roccia-1 (spring)	roccia-2 (summer)	roccia-3 (fall)	roccia-4 (winter)

2008-06-24- ... I just l o v e your latest pictures, the small ones in combination with the roccia series - incredible and breathtakingly beautiful. your compositions make me wonder - enigmatic stuff yet joyful and as sweet as a gentle evening breeze. congrats - please cling to this great roll - go on and on and on and on ... T (CH).

2008-06-20 - Karl, Mmm, I'm not entirely sure what this exchange is all about. If we're talking about your new work, the 13-piece Assemblage, all I can say is, GO FOR IT! I like it a lot. Each individual piece holds up by itself. Yet together, the pieces come to life even more. They seem to be talking to each other and invite participation...what would happen if you put the grey one on the other side? what if you were to . . . etc. But don't let the buyer decide how to arrange it! It's entirely the artist's prerogative. It's almost certain he/she would mess it up.

I guess you know the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. He certainly deserves the fame when it comes to working with nature. There is an amazing movie about his work.

http://images.google.com/images?rls=DELA,DELA:2006-07,DELA:en&hl=en&q=Andy+Goldsworthy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Okay, what's next........A (New York)

2008-06-18 - hi karl - i like both of these - the titles are ok but i don't want to put much interpretation on looking at paintings - as dekooning said, 'it's very tiny, content' - i just want to feel the painting and yes, they feel honest - and beautiful - something real there - fine work - ciao ........... ted (New York)

2008-06-18 - Karl, I find this set of pics very interesting; high energy.  What a contrast to all the shit (pardon my French) I see in the USA at this time; at least the stuff that the commercial art community is pushing right now.  We (they to be more specific) seem to be interested in carrying the pop art crap to a final death roll.  For me, artists here in the States seem to be lost.The work, in way too many instances, is pointless kitsch. How sad. Maybe this will be the final downfall of the American world enterprise; all wrapped up in self indulgence and surface glitter; a fine-finish-fetish that has no meaning to anybody. Sorry to be so negative. I know that there are very serious artists out there in USA, and the world for that matter, that will rise to the occasion and move the ball forward.  At the moment there doesn't seem to be any champions promoting serious art; at least here in America. Do we need a new Clement Greenberg? A final thought:  Interesting turn about here.  Now, the Japanese influence and low brow art (in all its forms) is trying to take center stage.  For years Japanese art was heavily influenced by advertising art or similar art structures and film (film advertising) born in the USA.  A reversal seems in play; American art influenced by Japanese animated images and other goodies.  This is an interesting filter?  It will have its day then disappear.  I especially like the disappearing aspect.  For me a lot of this kind of energy was played-out back in the 1960's/70's with the psychedelic hippy trippy art.  Egads, why make a revisit!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?  Am I being one sided here?  Probably.  Sorry about that! enuff! Love this work.  Some serious Zen here!  And its Green!   Any links to more of this? - David

2008-08-18 Karl, I have to echo Ernie on feelings for gemmini paintings.  I like them too.  It is a funny thing about accessing quality in a painting or group of paintings; it all comes down to just that, a feeling.  Technique(s) can be all over the place, good or bad [you are a superb technician].   All this being said, a painting either feels right or it doesn't.  This is a very Zen environment.  When the Zen master touches the blank white page and fuses an energy to this page, if we are Zen savvy we feel this energy too.  Now when the painter also has the power to fuse the energy to a painting or group of paintings, as you are doing now with the Gemini set, we (as savvy observers) get the feeling too.  GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a down side to this too.  We as artists strive to make that perfect painting and continue to make painting after painting but never seem to arrive at that perfectness.  Sometimes we know when we make a connection; sometimes we don't.  This frustrates me no end.  Most of the time I don't have a clue to what I am connecting to when I make a painting.  On any given day I either love what I am doing or hate it.  To me, making paintings is an exercise in sheer schizophrenia.  Up one day thinking the work is just great, and down the next day after realizing that the moment somehow wasn't captured in the first place.  What do we do?  We move on to the next perfect painting. 

I remember when in graduate school I hung out with the writers because they weren't my competition and vice versa.  They were always talking about writing the Great American Novel.  I don't know if we have the same goal?  I don't know what the Great American Painting is.  However, I do think our vanity strives to create at least one masterpiece in our lifetime.  Yes?  Why else do we paint?

