planes and spaces

More Mylar

2011-11-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

Five piece set includes, 2011
Mylar
10.25 x 5 inches

This is directed by an image in a swimwear catalog, which I have traced over with a knife. I see this as extracting elements of drawing from the printed color image. I have bought some of these bikinis online and am very happy with them so the catalog works as a sales tool but I find the images unsettling. The combination of beautiful specifics and implied narrative keeps me in a closed loop so I chose to alter this by dismantling the image’s luscious but unsatisfying qualities. I wanted to extract something less lurid that would be less specific, giving me an exit from the frozen cool of a fictitious life. So I selected elements I wanted to look at from the "realism" of the photograph and transferred these to another situation by tracing a contour drawing. The result is recorded as the cut edges of excised shapes, and presented as a shadow on a second layer of Mylar.

A simpler, neutral image feels more congruent with the reality of volume printing, the relentlessness anonymity of hundreds of thousands of copies of this girl. Without the details of the scene and the girl herself, I am less likely to imagine myself splashing playfully in her place. Without the details and product descriptions "matching slouch tote with logo lining...", "hipster with side cinch..." it is impossible to think about buying anything. I don't identify with the shadowy, ghost girl. I can never be her. Instead, the stereotype is made obvious at the same time as THIS particular image has become singular. There is now a way out of the picture, for me. I can move beyond a specific narrative to contemplate broader issues. ...What about the stereotype it presents? What messages are embedded in its structure?

So I've taken action, I've imposed my will in a different way than the marketers intended. I think it has enabled me to see something more clearly. Is it revenge, a sense of outrage that drives me to overturn this "innocent" image? To rip this small drip-feed of consumer medication from my vein? We live and breathe within the calculated structures of 21st Century life so is it a futile gesture? Yes and no. The image is now the subject of a drawing.

A topic for another day.

Deskilled Drawing

2011-09-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Just installed a small exhibition at the fabulous Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in Summit, NJ.

Curator Mary Birmingham and Exhibitions Manager Katie Murdock along with the staff at the center went out of their way to help and support the installation process.

Studio X gallery now holds my show "Heather Lewis, deskilled drawing" which runs October 7 - December 11, with an opening reception October 14.

The mural is a painted shadow -
echoing an interactive installation in the gallery itself.

Objects from a kitchen drawer (interactive model), 2011

As the stairwell is flooded with daylight normally, I had to test the idea out at night. Before painting the mural I took some photos of the original projection, getting a fresh sense of it from a distance, and as it was reflected in the large glass windows.

It took quite a while to get the right objects positioned in the image... I wanted the items AND the distortion to make sense. It worked best with some objects running the whole length from small to crazily enlarged. I ended up wearing my sunglasses while working at the projector tray...!

In the hallway below I have framed drawings made with brake grindings, and drawings of folded industrial mesh and sacking using oil paint.

Light installation

2011-06-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Photos from the McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC
Pay per view, 2011 (no money in meter)
Coin meter, light, mirror tiles
Approximately 4 x 11 x 6 feet

Pay per view, 2011 (money in meter)
Coin meter, light, mirror tiles
Approximately 9 x 11 x 6 feet

detail

new work

2011-05-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Catalog (upholstered armchair), 2011. 2/3 (detail)
Mylar
16 x 15 inches

New work on show at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte includes a series called "Catalog" which is a 10 foot x 42 inch Mylar hanging with 17 smaller mylar "drawings" of chairs taped to it. I am creating each of the small drawings in editions, and these two are now framed in my studio.

Catalog (stacking chair), 2011. 3/10
Mylar
6 x 5 inches

These drawings are stencils created by tracing (cutting) selected visual information found in a promotional image of the chair - a magazine or sales material.

The cuts show up nicely alone, but when they are behind another sheet of Mylar they have a 3D effect. The images change as the light changes. You'd hang these like stained glass, so that light would be behind them.

It was happening at Hatchfest

2011-04-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

April 15th I was in Charlotte opening the McColl Art Center show, and Carlton took this installation to the YMI Hatch party - where it was really popular. It was meant to be writ large in Pack Place Park with 2 projectors, a coin-meter and other niceties, but was rained off.

This installation is called "Found objects" and is an interactive spin-off of a previous work called "Objects from a kitchen drawer" 2009/2011, now on show in Charlotte and pictured on my main website.

So, a success! Carlton says people were taking bits off their phone, taking their high heels off, rolling up bits of tissue to make lettering... and really expressing themselves by creating their own images. Very rewarding - wish I could have been there!

Little disappointed that the installation isn't credited anywhere but with all that was going on that night - that week! - it is amazing that it happened at all. At least we tried it out and discovered it was a big hit.

Carlton, who set up the projector in the YMI was working on a client's computer way out in the sticks til about 7 pm, and had to get back to Asheville to grab what he could for the show. He did a great job - the above photos are some of his, he took them with his phone until the battery ran out. That's what I call dedication!

Photos of the Hatch YMI event overall (including this installation) can also be bought at photographer Camilla Calnan's site here....

And this photo below appeared in the Mountain Xpress this week, taken by Timothy Meinch.

Looks like we'll have to do it again!

More on Charlotte solo show when I get photos. No time for those at the opening reception for that, needless to say...

Hatchfest

2011-03-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hatchfest hits Asheville in April, these are mock ups of my intended contribution.

Pay-per-view, 2008/2011, (as imagined on the Pack Tavern building).
coin-operated light installation (interactive prototype).
Dimensions variable.

Pay-per-view is not a new idea in itself, but in this case it operates a bit differently in three areas.

One person will pay for and instigate a few minutes of projection time, for communal rather than purely personal benefit.
Each purchase of 4 minutes allows the consumer to contribute to the experience by choosing and arranging objects within their own projected image. Consumption does not need to be passive.
And the resulting artwork could be seen as a series of contemporary fine art products conceived and designed by an artist... but produced cheaply in the public sphere by a hired operator and some of the consumers themselves. Facilitated by generated power, just as a factory would be.

I won't be there (my exhibition opens at the McColl in Charlotte that night by odd coincidence) which fits in with the concept. Industrial ideology assumes "unskilled" workers will make the product according to instructions and pre-determined procedure.

This is a rough suggestion of what the end of the park will look like with my own installation on the Pack Tavern (right) and Gene Felice's laser tagging and interactive display on the City Council building (left). ( Note : This may not be at all what Gene's piece looks like, I just roughed it out quickly from remembered Graffiti Research Lab Youtube clips). It shows the general idea of scale at least. Also on show (not visible here) will be a screening of Juried entries to the photography competition, as well as a troupe of fire eaters and a local band.

