Bleach and its preparation and Inspiration in Art  ~  with TheArthur Wright

POINTIFLET! What the heck?

I am an accidental artist but things like to happen in spite of our plans. I was stationed in northern Japan and 26 miles away we could see the shores of Sakhalin Island, a Russian military island to the north of us, and late at night when we filled lonely hours on our hilly shoreline, talking G.I. talk, or otherwise passing time, I spent most of my time learning to write creatively and all that goes with it; editing, learning not to exaggerate too much, and so on. After discharge I dropped out of college and migrated to the bay area. During the early California days and nights I began to paint using the usual suspects like charcoal and watercolors and almost and simultaneously both writings and the art started selling, if memory serves me correctly. Over time I concentrated more on the fine art.

I use bleach in POINTIFLET, skewers, emery boards to keep the point of the skewer as pointy as I like, which can range from a fine sharp point to using the blunt end which can deposit a goodly amount of bleach. Any and everything in between, a very fine, small dot, almost unseen, to a splotch. I have used crumpled paper for other effects, a brush, all on black paper. Paper color doesn’t matter much, the bleach leaves a golden hue, my own personal gold rush, and I have managed to send my finished product to many parts of the earth.

Day one will be used to find out what we are in for by using bleach as the main, medium, and, in itself, is kind of mundane but I think the results can be spectacular. Around 2005, or 06, or 07, I started using acrylics for accenting but the type of paint that worked best for me contained lead and is no longer on the market. My job is to find something to take its place but so far no luck. With the remaing days We will learn how I use mixed media for some of my effects, with room for personal creativity and hopefully enjoying the process. I use pointillism, or POINTIFLET, which is a story in itself, to create but I have used brushes, swabs, sponges, spray pumps, I have used them and each can do something the others cannot. Remember, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

I do mine on paper rather than cloth since precision is what I need..

I expect many questions and hope to have many answers.

Materials

All materials will be provided by the instructor.

These include paper, fabric for anyone who want to try the two differing items, perhaps an apron with rubber gloves for those who feel the need for them, but bleach is water soluble and eaily washed off from skin with soap and water, we have all seen how bleach treats cloth! So be careful, and if not careful, be good! There will be a few other itinerant items as well. A nominal material fee will be determined by the instructor.

I was born in Little Rock Arkansas in 1940. Three years later during the Second World War the family moved to Seattle where my father found defense work at Boeing Aircraft (as it was named then) Company. Joining the Air Force after graduation I spent three years in Japan, a country that impressed me then as it still does even after all these years. After getting my discharge I attended Central Washington State College in Ellensburg for a year then moved to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area in October 1964. I am the father of four children, three robust young males and a lady. My first writings were published in the early seventies and my art sold well initially but I semi-retired for a time and after nearly a 20 year hiatus I started painting again in 1994.

My career has given me a lot of interesting things to do, including a call to Hollywood, short-lived however, and then becoming a board member of the Artship, a renovated ship of war that became a seaborne arts venue in Oakland that was discontinued in 2004. My first internet sale in 1997 was to a person from South Africa and one of the most recent to a Swedish representative of the Carnaval, a huge and sprawling global celebration that deals intensively with the peoples of the African Diaspora. For the 2003 Carnaval in San Francisco my bleach rendering of ‘Califia, Queen of California’ was chosen as the poster cover for that event. I have since been shown and honored in various schools and colleges such as Stanford, UCLA, Sonoma State and Santa Rosa JC and a much longer and growing list. The introduction of bleach into my art has been a huge catalyst and in it I find enough nuances to explore to take me the rest of the way. At present I am on the board of directors for Prescott-Joseph, a non-profit community organization located here in Oakland, California.