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Monday, 23 November 2009 07:33 |
This week's focus is on the While in Town series of paintings. Cities
have always had an enormous hold on me. Some of my most cherished
memories as a kid are of being in a downtown. Amongst the tall
buildings, the sounds of automobiles and machines, and the busy
sidewalks. Concrete and rusty steel everywhere. The many windows
with the sky's reflection. Textures of all kinds. The grit. I
remember being overwhelmed and excited by the energy at the same time.
A common thread in most of my work is to leave the meaning of a
painting for the viewer to determine. I understand that a bridge or
building or group of buildings, etc., will have a different meaning to
each of us.
In these paintings, I try to capture a feeling of a lingering memory,
or a fleeting moment within an urban environment.
It's our emotional responses to these environments that interests me. |
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Monday, 16 November 2009 05:34 |
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This week I'd like to introduce Mixed Tape, a new series of paintings. The Mixed Tape series is created using pieces of masking tape that normally get discarded at the end of my painting process. I have been saving these pieces for years because of how beautiful they are, but it's only now that I figured out how to best use them. BTW, I save everything. You can probably imagine what my studio looks like since I don't like to throw anything away. Sometime the most beautiful things are the things we discard.
With each piece of tape a compilation from my past is assembled into new meaning and new purpose. In some ways like the mixed tapes you and your friends would make for each other way back when. These are inherently delicate paintings, so they should be treated with care. This is the first time that I've used exclusively recycled materials to address my works. Prior to the Mixed Tapes, I've re-purposed mostly paint scrapings along with the occasional scrap of tape, paper, pages from books, labels, etc. If something happens to fall on the floor and it dries nicely - I keep it and save it for a future painting. Here is an example: 
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Monday, 09 November 2009 08:15 |
This week, I wanted to start talking about my series of floral paintings. I'm often asked about specific flowers within a given painting. I invent the flowers in all my floral paintings, though they can be inspired by nature. My main objective is to create the prettiest flower that I possibly can.
Some of my floral paintings came into being while working on projects for resorts and spas. Painting series such as Rain, Red, Scent, and Sensation were created with the idea of these flowers almost floating on the canvas, as if on water. Serene. Peaceful. Relaxed.
Other floral paintings were created through inspiration from my past. Having a Bachelors in Fine Art with a focus in Illustration, I noticed over time I've begun to add "story" to some of my paintings. Examples of this can be seen in painting series like Vanilla Bloom, Refresh, and First Flowers. A flower may be reaching for another, while we see the reactions of the others flowers around it, and still maintaining focus on the integrity of the painting. Above all, they have to have a fairytale like feel. Fresh. Pretty. Inspired. |
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:18 |
I have wanted to blog about the ongoing events and news at PKFA for some time
now. So starting now I will have a new blog post every Monday. After tying up
many projects and shows this fall, it is time to embark on this new segment of my
practice.
I have had the fortune of being busier than I had anticipated this year. Some of
the notable events and projects that I had participated in are:
Artexpo, New York, NY, February 2009
Opposite Everything, Phoenix, AZ, March 2009
The Affordable Art Fair (AAF), Bristol, UK, May 2009 *
The Affordable Art Fair (AAF), London, UK, October 2009 *
Deljou Art Group Fall Expo, Atlanta, GA, October 2009
Ritz Carlton, Dallas TX, Permanent Collection
*The Affordable Art Fair is the leading showcase in the UK for contemporary art
under £3,000. The Fair was launched in London in 1999 and now takes place
biannually in London and annually in Bristol, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels,
New York, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne (source: http://www.affordableartfair.com ).
Other news, I recently found that I have tendinitis in my left thumb so I will be
taking a few weeks off for some much needed R&R. Be sure to check my blog every Monday morning
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