Art of Don DeLeva

Ive been looking at Picasso's work from the 50s and 60s as reference for a painting I am creating called "War begets war" and "40 miles out."   I took photos of "wars' progression. I posted them on Facebook I will post them here in the next few days. " 40 miles" has more reference to Picasso then "war..."

"YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT IF YOU IT'S ANGERING SOMEBODY." "I LOVE THE JUXTAPOSITION OF SOMETHING BROKEN WITH SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL GROWING OUT OF IT." Josh Homme

I forgot all about the photographer Roger Ballen. In the same way I am attacked to Joel Peter Witkin so too am I to Ballen. For me I think it is the sense of shamanic reality to everyday life. Black and white photographs have an other worldly quality to them.

It feels good to have the 2013 Seattle Artist Trust select a painting of mine to be included in the 2014 benefit auction.

It's been a while but all this time I have been working on a panel that I have been working on for the last 8 months. I have spent on average 2 hours a day on this piece. Sometimes I think I should just toss it and start another panel but for some reason I just hang on and keep painting on it. It has a sister piece that I have work on for 7 month but I think that work is finished. It's a wall street portrait, it feels like the last( who knows?). About 3 weeks ago I finally gave up coding to go back to art. Coding really wasn't that hard for me to give it up since it never worked for me. I spent 5 years working really hard trying to find a job coding and then spent the last 2 years trying to stop painting and art so I could learn JavaScript. I must have done a pretty good job at not painting because now...nothing comes to me and there is no flow to the process. I actually think this might be a good thing but man I am lost! I can't seem to concentrate on one thing and I...

There is nothing like honesty, I mean it really is all we have. Honesty with yourself is even more rare. Some people just bleed it out of themselves and it shows in thier work like the singer and song writer for Polvo or the painter Max Ernst. I try to be honest but damn if accolades and money get in the way of making decisions that take a painting the way it should go. A this point i am going back to my roots to find out when i started painting with earthy desires in mind. I mean what if i should be printing instead of painting?

It has been a long time but at this point I really don't care. This morning I took a long shower and felt that hot water hit my back and dreamed of a future long away in a distant past. I don't mean to be vague but now my ships are leaving the harbor. Vague as it may be I don't know what to do with it. I can't seem to put it together so I just have to put it out there and hope someone else gets it or makes sense of it. I hear voices tell me to put it all together this way or that, but really they are voices telling me to make some sort of sense of something so you, the people, will understand it. Well I am out of Ideas and confusing conglomerations of ill fitting parts that don't help you understand. That's not your fault by the way besides the fact that you have all the faculties to make your own sense out to it. Maybe it's not for my generation to know. I think if anything I am creating myths for the generations that will be here in the tomorrow ho...