And Furthermore re. Big Fidel...

If we acknowledge that Old Bobby Lee and The Annotated Murdoch represent the high water mark of the obscured box technique (with my boy Lloyd 2 following closely behind), I would present the above painting, Close, But Not Quite, as something. What? Maybe an inspirational note?

I look at this painting and I feel a bit like Bob Dylan. Mr. Jones, on the other hand, wishes he was someone just a little bit more funky.


Mr. Jones Lyrics

The point being: I wish I could paint another painting like the above re-interpretation of a Chuck Close self-portrait. But that's spilled milk, isn't it? Besides, who's to say? Suffice to note that I am holding CBNQ closely in my mind as I paint Big Fidel.

It is worth noting that CBNQ, while not an obscured box painting, is the immediate precursor of the thinking that led to the technique. I mean, you can see the grid, yes? But more than that, you should understand that the grid was created by laying a cardboard square with a one-foot-square hole in it on the face of the canvas, then painting the exposed "box"--if you are getting me here--and then moving on. If you look at squares 8 and 9, you can also see something else at work: the thinking being that I could pour a light surface coat of one color on, say, square 8, then (although it didn't happen in this actual order) pour a slightly different background on square 9, then take the paint I used on 9 and drip it over the surface of 8. Likewise, the background color on 8 became what I drip on 9; all with the assumption that somehow the two squares would move closer and closer to each other chromatically. This strategy might work in the current state of obscured box painting, but would require much more advanced planning than I am constitutionally capable of.

I suppose you might note that the use of the word constitutionally refers not to the guiding document of this great nation of ours but, rather, your personal constitution, i.e. the way you are built, constitutionally. So to speak.
Exactly.

And finally, back to CBNQ, you can also see how the rims of his glasses are also all screwed up--a classic OBT visual outcome.

Closing note:

Picasso once said something like "I've worked all my life to learn how to paint like a child."
Me? I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now. So I guess there's some hope.

And furthermore re. The Counting Crows...

I'm not a big fan, but I am awfully fond of Mr. Jones.