Artist Statements
Large Heads and Circus Acts
Hanging in Olin are works from two different series of paintings I have been making recently. Large Heads is a group of what I like to call artist-landscapes. In these images I am trying to combine my interest in abstraction with elements of figuration and landscape. Portions of the faces of artists whose work I teach, whose work I love, have been enlarged, turned and veiled with successive layers of paint. Through the enlarging, these faces become a landscape of the body, mirroring in their construction the process I have used painting landscapes. Anatomical exaggerations occur, while external and internal light sources make luminous the cracks, crevices and folds in the facial landscape. And as I think of these wrinkles, I realize they are without doubt, about aging.
As a teacher, part of the reason these faces loom large in my mind is that I am engaged in conveying the importance of what these artists have done. This is perhaps the most real way for me to come to grips with the role they play in my life. I have tried to walk a line between reverence and a healthy distance from that reverence. As an artist, I think I am allowed to have fun with the image of these people I love. And of course, the desire to live up to our heroes can be tyrannical.
The small schematic dot-and-line drawings that appear in both series, I have lifted as "found imagery" from the sketches of my children. I am told they represent the "skeletal" phase of childhood visual development. As the child becomes increasingly cognizant of the bones and sockets that make up their own bodies, they also see this system as the building block of all form. It amazes me that it is so atomical. It is a great conjunction of developmental behavior, science and poetic beauty. Where Picasso felt it was essential for the modern artist to "learn" to draw like a child, it seems to me more authentic to simply borrow these drawings and be informed by them as an adult. They are in a sense, the first "real" abstractions we make.
The other series represented is closely related to Large Heads. The overt link is the use of the schematics here as well. The subjects this time are the visual artifacts themselves, instead of the artists. The reverence and distancing now involves my relationship to an artistic past, in this case, Modernism. I have had to admit that I am a Modernist-co-dependent. Highwire, (or, A 12 Step Goodbye to the 20th Century), is the first in the series, and where this project began. Before I really knew what this painting was about, I realized I was making something akin to late surrealist abstraction with its biomorphic shapes, and Jungian psychic arena. To reenact it seemed like a Circus Act, playful and mischievous.
Love Songs
I love
my wife
my daughter
my son
my dead father
my dead mother
my dead sister
my step mother
my four living brothers
my three living sisters
my few good friends
my two dead friends
all past & present lovers
Nikita
big women
little women
tall women
short women
light women
dark women
my dog
all of my dead dogs
rank horses
I love
Crooks Tower
the Black Hills
the Cheyenne River
parts of New Mexico
all of Wyoming
most of Montana
most of South Dakota
Devils Tower
her place
the Youghiogheny River
the mountains
the high Plains
the wind
the rain
the snow
the cold
the Bad Lands
the Needles
Spearfish Canyon
Jim Bridger Wilderness
this college
white water
tall trees
I love
poetry
short stories
novels
my son's music
most classical music
some country music
some rock music
some jazz
a little folk music
wood fires
theater
the Laurel Ballet
some ballet
some opera
some movies
I love
strong coffee
most meat
most wild game
eggs over easy
potatoes
garlic
most greens
fruit pies
nuts
most sweets
wine
cheap wine
Copenhagen snuff
I love
passionate sex
urgent sex
I love
to draw
to paint
to make things
to run
to lift weights
to walk
to hunt
to fix things
I love
old pickups
good tattoos
knives
leather work boots
old jeans
used clothes
old jeeps
jean jackets
leather jackets
leather belts
cowboy boots
leather saddles
good rope
knots
good tools
old shirts
I love
her smell
the smell of babies
the smell of pine
the smell of new grass
the smell of new rain
burning leaves
the smell of leather
sawed timber
I love
some art
my daughter's art
my art
myself most of the time
More Figures, More Thoughts
An aluminum leg, a wooden finger-I am still fascinated with the ability of sculptural materials to define figurative form. Since the last faculty exhibit some of the figures have increased in scale to near life-size or even a little larger. The smaller ones in wood have continued and have allowed me to play more with gesture and position as a means to talk about human actions and interactions. But the last three have been the large, aluminum pieces where gesture is a primary element. Perched on one's heels, balancing on one leg, stretching an arm-all have significance as we go about our daily business. In addition to gesture, a central focus in this work is the thought bubble each figure carries. As these figures interact with each other and with you, what are they thinking? What are you thinking?
The concept behind this body of work is a perception of reality. Beginning with a formal study of spatial reality, the concept asks the question, what is reality? Having in one photograph two suns creates an unreal image, juxtaposing the logic of nature to the image captured. Another image draws attention to the horizon lines, usually stable, now askew, indicating instability in our environment. Yet another image places on one plane the sun, beside trees and leaves on the ground, elements which do not exist on the same plane. So which is real?
What is the reality? The photograph of nature? Human logic tells us photos are documents of the real. The logic of nature tells us we have one sun. However, how many sources exist for our vital nutrients, one or two? The photograph suggests that we have two suns. Which sun feeds us? The askew horizon lines question the stability of the environment. The horizon only appears straight to the human eye, when in actuality it is a large curve. The sun, trees and leaves all exist on one plane when seen from the sky. Why can they not exist on the same plane when seen from the ground? All of these elements appear real and beautiful, full of life, apparently "normal." The pleasing beauty that normally soothes us here adds the emotion of discomfort. How can something this natural and beautiful be artificial? Our reality is now questioned. Our perception of reality is challenged. Our reality lies in the perception, not the object photographed. These questions concerning reality constantly emerge through these images.
The uncertainty created in these images is directly tied to my life experiences this year. The main underlying current of all my work past and present deals with evoking the emotions drawn from life experiences. Anything that can be beautiful and soothing has a strange under-current of uncertainty, discomfort and non-reality, however that term might be defined.
Penetration
Numerous objects found in a culture, be they ordinary and generally known by the masses or be they less mundane and specific to a trade or profession, possess connotations which are evoked when an individual pauses to study the structures of these familiar items. Surpassing their functional definitions, these tools suggest states which reference the human condition. I address my fascination with culturally imbued objects in a wide range of formats from site specific installation to painting to photography. I continue to explore myriad materials and techniques which have the capacity to allow these visual expressions to reflect my ongoing concerns with the multilayered definitions of these objects.
Penetration is a series of paintings which are presented as a large-scale grouping meant to physically confront the viewer. An uninterrupted stacking/grid format allows for the presence of the images as an architectural statement in the gallery-the viewer experiences the entire wall in a spatial manner. This encounter reinforces the varied physical connotations of the painted objects.
A wide spectrum of objects and/or situations are represented in Penetration: nozzles; hot water bottles; television antennae; masses of tubing; a pestle; birth control dispensers; a grout scraper; to name a few. All of these are signifiers which reference physical, mental and emotional states of invasion. They are painted in a variety of interpretations and surfaces, be they real and finely detailed or distorted and visceral. I choose to explore numerous impressions of these tools and situations so that I may discover what I consider to be beautiful yet powerful, unpredictable visual combinations which further support the intense impact these implements have on us.
