Extinction

 Extinction is a new painting in a surrealistic style, a look I rather enjoy.

The size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm and shows a post-apocalyptic scene, We don't know if the female is the last living human on earth, or if she's the only person out in the open. A destroyed city and clock loom in the distance, and the ground is giving off a yellowish polluting gas. Dead trees and dry, cracked earth complete the setting.

Sometimes the current events and what they mean to the future of our planet totally depress me, and that's the way I felt when I began this painting. There are "leaders" who seem hellbent on destroying the planet just so they can feed their hyperinflated egos. I know someday Jesus Christ will come, but how much is it going to hurt until He does?

May He help us all.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Surreal and the Desert

 Good grief -- I just realized I didn't post at all during March!!

But now it's April, I survived April Fool's Day, and I'm moving forward -- finally!

I finished two paintings last month. One is a somewhat surreal piece which, as usual, I can never really explain. The other is a scene from Joshua Tree National Park and is definitely a miniature painting -- 7" x 5" / 17.8cm x 12.7cm. My plan is to make several (or many) paintings this size and make them available as tabletop pieces to the many tourists who visit the National Park. They'll be offered with mini easels, or the collectors can have them framed if they prefer.

Memories of the Dark                                                   11" x 14"/27.9cm x 35.6cm

Hi Desert in Bloom                        7" x 5"/17.8cm x 12.7cm

In the meantime, have a blessed Easter! Be on the lookout for more paintings!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Advancing Time

 

Advancing Time is my latest (surrealism) painting. It's essentially a redo of the very first serious painting I did: men seemingly running from a clock that is chasing them as the sun goes down. The size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

What does it mean?? Not really sure -- I'm sure something bad is in those runners' futures if/when the clock catches up with them. Maybe it has something to do with our futures as well.

I'll admit I'm concerned about our future and the future of our country. Perhaps the painting is simply an expression of concerns I have and the ominous evil just beyond the horizon. Something's coming, and it ain't good.

But for now, enjoy the time we have, and look for the beauty in our lives.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Visit

 I've been in the mood for some surrealism lately. So I'm holding back a little on making desert landscape paintings and I'm doing some small surrealism works!

The latest piece -- The Visit -- combines surrealism and a bit of desert landscape! 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

Even though I paint surrealism, I never try to explain what the images mean, usually because I don't know what they mean. In this case, I wanted a scene of a human walking through an otherworldly desert, similar to something one might see in a dream.

In fact, dream imagery is critical to my way of working -- dreams that might be a little disturbing, but the scenes are not nightmarish. This is the Salvador Dali-ish world I love to create. Some modern-day surrealism is too pretty, or too much a mere assemblage of seemingly unrelated objects thrown together in a view, or scary/ugly monstrous animals or mutated humans. Not my thing at all!

So is this female on a vision quest? Is she lost? Dream-walking? Heading into an unknown future, good or bad (as we all must)? Don't know!

All I know is: there's something freeing to me about doing these kinds of paintings. Let's face it -- I'm a surreal kind of guy. AND PROUD OF IT!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Painting Dreams

My earliest days as an artist were when I was deeply into surrealism, especially imagery that seemed to appear like dreams I've had.

I still love those images. Many of Salvador Dali's works were like that, and his realistic technique made the "dreams" totally believable -- a look that I embraced.

Suburbs of a Paranoic-Critical Town

Detail

(Sorry the detail of the painting isn't sharper).

For the dreamy effect, this is one of my favorite Dali paintings -- in particular, the gal holding the bunch of grapes, looking directly at the viewer, is exactly the type of thing I see in MY dreams.

Yet, another artist made paintings that appear to be even more dreamlike -- those of Belgium artist Paul Delvaux. The people (often women) sit or walk as if they are in a dreamlike trance.

Many of Delvaux's figures are nude, and I don't want to freak out my more conservative readers. So here is an example of a Delvaux painting without too much nudity (or lesbian activity, which he seemed to be into):

The Retreat - Paul Delvaux

Delvaux usually painted females, a few males, architecture, trains and human skeletons -- often in some combination within a piece.

