KIRBY FREDENDALL FINE ART

8 NEW CANVASES

2012-01-24T15:51:00.002-05:00

If I don't stretch them I won't paint them...nothing like January weather to breed both physical and mental lethargy. It is hard doing something for part of one's living that requires so much personal motivation.
This image reminds me of Spring...maybe it's time to work in greens...vitality - growth - renewal...

THE PROCESS OF CATHARSIS SUNDAY NIGHT

2011-10-22T17:40:00.002-04:00

THE NURSES OF CAYLOR SCHOOL OF NURSING

2011-10-14T09:43:00.001-04:00

These ladies appeared out of a shoe box that I found hiding under the dry sink in my dining room. When did I shoved it under there? I have no idea, but it contained family photos from my father's side. My grandmother graduated from Caylor School of Nursing many years ago. She had photographs of her classmates my the dozens.These too were among the family archives in this box. So the young women about to embark on their nursing careers are gazing from the distant past into the present, veiled by the passage of time.

OUT WITH THE OLD

2011-10-13T10:57:00.001-04:00

There are certain paintings that satisfy me every time I see them. They greet me fondly on those days when I rearrange the entire studio to avoid actually painting... Fortunately, many of these pieces have found their way to new homes. Last Summer, the oldest of my large paintings, c.1995 traveled 2 miles up Street Road to a lovely new home. Some of these older pieces, though, are slowly becoming sacrificed to new surfaces. They are pieces that somehow feel unresolved, uninteresting, or unlikely ever to strike a chord with anyone. I started a series using these blah paintings last week that I am calling Germination.

They are all small and there are bunches of them. They reflect the beginnings of an idea, the beginnings of a change...and the root of all of that process ~ the past.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 4

2011-10-04T12:20:00.001-04:00

In the studio today with wax and a blow drier and yet again, unavoidably so it seems, old photographs. The wax is moving in patterns like the water leaves the beach after a wave covers it...like the water moves across my windshield in the windy rain...like blood through veins. I have some control over its direction and pattern, but not complete. So say good bye to any old paintings like this one (that is no longer) that are on masonite because I am on a roll.

LOVE

2011-07-13T10:19:00.000-04:00

"Somewhere there's a monument to the love that you haven't found yet, the love of your life and the shape of your future, discharging ions into our skin through the dark. She is the span of the rainbow you see before waking the first touch of air on your body each morning the word that you say without speaking the prayer that you made before life. She is the space of tomorrow

the spill of conscience
the fill of desire
the spell of your name.

She is the love you remembered at birth the love you will make after dying. Somewhere it waits for you, love that is not of this earth. Where the sky ends. Where memory pales. Where eternity is. Almost heaven."

Marianne Wiggins

Oil & Wax with WW2 Ration Stamps

TIME TRAVEL

2011-03-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

Food is one of the most effective time machines invented by man. What other experience can take one to another place and time so effectively on so many levels as food. Sight, smell, and taste...even touch sensations are activated by the act of sitting down to a particular dish. Alex, my Macedonian born significant other, has an entire set of facial expressions that only activate when he talks about the food his Serbian grandmother used to make. When he describes the Gibaniza his mother has made all of his life his face melts into memories of the melange of homemade phyllo pastry and cheeses and eggs and cream and sometimes ground meat, leeks, or even spinach. He called me from a restaurant in Montenegro last year to describe the pork loin that was sitting on his plate, and even now when he talks about it I feel like I am there with him on a terrace festooned with kiwi and grape vines overlooking the Adriatic eating juicy, succulent , roasted pig. And I didn't even buy the plane ticket. But I think the most beautiful food memories are the dishes our moms and grand moms used to make for us. I have the good fortune to own the handwritten recipes from both of my grandmothers, and they both tell such beautiful stories of meals shared. My brother and I went with my parents every summer to Cold Water Lake in Michigan. We tumbled out of the back seat of our 1970 Volvo and ran for the chest freezer in the storage hall. In meticulously cleaned out plastic yogurt containers was our reward...a frozen mixture of coolwhip, walnuts, and cherry pie filling. Whoa. Nirvana. If I were to eat that right now I would time travel to a place of cold concrete floor under my feet, surrounded by life vests and fishing poles, dipping my spoon into my creamy cool whip dessert.

So for me, when I read a cookbook or hand written recipes, they are like a window to the past. They allow me to travel to another place or time. All of my paintings are a similar attempt. I create a visual experience that allows transport through time and space. The destination may be a memory, a feeling, an event...in the case where I am actually using cookbooks, booklets, and recipes, the experience is more guided. I am eliciting a "food memory time travel". I am asking the question "What must this time have been like for the women cooking for their families and for those families forming memories around those tables?" And I do not in anyway think that all those memories were fond one - but simply human ones that are so very effectively elicited by sitting down to something to eat.

COOKING AND ART

2011-03-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

I was recently contacted by the Michener PR department about making a possible connection between my work in the upcoming show there and food. It seems like there should be an obvious connection because the books are cookbooks. But honestly, the connection is not really as direct as it might seem.

