Ay my opening, a friend who is also a painter and I were talking and the name of Charles Burchfield came up. My friend asked if liked his work and when I said that I did very much admire Burchfield’s work, my friend shook his head and said that I’d have to explain it to him because he just didn’t get it. Thought it was crap.
I told him that I always immediately engaged with Burchfield’s paintings, that I felt that I understood in a small way how his mind conceived his imagery and how he translated that to paper. His work just made sense in my mind. It was more about getting across something more than a scene or mere image and that clicked for me.
Charles Burchfield is a real presence in the art world of western New York state, having created most of his work while living in the Buffalo area in the early and middle part of the past century. There is a well known art center and museum bearing his name at the University of Buffalo and his work is in the collections of many major museums.
For me, his work is more about the spiritual elements of the everyday world. Things that are seen all the time and simply overlooked take on a meaning and a life of their own. This excites me because I consider that an important element of what I try to do. I always pull inspiration from his work and hope that someday someone will feel the same thing from mine.
Redtree Times 