His realism technique isn't, in my opinion, as nice as Dali's, but Delvaux's images appeal to me more. The latter's art reminds me so much of what I see when I sleep (except my dreams have more variety). I get a kick out of my dreams, but I've rarely painted actual dreams of mine because I often feel like they wouldn't lend themselves to a single image. (If I made videos and had the means to pull them off, THAT might be different!)

I'll continue to paint traditional, classical realism-inspired landscapes. But painting surreal scenes gets my soul into my work in a way that realism doesn't. We'll see what I come up with!

Mark Junge
www.MarkJunge.com

Show and Tell -- My First Painting!

I feel like I'm sticking my neck out....

 

This is the very first painting I did that I would consider a "serious" painting (that is -- it's not finger painting or stuff like that). I did it for a painting class ca. 1970. I'd like to think my technique has progressed a little since then.

I was mostly obsessed with surrealism in those days. I knew -0- about classical realism, the look I prefer today even with surreal works. I think I was making a point about something. Time running out? Time is gonna get those two humans trying to escape?

I never liked the green "vegetation" on the left, but I was way too impatient to do it better. Also, I wanted the sun to pop, so I used a fluorescent magenta. In real life, it definitely popped more than the background colors.

This was scanned from a rather dark 35mm slide -- hard to work with. Oh, well.

Maybe some day I'll be a better, more sophisticated version of this untitled piece!

 

Mark Junge

www.SouthwestSpaces.com

www.MarkJunge.com

 

The Dance

The Dance is my latest painting -- only slightly surreal this time as compared to my other surrealistic paintings.

The Dance                              11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm

The image was inspired by a Greek folk dance class I happened to be watching many years ago. (The bubbles were not there, of course).

So what does it mean? As usual, I prefer to leave that up to the viewer. Some friends thought it's a reference to togetherness, solidarity among women, women's rights, racial equality, on and on.

Some day, I'll need to find a gallery or show where the public may view the paintings in real life -- for those who need some surreal moments in their lives!

What Happened to August?

What happened to August? I just realized I didn't make a single blog post in the month of August! Now it's September. Wha...???

Well, I'm here now! Just in time to show you my latest surreal painting, Semblence of Artificial Humanity, 16" x 20" / 41cm x 51cm.

Semblence of Artificial Humanity                               16" x 20" / 41cm x 51cm

The only real thoughts that come me about the piece are actually questions: why is the shadow of the female being cast against the sky while all other shadows retreat into the distance? What are those green things growing out there? What's up with the bubbles?

As usual, I can't explain what it all means. Its meaning is in the eye of the beholder: YOU, dear viewer!

Keep watching for www.SurrealMark.com. I hope to have that site up before year's end.

www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com 

Ambiguous Strangers

Ambiguous Strangers is the mysterious name I gave to my latest mysterious and surreal painting.

Ambiguous Strangers       18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm

As usual, I prefer not to try and explain what's going on here. I like it when viewers read into it their own experiences and viewpoints.

I'm simply painting the ideas and images that pop into my head -- dreamscapes; lands that seem like they could exist, but don't -- except in an artist's mind.

Enjoy, and contemplate!

(This piece and others will appear on a yet-to-be-launched website called www.SurrealMark.com. I hope to have it up later this year).

www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com

A Surreal Side of Mark Junge

I didn't realize it has been almost a month since I last wrote about what I've been up to lately. What's wrong with me??? 😁

OK, since I wrote about the redwood painting I finished last month, I've decided to spend some time working on surreal pieces that I've been wanting to do. (I also worked on a logo design for someone, but that's another story).

Art Show                                 11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm

This image, Art Show, is something I saw in a dream many years ago. I still remember it because as soon as I woke up, I sketched it in a little sketchbook I kept beside the bed. I therefore remembered it all these years. And finally, I got around to painting it.

Simply by looking at this, you're getting a peak into my subconscious. I have no idea what it "means," if anything. It was something my brain conjured up while sleeping. But it was supposed to be an art show I visited, with paintings hanging on a long maroon-colored curtain, people looking at the works, and a young woman who is gripping "hands" with the curtain, fingers interlaced. Again, I have no idea what it all means.

I decided to paint the scene as I remember it, ignoring some of the formal elements such as composition. I doubt I'll be attempting to sell this work, anyway -- it's really just for me.

