NOTES IN THE SHADOW

Last April, I started a draft titled The Rancho about finding time to play and plan at a park in Burbank’s Rancho district. The park lies at the edge of Griffith Park, separated by the LA River and the 134, which run parallel. At its far end, the park meets the LA Equestrian Center and a row of houses with private stalls across the street. On quiet mornings, riders on horseback pass through. The location viscerally thrilled me. But a day after I started the draft, I had a run-in that caused me to stop going, and I haven’t written since. In one of my last published newsletters, HC-07, I wrote about finding inspiration on weekly drives through the canyons to Malibu—another activity I had to let go of after the fires. The last year or so in Los Angeles has been incredibly disorienting.

I keep returning to Winslow Homer’s Summer Night, a painting I love in its entirety, but the shadowed figures especially. They feel like the key to something essential, but they are obscured just beyond clarity. I thought about these figures a lot while working on Ten Thousand Tons on My Head, a series of landslide studies, and I’m thinking about them again as I work on a new series of studies on paper titled Hard Edge Moon.

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HIGH SPEED PURSUITS P2
DRAWINGS AT HIGH SPEED

Notes on Drawing:

You can sometimes judge a good drawing based on what it leaves out yet manages to convey. A good drawing trusts the viewer to complete the image. Bad drawings are usually bad not due to a lack of skill but for the lack of trust — the artist's lack of trust in themselves and in others. This is why a child’s drawing can be good while a seasoned artist's drawing can be bad.

Bad drawings can suffer from a lack of skill, but the skill is usually trust. Style can be quickly learned and mimicked, tools can be upgraded and mastered, and taste can be improved with exposure. While all of this requires discipline, at some point in the process, you have to learn to trust that what emerges is what you want, whether expected or not. However, trusting the viewer and trusting yourself requires a certain level of respect, and some people will never draw well.

I’ve been drawing more with the intent of sharpening this skill, not just to draw well but to find myself in a better place.

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HIGH SPEED PURSUITS

I live on a busy street that stretches the valley. It has few signals, bumps, dips or stops. Some nights when the traffic slows to a quiet I can hear a car race past followed by police sirens. While the OJ chase is embedded in the collective memory, the chase that is etched deep within my psyche is the '98 Daniel Jones pursuit, which interrupted my afterschool cartoons and ended with him unfurling an anti-HMO banner over the freeway, setting his car on fire and taking a shotgun to his head. A KTLA newscopter broadcast the scene live, and the following morning, a news crew stationed itself outside Cheremoya Elementary to conduct interviews. My classmate Nick recounted the incident in detail— gesturing towards his head.

Revisiting it now I learned there was no pursuit, Daniel strategically parked his Toyota truck at the curve around the 110 /5 fwy interchange for the most impactful camera angle and dialed 911. This pursuit, and the multiple pursuits that take place near daily, all televised live, feel distinctly ~Hollywood~. The suspect directs the shot, the city plays the lead. A recent cinematic night short was directed by a motorcyclist who pushed 140mph on the freeway.

On colder days I like to pack the car and cut through Coldwater Canyon to Malibu. Nathan drives (at reasonable speed) and I take snaps of the passing sights on my phone.

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Over the last couple of years the cultural center seems to have drifted back across the Atlantic from New York to Europe and I couldn’t be happier in Los Angeles.

The art world feels at a standstill but everyone is as tight lipped as ever.

Project List

1. High Speed Pursuit

2. Pearl Markers and Sand Crabs (small works)

3. I Remember the High Tide (expanded)

4. Ten Thousand Tons on my Head (continued)

Notebook

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CASCADES

The Castaic fire closed off our path to and from the cabin complicating plans. Luckily our tight knit mountain community guided us to a road that circumvented the mountain range to and from Los Angeles. On a regular commute the 5 passes the cascades— when it rains or snows up where we are, you can almost always catch the water flowing from the grapevine. This new route took us around the mountain, following the path of the Los Angeles aqueduct through some of the most stunning landscapes. It reminded me of my favorite project: 100 mules walking the Los Angeles aqueduct by artist Lauren Bon.

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/episodes/100-mules-walking-the-los-angeles-aqueduct

https://www.metabolicstudio.org

SITTING AND GATHERING

IT WAS BOUND TO BE — SOMETHING LOVE RELATED
sitting and gathering rug — Studio Practice Editions
51% NZ worsted wool, 49% Delicate silk, 2’6” x 7’0”, 2022

https://topuriya.com/It-Was-Bound-To-Be

I wanted to highlight this project which was one of the first times I was able to combine my design and art projects — I usually keep these two very separate and secret.

NOTES

Those of you who replied to my last newsletter for a postcard should have received it by now, some of the international requests might still be in transit. I had so much fun sending these out, I will try again in the future.

Thank you to everyone who ordered Hot Air Rises and pre ordered Ten Thousand Tons. I think the first couple of orders of Hot Air Rises might have a typo, so if you have a typo in the intro note, you have some of the first few copies!

Ten Thousand Tons will be going to print earlier than I originally noted, so I will try to send it out before the 12.15 ship date.

Preview pricing on these two projects will end in the new year, if you haven't ordered and want too, this might be a better time. This will also be my last newsletter of 2022, I will resume after the new year. You're all welcome to stay in touch by email in the meantime.

