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Posts Tagged ‘Exiles’

Exiles: Cain

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Influences, tagged , , , on December 27, 2008| 1 Comment »

CainI thought I’d take a moment and show this painting, Cain, another from the Exiles series that I’ve discussed in past posts.  This is a smallish piece and one of my favorites, one with which  I will never part.

He is based, somewhat, on the biblical story of the original exile, one sent from his homeland to create a new world for himself, never to return.  It is also based on the novel Demian by Hermann Hesse, a book that meant much to me when I went through a trying time years ago.  Actually, it seems a lifetime ago.

In Demian, Hesse uses the mark of Cain as a symbol for those seeking the truth in themselves.  He also discusses the dual nature of man, an idea which has had a very formative aspect in my growth as a painter.  The idea of opposing forces, light and dark,  being contained in one element, one being, always struck a chord in me.  It made sense of the struggles that I observed in myself and many others.

He also made a statement that resonated like a gigantic bell tolling for me.

Whoever wants to be born, must first destroy a world.

Without going into detail, that small sentence was a revelation.  It changed my world forever.

I realize this is a fragmented explanation of this painting and the book that influenced it.  I merely wanted to illustrate what personal meaning some pieces can have for an artist as well the serendipitous nature of moments when art and one’s real life converge.

Maybe I will elaborate in the future.  Maybe not…

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The Deacon’s New Tie

Posted in Early Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on December 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The Deacon's New TieThis is another painting from the Exiles series, called The Deacon’s New Tie, a piece finished near the end of the series.  It is a bit lighter and more whimsical than the other pieces in the earlier post.  He has hung in my studio for many years now and is a fine companion.  

There’s really no back story to the Deacon.  He sort of just emerged from the surface.  I had no preconception of what he would be when I started.  I remember clearly starting this piece on a blank sheet and making a nose.  Slowly, the face formed and when his eyes with their hangdog look came around I knew he was different than my other Exile characters.

The funny thing about the Deacon is that several months after the piece was done and include in the Exiles show, I came across an article in the newspaper about a 95 year-old man in central Florida who had won a case where he was trying to be forced from the land he had lived on for nearly 70 years.  There was a picture of a  bald old man sitting on his veranda, a slight smile on his lips.  There was something slightly familiar in that face, something that caused me take a second look. There it was: he was the spitting image of my deacon.

Then, reading the article, it stated that he was a longtime member of a local church and was known to friends and neighbors as the Deacon!

So, perhaps this is a portrait,  of sorts.  Either way, have a great Christmas, Deacon.   Maybe you’ll get a new tie this year- you’ve been wearing that one for about 13 years now.

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Exiles

Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Influences, tagged , , on December 22, 2008| 5 Comments »

A Prayer For Light  This past week I mentioned a series of paintings that I had finished in the mid 90’s called Exiles.  This series was the basis for my first solo show and remains a very prominent and personal group of work for me.  I had started showing my work publicly for the first time at the West End Gallery in Corning in February.  It was a huge first step for me.  A few months later, my mom, who lived in Florida, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  

This, in itself, was not unexpected. She had been a smoker since she 13 or 14 years old, often smoking 2-3 packs a day.  She smoked Camels.  No filters here.  Many of my childhood memories are tinged with white clouds of cigarette smoke, something that seems horrible and unthinkable now but those were different times with different sensibilities.  

A Prayer For ReliefHer struggle with her cancer was fairly short and tortuous, lasting about five months.  Her cancer had moved into her lymph system and became systemic, invading her breasts and bones.  It ended in early November of 1995.  She was 63 years old.

The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that came from this were manifested in the faces I began to paint.  They mirrored the extreme pain we watched her endure and could do nothing to alleviate.  They were the only way that I could express the myriad feelings of that time and to this day fill me with emotion.

That is, in short, how this series came about and why I still show the work on my website.  My work has evolved over the years but  this work remains perhaps the closest to me.

exile14-smallexile15-small
exile16-small

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Where Does the Red Flute Live?

Posted in Early Paintings, Influences, tagged , on December 19, 2008| 1 Comment »

Red FluteThis is an older painting from the mid 90’s that I call Red Flute.  It was one of the last Exiles pieces and one that always pleases me very much when I come across it in my files.  I wonder, when I look at a piece such as this, how the person who has this painting in their home or office views it.  Do they stop and look at it at all or has it melded with all the other artifacts in their life, a background to their existence?  Have they created their own myth of  the red flute and its meaning?

I often wonder what part, if any, the paintings play in the lives of those who acquire them.  I hear stories such as the one from Kada Gallery owner Kathy DeAngelo who told me about her son who lives in California and has a small piece of mine.  When he and his mate leave home for any period of time they take the piece with them for fear it might be stolen.

A young lady several years ago told me that she owned a painting of mine that traveled with her and while she had been living in Brazil she had specifically told the lady who cleaned her apartment to never touch the piece.  She said the housekeeper would veer around the part of the wall where the painting hung.

I am fortunate to hear such stories and it’s gratifying to know that your work can live on as a part of other people’s lives.  It’s one of those motivators on those days when the whole act of painting seems foreign and very abstract, when you stop in mid-stroke wondering, “Why am I doing this?” 

And I’ve had a few of those…

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Edison

Posted in Early Paintings, Quote, tagged , on December 14, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 

Let Us Now Praise...

 

Opportunity is missed by most people

because it is dressed in overalls

and looks like work.

      – Thomas Edison

 

 

The painting to the right is from a very early series that I painted in 1995, Exiles.  It was the group of work that I showed as the basis for my first solo exhibition and remains very close to my heart.  I will write more about this series in the future but for now,  enjoy your Sunday.

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