Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Principle Gallery’

Show Report

Posted in Current Events, Painting, tagged on June 13, 2011| 6 Comments »

Well, I’m back home in the studio after my show Friday night at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, safe and sound. 

 And cool. 

 It’s wonderful to feel shivers from the cold this morning after being slow roasted with temperatures that were hitting 104 degrees in traffic that had come to a standstill on the beltway around DC.  We were a bit concerned that the heat would keep folks away from the show but  many shows in the past there have had very high temperatures along with severe thunderstorms and neither had noticeably decreased the crowd size.  This year’s show was no different.

It was a great crowd and a really nice night all the way around.  I saw many folks that I knew from past shows as well as many new faces.  As always, there is never enough time to spend a sufficient amount with everyone and I ended up only saying hello and good-bye to some of my favorite folks that come every year.  Although they understand the constraints of time at such an event, I always feel bad that I wasn’t able to get to them.  The fact that they came out is a big deal to me and I at least want to thank them.  Plus I always enjoy talking with them. 

I met several people who had pieces of mine who told me wonderful stories of how the work inspired them.  A psychologist who has a number of my paintings in his office told me about the wide range of emotional reactions the pieces brought from his clients, something I always find interesting.  I also met several longtime collectors for the first time which is always good if only so that I can express my gratitude in person.  I’ve done 28 or 29 solo exhibitions such as this over the past 11 years and I still view the fact that people show up at these events, let alone buy the work, as a miracle of sorts.  I do not take it for granted in any way and want to take the opportunity at such times to say thank you.

So, if I spoke to you at the opening, I say , “Thank you.”  If I didn’t get a chance to speak with you there I also say, “Thank you.”  Thank you for your time and your appreciation of my work.  It means a lot to me and always gives me new life in the studio when I return.

Shows like this are always inspiring to me, giving me a real sense of validation for the work.  There are points, as I have noted here before, where I begin to doubt if the work will speak to anyone but me, especially after spending so much time alone with it.  So when people do come out and respond, it gives me a greater sense of confidence in the path the work is following.

So, thank you for giving me that.  It is, as always, most appreciated.  Thanks for everyone who came out to the show.  Thanks to everyone at the Principle Gallery who have always treated me so well over the years and have long championed my work. Thanks to Dave and Ted for the wonderful conversation prior to the show.  Thanks to Erin and Noah for still coming to the show, if only via the phone and through the eyes of Denny.  Thanks to Stephanie, Tom and Henry for coming out if only to say hello and good-bye.

Just thanks for a great show.

*********************

PS–  For those of you who couldn’t make it to the show, the Principle has asked that I do a gallery talk in September.  More details will follow in the future…

Read Full Post »

Show Night

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on June 10, 2011| 5 Comments »

Well, tonight’s my annual show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  Called Now and Then, this is my 12th solo show here which has given me a real sense of how things normally go, which really provides a certain level of comfort as I wait for the show to open.  I’ve documented this over the past few years here on this blog. 

 While I do get a little antsy,  I always look forward to seeing some of the many, many people I’ve met here over the years.  I maintain that I have the best group of collectors anywhere and it’s always great to get to speak to people who see something in my work, to both listen and to express my appreciation.  I only wish I had more time to do so.

So, if you’re in the Alexandria/ DC area, feel free to stop in tonight at the Principle Gallery.  The opening runs from 6:30 to 9 PM.

Read Full Post »

Ticket to Ride

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , on June 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I wrote yesterday that the future is never as bad as we fear and that the past is never as good as we remember.  Well. there are exceptions, of course.  The Beatles, for instance, fall into the as good as we remember category.  Actually, I sometimes think they were better than our memories will allow us to believe. 

 However, their cartoon show was every bit as bad as I remember.  Bad animation and amateurish writing to get to the featured song in each cartoon made these hard to watch.  But the strength of the Beatles’ music kept this show on the air for four years.

We’re on our way to Alexandria for tomorrow night’s opening for my show at the Principle Gallery and I thought this cartoon choice would be a good one for a little travelling music.  I get to feel a bit like Ed Sullivan here. So without further ado:  Ladies and gentleman– the Beatles!

Read Full Post »

The Wonder of Now

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on June 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I call this new painting, an 18″ by 25″ piece on paper, Worlds of Wonder.  It’s a piece filled with color and rhythm and an optimistic outlook.  When I say optimistic here, it’s a viewpoint based on focusing on the wonders that surround us everyday, things that we have failed to notice by either dwelling too much on nostalgia for the past or fear and pessimism for the future.  Basically, living in the now and seeing it for the miracle that it is.

