Redtree Times

Back in the studio again this morning after the opening of Continuum: The Red Tree at 25, at the Principle Gallery on Friday evening. The work looked just as I had hoped on the gallery walls and a very good crowd showed up. That was not something to be taken for granted given the extreme heat, in the mid 90’s, in the area that day. It was good to see familiar faces and new ones, as well.

Thank you for everyone who made it to the show. I so appreciate you taking the time to spend a little time with me at the gallery. And special thanks and affection to Michele, Clint, Taylor, Owen and Sierra for their friendship and all the hard work they put in to for a show like this. It has been and honor and a great pleasure to have been able to have this show every year for the past twenty-five years.

A quarter of a century.

I know that this means little to anyone but me and I’m okay with that. It’s just that at a certain age you sometimes look back to see where your journey has taken you and hhen I look back now, I see these 25 shows at the Principle Gallery as part of my path now. It has meaning for me in the work that has been shown in them and the many wonderful people who I have met there through the years.

It’s become an ingrained part of my life.

Thanks for being part of it.

Okay, moving on. Here’s this week’s Sunday Morning Music selection. Thought Steely Dan and their Reelin’ in the Years from 1972 would be appropriate.

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Come the Brightening— At Principle Gallery

The sun rose on the flawless brimming sea into a sky all brazen-all one brightening for gods immortal and for mortal men on plowlands kind with grain.

—Homer, The Odyssey

Show day!

Tonight is the opening for Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. There is an opening reception that runs from 6-8:30 PM. I will be there to talk with anyone who cares to chat about the work on the walls. Or anything at all. Your choice.

There is a link below to a virtual walkthrough of the show. It gives you a better idea of the sizes and presentation of the work. Believe it or not, the colors of the paintings and the frames are somewhat deeper than shown in the walkthrough as they wash out a bit with the lighting required to create it. So, if you like it here, you’ll like it even more in the gallery.

As noted here and in the show’s title, this marks my 25th consecutive solo exhibit with the Principle Gallery, starting with the Red Tree show in June of 2000. It was my first real gallery show and at that point I had no idea if there would be a second, let alone a third, fifth, tenth, or twentieth. I sure as hell was not anticipating heading out for a 25th show in Alexandria.

But somehow it has come to be. Most of it is the result from the support and encouragement from gallery owner Michele Marceau and her belief in the work. I can’t fully express my gratitude and appreciation for the many things she has added to my career and life. She has encouraged and allowed me to experiment and expand over these 25 years, never trying to dictate the direction or scope of the work.

Over the past 25 years, some things appeared for only a short time and others became the heart and soul of my work.

The Red Tree, for example. 25 years later and it still somehow resonates and feels new with each incarnation.

Like the Dude in The Big Lebowski, the Red Tree abides.

All I can ask.

Hope you can make it to the Principle Gallery tonight. If you do, look for me–I’ll be the sweaty, uncomfortable and confused looking guy hovering about.

Here’s the link to the virtual walkthrough:

https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=AmSFWLvk1zC

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One Way or Another– At Principle Gallery

Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.

–James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin (1989)

James Baldwin was asked in a 1984 Paris Review interview about what advice he would offer to aspiring writers. He said that there wasn’t much that he could offer except to write and find a way to keep alive. Put in the time and effort. Do the work.

He then uttered the lines above. They really struck home with me when I first read them a few years back. They come to mind again as I reflect on how I have had the great fortune to be getting ready for the opening of my 25th solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery.

This 25-year run certainly has been built on a combination of all the elements that he mentioned– a little talent, discipline, love, luck and, most of all, endurance. I believe I have made the most of what little talent I possess by simply doing the work and sticking to it through thick and thin. As a result, my dogged sticktoitiveness has made room for luck and serendipity to come along for the ride, opening doors of opportunity for me, including my long relationship with the Principle Gallery, that I may not have encountered otherwise.

I am grateful for it all. Maybe that’s while enduring the past 25 years has felt like it has passed in a flash.

It has given me the only life I am qualified to lead. I said something like that recently to a group of high school friends at the memorial service for my friend Brian. I hadn’t seen some of them for 40 years or more and most were highly successful in their fields. I was kind of embarrassed when they congratulated me on my success and I replied that it was the only thing I was qualified to do. I think they thought I was being modest or self-deprecating.

But I meant what I said. 

For me, this is the only life that allows me to work alone in a manner that suits my needs. The only life that gives me the time and space to thrive in solitude with avenues in which I can express myself and continually experience small forms of catharsis on a daily basis. It allows for all my emotions to freely range without the need of wearing a public mask. It gives me autonomy and purpose without trying to be something I am not.

It’s not always easy. In fact, sometimes it is very difficult in many ways. But that is just life, isn’t it? This way of life fits me in a way like no other way can. I seriously believe– no, I know— that I could not survive doing anything else for long.

You can say a lot about me, but I endure. In life. In my work. 