Yes, why do we paint?  Making art is an addiction; an over used cliché.  For me there is a truth in this cliché.  If I were asked on the Johny Carson show --- why do you paint?   what does your painting mean?  I would sit there staring at the camera like a deer in the head lights.  I dunno!!!!!!!!!!!

Where am I going with this?  Karl, at the moment you are pulling up some energy from deep within your soul and getting this energy cemented in a painting or group of paintings.  This strength is powerful and we feel it too.  Kudos.

Later, David

2008-06-16 - oh yes! great pieces, i love them.  three dimensional for sure, and to my mind very alpine, ie growing out of your environment.  a touch of snow, a bit of melting slush and splashes of spring and summer colour.  never mind gemini!?

when you say you are painting honestly again (as if you did not before)  does not make sense, other than that you are now more directly responding to the swiss alpine "feel".  this is my off the cuff response, and not necessarily meaning that you did not already responded in similar ways by your previous output.

in my humble opinion, the locals, ie "snow conditioned" art lovers will very favourably respond to these works. they may love spanish colours, but alpine sensitivities may touch their hearts more. is this far fetched thinking or am i right?  

i would appreciate you letting me know any future response you receive which confirms, or otherwise, my theory.    

by the way, why two different sizes, 80 and 100cm?  unbalanced two halves of gemini?

cheers, Ernie

2008-06-20 - Karl, thanks for sending the images of the LandArt exhibit. What a delightful idea and event. I'd love to organize something like this here on the Shawangunk Ridge. What tells me not to go there is my dread of having to deal with the NYState Parks Department. The devastation from the fire earlier this season is all too evident and the authorities don't want to deal with crazy people like artists. ... Astrid

2008-06-18 - hi karl - thanks for the photos of your alpine friends and their art - very fresh and enjoyable - an  invigorating plunge into nature for a noo yawka :)   we have our parks, but nothing like this - and zero snow in june! ciao ............ ted

2008-08-14 - ... I’ll send you my photos of “LandArt”, that I made the other day. To access Binn, you used to have to walk through the very treacherous Twingi gorge (since 1970 or so there is a tunnel). Everyone I’ve talked to here has a story, how they had to walk for long hours through the snow in an emergency to get help from the valley, and everyone has a relative who got killed there from a snow avalanche or rock slide. But since they are all related in the valley, the victim(s) may be the same person(s), don’t know. Anyway, Binn now is a “regional park”, and organizes cultural events (concerts, reading of old tales, exhibitions, etc., soft tourism). Each year “LandArt” is a summer exhibition of contemporary installations or sculptures in the Twingi gorge.

The wild but friendly guy on the photo, all in black, long hair, with the background of a circle painted on snow in the gorge is Ulrich Bloch, a professor of art at Freiburg, Switzerland. He just called and wants to come and visit Thursday, and talk art. The circle is on snow, and the snow is on top of a circle of rocks he had either found (naturally) or put there last summer, next to the Binna, a wild river in the gorge, that flows into the Rhone. So, the snow circle will disappear with the melting snow by August/September, and the rock circle will appear underneath instead, clever. A temporary installation (see the little sign in several languages that he put up to explain things).

When I said I paint honestly again, I mean I paint spontaneously, without a plan, and without a conscious intent “wow, I can sell this”. That is what is meant. Only honest paintings come from inside, the rest comes from the (empty) pocket book.

Oh the size, I just happened to have run out of 80x80 and had 100x100. Now beginning work on 55x55. I think of combining them all, into installations (probably compositions is a better word), of paintings of different sizes, 100x100, 80x80, 55x55, 25x25. Two 25x25’s fit on the side of a 55, 4 on the side of an 80, etc. Dreaming of an exhibition with a large wall covered like a mosaic, and the buyer could choose what he/she wants, and re-arrange the pieces.

Enjoy the slides, I’ll report on the encounter with Ulrich Bloch.

