After more than two weeks I'm still not at full operating power, as I recover from the flu and bronchitis. But I am at work anyway, both in the store and in the studio. I have finally finished my latest architectural painting, which is in the series I have told you about, documenting the old industrial and commercial sites of Falls Church, Virginia. This painting is done in acrylic gouache, which I commented on before. It is excellent for architectural textures, especially painted surfaces and stucco. The title is "Exterminator Modern," and it is acrylic on board, 11" x 14".

Why "Exterminator Modern?" Because, as a close look will show you, this is the headquarters of an exterminator business, "Home Paramount Pest Control Companies." I estimate that the Mondrian-like building was built in the sixties or seventies of the previous century. I have long been fascinated by its modernist simplicity and bright flat colors. I hope to look into the history of the building to find out more about it.

I've been working hard on art, both for my annual upcoming show at "Darkovercon" north of Baltimore, and for what I hope will be a show of my architectural art in a Falls Church gallery. These art efforts mean that I have less time for mathematics and physics. I just have to learn at a much slower pace than if I were concentrating on it as a full-time student. Despite a few years' worth of unrealistic and dreamlike fantasies of mine, I will not ever become a professional scientist nor will I move in their circles. I wouldn't be able to stand the social pressures, let alone the academic and intellectual pressures.

In my last entry I wrote about "genius" and the cult of intelligence. We visual artists always have a secret suspicion that we are just not as intelligent as scientists or mathematicians. After all, visual artists using traditional materials push colored goo around on paper or board, rather like preschoolers, while physicists split atoms with multi-billion-dollar, incredibly intricate particle accelerators, or spin theories of mind-boggling complexity. It is this intellectual inequality which is part of my challenge, now six years old, to prove that a lowly visual artist can learn mathematics and physics.

But I've got to do what I do best, and so I am working more on art than on math and physics at this time. At least I can do pictures of buildings, especially "Exterminator Modern," which has a kind of geometric and mathematical precision that kills bugs dead.

Posted at 3:08 am | link