Thinking About Art

A Birthday in Citronelle, Alabama: In Pictures

Last weekend we visited Citronelle, AL, for an 80th birthday party.  What follows is a sort of photo essay about the birthday party itself.  Images are presented in the order they were taken.

Artists "Review" Artists: Jenn Figg on Bob Barbera

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Bob Barbera's work, wedges, written by Jenn Figg.  Bob provided the second jpeg, an image of Boat, as well as a brief response to Jenn's "review."

Bob currently resides in Cherry Hill, NJ, and Jenn lives in Richmond, VA.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

wedges
acrylic and collage on canvas
24" x 28"
2008

The "Review"

A 24" x 36" collage on canvas, Wedges is a painterly visual composition rather than a linear narrative tableaux relying heavily on color, material juxtaposition, and paint application style to convey visual meaning.

Wedges engages the eye via the placement of form and color.  Moving from right to left, the composition employs a grouping of horizontal grey lines. Depending on a wash of a transparent white paint, the ground flows forward causing a caesura of horizontal movement.  The lines lead to a trio of electric color, a grouping of starkly chromatic geometric forms in combinations of blue, red, and orange.  The bright wedges hover at a visual distance above the washed grounding, as evidence of layers of paint and material join to form a recessive surface.  The painted surface is subtly revealed between wash strokes and drips.  These drips engage an inverted maneuver as they contrarily trickle upward.  Simultaneously shunning the laws of gravity, they provide a visual anchor for the larger forms.  Spatial recognition falters when the white wash shifts to grey; a bright stripe that separates the color bodies also forces a bisection of the work.  There is a sense that what is above should possibly push back, but the space is flattened behind the red striped geometry, and the possibility of real depth is thwarted.  While most of the objects are articulated through color, the circle adjacent to the blue form is outlined; this breaks with the rest of the work and has an opportunity to be a focal point, but fails due to its stylistic inconsistencies and lack of detail.

The level of abstraction within Wedges is evasive enough to allow this work to visually operate as a vibrant geometric color play. If pressed, a viewer might project a familiar scene of  hanging textiles – as in a washroom.  This reading has the further virtue of placing the circular form as a concretized object, such as a finial. But the study of shapes disallows any temporality, thus subverting narrative and conceptual storytelling.  Wedges are tools of activation, yet Wedges suggests stasis.

By Jenn Figg

 
Boat
acrylic on canvas
16" x 20"
2008

The Response

I want to thank you, Jenn Figg, for an insightful, detailed, review of my painting.  Everything you have observed comes close to issues running through my head while working on the piece, including the thwarting of spatial consistency and using inconsistent stylistic elements successfully or otherwise to avoid a pat completeness.  My intent is to leave an openness to the piece so it won't rest too easily.  It’s a slippery slope to walk along, I know.

By Bob Barbera

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert
John M. Adams on Sharon Butler
Michael Paul Oman-Reagan on Brent Hallard
Daniel Mafe on Pam Farrell

A Quick Thought on Photography

I apologize for being behind on posting new "reviews."  The response has been fantastic and I have a queue of more to come.  I hope to get some new ones posted soon.

In the meantime, I've had a thought about photography that recently came into greater focus (ha!).  I've noticed a lot of photographers who are seemingly restricted by the notion of the full-frame-capture.  In other words, the final "print" must show what was captured by the camera.  All of it.  So, every capture comes in the 2:3 ratio associated with 35mm film (approximately).  I'm wondering, though, how often life arranges itself perfectly for that composition.  Not very often, I think.

I thought about this after our wedding shower in Kentucky this past weekend.  When I edited the images I captured, I found that I had skinny images, square images, etc.  Out of approximately 40 images, only two or three remained full frame.  I then thought about my family who would be viewing these images online.  If they wanted to order a 4x6 print, would they further crop my image or would they center it on the paper?  How do they feel about having to purchase a custom mat?  Is the ease of making the image a standard size more important than creating the best image possible?