Karl

2007-10-01 - Still busy with m 10. At first sight, m 10 seemed mainly decorative, less intuitive than others. Frankly, I wasn't sure what I had done here - nor were some of my friends (see below). We've put it up in the living room, all by itself on a white wall a couple of days ago. As time goes by, I feel strangely attracted to it: Is it its puzzling composition, its opposites of monochromes vs. patterns, hard-edge rigor vs. automatic painting, its various shades of light grey, the larger canvas size (100x100 cm) ... and I begin to really love this painting. Mmmm - Karl

2007-09-26 - Ted, thanks for your thoughts and advice, which I value a lot, as you know. I understand what you are saying, and you describe so well what happened. With increasing consciousness, these paintings (especially m9, m10) lost some of the “outside influence” (I understand what you mean here). I sensed this while I was painting. But I wish to explore new combinations, with some technical and intellectual discipline at this stage. With continued painting, much should become more automatic, conscious control will slacken, and – I hope -  the “divine” will re-enter. Ted, like you, I seek the spirit in art, not “pictures of nothing” nor anecdotes or simple decoration. And you are a continuous inspiration in the spiritual. Thanks again, Karl

2007-09-26 - thanks karl - i notice m3 seems muddier in color (compared to the same brushstrokes in m9) but then realized the image is darkened - probably to bring out the faint lettering at the center (which i feel would better have been omitted anyway as it subtracts from the unity and creates a mental distraction that confuses the viewers eye and mind) - i don't see what was so 'sloppy' here except maybe this lettering - i think it would have been beautiful if you had painted out the lettering with white - 

from your description it seems to me your mind was buzzing with so many ideas to continue your series that you lost touch with your intuition in your impatience to get the ideas on canvas - very understandable - but this results in an 'interesting' painting rather than a deep one (m9) - only by approaching the work with quiet humility does the artist get the mysterious help that allows him to go beyond his own ideas and abilities into the realm of genius - you may think genius is a word you wouldn't apply to yourself or your work but i would disagree - to me genius is available to anyone who takes a spiritual approach to their work (in any field) - it's not a matter of skill or intellect or sweat but of allowing and nurturing this outside influence that we can refer to as intuition but is really the universe or god or life expressing itself through you - resulting in a quality that can be recognized by all since it resides in us all - but our ego won't feel this since it threatens the ego's domination of our lives - 

so when i said 'outside influence' i just meant outside our conscious control not outside our being - we're obviously part of the universe - which means part of life and part of god - all these are synonymous - it's only god as wrongly defined by our religions as separate from us that is a terrible and frighteningly judgmental old white, bearded man keeping score to determine if we go to hell when we die - this 'god' is what makes atheists out of so many - and creates so much hatred and fear of other religions - 

i think your first mandalas partake of genius - they knocked me out with a 'shock of recognition' - this universal resonance - but when i wrote to you about my enthusiasm you didn't seem to understand my meaning - instead of valuing their depth you rushed off in a spiral of new ideas and clever extensions that lost touch with the life in them and in you - no harm done if you recognize what's needed and seek it out again - then it will be an important step in your development as an artist - it's your choice to make - where do you want to go? - ciao ........... Ted Knerr, New York, USA

2007-09-25 - Ted, attached is the comparison m3 (DSC_0871.jpg) vs. m9. M3 was too sloppy and I didn’t find a way to rescue it as it was, so I used it as a precursor for m9. Also look at this page to read how I got from m1 to m10 (probably to be continued): http://www.karl-maenz.com/mandala11.html Ted, I’m aware of the danger of giving up some of the intuitive in this process, but I wish to explore the next step from free-style abex. I wish to stay non-figurative. To do this, the way I function, I need to be able to express what I am doing, as in the page above. Personally, I am quite happy with what’s going on here. It may be a process leading to something better, and I find it satisfying. But I enjoy your thoughts. In a way, you are often my light in the darkness, with your emphasis on the spiritual. I’m more reticent than you are in the exercise of “spirituality”, but always thankful for your thoughts. - Karl

2007-09-25 - hi karl - my feeling is that these are getting less satisfying with all the fun and games - the brain loves playing with complications and leaving the soul behind - the intellect wants to drown out intuition -  so whether a series or not, a new painting should be approached in a meditative state rather than an intellectual one -  again matisse's words come to mind - and picasso's: Matisse: When I am submissive and modest, I feel surrounded by someone who makes me do things of which I am not capable. All art worthy of the name is (spiritual, or) it is nothing more than a document, an anecdote. - Picasso: Something sacred, that's it, - we ought to be able to say that word, or something like it, but people would take it the wrong way, and give it a meaning that wasn't intended. We ought to be able to say such and such a painting is as it is, with its capacity for power because it has been touched by God. But people would put a wrong interpretation on it. ciao .......... Ted Knerr, New York, USA

