Yard Offerings From Below

These are fairly early finds at 1650 Kildare, from a few years ago when I still enjoyed hanging out in my yard. I spent several years hand digging my garden. I've had people tell me I'm full of shit for thinking these are anything other than rocks...

I've thrown back the iffy ones and kept these two, because they are obviously human-made tools. It doesn't show, but the larger one has a very refined axe-end to it, with a very bulky front area. It appears the lower part of the axe-end broke and they tossed it aside. I would not have expected these to be made this way, refining an area before shaping the entire thing.

The cat tail in the last photo is from current times.

Henri Art Magazine - Color

Mark Stone of Henri Art Magazine has been posting a series of essays on color. He points out how the use, and perception, of color in art has dramatically changed over the past few centuries. He then very intimately links this, through specific artworks, to our own changing character as a people.

He frames these thoughts within a Modernism vs. Post-Modernism comparison, in ways which further clarify these movements.

Color: 16th Century
Color: Mannerism
Color: Chromophobia
Color: Emphasis
Color: Simulation

New American Paintings is Out

I'm too wiped out to link or scan a picture. I finally picked up a copy from the newsstand. I feel totally tolerant of my spread, which is a very good thing. I think this issue (#83) has some good work. Lots of individual work. Again, I'm not going to bother with saying whose work I like..

I will try to do better tomorrow.

This Beat is Sick

This Beat is Sick: Bushwick Art Spaces Stay Open Late.

If you're in Brooklyn, NY this Saturday...

"This coming weekend get out and see all the art you never had the time for before! Without the clutter of hundreds of random living rooms diverting your attention, see Bushwick's most respected spaces at a time more conducive to high culture activites - 6-10pm on Saturday night. This is not to say some of these places aren't actually living rooms..."

More Sugar!

More here.

One thing leads to another

I have several small shaped panels, some have been painted, some have not. I'm not very committed them. I sanded this one down and repainted, specifically for an upcoming color-themed show (juried so I'm not officially posting this image yet).

I have a group of large shaped paintings which I'll be showing at the Harrison Center Gallery in April 2010. I'd like to augment this group with a subgroup, and originally had a plan to almost subvert my own work, by using the large shaped paintings as 'beings' in smaller narrative paintings. I'd have them comically running around or lying on the ground, shaped similarly to a pool of water. It cracked me up and also fulfilled my ongoing need to negate (partially anyway) what I've already done. Those paintings had become my "serious" work, and I needed to knock them down a bit. But I never applied the idea; maybe it's better as an imagined dalliance.

These smaller shaped pieces will work well. They'll relate to the larger work in a very real, nongimicky way. It will be good for me to work smaller and faster with the similar formal elements. These can make more cohesive statements, which will satisy something.

I also like being mentally into the next project before my opening on Friday.

Quick snap of current reworked painting

"Morning on Earth", 24" x 48"

I'm not sure whether or not I'll include this in the show Friday. I am including two other similar "landscape" paintings, in addition to the Mounts, and this is the panel that triggered the whole series. If I do include it, I need to build another frame sometime soon. I may need help...

"Mounts" at 4 Star Gallery

Mount G, 10" x 10", oil on wood, 2008

Excellent timing. Next week I will be showing my "Mounts" series, for the first time in person, in entirety, at 4 Star Gallery. A group of these paintings are included in the current issue of "New American Paintings" #83, which just hit the newsstands this week.

The 4 Star Gallery show runs Oct. 16 - Nov. 14, with an opening reception Oct. 16 from 5-9pm, and a "First Friday" reception on Nov. 6. If you're in town I hope you can make it.

4Star Gallery

653 Massachusetts Avenue

Indianpolis, IN 46204

317.686-6382