I see so many images that cry out for cropping.  I wonder if the photographer is a purist who doesn't believe in any editing, or is it someone just trying to save time?  Regardless of the answer, I firmly believe that if you're going to create a photograph, it might as well be the best possible photograph.  So crop it as much as you want... the image is what matters most.

Artists "Review" Artists: Daniel Mafe on Pam Farrell

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Pam Farrell's work, Lacuna Yellow No. 1, written by Daniel Mafe.  Pam provided the second jpeg, an image of Lacuna Blue/Green, as well as a brief response to Daniel's "review."

Pam currently resides in Hunterdon County, NJ, and Daniel lives in Brisbane, Australia.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

 
Lacuna Yellow No. 1
oil on panel
36" x 48”
2008

The "Review"

Philip Guston in a lecture delivered in 1978 at the University of Minnesota said, “In my experience a painting is not made with colours and paint at all. I don’t know what a painting is... The painting is not on a surface, but on a plane which is imagined. It moves in a mind. It is not physically there at all. It is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.”
 
A strongly modulated acid yellow-green field is punctuated, marked, or is it creased by blurred self-involving gestures. The field is as though stained by sensed rather than explicitly defined colour differentials. The gestures are at once isolated from one another and then linked by a smother of paint that suggests atmosphere and light. The painting though, finally resists this sweet dissolving with a surface that is too materially dense and assertive for such a surrender. This is a painting balanced, albeit finely, on the cusp of a becoming-change.
 
Prolonged looking reaps its reward. The more I scrutinise the image and reflect on what I see, the more woven I become into its blinding ocean of yellow-greenness. I am reminded of those near abstract paintings by the early nineteenth century British painter J.M.W. Turner or of Cy Twombly’s later re-versionings of Turner in his Hero and Leander paintings of the mid-nineteen eighties. And yet there is a tougher, harder won quality to this painting that allows one to maintain contact with these associations as haunting evocations only.

As a painting it keeps escaping me. It is a subtly yet complexly nuanced piece. It resists a definitive naming and seems well suited to existing in that imagined doubt-full space so well identified and explored by Philip Guston. This is, finally, a painting that flirts and toys with its concrete materiality both as an object in the world as well as an object so well imbued with those painstakingly cultivated qualities that define it as art.

By Daniel Mafe

 
Lacuna Blue/Green
oil on panel
36" x 48”
2008

The Response

Daniel: Thank you for your thoughtful, informed, and detailed review of my painting, Lacuna Yellow. I especially appreciate how you respond to the formal elements by both asserting your thoughts and leaving room for possibilities. I love that you noticed the intuited aspect of the gestures and picked up on the nuances and subtleties—especially difficult viewing a digital image online. I will continue to think about your statement: “This is a painting balanced, albeit finely, on the cusp of a becoming-change.” It is a lovely thought. I find all your remarks helpful and encouraging. And your writing is wonderful!

Best Regards,
Pam Farrell

By Pam Farrell

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert
John M. Adams on Sharon Butler
Michael Paul Oman-Reagan on Brent Hallard

Artists "Review" Artists: Michael Paul Oman-Reagan on Brent Hallard

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Brent Hallard's work, one-cut_3 Blue  'envelope series', written by Michael Paul Oman-Reagan.  Brent provided the second jpeg, an image of Bridge, TEMPLATE #071027, as well as a brief response to Michael's "review."

Brent currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, and Michael lives in Brooklyn, NY.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

one-cut_3 Blue  'envelope series'
acrylic and marker on cut paper
8 1/2" x 11 3/4"
2008

The "Review"

"one-cut_3 Blue" immediately engaged my attention. My first reaction was "what is this?" because it is both familiar and challenging.  When my response to an artwork is "oh, that's a painting/sculpture/collage/drawing" I am already done with the work.  Instead, this object proposes an investigation – but does not give up its identity.  I remain very curious after the initial introduction.  Is it a drawing?  Yes, but it is three-dimensional, so it's also sculpture.  And the paper has been painted, and so it is painting.  But it's not on canvas or panel or in a frame – it has been attached directly to the wall.  Or has it?  These fluid identities make the work captivating and help to build an utterly fascinating launching point for discovering more about it and its maker.

