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Posts Tagged ‘Alexandria VA’

End of the Rainbow

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on June 11, 2009| 2 Comments »

End of the Rainbow Well, it’s the day before the Principle Gallery show that begins tomorrow with an opening that starts at 6:30 and I’m spending the day puttering around in the studio, doing a little painting and getting the studio back in some sort of order as it looks like a twister came through after finishing preparations for a show.  It’s pretty much the same every year.  I try not to get too involved in a painting since I won’t be back at it for a couple of days and I don’t like starting the momentum of a piece then suspending it.  Sometimes just a few short days will change the whole feel I have for a piece in progress, as far as how it’s coming together and where it’s going.

So, I putter.

This is, as I’ve said, my tenth show at the Principle Gallery.  I usually title the show and write a statement that explains the general theme of the main body of work in it.  For this show, we decided to leave the show untitled except to say it was the tenth annual show and I have decided not to write a statement instead letting the work say everything this year.  Besides, after plugging away at this blog, I sometimes feel at a loss for words.

I suppose, looking at the group, that this show could be called Redtree Redux, after the name of my first show there and the first showing of that ubiquitous tree.  There is, by design, an abundance of the Redtree pieces.  I felt that for a show that marked ten years that the overlying theme should be that which has become my signature – the red tree.  

Probably the underlying theme would be that of the journey in the form of the path that runs into and through many of the pieces.  This again is a significant element in my work and seemed fitting to denote a show that represents a milestone of sorts, my tenth show there, on my own journey.   Believe me, fifteen years ago I could have never imagined that my path would wind through forests of red trees to this point.  I couldn’t even see a path back then.  

So this show, for me, is about expressing a certain degree of gratitude to those images that have helped me find a road on which to move ahead as well as to those who have seen something personal in the work that helps them on their own journeys.  

The piece above is titled, fittingly End of the Rainbow.  I think this post says all that has to be said about this piece…

The show starts tomorrow, Friday, June 12th, at the Principle Gallery at 208 King Street in Alexandria, Virginia .

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Out of Darkness

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , on June 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

Out of Darkness        Well, the work for my show that opens this Friday has been delivered, which is a great relief.  While I like having a deadline or a destination to shoot for with my work, there is an immediate sense of relaxation when the task is completed.  Unfortunately, this is often replaced by the stress of fretting over how the show will be accepted at the gallery.  Will people connect with the work?  Will my established collectors see work that will fit in with the paintings  they already own?  Will people even show up?

In the past these questions would have made me a nervous wreck in the week between delivery and the actual show.  This year however, I don’t have nearly the anxiety of past shows.  I’m not absolutely sure why there appears to be more calm this year but maybe it has to do with this being my tenth show at the Principle Gallery and something like my twenty-fifth solo exhibition in galleries overall.  After so many shows I’ve come to realize that I can’t control anything beyond the creation of my work.  Provided I am satisfied and excited by the work, once it is out of my hands the level of success, good or bad,  of the show is dependent on factors on which I have little impact.  The economy.  The weather.  The gallery’s promotion of the show.  These things and many more can have an effect on how well a show does.

And, as I said, all are out of my control.  So, why worry?  

There’s also, finally, after so many shows, a sense of acceptance, at least in my own mind.  For years, I  harbored the fear that my work was not worthy, that it had little validity and may never be accepted by what I imagined the art world to be.  But time has shown me that there has been a validation through the years that comes in the form of the response to the work that finds its way to me.  Many comments, notes and e-mails over the years have convinced me that there is an authenticity to this work, that is has truly had an impact on the lives of others.  For a simple person such as I, can there be a greater validation for the efforts and long hours spent?