HOT AIR RISES
https://shop.topuriya.com/products/hot-air-rises

PRE-ORDER: TEN THOUSAND TONS
https://shop.topuriya.com/products/10tons

info@topuriya.com
www.topuriya.com

There can be days, weeks and months where I work diligently on a painting, making controlled, expected marks — then unexpectedly one mark appears and I instantly recognize it as my own, opening me up to a place I couldn’t reach before. After a year of studies, rejects and redo’s I’m happy to introduce my new series Ten Thousand Tons on my Head — Landslide.

The idea started sometime in 2018 when the ground started to shift under my feet. This feeling has intensified over the last couple of years as more and more falls away.

Ten Thousand Tons

STUDIO PRACTICE EDITIONS

TEN THOUSAND TONS ON MY HEAD, a booklet cataloging the new series is available for pre-order, shipping 12/15/22. The preorder process will help me fund this project which I otherwise would not be able to do.

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NOTE + THANK YOU

I am immensely grateful to everyone who subscribes, it has allowed me to share my work on my own terms without the added pressures and influences of social media. As a thank you I want to send you one of my postcards. I have about a 100 remaining, reply to the email with your address and I’ll drop one in the mail for you.

I’ve been working to more closely align my projects and progress to my personal life rather than any external factors as I did in the past, these post end up being more spaced out than I initially planned. I tell myself there’s no straight shot forward or back and there are no two paths aligned closely enough to be ahead or behind.

I'm seeing so many artists take an apocalyptic approach, no longer creating, instead further sowing dread. At minimum our job is to absorb the times and offer a piece of humanity.

There’s no shortage of information, I’m not sold on the idea of the uninformed. I’m not in the mental and physical state to tolerate the onslaught of doom. There’s such a large void and need for beauty that when I come across works and projects that push through the noise, I find myself locked in a trance.

Everything is in progress and I don't have anything real to share—below are pieces of projects.

K.I.T

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1. Ten Thousand Tons on my Head — landslide series
   3/7 complete. Im using these small paintings as an opportunity to work out ideas for a larger series to follow.

2. Sitting and Gathering rugs
   installation art project
   in progress

3. Dollar Store $2 nail polish finds:
   chakra, endless summer, and sound the alarm

4. Collecting:
   —bar soaps with religious imagery
   Na Sra. de FATIMA by essence de Portugal
   —Natural Disaster clippings
   https://calisphere.org/search/?q=landslide

5. Slow burn: Botticelli's Birth of Venus jigsaw puzzle

   in progress*

22A—01 Notebook

reference, sketches and ideas

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Portfolio

Starting this L.A. notebook not in Los Angeles but ninety minutes north in the Los Padres National Forest. On a previous morning I found myself winding down the mountain at 3:40am to catch a signal on a turnout. I continued to Los Angeles to avoid a service outage for work and subsequently caught the sunrise on the 5.

Following a series of deeply difficult personal events I am learning to keep my plans, expectation, motivations and worries in the purview of a larger picture, focusing instead on the pull of the present. Being here now, wherever that happens to be — it feels right.

2022—A PROJECTS: HEAT HAZE

1. 22a01—22a07 Heat Haze paintings

   small studies: in progress

2. Heat Haze — art objects & sitting rugs

3. Ten Thousand Tons on my Head (landslide) drawings

Website

This is an attempt to free myself from that pattern. I want this space to not only be a place to share and connect but an extension of my studio practice. No different than any other art project. If you are not subscribed yet please use the link below.

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COLOR STUDIES

I usually sit down and mix swatches if it has been a while since I’ve painted. It is mostly a mindless action, similar to a morning studio sweep or finding clarity in the shower. It gives me the opportunity to think through projects and solidify ideas that may otherwise be free floating. The swatches become a physical manifestation of a thought process, separate from the idea or project itself. Being away from the studio (Im in-between cities) I’ve started forming these digitally.

I am interested in learning how you process your ideas and if this process itself results in a tangible object. If you have anything to share you can comment, reply or email, maybe we can collect them together somehow.  email: info(at)topuriya.com

On a related note I am trying to learn more about foraging pigments. Specifically where to find natural California pigments. I know very little about this subject but I’ve started researching. I hope to have made some progress to share next month.

GREENER PASTURES

The last year has forced me to reevaluate how I use my time online and how at times the constant feed has warped or damaged my own practice. So many projects abandoned because the idea of the final product became overwhelming when compared to the polished pieces I would see online. 

This is one of the projects I wouldn’t have completed in the past. It makes me uncomfortable. Greener Pastures is a phrase poem, a collection of phrases that circle my brain, or lines I have jotted down along the way. It is a product of my struggle to find my way back home. A love token to California.

The entire project—from the box to the inserts—is printed and assembled in the studio. No part of the process efficient but I wanted this first project to be a labor
of love.

LEARN MORE

Subscribers can use code NEWSLETTER to receive a 20% discount during the pre-order period. 

RESOURCES
Every month I will try to include a list of resources I have found helpful and interesting. I will start a repository for these links as I continue to add to them. 

A Soft Manifesto by Courtney Cassidy
The Big Artist Opportunities List by Everest Pipkin
Map of Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world

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