We often view the past by filtering out all the unpleasant aspects.  I have used the example here before of the current Russians who have come to view the era of Joseph Stalin as some sort of golden age in their country’s history despite the death of millions of Russians  killed by the man and his policies.  Many, many aspects of their lives are infinitely better in the present day yet there is still a nostalgia for a tyranny of the past where all the  negative memories from that time have basically pushed to the far recesses of the mind.

And while we take away the negatives as we look back, we tend to add them when looking forward to the future.  We fill our minds with countless possibilities for the future, most of them nightmarishly based on our greatest fears.  The future is a boogeyman for many of us.

But ultimately the future will probably not be as bad as we fear and the past was probably not as wonderful as we remember.  We learn from the past, plan for the  future and live in the now. 

And that’s what I see in this painting.  The crops are planted for the future.  The road brings us from the past to this point.  And the tree under the golden sky represents us taking it all in at the present time.  Balance in the world, balance in time. 

 Now is the time to make the present as good as we will remember it in the future.

This painting is, of course, part of my new show, Now and Then, that opens Friday at the  Principle Gallery in lovely Old Town Alexandria.

Read Full Post »

Mission

Posted in Biographical, Influences, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , on June 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity.

——Viktor Frankl

**********************

The words of Viktor Frankl, the WW II concentration camp survivor who went on to greater fame as a psychotherapist and author, seemed to ring true for this square painting after I finished it.  I saw the Red Tree here as one that finally saw its uniqueness in the world, sensing in the moment that with this individuality there came a mission that must be carried out.

A reason for being.

I think that’s something we have all desired in our lives.  I know it was something I have longed for throughout my life and often found lacking at earlier stages.  I remember reading Frankl’s book, Man’s Search For Meaning, at a point when I felt adrift in the world.  I read how the inmates of the concentration camp who survived often had  a reason that they consciously grasped in order to continue their struggle to live.  It could be something as simple as seeing the ones they loved again or finishing a task they had set for themself. Anything to give them a sense of future.  Those who lost their faith in a future lost their will to live and usually perished.

 At the time when I read this, I understood the words but didn’t fully comprehend the concept.  I felt little meaning in my life and didn’t see one near at hand.  It wasn’t until years later when I finally found what I do now that I began to understand Frankl’s words.

We are all unique beings.  We all have unique missions.  The trick is in recognizing our individuality and trusting that it will carry us forward into a future.

I’ve kept this short.  There are many things that I could say here but the idea of finding one’s mission, ones meaning, is the thought that I see in this piece.  This paintings is titled The Moment’s Mission and is 11″ by 11″ on paper.  It is part of the Principle Gallery show that opens Friday.

Read Full Post »

Ratio Decidendi

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on June 6, 2011| 6 Comments »

This is one of the larger paintings,a canvas at 20″ by 60″ in size, from my show Now and Then which opens Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria,VA.  The title of this piece is Ratio Decidendi, which is a legal term that translates to “rationale for the decision.”  I’m no legal nor Latin scholar but this basically indicates the deciding factor that the Court uses as a basis for its ruling, the whole precept behind the rationale for its decision.  For me, that more simply translates to the reason behind ones views and actions.

I may be twisting the true meaning of the term here but it seems to me that all of our actions and reactions are based on our  rationale of our own perspective and beliefs.  All argument stems from the distance between what we believe to be true and what other see as true.  Everyone believes that their viewpoint is the correct one and they act accordingly.

I see the action of this painting, the blowing of the red tree, as a purer, more natural translation of the term.  All actions in nature are basically based on truth.  The wind doesn’t deceive.  The rain and snow don’t cloak themselves in half-truths.  Rivers don’t rationalize.

So, in this piece, the wind blows and the tree sways.  The wind can only do what it does and the tree can only react in one way.  They are what they are and that is the truth.

Read Full Post »

The Weak In Between

Posted in Biographical, Recent Paintings, tagged on June 3, 2011| 5 Comments »

Well, the show for this year’s Principle Gallery show is delivered.  Everything went smoothly yesterday and I was home by late afternoon.  The only thing for me to do now is wait for the opening next Friday.  I know that this is something I’ve written about here before, this time in the interval between delivery and the actual show. 

It’s always filled with a lot of mixed feelings.  There is relief that the work is done, that I have completed a task.  But that’s usually countered by the fact that the opening is still ahead, that there is still some work to be done. Now, it is relatively pleasant work, standing around and talking about paintings.  It certainly beats the hell out of some of the things I’ve done as work in the past.  But it is work.  A required task.

The time is also filled with creeping doubts about whether the show will be received well.  There is an almost schizophrenic swing between feelings of complete satisfaction and excitement in the work I’ve done and feelings filled with dread that I’m seeing things in the work that others won’t, that the work is too directed to my own sensibilities and won’t translate to others. 