For me the books are windows. They are glimpses into the everyday lives of the women who used them in years past. They may reflect the political or social events of the time, as well as the culinary interests. Some of those culinary interests were directly affected by those same social and political climates such as the books published during the Depression or WW2. They also tell an interesting story about relationships...expectations that were held up as ideals for husbands, wives, and children. In books from the 1930's and 40's, often women were offered menus for entire months in an effort to help them with planning and on these menus there was always coffee...breakfast, lunch, and dinner coffee was served. My grandmother's percolator always had coffee at the ready for any meal. She also served a stack of white, sliced bread at every meal. My grandfather would have lost his bearings at a table bereft of bread and Parkay. Since food is so much a part of the everyday social fabric of our lives, these cookbooks are one reflection of the weave of that fabric that I find fascinating to read.

But why put them in my artwork? Because my work, in large part, involves looking "through" windows- they are abstract windows into complex color spaces that elicit very individual responses. With the cookbooks, I guide this response more specifically because I reveal more specific things in the space - such as images of women in aprons, handwritten recipies, and other aspects of cooking and food.

I have always loved cooking. My mother came from a midwestern cooking family. As a teenager she bought me a series of books published by the Cordon Blue and when I was studying art history in London, I came across the London Cordon Blue one day. I stayed for their intensive diploma course. When I arrived home, a college graduate with my useful art history degree, I decided to cook for a living. My favorite job was working with Mark at Cakes and Catering in Stockton, where Meals is now. We made cakes all day. We baked. We made hundreds of Bouche de Noels during Christmas. On the side I baked wedding cakes for friends and family. Eventually I decided I wanted to teach art, so I returned to graduate school, but continued to love to cook for friends.

My significant other, Alexsandar, who hails from the cooking traditions of Macedonia and Serbia, loves to cook as well as eat out. Our blog, wheretwoeat.blogspot.com came from that mutual love. So...cooking is a part of me in a way that is indirectly related to my artwork, but then, if one's art is a reflection of oneself, then one would have to take all of those parts into consideration of the whole.

HERE'S A MEAL A MAN CAN WORK ON

2011-03-06T18:52:00.000-05:00

Vintage Cookbooks, Oil, Beeswax on Paper Mounted on Tin, 2011

***

Doesn't every woman need a repertoire of recipes for her man's hearty lunch or his return from a hard day's work?

MICHENER SHOW MARCH 19TH

2011-03-02T16:52:00.004-05:00

THE WORK IS FINISHED...FINALLY! I have reinvented every piece in the collection that was originally created in 2007. Every time Mark walked into the studio I felt the need to rework everything. This piece was the last one that I completed. I wanted to really pay homage to the books themselves. Their covers are reminiscent of the era. They promise recipes for use with the new "healthy aluminum" and the wondrous white and fluffy Spry shortening. Menus that help wartime homemakers make the most of rationed goods present themselves among images of flags and returning soldiers. Cake cookbooks promise to pave a path to any husband's heart. All of these just barely hidden beneath various layers of beeswax, surrounded by love stories.

Come see it!

CONT FOR GINA AT CALLAHAN

2010-11-18T14:54:00.002-05:00

CONT FOR GINA

2010-11-18T14:53:00.003-05:00

FOR GINA AT CALLAHAN

2010-11-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

NEW WORK

2010-09-08T12:36:00.001-04:00

Foremost my work is about the layering of oil paint using the resulting abstract shapes to create an experience that engages the viewer on multiple levels. From a distance the images are abstractions. Flattened panels of color lay over understructures that may or may not reveal their organic curves. Color functions as a vehicle of expression both visually and emotionally. It functions to create space and movement. As the viewer moves closer they are drawn into the image, finding entry through areas of transparency and being denied entry by areas of opacity. Upon closer inspection the viewer begins to see spaces of light and dark that reveal shifting internal structures. Shapes that lie within the layers of paint begin to suggest dfferent things to different viewers. Some of these worlds that I create are easily accessible - some are nearly impossible much like the process of memory.

So as the viewer sees these images from afar, they are abstractions. Shifting layers in various shapes of color and varying transparencies are meant to draw the viewer closer to the image. Closer inspection begins to reveal images, words, colors, and handwriting that speak out from the past through layers of time and memory.

2009-10-06T10:11:00.002-04:00

KIRBY FREDENDALL
OPEN STUDIO 2009

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 ~ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 11AM-5PM
STUDIO PARTY, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 6PM~10PM

JOIN US TO VIEW MY NEW PAINTINGS & TO REVISIT MY OLDER PAINTINGS
THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF ALEX DAMEVSKI
THE PAINTED OBJECTS OF CAROL NAGEL
THE HANDCRAFTED LIGHTING OF SHERYL FREDENDALL
A GLASS OF WINE AMONG FRIENDS

Email me for further information...hope to see you there.

MISTAKES

2009-09-08T22:18:00.003-04:00

I just finished listening to Moby's, Mistake. Hmm...repeats over and over "please don't let me make the same mistake again..." over and over. I need to think about why this drew me in to such a degree. Learning...is that supposed to be about gaining knowledge from our "mistakes?" When I think about mistakes in painting I am hard pressed to come up with anything of consequence. Mistakes I have made involve bad choices in grounds or framing materials. Everything else is process...the process of artistic growth. I like the idea of growth far better than learning from one's "mistakes." But then, is that really fair? We are all so flawed then aren't we?

SEATTLE

2009-06-09T14:36:00.006-04:00

I started a new series of paintings this afternoon. They are a collaboration with another artist, a photographer. We are experimenting with printing images (his) from a recent trip to Seattle onto maps. I am then working in oils and wax over the images.