I’ve been shooting for this 25th show for a couple of years. Setting reachable goals is one way I have endured. I am trying to figure out my next goal. Getting in 25 more years of painting is one but I don’t know if that is a reachable goal, given my age.

I will figure it out. That’s a big part of endurance– just figuring it out.

That I can do– one way or another.

One Way or Another is also the title of the painting at the top. It’s one of the smaller pieces, 12″ by 12″ on canvas, from Continuum: The Red Tree at 25, opening this Friday, June 14 at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. There is an opening reception from 6-8:30PM on Friday. Please stop in and take a look around. Maybe chat for a bit.

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The Enlightening— Now at Principle Gallery, Alexandria

All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality.

—Joseph Conrad, letter to North American Review 

Well, the work for Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 has been delivered safely and will be soon showing itself on the walls of the Principle Gallery. The exhibit opens Friday, June 14, with a reception that runs from 6:30 until 8 PM and is open to all.

It was good to see the paintings in the space. I can get an inkling here in the studio but it’s not the same as in the actual space and volume of the gallery. Plus, seeing them laid out in a single space allows me to see how they play off one another, connecting and reinforcing the thread that runs through them. The group looked good, even leaning against the walls of the rear gallery, achieving the impact I was shooting for while putting this show together. It eased a lot of the anxieties I have been experiencing and am really looking forward to seeing how they occupy the main gallery space for the show.

The painting above, The Enlightening, is one of two 36″ by 36″ canvasses in the show. It has been a favorite of mine here in the studio for many months now. With its size and the multiple fractal patterns that create movement while still maintaining a sense of stillness, it serves up visual feast.

 I seem to find something new or surprising in it all the time. Just the other day while looking at it, I realized how much the tile-like blocks of the water remind me of the clouds in the Georgia O’Keeffe painting, Sky Above Clouds, a painting I have used in a post here in the past. 

And just yesterday at the Principle Gallery, I discovered how this painting really pops off the canvas when viewed with Chromadepth 3D glasses. The Red Tree jumps way into the foreground, appearing as though you can put your hands behind its crown. All the while, the landforms seem to hover above the tiled water which has taken on real visible depth. It’s a pretty wild effect.

As striking as it is to see it through those glasses, I think this piece is every bit as potent without doing so. I believe it has a lot more to reveal in itself. And maybe in us, as well.

I see it as being about the hidden forces behind the ordinary. Understanding that the ordinary can be extraordinary is what gives art meaning and is the basis for all enlightenment.

Well, that’s what I think.

Hope you can make it into the Principle Gallery and make your own determination.

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Follow the River— At Principle Gallery Today!

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

—Herodotus, The Histories

Up early and on the road this morning en route to Alexandria , Virginia to deliver the paintings for my show, Continuum: The Red Tree at 25, that opens this coming Friday, June 14.

Don’t have time to say much today but wanted to share my normal selection of Sunday Morning Music. I find it hard to believe that I have never shared this song, On the Road, from Canned Heat here on the blog but it’s true. It’s a song that often comes to mind when I begin a trip to deliver work.

The painting here on the right is Follow the River, a 30″ high by 15″ wide canvas that is included in the exhibit. We will be following the Susquehanna then the Potomac for part of the trip but this doesn’t really reflect that.

A different river and journey altogether.

Give a listen and if you’re in Alexandria today, stop into the Principle Gallery and say hello. Maybe check out the show before it hits the walls.

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Idyllica– Part of Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 at Principle Gallery

Rhythm, symmetry, and a happy combination of elegance and utility – a blend often desired in later days of hope and struggle – these have been fully attained, and with them a delight in quiet communion with Nature, expressing as she does the sense of beauty in orderliness.

–Marie-Luise Gothein, A History of Garden Art (1913)

Well, all the work for my 25th solo show at the Principle Gallery is prepped, framed, and sealed up.

Done.

Always a great sense of relief when it is completed, like a deeply drawn breath finally being released. But this relief is short-lived, unfortunately. It quickly transforms into the anxiety of how well the work will be received, which is something that I cannot predict with any accuracy at all.

Early on and in my first solos shows, I could often accurately tell immediately how people would react to a new piece. Over the years, I have seemingly lost that ability. How people react, whether they connect with the work in any way, seems like a mystery to me now. Sometimes the paintings with which I most deeply connect and demand my eyes’ constant attention here in the studio get overlooked in the galleries and are slow to find new homes.

That is vexing, causing me to question my own judgement of my work. Can an artist really judge their own work, outside of it achieving whatever purpose it serves for them personally?

I don’t know if there is a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. I have found that the stronger I felt about a show, the more crushing it was when it didn’t see the hoped-for results that I felt it deserved.

Maybe it’s just superstition but I have begun to worry whenever I feel too good about a show. Using that as a guideline, I am absolutely terrified for this show at the Principle Gallery.

Mortified.