The city committee apparently was reluctant to include any mention of the word tagging when approving Gene's piece ... so it was changed to laser "writing" - this keeps the taggers happy but obviously is not yet part of the committee's graffiti vocabulary.

Still to test locations and equipment to work out any issues before the night itself. Power will be courtesy of the City of Asheville and/or the mobile Art Lab vehicle with generator operated by the city's Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts Department.

Downtown Asheville - shown here with imaginary projections on the Asheville Art Museum, and the Legal building. Interesting for another time maybe... Hatch looks like being more lively at the other end of Pack Place.

Publication coming out

2010-12-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

The fall has been very busy with other things but contains some interesting milestones. My work will be included in an upcoming book called "Hyperdrawing : Beyond the lines of contemporary art" edited by Phil Sawdon, Russell Marshall, and others at Loughborough University in the UK. The new book will look at aspects of drawing that go beyond current expectations of what drawing can be. Their first book, "Between the lines of contemporary art" focused on ways contemporary artists use relatively traditional materials associated with drawing and included work from 43 artists including Cornelia Parker, Tracey Emin and David Shrigley.

Meantime also, I'll have something published in TRACEY which is an online, peer reviewed journal at Loughborough University, run by a host of interesting academics including Sawdon and Marshall. I have been a fan of TRACEY for some time, and submitted an article in response to an open call on the topic of art and technology. After a radical rewrite - peer reviews are very useful - digging in to the meat of what I wanted to say, I managed to really clarify ideas that have been trying to come together over the last couple of years. I think it will be very fruitful for future work.

Here's a link to TRACEY
and a link to my article specifically here

Recent activity

2010-06-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have fixed up with a venue to show in Artprize 2010 in Michigan this September. These images show little rough mock ups as I start to turn my proposal into reality, and the curator starts to plan the layout.

Proposal in brief is : to display an artwork in 2 parts showing shadows of furniture items from Grand Rapids (known for this industry) next to wall paintings derived from shadows of furniture.

The premise is that a shadow is insubstantial but actually created by a real object in the present. Painted images are more permanent but already record a moment in the past. Like shadows, the furniture products can be understood as concepts (figures on the quarterly index of manufacturing, numbers in a catalog etc) as well as real objects. It seems appropriate that these ideas become visibly part of the city's fabric during the festival.

I had originally thought for this to be outside at night and 50 feet long but it is inside and may be smaller. That's good, it can take many forms. Now it can be seen during the day and I've not sorted out weatherproofing of exterior light sources yet, so that may be something for later and more funding. I'm happy as the curator from the local art college is very contemporary, and the venue has a strong conceptual basis for the show.

Its great - the exercise of applying for this show produced a new idea for a site-specific installation, and the opportunity to bring it to life.

Light and shade

2010-05-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Teaching classes has occupied most of my spring. In between all that I went to Atlanta to take part in OBSCURA at Eyedrum, with a projection onto their gallery facade. Here I am doing experiments for that in the back yard... how dark does it have to be for a projection to show up?

It worked out. Projection on Eyedrum facade, March 2010.

Installing at the Hunter College/Times Square Gallery

2010-03-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

Drawing (elements), 2010, (in progress) granular rutile. (photo courtesy of Claudia Bueno's husband)

The rich red purple color of granular rutile sort of shows here, in contrast with the blackness of the ilmenite in the last post. Looks good on the grey floor. What struck me as I worked on this was the absolute sense of flatness, of a thin skin held down by gravity. And that's all that holds it... a few repairs have been necessary. Air from the heating vents, a scuff at the edges and a small boy walking into it for several feet. Phi said he'd had to fix it already. Part of the deal, its fragility so letting it go, having it be altered is a given.

At the opening people asked if it was spray paint, and whether it was a mandala. Amongst other things. Some likened it to a view into space because of the sparkles. I started to think of it as the surface of a lily pond that you could also slightly see beneath. The cooktop elements made me think of ripples from falling rain or something, the smaller shapes at the edges flotsam washed to shore. I wish I could make another 12 of them, all different! I'd use other rationales to construct its patterning if I was able to sweep it up and do it again.

2010-02-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

New Work

2010-01-26T07:30:00.001-08:00

Drawing (metal and plastic from the beach), 2010, granular ilmenite and acrylic medium on Arches paper, 22.5 x 22.5 inches.

New work for the show Smoke + Mirrors/Shadows + Fog at the Hunter College Times Square Gallery, February 18 - April 17, 2010.

(Getting better images at the photographer tomorrow). Its been interesting to make work in a short space of time - the usual frenzy of experiments, high points, dips, despair and determination ... leading to work that holds its own and takes me forward. The way that chance and intention work together is really interesting.

3 new works this size (framed to 36 x 36 inches) and 6 smaller works are heading up to NYC via UPS next week, along with the raw materials for a 10 foot floor drawing. Can't imagine explaining to Airport Security why I have 20 lbs of granular ilmenite along with assorted oven elements and plastic trash is in my hand luggage...!

Show at the Arts Council Gallery

2010-01-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy Fall... teaching seemed to take a lot of time for some reason this semester. Mind you, 2 trips to NYC along with continual promotional work like updating artist registries, sending out submissions etc as well as putting on this show took up the slack!

This show at the Asheville Area Arts Council Gallery in downtown Asheville was a fabulous opportunity, as exhibiting at best always is, to move some ideas forward. The gallery has two basement rooms that are not really used for anything. I'd applied like a year ago, and been accepted for the upstairs gallery. Then during the year I happened to see the basement rooms... and knew I had to put my installations in there. Luckily Sarah Meyer at the gallery was keen, and let me have a free hand.

It took a little figuring out, but a couple of weeks saw me placing work, installing lights, building an 8.5 x 17 foot canvas on site and fixing it up as a partition (that was a trip with only two pairs of hands!). The rooms are unfinished, with ducting and all kinds of cabling and pipes exposed in the ceiling, the walls are tidy and white, but just whatever happens to be there - corrugated brick, the tracks of old staircases etc. The coolest feature was the water heater on its little pile of bricks... instead of covering it up it became part of the installation on the suggestion of my artist friend Nava Lubelski. A little shadow drawing all of its own. Nava also helped me with the large canvas, and with painting the ladder shadow - an idea that got its chance at the last minute and was not yet dry as wine began flowing on the opening night!

So, the work that came together in January at Warren Wilson College looked very different in these more industrial surroundings, and was put in context with both new and older work. For a fuller view of the show, check out http://heatherlewis.carbonmade.com . (There's a link to that from my main website too, on the links page. Updating is an issue when your web designer knows php programming and you don't!)