The challenge for me as I work is how to truly "collaborate" rather than simply superimpose my work over his work. How do I enter into a dialogue with his composition, color, and light as opposed to asserting my own?

What the initial lesson that this practice seems to be suggesting to me is the larger issue of balance in any relationship that two people are creating from individual experiences. How do we create something new and beautiful that is a blend of two individuals where the sum is greater than the parts and where there is no obscuring of one for the sake of the other?

A PAINTING

2009-02-26T22:09:00.002-05:00

Marianne Wiggins

2009-02-24T21:46:00.003-05:00

There is a palette of color - and I call it color to distinguish it from black and white - color that is subdued...quiet color. Color that doesn't announce itself with intensity. Color that often forms the background. But even using the word color conjures something vivid...and what I am trying to describe is something much more elusive and changeable. There are subtle shifts of value but not intensity in this palette...beaches meeting winter oceans, trees through the veil of rain, the grey white of a sycamore tree. This weekend I saw Slum Dog Millionaire. The color I am thinking about could describe the slums in the film. Punctuate that muted palette with the vibrant hues of the fabric drying though out the slums, being washed in the brown water, and worn by the women. The colors all start to visually play and dance with one another. The quiet browns are enlivened by the vibrant cobalt blues and cinnabar greens. Cadmium red screams from the face of whitened raw umber prodded by viridian to dance just a bit faster. All of these hues interact in a balanced yet vibrant visual dance. This is my current goal with my paintings.

2009-01-01T19:14:00.009-05:00

There is a painting by Robert Motherwell in the Tate Modern in London. I lived in London for a year and going to the Tate was one of my favorite weekend things to do. I sat in front of his huge painting time and time again. While I would not say that he is a direct influence on my work visually, I would say that his work influences the underlying structure of my larger paintings. In the last two days I have made two paintings that are beginning to allow the curves and the straight, structural lines of two seemingly divergent bodies of work to come together. Their common point has been their color...but in the large oils there have been nothing but curves and in the small wax pieces there have been nothing but straight lines. These two new paintings have both. I recently learned a strange lesson about the right time and place for everything...I am beginning to see that there is a place of balance for edges and curves and for structure and softness. If there is something that is difficult to navigate - something that feels really quite awful, chances are there is a lesson to be learned...these two paintings seem to be the manifestation of that lesson.

TIME

2009-01-01T11:39:00.003-05:00

Last night this piece met the same fate as the large green one below...what is going on? Light coverings are beginning to re drape the exposed structures. The difference between these layers and the ones that appeared in my paintings from years ago is that these layers are penetrable though not transparent. There is surface beauty...there is structural beauty...the more time one allows to be with the image the more the image reveals itself. The key here is time. Allowing time. Beauty becomes revealed through the unfolding that occurs in its richness only over time shared in the presence of the observed.

2009

2008-12-31T19:28:00.007-05:00

I watched a movie this evening called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly...wow...on the last day of the year to be reminded of how very fortunate I am that in a few moments I can walk across my driveway to my studio and lift a brush to my canvas. It's been a long time since I have seen such a powerful and visually beautiful film. As I sat to write this I began to think about my grandmother who is 99 this year. These photos were taken last winter when I visited her in Ohio. She loves more than anything for me to get out her old photographs and tell the stories that go with each one. This page is my favorite...courtship pictures of Emma and Guy, my grandfather...she lives on her own still, but has difficulty getting around, has a hard time hearing, and needs magnification to read...reading has always been her passion and now she has had to let much of it go. She has no problems with her mind...and in this lies her frustration. She has led a wonderful life, starting her teaching career in a one room school house where one of her farm boy students was bigger than she was and head over heels in love with Miss Warnock. She worked her was through a position as principle of Muncie public schools and on to supervisor. But as she sits alone tonight, I hope she can find peace in her memories and know that I love her and am thinking of her and am so very proud of her. Happy New Year.

FIRST STAGE...

2008-12-22T19:22:00.000-05:00

Here is where the painting is tonight...

New work

2008-12-21T22:01:00.002-05:00

One of my big paintings is about to be sacrificed to the urge to make another big painting...which shall it be? I have an idea that won't wait for another moment...should it be this one?

I think so. Say good bye.

Friday night

2008-12-13T20:46:00.007-05:00

"The world thus appears as a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole." W.Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy.

SETTING HIGH STANDARDS OF EXPRESSION

2008-11-27T13:04:00.003-05:00

"It is my belief that the greatest art compasses form in the three aspects:as plastic-mechanical, as abstract-universal, and as expression of human feeling...the artist touches upon final unknowable truth about life, crystallizes a fragment of beauty and order that lie beyond the field of sense knowing and intellectual explanation...intellect is but a tool...technique of one's art is a tool...but the greater understanding and power must be from the spiritual center, if one is to illumine life movingly." Sheldon Cheney, Abstraction and Mysticism

OPEN STUDIO THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS

2008-11-14T11:41:00.006-05:00

WORK FROM THE OPEN STUDIO

WILL HANG THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS
Works with words on paper
and
Boxes & Cards to share for the holidays
with c.1940's imagery as well as tiny abstractions

Hours 11~5, Thursday through Sunday or by appointment

OPEN STUDIO

2008-11-08T18:01:00.007-05:00

Thank you to everyone who attended my open studio last night. It was an event made enjoyable by all of you being there to share the work and the wine. I appreciate your feedback.