The boundary areas of the work allow it to hover between scales. The illuminated blue field and the delicate shadows cast by the edges cause it to glow and float against the wall. The straight, ruled, black lines overlay a specific, stark geometry that is contained, systematic and architectonic.  Although it is only slightly larger than a sheet of notebook paper, it defies the implied scale of that familiar size - instead appearing as an open and vast place - with gentle delineations.

The object seems to have been pasted to the wall, like a note or an instruction or perhaps a calendar for remembering vastness.  This direct contact with the wall creates an intimate exchange with the installation environment.  The wall space usually relegated to 'background' is drawn into the scope of the work.  This is almost less than architecture, drafting and painting and yet the color, line and form are more vibrant specifically because of their subtlety.  It is richly reductive, reminding me to remember where I am standing, and to actively see what is in front of me.

If this work had relatives, they could be Richard Tuttle's Paper Octagonal series and Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park landscapes.  Or Agnes Martin's drawings and D.E. May's Template works.

In an earlier Artists "Review" Artists essay, Pam Farrell described how the anonymity of this project leaves us "wanting to know the unknown." "one-cut_3 Blue" captures that unknown, teaches us how to look into that place and see the invisible – and leaves us anticipating the revelation.

By Michael Paul Oman-Reagan

 
Bridge, TEMPLATE #071027
painted tape on wall
66.142' x 85.039"
2007
Installation view, The Space Between, SJICA, San Jose, 2008

The Response

Michael Paul Oman-Reagan has certainly engaged this small work – I’m quite shocked how well.
He has succinctly outlined and ordered ideas such as the indefinite thing, fluidity, shifting scale, and the ‘tectonic’ to name a few. And if that is all too much, he has added near the close of the review, the way in, the body / time / focus, ‘reminding me to remember where I am standing, and to actively see what is in front of me’.
Thank you.

By Brent Hallard

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert
John M. Adams on Sharon Butler

Artists "Review" Artists: John M. Adams on Sharon Butler

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Sharon Butler's work, Painting 23 (Pittsburgh), written by John M. Adams.  Sharon provided the second jpeg, an image of Untitled, 22, as well as a brief response to John's "review."

Sharon currently resides in Beacon, NY, and John lives in Reston, VA.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

 
Painting 23 (Pittsburgh)
oil on canvas board
18" x 24"
2007-08

The "Review"

Painting 23 (Pittsburgh) is made up of flat planes of warm gray, cadmium red and orange, an urban color scheme befitting the title.  The contrasting color scheme is unified through a web of structural lines that seem to “breathe’ due to the fact that they appear to have been painted or draw prior to the application of the paint in the planes, leaving rough, uneven edges behind.  The variation of line quality gives life to the geometric composition.  This is enhanced through what appears to be thin, uneven application of the paint, exposing previous layers of under-painting.

Two overlapping geometric forms are implied through the line work.  The central form seems to be a vertical structure with eschewed perspective. The other seems reminiscent of ductwork one may find in an industrial setting.  Red/orange planes seem to follow what would be the left vertical plane of this second form, but sometimes a line from one form overlaps another, the color shifts, complicating the spatial relationships and altering perspective.

My initial reaction to the painting (when viewing it as a small preview in my email) was that it was quite simple, flat and the composition felt awkwardly static due to the distribution of color.  But I was delighted and rewarded by looking harder, finding the play between color, space and surface.  There is some good painting in there, and I am looking forward to seeing more work from this artist.

