Work in Progress – Content

I have been developing a body of work over the last few years that is an academic exercise in color theory and optics. However, as I have been developing the work the simple objects that are hidden by the optical field have developed meaning and affect how I design and layout any given painting.

The squares represent the context in which we live, and the circles represent the individual. In my current painting the central figure is larger than the context in which it resides while the other circles are dwarfed by their context. When the color is added the relationships are harder to recognize.  

In this photo you can see that I moved the small circles from the center of its square towards the middle which suggests the stronger influence of the central relationship.

I will continue to develop these concepts within the coming months.

 

Continuous Evolution of Technique

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This year I had a simple break—a reshuffling of my studio coupled with a short vacation and a return to school for my children. This break was enough to step back and think about trying something slightly different. There is experimentation in painting on a daily basis, but the appropriate distance for self-critique in a larger scale is harder when there is a self-imposed production schedule.  A group of paintings is easier to explain with technique, process, and concept than an individual painting. Most artist’s work is easier to understand when viewed in a continuous timeline. I think this is one of the reasons that a deceased artist’s work makes more sense to most people. They can view one work after another within the context of their lives. This catalogue review is usually done under the critical eye of the curator. “Lesser” works are left out so the strongest work survives in the catalogue.

Now there is the opportunity for living artists to provide this timeline while they are living it. They can choose to upload photos to a website, social media, blogs, etc. Sometimes they edit work out so the timeline doesn’t seem continuous. If work is left out (even if it is a “lesser” work), questions can arise as to how they got from this painting to that painting. I have chosen to include all of the work. It has been a very rare occasion that I have left work off my website in recent years. I think the slow evolving change of an artist’s work gives long-term credibility. I have decided to have work up on my website from 2007 to present day. That previous time does have relevancy to my current work, but the volume alone is hard to follow through a website. There is no guarantee that the viewer will view the work through a timeline, and I feel that this is important for work that is older than 3-5 years.

How is this relevant to the latest painting that I have finished? I feel that some of the techniques that I have used in this particular painting will emphasize my previous work, and give my work an easier starting point for a viewer.

In my paintings I use color and geometric forms to optically delineate two and three-dimensional space. The shapes and pure color work against the viewer’s tendency to see depth. Instead of a forced perspective that gives that illusion, I explore two-dimensional paintings that optically confuse three-dimensional forms.

Artist Statement 2011

Previous to this work the three-dimensional forms I refer to were three-dimensional forms. I am still painting those forms, but I am also painting over carved three-dimensional forms.

Art Institute and Gallery Opening

When I entered this show I chose work that I knew I could ship easily. I hadn’t thought

95 South

about getting accepted and going to the opening. I did go, and I am glad I went even though it was more than three hours away. Because it was Sunday there was very little traffic. The drive also seems to pass by quickly because I had previously worked in Chester, PA and Wilmington, DE it didn’t seem like I was truly on my way until I was south of Wilmington.

In the end I made it in plenty of time. I passed through the center of town which had a nice park. The gallery is on a nice quite main street that seemed to have many shops and restaurants.

It was a well attended event with numerous artists attending. There were artists from 15 states utilizing different techniques and mediums. Photography,  mixed media, ceramic, welded sculpture, print/bookmaking, and painting.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Best in show: Gail Postal, Liz
Award of Excellence: Lindsey Fryman, You and Me, Us and Them
Award of Excellence: Jess Cross Davis, Artemis
Honorable Mention: Rob Norton, Marboros
Honorable Mention: Kurt Dyrhaug, Crop Wing
Honorable Mention: Margaret Whiting, Tunics of the Eye

Art Institute and Gallery 

212 West Main Street

Salisbury, MD 21801

410-546-4748

RSVP Opening

95 South

Traffic was bad. I was only 45min. late.

I was able to stop and visit a few galleries in Philadelphia on my way to Wilmington. However, it seemed as though the First Friday receptions that are normally open will be open next week.  I stopped at Pentimenti and saw new work by Anthony Demelas. Synesthesia-New Paintings. The opening reception is next Friday, September 16, 5>7:30 pm. The work was visually interesting with longer format paintings. Or at least I thought they were paintings until I spoke with the gallery director Christine Pfister . They are photographs that are painted, then those same paintings are photographed again, then painted…or not. The best work, in my opinion, was the blue piece on the center wall. In this piece he ended with a photograph. This had an antique and modern feeling at the same time. It looked as though you could see parts of a negative, and the coloring suggested elements of reverse coloring. However the overall look and color are very contemporary.

It is a large space with some good work. When entering the gallery there is a nice work by Stuart Lorimer. Swirl, 2010, Oil on linen, 60″ x 72″. A nice clean, fresh painting.

Reception

The work by Coy Gu drew a lot of attention. This was a continuous line drawn with a ball point pen on the wall in a large format. One of my favorites in the show was the work by  Sharon Koelblinger. There is a subtle, abstract, minimal format in which she goes between the flat two-dimensional plane of a photograph, and a three-dimensional pulling of that same plane. This is something that I am working on in a completely different manner in my work in this show. I have three-dimensional objects abstracted to look as thought they are two-dimensional painted on a three-dimensional form.

There was also an artist across the street in the DCAD 15th Annual Faculty Exhibition that I thought was very good Connie Simon. There is a boldness, color, and change in tone with shadow that is a great example of color theory, and dimensional study.

I want to thank the NWAA, and John Vick for including me in the show.

The Drive was easier than the photo suggests, but It was good  to be home.

Home

RSVP 2011–New Wilmington Art Association

I will have two paintings in this show.

Acrylic on Carved Plywood.

41″x 48″

RSVP 2011
September 9th – October 20th

Opening Reception – Friday, September 9th, 6-9 pm
*Hours by appointment

new.wilmington.art@gmail.com

New Wilmington Art Association
605 N. Market Street
Wilmington, Delaware

About the selections
“The paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and mixed-media and site-specific installations that make up the New Wilmington Art Association’s inaugural annual juried exhibition represent the prodigious creative output of 20 emerging artists. They were chosen from a deep pool of submissions purely on appearances, with knowledge of the artists’ identities coming later.

Installed together, these works – each a compelling expression of singular ideas and outlooks – can be seen to engage the intersection of pattern and space. This is visually apparent in the colorful, fragmented shapes of a syncopated composition, a geometric grid’s regulated linear network, or pieces of material used repeatedly for their totalizing effect. With references to the legacies of Cubism and Minimalism, as well as considerations for architecture, craft, and design, such works are striking to behold. Pattern, however, also suggests a passage of time – as in a habit, a system, or a ritual – and speaks to the cycles of natural and industrial growth and decay. Space carries other, similar parallels. Measured and marked in real terms or through emotional metaphors, it forms the foundation of most interpersonal relationships.

While the overlap of pattern and space pervades this exhibition, it neither defines any one artist’s approach nor was a standard for inclusion here. The notion is instead but one vantage to take when surveying the otherwise diverse works of art in RSVP 2011.”

John Vick /2011

Exhibiting Artists
Amy Boone-McCreesh
Kim Faler
Coy Gu
Amanda Kamen
Kim Knauer
Sharon Koelblinger
Delia Kovac
Patrick Koziol
Stuart Lorimor
Eric Mastrangelo
Cathie Meighan
Sanford Mirling
Jaime Moore
Joanna Platt
Dan Rios
Caroline Santa
Chuck Schultz
Melinda Steffy
Harrison Tyler
Benjamin Weaver

RSVP 2011 / Opening Friday, September 9th

• New Wilmington Art Association supports the careers of artists by providing opportunities for uncensored experimentation, professional presentation, and critical dialogue.