Thursday, December 20, 2007


"more"

Confessions typed then hidden, obscured. Like thoughts in our heads or pure maybe vapid impulses. I smudge, therefore I am.

Who does not want "more?" Maybe, me?



"less"


"least"


"more.or.less"

Today was a transitional day. Met my former model who is leaving town, sadly, and met with another friend about an opportunity. Change - it is going to be good.

8 comments:

Debi said...

Although I've not taken time to post a comment, I've been here many times in the past few days. Your images cause me to be dumbstruck. I mean that in a good way. There is so much going on in them it takes my mind a while to sort and wrap around the thoughts. It has much to do with the uniqueness of your work.

I especially like today's collage. My preference is the last one, more muted, darks darker, more brooding, more indicative of the words hidden (my words are hidden too!) and obscured.

There are many layers to your work. And now I risk becoming quite verbose...there are the alternating organic/geometric layers, there is the layering for us Blog visitors of your image with your words conveyed in that odd but delightful mon.key way, and in every piece I see a simultaneous act of destruction and construction. Then there is always the play on words in what you say. I suspect there is some kind of play on images in your work as well. Only it's more difficult to verbalize. Maybe it is private? There's that too in your work -- the layers of private versus public.

Sorry to have posted one such long post, but for me your work is equally about the body of work as any individual work.

I'm curious as to what you will think of this. As I am curious about all things John (Copyright JMM 2007).

That's it...embrace the change. I have a feeling it will be all good and I hope I get to follow along with its progression.

Trijnie said...

These images are making me curious, studied them for a while, trying to read the words.
I sometimes create words in my paintings and afterwards in my glass. People always asking about the writing. I call them "hersenspinsels" chimeras (hope that is a good translation)
Prettig/ Nice weekend

John M. Mora said...

Thank you for your words and insight. For so long I worked privately and it is odd to share, not because I am shy - maybe because I am shy and guarded.

I add words, then I obscure them - that is why I called them confessions. Words also have great weight in a composition - so do numbers and leters - because we are trained to deciper them. Our eyes go to them, dance between them - and they add an element of the conceptual.

At some point art became more about concept than execution....I go to MOMA all the time and see smug contemporary artists with smug smart concepts. It is not Rembrandt or Van Gough.

For words in this image - all that is left is "more" - the phrase was "if I loved you more I would die."

Hard for me not to delete it here, maybe I will later. I feel I can share that with the two of you and no one else comes here. It is my last "smile" at my model. She awakened me, quite by accident - I had not "created" in about thirteen years. It was not a romance.

More importantly, it is also a call out to my wife - on a very different truer level. My real life partner, not a cog in an image. Love comes in many layers, tones and magnitudes.

There is a nervous energy in my work - mostly I try to isolate something beautiful within chaos, but one that is not blatantly "pretty." Almost always I fail, but I keep trying.

I fear my work is derivative.

I mostly work with Microsoft Paint - an incredibly sinmple program with not many tools or options. I love how it limits me and forces me to accept creative compromises. Squares and rectagles. Horrrible spray paint tool. Primitive. Elegant because it is not flashy. Any graphics designer would laught at me.

It is my crayon, dull but fragrant.

Thank you for visiting. You are my links....

My best job of not being private, ever. Are my fifty minutes up, Doctor?

More is less. Always, never.

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

I'here and I'm moved. Intriqued from the moment I read your opening words.
I too write and cover up. Sometimes it is enough to get the words out of my head. Cleanising and releasing.Reading them is un-important. Someone else reading them is an invasion. Unless I choose to reveal.
Thankyou for sharing:)
I enjoyed 'least' the most, the colour suited the mood I felt reading your post.

Thankyou also for the amazing comment you left on my 'grounded' I was truly blown away by it.

Have a great Christmas!
Lisa :)

Anonymous said...

"least" is my favorite here, in part because I no longer need the words, the confession. It is a simpler peaceful composition - static despite all the movement.

I do enjoy words, need them. Fear they are a crush.

Least is also a word used to name American birds - two bird favorites of mine are the least bittern and the least tern.

If I could be anywhere right now it would be a marsh twenty minutes before sunrise.

Thus, "least" is a word that makes me happy - more than the word "most," honestly.

Thank you all again. I appreciate your input and encouragement and inspiration. I am working in less of a vacumn and appreciate it....Merry Christmas.

Debi said...

Post it, baby, post it! I'm flattered and terribly terribly curious.

Trijnie said...

thanks for your words, keep creating. wish you a wonderful Christmas

Debi said...

I read your comments here again. I'm sorry about your model. She's the one that didn't want to participate in a future show? Must have been a tough relationship -- you so devoted, she sounds, well, not so devoted. Perhaps that was part of the inspiration?

Love is many-layered, expansive, painful, cannibalistic, magnificent, and imperative. I'm glad you were re-awakened by one beautiful, fickle layer of it.

I think those that worry their art is derivative are less likely to be derivative.

Must be strange. Your Muse leaving just as the Public arrives. I hope we are not a case of More is Less. I hope comments here are the More that is more. And the Less of the kind you want and less of what you don't want.

I'm thinking and explaining like a real monkey. I'll take my leave now.