The Paradox Boxes

    In 2024 I thought to remake boxes because of all the corrugated cardboard packaging that arrived in the mail, or from Amazon Prime, Jerry’s Artarama, Blick Art, Puritan’s Pride, Epson and other corporate sources every week. It seemed somehow tragic to, rip, cut, and smash all those boxes into the recycle bin. So, I thought to combine my meditation practice, art making, ideas about quantum theory with the Japanese conceptualization of contained space as something more intimate and spiritual – concepts like MA (negative space), Tsutsumi (wrapping), and Oku (deepening inwardness). And I thought to ask some questions about contained space, packaging and spirituality. 

 1. Can I transform the throw-away junk of a capitalist consumption-based civilization into more deeply spirited art objects? 

 2. What if these boxes / containers have no lid or opening device? 

 3. What is the meaning of an art object that obviously has something inside but cannot be or is demonstrably not to be opened. 

 4. If I put something that is so terribly limited into the potential of the contained space (Ma) that is decorated and wrapped in art about spirit and infinity (Tsutsumi) will that somehow open or relieve the constraint? 

 5. Can I do this to objects / concepts of political restraint? 

 6. Can I do this to forms of hate / prejudice? 

 7. Why not put wishes / prayers in the containers. 

 8. Can I place my fears, anger and hate into a boxes and hope that the Ma, Tsutsumi and Oku will help me to transform my limited spirit? 

 9. What if the repurposed box is empty? 

 10. What if I deconstruct the delivered box and make a new totally different kind of box? 

 11. What if the completely remade object is empty? 

 12. What does all this have to do with my own person as an aging gay, white middle class American in the final decade or (If I’m lucky) two decades of a long life? 

 13. Can I contain irony and send it out into the universe? 

 14. Who cares, other than me? 

     To date, I have made 66 of these decorated containers. My goal is to have 100 Paradox Boxes by the end of this year 2026. All of them are decorated with images of my artwork about initial singularities, convergent universes, and color transparency. Most have things inside, some do not. None of them have lids or openings because none of them are meant to be opened. I keep a catalog of the boxes that lists the kind and size of each shape as well as that which it contains. I think of the catalog as an art object in its own rite.

Here are some recent Convergent Universes (part of the Initial Singularities series). I have this notion that multiple universes exist in separate dimensions and times. These digital and actual paintings show what it would look like if I could see convergent universes folding through one another.The first two paintings are entirely digital and I have printed them as 12" x 12" images , the third is created in real space using acrylic paint and is also 12" x 12". I have made more than fifty of these paintings, digital and / or acrylic.

Initial Singularities, Other Dimensions / Universes and Queer Icons:

In the continuing "Singularities" series I am playing with a sci-fi notion of infinite universes charted by a super-intergalactic civilization (Far, far away in both time and space). I also use them as spiritual tool or charm in meditation. Additionally, they are based in my identity as a gay man and part of the LGBTQ movement in the arts. They do these things by referencing the spectrum and rainbow using color transparency, brushed acrylic paint and stencils.

Social and Political Commentary

These two paintings are examples of my social and political commentary, and were made during the COVID pandemic (2020 – 2021). I use acrylic paints, ink, digital images taken from the masters, plus my own photos and drawing. I work back and forth between actual and virtual (digital) processes sometimes using décollage techniques to unite the various processes.

I've been on sabbatical for too long!

I will be posting on my current work. First, political and social commentary artworks made using digital processes blended and alternating with painting in actual physical space. Second, "Initial Singularities and other Universes" are prints created in Photoshop and paintings created in actual physical space. I also write poetry that tracks with both kinds of artwork. The following are two examples from the second category, "Initial Singularities and Other Universes.

“Faggot” - Double Page Spread for the LGBTQ Pictionary

The notion that the term "faggot" originates with the English, faggot, a bundle of sticks is likely. However, the word is not associated with burning homosexuals alive at the stake. The term does denote various sized and kinds of bundles of sticks, and these were standardized in 1474 by ordinance.* Alternatively the word has been used to describe a cigarette (British), and a kind of sausage meatball, also British.

The first recorded use of faggot or fag to denote a homosexual man in the USA took place in 1914, and, common use of the term faggot and the shortened version, fag to denote homosexual men and women is found by 1921. These terns are extremely pejorative though by the late 1970’s the LGBT community was actively reacquiring such derogatory terms to be used in a positive prideful manor. Fag and faggot have gradually fallen out of use. Instead, the (pejorative) “that's so gay” became more common during the 1980's. Cultural and social processes have gradually removed the stigma attached to "gay" as well. In the second decade of the 21st Century "gay" is understood as a more positive way of referring to homosexual men and/or women.

In this mixed media distressed painting I was expressing these historical aspects, cultural and social trends. The painting includes references to the centuries old “Fag” family name, to faggot, a bundle of sticks, and to cigarette as fag. It contains images of late 19th century and early 20th century sepia photos of male couples, as well as text about the word and its various significations buried in the layers of paint.*1 The text in the double page spread is different from and more detailed than the text in this blog.

Notes

*Link to details about these measurements

*1 I obtained many of the sepia images from the Website, Homo History and kept a careful log and record of these.

The Newest Art Card Is Serenity

Card, side 1

Card, side 2

During the Trump presidency discord, bad behavior and incivility have reached fever pitch though as a culture we have been trending in that direction for decades. I believe with great certainty that unless many of us act individually to counteract the cultural and social trend our democracy is doomed to go down in social and political anarchy. Because of that belief I began making the Art Cards as my individual effort to affect change in 2013. I design the cards and have them printed in batches of 250 each so that I can give them to random persons, sometimes face to face, other times anonymously. I also put them in public spaces where they can be picked up or ignored. I am not making the cards to be revolutionary because that would be foolish. I don’t show them in the traditional style of the Art World, for sale in art galleries. Instead they are meant to be gifts made to others. I know that the vast majority of the cards end up lost or trashed and I also know that this effort does little or nothing to cause change. But, I hope that the gift of these cards might inspire a few people here and there over time to join in the effort to create peace, love, joy, harmony, and serenity through their own kind efforts toward others. At the same time I understand my hope to be a Metamodern trope that goes just a touch beyond postmodern irony. *

I titled the two sides of the card side 1 and side 2 because neither side takes priority over the other. One is based on a photograph I took in 2010. The other is also photographic, but I took the photo of a section of sky in one of the seascape pastels I've created during the past 20 years. The typography, orange and yellow colors added to the pastel image, and photos of the birds are used to establish unity between the two sides of the card. In fact I have used more photography in this card than in each of the other five cards, and I'm pleased with the result.

Note

• Art during the 20th and 21st century is thought by artists, theorist and art critics to fit into three periods, modern, postmodern and metamodern. Metamodern is the most recent of these and readers can discover something about it at the following location, http://www.metamodernism.com/.