Don't forget to stop by the Triumph Brewing Co in Princeton to see new work...there are a number of large oils there that were not on view last night.

Also, continuing through November, Reinboth and Co. in Lambertville has a number of paintings, though they seem to be selling them at a great pace!

2008-11-02T21:51:00.004-05:00

WORKS WITH WORDS ON PAPER

OPEN STUDIO 2008

Friday November 7th through Sunday November 9th

Contact me for details

Hope to see you there

Words unspoken
Words shared
Words lost
Words hidden
Words suspended
in the beautiful translucent layers of time

REINBOTH SHOW 10/22 Wednesday 5~ 8PM

2008-10-19T10:48:00.003-04:00

This Wednesday I will be showing my paintings at Reinboth and Co in Lambertville, New Jersey, Opening from 5-8PM.

The paintings are ones made between 1995 and 1999. The predominant shape in the work from this period was the circle.It originated in a petroglyph that I saw in New Mexico in 1994 of a yucca seedpod. The shape was roughly circular with two lines down the center. To the Anasazi Indians, this seedpod represented, perhaps among other things, growth. It has reappeared in my work for years, this oblong, vaguely circular shape and for me it represents the same idea. Sometimes the shape stretches out to more closely resemble DNA, itself also symbolic of growth. Sometimes, the circle unwinds itself to sway through the visual space representing the path of growth.

Growth is a moving forward, but it is also a renewal of the past. I believe that we go through life, not in a linear fashion, but in a circular one, moving forward, but returning to our past to revisit ourselves and carry forth those parts that are worth keeping and developing, or parts that we had but never knew existed. I have always had a difficult time creating a single body of work that tries to depart from the past. I revisit themes over and over again. I move ahead and I circle back. This particular body of work has been for me one that has provided continual resources for my current work. I refer to these images with every new painting that I make, and while they differ in execution, they are remarkably similar in structure and content. They are the roots of my growth as a painter and exist forever on the continuum of the circle of my work.

UPCOMING EVENTS

2008-09-24T22:03:00.006-04:00

NEW WORKS HANGING AT THE TRIUMPH BREWING CO on Nassau Street in Princeton, New Jersey through December 7th...stop by during the day for the best lighting on the paintings.

THEN IN OCTOBER, ON WEDNESDAY the 22nd from 5 ~ 8PM, JOIN ME IN LAMBERTVILLE NJ AT REINBOTH AND CO FOR AN OPENING OF WORK FROM THE 90'S.

DATES FOR THE OPEN STUDIO IN NOVEMBER WHICH IS ENTITLED WORKS WITH WORDS ON PAPER, November 7 - 9 from 11am ~ 5pm

I LOOK FORWARD TO SHARING MY WORK WITH YOU.

SHOWING MY OLDER PAINTINGS

2008-09-21T21:43:00.006-04:00

Orange Fall I Oil on Canvas 1995 48" X 58"
An example of work seen at Reinboth and Co from October 22nd.

LOOKING FOR IDEAS...

2008-09-16T22:15:00.003-04:00

I am hoping to show a body of paintings in October that I made between 1995 and 1998. I am struggling with the statement to accompany the show. It is not a "retrospective" in that there will be no newer images to compare with their predecessors. Why do I want to show these paintings? What purpose does the gathering of images from my past serve? In the first place, they are good paintings. They are not "beginner" paintings. They are not in any way less than what I do now...they are simply from a different time when I had different techniques of applying the paint. This last statement may be my starting point. The early paintings are more about gestural surface...they are less likely to let the viewer into the visual space. Moving into the painting is made difficult by layers of textured paint - in some ways, their color creates a beautiful distraction from the interior of the image. If I consider that the newer paintings allow fairly free passage to the viewer it makes me wonder how perhaps I have changed as an artist over time...perhaps I am now more willing to look deeper?

TRIUMPH BREW PUB SHOW

2008-09-12T21:56:00.004-04:00

I AM SHOWING NEW WORK

JOIN ME AT THE TRIUMPH BREW PUB

NASSAU STREET PRINCETON

NEW JERSEY

OPENING SEPTEMBER 30, 7-9PM

FINDING A PATH

2008-09-03T22:22:00.005-04:00

The majority of work for my next show is comprised of images from a body of paintings called Finding a Path.

It has been said that a "warrior" travels most effectively forward on their path when the burdens of their past are left behind. Their thoughts keep them in the present and their visions take them towards the future. In many ways, I agree with this advice. The present and the future are not always effectively served by bringing forward our burdens from the past. They can be distracting and distressing at times when action and strength are required. However, we cannot erase our past. Our past becomes a part of us inevitably.

How do we move through barriers created by experiences erected from childhood onward? How do we construct elaborate structures around ourselves to protect ourselves from our more difficult experiences? And as we grow, how do we negotiate our way around these beautiful architectures that are our egos? These paintings are a visual representation of many things, one of which is these structures that we build. One's eye can visually move through the space but one might imagine that one's physical body is somehow limited by the structure of the sweeping lines. The light that glows from within is a place that draws us through these structures to a place of clarity.

My process of painting requires that I obscure all that came before in the image in the interest of moving the image forward. I cover the entire painting many times with a single color layer. At this stage, my painting stands as the unburdened warrior - new - fresh - with gestural expression - but relatively flat. Then, with rags, I start to uncover the past. However, the past is not completely revealed but rather is informed by the present veil of paint. In working this way I am unable to "hang onto" passages that I have "fallen in love with" at the expense of moving the image into a new place. These passages may or may not reappear, but when they do, they contribute to the present rather than to the past. The images are all painted in oils either on canvas or on acid etched tin.