AND the good news is, the promotional activity paid off! I have been invited to show work at Hunter College Times Square Gallery, CUNY in New York in February!

drawings (from the street) at Pratt Manhattan

2009-10-01T10:35:00.001-07:00

A shadow is a drawing created by mechanical means... not involving traditional artistic skills nor photographic mediation.

Using light and other media, I have been exploring mechanical processes in different ways (see some here, or below).

Why? Well, imagination seems vitally important as we move into an era of enormous change. Beyond the dull and restrictive commercial parameters currently keeping our world on what seems like a single-minded path (aka the fossil fuel lobbyist's dream), are astounding new possibilities. I believe that we need to think hard about what criteria we use to direct technology - after all, it is just a tool, and as we know, tools can kill you, or help you. As a society, maybe we have to decide, and make clear, which option we want.

Imagination (available to everyone) may have just as much to contribute at the end of the "oil age" as scientists in expensive research labs. I feel that by reclaiming technology from corporate control even in such small situations as are possible within my art practice, I am able to open a few doors in this area. I want to decide what technology will make for me and why - and this applies on a larger scale also.

A small loop of these shadow drawings is on show at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 West 14th Street, NYC as part of Design Jazz : Improvisations on the Urban Street - through Nov 7th.

chemigrams

2009-08-31T08:16:00.001-07:00

Pierre Cordier, Chemigram 8/2/61

Just discovered chemigrams... they aren't photography because light doesn't play a part in things - they use the chemicals of photography, rather than the process. Similar to my gravitygrams - but there the process and concept of photograms are used but NOT any of the chemicals.

All these things are versions of resisting, printing and stenciling : mechanical processes - a concept developed by early manufacturers to remove craft and creativity from the actual production method. Quite fascinating to see the possible variations... and what altered goals and values allow them to arise. After all, to use these processes in unusual ways requires letting go of a commercial mindset...or does it?

Heather Lewis Two grill pans on a giclee, 2008 (gravitygram of cast iron grindings, granular rutile, acrylic medium and digital image - lots of room for variation there.)

Could a factory make intentionally arbitrary objects or patterns? I'm sure I've heard of some that do. It would be possible within certain parameters. Both physically, and more easily perhaps, digitally. Brian Eno's 70 million paintings spring to mind but I know I've seen something more interesting than that recently. (Nearest I can find right now is Fuzzy ART algorithm used to catch and AVOID minute variations in manufacturing due to flaws. Suppose it was used to create variations in areas that would not be seen as flaws?)

Heather Lewis Two ice trays, 2008, cast iron grindings and acrylic medium. Room for manufacturing variation there too.

Anyway... on a smaller scale, back in the studio...I'd like to see the chemigram used with other kinds of more direct intervention - Cordier drew or printed on the photographic paper to create a resist, in ways which are not within my area of concern. I'm thinking of chemical versions of these gravitygrams.

Heather Lewis Drawing (tape gun), 2008. Cast iron brake grindings and acrylic medium on paper.

light drawings

2009-07-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

Feels like I've not been working much this year but I when the focus changes it can seem that way. I have been collecting light drawings like these quite consistently over the past 2 or 3 years.

summer time

2009-05-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Semester is over and I've been getting through some less popular items lurking in my TO DO list. Finally got some of them out of the way and researching for my next studio immersion. Reading "The invention of capitalism" and "Insatiable is not sustainable". After all, I am heavily into manufactured products, and determinedly against the assumptions inherent in the system so it makes sense. Its all quite fascinating.

Also, coming up is an exhibition of my incarcerated students' artwork from the Spring Semester. It will be at the Ramsey Library, UNCA, reception 30 June, 6 pm. Show to run through August 6th or so. Some interesting discoveries recently in terms of alternative art - speaking of systems. Check out www.cellblockvisions.com for some self-taught art, or outsider art in a big way. In my class I found I was trying to balance reward for self expression with that for completion of course requirements, not always easy, nor easy to justify to fellow students, even in less close quarters. Instructing someone how to "draw correctly" can feel like a tyrannical imposition. Wish there was more time to explore other avenues. It has been quite an experience.

Other things that have come out of the experience... finding these programs : www.lionheart.org (watch the video clip, or look at the prison program) and the related documentary at www.dhammabrothers.com . Not sure where my activities are going, or even my ultimate part in it, but I will use the art shows to raise awareness of people living in another world. One in every 100 Americans is incarcerated, apparently...the highest per capita on the planet. Maybe its just me who hasn't been aware of it!

juror duty

2009-04-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

Been keeping my head down and getting on with it this semester. Teaching takes up quite a chunk of time one way and another but I did manage to go to Boston for the Transcultural Exchange Conference about artist residencies. Very interesting, met people, heard a lot of stories from both applicants and organizers, got a good insight into choosing a residency that fits and how to go about funding it. Now all I have to do is complete some of those things... and when do I get into the studio? Summer time, I hope.

Just juried a student show at a local college, the Blue Ridge Community College. Images here. (Scroll down or search for BRCC). I have to say I was impressed with their art department, a very exciting student art program. As the college is 35 minutes outside Asheville, which is not really at the cutting edge of contemporary art, I wasn't expecting the informed faculty and contemporary ideas that I found there. So that was a nice surprise. Jurying a show however, is a difficult - if not impossible - task to complete entirely rationally. There were entries from all levels of students, a range of disciplines and materials. How to even begin to apply some kind of criteria to that?

There were people's first charcoal studies of a skeleton next to pinhole camera images, alongside ceramics, with conceptual sculpture, beside installation, video, iron pours... painting, digital imaging class projects, sound pieces and a light projection onto a bed. I had to go and sit quietly for a while to mull over the fact that I needed to choose the "winners". In the end, I went for resolution and eloquence over potential. I don't think my choices were expected, and I wish I'd been able to give more prizes for different things but I am fairly solidly behind what I chose. A short speech before the awards were given out helped to clarify things I hope. A lottery, yes, but only in that each juror will determine a different set of "standards". After that it is rational up to a point, except that there are about 10 other artworks that don't get mentioned even though they were hot contenders within your apparently narrowed selection!

It was really instructive to be jurying a show, in regard to sending your own work off in situations where it will be juried. Though I don't apply to juried shows, all selection processes fall under this umbrella, so it was quite fascinating. A new view of how your work may be seen.

Ok, I've got tasks today, getting gift certificates for another student show at the college I teach at, and driving to Boone, NC for the "inmate art show" benefit tonight. I have spent over 8 hours matting all the student work ... for free. Materials refunded, I hope, but the rest is...what? Sent out into the universe generously, as service, with the idea that one never knows where it will lead. Its just not a business plan the bank will consider, unfortunately!

shadows

2009-03-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

Objects from a kitchen drawer, 2008, light installation.

