Strictly Painting 8 and Planning Process

Tonight I'll have a couple of new ideas on exhibit at Strictly Painting 8 at the McLean Project for the Arts, running through July 30.

Ideas? Yes. Ideas. Or, rather, idea (same idea but two different pieces). As a graduate student I made paintings that referenced collages of torn advertisements that simulated torn posters that found along the streets of Rome. And, of course, I got raked over the coals in critique for one of three reasons: 1) the work was too close to Rotella, Rosenquist, etc, or 2) I wasn't defying Cubism 3) I wasn't being didactic enough with the narrative. After graduate school I chose to stop painting (I teach more digital courses, anyway), until I could figure out the kind of painting I wanted to make.

The pieces on exhibit in McLean are ideas that step toward that goal of making the paintings I want to make. Or, at least, the paintings that I would like to be making now (I'm fickle). Unfortunately, the work might make people think I am trying to tackle Elsworth Kelly or (more locally) J.T. Kirkland - artists I like, but not work that I want to create.

Despite the work on exhibit, I'm holding my cards close to my chest before revealing my hand - I don't want to write about the work, yet.


Also on exhibit in Planning Process at the Arlington Arts Center, are pieces from Out of Print, my series that explores the slow, agonizing death of the newspaper, which is represented by my efforts to erase the front pages of various newspapers from across the country. I'll have 17 papers on display, plus some early digital drafts of the work (the process). Planning Process won't open until June 22, and the work will be on display through September 25.