So, time has finally afforded me some relief from my normal state of anxiety as I wait for the opening of the show.  Light has appeared and I am out of the darkness.  And that is a good thing…

The painting above is fittingly  titled Out of Darkness and is part of the show about which I’ve been talking, which opens Friday, June 12 at the Principle Gallery on King Street in Alexandria, VA.  The opening starts at 6:30 and I will be there to answer any questions.  Hope to see you there…

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Vade Mecum

Posted in Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , on June 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Vade MecumWell, it’s Saturday and I’m on the road to Virginia, Alexandria specifically, to deliver the body of work for my show that opens next Friday, June 12th.  It’s a trip I don’t mind making since it marks the end of a hectic period where there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done.  

My trip is relatively easy, as easy as any  day with ten or eleven hours of driving can be.  Traffic is usually very light on Saturday mornings, especially in the early hours in which prefer to leave, so it gives me a chance to just glide along and let my mind wander a bit.  

One piece that will be keeping me company on my ride is above, called Vade Mecum, which translates from the Latin as “Go with me” and is usually meant today as a reference manual or something that is carried to instruct one.  I liked either definition and felt that both the literal translation and the object that is carried with you fit this piece.  I really like the depth that goes into this picture and get the feeling that it speaks of a journey and those intangibles which we carry with us as we travel along.  Thus, vade mecum…

I’m gonna leave you with some classic Bob Dylan that was one of my favorite singles as a little kid growing up.  Thank god for my sister and the influence her musical choices had on a 7 or 8 old year kid.  I feel so fortunate that I was weaned on this kind of stuff and feel a little bad for today’s kids and the inane kid music that is everywhere– the Wiggles and such.  They may never know what they’re missing.  Anyway, here’s “Positively 4th Street”…

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The Uplifting

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , on May 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The UnityI’ve mentioned in the past several days that I’ve been busily preparing work for a show, getting all the little detail work in place so that I can deliver the show next week.  This is always a hectic time and  always leaves me kind of frazzled.  This year is no different.

During this process I am not painting and in its absence there are feelings of doubt that arise.  For me, the act of painting is a sort of balm that soothes my insecurities and anxieties, giving me a sense of refuge in the work.  When I’m not able to get to  my painting, these anxieties are allowed to once again come to the surface.  

I begin to question the validity of my work.  I question my ability to continue on in such a sometimes egocentric endeavor.  I begin to doubt that my work has any tangible value in anyone’s life.  I am filled with doubt.

Then on a day like today I come into the studio and check my email and there is a message from a young lady telling me how she and her now husband came across my work in the window of the Principle Gallery on their first date years ago.  She shared with me how they bonded over the work and they saw the same symbolism in the work that related to their feelings.  They now have two children and she wanted to let me know how the paintings have played a part in their lives.

My doubts vanish.  My spirits are lifted and I feel once again a sense of usefulness in my small place in the universe.  She may never know how much her note has done for my day or even the next few days.  It’s a reward that far transcends any other that comes with my work.  I wish everyone can find such a lift, to find such a purpose in their own lives, their own work.  

My day has gotten much brighter…

The piece above is titled after such a feeling.  I call it The Uplifting.  It is part of the show at the Principle Gallery that opens on June 12.  I love the unity of the two trees against the dramatic texture and color of the sky, as though they, the trees,  are braced together to endure whatever comes their way.  One lifting and holding the other…

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Off the Mainline

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on May 29, 2009| 2 Comments »

Off the Mainline

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path.  Your own path you make with every step you take.  That’s why it’s your path.

           –Joseph Campbell

 

I’m very busy this morning as I’m getting ready for the show that opens June 12 at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, so I thought I’d make this a simple post.  I like the quote from Joseph Campbell and thought it went well with the accompanying painting,  a new piece titled Off the Mainline.  It’s a piece on paper and has a wonderful glow as I look at it here in the studio.  There’s real vibrancy in the color and texture which, if you’ve read this blog in the past, is something that I strive for in my work.  It has a real spark, a sense of its own life.  I think it’s very strong.

