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What you will find here

… are galleries of my paintings and installation work, posts about work I made or am making, and a lot of blogs about other artists’ work that I find interesting and inspiring. If you’re looking for one of 1,000+ artists about which I’ve posted some content and at least one image, scroll down, use the menu (options to search by hashtag or thumbnail gallery) or the search bar below.

There’s a subscription feature for this blog and thanks if you decide to follow along.

BTW, “yes,” the title of this blog is a reference to Arthur Danto’s collection of essays “After The End of Art.” This book had a good bit of influence on me in grad school around the time I decided to take some time away – I accept the primary theses that Art has no where left it has to go as a mission or project of westernized culture. If there’s nothing left we have to do as part of some grand narrative we should do what we love and let the future worry about what we did that was of historical value. Personally, I’d rather be a cool ancestor than a loyal descendant.

Practice

Those of you who read this blog are probably either artists yourselves or know many at least, and so you’ve heard one of us, certainly, talk about “having a practice.” If you don’t know what this means I’ll forewarn you that doing a search on the internets for a definition will take you all kinds of places, and I won’t attempt to be the definitive answer to the “what is a practice” question. I have a practice. It was re-born from a question I asked myself during a turbulent time– effectively what am I leaving this world- to which I answered “if abstract painting matters enough to me that I want it to exist in the future, I have to invest in it by making it, talking about it, looking at it, buying it, teaching about it, and challenging it as a medium and a historical movement.”

For me a practice is about a sum of activities, IE, it’s more than the actions and discipline around making work. For example, showing up; in this case, being at openings for your people. And “your people” are the ones who support you in return, whatever that means. There is a David Hickey quote about forming a club and taking over the Art world that I can’t find on the Internet this morning (and whichever of you I loaned my copy of Air Guitar, please return it.

Teaching is another part of my practice. Since I have full-time employment outside of the Art world, I have the privilege to teach for the love of it as the kids say, I think… This semester I’m teaching Foundations of Color through OLLI at Duke. Honestly I would do this full time if I could- I love teaching color.

Part of having a practice, to me at least, is also continually challenging yourself. In addition to reinvigorating my practice through daily drawing recently, I also took the opportunity this last week to learn about a new printmaking technique- using the foil material in TetraPak cartons as a plate. There are a few images of the results below, my brain is spinning with the possibilities. If you have the opportunity and are local to the Triangle I definitely recommend taking one of Susan Martin’s workshops.

Melvin Edwards

ArtNews asks us who gets to be abstract in the context of revisiting Frank Bowling‘s show from 1969, “5+1”(a show which also included Al, Jack, Daniel and William)? I had heard of Melvin Edwards before from listening to this amazing artist talk. In my head I didn’t lump Melvin in with Sam and William because candidly there is a lot of recognizable materials in his work (see below) and then of course this article made me question that. tldr- the punchline of the essay is that, when Stony Brook attempted to re-stage the show the curators found significant archival gaps because the academic gatekeepers of the late ’60s didn’t deem the show important enough to document. The show reboot also includes many black women such as Howardena and Mary.

More (and more #blackartists)

#melvinedwards

Focus

Back to trying to find a word to reflect on as part of an update. Thinking about this one- focus- because the intellectual exercise of drawing my way through Oblique Strategies has already shifted from my last update. After a scattered start I am finding it easier to use the prompts to think my way through my practice of drawing the cubes. I’ve also given the practice some “rules”: 1 drawing per day; pick drawing materials before the prompt; 15 minute time limit; photograph each drawing with the prompt and the music I was listening to while drawing; and journal briefly about the thought process immediately after.

Also, my work got to be in focus for the local scene this last week. I’m so excited by the work I have up at Attic 506, I hope those of you in NC are able to check it out (they are open on second Friday art walks, by appointment and most Saturdays 1-4pm, announced via their IG feed). Time lapse of one of these wall drawings below!

Dimensions reboot

Hey readers- if you’re around the Thrill tonight, head on over to Attic 506. Yours truly will have some of the largest versions yet of the cube assemblies up! And if you miss it today, they’re up through March. Other great openings at Peel and FRANK as well. I’m very excited about this work and will add new reflections to my previous ones on this blog very soon.

Richard Smith

Richard Smith, CBE (27 October 1931 – 15 April 2016) was an English painter and printmaker. Smith produced work in a range of styles, and is credited with extending the field of painting through his shaped, sculptural canvases. A key figure in the British development of Pop Art, Smith was chosen to represent Britain in the 1970 Venice Biennale.

#richardsmith

Lisa Nanni

is one of many artists* featured on this blog that was included in Blurring Boundaries: The Women Of AAA**, 1936–present.

*Anne, Laurie, Gabriele, Rhia and Emily (as well as many creatives who were members during their lives) are members of **American Abstract Artists, a predecessor to the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, and contributed to the development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States. American Abstract Artists is one of the few artists’ organizations to survive from the Great Depression and continue into the 21st century.

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#lisananni