ANIMALS ON TABLES
On exhibit March 22nd - April 3rd
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 27th 5 - 8pm
ANIMALS Artist’s statement:
In the end, this is a room full of animal paintings. I have seen them make people smile.
In the beginning it started for me in the 1980s as visual arts major in college. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was able to study with people that influenced me greatly. Jan Grover was a photographer known for formalism. Simply put, formalism is communicating using the language of how things connect when flattened to two dimensions. Simpler put, do you know those photos people take with their hands out close to the camera and something like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty appears small and in their hand? That’s is, and I tried to used full frame 35mm images taken on the street in the blink of an eye to speak in that language. I was really into controlling the viewers eye.
Around that time I began to practice compositions, object on plane, by drawing animals on tables. Why animals? If fruit is on the table in front of you all you think is, “Do I want fruit?”. If a porcupine is on the table in front your reaction is grander. I have always enjoyed playing that out in my mind. It makes me smile.
The scene was New York City late 80s, fine art color photography was all the rage and I missed the boat by a few years. I attended early career openings of so many great artists from that time but couldn’t find my pathway in that industry. By the early 90’s I did catch the boat with something else. I worked making beautiful things as assistant to the most talented person I’ve ever met, Brian Hagiwara. He taught me how to make things.
In 1988 ELLE magazine got the first rudimentary version of photoshop. It was called SyQuest and was a computer the size of a room. With the ability to easily remove backgrounds from objects they changed the way all printed material looks. For the next decade my career was working with the graphic designers of many magazines as they changed the way the world looks. It was a 24hr a day 7 days a week making photographs kinda decade. I never went anywhere but the world came through my studio. It shaped me.
911, dot com bubble, digital photography and the wild west that was TriBeCa with mandated quiet after 11pm…I bailed.
I found community first in Truro, then in Ptown. I have the most rewarding family experience I ever could have hoped for and my days have a steady stream of beautiful moments mixed in. Here I am, kinda full circle, trying to speak the language again, painting the next creative chapter of my life.
I hope they make you smile
