JLoco, from "Ressurection Blues" to the opera singer, it's as if Charles Sheeler had lunch with Goya (the artist, not the food company).
Seriously, the opera singer & reclining nude conjure the 18th century, timeless imagery, "Old Europe" .... followed by the Grand Experiment, the "starry dynamo in the machinery of night", AMERICA, the land of on & off ramps, super highways, convenience stores, cranes, construction projects, and Gates-colored safety cones.
"Ressurection Blues" does it for me. I'm a sucker for magisterial landscapes, be they photographs, drawings, or paintings. In this work particularly, the sweep of motion and the convergence of soaring lines are harmonized by the disappearing concrete tresses. Reminds me of the southern New Jersey shore area, lots of coastal salt marsh and similar such bridges.
For me, it's landscapes over portraits. I find more that inspires me, more that plucks my art soul heart knot, in urban scapes, landscapes, city detritus & decay, the scraps and remnants of humanity; the human trace instead of the human face.
One of my favorite Sheeler works:
Bennie, you are a scribbling, quirky maestro, and funny as heck. Snap, crackle, POP your spinning mind bucket. GRAND (in small lined-notebook way).
Oh, and JL, nice banner, a blue hootenanny or some such.
"... accept balance on the turbulent promenade."