{"id":5992,"date":"2015-05-28T15:22:53","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T15:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5992"},"modified":"2015-05-27T21:50:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T21:50:01","slug":"portrait-of-a-cat-in-at-least-50-shades-of-not-for-sale-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5992","title":{"rendered":"A not-for-sale cat. At least 50 shades of gray."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plaid<\/a>

Plaid Pantry, oil on plywood, (2010), 9 7\/8″ x 10 3\/8″, David Rosenak, \u00a0at Portland Art Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

“It can be such an insane, strange undertaking to be an artist.” –Sarah F. Burns<\/em><\/p>\n

But it can be worth it. To wit,\u00a0from Sarah F. Burns<\/a>:<\/p>\n

David Rosenak has become sort of a mentor (for me) or an example of having integrity as an artist. So, to set the stage for how he has been an example, I’m going to share where my head is\/was. I felt — and still feel — internal pressure to legitimize my obsession with art by turning it into a business.\u00a0 But I’m not capable of “branding” myself with a style and making pieces that are predictable and popular.\u00a0 I absolutely think art is a noble profession and if people sell their work well enough to put food on the table, I think that’s awesome! It’s great when art can be appreciated widely, but if you’re an artist you also know there’s an icky, slippery slope . . .\u00a0\u00a0when you’re making art mainly for other people. On the other hand,\u00a0most of us are not simply expressing ourselves for its own sake, but trying to reach out and connect to some unknown viewer\u00a0in an authentic and sincere way.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled<\/a>

(untitled) 2013, oil on plywood, David Rosenak, 18 3\/8\u2033 x 16 3\/4\u2033<\/p><\/div>\n

Along with that\u00a0struggle, there\u00a0is the battle for\u00a0technical skills, real ideas and\u00a0the essential but unpredictable spark of magic that makes good pieces work.\u00a0 It can take years to even come close to making something really special.\u00a0 Years of self-examining, persistent, steady work. To be really great, you have to start young and have some successes;\u00a0many of those successes are self delusions, but that’s no matter, they keep you going, keep you pushing forward.\u00a0After all that\u00a0you still may not have achieved something great, or may not get recognition until you’re\u00a0gone.\u00a0 It can be such a strange and insane undertaking to “be an artist”.<\/p>\n

So here I am, needing to justify all this by making it a business and\u00a0I meet David.\u00a0 The time when\u00a0I meet him and first see his work is at a point where he\u00a0has<\/i>\u00a0achieved something special through years of trial and error and persistence.\u00a0 His work is desired by collectors,\u00a0galleries want to sell his work, and David simply says “No, thank you”. He does not sell his work. I repeat — his paintings are not for sale<\/em>.\u00a0He has goals for his work, for sure. He doesn’t create it “for himself” – as the corny line goes.\u00a0 He wants it to be seen in the world by as many people as possible. He knows how long they take to make, how hard he worked to make something he is truly proud of and he wants to cast them in a place where they have the best chance to grow.<\/p>\n

And he knows they are precious. They take months and months to complete. \u00a0He puts scores of hours into each piece. \u00a0 Because time stops for no man, his\u00a0window for making them is pretty small – as it is for us all – but heightened by the fact that ten years ago\u00a0David discovered he has Parkinson’s disease, which causes tremors, making painting tiny things a challenge.\u00a0 When he first noticed the tremor it was in his right hand, and after three years he trained himself to paint with his left. \u00a0(This is so typical of David. Persistent.) \u00a0Now he can only paint on his good days, still with the left hand.<\/p>\n

More interesting things about David: he is color blind. \u00a0When David was young\u00a0and testing out his influences, he tried a few paintings in the style of\u00a0Wayne Thiebauld, but since Thiebaud\u2019s\u00a0thing has a lot to do with color, David realized he was trying on someone else\u2019s shoes (we all do that when we\u2019re young, but some of us never grow out of it). \u00a0Then he noticed his primary teacher was making some greyscale paintings, and he realized he\u2019d been fighting a battle with color he had no hope of winning, so he switched to greyscale in 1981 and hasn\u2019t looked back.<\/p>\n

David has painted cityscapes since the late 80\u2019s; he showed me a\u00a0few scenes near his house in a medium sized scale. And they were cool.\u00a0 Then he made them small (nothing larger than 20\u2033 and most average 10\u2033 on the long side) and bam!\u00a0They suddenly really worked.\u00a0 As the scale was becoming more intimate, the subject moved closer and closer to his home. All the views are of his back yard or his view toward downtown Portland (Oregon). \u00a0Since he has the subject, scale\u00a0and\u00a0approach settled, he is focusing on compositions, and they get more and more mature. He likes to joke that he is essentially making the same painting over and over again in an attempt to improve it. \u00a0And he has many plans for new paintings within that framework.\u00a0The adage of freedom coming from limitations\u00a0is really true, I guess.<\/p>\n

Since his subject matter is his yard and what he can see from it, it’s useful to say something about his home. He has a wild, artsy little compound in SE Portland, full of cats and dogs and amazing plants, and all tended to by his neighbor and long time friend, Moe (Maureen). Moe is a gardener\u00a0and\u00a0you see in the paintings records of Moe’s work and their friendship.\u00a0 David lives kind of like a cat, moving around his territory, napping, enjoying bits of shade or bits of sun, walking over to his studio a few blocks away to paint, taking the bus across the river to his day job.\u00a0 His paintings are the way\u00a0a cat would record things because they feel\u00a0so still, yet so full of life.\u00a0 Like a cat, they contain long moments of stillness while being ready to spring to action at any second. They’re also neutral like a cat.\u00a0 They’re not saying, “Let’s go do this!” or “Think this!” but, “This is fine as it is.\u00a0 I’ll find a comfortable place here.” \u00a0 They say, “I see it all, and it’s fine.”<\/p>\n

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“It can be such an insane, strange undertaking to be an artist.” –Sarah F. Burns But it can be worth it. To wit,\u00a0from Sarah F. Burns: David Rosenak has become sort of a mentor (for me) or an example of having integrity as an artist. So, to set the stage for how he has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA not-for-sale cat. At least 50 shades of gray. - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5992\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A not-for-sale cat. At least 50 shades of gray. - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“It can be such an insane, strange undertaking to be an artist.” –Sarah F. Burns But it can be worth it. To wit,\u00a0from Sarah F. Burns: David Rosenak has become sort of a mentor (for me) or an example of having integrity as an artist. 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