I am pretty excited to include a small group of older paintings in my upcoming show, Alchemy, which opens November 16th at the Kada Gallery. The group consists of four paintings from 2002, all painted in darker tones and without the Red Tree that inhabits so much of my other work. This work, which is often called my “dark work,” was painted in the months of 9/11 and reflected the state of mind of myself and most of our nation at that point, seeming less optimistic and more foreboding in the context of the time. To me this felt like important work, at least on a personal level, in that I knew that I was completely emotionally invested in each piece. As much as I can say about anything I’ve painted, this was work that I felt had to be done.
This body of work sold well but there was a general cooling of the art market in the aftermath of 9/11 which left me with several of these pieces that came back and have stayed with me in the studio for the past decade. They have remained favorites of mine through this time, always surprising me with their solidness and presence when I pull them out. In my opinion, they have aged well and time has washed away a bit of that time in which they were created. They have now taken on a much different feel for me. I don’t get that sense of foreboding from them anymore. If anything, there is a guarded optimism in this work, the distant glows over their horizons seeming more pronounced than I remember at the time.
While all that has changed is the context of time, I now see them as meditative and serene. I will be interested to see how this work strikes viewers at this show.
The pieces are show individually below, the first being Desideratum, 11″ by 15″ on paper:
The piece below is Night Karma which is 16″ by 20″ on paper.
Next is Dark Cadence which is 9″ by 19″ on wood panel:
And finally, here is Soft Dream of Night which is 14″ by 24″ on paper. I wrote about this piece here several weeks ago.
Redtree Times 