Snake and Octopus: drawing by Trevor Cunnington

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From my sketchbook. I like a balance between abstraction and figurativity. I'm not a fan of Abstract Expressionism at all because of its extreme arbitrariness. I do like geometric-based abstraction that veers towards OpArt. In most arts, when we talk about value, I think there are two general poles of evaluation: vision and technical skill. Movements like hyperrealism value the latter over the former. I tend to value the former over the latter. For instance, Henri Rousseau was often considered a "naive" artist because his technical skill was somewhat underdeveloped. However, the quality of his vision was very powerful and remains impactful. I tend to be somewhat critical of the popularity of hyperrealism because of its overdependence on technical skill. However, some of its representatives, such as the work of Richard Estes, combines a powerful vision with advanced technical skill, culminating in masterpieces. My technical skill is low, but I think I have better-than-average artistic vision.

Survival

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Raffled, these ruffled feathers

of a trumpeter swan, not the mute leathery

texture of a turtle, taken in a touch

written by a referee, only a dry basin

short barks followed by a full minute

of observation; what does she see?

Castle, up on the promontory flowers bloom

in the desert, apricots, smaller fruits, dates, olives

Who knows when of the earth's powers soon

in-un-depleted, in hope what? Water, water. . .

nowhere, but drops to drink in the form of fog

that moistens the lips during the arduous hunts

Margarine taunts, migraine haunts, desert rat

barbecue we haven't been hardened to anything

but surviving as a primary aim. . .

it was just the future in an image

if fie! you build it, otherwise cometh

an uncertain lineage, as if liberation

was in that image repeated in an otherwise

identitarian crisis.

Natural Rock Climbing Wall

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