I finished new pieces for both the upcoming Boston SoWa Art Walk on May 17 and May 18, 2008 (more info at www.sowaartwalk.com ) and also for a benefit for the Lexington Symphony in Mass that will be taking place around that time as well. These are the pieces that you arrive at when you click the "Paintings" link in the top nav bar.
A number of them were show during the month of March in a fairly unique venue for me as in a wine/liquor store as in The Wine Gallery in Brookline, Mass. All went well and the paintings were show in a very nice gallery space within the store. (Thank you very much, Kai.)
I'm satisfied with these pieces and I think my technique continues to progress with them. I will be doing more for the SoWa Art Walk as that is a great venue and is very recommended to both artists and people interested in a low-pressure, high number of art/artists place to see lot's of work. Easily accessible as well.
As an artist I'll be interested in seeing how things go in terms of the current economic situation as this is where people can go for, probably, the best deals for art for their living spaces, etc, but, again, we'll see.
Some of this newest work comes post my taking another look at Maxfield Parrish's work and seeing him in a new light, so to speak. In retrospect I think I've tended to devalue his work and I think that was a big mistake. I am now much in awe of his technical facility as well as his great talent for connecting to people.
Yes, there is some superficial elements to his work and some catering to taste but in some ways that makes his work more interesting or can make it more interesting. But on a purely visual level this guy was very very good and could draw really well. Interesting to me in that he worked from photographs in terms of the many of the figures in his paintings. And the rather weird take he had in some of his paintings on classical themes. Anyhow, a revelation in a way.
Speaking of new directions I'm starting to work with shower curtains as a ground or an element in new pieces that I'm doing (none online at the moment but I'll post images as soon as I get them). I happened to come across some "designer" shower curtains in a store following a visit to a great show of work by Sean Scully at Dartmouth and was rather astounded what they have available ... as in minimalist patterns, huge blown-up photograph curtains, incredibly kinda kitschy curtains and on and on. I bought 10 or so off ebay and am just trying to figure out what to do with them.
One I really love is this cowboy one. I did some test ones as painting grounds which did not do what I wanted so now it's a matter of finding alternative materials to add to it and NOT have it be seen in terms of camp, kitsch, ironic which is boring to me and beyond done. Great find, these curtains.
But they have definitely pushed me in another direction that will probably run parallel to the other work I do.
I'm looking at Lowes, WalMart, Home Depot more than anywhere else for ideas, materials, etc. I'm thinking more sculpturally as well so there are new pieces that are coming out of that as well. So fun for me in terms of heading forwards and backwards at the same time.
This is more in keeping with the work I've done in Seattle assemblage-wise in terms of exploring minimalist, somewhat more engaged in the dialog of contemporary art, edgy stuff for lack of a better term. I think always the constant for me is I'm looking to explore abstraction and more-than-one-wayness.
I'll keep you posted and thanks for reading. |