Johns, Biography and Content

Just before heading to SOVA for the holidays, I finished Jill Johnston's book on Jasper Johns, Privileged information. I had some trouble getting through the book due to some stylistic issues.  

Style issues aside, this book deepened my appreciation and affinity for Johns’ work. Central to Johns’ method is the stripping of meaning from the objects he has depicted, leaving flags, targets, numbers or whatever as simply compositional elements. Basically he would say, “What you see is what you get.” Possibly beginning with the crosshatch paintings in the 70s and more obvious by the earlier 80s, Johns was using more coded information that suggested actual subject matter and content. These paintings were dense and somewhat impenetrable from critical perspective. While some recognized certain imagery (Munch, Grunewald, etc) buried in these works, Johns would not discuss what the images were or what they may mean to him personally. Johns followed Duchamp’s theory that the viewer completes the art. I’ve always taken this to mean that it is not for the artist to explain what a picture is about, whatever the spectator gets from a piece is completely valid.  It is also not important to know any biographical information of an artist to experience the work. In the end, there is the work and the audience, nothing more.

Some artists make their work to try to explain themselves to the world. I have always made work for myself with the hopes that other would find them interesting. Like Johns, I’m not interested in revealing myself to the world yet it is hard not to use personal symbols or coding in my work. Moving to a more minimalist has provided some distance from discussions of “content.” I’m happy enough to reveal that the work is rooted in contemporary music that generally leads to pleasant conversations about music, steering clear of “meaning.”

In The New Year

The crazy crush that I find myself in each December has passed. I've been considering what direction my work should take. I am very happy with my current paintings but have to realize that they have not gained an audience. I believe these painting will make more sense when shown together so I do plan on continuing the series and searching for a place to show them. From the beginning, I saw this series as a step towards abstraction and now I feel like I am ready to work non-objectively for the first time since completing a project during my first semester at the Corcoran.

I have also been planning a multimedia project for a couple of months. At this point, I am expecting the project to take around a year to come together, perhaps continuing indefinitely.

I spent much of the early part of 2011 working on Material World and only exhibited my work at Artomatic@Frederick. It still may be some time before I show again but I am looking forward to resetting the studio and getting down to work.

At Once I Knew I Was Not Magnificent

This painting was begun at the same time as Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Here, I returned to an image I have worked with in the past. Like a book or shoe, the design of a chair is has basically remained the same for centuries. This is actually my dining room chair. It is very solid (and heavy). Like the shoe, I set a single image against a extremely worked background. The chair is a strong image so it does not necessarily recede into the background here, rather it fits nicely into its surroundings.

The title comes from the song Holocene by Bon Iver. I believe I heard Justin Vernon say in an interview that the song, especially that line, was about a very bad night in a bar.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

This painting grew out of my Guston readings. Like Guston, I wanted to paint an object that is part of my everyday world. I saw this as a celebration of a thing that is well crafted and built to last. The design for a basic shoe has not changed for a long, long time. I was also striving for immediacy in getting the image down, using a projected image to get the placement just right. A funny thing happened as I worked on the piece. It became less about the shoe, or I should say less a celebration of this functional object. As in life, the shoe is begins to get lost in its surroundings. The large color fields, consisting of dozens of layers of paint, quickly draw a viewer's interest away from the shoe. I believe this painting will be a pivotal one. The push-pull between the mundane and sublime has opened up avenues of explorations.

For Guston (Books)

Last Spring, I spent a few weeks with my right arm in a sling then about 6 weeks of physical therapy. During this period, I spent a lot of time reading, especially the writings and statements of Philip Guston and his friend Morton Feldman. It was fascinating to note that Guston's views never changed much, even when he made the "shocking" break from abstraction to figuration. I was drawn to his use of a limited amount of everyday objects and their placement on the canvas. Watching film of Guston at work also inspired me to be more direct in my painting, getting it down quickly. Guston was described as the best read high school drop out ever. I decided to paint a stack of books since this was an image Guston painted over and over again, plus it is a nice play on my last name. Well, the direct thing didn't work out though this was record time for me at around one month to produce. I had already begun work on a couple of other paintings but I realized that I was being drawn to the background as much as to the pile of books. This was more obvious in the next couple of paintings where there is only a single object depicted. I am intrigued by having this celebration of everyday battle and perhaps lose to the empty background. This is more pronounced in the work that follows.

The Richter Resolution

A while back, art critic Jerry Saltz published The Richter Resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of projection in the production of art, especially painting. Luckily for me the moratorium had expired when I purchased a little pocket sized projector. My newest paintings are the first time I have ever used projection. I've never been morally opposed to its use. I enjoy good art regardless of how it is produced. I just don't think my previous work would have benefited from projection. In these new works, I'm not trying to achieve type of photo-realistic verisimilitude. The placement of the object on the canvas was critical to these pieces and projection allowed me to play with size and placement until I felt it was right. Much of the drawing was ignored as the paintings progressed. Here I show the projection, the drawn object and the finished piece Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. I would keep losing some of the details of the shoes as I would layer paint so I was constantly correcting the drawing. While I spent time and energy on the image, the painting is not about the shoe.

