Fluid Lines (with meaning)

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Smash 137  -  a fine contemporary Artist who's successfully transitioned his graffigraphy from the street to the gallery; deftly refocusing his abilities. This video from Graffuturism (and still images) gives a pretty good over view of the studio side of his oeuvre. Watching a b&w slideshow (complete with scintillating jazz) at Ruedione shows the strength of his compositions even without color.

I've had a "Smash File" for some time now; collecting links and wondering when I could properly present this artist's work. He is yet another example of how the many, familiar classic styles(schools) of modern and contemporary art are filtering through into street art today. His Diptych on concrete (below), with one panel empty is a familiar Andy Warhol trope. A short video of a Show at Speerstra has other examples that help make my point.

Justifiably proud of his work, his Website has 259 quality images. If that's too daunting for you, try skipping ahead by 3's or change the page number in your browser window. Besides traveling around the world, you'll soon notice that each piece (which is an iteration of his name) is titled and has it's own theme and color palette. The words "practice, practice, practice" come to mind and by-Jove, I think he's "got it". And yet, I much prefer his gallery pieces and hope this is just the beginning.

Enticing Textures

If you'll enlarge and study this painting ('Dream of Pollock' (for Kirk Varnedoe), 2007) by Martin Kline for just a minute, you'll get past the ho-hum feeling that he's emulating Pollock: he's not. The center area of this work is just a clue to the magnificent and colorful/textural paintings you'll find on his WEBSITE.  (3 pages of paintings)   I especially appreciate how he uses the color and grain of the panel supports to compliment his handiwork. It's unfortunate that the site's images don't enlarge, so I'm showing you this picture from a set of nineteen from his Show at Gowen Contemporary Gallery which includes installation shots and examples of other facets of his oeuvre.


Image from Gowen Contemporary.

Quiet Christmas

We didn't get snow for Christmas this year, so for all the planning, gifts and decorations it feels like something's missing. But the day will still be very special with church, dinner and time spent with loved ones.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas Day and hope for great things for all of us in the New Year.

Dot, Lines and Circles

Andrea Ferrigno's art will take you places. She samples so many different styles with her dots and lines that you'll wonder which way is up. I beg you to visit her Blog and enjoy this girl's seemingly, ever-changing oeuvre; because just one image does not fully represent her work.


Image is from her Blog.

Doodling With Power Tools

When DJ Simpson doodles, he does it in a big way. Using wooden support, laminate and/or industrial paints, he makes his marks with a router. I'd be curious to know his music choices; blaring over the mechanical din and shower of wood particles. You'll find a short Statement here.

The image is from Sies + Hoke Gallery and his 2006 Exhibition images. He has some smaller works in pinks and yellow that are quite charming.

Other images can be found at Sue Crockford Gallery and it's worth a look to see his installation at Gowen Contemporary.

The Dot Phase

I used to be somewhat surprised, but have become used to the fact that many an artist goes through a phase where they use dots in their paintings. Jozsef Bullas creates what might be loosely categorized as both op-art and fuzzy plaids. I mean that with the utmost respect and you'll see what I mean when you visit his Website. It's a treat, full of surprises to see the chronology of his work clear back to '89 and you'll notice that not only do some of the square patterns become round, but sometimes he's inserted a whole new train of thought by adding asymmetrical or random dots to the composition.

Typographic Topography

Keira Rathbone doesn't worry too much about words-per-minute; she's busy trying to get the perspective just right. It's just another proud example of artists finding ways to express themselves uniquely.

This image is from MyLoveForYou, where you'll find some more close-ups of this work and links to her site. More examples of her work Here.

And unbelievably, Mark Lawrence also does this kind of art with a more nuanced approach. Check out the middle two rows of images on his Website.

Today's Pointillism

Pointillism never really died. But if it did, it's been resurrected many times over and in many new and interesting ways. The two works in this image from John Houck's Website are a good case-in-point. These are (re)photographs and you'll appreciate them and his process a whole lot more by reading the short explanation Here.