This got a great response at the student talks I gave in the gallery. They liked the obvious means of production (the overhead projector was easily visible), the wild enlargement of small objects, and we discussed the idea of pictorial depth within it. Some of the objects were instantly recognizable and others not... the push pin was obvious, said one. The coiled wire, the CD tray, the sink drainer all came up as familiar. Less clear were the pasta server (one of those Better Homes ingeniously forgettable inventions) and the Barbie torsos (keeping the outfits 3D in the blister packs).

A stack of shaped circles, 2008, roofing felt and gravity. 10.75 x 8 x 8 inches

This small sculpture (it is not glued or held together in any way) involves shadow rather obscurely. Being black and dense material, almost flattening itself through lack of visible detail and shading yet suggesting a small lamp introduces several interesting linkages. Alongside that is its creation via individually directed, separately produced shapes, something more common in industry. I still have areas to explore here, which is exciting.

Some great feedback came from the students. One asked me whether it mattered if the artwork was not permanent, which of course led to the idea of value. If something is impermanent it seems irrelevant until one considers charging a high price for it, which suggests that someone's investment would be lost. Another student talked about the roofing felt piece, mentioning that the flat layers of my other installations had here come together to create something physical. It was really interesting to get their impressions. I wish I could have recorded all that was said. I loved seeing the degree students' work in their studios too - could have spent much more time with that than we had.

This last small work was propped up by the guest book, unframed. It didn't get much attention but I like where it might take me. Of course that is still unknown...

Shadows and paint rings, 2008, acrylic, oil and varnish on board, 7.25 x 12 inches

Current Exhibition - influences. Installment 1

2009-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

The show at the Holden Gallery has come together really well - you can see my first set of images of it at http://heatherlewis.carbonmade.com/projects/2177451#1

My paintings have been bright for a few years now and I have loved the freedom to use color as I wanted to. However, darkness and light have been consistent themes in my work for over 10 years, as a scroll through old blog posts will confirm!

Aspects of my childhood can be seen in the earlier nightscapes as well as in the current light installations. Growing up in Trinidad next a huge oil refinery, there was always an orange light from the flare boom and this turned the landscape into a mysterious place of twilight and shadows - against a backdrop of thousands of lights. The boring everyday details of place were hidden, and relationships became more ambiguous. When I left Trinidad, this interest in lights went with me to the UK where I would be driving between cities at night or looking out from train windows noticing that of course, lights indicated human presence. Although light and dark depend on nature (physics relies on natural properties after all), electric light means that energy is being created and expended intentionally. The use of light and dark in my work can be seen as an engagement between human and nature, an aknowledgment that technology can be controlled to achieve various results. I choose to make art with it.

Next post, I'll look at shadows again in the context of my installations.

Meantime, here is one of those transitional images that's not on my website - it superimposes later ideas on the bones of an earlier realist work. Just realized it has a resemblance to Stapler, which IS on the website...

17 coffee filters, 2007. 28 x 30 inches, oil and spray paint on canvas.

holiday work

2008-12-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'm here on holiday on Anguilla in the Caribbean, not exactly where I grew up (Trinidad), but similar in some significant ways. The sun shines most of the time in a cloudless sky, meaning the light is rarely diffused as it in the North's flat grey winter weather. And there are more reflective surfaces - on a sunny day in Asheville NC, the trees and greenery seem to absorb the light. Here, visually the environment is high contrast. Shadows, of course, but also shaded areas, and the way dark and light intersect with each other when seen from inside buildings, around natural shapes.

The quality of light and the kind of shadows produced are part of the experienced world, coloring the time of day, the kind of weather, your location. Life is obviously easier to live outside when it is warm.

Here are some images I've collected, not sure how I will end up using them yet. Maybe develop some of the ideas here on the blog....

Quite a contrast to the candlelight ambiance of my last post's image. Contrast is not only visual... Christmas day may involve a casual beer at the beach and evening turkey cooked in the BBQ on a patio looking out towards the sea. The oven maybe went kaput a couple of days ago when snapped power lines draped across our driveway, causing an "outage" in the area. Not an uncommon experience. This last week we have often driven by the first mall on the island - the El Dorado, unfortunately perhaps many malls are now under construction - where DJs have been broadcasting calypso style carols and religious christmas pop so loud that it vibrates within the chest cavity as you pass in the car. We've also seen several inflatable and endearingly snoozing (there's a stiff breeze) santas on the lawns around the bank. Music from bars and nightspots is heard long into the night, and there's always the slight chance of a fatal road accident, or, very occasionally, a robbery at gunpoint at the busy chinese corner store. They have a security guard now, so hopefully not. Never mind, for us visitors there's turquoise water, endless white sand, and maybe the lobster brunch of the dream holiday before we jet off back to ordinary life.

And I'm taking pictures of palm frond shadows!?? I do have other shadows in mind, using car headlights to capture the guys playing dominoes on the corner, and a cement truck's silhouette on a warehouse wall, but it takes a while for things to come to fruit sometimes. I intend to make some gravitygrams using sand and cardboard - slightly more accessible.

coming events

2008-12-06T16:09:00.001-08:00

In the grey days of January I will be filling the Holden Gallery with light installations and generally insubstantial or "unskilled" artworks.

The work separates value from saleability.... The pieces are put together as vehicles for ideas rather than as conventionally valuable art products. You don't have to buy it, to get it. The ideas are free.

The first idea is that value often gets equated with elements that make an object desirable, and justify its price (via demonstrations of skill, perfection, expensive materials). Hot on the heels of this is the idea that most of our available technology is harnessed to create products that are for sale, and therefore subject to variations of these same commercial criteria. This has an effect on our perceptions of value, and what is worthy. In the commercial world, if people don't think something is worth paying for, then that item is not worth making. The whole thing revolves around what people believe they need to own, and what they are willing to give up to achieve that. The cost of making the product has to come in under this figure - if not... forget it.

Buying and the evaluation preceding it distill our perceptions of the world into tangible form. But if we can separate it out from this cycle of product manufacture, technology is just a tool, and if we could use it in a different way, by asking what it is we would REALLY like our lives to be like, we might start investigating other ways to consume. Doesn't mean we won't pay for things, but we might perceive that a greater part of our consuming, and ownership means different things. We already understand that with sports, or watching a play - there's no material benefit, but we recognize the experience is worth paying for. We've all seen the bumper sticker saying The best things in life aren't things...