More surrealism to come!

www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com

Writing for the Arts

Writing for the Arts was the name of a class I took at California State University, Los Angeles in the late 1980s when I was finishing up my Bachelors degree in Art. I learned a lot in the class, and the professor (Sandy B.) was adamant about NOT writing in the "Artspeak" manner so typical of most art reviewers and critics. If you've ever tried to read that stuff, you know how utterly nonsensical and useless it is.

I was grateful that Sandy introduced us to a writing style that emphasized descriptive language -- wording that would form images in the reader's minds, using lots of adverbs, some adjectives and "good" verbs. As much as possible, I continue to try to write that way in what I would consider my "serious" writing (posts on Facebook are NOT included in that group!) One example of my "serious" writing appears on my website -- my Bio page (aka "Why Does Mark Paint the Desert?!?" -- you can see it HERE).

In addition, the following was an assignment for the class, talking about some early experiences (1970s) with selling my surrealist paintings at an outdoor art fair.

Weekend

“Geez, that’s weird!” he said, pausing briefly, then turning away into the art fair’s forest of canvases, tinkling windchimes and seashell animals. The April sun gently warmed the barely-clothed bodies meandering down the narrow pathways.

“Really different. By far the best work in the show.” I looked up. The man, perhaps in his sixties, smiled, nodded and continued on his way.

A breeze softly lifted a lock of her long, reddish-brown hair as her mouth and eyes opened into perfect circles. “A surrealist! How neat!” She gazed at my paintings in wonder. “I’d love to buy one. Will you be here next week?”

“Probably,” I said.

She smiled. “Great! I’ll probably see you then.” I knew I would never see her again.

The flow of people seemed to stop momentarily, so I ambled over to my neighbor. “They never buy here. They only look,” he commented with the air of wisdom that comes only with long, hard years of experience.

“I think you’re right,” I answered. “I’ve gotten lots of nice comments, but you can’t pay the bills with nice comments.” He agreed.

An older couple appeared and looked at my paintings. I quickly turned, but they left before I could take a step. An older, bearded intellectual type stopped, thoughtfully puffed on his pipe, and spoke slowly.

“A Rod Serling of the brush” he said, continuing with a discourse on the meaning of my work. He told me things about my artwork that even I didn’t know. I couldn’t resist.

“Wanna buy it?”

“No, no,” he laughed as he walked away.

I had hoped to sell publishing rights to the story to The Artist magazine, but they wanted writing that showed the positive side of the artists' lives. Well, I'll admit my story isn't very hopeful, but it IS accurate!

Oh, well. At least my writing skills are still intact. I doubt I'll ever write a novel, but I can see trying my luck with writing some short stories. Author Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors, and he wrote some short stories that used some of this descriptive language in powerful ways. So -- maybe some day... ☺

More Microbial Surrealism

I'm slowly but surely adding to my portfolio of surrealism paintings based on things I've seen under various types of microscopes. (Being a microbiologist has its benefits!)

A Quarter Past Tomorrow        20" x 24" / 51cm x 61cm

 A Quarter Past Tomorrow shows the sporulating structures and threadlike hyphae ("hy-phee") of one of the common green bread molds -- Aspergillus glaucus. My intent was not to make a scientific illustration, but to produce a work of fine art in the tradition of French surrealist Yves Tanguy.

Also, surrounding the mold are small golden-yellow spheres. These are the bacteria species, Staphylococcus aureus, the cause of the MRSA infections that becoming increasingly common. I considered making the Staph much bigger, but in the end, I decided to keep things approximately to scale -- and bacteria are much smaller than fungal growth.

The green balls that form the sprays on the ends of the vertical growths are reproductive spores. If you've ever watched mold growing, you'd see it starts out as a white, cottony mass, then it turns fuzzy and green. The spores are what gives mold its color.

Aspergillus species are normally benign unless your immune system is down and you inhale lots of spores (which are all around us). Then it can cause a pretty nasty infection in the lungs and even disseminate to other parts of the body.

That concludes today's microbiology lecture. Enjoy the painting. More to come, possibly with greater liberties taken when I present these mysteriously beautiful organisms.

Finally, I'll be creating a website soon just for the surreal works (with links back and forth to my western landscapes site). The new site isn't created yet, but the URL is www.SurrealMark.com. I'll let you know when it's up and if I'll be offering these paintings online, or if the site will be strictly a portfolio with information on where to acquire the art.