Paisley, Pacific(NW) & Pop-Pointillism

This image is from Claes Gabriel's Website.

 The leaves have fallen and with the coming of snow, sometimes it feels like the world is turning dark and white. So treat yourself and visit his site.

Acrylic, Pencil & Collage

Sighklops 2011

mixed mediums on canvas by Adeaner

(  Dean Aldrich  )

              Your highheels worked their magic
              with the klippity-klop of little monsters.


              Your red lips beckoned
              with their war-paint grease.


              Your rose-capped mountains hollared
              "hike me!"


              an play





  

Pleasant Surprises

My Very Strength (is my weakness)

A while back, I finally got around to moving my "studio" from the screened-in porch to my bedroom for the winter: the timing was perfect. A special work table, my paints on a small 3-shelf bookcase and a 4' tall rack to hold paintings-in-progress was all that would fit and still allow me to enjoy the limited space. So I got settled into my room, surveyed the different paintings that should be "finished" and pulled this one out with every intention of taking it further. At least five or more years ago, this piece began from one of those moments in time where you have no idea what you're doing, but you  feel compelled to do it; almost like an itch. An artistic itch, I suppose. I remember, now that I was going through a difficult time; barely hanging on emotionally. And with no more ideas or direction, it sat until months or years later some blue, pink and cream was added to the background.  But now, suddenly I was falling in love with it. This felt more like a gift that I had finally gotten around to noticing and right out loud I said "I'm not touching this". So it hangs above the side of my bed and every morning and evening as I open or close my eyes, amazement and admiration fills me and I wonder how in the world I went about making this and could the process ever be repeated. "How did I do that?" - a thought that so often comes to an artist when viewing one of their successful paintings.

click on image to enlarge.

Asian Calligraphy-Styled Graffiti

This image of works by Tsang Tsou-choi, aka "The King Of Kowloon" is from CNN GO; you can read the Article Here.

More images at Arrested Motion.

Painted Text

Larry Mullins presents the idea of paintings having meaning, in a different way. His compositions are visually pleasing and the words act much as lyrics do in a song.  Unlike sheet music though, they act more like a puzzles to be solved. This link to his Website goes to the older examples first, so you can appreciate the more poetic style of the later works.

Some Press Here with links to a Review.

A Thicket Of Gestures

Some of Martha Sedgwick's paintings make you just want to stick you fingers right into them and rip till you get through to the other side; or at least find out what is on the other side. And I mean that in a good way. She's been working with marks and gestures for a while now and it's definitely her train-of-thought. Please do spend a little time snooping around her Website and see where she's been visually - very interesting. I was pretty amazed by her Gull Pond Series from 2002 and 03 (in the Archives) and hope she revisits that style again . They make for quite a juxtaposition with the snap-crackle of this one.

Painting, Writing & collage

This is one of several recent paintings where I've returned to my own particular painting roots which incorporate painting, drawing, writing, pastel and pencil work, newspaper collage and generated collage. (can't think of a proper term for it at the moment, what I'm talking about is collage generated by cutting up personal paintings or drawings: some of which might be over 20 years old, like the red piece, top right.) As usual, the title came early on in the painting: "The Other Side Of The Nickel".  I won't bore you with the details, but there's a story nice behind each component, including the writing parts.

At the moment it's hanging above the foot of my bed and every morning and evening I get to enjoy it all over again. This is on the thinner version of gallery-wrap canvas, so the painting extends around the edges. The word "water" is mostly on the bottom of the canvas with just the top of the W showing. I especially enjoy how the composition really spreads out over the canvas; seems to really fill up the space in a comfortable way; and how that yellowish bit of collage (at the top with the beginnings of the word "scienterrific") take you clear up to the top of the painting.

