Some fresh fun and exciting about me and my Van making art

 Well it all started with me driving so much that I wore my break  rotors down and had to have them replaced.  That cost a bit. However when saw those old shiny rotors I said to the repair man: "I would like to keep those and make art with them!" "Whaaat?!! He asked. Yes I said. "Put them in the back of my van." They were heavy but the inner rims were clean bright and shiny. Why, they were perfect circles and I could see that I would be making mono-type prints with them. Oh I printed those rotors on my pants, on my shirts and on the surfaces of my anticipatory-preparatory canvases and handmade paper.  wearing the clothes with the rotors printed  was like auto parts and body parts!  The human machine and the man made machine in collaboration! My  commuter car finally making a pay-back. The brake job cost 298.00  Well I sold a large painting with my van rotors printed on it for 1,800.00! I also sold a painting with a figure and that rotor printed on it for 400.00! I now have a sweat shirt that I wear. It has a part of my van's old  water pump printed on it!  It looks a little like this>> *.... Well more about this soon.  All my best Art man like Picasso Leroy Parker

Art and Math Art and Geometry

I had a hard time with math as many of us have, but I found that I love geometry in nature and in art. That is  the way for me to get into math. Picasso was into geometry his cubism was right there on geometry. Many of my works are titled geo this and geo that. I have been teaming up with Professor Benjamin Wells and giving presentations on math and art  in his freshman math classes at the University of San Francisco. I have been doing this for years now. It was really scarey at first but now I enjoy researching how my art relates to mathematics. I was even invited to do art and math at the San Francisco Jail! It went well! When you look at my art on my website: http://www.leroyparker.com, you can clearly see the connection with geometry.  I was asked serve on Andrew Lutz's Graduate committee  for his Masters Degree in Painting at San Jose State. Andrew is a physicist who is of the Stanford Research team. We would talk about higher ideas the philosophy of physics and Andrew knew that I enjoyed these discussions. All the while I was thinking: " I flunked out of math in high school but I love this stuff!  It is beautiful! I like approaches to learning that are out  of the box. I like breaking paradigms. I read Joel Barker's book "Paradigms" Check it out because I will be talking about paradigms a lot. Well I read the Tao and the book: "The Tao Of Physics." I like to draw in terms of math. Well I will talk to some more later.   Best Leroy Parker  artmanlikepicasso

More thoughts of artmanlikepicasso leroy parker

So all these amazing head paintings on my website: www.leroyparker.com  Picasso, has been a great influence on my work as he was on many artists like Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock,Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Gorky, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Murakama,  and many, many others.  Those twisted many sides of the human mind-conflict being exposed to view in the world now days; the many angles like many mirrored distortions of the way we feel and act-all suggested by Picasso as he got strong clues from the African masks.  They were used to heal to inspire certain states of spirit-emotion that we need to come to terms with. The color the patterns that I use in the paintings to suggest the awesome depth and mystery of us humans. Art is that other non-verbal part of language that we so desperately need in order to complete our sense of expression and knowing.  Without imagination there can be no knowledge.  I think Einstein said that.  So Art is that aspect of knowing which happens by the nourishment of imagination.  African Art plays a big part in the lives of many major American Artists. In 1994 there was an exhibition at the Museum Of African Art,New York  called: Western Artists/African art. It showed how many artists:  Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Terry Atkins, Arman,  Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Helen Frankenthaler, Brice Marden, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Frank Stella,Terry Winters, Fred Wilson and many other Artists in the show have to have African Art in their studios as a Major inspiration. Well I do too. Wild about it, African Art like Picasso.   Well more about this later.  Best  Leroy

How i decided on the name: artmanlikepicasso

Well that energetic wild man Picasso was very innovative and he was such a great example of child like quest and search for new ways to challenge himself as an artist. Pablo Picasso was so shocked when he saw African Art. It really moved him! It was so strange and seems to have been created to really do something to the human psychic. Like maybe get into the subconscious and turn it inside out. Like getting into dreams while wide awake. Ugliness became a haunting unforgettable beauty like ones first taste of black coffee. It shocks and awakens one, puts one on edge. African Art made Picasso see in new ways. There is an energy there a spirit there in the forms of African Art. Well the Art of Africa is in my blood as well as Native American Art and European Art. It's exciting! When Picasso's Dealer first showed his strange new Cubist work, people were outraged. Why they wanted to attack Picasso and beat him up! However now his works are very valuable. Many of Picasso's art works are now nearly  priceless. Some of Picasso's art works sale for over one hundred million! He was very prolific and worked in many mediums, He loved to draw and paint, sculpt and print plus clown around and he loved life! He went back and fourth in his style of creating. He always was full of new turns in his work. I like to work like that!. I created my own paper from cooked pineapple tops, banana, iris,day lily, sugar cane, and many other plants. It  works well and I bet Picasso would have enjoyed and loved working on my paper. It is just pure plant fiber no glue. The natural fibers bond and make a very hard strong smooth paper.  It's amazing to have the very good paper which is part of the twenty first Century.  Making paper like this does not hurt or harm the plant and it does not pollute nature. It's clean pure, some of the very best paper. Go to my website leroyparker.com and click on the paper icon.  You will see many samples of the paper and some of my students.  Well this is part of the story how I got the name: artmanlikepicasso   All my best and more to come  Leroy Parker