10 Essentials

Heck yes! a couple of my paintings for the Black Maria are finished, actually five of them by now, I thought I'd post a couple examples of what they are shaping up to look like in the rare event that anyone cares.

Studio Shots

A couple shots from the studio, the first two are some progress shots of some new pieces for an upcoming show at Black Maria Gallery. I'm changing it up a bit this time around and trying some new stuff out. I think it's about time; I need to throw something new into the mix every now and then in order to keep painting exciting and new. This time around I'm going with the limited of all limited palettes, a new stain color, perhaps some patterns, who knows? The pieces are loosely based on the TEN ESSENTIALS that one should never venture into the wilderness without which I learned about in Boy Scouts so many years ago.

The last pick is the newest addition to the studio ephemera: an unfortunate looking bloated frog forever playing the accordion which one of my students brought back from Mexico City. It makes one wonder: does he play a happy or a melancholy song, for whom does he play, and how does he tap out the rhythm with his feet firmly nailed to a block of wood?

For anyone who knows/cares. The marathon training continues; we ran 26 miles on Sunday, fuck yeah!

Here's the press release/info for the upcoming Black Maria show: Oh, and for the record, I hate nostalgia and any thing remotely resembling the sentimental.


Menace & Charm: The Nostalgia of Childhood

Artists: Jaime Zollars, Kathleen Lolley, Alex Noriega, Matt Burlingame, P. Williams,
Leanne Biank, Juri Ueda, Aaron Hitchcock and CJ Metzger.

26 April – 24 May2008
Opening Reception: Saturday 26th April, 7:00 – 10:30pm

Black Maria Gallery: 3137 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90039
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12pm until 6pm (or by appointment)

This exhibition explores the dark and innocent cognitions of
childhood. According to Black Maria Gallery director Zara
Zeitountsian, “It’s not about our actual experiences, but our
memories. Vivid yet nonsensical treasures created in our
imaginations, metamorphosis into lasting imagery. These images
are shaped by our environment and give us an uncanny sense of
nostalgia.”

The work in this exhibition gives these perceived
memories a home. Demons, fairies, putti, mythical
beasts and the like will converge on the walls to
conjure memories and dreams.

Old Stuff

Bit of an old one here... This was an installation that was up this last summer which I very much forgot to post. It was originally intended to be larger, much larger with allot more painted pieces that related to one another, but I think the idea comes through. It seemed weird at the time to invest the time painting these shitty old frames which the paint didn't even want to stick to, knowing that no one would want these things and that, minus the painting on the wall and independent of one another, they didn't work all that well as art pieces. At the time, I felt a bit like I was wasting resources on these things.

Now of course, my view on things has shifted a bit, especially since putting all the effort into the cardboard face installation,(see last entry)and becoming a bit more enamored with a first-hand viewers interaction with the work and less concerned about materials involved and the longevity of the work, which for some reason I have become hyper-sensitive. It's freeing to work with garbage, and it takes the pressure off, knowing that I'm not working on some ten dollar piece of watercolor paper.

I have been invited to participate in a three person installation group show called Ground Us This summer at the Huntington Beach Art Center. I am more excited about creating a piece for this show than I have been about any other art related things in the last year or so. I have a square-ish space of about 28x30 feet with high ceilings in which to create this "Thing" I've been thinking of for maybe a year now. It's going to be huge, take tons of time, space, money, and energy to construct, but thanks to the curator, Darlene DeAngelo I will be making this "Thing" exactly at it was conceived. More about that later, I will post images of the work in progress and specific details.

"Intersections"

Ok, big-ish show, I've been working on the elements of the installation piece for the last couple weeks. Above are some pics both of the work in-progress and installed. Below is the information for the show/statement etc. it's a really good one, I promise. Also I have plans for the elements of the installation after the show comes down, (TBA) kind of a public art thing. Hope to see you there.

"Intersections" @ Cypress College Art Gallery

Opening Reception: Wed, March 12th 6-8PM

Cypress College Art Gallery
9200 Valley View StreetCypress, CA 90630
714.484.7134

It has become obvious that many young painters have shifted their concerns from traditional discourses within painting toward discussions that extend the medium toward new trajectories. Recent art school graduates—along with many emerging artists—have gained inspiration from the graphic languages of the commercial world. The return to the handmade and the hand drawn within the commercial fields of graphic design and illustration, are a reaction to the prevailing influence of computer technology in those fields.

While there is no doubt the artists being surveyed in Intersections are artists who work within the support structure of the art world, the influences one can see from the world of the larger visual culture is nothing but evident. Intersections brings to light these dichotomies, attempting to provide a platform for discussions on this new intersection within painting/design.

Intersections will be held in the new Cypress College Art Gallery. The new CCAG is located in the heart of the Cypress College campus. Intersections will open on Wednesday, March 12th and run thru April 10th.

Artists taking part in “Intersections”:Anthony ClarksonJordan CraneL. Croskey
Ekundayo
Tim Evans
Brent Harada
Kiel JohnsonTimothy KarpinskiKenneth Lavallee
Melanie Moore
Mike Park
Chris Ryniak
Juan Thorpe
Stephen Tomkins
P. Williams
Cherri Wood

Co-curated by Thinkspace Gallery and Giant Robot
http://www.thinkspacegallery.com/
http://www.giantrobot.com/