A Busy Day of Arting

I spent the day today on the other side of the brush - looking at art. For some reason I wasn't thinking about blogging as I usually do and taking pictures of everything in sight. Instead I was into either full-on looking or chatting up a storm with friends I ran into.

Gregory Wright: Tidal Dance, diptych, 36"H x 42"W, encaustic, oil, pigment and shellac on birch, 2009. This painting is one of my favorites in the show.

First stop was Greg Wright's opening at Regis College in Weston. His show, "Microcosm/Macrocosm? - a Fantastic Journey," will be up until December 12th.. Greg is giving an artist's talk in the gallery on December 4th, see the link for details.

Since I didn't take pictures at the show, I tried to take some from Greg's website but they came through as low-resolution - too blurry and pixilated to make a good representation of his work.. Instead I'm using some images that I had on file from a previous post about Greg. The actual paintings are mind-boggling and there were 25 to 30 pieces in the show - a lot of work. When you see how detailed each painting is, you will appreciate that the show represents a tremendous investment of time and energy.

Effervescent Ascension, 36"H x 30"W x 2.5"D, encaustic, oil, pigment, shellac on birch, 2010 

I have written about Greg's work here (and here) before and his true mastery of unusual effects with encaustic and added materials such as pigment and shellac. Greg says that Microcosm/Macrocosm is "inspired by topographical formations and movement" in which he seeks to "define the connectivity that exists between the cosmos, the terrestrial and the cellular from different points of view."

Refuge From Overcrowding, 48"H x 30" W, encaustic, oil, pigment and shellac on birch, 2010   

Reaching for a Certain Outcome, 36"H x 30"W x 2.5"D, encaustic, oil, pigment and shellac on birch, 2010

Several of us agreed that "Reaching for a Certain Outcome" was an outstanding painting that manages to offset the tendency of yellow/gold to come forward visually. Greg has been able to create the illusion of deep space despite the color. The contrast between the yellows and the darker edges that are achieved by burning shellac is really lovely in person.

Entwined by the Tempest Along the Way, 48"H x 30"W, encaustic, oil, pigment and shellac on birch, 2010

This one is an unusual painting for Greg, I think. It's darker and less complex than many of his works but I find it very intriguing because of the darkness. 

Congratulations to Greg for a great show!

Chatting, Always Chatting

It's so nice to run into friends at an opening and catch up with what they're doing. I had a great time talking with Lynette Haggard, Linda Cordner, Kathleen Austin and Jeanne Griffin at Greg's opening. I only intended to stay for a few minutes, but I was there a couple of hours hearing what was happening with their work and lives. I'm excited to hear that Lynette is now working more sculpturally and I'm looking forward to seeing what she's doing. We had a two-person show together last year and it was a good experience for us both. Going through all that work getting organized and then gallery sitting for hours at a time brought us closer together. It's nice to share that art connection.

Blossom, a piece by Lynette Haggard that was recently shown at the Danforth Museum

Ted Larsen at the Clark Gallery

When I finally dragged myself out of Greg's opening, I was headed off to Concord but stopped along the way to see Ted Larsen's work at the Clark Gallery. I had seen his work before online and in Lynette's blog but never in person. He is a Santa Fe artist who works with pieces of found automotive metal that he assembles into sculpture. His work is really lovely - very minimal but with the surface of found objects that have spent time in the world. I think it has a connection with my Running Stitch pieces but my work is softer and more intricate.

Ted Larsen: Eye Dazzler Variant I, automotive metal and annealed wire, 60" x 70", 2008. This piece was not at the Clark, but he had another Eye Dazzler that was a red and yellow quilt-type work around this same size. I loved it.

Rivet, automotive metal, 5.5" x 5", 2008

I tried to add another image but Blogger was just not cooperating. Anyway, most of the works in the show were of the small, sculptural type like the white piece above. There were only two of the larger quilt-type pieces to which I was drawn. Larsen seems to be working flatter now. His new work looks a bit different from either of the pieces pictured here. Check out his website and you'll see.

I really appreciated his statement:

The works I create supply commentary on minimalist belief systems and the ultimate importance of High Art practice. An artist's work usually adheres to the construct of a cohesive direction with the work illustrating a single theme or underscoring a didactic agenda. But such a logical order has no specific place in my studio practice. 

Introducing salvage materials to my own formally driven abstract sculpture, I hope to bring purist shapes and surfaces back down to earth. I quest for new materials, "non-art materials" to create my work. I am constructing assemblages of detritus in order to re-purpose the materials and re-identify their meanings: to re-contextualize and re-label the idea of Ready-mades. It is my on-going experimentation with contexts, hybrids, and scale.

The works keep possession of pleasing formality and visceral elegance while making fun of modernist purity. This is a tribute to anti-triumphalism, the spontaneous, non-hierarchical, un-monumental thematic artistic landscape which offers no specific resolution and no isolation of meaning.

I am not so sure that his work is making fun of modernist purity because it seems too carefully made to be constructed purely for irony. There is something humorous about them but they are beautiful, too, in the way that old things are, and they are pure in their intent. I like the "assemblages of detritus" since that is what I'm doing now only with a wider range of detritus.

Onward and Upward

From the Clark Gallery, I journyed on with my usual directionally-challenged driving to the Concord Art Association, where I saw a show of encaustic works by Kellie Weeks. Kellie had a large number of pieces displayed in a colonial-era house that unfortunately was not the most art-friendly space for an exhibition. Nevertheless, Kellie's brilliantly-colored work stood out prominently against the white walls and had the luminous sheen of glass. In fact, two people who were looking at the exhibition while I was there originally thought that the work was composed of glass until they read Kellie's statement. Here are a few images that I took from Kellie's website.

