I had a comment from someone this morning that mentioned a post from a couple of years back about a site that used my images for online jigsaws. Coincidentally, someone had asked me at the opening of my show about the possibility of using my art on a puzzle and I had told them about this same site. I hadn’t thought of this site for the longest time.
Called Jigsaw Planet, it allows users to upload any image and create an online puzzle that they can work on their computer screen. They are not as difficult as some of the larger normal puzzles in that the largest puzzle only has 300 pieces but it has its own challenges. Some are broken into angular shards that makes matching the shapes quite a bit more difficult.
Just for fun, I put up several pieces from the Layers show now hanging at the West End Gallery. Click here or on the image at the top to go to the site. It’s a pleasant little diversion. By the way, the image at the top is Resolution Bay,shown below.
I’ve written a number of times here about giving talks at the different galleries where my work is shown, where I speak for a bit and field questions. It usually ends up as lively discussion, like a conversation between friends .
And sometimes there’s a little more, a little extra as a show of my appreciation to those folks there who have supported my work over the years and those who think enough of it to spend an hour or so at the talk.
This coming Saturday, August 9th, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery in Corning. And , yes, there is an extra to be had at this talk that starts at 1 PM and runs for about an hour or so.
There will be a drawing for a painting from my studio along with some other surprises at this Gallery Talk so if you’re in the Corning area this Saturday, please come in to the West End Gallery on Market Street. Maybe you’ll leave with a painting!
PS– It is not the painting shown here, Shine Your Light, which is part of my show, Layers , now hanging at the West End.
Sunday morning and I think I’m much more decompressed than yesterday morning after the show. All back to normal, whatever that is. This show has made me think on a wide variety of subjects, about purpose and meaning beyond what I see in the work as well the potential for legacy in these paintings– would they endure into the future?
A good friend stopped in the studio yesterday and we talked for a moment about the subject of legacy. I pointed out that legacy is a big if for any artist and that I can only do what I do — where it ends up in the future is something that is far beyond my own control. It could be in enduring collections or it could be in garage sales and dumpsters– you never know what the vagaries and tastes of the future hold. I witness this all of the time when I go through the records from the auction houses and see painters who were celebrated in their time who are now basically unknown. Their work sells for a pittance, far below what one might expect from reading about their fame when alive.
As an artist, you can only hope that your work has a transcendent quality that allows it to live out of the time of its creator and be of the time in which it is viewed. I don’t know how you do that outside of maintaining consistency in your own vision and hoping that it is one that somehow speaks to those in the future. But there is always the question that if your work does move ahead, does maintain life and attracts future collectors, what would your legacy work be?
I know that this a fool’s game– no one has the ability to predict that future for their own work. You can’t be objective when you are so close to it, can’t discern your own personal feelings for it from how it reads to the outer world. But there are pieces that I see that nag at me, that have a weight that tells me that they may be vital pieces in a potential legacy. Pieces that I could see easily living in the future. There are a number in the current show, including the piece above, Observers.
These pieces have an intangible quality that I wish I could more fully understand so that I could better describe it. Or capture in a way so that it would be in all of my work. There is just something that seems beyond me, something that is beyond this time.
Could I be wrong? Of course. I have been wrong many times in the past and will no doubt be wrong in the future. But for my work I can hope that in this instance I am correct and that they hold on.
Actually, this was all just an elaborate lead in for a little Sunday morning music , some soul stirring from the Alabama Shakes and lead singer Brittany Howard. It is a song titled, of course, Hold On.
Well, I’m in the midst of my Saturday morning decompression after a show. It’s a period of trying to gather all the bits and pieces of conversation, names and faces into some sort of order so that they remain in my memory in a coherent form. It’s a struggle and I find myself fretting over the faces and names that might have slipped through the sieve of my memory. So, I try to relive some of the previous night in my mind, hoping to jog my memory in some way.
It was a nice turnout for the opening, actually better than expected given the events taking place in town at the same time. Many thanks to everyone who stopped in at the West End Gallery, especially to those who made special efforts to attend. And a special thank you to Linda and Jesse at the gallery for the hard work they put into that gallery, against all odds maintaining a nurturing space that allows artists such as myself a place to show their work in their home area. The work they do often goes unnoticed and unappreciated but plays a vital role in maintaining the cultural vibrancy in a region that has struggled mightily in the economic sense over the past decades. So, from those who attended to Lin and Jesse, I am ever appreciative of everyone who took part in last night’s opening. Your support has carried me through a lot of rough patches through the now almost twenty years of showing my work at the West End.
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. – Saint Augustine
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This new painting, a 20″ by 24″ canvas, is titled The Richness of the Moment. It was one of the last of the paintings finished for the Layers show which opens tonight at the West End Gallery. I saw the show hanging together for the first time yesterday and this piece hangs in a group of paintings along the back wall of the space that glows like a bank of backlit stained glass windows. There is a luminosity and richness to these pieces that fills that space with warmth. This work has just the effect as I had hoped it might have when I was looking at it in the studio.
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I think this painting has a richness in it just as its title implies but it is the type of richness that Saint Augustine might have been referring to in the passage above. We often search wide and far for new wonders but don’t see the rich tapestry that is right before us in our own lives. There is wonderment to be found in almost everything we see or touch– it is only its constant presence that has made it seem ordinary and unremarkable to us. But if we pause to take in the world that within our reach at that moment with a greater awareness and appreciation, the richness becomes apparent. Each life has the potential for wonder and each moment that may seem ordinary has an element of the sacred within it.