HOW DEEP?

2008-07-30T09:32:00.004-04:00

In working last night I struggled to decide what kind of visual space I really wanted to create. Many of my recent paintings allow the viewer to dive into a deep, multi layered space as they work their way through the overlapping, twisting lines. There is little emphasis on the surface - the images are about seeing deep and finding a way in. This piece on the left allows entry, but encourages an exploration of the surface as well. Which way to go???As with so many things, the struggle mirrors my life. There is beauty on the surface that blocks what is within, allowing fleeting, tantilizing glimpses. Alternatively, the surface is clouded with what feel like clouds and storms, with the clarity of good weather just under the surface. What do I want the viewer to see? What process do I want them to go through?

STORIES

2008-07-17T00:16:00.006-04:00

I sat with friends tonight over dinner exchanging stories. Our professions are diverse, though all of them relate to the arts and all of them involve dealing with a variety of personalities on a daily basis. The stories of our encounters with these people filled an entire evening with wonderful conversation relating the vast array of human eccentricities. So often my paintings present themselves as unique "personalities". My hand crafts them in incremental steps, but when I step away they reveal themselves as individuals. In the past few nights, the paintings have grown and advanced faster than I have ever experienced. One painting departs from the last and I find myself needing to go back and readdress the first one. They are moving forward at a pace that surprises me. And yet, I find that they are circling back to their roots. Similar gesture and paint application to work from years ago is resurfacing with a new level of control and structure. I have had to consciously make the decision to let these paintings take on the life that they need to live, even if that means that I have to keep going back to catch the others up. Coelho writes, "In (the)search for your destiny, you will often find yourself obliged to change direction." These paintings have taken my hand and now they are leading me in new directions.

EMERGENT PAIRS

2008-07-14T22:14:00.003-04:00

I spent some time talking to a friend this weekend about growth. We agreed that growth can be pretty gruelling work. Not that the work always hurts, but invariably it is challenging and at times it becomes a pleasant option to just quit. I have watched my children go through both physical and emotional growth spurts. These come upon them seemingly from nowhere...their emotions start to swing like a rubber tire on a long rope tied to a very very very tall tree - from one drastic extreme to another. I find myself wondering where did all of this craziness come from...oh...must be a growth spurt. Adults have the same unexpected moments - the ahas that come from growth that has seemingly happened while we sleep or daydream. Suddenly our moodiness or emotional angst of days, weeks, months, years past makes sense. We were doing the work all along but just didn't realize it. Then there are the goals that we set for ourselves that require conscious work. I have yet to decide which path is harder...

THE LAKE

2008-07-11T22:21:00.003-04:00

I was at the lake this weekend and had the privilege of watching the sunset through the white pine trees for seven nights in a row. Every night the light was different. Every night the surface of the lake changed. One night it was the deepest darkest reflective velvet - another it reflected the sun setting on the right and the moon rising on the left. Every night it brought me back to the concept of stained glass and every night I found myself in church in a rocking chair on the porch of an old house in the Adirondack Mountains.

STAINED GLASS

2008-07-02T22:34:00.003-04:00

We have a family lake house in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York. The house sits up on a hill with a view of the lake through an irregular row of old white pine trees. To me, the sound of wind through the white pines as I fall asleep at night is so very peaceful. The sun sets through these trees beyond the mountains that skirt the other side of the lake. My father and I stood and watched this happening one night and I said to him "...dad...I think I know where they got the inspiration for stained glass windows..." Tonight in the studio I realized that my paintings are beginning to resemble stained glass windows. I am creating structures that allow light to shine through in various shapes. The light invites passage. The light invites transport to an inner realm. In a church or cathedral the windows inspire the viewer to experience the beauty of God's creation - most often the windows narrate an event that educates or inspires. But the sheer beauty of the color, the light, and the connection of the shapes has always been what has inspired me and I am sure many others. As an artist I can paint a picture of something beautiful - a tree or a flower - or I can at times try to create a visual experience that leads a viewer to the beauty of the light - the inner light.

FIREFLIES

2008-07-01T23:38:00.003-04:00

My studio is in the hot second floor of an old building that once housed an 18Th C general store. It is a wonderful space in which to work. The front windows look out upon an old spring house and a stone farm. The resident ghost seldom bothers me except for an occasional glance from the stairwell to check up on my progress. Tonight was productive - me with Moby and my work. The heat builds up during the day, so by the end of a couple hours up there in the summer, I relish the cool night air. Tonight I was rewarded with the most glorious night showing of the mating fireflies. The two dimensional night space was suddenly given it's third dimension by the riot of fireflies occupying every space available to them from the grass to beyond the tops of the trees. What an amazing treat after a long night in the studio - to watch other beings create.