My last exhibition was a room full of my Dot Paintings. It was a good "hang" and I presented a concise statement and rather than "wall text", showed small thumbnails of the stages those paintings went through (next to each painting) to help further inform the viewer. An unexpected reaction to that was that several people liked the "underpaintings" better than the finished abstract pointillist work. This has caused me to rethink my direction and to revisit my signature style of acrylic painting, drawing, collage and writing. (You'll notice there's some dots thrown in for good measure.)

A Bigger Hero

When Cy Twombly passed, I refrained from saying anything and just listened and looked as many, more-informed people expounded on his career and works. Last week I stumbled across a Blog called FOR PILAR that had photos of Cy Twombly at his home in Rome. So I thought I'd pass them along. Seeing his work in this context makes so much sense.

It was several years ago, that I discovered his work and was overwhelmed with feelings of admiration, awe, surprise, excitement, inspiration; the list goes on and I'm sure you get the picture. At the same time, I thought, "what gaul !"; to paint exactly as you please. This man became my hero.

Inspiration

One of my all-time favorite songs.

Instead of jogging, I used to go down to the track, find a spot, don my headphones, close my eyes and dance my butt off and I remember this song well.
And in this video, she's not a kid anymore - but it's her song and she sure owns it !

If you miss hearing the original sweet guitar solo after the rapping part, go here.

Dreaming In Dots

Have you ever been ambivalent about your paintings ? I sure have; and this little gem is a prime example. Most of my paintings start with a title or get one early on, but it took some head-scratching after I finished this one to come up with the title, "Reaching Back For A Dream". I don't recall feeling like painting this was work; I certainly enjoyed myself. It's just that there was no big idea or fascinating train of thought or point to prove. Nope, it was just a quiet, calm, comforting work to bring about: dots over a nonspecific abstract. For the most part, I've tended to regard this piece with a lot less entheusiasm. But tonight, after spending some time looking at paintings on blogs and art news site, I decided to spend a few moments with it and suddenly I realized just how sweet this work really is. And what a nice feeling THAT is.

 Please click on image to enlarge.

Willem DeKooning Studio

An awful lot has been said since DeKooning's passing and about the current Show at MOMA (etc). I'm certainly not qualified to add anything to that, other than to say that I have a beautiful and distinct memory of being quite inspired by his work when I was a child and wanted to experience what seemed like total abandon in painting. I've since learned, of course that his "expressionism" was quite planned and thought out, which is very reassuring to me now.

Be that as it may, the images from an Architectural Digest Shoot of his studio are also very inspiring. What would it be like to paint ion that space ?

Image from Architectural Digest.

Text & Information Drawings

That's actually the title of a category (or portfolio) of works on Brian DuPont's Website. I especially enjoy his Artist Statement; his very lucid way of explaining his art. And I whole-heartedly identify with his way of thinking about text.

Here's a video of Brian showing some of his work in a studio interview.

Image from his website.

 

Painting Numbers

Agus Baqul Purnomo's career really began to take off when he started painting numbers. (You can read about that here.) He also paints words, phrases, letters and Arabic Calligraphy and you'll find many beautiful examples of the calligraphy at the Annexe Gallery.  Some installation shots from his Solo Show at Trembi Contemporary give you a sense of scale and then, see three gorgeous number paintings here. Looking at the images from his 2009 Show at Valentine Willie Fine Art, I'm amazed at the commitment he's brought to his oeuvre and the breadth of serious experimentation.

 Image from Art Triangle.

Fluid Thinking

First, let me say that I'm so thankful that they shot this video in a location without graffiti: isn't that stonework wonderful.

This young man takes himself and his moves seriously and it's a pleasure to watch him work his magic.

Lovely, Lilting Letters

Barbara Rae Schaeffer's paintings are born from a fascination with ancient texts and affinity for the physicality of the paint itself. She seems to condense all that we love about calligraphy and script into these colorful works.

This image is from the Muriel Guepin Gallery and you can visit her Website for a more complete picture.

Painting Murals

If you've ever wondered how the street artists go about making a mural, well then this video is for you. It's very straight forward in showing how they use the tools of the trade.



Originally spotted on Lee Quinones Blog.

