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Archive for November, 2008

A Time to Return

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on November 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »

A Time to Return

Well, I am done with the show, except for packing them for delivery.  Always a little bittersweet, as I’ve noted before.  As I wrap the work I get to take a last look at each one, for many probably the last time I really get to look at them.  I think I’ve said this before in this blog that when you first start showing your work you want everything to sell just as a matter of validation.  But as times passes, you begin to secretly wish that certain pieces don’t sell, that they return to the studio at some point to stay.  There are different reasons.  Some are reminders of hard work and effort put into making something from nothing or recovering a piece from a mistake such as spilled paint.  Some have some meaning in the subject.  Some are the products of a moment of grace, when everything is in sync and the painting literally falls from the brush and there is a natural flow and harmony in the work.  It sings.  

There are more reasons to want to hold on to the work but in the end, you let them go, let them find new homes and different eyes to see different things in them.  Sometimes things I never dreamed.  And that is the payoff, knowing that perhaps someone will find something in the work, even in the smallest sense, that will affect them and let them see something in a new way.  Knowing that makes letting go much easier.

The piece above is titled A Time to Return and is a 6″ by 12″ canvas.   To me, this piece is a prodigal son kind of piece, about the return to ones place of birth, ones home.  Maybe it’s fitting that this piece is heading to Asheville where Thomas Wolfe wrote of just such things.

Anyway, the show is titled Now… and will be hanging in the lovely Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC, opening Saturday, November 22.  Hope to see you there.

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Sunday Morning Music

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Uncategorized, Video, tagged on November 16, 2008| 1 Comment »

I wanted to leave the week with a little something other than painting.  I was going to have a clip of the great film, The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard.  While searching for a clip I came across this, the Crazy Rockers, an Indonesian rock band from the early 1960’s doing their version of the unmistakable title theme from the movie.  It’s pretty cool…

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And All Is Clear

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

And All Is Clear

It’s always hard to describe what I am trying to accomplish with my painting.  The words I use sometimes feel vague and a bit clouded, words like feeling and rhythm and rightness.  All describing a quality that can’t be quantified.  The term “rightness” for me is just being able to look at something and visually weigh it, trying to see if there is an organic sense to it.  Does it make sense?  Does anything, a wrong or weak line or a flaw in the balance of the  composition, betray the reality of the piece?  By that I mean, does the piece create its own sense of believable reality?  In my work there may be red trees, houses without doors or windows, unnaturally colored fields and strangely shaped outcroppings of terrain, and skies that may never be seen on this earth but to me, they translate as being completely natural and logical.

And I suppose that is what I’m trying to do- make a world that sometimes appears totally illogical and in chaos seem to make a bit of sense.  To be in some form of harmony.

The piece shown here is And All Is Clear which is an 18″ by 18″ canvas. I think this is a piece that very much typifies the rightness and logic I was describing.  This painting is carried by its simplicity and the harmony of its colors, giving it a real sense of peacefulness.

It also is part of my show at the Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC which opens next Saturday, November 22.  If you’re in the area please stop in and say hello.  I’ll be giving a short talk, which always has a Q&A session, just before the opening at 5 PM. 

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Saturday Morning Roundup

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , on November 15, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Island of Hope

Well, it’s Saturday morning and I’m plugging away in the studio, finishing up the last details for my upcoming show at the Haen Gallery.  There’s always a sense of relief and gratification in finally having a show completed but those feelings are soon replaced by slightly shaky nerves.  You see, in the studio while the work is in process, the work is completely mine and in my control.  Once it leaves to go to galleries it changes and becomes something quite different, something new and out of my control.  It’s exciting in a way but there’s always that fear that people won’t see what I see in the work and they won’t connect with it.  All I can do, however, is put the work and myself out there and let the chips fall where they may.

The piece above is Island of Hope and is a 10″ by 30″ canvas.  I use the island often as a representation of a safe haven or a place that other aspire to from afar, a place of hope and desire.  I particularly like this piece , especially the feel and atmosphere of it.

