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.