Extruded Pointillism

Fernando Orellana is a wild and crazy artist - no, really he is. Just check out his Website.

The work above, was made by extruding play Play-Doh in the shape of little cars and then encasing them in clear epoxy on panel. Just click on the extruder box (at his site) and away you'll go - there's even two videos to show the process.

Image is from justthreethings.

Crude Portraits

George Condo has made a great career of painting his clown/monster-people "portraits" and his big Show at the New Museum provided plenty of those. Although I appreciate them and the stories they evoke, my true love are the works where he cuts up a bit; abstracts things with movement and gesture (especially his mixed media pieces). Most of those somehow remind me of De Kooning. This particular work goes even further, almost invoking graffiti and helps one to comprehend some of the inherent similarities in disparate art genres.

Image from AllArtNews.

the 0,O,o paintings

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These oil on panel or canvas paintings by Carol Diehl make me laugh; they're wonderful!  Basically we have realistic scenes that are hijacked by different sizes and shapes of O's and somehow it works. There's nine in this series ( 2003 - 2010 ) on her Website .  And each series is so completely different from the next that you'll wonder how in the world she ever came to this particular train of thought.

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While you're at it, check out her Blog, Art Vent.

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She's also a Contributing Editor for Art In America.

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Words and Music

Give a rock-star (more or less) some art supplies, turn him loose and you've got Magne F. His works are enigmatic word compositions.

Visit his Website to see more or visit Paul Stolper to see his drypoint and monotype Exhibition titled, Alpha Beta.

Image is from UPPERCASE.

Labor Day Lite

Happy Holiday.

I've always had a soft spot for doing a painting on a holiday. There's something quite special about the combination of holiday feelings mixed with the anticipation/inspiration of making a new work.

The words say "What u gonna do" and the pieces of collage are quite personal. That red piece on the right is close to 30 years old and each of the others have their own special story.

I'm sure this will get one more layer of effort, (there's at least 7 so far) but for the moment I'm thoroughly enjoying the results.

Subliminal Iconography

I've had many a conversation with a fellow artist about how we humans learn from visual icons and how little it takes for our mind to recognize familiar shapes and work them into a context or train-of-though equation. Joshua Marsh teases us with his simple and colorful compositions of everyday objects and for just a moment we naively/innocently enjoy the "abstractions" before suddenly recognizing the familiar shape. These have the feel of old fashioned after-dinner jokes with friends.

Image is from his Website.

Balancing Rocks

Some people work hard to balance their checkbook; Bill Dan puts his efforts into balancing rocks. The beauty in this is the amazement we experience in viewing the finished "works" and especially while watching Bill create these temporary pieces. At the very end of the video you'll see him doing something that is most helpful in the process.

The Smallest Dots

Pin-pricks, actually. David M. Ambrose shares with us the technique for making his art at his Website, where you'll find more images - each with it's own close-up, detail shot.

Image is from his Website.

Between Graffiti and Calligraphy

"Wishfull thinking"

The proponents of calligraphy and graffiti have been on a collision course for some time now. And by that I mean that there have been rapid advances in style in both camps which are beginning to blur the original descriptions that we still cling to. Although you have a general clue when you hear the words graffiti, street art and urban art, it doesn't begin to specifically convey a meaningful mental image of some of the new hybrid contemporary art that's being made. It's all Fine Art, but the above mentioned words and saying calligraphy and contemporary art still send your mind in quite different directions. It feels like there's a dire need for new and better labels as we make our way through this new hybridized, contemporary art scene.

And all of this makes me wonder where I stand; where I fit in.

The above 14 x 18 studio painting titled "Wishfull thinking" by Dean Aldrich (aka Adeaner), done with acrylics and graphite and colored pencils, seems to fit right in the middle of this whole conversation.
I might not have "street cred", but I certainly march to my own drum.


If you think urban art and street art are just more labels for graffiti, you need to check out the sites below.