Anyway, it is a Saturday morning and we all could use something to get away to.  Here’s a little classic Bob Dylan to help.  Enjoy!

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Final Prep

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on November 14, 2008| Leave a Comment »

November 2008  I’m in the final steps of prepping for my upcoming show at the Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC, which opens next Saturday, November 22.  The last part of getting ready for a show includes the last day or so of framing the work, making sure all the work is properly  documented and just double-checking everything.

 For instance, looking at each piece and making sure that the title really fits the piece. It sounds goofy but I have seen really strong pieces sit for a long time until I have realized that the title did not really fit the piece.  It might send the viewer off in another direction completely different than the true feel of the painting or it might be a glib, light title for a piece that has more weight.  It’s funny how such a seemingly small thing can affect the whole perception of a painting.

 It’s also at this point where I may take a piece from the show, feeling it doesn’t really fit completely with the rest of the work.  It may be a very singular piece that may distract the focus from the rest of the show.  For example, I do a series of figurative pieces, faces actually, that are darker in nature and in execution than my normal work and would not work with a show where the primary feel of the show’s work is hope and harmony.  

 At this point in the process you have a pretty good feel for how the show will hang together.  I feel very good about this group, I think it will show pretty dynamically in the beautiful space at the Haen.  From this point on, the show is out of my control. 

The painting shown is one of what I call my “work” pieces, one that I think celebrates the virtues of labor, something that can’t be overstated.  This painting is titled Its Own Reward  and is part of the show at the Haen.

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Follow Your Path

Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on November 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Follow Your PathI use the path or trail often in my pieces as a metaphor for the paths we follow in our own lives.  Sometimes the trail winds through wide open plains and sometimes it leads to a break in the forest.  This symbolizes, to me at least, the breakthrough moment that is there for anyone awake enough to see.  An epiphany perhaps.  A moment of grace.  I think we all have these moments where our paths ahead become clearer, more evident, and we realize that maybe we do have missions to accomplish here on Earth.  Some may be smaller than others but all are important.  

The trees in the piece shown here, Follow Your Path, always remind me of an ancient Hittite belief that trees grow from the center of the Earth and grow out and support the sky.  I see them that way in my works, as structural supports.

Follow Your Path is an 8″ by 16″ canvas and is also part of my upcoming show, Now…, at the Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC, opening November 22.

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Archaeology

Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on November 12, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 

Under the Same Sun

 

This is a piece titled Archaeology: Under the Same Sun which is part of my Archaeology series of paintings that was new for this year.  It came about early in January when I was struggling to find the direction in which my work was headed.  By that I mean, I am always trying to find ways to expand the scope of my work, to create something new in the work that will excite me in the studio and, by extension, viewers in the galleries.

 I really felt lost this year though and every day was a battle to create anything that seemed alive.  I reverted to a exercise that my 5th grade art teacher in Chemung, NY taught me back in what must be 1969.  His name was John Baglini and he was pretty cool, especially to a 5th grader.  He drove a late 50’s Porsche, drew comic books and always had really neat projects for the class.  It was the year of the moon landing and we made a huge papier-mache lunar landscape.  He would sometimes give us a sheet of paper and would have us start at the bottom and fill the paper.  He told us to draw a junkyard, to fill the sheet with items that we knew, to stack them from bottom to top.  It was a great exercise that made me think of how one item related to the next and how small detail contributed to the whole image.  It has been something I have used for nearly forty years so when I felt blocked this time I pulled out some large sheets of paper and started doodling at the bottom.

 I did this for several days and eventually the pieces went from masses of objects to a smaller group of objects that grew upward into a landscape.  It was at this point that I began to wonder why I hadn’t painted in this fashion before.  It made such sense.  It allowed me paint my trademark landscapes but to add a new dimension.  From a distance one can tell its my work but upon closer inspection one finds a new level of detail that reveals something new with each subsequent look.  It also allowed me to paint detail in a very free flowing manner, one object leading to the next.