QUOTE

2008-06-30T22:58:00.001-04:00

"We need to forget what we think we are, so that we can really become what we are."
Paolo Coelho

CONTROL

2008-06-30T21:30:00.003-04:00

I have been reading Willem de Kooning's biography by Stevens and Swan. His paintings look to some like a wild frenzy of uncontrolled brushwork, but beneath that "appearance" there is very tightly controlled structure and intent. Reading about his history with his mother, his very traditional early art training, and his subsequent work in decorative arts I have begun to understand the roots of and see the controlling structure in his work more and more. The issue of balancing controlled visual space, surface, and color with a loose, painterly end product is a challenge for me. Much of the visual imagery in my work comes about by chance - when I lay down paint there are a number of ways is which I remove and rework it - and often the results are unexpected - surprises if you will. But there needs to be a hand guiding the process that creates enough control not to let the work wander off into some loose unguided random place. I need to exert enough control over the process yet allow for the infusion of creativity that inherently defies control. And isn't that what it is all about in life? Finding the balance between control in our lives with a sense of playful freedom and creativity and a welcoming of the unknown? Moby says in one of his many wonderful songs, "Some things that you find are beyond your control." So true. Thanks again, Moby.

GROWTH

2008-06-29T00:13:00.009-04:00

This new work is most completely described as "growth" though that is not how it is titled. How do we move through barriers that are erected from childhood onward? How do we construct elaborate structures around ourselves to protect ourselves from our more difficult experiences? And as we grow, how do we negotiate our way around these beautiful architectures that are our egos? These paintings are a visual representation of many things, one of which is these structures that we build. One's eye can visually move through the space but one might imagine that one's physical body is somehow limited by the structure of the sweeping lines. The light that glows from within is a place that draws us through these structures to a place of clarity.

NEW WORK

2008-06-25T18:25:00.001-04:00

NEW WORK

2008-06-04T07:45:00.000-04:00

PATIENCE

2008-05-30T11:43:00.003-04:00

Patience. Having patience is the hardest thing we seem to face. My children are only now learning to even have a grain of patience. It does not seem to be something that many of us are born with. But, my experience has shown that nearly every time I listen to the inner voice that is telling me to have patience, I am rewarded. There are so many things as a painter that require patience. Waiting for paint to dry is the least among them...waiting for the galleries to finally understand that you are a true master...waiting for patrons to run to their banks and run back to purchase work...in the end, though, the most valuable patience is that which lets us as artists allow the ideas to flow when they are ready. The best growth happens over time - even the ah ha! moments that come rushing to us in a frenzy have probably been brewing beneath the conscious surface for months.

MORPETH GALLERY

2008-05-13T19:54:00.003-04:00

This painting along with 3 others will be exhibited at Morpeth Gallery in Hopewell, New Jersey in June. Stop by and see it in Ruth's beautiful gallery. She is located on Main Street directly across from the church. Enjoy!

2008-05-11T11:15:00.001-04:00

SLOWING DOWN TO THINK

2008-05-04T14:06:00.002-04:00

I spent much of yesterday doing nothing. When it gets to the end of most of my days I count the day a success depending upon what I accomplished. For me, that usually involves some physical activity...did something get cleaned, moved from one place to another, painted...seldom do I include sitting on the deck with a glass of wine as an accomplishment. Seldom do I include staring out the window at the crab apple blossoms floating to the ground. But by the end of the day, I realized that the reason why I could do nothing was that my mind and heart needed the day to converse. There were some things that needed clarity in those places. By the end of the day, I was closer to that clarity. For some this is so self evident - that we need that time of meditation to really process important material. But in this world, that is so easy to forget. In fact, the more I "do," often the less I think. That in itself can either be a life saver or a good excuse to avoid what really needs thinking about. I write this here so as to avoid forgetting what I was reminded of yesterday. Slowing down to think is NOT DOING NOTHING!

Autobiography

2008-05-03T15:19:00.002-04:00

In speaking with friends in my studio the other night, I described these pieces as being more directly autobiographical than my other paintings. They contain letters that have captured my attention in terms of content - letters that contained recipes from one elderly aunt to another - letters from a wife to her soldier husband - letters that were intensely personal for the senders when they were sent. They contain letters sent to me through the mail. They contain letters that have come via email. These letters reflect my interests and they reflect correspondence that has been important to me. All of the thoughts that they reflect, from their very moment of creation, begin to sink back into time becoming obscured by the revisionism that all of history seems to undergo - until layers of glowing color reflect the composite of that which is left of the original feeling.

LETTERS...

2008-05-01T11:58:00.000-04:00

NEW WORK

2008-04-28T16:42:00.000-04:00

LETTERS

2008-04-20T19:44:00.004-04:00

Letters vs. emails vs. text messages...I have a new wall full of paintings that have as their ground a piece of paper onto which a letter has been affixed. The letters range in age from the middle 19th century written on fragile paper in ink to emails that are weeks old. All of them are communications of one sort or another from one person to another. Often when I speak to my students about the quality of mark in their work, I refer them to handwriting and signatures... These two aspects of a person's communication repertoire are unique to that person. When I receive a handwritten letter, I have something that feels like a personal gift from that person - their own mark - with their own thoughts. But time elapses from the moment of thought to the moment of receipt. So, though there is a very personal quality to a letter, there is often not a sense of immediacy - of the person being right there with you. Over time, these letters fade physically. In my work, this fading in time is represented by layers of wax and paint. The thoughts, the person, the feelings are draped and obscured by time. Text messages are immediate. Fewer words, but sometimes greater intensity. Once typed and read they are erased and left to the keeping of the mind...