Like the quote above, the painting’s title  insinuates that not every path necessarily goes down the main road, that there is true meaning found in following your own path and daring to leave the main route.  A simple concept but one that’s often hard to realize…

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You Can’t Judge a Book…

Posted in Personal Mythology, Video, tagged , , , , , on May 26, 2009| 1 Comment »

FarmerI’ve just put the final details on a couple of paintings that will be part of my solo show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  The show opens June 12th and I’m scheduled to deliver the work to the gallery a week before so I’m in the final stages of preparation.  This is my tenth one-man show at the gallery and before that I did two shows as part of a group of painters from the Corning , NY area that was dubbed the Finger Lakes School.  

I particularly remember one moment from the first show with that group.  There was a pretty good crowd and several of us from the group mingled, answering questions and such.  I had a small break in the conversation and I heard a female voice from behind ask her companion where we were from.  Her friend answered that we were from the Finger Lakes region in New York.  He  said it was a pretty rural area with a lot of wineries and farms.

“Well, you know, they do look like farmers,” she replied.

I think I did a spit take.  Over the years I often think back to that lady’s comment and sometimes laugh.  Maybe we shouldn’t have all worn our overalls and straw hats that night.  It just reminds me how people judge others by that initial glimpse and how often  they end up being wrong.  Actually, I’ve come to the conclusion that, in the end, I would prefer being mistaken for a farmer than an artist anyhow.  Offhand, I can think of more positive attributes for the farmer.   So, if you can make it to the opening look for the guy who looks like a farmer…

That brings me to a song, You Can’t Judge a Book, that was originally written by blues great Willie Dixon and made popular by Bo Diddley.  My favorite version was from Long John Baldry, one of the pioneers of the British blues/rock movement in the early 60’s and a guy who had real panache, but I couldn’t find a version online.  But while searching I came across an interesting jazzy version of the song from Ben Sidran.  Give a listen  and enjoy…

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The Commitment

Posted in Biographical, Technique/History, tagged , , , on May 21, 2009| 2 Comments »

To SanctuaryI’m in the last few weeks before my show in June at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  As I’ve written in earlier posts, this is a time filled with finishing paintings, filling in the final details of pieces.  There’s photography to be done and then matting the pieces on paper and framing them all.  There are frames to be stained and sanded and glass to be cut.  When I see it all written out it seems like an awful lot of work but I’ve been doing this long enough that it seems like second nature, just something that must be done.

The one thing I do notice in these last few weeks is finding myself so immersed in what I have to do that I neglect the outside world even more than I do normally.  I read the newspaper and listen to the news but nothing seems to register, nothing seems to stick.  A few minutes later and I can’t remember much of what I’ve read or heard. Quite honestly, even when I’m reading my mind is focused on my work and, as a result,  my attention is never fully engaged.   This bothered me in the past, making me feel even more apart from the outside world.  Made me feel even less intelligent. Less informed.

I’ve come to accept this as part of who I am and what I do.  I realize now that for my work to succeed on any level, my total involvement and immersion in it is required.  Commitment.

This was somewhat reinforced by a video a friend sent me this past week of Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, talking about the common traits of those who succeed creatively.  He spoke of a commitment to do whatever their chosen field was, to immerse themselves totally, excluding many other aspects of their life in order to practice their craft.  I immediately knew what he was talking about and  felt somewhat reinforced in my commitment to my work.   So I put my head down, push the world aside and get back to it…

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Finding Joy

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on May 19, 2009| 1 Comment »

The Coming Together


 

Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.

          — Mahatma Gandhi  

How do you define joy?  Is there such a thing as joy that is the same for every person or is finding joy strictly a personal preference?  Are there people who live without any joy at all in their lives or are there moments in everyone’s lives where they experience something close to joy?  Maybe it’s not a giddy kind of joy.  Maybe joy for some is a feeling of contentment, an absence of fear, an absence of pain.  

Maybe that’s it.  Maybe joy is finding that which takes away our fears and pains.