Dearest Karl, I hope that Indian summer treats you and Mireille and I'm convinced that it is delightful to be in Binn this time of the year - lucky you ?!! Talking about indian summer, to me - ... - your mandalas' 6 and 8 have sort of an "indian (first natives) spirit" to them. Quite franckly, I love your way to change drastically from one "movement-painting" (if I can say so) to a quiet and "simple" painting - I really love 6 and 8 for their relaxed and non-complicated freshness and, for me, humblelittelwhatsoever, meditation asks for simple, beruhigend forms .. What impresses me most is the difference between 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 (I mean the basis' theme) and then 6 and 8 ! Chacuns de ces mandalas rayonne par sa force, son charactère, sa gaieté et sa beauté. I just love them. Have fun and.. cheers to your painting - Katja Goumaz, Switzerland

Hi Karl, congratulations on your 2007 series „mandala“ and „here comes the sun“. I am fascinated by both…..Beautiful colours and expressions! - George Haag, Switzerland

... I like your new work.  If feels involved heady stuff from deep within. GREAT!!!!  I'd be interested in how you feel when you work on the new images compared to your older more AE images.  When I was working in the neo-geo mode, my thinking didn't come close to my thinking as I work now -- or before the neo-geo period.  For me the neo-geo thinking wasn't me.  But, you seem to be involved here.  Kudos.  We must go where the muse tells us to go.  Ain't life Grand? - David Novak, USA

wow!  these are really beautiful karl! i love your introduction of white areas inside the paintings - they feel so otherworldly and strong - especially 1 and 2 - and i like your trying for new ways to frame your paintings - the rusted iron plate works very well on the earlier one but the white driftwood here doesn't quite come off for me - i feel the cracks intrude too much strong detail to maintain a balance with the image so it seems forced -  do you think random disk-grinding an aluminum plate might work here?  perhaps a clear-anodized plate? my main impression is that you're continuing to break new ground in an exciting way - not just in your own development but in a fundamental way that's producing a vital new thing in the contemporary art scene - congratulations! and keep following your bliss!  doors are opening for you and it's exciting to watch!  - ciao ............. Ted Knerr, New York, USA

Beautiful work Karl. I do like the ones that mix both hard edges and painterly backgrounds best. Number 7 is a good example. Keep going through the journey. - Marc Salz, Philadelphia, USA

Dear Karl, I like your mandala paintings very much,maybe most No. 4 and 5. I have been dedicating manythoughts on Buddhism lately - a philosophy that is growing close to my heart. Cheers, - Peter Koenig, Washington DC, USA

Hi paps, 4,5 and 7 have a nice hypnotic quality on screen... wonder what it looks like for real. - Marcus Maenz, Geneva, Switzerland

Ernie & Karl - right on the mark - i had the same feeling of seeing a new thing - not a traditional mandala or a revision of an existing modern approach - there's something here that grabs me in a new way - inspired! ciao .... Ted Knerr, New York, USA

Cher Monsieur, Merci de votre message. Vous travaillez beaucoup, en pleine inspiration. J'ai bien aimé l'un de vos mandalas, fragments de ciel et de lumière. C'est en cette saison que la lumière est la plus belle. Profitez-en.
Avec mes meilleures salutations. - Danielle Junod-Sugnaux, Nyon, Switzerland

I love Mandala 6 - in a most beautiful way it says "completion" and, interestingly, it supports and gives gravitas to the entire series. Keep it going!..........A

ooh yes, I like it a lot. completely original (ie I do not know of anything like it from other artists), different (ie new direction from your previous approaches), resolved composition, complete and self-contained and uplifting. these are the points I am looking for in an artwork. geometric but hardly rigid, colour scheme is pleasant but not boring,
regular two way symmetry yet dynamic. keep exploring! - Ernie Gerzabek, Sydney, Australia

Yes, I do like your updated web site. I find mandala painting no 5 quite magical. It's contemporary, yet has an Eastern flavor. By the way, I don't think any of these works need frames. I like the idea of the Tibetan tankas (a form of mandalas) which are made of fabric so they can be rolled up and taken with you. Not suggesting you should go without stretchers. Keep up the good work! - Astrid Fitzgerald, New York, USA