By John M. Adams

 
Untitled, 22
oil on canvasboard
18” x 24”
2007

The Response

I appreciate John’s sophisticated and thoughtful assessment of my painting, which he plainly “got.”  The painting is number 23 in a 34-panel series, based on images of isolated observation towers. Most of the paintings in the series have an austere, limited palette and rely on line rather than shape to define the structure. The colored shapes make no. 23 something of an anomaly in the series, and that probably has to do with the experience that immediately preceded it. I had just returned from my first trip to Pittsburgh last fall when I started the painting. After delivering work to John Morris’s now-defunct Digging Pitt Gallery for “The Blogger Show,” I spent several (rainy) days visiting as many of the Iron City’s art museums and galleries as I could.  In retrospect, the color infiltration may have been a subliminal reaction to the James Turrell light installations at the Mattress Factory, or Andy Warhol’s early ink illustrations on display at the Warhol Museum. Whatever the precise impetus, almost a year later I can see that “Untitled 23 (Pittsburgh)” foreshadowed my current preoccupation with an extended palette, geometric shapes, color relationships, and saturation.

By Sharon Butler

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert

Artists "Review" Artists: Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Susan Tolbert's work, How We Got Here, written by Sondra Arkin.  Susan provided the second jpeg, an image of Looking North, as well as a brief response to Sondra's "review."

Susan currently resides in Norfolk, VA, and Sondra lives in Washington, D.C.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

How We Got Here
Oil on Canvas
48'' x 48"
2008

The "Review"

"How We Got Here" appears more of a personal narrative, rather than universal, and challenges the viewer to deconstruct the iconographic clues. There might be the context of a body of work that makes this easier, but on its own, the meaning seems elusive. Is it personal or political? Both? Does it start in 1944 with an Arab who is a sugar daddy and a movie star-struck woman, who both smoke? Is the artist the Donald Duck about to shoot off his beak (nose) despite his face? Are the camels and oil and corn references to our current energy crisis? Are the Camels and the Lucky Strikes also oil references? And are the sheep just clones of the same problems? Is the bluebird one of happiness? Or some museum item? What is the meaning of the Pickar (?) black Americana item? Is it molasses? Is that the rate at which we are solving our problems?

It is difficult to tell how the paint is handled, how the surface is treated, or any of the virtues of the actual technique in the jpg except to say that there is a great deal of detail, the colors are crisp and unifying, and that the composition forces the viewer to return to the individual objects repeatedly. But in reality, would its center hold the viewer, or would attention just drift off the edges? It seems to "read" from the upper left corner to the lower right edge.  

A bunch of disparate items can imbue a narrative, and I am a big fan of art being a result of what the artist intends and what the viewer brings. This painting is telling a story; I just wish I understood it all better.

By Sondra Arkin

Looking North
Oil on panel
6" x 11"
2007

The Response

I appreciate Sondra Arkins thoughtful comments on my painting as it is a new series for me. I was surprised that she could not read the piece easily.  The orange oil truck following the camel towards a Life Magazine speaks of our lives built around a dependency on foreign oil as if there was an Arab sugar daddy. The image of a house torn in half across from a Payday candy bar seemed fairly obvious to me. The plastic bird refers to "bird brained" and the sheep stencils to following along like sheep--though the interpretation of clones is also interesting.

By Susan Tolbert

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia

Who's who in the D.C. Art World

I just received an email from Civilian Art Projects announcing a new show: QUART BAG: A Community Art Show.  The premise is this:

Inspired by the many things you can do with a quart bag, Civilian Art Projects and friends have invited 100 DC area artists to participate in a community art exhibition called Quart Bag. The exhibition provides an imaginative opportunity for artists to use thirty-two ounces of space within a plastic quart size bag. All works of art will be sold for $100 or less, providing an opportunity for all people to walk home with a piece of art that is FAA approved. (emphasis mine)

Here's the list of "invited" artists:

Seth Adelsberger
Brian Barr
Matthew Best
Kristina Bilonick
Megan Blafas
John Bohl
Joseph Bradley
Reuben Breslar
Martin Brief
Breck Brunson
Lindsay Buhman
Colby Caldwell*
Joyce Campos
Page Carr
Emily C-D
Dick Cheney
Michael M. Clements
Erin Cluley
Joshua Cogan
Cynthia Connolly
Sarah Coombs
Patricia Correa
Caitlin Cunningham
Catherine Dunn
Mary Early*
Alex Ebstein
Cheraya Esters
Briony Evans
Annie Ewasiko
Rachel Fick
Steven Frost