 

Dreams and Surrealism

I was always fascinated by the following painting by Salvador Dali:

Suburbs of a Paranoiac Critical Town Afternoon on the Outskirts of European History, Salvador Dali, 1936

Lots of fun stuff going on in this image!

But with all the neat things happening here, the image of the gal with a bunch of grapes fascinates me the most:

Funny -- she looks like people I see in my dreams. Not that she necessarily resembles them or that the dream peeps are offering grapes. But she has an other-worldly look, like she's talking to the viewer, except that we can't hear her. And why is she standing there, holding out a bunch of grapes? I suppose only Dali would know, and I don't know if he ever said; if he didn't, it's too late now.

I'm kinda thinking...I'd like to make some paintings that look like I've illustrated things out of my dreams. They almost always have people in them, although the faces are often obscured. Lots of space, lots of people, just going about their business.

Except in a dream that recurs every so often. I'll go outside, not realizing I'm wearing only my underpants (so far, I've never gone out naked), and nobody notices. Until I notice it, then everybody else notices it, too, and they turn and stare at me -- and by then, I've moved away from my door and can't just run back inside. And I'm all embarrassed...

I'm not into dream interpretation, so I don't know if it means anything or not. But I do get a kick out of the images the subconscious manufactures. They're almost, but not quite, realistic. But the UNreal parts are what I enjoy!

Sometimes, too, my dreams disturb me after I wake up. Nothing nightmarish about them, but I feel unsettled.

Don't know what it all means. But good surrealism reminds me of dream imagery (Dali seemed to be the best at it), and that's what I love the most about this genre!

Surreal Desert Paintings, Surreal Desert Landscapes and Other Art Stuff

Lots of big plans for the immediate future. Let's see if I have the time and/or energy to pull them off!

First: the end of the year holidays...Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. (New Years always seems to be a downer for me, so it's not listed). Every year, I go looking for books with neat images of these holidays -- images along the lines of something I might do. And you know what? I never find books like that.

So-o-o...I've been thinking: maybe I need to paint up holiday paintings that I would want to see in a book, and then produce/write the books myself! I do have a bent toward writing as well as art, and this would be one way to do both. In fact, I've been trying to think up writing projects for years, ever since the late 1980's when I took a class in which the teacher had us write in a way that conjures up images in the readers' minds. Lots of adverbs, metaphors, similes and such. (I wrote my biography on my Website in this style).

Of course, I'm also thinking of other writing projects: perhaps short stories or even novels. I'm also considering a collection of essays on the trials and tribulations of artists. (Well, OK, the good things about the artist's life, too!)

Secondly: I haven't been painting wall art for a while now, but I've been thinking (OMG -- he's been thinking!!!)...

Sometimes I wonder if the traditional approach to making landscapes is seen as too old-fashioned, at least among the younger art buyers. My type of landscapes are what their parents and their grandparents have on their walls. This entire style of working has been done to death, and frankly, it's a lot of work for so little financial reward. It's certainly no way to run a business!

So, as I wonder to myself as I look at other Websites, maybe I should try making desert landscapes with strong hints of fantasy or surrealism to them. I've seen images that look like they belong in video games or in sci-fi/fantasy movies such as "Avatar." The landscapes look real, but they're unworldly or etherial at the same time. Is THIS what people want on their walls? Colorful and real-but-not-real?

As usual, this semi-burned-out artist has got lots to think about. I need creative outlets, yet I need to make more $$$ than the P/T teaching position gives me.

BTW, there's always a method to my madness. The title of this post came about because I Googled "surreal desert paintings." This blog came up #5 in the list! It's the exact title I used in a post a long time ago. Knowing that, I titled this post so, if I'm lucky, someone just might discover my paintings -- including the surreal desert kind which aren't even done yet!

If you're one of those -- be patient! Don't forget: I'm at http://www.southwestspaces.com.

Landscapes of the Surreal and Mysterious

Landscapes of the Surreal and Mysterious is the tentative title of a one-dude show I'll be doing locally in September. I originally considered a name with "desert" in it, but then I decided a while ago not to limit my audience (or collectors!) by sticking with only one type of landscape.

