art, etc.: from the gnostic gospel of st. thomas

Monday, December 01, 2008

from the gnostic gospel of st. thomas

Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you." - from the gnostic gospel of st. thomas

i've been identifying with that quote for years, but more and more, lately, it really calls out to me... and hits home! for me, it relates to the spirit - and by that i mean the creative spirit. like knowing that you are supposed to be making ART -coming from a place deep within yourself- and yet you somehow get trapped into a commercial money making cycle where you are not only NOT doing "the work" you should be 'bringing forth', but what work you're doing is empty and killing you... spiritually! now can i get an amen, or what?

[c] 2008 doug duffey

about this blog

this blog is where i post some of my drawings, paintings, collages, mixed media, photomontage, scans, videos, etc.- all of which i have been doing for as long as i can remember.

i began painting and making collage in the 60s; but even as a child i was always drawing/painting. i've continued doing both 'off and on' [more off than on] since.

i have periods where i'll get into art projects and do them until they run their course; but, as with my photography, i don't really have as much time as i'd like to have to devote to art.

i started doing a lot of brush and ink 'drawings', and pen and ink drawings in the 80s- [none of which have been scanned yet]- i might just photograph them, as they are too big to scan.

i didn't do collage for a long time, but began again in the early 90s in new orleans. i didn't do many there, but rather 'primed the pump' to begin to do them again. i was mostly doing abstract images, with a lot of torn color paper. when i'd leave and go on the road to work for long periods of time, i began doing them daily-as a form of entertainment, as something to fill time before and after shows. i began doing a lot of collages from xeroxed images i'd scan at local libraries, when i was working in towns for weeks... but i got tired of the only b&w images... so i'd do pen and ink drawings in between.

when i got to Europe in the early 90s i was staying a month in Basel- at a hotel on the Rhine. again i began doing collage as a means of entertainment [i was also making a lot of fotos]. i began using bits & pieces of found paper, discarded magazines, ripping paper off posters and billboards, using scotch tape as well as glue-sticks.

i began using small books to do the collages in, as they were easier to transport.
i did a lot of different series when i was spending long periods in brussels, berlin, rotterdam, den haag, and switzerland. some have been scanned and i will post some when i run across them.

most of the paintings i've posted on this site [shot w/a polaroid camera] are the smaller ones. in new orleans i had one big room in my house that i used only for painting- [and one as a darkroom]- i'd paint on 6 foot pieces of plywood, or big pieces of wood. i left most of those in storage buildings or outside [covered] until they ruined- so... some i burned- [i should have photographed them as they burned!] and some are still in my shed.

influenced by dada, german expressionism, primitive art, cocteau, picasso and art brut [outsider art]- i'm continuously discovering and being inspired by little known or unknown [by me and many] artists, thanks to great tv documentaries i see when i am in europe. always a new window/door opens...