Arrested Motion  (surprisingly also carries posts about the likes of Damien Hirst, etc)

Graffuturism ( right away you'll see what I mean about style cross-fertilization and hybridism between genres )

 

Looping Gestures

An organic Mondrian ? No, it's the very confident work of Cary Griffith.
In a style that many artists have tried, he makes looping lines that cross and then colors in specific sections to create his bright, acrylic paintings that are at once fresh and reminiscent of modern masters.

Visit his Website and enjoy the music that plays as you view the images.

Image is from Artist-Listing.

Painting Water Drops

Kim Tschang Yeul has made a career out of painting water droplets and I think you'll appreciate his reasoning.
Whether combined with abstraction or calligraphy, his trompe l'oeil is quite convincing and refreshing.

You'll find more images at Galerie Baudoin Lebon.

Image is from Galerie Baudoin Lebon.

Text & Cursive Gesture

Gabby Heit divvies up her oeuvre into themes or series. And one such series is to juxtapose her looping, cursive, crossing lines onto antique newspapers. She then gives life to these forms by coloring in certain sections and blushing in a background.

You'll find more examples of her work and a brief explanation at her Website.

Image is from her Website.

Landsat Pointillism

Interesting patterns emerge in images of our planet, from space.

You'll find more visuals in the original Post at Slow Muse - a Blog that I visit regularly.


Image from Slow Muse.

Bright Writing

The work of Brigitte Kowanz is Beyond Words (the title of this work). Her oeuvre is about light and then when she combines that with language (and even Morse Code) you have something very special. I can't possibly describe for you the magic that she created with light sculptures and mirrors in her MOMOK Show. You'll find beautiful images at Contemporary Art Daily and visit her Website (click Works and then Installations).

And here's a little bit of TEXT to help you understand what she's doing

Image is from Contemporary Art Daily.

Contemporary Urban Calligraphy

Combine calligraphic styling with graffiti attitude and you get Graffigraphy.

This piece, a collaboration by Futura and Crash that was in the Graffiti New York 80's Show in Paris,  has some wonderful flourishes that remind you of oriental paintings of yore. Limiting the palette to red, black and blue gives it some muscle.

Just so you know, Futura had one of his works sell for $56,250 at Auction in December.

Image is from Global14

All About The Dots

Ralf Brog is a multi-talented artist and I'm glad that he put the time and effort into making the Fuzzy Logic Series of paintings. This image is from the Petra Rinck Galerie, where you'll find more fascinating works. I couldn't find anything about him in English . . .

Matting and Framing

We interrupt our regularly scheduled train of thought to reconsider how overwhelmingly important framing techniques can be in the presentation of a work of art.

In his "Collage Series", David Lieske uses b&w photos originally used as advertising images as matting for the color photos of his younger self: and I believe the frames are wrapped in African fabrics. You can read about them here. You really must see all six in the series to fully appreciate what he's done here.

Image is from Aimee Walleston.

Asemic Chinese Calligraphy

Wenda Gu (b 1955) is a fascinating Chinese Contemporary Artist who challenges the notions of writing and language by inventing fake calligraphic script. The image is from a Post at Art Radar Asia, (a great site that I follow in my Google Reader) that will pretty much bring you up to speed.

When you visit his Website, you must check out the forest of stone stelas. Simply amazing.


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Dot Head

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Take one line-drawing/self portrait, add dots in varying patterns and you have an interesting series by Alejandro Thornton. Another variation is the replacement of dots with words. Letters, words and dots are reoccurring themes, but try as I might, there seems to be no available English text about his work. But that shouldn't stop you from visiting his Website and seeing his body of work.

All three images are from his site and from the Thornton Reigns (2004-2009) Series, which you might want to compare to the Thornton Reigns (2002) Series.

Picture of the artist Here.
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The Gist Of Things

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Impressionism was a wonderful invention and tool that set us free to concentrate on painting our emotions rather than faithfully depicting facts. Choices about composition and color certainly revealed some of the artist's personality, but as we've moved forward through all the "isms' and movements in the art world, painting has become so much more about the artists themselves.