As satisfied as I have felt about prior shows, this group of work feels like it has everything I have been desiring and aiming for in my exhibits for some time. Like a culmination, like an endpoint that I didn’t realize was even there. It is a group of work that checks so many boxed for me, having great continuity throughout, in content, feel, color quality, and presentation. And size and weight. It feels strongly unified.

I stated earlier that my goal for this show was for it to have real visual impact on the walls of the Principle Gallery. Maybe I am jinxing myself by saying this, but I really think this might be the most visually impactful show as a whole that I will have done there in quite a while. And I say that without diminishing any of the earlier shows. They were all strong shows in my eyes but this one feels like it has its own distinct and singular sense of fullness and purpose, one that runs like an electric current from piece to piece.

I think this show is among my best and that scares the hell out of me.

Take for example, the painting, Idyllica. It’s a large piece, coming in at 30″ high by 48″ wide on canvas. For me, the words at the top from Marie-Luise Gothein, who in 1913 wrote what is still considered the bible for formal garden design, fit this painting perfectly– Rhythm, symmetry, and a happy combination of elegance and utility… in quiet communion with Nature, expressing as she does the sense of beauty in orderliness. 

It is a piece that has an elegant simplicity and rhythm that speaks to some deeper inner emotion within me. I felt a sense of catharsis, a genuine emotional reaction, on finishing this painting. It’s something that occurred with most of the work from this show, as well. 

I would like to say that this means something, but I don’t know that it truly does for anyone but me. That’s okay. It does everything I need it to do for me.

And that’s all I can ask of any piece.

Continuum: The Red Tree at 25  opens Friday, June 14, 2024 at the Principle Gallery in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Idyllica and I will be at the opening reception that evening. Hope to see you there.

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Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

—Alexander Graham Bell, Bell Telephone Talk (1901)

In the final days and stages of prepping work for my upcoming Principle Gallery show, Continuum: The Red Tree at 25. It feels like there’s been a lot more work for this show than most of the many shows I’ve done in the past. I can’t say if there truly has been but every day this week has felt like a marathon session. I thought I’d be close to done by now but I have at least two more full days before packing them up for delivery on Sunday.

So, this morning I am going to be short and just share the image at the top with two new paintings, a song, and the words of Alexander Graham Bell. I am aiming to get to work and focus in just a few minutes. Hopefully burn like the sun’s rays, as he wrote.

The song is fittingly titled Work Song. It was written by the brother of jazz great Cannonball Adderley, who originally performed the song as an upbeat jazz piece. But it has been interpreted by a number of artists over the years, some to great effect. Others, not so much to my taste. But one of my favorites is from one of my guilty pleasures, Tennessee Ernie Ford.

He certainly doesn’t seem like a “cool” choice if you remember his public persona in the 50’s and 60’s as the goofily naive but affable hick from Bristol, Tennessee. He was hilarious as Cousin Ernie on I Love Lucy. I enjoyed that caricature as kid but it was his music that hooked me. He had a deep and mellow voice and a knack for choosing songs and arrangements that fit him perfectly. His series of country boogies were great and his 16 Tons is a classic. His version of this song is a great interpretation, spare and deep felt.

Now, leave me be. I got a lot to get done and you’re holding me up. Git!

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Proclaim the Day— Coming Soon to Principle Gallery

By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes–a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.

― E. M. Forster, A Room with a View

I don’t know how many of us actively wonder why we are here or if we have any special purpose in this life. I think many, the lucky ones, just accept the deal as is and go on about their daily lives without giving it a thought. Maybe whatever purpose they possess is so unquestionably ingrained in them that they don’t have to think about it.

I envy those folks some days, as much of my life has been filled with uncertainty and questioning. Constant wondering and restlessness about the why and who of myself in this world. I felt like I must have some purpose, something that would potentially allow me to bellow out my eternal Yes. A proclamation of my existence much like Whitman’s barbaric yawp.

Fortunately, painting, and subsequently the Red Tree, showed up for me, giving me some small sense of purpose. Or at least the vehicle that I could ride to it. Purpose, it seems, is a fair distance out and many folks get tired, turning back before reaching it. For me, the Red Tree served as a private plane to my purpose, one fueled by imagination.

It gave me a means of symbolic expression that allowed me to proclaim my existence, my eternal Yes, now and in the future. And the fact that many folks see their own eternal Yes in this symbol is deeply gratifying, making me think that my purpose is in sight.

That’s much of what I see in this new painting, Proclaim the Day. It’s about holding true to your sense of purpose and self-identification though the winds may sometimes rattle your limbs and make you feel unsteady.

Even in the face of howling adversity, your eternal Yes can still ring out over the hills and rivers of the land.

The day is yours.

Proclaim the Day is 20″ high by 30″ wide on canvas. It is included in Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 which opens Friday, June 14, 2024 at the Principle Gallery in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. There is an opening reception that evening which I will be attending so stop in and bellow out your eternal Yes.

Speaking of the eternal Yes, here’s a classic song from Neil Diamond that directly addresses that in a very existential way. This is I Am…I Said. The Red Tree could very well be singing this song in the painting at the top.

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