Alberto Gaitan**
Victoria Gaitan
Carlos Gomez
Annie Gray
Adam Griffiths
Jason Gubbiotti*
Brook Halvorson
Beth Hansen
Peter E Harper
Anamario Hernandez
James Huckenpahler*
David Ibata
Erick Jackson
Paul Jeanes
Yeonhee Ji
Sue Johnson
Rebecca Juliette
Amanda Kleinman
Bridget Sue Lambert
Nilay Lawson
J.W. Mahoney
Katherine Mann
Nathan Manuel
John Marra
Lisa McCarty
Patrick McDonough
Bill Newman
Cara Ober***
Mia Olsen
Breht O'tlearn

Betsy Packard
Nikki Painter
Carrie Patterson
Annie Peters
Zoe Pollock
Dana Reifler
Ding Ren
Lauren Rice
Bonner Sale
Nick Schiller
The Scott Twins
Sara Seidman
Emily Slaughter
Casey Smith
Steele Art
Monica Stroik
Ayodamola T.
Okunseinde
Noelle Tan
Denise Tassin
Champ Taylor
Dominic Terlizzi
René Treviño
Justin Tsucalas
Andrej Ujhazy
Carole Greenwood
Anita Walsh
Rex Weil
Anna Wonson
YAY team

I always find these list to be interesting in terms of who is included and who is not.  I recognize much less than half of the names on the list.  But then again, I'm never invited to participate in these types of shows either.  I wonder how much these lists speak to the relevance of artists in D.C., or at least in some circles.

What do you think?  Am I overanalyzing this?  Or is there something to be understood here?  For some reason this book title comes to mind: "He's Just Not That Into You"

Artists "Review" Artists: Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of Joseph Barbaccia's work, Naked Aggression, written by Ken Weathersby.  Barbaccia provided the second jpeg, an image of Obesity, as well as a brief response to Ken's "review."

Joseph currently resides in Potomac Falls, VA, and Ken lives in Monclair, NJ.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

Naked Aggression by Joseph Barbaccia
Mixed media
15" L
2004

The "Review"

Naked Aggression is apparently a modified found object.  It is a long hunting knife photographed against black velvet, as I imagine it might be at a knife show. The blade is clean, shiny and sharp-looking, and the handle of the knife resembles an erect penis.

Resemblance is an issue raised by the way the penis/handle is crafted.  I have the sense that the artist was reaching for the (uncanny) verisimilitude of “perfect” resemblance, an attempt to underline the realness of the represented organ through hyper-specificity, but without an artistic exaggeration constituting expressionism. Hyper-real intention is signaled by how the surface is varnished to appear glossy and moist, and the detail of the carved and painted bulging veins.  It’s as though the artist meant to project the sense of the thing itself, and the slightly awkward and naïve quality of the carved and painted organ might be unintentional, but informs how I see it, as with outsider art. I get the sense of what was meant, even though the illusion falls slightly short.

Together, the blade and the penis/handle making the knife, with the similarly two-part title, Naked Aggression, seems perhaps so overstated, that the symbolic meaning might be assumed to be single and obvious.  However, when I try to summarize the message, it becomes clear that things aren’t so clear.  There is potentially more to consider than it initially appears.  Since there is little formal visual interest in the object (its power, threat and shock derive almost completely from literal physical and psychological implications), asking questions about joining the symbols “knife” and “erect penis” seems the way to go.

In the current cultural climate, when we are at war, is this joining a political statement?  Is it meant to point to a unity of male sexuality and violent aggression on the scale of war?  Or does it refer to male sexual violence on a personal level (rape)? Is it a personal statement of pain by a victim (or, contrastingly, a threat by a psychopath)? Is it meant as a concentrated, condensed symbol, emblematic of all levels of violence, and how they are somehow the same?  Or is it a fetishistic object, meant to trade upon sexual and violent energy in these images, the goal being an aura of power in the object?  How would such an object be used, if used? Surely it would be for violence (not to make a peanut butter sandwich!) A man or woman would have to grip and hold the handle/penis and then move it about to threaten, slash or stab.  If a man, and it seems so male that I picture the wielder a man, homoerotic or possibly autoerotic content is obvious.  If a woman, it suggests another sexual politics, achieving aggression through co-opting male sexual power.  Maybe Freud would have fun with this, or maybe it would seem too much a typical generic product of dreams.  I cannot say which.