I made the right decision by visiting Philip Maltman's Website yesterday to see what he's been doing this year. As I viewed the new paintings it occurred to me that these represent the gist of things; these are ideas of landscapes. They are invoked feelings. His new paintings are lush and spatial and the detail images do very well on their own.
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600 Blog Posts

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Moron  2007

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Hard to believe we've passed the 600 mark in posting. It's been a fantastic journey. A special thanks to all my Followers and those who have me in a Reader and special thanks for those who list my site on their Blogs.
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My Blog is long over due for a make-over and lately I've been researching to do just that.
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Way back when, I wondered if there were other artists who used dots or writing in their paintings (silly me) and the answer, of course is an on-going, resounding yes. There are close to 600 more artists in my Favorites files waiting to be posted and it's become obvious that these are pervasive genres.

Encountering new artists and their oeuvres is always inspiring, challenging and reaffirming, but I'm starting to wonder if I should continue to post about them the way I do; wondering if I should take a new direction besides just spiffing up the blog and making it work better. Even wondering if it's time to retire the Blog.
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Your thoughts and comments would be appreciated.




If you haven't (lately) browsed through some or all of the Artists in the far right column, please avail yourself - it's a wonderful research tool.
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Choppy Words

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Christopher Michlig has something to say about language. And to help you understand, he chops up words (in various ways) and reconfigures them to beautifully make his point.

You'll find more images at Steve Turner Contemporary and the press release will answer more of your questions.

His Website.

Image from marinecontemporary.
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Calligraphy Beyond Words

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There's a wonderful back-story about Carla Accardi that you'll want to pursue; she's another one of those artists whose ideas and visuals keep showing up in successive generations of contemporary artists.  In his review in OffOffOffArt, of her 2005 Show at Sperone Westwater, Jeffrey Cyphers Wright starts out by saying (quote) "Carla Accardi inhabits her own lexicon where Klee meets Haring, in a topography of hieroglyphs." - big clues to her oeuvre.

This image from studio-online; a 2008, vinyl on unprimed canvas, is akin to Matisse's "cut-outs" ( in relation to his earlier works). You'll see the similarities as you research her work.
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So Fine

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With a name like Arpie Gennetian Najarian, you gotta make really cool stuff: and he does.

Click to enlarge and look closely - yes those are threads. This image is from Art In Open Philadelphia, where Arpie gives an easy, two paragraph Statement about his work.

Visit his Website for his formal Statement and plenty of images to show where he's going with this.
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Selected Reading

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Will Ashford transforms used books into thoughtful works of art by adding new visuals and repurposing the original text. You'll enjoy reading his Artist Statement as he explains the what, why and how.
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This image is from NOTCOT, where you'll find other interesting examples of his work.
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If anyone knows how to contact the artist to let him know his (mac) Website is not working, please do.
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Pinpoint Pointillism

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Jon Kuzmich makes his minimalistic yet meaningful paintings by applying the paint with a needle, using mathematical and scientific systems. Visiting his Website is way more than just a fascinating visual treat. When you read his Artist Statement and take the time to think about it, the ramifications are enormous.
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Image is from artbusines.
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Directional Paintings

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I have an affinity for the various works by Phillip Buntin. He's mostly about mark-making and several of his styles reminded me of some creative directions I had wanted to explore. This piece in particular caught my eye because of the circles with the writing.
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Visit his Website to see more.
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Image is from design-milk.
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Painting Lines

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It was a long road with interesting twists and turns that brought us to the place where artists can present the gallery-goer with paintings of lines. It all makes sense, of course, but artists from days of yore would be quite amazed.
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Before you read any wall text about energy or connectivity, your mind has already started to pursue a reasoning for what John Bonick's paintings might be about. Even though the subject matter is minimal, they do get us to thinking.
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You'll find more examples of his work at Andrea Schwartz Gallery.
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Image is from Art Business.
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