Archaeology: All We Leave Behind
As the title suggests, there are a few paintings from my Strata and Archaeology series in the Layers show that opens Friday at the West End Gallery. The piece above, Archaeology: All We Leave Behind, is a 12″ by 24″ canvas is the latest and perhaps last entry in the Archaeology series.
I am considering retiring this series that started back in 2008 although I can’t say I won’t revisit it at some distant point in the future. It has been a series of paintings that has been among my favorites, both in painting and in delving deeper into them, as well as being important to my development as an artist. When I first started the series, it came at point when I was in need of inspiration and was questioning my future as an artist. These paintings gave me footing, a firm base to rest on while I gathered what I needed to move on.
Looking at these pieces, I am almost always surprised when I get to inspect the underground artifacts. So many of the items were painted without any forethought or afterthought so once they were done and I had moved on to the next item in the debris field, they sometimes escaped my notice of their singularity. They just became part of a larger pattern of forms and color. But going back and looking at the items later gives me little surprises that sometimes make me smile and sometimes scratch my head, wondering what the hell some not quite recognizable thing is or what I might have meant by its inclusion.
But all things must come to an end, which is actually the theme of this series. And this piece, which took over a year to complete as I worked on it a bit at a time, seems like a fitting end. And if it does end up being the last in its line, what better place to show it than where my little journey as a painter began back in 1995, the West End Gallery.
Here’s another Archaeology piece in the show, Archaeology: Formed in the Past, one from a few years back that has a favorite of mine from the minute it was completed:
Archaeology: Formed in the Past
Redtree Times 