The work in this exhibition has been able to disregard the criteria that keeps work "up to standard" somehow, for the viewer - which relies, of course, on the idea of desirable ownership. In contrast, this work I am showing is made out of cheap or free materials, it has required little or no skill (or rather, it demonstrates "poor craftsmanship"), and it questions the idea of perfection. Just what makes us decide that something is perfect, or flawed? Perfection seems to be a particularly industrial concept, that dictates that the correct product is exactly the same as all the others. Otherwise it is a mistake, and they are conning you into paying for substandard goods. Yet we then pay over the odds for customized items - or versions of customization... limited edition, special collection, hand appliqued, signed by the artist, certificate of authenticity etc. It is interesting.

So, the exhibition provides me with an opportunity to explore some of these ideas, allowing me to discard some of the measures of what might be acceptable. The prevailing - or dominant - assumptions have a powerful hold.

This work grows out of an interest in wider, cultural concerns. My understanding is that examining the way we use technology has a vital role to play in cultural development. This area is not one that we are encouraged to explore but is actually open to all humans with imagination. This makes change, and a change of consciousness within the power (and responsibility) of individuals, not just corporations, scientists and politicians.

As an artist, or individual, it may be enough to allow an idea houseroom - each contribution may work in small ways. The seeds of an idea may bear fruit many years or decades later, filtered through new technology, different philosophies and other, brilliant and focused individuals. Ideas don't have to supply all the answers, just show that something different is possible. The Wright brothers showed flight was possible, but could they have imagined a jumbo jet with 500 passengers in the air for 22 hours, with movies and meals? Or landing on the moon?

deskilled process

2008-11-20T18:59:00.001-08:00

Drawing (coca cola crate), 2008
cast iron grindings, acrylic, Fabriano paper, 10 x 13 inches

Well, the wood grain in the last picture is not the real thing, but it looks like it. Here the coca cola crate does look like the real thing, and was actually created by the real thing, but it doesn't look the way we expect it to.

This is one of a series of "drawings" created using various powders, and gravity. We are familiar with photograms, which use light sensitive emulsion to record the effects of an object deflecting light. Here gravity is used, and the object concerned deflects particles - just not photons, but physical particles that accumulate showing the effects of that deflection. The result describes the object quite faithfully via its edges, so can be considered a drawing, but is not created as traditional drawings are, through the mediation of the artist. Its a kind of factory drawing.... more direct than the "Leonardo Drawing" you can buy at the mall...

And very much in tune with my paintings - that use particles of paint set in motion by the compressed air in my spray gun - that record the deflection that occurs to paint particles when a stencil is placed on the canvas, obstructing their path.

faux grain

2008-11-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

Faux grain and egg dish, 2006
oil paint on board, 14 x 14 inches

No spray gun used here, I was back to stenciling with a soft bristle brush - over contrasting colors of oil paint squeegeed into wood grain patterns by that clever little tool from Home Depot.

Emulating the appearance of another (usually more expensive) material is a "traditional" decorative technique used on furniture and interiors. Interestingly during the 20th Century this practice has also been used to distress paint and surfaces, furniture, carpets, etc to look older and more traditional than they are - as older has been associated with craftsmanship and rarity in the age of industrial production. The idea of falseness or pretense, and trompe l'oeil also ties into the fine arts with the surrealist movement. The difference is that decorative faux finish is (kinda) meant to pass as real, whereas surreal faux is meant to surprise by obviously being unreal. The use of replicated imagery also links to Picasso's first deliberate collage using printed chair-caning pattern, using industrially produced imagery to play with the notion of real and unreal...of both the pattern and whether a collage, especially using such a lowly material can claim status as art.

It is fascinating to experiment in this area, with so many ideas to play with and new ways of combining and expressing them. All because pigment has been concentrated in particular layouts!

Like my other work, Faux grain and egg dish is unmistakeably created using deskilled techniques - the graining tool and stenciling round a plastic dish - but more so than my other work this one creates a (semi) realistic illusion. There's a luscious gravity to this, and yet a childish delight in the wooden shapes that seem to be lifting off. Flowers, even, where no flowers would be. To be real, as the illusion suggests, the wood and the shapes lifting off from it would have to be crafted by a skilled artisan...or a factory router...referring back to different methods of production.

more process, and other discoveries

2008-10-26T14:27:00.001-07:00

Tires and circular objects, 2006, 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas.

As far back as 1997 I was trying to create softly diffused areas of color with the "end grain" of a round brush. I inherited a compressor when I moved into a studio in Knoxville in 2003 and a spray gun created that diffused area in an instant. It made certain paintings possible as I explored what it could do.

People have been fascinated by this painting, curious about how it was made and the softness that pervades it. The fact that the grey layer went on first, and the pink layer last is like a puzzle also. The sprayed pink appears to be a background but it is the top layer of paint. Its like thinking backwards, figuring out what each set of objects will create when stenciled around.

I discovered the painter Tomma Abts earlier this year, with an announcement about a showing in NY. I love her work. She won the Turner Prize in the UK in 2006 - why didn't I hear about it? Not doing much net trawling at that point obviously, working through my own path towards maturity in art practice - often that has to be a journey you make alone. Anyway, she creates paintings in a back to front method with stenciling and has similar conceptual concerns in some areas (images are not derived from reality but create their own reality).

Tomma Abts. Pabe, 2000, acrylic & oil on canvas, 48 x 38 cm. (left)

Tomma Abts. Luhr, 2004, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 38 cm (right)

process

2008-10-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Space (tags and inserts),2006
acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

My work could be thought of as process-based though not in an entirely pure sense . My method revolves around deskilled processes but with a wider focus.

Deskilled processes are those from which the skill has been removed. Industrial production relies on particular actions repeated indefinitely and mechanically, each the same, each having the same, perfect outcome. Industry moves towards perfection in this way (no "unskilled" mistakes) because it speeds things up, increases profits, cuts down on waste. My interest is in using these deskilled processes for different reasons, obtaining different outcomes. Stenciling and printing are basic forms of deskilled processes.

Stenciling is also used in homes as a deskilled way of creating yards of customized decor. It has a domestic flavor, low end. Craft magazines. You, too, can have a beautiful home with this easy project. Country cottage, cottage industries. It can however be hugely impactful and effective if designed or applied by someone with an eye for color, composition etc. So the creation of the design could be called skilled (there's a whole can of worms here about taste and evaluation but we won't go there), and it can then be applied by someone else who doesn't want to bother with, or hasn't thought about those other factors. Who isn't being paid to have those skills etc. There are numerous cultural references woven through the idea of deskilling.