Kellie Weeks: The Bridge, encaustic on panel, 30"H x 24"W

The Eternal Ascent, encaustic on panel, 30" H x 24"W

Together We Travel, encaustic on panel, 30"H x 24"W

Kellie says that her paintings relate to familial and social relationships where "objects are often seen yielding to one another and/or competing for space. Shapes are at times incomplete, interrupted or overlapping." The saturated colors in her work "can also indicate bold intentions versus subdued reactions. All of these elements speak of relationships, journeys and transformations."

The show of Kellie's colorful, gleaming paintings is up at the Concord Art Association until November 29th. Congratulations, Kellie!

Home Again, Home Again

It was a lovely day for driving today, bright sunshine, clear blue sky and a mere hour and a half or so for me to get to all this great art and artist friends. Driving west into the setting sun on the Mass Pike on my way home was a bit difficult and nearly migraine inducing, but I managed to struggle through until that great ball of light descended far enough not to blind me. It did look like a great round disc through the trees on the western hills as I made my way home, singing along to the nasty sentiments expressed by Bob Dylan in Positively 4th Street and other geezer faves on my radio. 

Thinking Art Outside the Studio

On Saturday I went up to Saco, Maine to deliver work for the show that New England Wax is having there (Heat Stroke, April 3 to May 30). My friend, Sue Katz, was kind enough to drive us, work by the two of us and by fellow Western Mass. Waxer, Deborah Kruger, in her spacious vehicle, which barely fit all the work we brought. The drive was 160+ miles or 3 1/4 hours each way from Amherst, so it was a long day. I left home at 7:30 a.m. and didn't return until after 7 p.m.

The best part of the day for me was the loooong chat about art that Sue and I had coming and going plus the talk at lunch with a few friends from New England Wax.

Left to right: Lynette Haggard, Kim Bernard, Sue Katz, Kellie Weeks, Greg Wright. (A shout out to Kellie and Greg - diligent Art in the Studio readers!)

One of Greg's paintings was chosen to be the predominant image of three on the show card and then selected to appear on the show poster and flag outside the museum. (Greg Wright: Congregation IV, 2007, encaustic on panel, 14"x14".) This work is typical of Greg's intricate and engaging style of painting, and at lunch we discussed where these forms came from (see below).

Children's Art Show at Saco Museum

Before I get into discussing some of our art conversations and ideas, I just want to mention how impressive the show of children's art was that the Saco Museum had mounted. It was a collaborative installation by area art teachers and a mind-boggling experience to step into the very large back room of the Museum that was just covered with colorful pieces. This was work by Saco-Dayton K-8 students in conjunction with National Youth Art Month.

These photoes only show two sides of the room and don't convey the overwhelming power of multiples demonstrating the various techniques being taught in the schools. I wish I had had time to examine the work more closely.

Were these self portraits? Sometimes I also vizualize myself with a blue nose.

My favorite exercises in this show were the half-and-half portraits (I'm sure there's a more technical art teacher name for this) where the student cuts in half a black and white portrait of someone and then paints the other half of the face. This is such an intriguing idea.

I don't usually look at children's art, not having any little ones of my own, but this was a lot of fun. I hope these art programs don't get cut so that these kids can continue to be excited about creating things.

Art Conversations and the Finer Things

Of course it's impossible to recap 12 hours' worth of art talk, but some of the things discussed included the talk Sue is preparing for the encaustic conference, called "What’s the Big Idea? Discussing Meaning in Our Own Art." Sue will deliver a PowerPoint presentation and then lead a discussion on ideas and processes that generate and propel works. She has been researching for the presentation by interviewing artists about their work and by reading various critics, writers and artists. The discussion of how we make art and what we think about before, during and after art-making continued for some hours and ranged widely.

It continued into lunch, where we talked about why this topic is especially important to artists who paint with encaustic, and here are some reasons why: our medium is new and becoming widely popularized, the technical aspects can be difficult to master and sometimes techniques alone drive works, the medium is popularly misunderstood and misused and, just like any medium, it is used to carry out the intentions of the artist whether the artist formally acknowledges those intentions or not. Sue's talk is intended to address those intentions and get artists to develop and focus on them.

Kim, who is currently in grad school, spoke about how much ideas drive the discussions and critiques of her fellow students and inspire their creation of art. She said that such focus was having a great affect on her own work and causing it to change. A radical change in approach is difficult for artists who have gallery representation, where artists are expected to stick to one consistent look, but we all thought that in the current market, where art sales and representation are so badly affected, there was more room for experimentation and change of style. After all, if nothing is selling, artists can do what they like because sales are not driving their work. We saw this as a good thing in the long run although difficult in the near term.

Then the talk ranged to what inspired us and/or what got us started making art. Some examples: Greg worked as a hair stylist for years. and if you know that, you realize those intricate forms in his work may be related to hair as much as landscape, light or water; Kim's work is inspired by movement and body work and going even more in that direction; I began painting pretty late in life because of the blue shadows I saw on snow and the color I just had to capture; a lot of Sue's work relates to squares doubled into rectangles, as inspired by tatami mats. Kellie told us that her work was full of stories and inspired by them. Lynette said that she was going to take some time in her studio to develop more focus on her work and see what evolved.

Our conversations were fun and inspiring and created bonds of understanding and empathy among us. What's better than a group of artists getting together and talking about art? Not much in my opinion. It's one of the finer things in life.