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This painting, at least in my eyes, embodies this thought. It is simply composed and stated– its subject is absolutely unremarkable at first blush. But the colors and the juxtaposition of forms and tones that make this piece take on that feeling of the wonder in the surrounding richness to which I referred.
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The Sacred Ordinary.
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I hope you can make it in to the West End Gallery at some point over the course of the next month– the exhibit hangs until August 29th– to judge this for yourself. The opening reception begins at 4:30 and runs until 7:30 today, Friday, July 25. I will be in attendance for the duration to answer any questions you might have about the work. Hope to see you there!
I wanted to take a bit of a break from writing about tomorrow’s opening of my show, Layers, at the West End Gallery. But while I was planning to just feature a song here today I found that this painting from the show, Blue Zone, fit in with the feel of the song I had selected, What’s Going On, from the late, great Marvin Gaye.
There’s a tiny figure standing alone on the horizon outside the house under a segmented sky with a blue sun above. It’s a piece that has both an inviting warmth and a feeling of alienation as the figure seems overwhelmed by the strangeness of this world. I can almost hear him saying, … tell me, what’s going on…
This song from Marvin Gaye, one of the more elegant songs of protest, is one that is old enough that it sometimes slips from memory. But simply hearing that saxophone come in at the beginning and Gaye’s silky smooth voice following it is an ample reminder that this is truly a great song.
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 Archaeologyseries.
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:
There are several paintings in my upcoming Layers show at the West End Gallery that feature the moon quite prominently. I showed one, Moonlight Revelation, earlier in the month in a blog post. I like these pieces as there is usually a certain moodiness, a placid and contemplative feeling that permeates the work.
I don’t know if its the moon or the bluish tones that I use to represent the night sky, but is has a very calming effect on me. The piece shown above, Moon and Mood, is a 16″ by 20″ canvas that very much represents this feeling that I describe. Its purplish blue sky and pale moon give the the horizon a hazy, misty feel which creates a mysterious atmosphere. If you’ve ever looked across broad moonlit fields, you’ve probably had that feeling that there are things there that are barely visible. The imagination sometimes creates possibilities, some far from the realm of reality, for what these things might be.
Below, is Traveler’s Moon, an 8″ by 24″ canvas, and the aforementioned Moonlight Revelation, 24″ by 24″ on linen. Both are also part of the show.
The show, Layers, opens Friday, July 25th, at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The opening reception runs from 4:30 until 7:30 PM. The exhibit hangs until August 29.
This coming February marks 20 years that I will have been showing my work at the West End Gallery. It has been my pleasure over these two decades to be able to exhibit my work in my home area, to be able to share what I do with those folks who live in close proximity to me.
You would think this would make for an easy-going time when it comes to mounting a show each year, as I have done for the last twelve years. After all, many of these people know me, have watched the evolution and growth of the paintings through this time and have supported me in so many ways that I will never be able to fully express my gratitude.
Maybe it’s that last point that makes this such a nerve-wracking show for me. They have done so much for me that I don’t want to disappoint. Like any performer or athlete, you always want to do well in front of a home crowd.
I feel very good about this show, feel that it will the space with deep glow of saturated colors., feel that it really is a full expression of myself in my work. Hopefully, this will prove true.
Below is a short video that gives a preview of all of the work from my upcoming show, Layers, which opens this coming Friday, July 25th, at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The music is a guitar interpretation of Gymnopedie #1 from composer Erik Satie. The painting at the top is from the show. CalledIn the Pocket of Time, it’s a 24″ by 30″ canvas that was one of the first inspirations for the show’s title.
Well, the studio seems very cool and empty this morning. The work for this year’s show, Layers, at the West End Gallery has been delivered and I am left to clank around in a lot more open space, which is like having an empty canvas or a blank sheet of paper before you, the moment filled with possibility.
There’s exhilaration in this instant but also a bit of sadness at not having those now gone paintings close at hand. There was something comforting and inspiring in having them surround me in the studio. Their presence reinforced my belief in the work and new ideas and concepts were always bouncing from them, begging to be taken up. They were very much like friends, albeit mute ones.
But, as you would hope for any friend, they must at some point set out on their own and find their own place in the world. Reach their own potential. And hopefully they soon will. That would be most gratifying for me. After nearly two decades of showing my work now, I am always surprised at how many people have told me about the relationships they maintain with my works, how they continue to find something personally meaningful for themselves even after years of having the painting in their homes. It would be enough to have the work simply decorating their homes or offices but to have it fulfill any greater role is a great pleasure and thrill, giving meaning to the time I spend in this now empty studio.
So, with hopes those friends who have went out into the world find homes in which they can serve some purpose, I start anew. Looking for a new friend to spend some time with me here. Just part of the rhythm and cycle of what I do.
The piece shown here, Stepping Up, is part of the show at the West End Gallery. It is 6″ by 26″ on paper. The show was being hung yesterday evening so if you would like a preview, stop in this weekend.
I had a comment from someone this morning that mentioned a post from a couple of years back about a site that used my images for online jigsaws. Coincidentally, someone had asked me at the opening of my show about the possibility of using my art on a puzzle and I had told them about this same site. I hadn’t thought of this site for the longest time.
Redtree Times 