So, to create shapes on the canvas I take a shape and stencil round it - shazam! Done. No drawing, observing from life, imagination, anything. Deskilled... but not deskilled. What happens next? Why am I using it, what for? I love the effects - the hard and soft edges, the crisp curves. I love that it is actually creating a particularly contemporary shape, lifted straight out of my daily life. The deskilled process used in industry is importing the direct evidence or traces of an industrially produced object, but the same method has been seen in cave paintings from the dawn of history. It is thought that a mouthful of pigment was blown onto the cave wall over the artist's hand, leaving us with hand stencils - Kilroy was here in the most basic sense!

Stenciling relies on single or simple combinations of paint colors applied in layers... and what has been happening all through my art practice but paint being applied in layers! Why? Because layers naturally avoid perspective and optical space, but by layering stenciled shapes I begin to create the illusion of space again, engaging with traditional visual mechanisms. Via a different route - a route that is not limited by the assumptions of real experience or the conventional ways of abstracting imagery from it.

abstract turning points

2008-10-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

(above ) Found objects in green and black with light rods, 2006
acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Here are two paintings with obvious links to the painting Harlem Window shown in the last post. It is also obvious that they have no further need of real life situations because the focus has shifted to visual dynamics. As understood in a fine art context, the situation on the canvas has enough of its own references to continue exploration.

Sounds simple, but there was a lot of searching done between 1998 and 2005! Making artwork when I don't know exactly what I'm going to end up with is the only way I can stay excited about making art. (I can compare the experience to stumbling around a room blindfolded, believing that doors exist but not knowing where or what they are). The night scenes I painted before, for example, were only fresh and interesting while I was using them to explore the unknown. After that they became formulaic and dull. They still seemed to sell, but I couldn't keep painting them as a main practice. I think there are still exciting "realist" paintings in me, but I don't yet know what form they will take, exactly.

(below) Space # 7, 2005
acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Harlem Window

2008-10-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

Harlem Window, 1998
Oil on board, 60 x 36 inches

Terrible photo of an important work... This painting went into the student show at the Royal Academy in Edinburgh and sold within a couple of months of painting it. (For GBP450...). This (paper) photo actually has the shadow of a gallerygoer moving across it at speed, I've had to doctor that out in photoshop. I don't even have the negative - a friend took it when we went to the opening. Its not that I was ignorant of the need to keep records but sometimes life takes a while to catch up with your intentions.

As a little aside, at college I worked almost as hard as I had done at my business, and that's saying something! I would be at my desk writing at about 7.30 am (nice when I had the 3rd floor apartment looking out over the Tay), get to the art school studio at 9.30 or so, work til 7 or 9 pm when they closed the building, then go home and experiment with photoshop until I fell off the chair in the wee hours. Sunday was food shopping and laundry day. Each summer (five in all) I worked for 10 weeks grafting roses in a field 6 days a week 12 hours a day. Try picking potatoes all day and you'll be halfway to the backbreaking nature of the job. With thorns. Kept me fit (I was in my late 30's at the time). Great money (in student terms), raised my yearly wage to about GBP 6,000. Most of the tuition was paid for by the state, but I still have GBP 4500 in loans to pay back. Oh, yeah, and I moved nearly every summer to another apartment, storing my stuff for a few months in between. It was a helluva time.

So, anyway, I was kinda busy with the things I thought were important. Even if I didn't manage great photos. It was one of the most intense and wonderful times of my life, and there seemed to be enough money for a lot of homemade bloody marys.

Why am I posting this terrible picture? Well, its a turning point in my art practice. I went to New York (a guy paid my ticket) for the weekend. It was a bit of a disaster but very useful. The guy lived in Harlem and prowling round the apartment on my own in the middle of the night... as you do when its a disaster... I saw streetlights through some dark, flowered curtains in his bathroom window. The apartment was nice, wood floors, plants etc, but I'd heard so much about Harlem over the years that the comparison between the space inside and outside struck me as extreme. I mean, here I was in my knickers and a few feet away was the dangerous slum of legend...(!) Visually, all that separated the spaces was this bathroom curtain. It made a huge impact.

A few months later I saw, no - recognized what I was seeing - on the airport window as the compression of several situations into one image. Needless to say, curtains and windows occupied my attention as representing the boundary between spaces that were contiguous but perceived to be different.

photographic exploration of ideas

2008-10-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

In Transit Bus, 1999, photograph

So, during my MFA I explored the idea of the glass and reflections in photographs, which capture the essence of several realities at once.

This image was taken inside a bus between an aircraft and the terminal. I didn't care that it was blurred. Visually I found it luscious and the blurring to convey a sense of temporariness, and the existence of other priorities. It is full of information about the implied situation(s). As passengers, we are not allowed outside onto the tarmac. We have to stay inside the safety of the bus because we don't understand the rules out there (and we probably aren't insured...). In fact, having arrived from another country, we are not allowed outside the airport perimeter as we haven't gone through immigration yet (haven't officially arrived). So those lights a few miles away could be seen as being in a different country altogether from the one we are in. Conceptually.

I was really into the french philosopher Marc Auge at that time who has some interesting things to say about non-space, ie an area we do not have a history, relationship or connection with, and I explored that for a while in writings, travel paintings, views from hotels and aircraft windows etc.

My interest eventually continued past this to the principle of different spaces themselves, especially perceptions of adjoining but different spaces - not divided by concrete boundaries. Visually, objects like windscreen wipers, reflections, curtains etc, that differentiate between personal and public space, began to translate into the layering of floating abstract shapes.

NOTE

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important windows at night

2008-09-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

In transit, 1999, 96 x 60 inches
Acrylic, spray paint, varnish and metallic powder on board
(the diamond shapes are shiny silver and show up best as you move past the painting - I didn't use a professional photographer in those days)

This is quite a striking painting at 8 feet tall! It was bought from my degree show by "Art in Hospitals", an organization that loans art to healthcare facilities in Scotland. It is still on show in the Glasgow and Edinburgh area. Good to know that many people are seeing it on a daily basis. Art in hospitals does help, even when you'd rather not be there...most of us have experienced that! There is a LOT of fabulous and very contemporary art in Scottish hospitals (which by the way are "free" to all because healthcare is seen as a basic human necessity...let's not get started on that!)

Anyway, I mentioned in the PLANE posting that I went on to see "the airport terminal window". This happened in 1998 and is one of two pivotal experiences that showed me it was possible to represent several very different circumstances in a single image.

In this painting the diamond shapes are obviously reflections of lights inside the terminal as they recede into the distance (we know it is a public place - few houses have that configuration and quantity of lights). There is also a vertical stripe of darkness, as if there is a shadowed area or wall reflected in the window. There are drips and runs... rain on the outside of the glass. Then there are rounded light shapes that seem to be beyond all of this - they represent the world of the airport outside. So several circumstances are indicated by the images layered on top of each other. Because we understand it as a window, we are familiar with what it is representing.