I don’t know.  I know that it doesn’t have to be sought.  It’s just there or it’s not.  For me, it might be as simple as laying in the grass and having my dog come over and lay against my chest.  It might be in sipping a cup of tea or watching the deer graze laconically in the yard.  It might be  in laughing out loud at something I’ve seen a hundred times yet still find funny or in making my wife laugh.  It can seem so simple yet I see people who seem joyless and I wonder where their joy might be.

Certainly, they must have something which brings them something akin to joy.  At least contentment.  But maybe it’s not for me to see or maybe they live a joyless existence.  Who knows?  Just something I wonder about on a sunny morning when the sun filtering through the trees, scattering patches of light on the thick grass beneath them, brings me joy.

By the way, the painting above is a new one, The Coming Together, that is part of the Principle Gallery show in June.  It features the entwined trees I sometimes use as well as the field rows.  I really like the feel of this piece and love the texture and color in the surface.  

Makes me happy.

Gives me joy…

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Intentionality

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , on May 7, 2009| 2 Comments »

IntentionalityToday’s a busy day, one spent trying to finish pieces in various states of progress in preparation for my show in June.  The month before any show is kind of crazy as I try to bring some kind of cohesiveness to a group of work, try to put forth a group with a somewhat common theme. 

There’s always an interesting dynamic as the deadline approaches.  At that point I’m sharply focused on painting and usually pretty deeply immersed in a kind of rhythm.  New ideas are sprouting at every turn and the synapses are really snapping.  It’s a kind of creative high.  But suddenly I have to completely put on the brakes and switch to prepping the work to be shown.  Varnishing, matting, staining, framing, etc…

I feel a kind of mental whiplash in that week or so before the show.  At that point, the show is set and there is little I can do to change it so any anxieties I’ve had begin to grow.  And all the time I’m just wanting to get back to that creative high, to feel that flow of electric momentum.

So, I know that’s coming in the next few weeks but that is just part of the bargain, so I accept it and just keep painting because I can feel the high coming and even though it has to be cut short as some point, it’s a thrill when it hits.

The painting shown is titled Intentionality which is another title that was submitted in the contest.  This is from my  friend Scott Allen and to him I extend many thanks.  This piece will be at my show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA starting June 12.

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Redtree Redux

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , , on May 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Principle Gallery Show 2009This is a new piece that I recently completed.  It’s one of the  pieces that will be included in my upcoming show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA which opens June 12.  This will be my tenth show at the Principle and we are calling this show Redtree Redux: Ten Years Along, which echoes the title of my first show there in 2000, Redtree.          

This piece, still untitled, really strikes me at the moment.  It’s kind of where where I envisioned my work going when I was still working on that first show ten years back.  It has the quiet I want my work to have along with a dramatic contrast as seen in the sky.  There is a path that enters the picture plane and seems to end or disappear, enigmatically.  I find myself liking that little question that is raised by the path.

There’s also an austerity in the landscape that speaks to me and gives me that feeling of being awash in the air and light of a wide open space.  The absence of other trees or structures gives the central figure added prominence.  

I am still taking in this painting and still figuring out what I’m seeing in it beyond the immediate visceral impact.  It’s this reading-the-tea-leaves moment that I really enjoy most in the process.  When I’m starting a piece I’m not sure what’s going to emerge and as it proceeds there are still moments when the painting’s final appearance and feel  are still subject to decisions to come.  But when it has reached that feeling of completion, that point when I sense a certain rightness, it has left my hands or mind and takes on a new dimension of its own, having its own momentum and life.  It’s at this point that I get to look at it with different eyes and in that there is a certain fulfillment and satisfaction.  

So I’ll periodically look at this piece over the weeks ahead and continue to absorb it before it leaves my hands for what will probably be the final time in June.  And that’s okay because I will have received what I need from it in that time and it will better serve someone else in a new environment, hopefully giving them the same feelings that struck me.

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