By Ken Weathersby

The following image is of a work created by Joseph Barbaccia.

Obesity by Joseph Barbaccia
Mixed Media
3.25"H x 10"W x 4.5"D
2006

The Response

Naked Aggression is part of the “Integration Series”. The series is a group of works that concern the human condition and how the juxtaposition and integration of the relationship of the human body with objects in its environment can reveal important aspects about our being. To accomplish this I use simple graphic constructed so that the intersecting meanings provoke a new perceptive.

By Joseph Barbaccia

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos

Artists "Review" Artists: Molly Norris on M. Trigos

The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008.  Below is a "review" of M. Trigos' work, Birds at Nature, written by Molly Norris.  M. Trigos provided the second jpeg, an image of Tea at the Zoo, as well as a brief response to Molly's "review."

M. Trigos currently resides in Northeast Louisiana, and Molly lives in Seattle, WA.

If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.

Birds at Nature
Oil on Canvas
24" x 36"
2008

The "Review"

The painting Birds at Nature could be made out of frosting because some of the marks appear squeezed from the tube like Alden Mason does and did. Add to this the graphic nature i.e. big areas of color and fantasy flowers and art brut birds plus that the painting has the dimensions of a sheet cake's top and one may cry "Let them eat painting!"

I often want to see things cut out. Like, "hey, cut it out!" I tire of the rectangle. I tire of the default nature of oil paint on canvas. This artwork would look cool if done in frosting on top of a cake! It would then also be about temporality, sustenance and celebration. One could interview everyone who ate a piece of it and make a video of that and then x-ray the contents in people's stomachs and make an installation with the x-ray films, like, hang them on the windows of a museum so that the sunlight shines through like medical lanterns. This way the artist will get into Artforum and live happily ever after.

Formally the palette of tertiary colors is individual. I think they are food coloring because you can't get a black. Also a net of shingled scalloped cloud shapes has been painted atop the main picture plane. This makes your eye move all over because you want to look through the 'net' made of squeezed paint tube lines. You long to see because it's like looking through fishnet stockings into the possibilities of flesh.

The tulip smack at the center grounds the viewer. We move our vision all around the surface, carried by the map of colors and subjects and net lines. But we keep coming back to the schematically authoritative tulip that stands at the composition’s center like some domestic lotus blossom.

Who cannot liken this painting to Florine Stettheimer's Family Portrait, II oil on canvas painted in 1933 and owned by the Museum of Modern Art? There are the same oversized fantastic flowers, the overall symmetry and near identical palette. Yet Stettheimer's painting is psychologically charged via figures poised in a drawing room while Birds at Nature is about the viewer peering into a stylized landscape -- not unlike works by Henri Rousseau.

If I were pitching this painting to Hollywood I'd say, "it’s Florine Stettheimer meets Gauguin meets Aboriginal art meets a pastry chef."

Interesting is that the marks and textures both shape the flowers and birds and imbue them with a jittery anxiety. The birds might be thinking behind their red circle eyes, "a forest fire is coming our way!" or "we've got to find some water," or even "dude, I don't know about you but I am really trippin' -- where did you get this acid?"

By Molly Norris

Tea at the Zoo
Oil on canvas
36" x 24"
2008

The Response

Well, I had to find out who is Alden Mason plus I had to do the same thing with Florine Stettheimer. So that part did humble me. I am glad that my painting wasn’t part of a birthday party’s cake. Oh, and quite a charming conversation you imagined between the birds, but I am not so sure that they would use words like dude and trippin.

By M. Trigos

Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power