This translated into framing mechanisms and barriers in night scenes after my MFA (Riverside Walk featured in an earlier post, for example). Then when I came to the USA, the idea that layers of separate origin and inference could be meaningfully compressed into a single image started to offer possibilities within "abstract" work, opening up investigation of visual conventions themselves.

We are familiar with images that operate via ONE visual convention - optical reality is a visual convention, for example, its how we see things as we walk around. A map, a diagram, an architectural plan, are all separate (though related) visual conventions - ie we understand on what basis information is represented, what that coded information is telling us. The airport window combined several visual codes, accessible because we are familiar with its realism. Other combinations are possible.

This is not a new idea - David Salle, James Rosequist, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmar Polke - spring immediately to mind as mixing visual conventions. Currently it is actually the basis (in various subtle ways) of contemporary artists' work such as Sarah Morris, Rebecca Morris, Mary Temple, even Olafur Eliasson, where the old abstract ideas are played on but used very differently. (Some of these have featured on my other blog). We all find our own pathways to similar destinations...

moving on

2008-09-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

Sardine can repeat on pink, 2007
36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

Nothing concrete in the background of this painting, no realist associations as with the windows and wing of Plane. But the same principles of line and separation apply. I have moved on to the more abstract (as in thought, not as "traditional" modernist abstraction) use of shape. The fact that the shape is derived from a manufactured object ready to be thrown away and achieved by deskilled processes of printing and stenciling introduces aspects of mechanized production. Anonymous replication... but messed up with drips and mistakes that bring it to life. I was thinking about Warhol's portraits of Marilyn while doing this, the colors and the grainy mess of black... With all that reference material, who needs to refer to physical or "lived" situations? Cultural situations have become much more interesting. They are more fluid, less restricted on all sorts of levels. They open themselves up to new outcomes more easily.

plane - forward looking painting

2008-09-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Plane 1998 (destroyed)

In amongst all this other work, strange but telling paintings appeared. This was small and rough, with sand in the paint (if in doubt do something - anything!). The circles are paper cut-outs stuck on with glue. It is the manifestation of ideas I would understand later.

It annoyed me but it seemed to work, I saw its roughness but couldn't throw it away. I had it in the studio space when a NY art critic and author came round doing tutorials. I was very frustrated and not able to make sense of all the other larger canvases I was mixing up different kinds of imagery on. She picked Plane out as "speaking to her" and told me basically that when I understood what I was trying to do, I'd find the way to do it. Within a few months I saw the airport terminal window and how its reflections compressed different layers into a meaningful image. It was 2004 before I'd finished with experiments with realist imagery and moved into my current work.

Could say this painting was a milestone. Guess what? I burned it in my wood stove on the Isle of Mull in 2002 before coming to America. (Winters are cold and wet on the West coast of Scotland). It lives on in my current work. After all, it links to traditional creation of illusion, but also and obviously references a very contemporary experience of life. Once I finally learned to import shapes in more "industrial" ways, recognizable realism could be exchanged for direct connections. And therefore "cleaner" outcomes. (Less cluttered by preconceptions and assumptions.)

Karin Davie, showing at the Aldrich just now is described as "a leading artist in the current wave of painting practices that are transforming the legacy of high modernism in order to capture the dynamics of contemporary culture." Way to go.

Philosophical reflections on windows

2008-08-23T10:07:00.001-07:00

While traveling, you are in between destinations, miles from a familiar environment.

At night, lights show up human activity or presence, without other distracting landscape information. You may be in a train carriage or in a car splashing along on the freeway and over behind those distant lighted windows someone is working late, or might be drinking hot chocolate in front of the TV.

Lights supply a surprising amount of information. Factory or office lights have certain flavors, cooler colors. Lights from people’s homes are warm, protected. Even driving through an unfamiliar city at night we can tell quite accurately what kind of neighborhoods we pass through. (Not much hot chocolate being drunk in these images!)

Separation of personal and public space seems clear, and also the idea of different simultaneous experiences. These are not new concepts, but including them in the images I was creating drove me to experiment with a variety of approaches. It wasn’t the beautiful scene I wanted to depict, but the experience of passing and the different “realities” compressed within the image.

top image : Night Trains : Estate, 2000, oil on board, 8 x 4 inches
lower image : Rest Stop, 2000, slide image

Evolution of work

2008-08-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Sketches from a train describe the shapes of lighted windows at night. 1998.

Spray paint through a stencil shows office windows as might be seen from a bus - the stencil is mis-registered to get a sense of movement. Passenger II, 2000.

Though referencing modernist abstraction, this cut-away shape still suggests location and landscape. Black square, 2005.

Surface and depth get entangled with dress patterns - revealing and concealing. Sleeve, 2006

Moving into photographs

2008-08-14T21:10:00.001-07:00

Leaving Luton Airport, 2002
photograph

Using found shapes - as recorded by the film emulsion. A short step to letting go of "reality-derived" imagery, and creating found shapes in painting by using mechanical means ... only took me 4 years to figure it out!

Experiments

2008-08-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

want to see how big I can make these images...

Riverside walk, 2001
oil on board, 16 x 16 inches

Express

2008-08-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Express, 2001, oil on board, 10.5 x 14 inches

Here is the example I promised showing me learning about constructing space using lights in a dark void. The lights separate from the background (which changes to indicate sky or slightly closer land) and larger lights/discs are read as closer. The distant, smaller discs are not so bright. In this painting I have also made use of several other connections or inferences, playing around with them.

The title implies that the scene is viewed from a fast train. There's a flattening, like its all happening on the other side of a window, and the flat discs can be seen occasionally if the window is wet and you stick your nose up against the glass... otherwise its obviously referencing photography, or film, where unfocused lights look this way. There's also a sense of movement in the slight slippage and repetition of some of the lights, and the fact that they are sort of running in together (also a feature seen in film). Aside from that, there are some areas that could be reflections inside the train carriage (ie the top red area).

This work and others of the time did not arise out of wanting to capture specific scenes (oh, it looks just like Chicago - people always say that, it is a way of connecting), but are more about the wonder of my experiences on trains at night, and the philosophical questions they raised for me. More about that later...

Josef Sudek

2008-08-12T16:18:00.001-07:00

Influences ... In 1998 I had seen an exhibiton of Joseph Sudek's photographs from his small studio in Prague. In this series - The Window of my Studio - his windows often have rain or condensation on them, distorting and affecting the view, emphasizing the separation between internal and external (worlds). They are richly mysterious, very soulful and melancholy. I don't find them that fascinating any more but there is a relevant connection with my current work.