Getting It Back

Wow, I haven't posted since April. In this time I have been doing what jazz musicians would call "woodshedding." I've been reading a ton, looking at a lot of art. I've gone through about 5 weeks of physical therapy on my right arm after a few weeks in a sling. Things are much, much better but there are still issues. I try to keep my whining to a minimum since others, say, Chuck Close, have worked through far worse.

I really immersed myself in the world of Philip Guston and it is really showing in the work. Part of that world includes the work of the composer Morton Feldman. From Guston, I take the idea of working with the everyday to create enigmatic works. One thing I could not emulate is the immediacy of his work. He would paint and scrape and paint and scrape until the work would tell him that it was done. I started trying to free myself up in that manner but it just did not work for me. I laugh because I am making work that is directly in line with his but his own words would suggest that he would not like what I do.

Guston was particularly interested with placement of objects on the picture plane. This is a big concern for me and is deeply informed by the minimal works of Feldman, where very spare compositions are constructed with only a few carefully placed notes/sounds.

I've completed a painting and a drawing of books that take a cue from Guston. Books are a huge part of my life and use of them as subject matter is not intended to be a play on my last name. I own tons of books, read as much as possible, I worked in a book store in college and my wife worked in libraries for more than 15 years. I've also been working on shoes, particularly a pair of Doc Martens I wore when I worked in a retail store, on my feet for 50-60 hours a week. They were beautiful shoes that did not let me down. Guston obviously painted many shoes and I don't think our reasons are that far off in exploring this subject.

Art & Music

Having my arm in a sling has taken me out of the studio for a while. I've spent a lot of time reading and listening to music. Both activities are generating ideas, making me want to get to the studio even more.

I've been fascinated with Morton Feldman's music and how many of his ideas grew out of his associations with with members of the New York School. He was a very close friend of Philip Guston and composed two pieces titled For Philip Guston, the second one lasting over 4 hours. One of his first breaks in the music world came when Jackson Pollock asked him to compose the score for the famous short film about Pollock from the early 50's. Other works include a shorter pieces For Franz Kline and the gorgeous Rothko Chapel which was commissioned by the Menils to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the chapel in Houston. Feldman was committed to abstraction in music, painting and all other art forms. This commitment caused a premanent rift with Guston as the painter began to re-introduce objects into his work during his last decade.

Every artist I know is deeply interested in music though usually rock, not modern concert music. In writing the catalog Material World, I described one artist's work as sharing qualities with the musician Brian Eno. Since Eno is one of my all time favorite artists, this was a very positive remark.

A number of musicians are also serious visual artists. Eno has created numerous video and light installations. David Byrne of Talking Heads has worked in photography, film and installation. Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) quit music all together to concentrate on his painting for the last 20+ years of his life.

I'll be exploring the subject more thoroughly in future posts.

Mark Rothko in the tower at NGA

The second in a series of "contemporary" exhibits in the Tower Gallery of the National Gallery of Art features 7 large Rothko paintings from 1964. Since I took the elevator up, I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of earlier Rothko paintings in the smaller area before the main tower gallery. The earliest works are smaller paintings that are somewhat rough around the edges. I don't know Rothko's biography well enough to make definitive statements but I would guess these did not meet with a lot of success. They are interesting simply for how they may help in understanding of his development. The works from the forties are more accomplished, with surrealist tendencies which Rothko and other New York School painters were employing at the time.

Unlike the first new tower show which presented Philip Guston's work in a straight up manner, the NGA has chosen to try to tie all of these works together in the context of Rothko's use of black. I personally find it a bit of a stretch. What becomes clear as one enters the main gallery is that these 7 paintings are not black. They are certainly dark but I was seeing purples, reds and blues. The essay material suggests that by sitting and looking at these paintings for an extended period of time you will notice subtle colors peaking out. Well, maybe I'm just super-observant(not likely), but this was simply obvious.

To make another connection,they chose to play Morton Feldman's chamber piece "Rothko Chapel" every half hour. It is a wonderful, contemplative piece which was first performed in the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Yes, these paintings were precursors to the cycle in the chapel but did its inclusion here really make sense. I happen to like Feldman, and this piece in particular, so I found it a nice touch.

So this is must see show, not necessarily to come to any conclusions about Rothko's use of black but for a chance to see a number of great, related paintings along with some earlier paintings that are not seen all that often.

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/rothkotowerinfo.shtm

New work

I have posted some new work to my portfolio. I'm particularly happy about these two. The first is a reworking of the Entanglements piece which began this series (36" Sq Acylic on Canvas)





The second is titled Untangled (also 36" sq acrylic on canvas)

Images

So I'm very happy with the way my work came together last weekend. The problem came with trying to get good images of them to send off. The surface is very important to my work. The paintings are created by building up dozens of layers of paint with a final surface that is rich, but subtle. The surfaces are quite glossy too, making the acrylic paint seem more like oils. This is an issue I will have to figure out soon.