There was also the opportunity to create a new vocabulary with the repetition of objects within the context of my paintings.  There are a number of objects that make appearances in all or most of the paintings of this series.  Peace symbols, shoes, bottles, the letter “G”, etc.  

The response to this work has been wonderful and its been interesting to see how people study the work.  The piece above will be part of my show at the Haen Gallery in Asheville, opening November 22.

Below is a detail from another of the Archaeology series:

Archaeology Detail

 

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Every Voice Is Heard

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »

November 2008

This is a new painting that I’m showing today to talk a bit about the use of chaotic texture under the surface of the painting.  This piece, titled Every Voice Is Heard , is a prime example of what I’m trying to achieve with my surfaces.  I want there to be a sense of underlying randomness and chaos, as well as a feeling of foreboding, that counterbalances the order and restraint of the painting itself.  I feel that the contrast of this confusion in the background to the harmony and determination in the foreground is as important as the contrast between light and dark, which this piece has as well.  I think these multiple contrasting elements create a tension in this painting which makes this a pretty dynamic piece.

Every Voice Is Heard is an 18″ X 18″ canvas and will be in my Haen Gallery show in Asheville, NC.  The opening is on Saturday, November 22 from 5:30 to 8:30.

I will also be giving a short gallery talk prior to the opening, at  5 PM.   Gallery talks give me an opportunity to give an overview of the show and point out some things that may be overlooked during the opening.  It also gives those who attend a chance to ask specific questions and learn a bit more about the work.

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One Destiny

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

One Destiny This is a piece titled One Destiny which is a new painting that is 8″ wide x 24″ high and is on canvas.  It is part of my show, Now…, which opens November 22 at the Haen Gallery in downtown Asheville, NC.

The use of intertwined trees growing together into what seems a single crown of leaves is a recurring icon in my work.  The way trees sometimes grow and adapt to one another has always intrigued me.  There is a grace and natural rightness in the way they move upward, almost a dance.  The symbolism of the two trees coming together as a marriage or partnership of sorts is also unavoidable.

For me this piece comes back to the natural grace of the tree form.  This is something I’m searching for in each piece.  To me, this is more important than the reality of the representation because if it’s there the painting makes sense, even though though some details may seem illogical when you take the time to consider them.  I think this piece is a prime example of this.  The fact that there is a strange red tree (or trees) perilously perched on this strange little peak should seem odd and out of place in most cases but for me, and in my mind, the flow and rightness of the elements makes me see the scene as perfectly logical and natural.  

I don’t know if this fully explains what I mean.  I do know that One Destiny  meets my criteria for this definition and translates beyond logic.

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Ring of Fire

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Video, tagged , , , , on November 9, 2008| 2 Comments »

Just thought on a Sunday morning I would throw out a small bit of Johnny Cash, someone who I have unabashedly idolized for over forty years.  This song, though earlier in the decade, reminded me of Cash’s TV show of the late 60’s and the the incredibly diverse talent that would appear.  The very best of rock, pop, soul and country would show up every week.  It reminds me how our explosion of media access has separated everything into niches, neatly labeled and put apart.  As a kid living in the country, I remember being glued to my little radio, listening our local AM station, WENY, and hearing guys like Johnny Cash one minute then the next the Rolling Stones and after that the Doors then Otis Redding, all topped off by Frank Sinatra. Or maybe Barry Sadler singing “The Ballad of the Green Beret”.  Or the 1910 Fruitgum Company.   What great diversity!  And the funny thing is that it seemed to make complete sense, that the transition and flow from one song to another was not abrupt or shocking. It forced the young mind to find the common thread and grab it.  

This is not to condemn today or glorify yesterday.  Each is what they are.  Just a memory.  It’s Sunday, so relax and give a listen to the Man in Black.

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