An article on Sudek says he was "devoted to introspection and explorations of his soul. He believed that symbolic form equates with inner emotions, a philosophy shared by many painters of his era". (Elenore Welles, artscenecal.com)

What I continue to find more interesting than the subject matter is the understanding that the image represents more than the scene itself. Exploring the relationship between form and meaning is the link between the diverse areas my work has passed through. If I paint this, what will it mean? If I photograph something this way, what is it saying? If I combine this kind of imagery with this kind of idea, what will stand out as important?

I don't believe in absolute and quantifiable links between a shape and, say a feeling - that is a philosophy long de-bunked in art theory. My understanding is that form and meaning have a flexible, changeable relationship, one that is difficult to pin down because it depends on culture, era, information and attitudes. Images DO suggest connections to many other things, and the connections rely on levels of awareness obtained through the viewer's life in terms of education, exposure and experience.

This is where it gets interesting because many viewers will have a similar level of awareness to the artist, and those connections can become things to play around with. It is all entirely fascinating!

The link to artscenecal is

http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1999/Articles1099/JSudekA.html

and these 3 tiny images were culled from the online collection of Sudek’s work at www.mfa.org

Night corridor

2008-08-10T10:59:00.001-07:00

Night corridor, 1998, photograph

During the day this university corridor is a busy place. At night, light spill turns mundane into magical even while highlighting its overwhelming emptiness.

Interestingly, the light sources - sources of energy – are elsewhere, separated from the viewer by doors and doorways, and the wonderful glowing light on the left is coming from a men’s restroom. The idea of identifying different kinds of space (a kind of spatial polarity?) and the understanding that beauty can be found in the ordinary continues through my contemporary work.

Night scene

2008-08-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is a painting from 8 years ago, incorporating flatness, stenciling and abstraction into the night scenes. Before I could understand how to move forward (and let go of realism completely) I explored the creation of space and inferred meaning of shapes through night scenes. I'll post an example if I can find a digital version - I didn't have a good digital camera back then... ! Hard to believe now.

Window, 2000, oil on board, 18 x 18 inches

what's with the light?

2008-08-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

This light work seems like a departure from the paintings - or does it? I love the night, and my paintings of 8 - 9 years ago explored night scenes. Lots of skylines and the glow of cities, silhouettes of things that appeared absent in the darkness.

Shadows have been attracting me for a while and they spring from the same fascination as my paintings, the same ideas run through everything.

Silhouettes, stenciling and shadows...shapes that block or allow access - to something : light, paint, x-rays, whatever. Ultimately, making 3D information available as a flat shape or series of shapes.

2008-08-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Pay-per-view art, 2008
Coin-operated installation in a theater lobby

It was fascinating to watch people figure this out. Kids were the most curious and adventurous, putting coins in without prompting. Adults tended to walk straight past but found the concept funny and thought provoking when they saw it working.

I loved fixing up the coin meter - it is from a different world. Its shape, the solid, fortress-like quality of its heavy manufacture screams laundromat and parking meter. Inside it is old fashionedly mechanical, but very efficient and functional. It actually rejects all but 25 cent pieces, as they said it would... Totally ingenious. Interesting to set up the time intervals that could be bought. I wanted people to see it in action which meant a short time (30 seconds!) but that was a bit ambitious as it ate up the money for not enough perceived return.

In terms of value, I tried amortizing a theoretical cost of the artwork over x years, with estimated exposure time in hours.... too many unknowns. It will end up being what the market will bear. Actually putting money in to see the artwork really highlights the idea of nothing being free...its insatiable! Relentless! Interestingly, all visitors benefit from the purchases and payments supporting the gallery system, unlike most other commercial transactions. Lots of thoughts about value.

2008-07-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

Some links here with the painting, but larger than life! This photograph was taken at my old studio in Tennessee when I was starting to experiment with light in 2007.

I now have a solo show of paintings in Asheville, NC and at the opening night I showed a slide show of these digital images, along with a light installation with a coin-operated timer. It looked great, and I will have a picture for the blog soon. It expands the idea behind the paintings and the new drawings using metal dust.

The idea is that the shadow is formed by a simple, mechanical process of light being blocked as it travels out from a source. That is what happens when I spray round a stencil in the paintings, or when I use the metal dust and gravity to draw an object that is present.

2008-06-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday

2008-06-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

Stenciled objects in yellow, 16 x 16 inches, acrylic on canvas.

I want to share my thoughts about this painting. For me it captures the feeling of life's dualities - energies that can be at odds but that are also interwoven with each other. Jennifer McNally, the arts writer at the Laurel of Asheville magazine likened it to bubblegum punk music, saying that there's confidence, brightness and surface, attitude and edge, but also darkness and chaos, a gritty underlayer.

As the painter, what do I see in it? There are smooth, organized shapes, crisp curves and bright colors in front, but the shapes cut out of this sunny yellow suggest bites, as if insect jaws have been at work. The view it reveals is troubling... black, rough bars, or trees, with bloody spatters and the murky gloom of twilight. But it is pretty - I love the contrast between the flatness and the grain of the brush strokes, the brightness of the yellow with the minor key of the blues behind. I love the smooth edges of the yellow shapes, and the flaws that show up as blips or hazy sections - the edges are as interesting as a pencil line. And I love the sense that there is another world presented beyond a barrier that separates us from it, like a garden fence. The barrier is clear, it connects to our space and has no hidden depths, but it is the boundary of another world beyond, a world that looks beautiful and whose rules are uncertain. It is visceral and slightly exciting. Dangerous perhaps.

catching up

2008-06-13T04:50:00.001-07:00

That was a bit of a break! Woke early this morning and after going through a few hoops re-setting the password and all that (you know the routine -where DID I write all that info down??) I am keen to get this blog going. I am very excited about some new paintings I have been doing, too, so I'll try to get some pics of them on here.

I've also been busy organizing - a different brain function to the creative side...taking up a lot of space recently. Got an exhibition coming up next month, and have been getting publicity for that, getting it in some papers and magazines, and sorting out the invitations and... of course, what paintings will be hanging. And the wine for the opening, and the food, and stuff like that.

Also in the last month I have signed with an art consultancy firm who will represent my work to hotels and hotel chains around the world, as originals, or possibly prints. It appears to be high end mainly so don't think it means I'll see myself in Days Inn next time I'm staying in an obscure location off the I75, but would that be such a bad thing? I pondered that for a while but came to the conclusion that it would be ok.

starting off

2008-04-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I've never written a blog before, but there are a lot of cool things happening, and this is maybe a good place to share them. I've just started looking at other artists' blogs and like the ones with artwork. So, its my intention to include a lot of images and creative stuff.