.

Hand-pulled lithographs take a lot of strength, energy, delicacy, and devotion to produce.

Wu Shu Mountain on Etsy

You can also read my article (Part 1) on Lithography.

Thanks for visiting!

Just thought I’d share some of my doodles. It will be interesting to compare these to finished lithographs.

Zhuge Liang Reaches Enlightenment

Zhuge Liang, styled Kongming, has shed his earthly layers for a moment, not only communing with nature, but realizing that there is no difference between himself and what we call “nature.” But, as the Zen saying goes, “before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water. After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water,” he will again don his earthly wrapping and carry on.

The Monk and the Emperor Visit the Teacher

Another little thumbnail (the scanned images are much larger than the originals). This allegory features the monk (emerging from a doorway in the top right) and the Emperor (emerging from the man-made facades at the lower right) making progress toward a growth in intellect through the words of a teacher, lounging in the natural world. Here, the teacher provides insight via intuition and intelligence and he’s rooted in the original world, not the artificial world we’ve created for ourselves.

Proto Sphinx

Stylized, figurative landscape of the White Desert (Farafra), Egypt. Many historians and archaeologists believe the strange, wind-swept rock “sculptures” that cover the Farafra area either inspired Egyptian architectural aesthetics, or were considered to be manifestations of the Gods themselves.

The Captain

Here he is again. Yes, he looks a bit girly in this thumbnail sketch, but it’s only a few inches. The Captain is a complicated fellow. Here, he is left behind.