Big Weekend

Well, I'm hoping. I was really getting some traction last weekend before this cold kicked my butt. I'm looking forward to digging back into these new works. I'll update later this weekend.

41st Annual Laurel Arts Guild Juried Exhibition

Just found out this morning that my painitng Nemesis was accepted to the Laurel Arts Guild Juried Show. There are a few artists that I am familiar with from Artomatic and artdc.org, so I can tell this should be a quality show that I'm very pleased to be part of. Here some basis info from their site:

41st Annual LAG Open Juried Exhibition - March 5 - 28

The juror, Michael Janis, is Co-Director of the Washington Glass School in Mt Rainier, MD and also has taught at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and at Istanbul’s Glass Furnace in Turkey. He was awarded a 2009 Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts as well as ‘Outstanding Emerging Artist 2008-2009’ by the Florida Glass Art Alliance. His work is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Please visit the Montpelier Arts Center to see the artwork. The gallery is open 7 days a week from 10am - 5pm.

March 5 Exhibit opens to the public
March 7 Reception 2-4pm
March 28 Exhibit closes

Been a while

Since our main computer went down, I haven't been posting much anywhere. Today, I dropped off one of my paintings and two of Lori's to the multi-venue "Lust" show. I always say that I don't want to make work specifically for a show. I broke my own rule this time since it was a painting I have wanted to do. Unfortunately, I rushed the drawing and it did not come out as good as I would like. It also took me away from the series I'm working on. Anyway, I can get back to work on them today.

The weather outside is frightful...

...and our furnace is broken. Its pretty cold in the house. The main floor is really cold but it was pretty toasty upstairs under about 5 blankets. The good news, if there is any- the basement is still pretty warm so if we can't get ti fixed today, I should still be able to paint.

Back to the Studio

Well, its good to be back from our thanksgiving trip and now I'm ready to get back in the studio. When I left, I had a couple of pieces nearing completion and another canvas ready to go. I have finished the small version of Nemesis and it will be in a show art the artdc.org gallery in Hyattsville opening on December 12th. I will post more info soon but here is an image of the piece.

Blogging

I'm slowly working on updating this blog. Lori and I are moving towards having our own sites so we are using this as an intermediate step. I've posted my resume. I need to get a gallery of work up and running. Its getting there. I've also been working. I typically do not like to make work specifically for shows. I'm a slow painter and I try to place all my energies on creating the work I want to do. But recently, I have started working on some smaller pieces for the upcoming patron member show at artdc.org's Hyattsville gallery. This worked out well since I wanted to explore the same themes I have been working on in smaller format. I have finished one and will post as soon as I can get a good image. I have a number of paintings going in studio but I am also working hard on drawing again. I also plan to blog about my other interests such as wine (my day job) and music.

12 Angry Women

Just received word that my piece Hangers (Entanglements) was accepted to the 12 Angry Women show at the Soundry in Northern Va. Its a fun concept- a juried show using a jury of 12 women- the catch is the artist had to be male. Yep, I'm a dude. Its a bummer that I'll be out of town for work the weekend of the opening but I look forward to seeing what they came up with.

I personally think Entanglements is the weakest of the Things I Really Don't Like series, but looking at the images together in my past couple of posts- it probably does show better. In person, I don't believe it is in the same league. I think I noted earlier that we need a new camera and I would say this is proof. The richness of the surface simply does not show in these images

http://blog.soundry.net/

Speed Painting

I am notoriously slow to complete paintings, adding layer after layer of paint until it feels "done." Well I set out to make a painting in two days and well, it took 5 to get to this point. I'm really happy with it but had planned to keep working the background. Instead, I'm taking Lori's advice and calling it quits. It is part of the Things I Really Don't Like series titled Hanger (Nemesis/Lurking). It is 36" square, acrylic on canvas.

Note: We are getting a new camera soon because our digital images do not do the paintings justice. Our camera was nice 5 or 6 years ago when I bought it to use mainly for snapshots but its time for an upgrade.

New Work

Its been a while but I have finished some new work. These came about while I was messing around and I think I've stumbled onto a path that may lead to many ideas. I've been working with still lifes but to represent people- in other words these still life works were meant as portraits. For instance, the shoes that I completed earlier are actually a portrait of Lori. So thinking about still life, I came on the idea of painting things I like as self portrait but then I thought about flipping that around- how about things I don't like? I have a real problem with my hands and arms, especially when I have to fight with things. Anything that gets tangled can be a real problem. I was mad at some hangers one day and threw them on the floor and, whoa- the pattern was interesting. I started painting a picture of them and this whole idea started to grow. I believe I have a large bank of compositions with the line and it is interesting to think of these things as a nemesis, evil twin type of doppelganger thing. The first (Entanglements) is a little shaky in terms of technique but with the second (Nemesis) I feel like I'm getting my chops back.