WHITE ZOMBIE

2008-04-08T19:46:00.005-04:00

I was at the gym yesterday riding the bike as hard as I could to the sound of White Zombie pumping out of my ipod into my ears. Music along these lines doesn't allow for much thought on my part. Add to that the exertion of riding the bike and I had what I have begun to think of as a human moment. I was able to be away from all of the thoughts, worries, and "to dos" of my day. I felt great. I just felt. No thought. How often does that happen in our days? How often can we feel the immense beauty - the Love - the sheer joy of being alive - to be able to just BE in the moment. What do we do as humans to get closer to the knowledge that is closer to us than any knowledge ever is...the knowledge of ourselves...what do we do to get there? I paint. I turn on the music and become the cliched artist in my studio painting to very loud music - maybe even White Zombie...

Mantra

2008-04-03T11:35:00.003-04:00

The Gift belongs to whoever chooses to accept it.

It is enough to believe -and not be afraid to make mistakes.
Paulo Coelho

...to me, this is the very mantra required to even climb the steps to my studio and face the new places that are being created there.

Carrying Things Foward

2008-03-29T13:22:00.004-04:00

Recently I read a story about how a "warrior" travels forward on their path most effectively when the burdens of their past are left behind - when their thoughts keep them in the present and their visions take them towards the future. In many ways, I agree with this advice. The present and the future are not always effectively served by bringing our burdens from the past. They can be distracting and distressing at times when action and strength are required. However, we cannot erase our past. Our past becomes a part of us inevitably.

My process of painting requires that I obscure all that came before in the image in the interest of moving the image forward. I cover the entire painting many times with a one color layer that obscures all that came before. At this stage, my painting stands as the unburdened warrior - new - fresh - with gestural expression - but relatively flat. Then, with rags, I start to uncover the past. However, the past is not completely revealed but rather is informed by the present veil of paint. In working this way I am unable to "hang onto" passages that I have "fallen in love with" at the expense of moving the image into a new place. These passages may or may not reappear, but when they do, the contribute to the present rather than to the past.

Artistic Schizophrenia or Diversity?

2008-03-28T17:16:00.006-04:00

I have three bodies of work. The Path series is my most serious body of work, serving as a visual chronicle of my own journey. This series was preceded by my Ancestors series that is not far removed from the Path, in that it deals with those who came before us, both ancestrally and in the sense of our soul path. This "serious" work is usually on canvas or acid etched tin. Recently, I have started another series, the Letters. They all consist of some form of letter hidden beneath layers of wax and oil paint - words are physically and metaphorically obscured. While they share a common content and color, they are not as calligraphic as the Path series. They are more about color planes. The Cookbook series is the third and final endeavor, unless you count all of my "fun" work with vintage ads that I use on cards and boxes...is this artistic diversity or schizophrenia?

Zachary

2008-03-23T18:13:00.004-04:00

My dear friend returned this week from a seven month deployment in Iraq. The comment that has stuck with me through the day, having talked to him this afternoon, is that it "...will take a long time to wipe the smile off of my face..." I can hear the smile in his voice. He described the temperature, the weather, and his delight at having spent an evening with friends and at having the whole week to spend with his dad. Delight. I hear delight in his voice. How can he - how can we? hold onto the feeling of delight in the everyday freedoms and opportunities that we have in this country? And how can we help those who do not have those moments of delight in their day? I spent the afternoon in my studio - delighting in the direction of my work. I love what I am doing there. I have loved my whole day. I hope that when someone looks at my work, they feel that love. I honor my friendship with a person who has seen life from a different perspective and who can now bring this new appreciation home with him. His life pleasure is contagious. Thank you, Zachary, and welcome home soldier.

Friend's Lake Hill

2008-03-14T11:48:00.004-04:00

I was riding the bike at the gym today in preparation for a new season of riding on the road. Riding in the gym is boring - at best. So, today I decided to pretend I was on my favorite route around Friend's Lake in the Adirondacks. I started off well enough, rolling along the lake view side with little effort. Then came the hill. I will make this like the hill up to Friend's Lake Inn I thought, about halfway through the hill I was riding. And do you know what? It got harder. It felt harder than it had before I had the thought. And then I realized...I hate that hill. It's the hardest one for me in the ride...even in top condition, I come to that hill and HATE IT. So there I was in the gym, hating the hill. I quickly quit thinking about it - and guess what - it got easier.

How many times as artists do we avoid doing something because of a perceived response as opposed to an actual one? Going to the studio, trying something new, approaching a new contact...how many times in our day to day lives do we let perceptions rather than reality inform our choices?

Wolves

2008-03-12T17:44:00.003-04:00

Recently, I had a very long and detailed dream involving the most beautiful grey wolf I have ever seen. Wolves have extremely keen senses. Their hunting skills rely heavily on smell and hearing. The appearance of wolves can signify "...a reminder ...to listen to (one's own inner thoughts and words. " I have been particularly interested in reading work by authors who emphasize noticing - seeing. This dream, I believe, is an extension of that in that it reminds us to pay attention to what we know inside as well as outside - to trust our inner voice. In making art, noticing our world and trusting in the intuitive process go hand in hand.

Moby

2008-03-12T17:39:00.002-04:00

I cannot work when I am unhappy, frustrated, or worried. However, given my work schedule and two young children, I often do not have the choice about when I am able to go to my studio. How do I shift my mood into a place where I can be creative and productive? Music. Moby is one of my current mood altering mediums. His songs "lift me up", even the melancholy ones. They take me to a place of enthusiasm for the creative process. So, my many thanks to Moby.