This usually leads to a questioning of why I do what I do and why anyone would be even casually interested.  I mean, I smear paint on canvas and paper in my house in the woods.  Is there any real importance in this?  I’m not saving lives, not actively helping or serving people, not building truly useful objects.  I can think of an endless list of things people do  that might actually be of more importance in the overall scheme of things, from researchers looking for bits of data that might lead to cures for deadly diseases all the way through to the person who fills my popcorn bucket at the movie theatre.

But despite this, it remains important to me and this makes me care about the work I do.  It has a purpose for me, at the very least, and if someone else finds something in it that makes it important for them as well– well, that’s simply a bonus.  A little extra gravy,  if you will. 

So, as you can see, I have the ability to make what should be a perfectly pleasant week into a neurotic nightmare.  It’s just an occupational hazard and, while it sounds somewhat tortured, it has just become commomplace in my life.  And that’s okay.  It’s what I do.

**********************

The piece at the top is also a new painting for the Principle show.  Called Connecting Light, it’s an 11″ by 11″ image on paper.

Read Full Post »

The Ship Song

Posted in Video, tagged , on June 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

On the road today, delivering the group of work for next week’s opening, June 10,  of my show at the Principle Gallery.  It’s always a relaxed drive, knowing that the work is done and now it goes out into the world.  Free running like the image shown here.

Continuing the nautical theme, which I also used in yesterday’s post, here’s a tune from the unique Nick Cave.  It’s The Ship Song.  Enjoy your day!

Read Full Post »

Empowered

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on June 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This new painting, another from the Principle Gallery show, reminds me in many ways of the piece shown in yesterday’s post.  This 10″ by 20″  painting, titled Empowered, feels like a core example of my work over the past decade or so. 

While yesterday’s painting, Night of Wonder,  had the elements that were staples of my early work, this piece shows the evolution of the last several years. It still has the icon of the Red Tree as well as the addition of the Red Roofs that began appearing around 2002.  The clouds in the sky have started making sporadic appearances over the past years as well.  Night of Wonder was also painted in the more liquid reductive method, one where paint is liberally applied then pulled off to reach the desired color and tone,  that marked almost all of my early work whereas Empowered  is an additive piece with layers of paint building up to the final surface.

But I think this piece also speaks well to the core of what I hope to say with my work, or at least what I think I want to say with it.  I sometimes think that what I am trying to express is still beyond me and my conscious intellect.  But what I do see in the work and wish to build upon is the idea of empowerment and self-reliance.  The idea of the individual making full use of whatever capabilities they possess and finding their own place in this world is probably the main expression in much of my work that I hope comes across to the viewer.

  I know from personal experience how it is to feel out of place and uncertain of my own abilities, how it feels to be living a life that doesn’t feel intended for you.  To feel as a sailor lost and rudderless in a hostile sea, with no idea where safe  landfall may be.  I want my work to counter that feeling, to create a safe haven in sight so that those of us still afloat see that there is possibility in themselves.

I don’t know.  That may be asking too much from paint smeared on paper or canvas.  But I can try and that effort is the important thing.

Read Full Post »

Night of Wonder

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged on May 31, 2011| 3 Comments »

I’m in the last few days of finishing my work for the show that opens next week, June 10, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria. VA.  I’m sealing frames and wrapping the pieces for safe transport to the gallery later this week.  This is always the time when there are alternating waves of relief and anxiety.  Relief in knowing that the work is done and that I’ve did all I can for this show.  Anxiety in the fear that it won’t do well, that I’m seeing something in the work that won’t be evident to others. 

 This is somewhere around my 30th solo show so I’m somewhat used to these mixed feelings by now and don’t panic when the anxiety hits.  I know that I’ve given maximum effort and it’s out of my hands.  I can’t control the response.  

The anxiety, like most things, will pass with time.

I’ve tried to create a mix in this show with some new looks and some pieces that are easily recognized as being part of my visual vocabulary.  The piece shown above, Night of Wonder (15″ by 20″), is such a piece.  A very simply composed piece, it has many of the elements that have been part of my work for many years.  The archetypical Red Tree, perched atop a distinctive nob of soil.  The exposed  and somewhat irregular edges.  The two blocks of color separated by a thin white break between them.  Dense color and a viewpoint with the eye-level set at the same height as the horizon. 

I think they all come together well here and give this piece the sense of quiet wonder that I hoped for– quiet but not bland.   It has bite , if that can be used here as a measurable quality, and that is what makes this piece come together so well.  

It also has a solidness of feel that helps quell the anxiety of preparing for this show.  It is like an old friend who I know will stand up well for me when I need it.

And that is saying a lot.

 

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »