Oldies but Goodies and Autopsies

I've recently had a spike in interest for some of my internal organ pieces from back in 2009.  So far, I've located two uteruses and a liver.

Most of the organ paintings had that colbalt blue background.  I used reference photos from this amazing and incredibly gross book I found in the library at MassArt.  I think I was originally looking for references for some figurative work but instead found these photos taken during autopsies.  The organs were taken from the human and put on this blue table and in some cases pinned down to show all the nooks and crannies.  I love the flash you can see shining off the organs from the camera, things are slimy. 

I really need to find that book again.

Robert Jessup

"Little Me as a Dog", 2012

Oil on Canvas, 20"x20"

I received my copy of New American Paintings the other day and have not been able to get my eyes away from the pages with Robert Jessup's work.  From what I can see, he has been working in representation to show the viewer a story for the majority of his career.  The past two years of paintings however, have drastically changed in style. Jessup says of his process, "A painting is done when the last punch lands," and that his work is made with "...equal parts deliberation and desperation."

"Head Woman 12-26", 2012

Oil, 18"x18"

There is an aggression and immediacy from the swooping strokes of Jessup's brush that channel a sense of honesty and memory.

Here, look at some of his older work to see the stylistic switch I'm talking about:

Nighscene, 1999

Oil on canvas, 70"x80"

Sister, 2001

Oil on Canvas, 60"x60"

Half Head, Ice Cream, 2004

Oil on board, 11"x14"

Cloud Series, #11, 2006

Oil on canvas, 30"x30"

Couple, Bedroom, 2007

Oil on canvas, 44"x42"

from the couples in love series

Although there has been a huge shift in the way Jessup is using his paint, I would argue that the narrative remains present in his work.  The two portraits at the top from this year are equally as capable of relating a narrative as "Half Head, Ice Cream" from 2004, with an additional kick from the raw application of paint.  In the newer work I spend time looking at the piece trying to find landmarks such as a nose or an ear and in the older work I am spending that same time trying to figure things out, like "Where did that lady get that amazing purple wig?" or, "What's up with that angry cat?"  There is an equal balance of detective work the viewer must put to in both bodies of work, which is what stimulates me as a viewer and challenges me as a painter.

Here are a few more of Jessup's work from this year with the new style and a huge punch of narrative.

"Cloud and Meteor" 2012

Oil, 42"x48"

"Dr. Jung with his Mistress in the Mountains" 2012

Oil, 64"96"

"A Family Climbs the Mountain" 2012

Oil, 64"x84"

"Portrait of a Woman (Robert's Thumb)" 2012

Oil, 48"x42"

I had such a hard time picking work to show here, do yourself a favor and go to Robert Jessup's website and have a look at more of his paintings.

Favorite Things I've Made

This post is based off a fun idea Erika over at Foxtrot Press has put together.  So be sure to click on that link there and check out what else is going on over there!

Here are the six things I've settled on:

A group of drawings 

Painting of my brother Kevin from this Summer

An old vase, I probably made this somewhere around 2008? 

Some of the signs I'be been making at work.

My new tattoo that I collaborated on with my tattoo artist Dennis, from Providence Tattoo

A couple of simple and colorful dishes I've made this week... healthy and otherwise.

Go ahead and linkup if you like!

Sandpaper Factory

I've been back in the Sandpaper Factory for a month now thanks to Scott Ketcham's artistically generous spirit.  This is the third Summer he has given me rein over the space while he is away at the Vermont Studio Center (I MUST go there someday).

I've been getting tons of work done and am absolutely thrilled about it.  I am also currently thrilled about the opening I will be having in the space on July 21st.  My girl Zheyu will have some work up as well; she has been busy making gigantic things in there lately. Check that link I made through her name in that last sentence, her work is amazing.

 Lots of portraits have been happing.  Originally I started making them as practice for a piece I am doing for a friend, but I've been getting into them a lot more than I imagined.  I'm having a lot of fun working the oil pastels in with the paint and searching for a rhythmic balance back and forth between them.  This portrait above kinda looks like there is a swollen mouth situation going on, but I think I'm over it.  I suspect that my precision in portraiture will increase with more practice.  While I do care a lot about the growth of that precision, I am equally as invested in the compositional quality of each piece.  I want to add another sentence here figuring out that equation and what it means for my paintings, but this is all very new work for me and I am still working on those answers.

Been getting outside a bit too:

And what I feel to be an obligatory "Serious Painter" portrait.

I truly hope that if you are reading this you will be able to come to the exhibition.

"Summer 2012"

July 21, 2012

7p-9p, party to follow

83 East Water Street.

4th Floor

Rockland, MA

Degas and the Nude

Saw the Degas exhibit at the MFA a couple times and know what is awesome there? This piece:

After the Bath, Woman with a Towel

The show closed on February 5^th, but happily, this piece is owned by the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard so anybody in the Boston area can go and visit it there.

The drawing was done with pastel on blue-gray wove paper and is 27 7/8 x 22 9/16 inches.

There is so much color, it is hard to even get the full sense of it from just seeing the image, you really need to go and visit it.  Completed somewhere between 1893 and 1897, I was unprepared to see such vibrant colors used so long ago.  It really does feel like long ago, so much in art has happened since then, but really, it should be no surprise.  Wikipedia says that the first time the French word “pastel” was used was in 1662. It is so hard to get a true feeling of time over the course of history.  Anyway, bright color just seem like such a contemporary idea, what a refreshing thing to be wrong about.

I was also impressed by all of the vertical and horizontal lines going on in Degas’ drawings throughout his work.  So much structure, it aligns with the industrialization that was going on at the time I suppose, but it speaks to pixels now.    


Other pieces I loved:

After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Chest
Made around 1890
Pastel on tracing Paper
The Courtland Gallery, London

Woman at her Bath
Made around 1895
Oil on canvas
28 x 35 inches

Woman Seated on a Bathtub, Sponging her Neck
Made around 1895
Oil on paper
Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The show also had many pieces by other artists who served as both inspirations and peers to Degas.  One of the pieces that I just have not got enough of yet is a painting by Picasso.

Nude on a Red Background
Oil on canvas
Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris

If the Face Had Wheels

While in Miami I had a little time to pop into the Miami Art Museum where a Dana Schutz exhibition was on display.

I don't know exactly when I became familiar with Schutz's work, probably around 2008 when I went with Meghan Dinsmore to see her speak at Boston University as a part of their Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series.  I just found a link to the talk here if you are interested in seeing it. It has been really good for me to go back and flip through this talk again, she sounds sweet.  What I remember from the talk is being annoyed with the simplicity of the stories of her paintings, but as I continue to look at her work it is now, of course, that simplicity which keeps bringing me back.

Cover for the catalog (that I am ordering tonight!)

"If the Face Had Wheels" was organized by Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College and State University of New York.  I checked out the Neuberger Museum of Art website to see what they had to say about her paintings and it was just what I was hoping for.  A quote that summarizes the obvious about Shutz's work, which is TRUE, and I UNDERSTAND why it is talked about all of the time, but can we not move on?  The quote is, "The subjects of Schutz's paintings spring from an absurdist sensibility as she invents imaginary stories or hypothetical situations that are bizarre and impossible, yet oddly compelling."  This line of thought has been so thought about that I've decided to NOT think about it over the past few years, which has led me to not bother keeping up with her work.  Yes, Schutz's work IS all of those things, and there is a lot to think about and enjoy there, but there is this whole other thing that I haven't heard enough about and didn't even know existed until I saw this show.  How am I just finding out about her Tourette's Series?!  Apparently Dana Schutz has things going on other than telling hypothetical stories and that rocks because her application of paint alone makes me want to roll around on one of her wet canvases, never mind a concept that I can get into as well. 

Carpenter 2010
Oil on canvas
50 x 72 inches

The painting I really wanted to show here is "Licking a Brick" from 2011 which is owned by Nina Grill.  Who is Nina Grill and where is there a photo of this painting?  Well I'll get a photo of when my catalog is delivered I suppose.
Much like in "Carpenter," "Licking a Brick" sends the viewer a direct snapshot from Schutz's brain of an impulse she has had.  I've always been intrigued by these impulses, Where do they come from? What do they mean? How much do I really want that?  I equate Schutz's impulses to scrape wood with her teeth and licking bricks with my desire to throw myself over the upper level railing at the mall and chuck my phone into the Biscayne Bay during an enjoyable conversation.  I also often think about steering my car off the road while on the highway.  These impulses always come at times when I am absolutely chilled out, I dont really want these things, I'm just impulsively curious about the experience and it kind of freaks me out.  What if my action followed through as quickly and unexpectedly as my curiosity arrived?  I love Schutz's ability to capture these fleeting thoughts into these sometimes gigantic paintings.  They are simple and quick thoughts that she manages to translate into complex and time consuming objects while not changing their impulsivity a hair.

Some of the paintings that gave my eyeballs a place to pack up and move out of my head to were:

The Breeders 2002
Oil on canvas
84 x 90 inches
Collection of Gagosian Gallery

Chicken and the Egg 2003
Oil on canvas
75 x 90 inches
Collection of Diane and Robert Moss

Notes I took about Chicken and the Egg while at the museum pretty much sum up my feelings about it, "Blue - Fucking Blue. Unapologetic!" Also, the pattern of negative space as stars in the sky and their reflection in the water below is kind of awesome too; over half of the painting is spots!

Her Arms 2003
Oil on Canvas
Collection of David Teiger

This is a scan from some promotional paper I got at the museum; it does no justice to the actual color of the painting.  The painting has got to be at least 6 feet tall; I will update the info when I get my book on the show.  Things I loved about this painting cannot be seen in photos, thick paintings just do not photograph well.  In the areas with thick paint you can see so many different colors in each stroke, it gives the marks a greater presence of time in the history of the painting.  And the hand on the left of the painting is structured so well and it is an entry point into how thoughtful all of the marks are.

Gouged Girl 2008
Oil on canvas
Collection of Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz

Some of the text that went along with this piece in the museum referenced Rene Magritte's "This is Not A Pipe" painting.  I can't totally get on board with that.  Yes, this is not a picnic and this is not a real girl or real anything else, but I just find this painting to be more about pattern, color and experimentation -with a still life as the vehicle for these things, than I see the edited still life as the actual point of the whole thing.

I loved the play of thick and thin paint in this piece.  The orange splash of color you see between the girl and the bottle is one of the thinnest areas in the piece although it appears to be additive as far as color is concerned.  That bright orange is such an intense color that along with its thin application gives the appearance of beaming, color as it's own light source, I love it.  

Another area of interest I found was with the flesh colors on the girl and the watermelon.  The color used is pretty similar and works as one color compositionally, but in reality it is a cool tone used in the fruit.

Schutz is holding it down and I'm glad that I got back on board with that.