Art By Nyland's Syracuse Art Freak: "What I Did With My Summer Vacation" by Steve Nyland

Early August getaway to a Fortress of Solitude in the Adirondack Mountains. It rained two of the three days we were there and I loved every minute.

I did find some time to do a little painting with mom and produced three very small, very simple works which suggested directions to pursue once I was able to clear my mind of concern for other people's artwork.

More traveling later in August, taking a picture inside the car with the flash on here and by jove if it isn't totally cool. I will also forever get to joke about how I missed a turn and ended up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Just the name is guaranteed a chuckle.

Enjoying basking in the sun over Washington DC with my crayons melting in the heat, which produced a marvelously unique texture when combined with half congealed 90 degree acrylic gel tar.

Excuse for the visit was dog sitting, and I produced 23 small to medium paintings over the course of six days. This after not having "painted for real" since January.

The catalytic event: Encountering Thomas Hart Benton's mammoth "Achelous and Hercules" (1947) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which completely blew my mind. Not just for the complex nature and sublime beauty of the composition, but because he had used pretty much exactly the same palette I'd chosen with my melting crayons three days prior.

Standing there in front of this monster convinced me I was onto something, a feeling I had not enjoyed since conceptualizing the "Fun In Space" exhibit almost a year prior. Knowing inside that this moment was going to lead to something bigger than my wildest dreams or my current capacities. New methods would need to be learned and latent skills honed to a professional sheen. I'm not there yet by a long shot but my confidence in myself as an artist has been restored and it started here. I know what I want to see, and that I am the only artist who can cultivate the vision which germinated during this encounter.

Have followed up by watching every Italian made "Hercules" type movie at my disposal to better understand the mythos of the character, and eventually conceptualized a worthy narrative response suggested by a passage of music from 1971 by Genesis -- I've begun work on it but am keeping my yap shut until I'm sure it will rule. The artworks which follow are preparatory gestures involving putting new concerns about surfaces & textures in line with the picture-making. I want the paint to have more of a voice as well. My focus at current is to stop forcing my ideas onto the surfaces and allow the images to evolve, like thousands of meteorites glomming together into an accretion mass upon which life might evolve if given the right care.

Yet more of my melted crayon colors. My verdict on the installation?

"One grant well spent."

Utilizing the DC skyline as a study on vertical forms during an incredible afternoon of drawing on the roof. Construction cranes and visualizing the Heathaze blanketing the city became recurring themes in certain efforts.

I also got to meet with Washington DC based Curator & Critic Joan Dare, who took me on a tour of the Smithsonian's new Native American museum just across the street from our nation's Capitol. Above is artist Jenna North's video documentation of the interview and excursion.