Abstraction and Mysticism

2008-03-08T16:16:00.002-05:00

In his essay "Abstraction and Mysticism", Sheldon Cheney states: " ...the artist touches upon final unknowable truth about life, crystallizes a fragment of beauty and order that lie beyond the field of sense knowing and intellectual explanation...The painting partakes more of the reality of the spirit than of the commonly accepted reality of outward nature."

As a purely abstract painter, I have always responded to Cheney's representation of abstraction as being mystic in nature - of touching upon a place not seen until the artist represents it - a place entirely new and unexplored. I hope that my paintings provide this experience for my viewers with each new exploration that they make in looking.

The laws of the Road

2008-03-06T19:00:00.007-05:00

"May you walk neither too slowly nor too fast but always according to the laws and requirements of the Road..." Paulo Coelho

We are all in such a great hurry. The more we fit into our busy days, the better. If the list of accomplishments today was long, I can go to bed feeling like my day was "productive". But what if I spent my whole day accomplishing much and noticing little? What if I was walking my Road too fast? Using the term "making" when referring to art is limiting. The actual process of putting paint to canvas, the "making" is really only part of the process. Walking the Road is the real meat of making art work. What things do I as an artist take in during my day that inform my work? What do I see? What do I hear? I really only consciously slowed down three times today, and each time I gained more in a few minutes than I did in the hours that led up to my inner voice saying "Hello - hello- hello - stop!" I typed a long letter about Beauty to a friend in Iraq. I stopped raking long enough to look at the garden I was uncovering. I really looked at an old woman at the gym to understand why it was that she was so captivating despite features that many would describe as ugly. Often, in Coelho's Pilgrimage, the author's guide makes Coelho slow down...makes him look...makes him listen...makes him notice. As an abstract painter, my imagery comes from my imagination. But my imagination is not going to have much to share if I do not slow down long enough to feed it.

a painting a day?

2008-03-03T17:36:00.003-05:00

In reading a current issue of Art Calender, I came across an article about methods to market oneself as an artist...starting a blog was on the list, and you can see how quick I was to embrace that one. Another thing that they mentioned was the idea that an artist can join a site whose marketing angle is that the artists are creating a "painting a day". Many of these artists feel that the discipline of creating one piece a day is a good thing and that beyond that, the sheer volume of work can create a great inventory for sales. People get "into" an artist and look to see what's new today...is this a good thing? I don't know. I know I can't do it. My work simply doesn't evolve one piece at a time, nor is it ever finished on the first "go". My work evolves as a "body" where every piece is re informed by new ones.
However, bringing one's artwork into the fore of one's mind each and every day is a good thing. Keeping all areas of one's life as an artist in a constant dialogue is a good thing. Remembering as I go through my day how one event is always informing another is a good thing.
I found some amazing red and green color ideas in the first, forceful little bursts of Spring bulbs this afternoon. They will no doubt find their way into my work - when I get there...

the pilgrimage

2008-03-01T12:03:00.000-05:00

The world was there around me, and I realized that seldom had I paid attention to it”
Paulo Coehlo

These paintings have evolved as a body of work spontaneously…they are not created as the product of a preconceived concept. I prepare my surfaces and get down to business. When I surface and take a look at what has transpired around me, usually the “theme” has been there all along…the paintings are part of and inspired by the “ingredients” that are lining the sides of my day to day “path”.

I have finished reading The Pilgimage by Paulo Coelho… I closed the back cover, reopened the front, and started reading it again. I believe that we find things as we need them and as they are relevant to our current lives…and so I found Coehlo’s book, which, strangely enough has been sitting in the bookcase for a few years now. The Pilgrimage describes Coehlo's physical and spiritual journey on the Strange Road to Santiago, a route sacred as a pilgrimage to the Christians of the first millennium. The road led to the mortal remains of the apostle San Tiago and ran from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. What I most resonated with was his gradual ability to more fully see and hear what was around him as he traveled.

The paintings aren’t meant to show a picture of my path in particular. But, as Coelho in his book chooses events and images to recreate parts of his path, so too do I choose light, colors, spaces, and shapes that partly describe my journey. The process of making the paintings is my walking of the path. Choosing the colors and their intensities and values along with the particular forms they take in space is part of my interest in pushing my own abilities to capture the subtlety and nuance possible with oil paint. The images are pulled from my unconscious inventory of sights and sounds that I encounter along my path.

the virtual cafe

2008-02-29T16:32:00.000-05:00

...in answer to my dear friend's question last night which, quite frankly, irritated me - why blog? who has time to blog? I don't really know the answer to that until I have tried it for awhile. But what I do know is this. I have recently read DeKooning's biography and have envied the seemingly seamless and effortless contact that the artists of his milieu had with one another...dinners, parties, designated pubs and cafeterias where they could find one another to throw around with and at one another ideas about their work. With two other jobs and endless other responsibilities who has time for that? And when I do have time, everyone else doesn't and when they do, I don't...my dear friend and critic Mark and I have been trying for a studio visit since December. Here, Mark. Take a look and lets talk/type. It's a slim second to actual, in person dialogue, but step into my cafe...bring a glass of wine...you can be sure I will...

the path

2008-02-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

Curving lines arc through space like paths of a lifetime.
Time in these spaces is represented by shifting layers of transparent color.
At times the path is obscured, at times blurred, at times precarious, at times, ending abruptly with a chasm of space beyond.
Always the path leads the viewer on a sinewy, sensuous journey through passages of color and light.