The desert is a surreal place. Maybe that's why I love it so much, seeing as I'm a big fan of surrealism as well. But I've seen other places that, under the right conditions, can be surreal or at least mystical as well. So the common thread I plan to weave through my work this summer is: whatever landscape I paint, it can't be a straightforward rendition of the place. It MUST have a sense that the "gods" were there that day (or night), spreading their magic across a land that overwhelms the viewer with fleeting mystery and reminding us that the land is, indeed, alive.

Time to get busy!

More About Surrealism

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I paint mostly Western landscapes, especially desert scenes. But I'm a surreal sort of person, too. I used to paint in a surrealistic style, and have always like the works of early 20th century surrealists like Salvadore Dali, Rene Magritte, Paul Delvaux and Yves Tanguy.

The last artist in that list holds a special fascination for me. I used to use electron microscopes a lot in my science days (grad school and jobs), and one type of scope -- the scanning electron microscope (SEM) -- produced images that looked very much like Tanguy's paintings: a microscopic world inhabited by bacteria, teeny-tiny fragments of bone and other hard-to-describe features.

I've made a few paintings that combined Tanguy's look with things I've seen under the SEM. I've posted one example of this above. This is what one might see if shrunk down to microscopic size, with bacterial cells of E. coli and Staphylococcus strewn all around. (Of course, I doubt our eyes or anything else would function if we were reduced to a micrometer in height, but that's beside the point!)

If we could see with God's eyes...

The Surreal Desert -- and a Surreal Desert Painter

As a few of you may have noticed by now, I make mostly desert paintings. Most of these tend to be places within America's national parks and monuments, particularly Joshua Tree, Organ Pipe Cactus, Saguaro, Arches, Canyonlands, Death Valley and others.

Places like these seem to have an air of surrealism about them, more so than some of the national parks we've visited in the eastern states, beautiful as they are. I mentioned before: I like surrealism as an art form, and painting desert landscapes is a convenient way to "sneak" a little of the surreal into the artwork.

The painting to the right is one example of that. This scene is in Arches National Park, with Double Arch to the right of center. The lighting is pretty much the way it was that day, in late July as a thunderstorm was approaching from behind. (In fact, it poured rain soon after I left this spot and saw red waterfalls, tinted by the red-brown soil, tumbling down the rockfaces -- and across the roads!)

Ah...the surreal desert! Perfect for a lover of surrealism like me -- a rather surreal character, if I say so myself!

A Surreal Dude

I used to paint surreal scenes. In fact, I still consider it my favorite style of art IF it's well-done.

The image on the right is the second version of a piece I did for a class I was taking in the late 1980's. The assignment was to create a work based on a classical grouping or cycle; in my case, I decided upon earth, air, fire and water. At the same time, this particular image occurred to me as my wife and I were...well, uh, doing what it is husbands and wives do. (What a time to be inspired to do art!)

Thus, this image (to me anyway) represents earth (the earth-colored hand on the right), air (the blue sky), fire (obvious) and water (in the form of clouds). But (again, in my mind), I also tried to depict sexual passion, all without resorting to the obvious ways of showing this subject.

Some day I'll have to squeeze more surreal subject matter into my already overloaded schedule. But for now, I'll continue to paint landscapes with just a touch of the surreal in them.

The "Real" Surreal

I used to use electron microscopes a lot in some of the research jobs I had. One type is the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which makes images that resemble black-and-white photographs. (Nowadays, SEMs can be linked to computers that add false color to the images).

SEMs can be used in research, quality control and forensics. But for the artistically-inclined, they can be wonderful tools for showing the surrealistic world that exists right under our noses!

The scanning electron micrograph (the fancy name for a picture taken on an SEM) to the right is a highly magnified object common to many, if not all, of us. Can you guess what it is?

It's salted popcorn! The cubes that are scattered about are salt crystals.

The "mountain" that rises in the background is not part of the popcorn -- it's some of the dried electrically-conducting carbon paste that we use to adhere specimens to a sample holder which, in turn, is inserted in the SEM. But I always thought it helped give the image the look of a landscape, so I didn't crop it out.

We know about the concept of the universe being a vast place with stars, planets and many other things (but with LOTS of empty space). But we live in another universe as well, and one that is equally hard to see and comprehend -- the universe of the microscopic and the infinitely small.