Notes
Utilizing Expendable Materials to Create Works of Formal Pristine Beauty
Poison turned into Medicine
al·che·mist | ˈal-kə-mist
Alchemist: Someone Who Transforms Things for the Better
The long route to English for alchemist began with the Greek word chēmeia, which probably came from the word chyma (“fluid”), derived from the verb chein, meaning “to pour.” It then passed to Arabic, which added its definite article al- (“the”) to the Greek root. The word then passed from Latin to French before coming to English. Some other words derived from Arabic also retain the al- in English, such as algebra, algorithm, and alcohol; in fact, the transformative liquid that was constantly being sought through experimentation by alchemists is another word with the Arabic al- prefix elixir.
MATERIALS WANTED ALWAYS
Guards of civilization.
- Right now I am looking at:
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The hopeful Rothko - just when he made the breakthrough, before it all became dark
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Joyce Pensato
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Stanley Whitney (why are his paintings so good ? it makes no sense but they are Fra Angelico good)
- Peter Bradley like always
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Diane Arbus
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And also a return to Dürer´s Feldhase
21 studio notes; June 2026
1. Materiality is primary
2. The tactile is trustworthy
3. Outcome matters
4. Intuition + rigor
5. If you know if your work begins before language, you’re not working
6. Not imposing, only emerging
7. Time as active material
8. Traces of its own making — memento mori
9. Illustration of ideas is for books
10. Material investigation is inseparable from personhood
11. I have never met a confident person that was also interesting
12. Delicacy and brutality
13. Process-based ≠ accidental
14. Repeated actions rather than singular gestures
15. Surface-recorded history
16. Suspended between making and becoming — like you
17. If you prefer the Panopticon over the tyrant, you will not get my work
18. By the way, you didn’t get Foucault either
19. Formal decisions are important
20. Style is never meaningless
21. Even a monochrome is always a self-portrait
1. My work is extraordinarily physical
2. My work is extraordinarily transcendental
3. There is no irony whatsoever within my work
4. Disclaimer: 100 % sincerity is impossible within good art
5. I base my work on broken glass and kindness
6. I dive for pearls
7. Effortlessness takes backbreaking work
8. Pure formalism is a myth
9. Bruce Lee is important for painters
10. If one thing matters, everything matters
11. Empathy is a super-power
12. Glitter and trickery should not be mistaken
13. I accept contradiction
14. I think about John McCracken
15. I think about Ana Mendieta
16. think about Sam Gilliam
17. I think about Robert Irving
18. Mostly I think about Peter Bradley
19. A decade in Germany changes you
20. I know who Vinzenz Brinkmann is
21. Descartes was mean to dogs
22. Material and intellect should not be separated
23. Charles Bukowski is easier read than lived
24. Non-read isolation is a painful price
25. J’veux pas finir comme Camilie Claudel
26. Language exists but is mostly inadequate
27. Sol LeWitt was almost right
28. Good artists are latter-day shamans
29. I believe in the Beholders Share
30. I believe it takes one to know one
31. I never saw San Severo
32. I once saw Colorado
33. I miss the smell of Sagebrush
34. I apologize for disappearing, I had things to take care of
35. I still don’t distinguish between culture and nature
36. I still think about Lenny Bruce
37. I still think about Thoreau
38. My favorite word is still Godspeed
1. I think it is a cliché to view artists like Jackson Pollock as cliche
2. I live half of my life in passive astonishment
3. I live a quarter of my life in frantic indifference
4. I live a quarter of my life in silent rage
5. I sometimes consider to make myself a tinfoil hat
6. Irony is good in humor sometimes, mostly it is not good in art
7. I left university and applied for Fine Arts Academy because of a novel - Beloved
8. I believe Nike’s slogan to be today’s most relevant philosophy
9. I think it is a shame Esperanto didn’t catch on
10. I agree with both Peter Weibel and Clement Greenberg
11. I have a mirror in each room which makes me very uncomfortable and self-conscious but Karen Blixen recommends it as a way to stay present
12. I wish I was more like Jim Morrison and sometimes I am
13. I believe that A Chacun son Paradis
14. I sometimes think about Lenny Bruce
15. I think about Thoreau almost daily
16. I (too) often say to myself: “oh Toto we’re a long way from Kansas
17. I think analysis can be paralysis and often is
18. J’veux pas finir comme Kurt Cobain
19. I tend to trust women who wear cowboy boots
20. I am not afraid of the dark
21. I am afraid of people in pastels
22. Chess-player no. Oak-Planter yes.
23. Everything matters
24. I believe in Kenneth Noland and Fra Angelico
25. In Art-school in 2004 I made a piece called: “I know the Sublime is out of fashion but I still really, really love you Mark Rothko”. I still stand behind that
26. I do not distinguish between culture and nature
27. My favorite word is “Godspeed”