Sunday, March 24, 2013

Savage Press & "Personal" Works

Several news sources had good things to say about the Young Savages show held at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune article can be found here.
The San Luis Obispo New Times article can be found here.
Tom Cochrun wrote a review of the show in his March 13th blog.
The Paso Robles Press article written by Hayley Thomas can be found here.
The show will be coming down on the 31st of March, do take a trip to Paso if you have the means.

I'd like to thank the following people for making the job of curating such a large show much easier: Joshua Brinckerhoff, Anne Laddon, Sasha Irving, Jennifer Grant, Amy Fordyce, Kelly Stewart, Bill Benica. These people were the unsung heroes in promoting one of the most successful group shows I have been a part of.




I can't paint knife-wielding foxes all the time. My other, more personal work has some ambiguity to it, mostly falling into nature themed areas.

Currently, you can see a handful of these pieces at Brick House Goods in San Luis Obispo, a slick, tasteful, clever furniture and housewares shop in the middle of downtown. An article with a word mentioning the display can be seen here.


Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Skulk, Unraveled.

At the close of one of the most comprehensive group shows I have been a part of on the Central Coast,  I am relieved to have completed such a large task of coordinating between talent and venue. It was great to be a fly on the wall, listening to how artists & patrons--people--perceive works of art. I heard several comments on my latest acrylic work, the Skulk series:
Skulk 2, acrylic on canvas, 16x20"
Of the people I happened to catch commenting on it, I was given a prognosis of heavy issues with my mother or with women. Despite varying opinions, these pieces are not about women at all. I do not recall ever explaining my work in great detail within the confines of a blog or an interview, but here goes.
The very first drawings of the Skulk was part of a larger series of totem/herald illustrations I did with gouache and ink on watercolor paper. (See Flickr here) They were very popular and the entire series sold, including my very first acrylic painting after a 5 year hiatus from the medium. The buyer, a woman, felt empowered by the image. She had major changes going on in her life and the painting spoke to her. I felt great about selling it to such a recently freed spirit, and had a good hunch that if I made more paintings similar I could probably reach more people and, let's be honest, sell more pieces.
The idea was put on the shelf until I spoke with the director of the Studios on the Park. As we were talking about putting together the group show, she mentioned that I should do a solo show of some sort. Reviewing my Flickr site, she enjoyed several things, including the totem series. When it came time to turn in my work for the show, she pushed me to make a larger version (4 feet by 5 feet!) of the 16x20" Skulk painting, which later sold to a very classy woman who owns Deer Run in Cambria, CA, a cunning curio shop with amazing art and other artifacts.
Skulk 3, acrylic on canvas, 48x60".
What is it about these figures that evokes such reactions? Foxes, as I have noticed, are very popular imagery at the moment. The Young Savages show yielded not only my foxes, but artists Isaac Yorke and Beth Reninger also created fox-themed pieces. If I was the least bit hip, I would of probably avoided using them. Fox imagery is extremely varied from being messengers (Native Americans) to omens of rain (Japan) to bastions of intelligence (Celtic). They signify various afterlife connotations depending on the religion. Maybe it's the color--red--which can signify passion, desire, intensity.
If I was going to tell you that I thought of these things as I created the initial Skulk drawings, I would be relying on some heavy reverse engineering. It's simply a matter of common sense, a mixture of the peripheral fox knowledge and the need for a group of some kind of animal to be clever and slick enough to travel in a group on the prowl, not out of revenge, but on the offensive. Because they could, not because they needed to.
As this series unravels, and will most likely be shown at Linnaea's Cafe in October, I hope to create an entire room of these empowered figures, which in turn will create a visceral response to the viewer as they submit themselves to the will of the Skulk.