Category: updates

I’ve been working on a series of installation pieces that I call remixes for some time now (below, dates to May of ’20). They began when I realized there were some elements of paintings that (as a whole) I didn’t feel resonated, and began to cut up the canvases and thumb-tack the parts to the wall, rearranging them as if the cubes or clusters of cubes were individual compositional elements. Remixes belong to my generation so I’m quite comfortable owning that nomenclature and “yes,” I’m also down with the idea that the experiential element of music is quite often similar to the experiential elements of visual art (and I’ll note that just because music remixes are the most familiar instance of this modality, remixing is not unique to the media).

To me, the act of intuitive “play” without a known or pre-determined outcome- an objective- is what makes much formalist abstract art, well, non-objective. There’s something more with these reassemblies than the element of play though- they create or imply space (that they exist in it) by their proximity and overlap. The “pop” between these “layers” is something I’ve thought and written and talked about over many years, and I’m certain the appeal has something to do with the influence that cel animation had on my aesthetics (which in many cases is cooler than anything I’ll ever make, see example from Akira below).

Of late, the compositions I’m exploring have not only scaled up (compare first image below of an early iteration to the last one) but also attempted to engage a more bombastic combination of chromas (second image). One of the things I learned when I showed them recently, too, is that, to enhance and foreground their experiential and temporary qualities, they should change each time they are shown. I’ve also recently purchased some lights so I can use one of the walls in my studio as a canvas (stage?) to work through new ideas/configurations (and capture the resulting compositions in hopes that I can also create some new opportunities for them to exist outside my studio).

Also been thinking about some of the artists I’ve enjoyed over the years that have at times made work that engages negative space and/or implied space: Elizabeth Murray’s frenetic cartoon energy that defied the notion of the painting as a rectangle; Stella’s late work that reflected back to society the impact of digital imagery that overtook hand-drawn graphic design at the end of the 20th Century; Al Held’s non-sensical labyrinths; and Elsworth Kelly’s always amazing ability to energize the space around a shape.

So as I mentioned above is the basis for a new piece I’ve started. It has foregrounded a number of tools that I employ, including of course using the process of making unplanned studies as a way to surface ideas for finished pieces.

I recycled the composition from an earlier piece (made sense to me since I am also recycling the support) which required a photo from my tablet, desktop software, a stylus for tracing and then isolating and printing the copied cartoon on a sheet of acetate (which involves a printer and of course a transparency projector). I don’t think I’m the only 45+ Gen X’er with a fondness for analog technologies. Technically I could have used the projector and a sheet of acetate to trace the cartoon, completely side stepping any digital device- something to think on… I plan to reuse the transparency later in the painting, too, to repeat the cartoon in red. Tape and the use of a maul stick eventually feature as other “technologies” I’ll leverage to get at an aesthetic that blurs the line between drawing and painting.

Quite a bit going on, actually.

First things first, top left is my first finished piece of the year (small, 20”x23”). Both it and the one to the right were developed from studies. The one on the right is going to be the first in a small series (top left below). My first shaped canvas is still taking shape (I’m hilarious, I know) and I finished a composition for a second- every time I took a photo of the finished piece at an angle (last two images in the gallery below) I became more convinced this is a strategy to pursue.

Also, and… the study bottom left below is scaling up. I’m recycling the composition from an earlier piece. I’ll have a work in progress page for it once I get the drawing transferred. AND…I’m also updating a small earlier piece with a cartoon (it didn’t have one in its first life), the sketch is pictured far right below (the first iteration is far right in the top right photo in the first gallery above).

1/17/22

Been working on a smaller piece based on a study loosely based on a drawing (or at least the approach of drawing on acetate as a proxy for using acrylic with thick, clear isolation layers).

Also thinking about how some early Modernists put compositions together, in particular how Weber, Picasso, Leger and Braque used a narrow chroma range with a high tonal range and a really dark dark (at least they did during their analytical cubism phases).

I’ve written about processing the value of having shown work, and making studies to generate new ideas. I’ve also started a new piece (based on an old one) that to me feels less about running off in an entirely new direction and more like… veering.

As soon as I got the drawing onto the canvas, which was stapled to the studio wall, it became clear that a container for all these containers would be more dramatic if the angles weren’t all 90°. Shaped canvases require learning about mitering acute and obtuse angles- the first take (pre-“research”, IE YouTube) was of course entirely wrong.

So, I’ve had a little more time to process since my last update regarding the direction my work- or my painting at least- has headed since I installed my (solo!!!) show at Golden Belt’s Grand Gallery, Dimensions. And the thing I keep coming back to is gratitude, for this opportunity. It’s an incredible privilege to have the capacity to make work that doesn’t need to exist for commercial purposes- it’s liberating and I hope I can hold on to that context for a bit longer. And I won’t lie, some folks who are farther along in their careers than I (due to their work and commitment) have taken me more seriously lately, which is validating if perhaps a little egocentric (I am a frickin’ artist though…).

Some details- the natural light in the space is amazing, I’d have taken the opportunity to hang this show just to get some of the images I got.

This is what I wrote as a statement for the show btw fwiw icymi: “Dimension is a noun meaning “a measurable extent of some kind.” Dimension also has another meaning- “an aspect or feature of a situation”- which, again, references attention towards the visual character of a thing. The contrast between the features- including the physical dimensions- of the cubes is the source of each piece’s dynamism. The cube assemblages-which are not attached permanently to each other or the wall-foreground gravity and light in a way that paintings cannot. I treat the cubes as proxies for brushstrokes as I spontaneously assemble them into temporary compositions that are never repeated. The process for making this installation relied on reacting to the cubes themselves and to the dimensions of the Grand Gallery. For many of us “dimension” also refers to time (an element of the sculptures as they are temporary) and space (which they physically occupy). For me, these untitled abstractions are an exchange of energy and experience with an audience- a dynamic that requires space, and the passage of time.”

Having two shows this fall (group show at 311 Gallery and a solo at Golden Belt) has been amazing and validating, and work of course- first time showing both the cubes and remixes (which was a technical challenge). It also felt like closure. So in that context I’ve felt drawn to move the paintings in a new and slightly different direction. A practice based on formal investigation and experimentation probably should, right?

Having the cubes and the remixes up and together on walls with the paintings also made me want the latter to be even more distinct. So I’ve begun working through what I’ve wanted to “push” more from the prior work and thinking more about the edges of the cubes and how I incorporate line. Some early examples below, at least 3 of which are likely to be further developed (“yes” the two in the bottom left are an example of a spot where I’m far enough along to start responding to earlier studies with newer ones).

One of the series I’ve been developing for the last year are what I call re-mixes. These pieces make use of the many studies that I’ve done to develop approaches for finished paintings.

The most intriguing part of these works is that they appear to occupy space- the same space- because they overlap in the same way that layers of cellular animation would. But the space is completely ambiguous.

The piece below is the newest (and largest) one I’ve done, you’ll see at the link above it is composed of elements from several prior remixes. It is installed in Durham in my Dimensions show.