Neonized nature

Explosive color and movement of organic flowing hue masses...combined with the rays of angularity...the work of Hannah Stouffer is energetic and at times haunting...strange reptilian forms quietly roll across the burning landscape...I like the balance of representational and abstract imagery...these elements seem to exist in harmony, with neither over powering the other...

The dark background in contrast to the white areas creates visual tension...the repetition of circular and arrow forms moves the viewer around the picture planes like fingers pointing...look here and then look there...the way she develops the abstract, flowing washes in this piece entitiled Black Roses, is interesting and effective...this piece is loud and urban, a piece of bright nature in an otherwise, concrete, dark context...

Something awkward this way comes

Something about this conceptual piece resonates with me...a foreboding and sense of strange balance, as if on a tightrope...I must walk carefully or thousands of small little lives will be lost...the baby forms, however disconnected we can make ourselves, still say something difficult to accept...we are trapped and dominated by the male form...

There is also something obviously awkward about the male form and how it cannot seem to move throughout space...it to is trapped by the babies...it reminds me of the fence metaphor, is a fence meant to keep us out or trap them inside? So the "kept" symbiotic relationship is in tact and unrelenting...the figure cannot engage and the babies cannot disengage...limbo and detante...a fragile truce, but one we assume will be broken...kinetically, they cannot go on forever stuck in the moment...Phil Toledano has done an excellent job stopping time in this piece...there are several in the series entitled, "Hope and Fear." I cannot wait to see what happens in the space between...

Without a net

What happens next? The destruction of the precious, the loss of the hopeful...these kinds of works that undo themselves, I think are very successful in undermining our arrogant sense of permanence...so what is next after we loose the feeling of living forever? Maybe, it is our only chance at really living...without a net and without supports...

A painting that became a sculpture, beyond the conceptual underpinnings of the transformation...there exists a really good work of art...the way the piece struggles to hang off the wall, the color scheme, inclusive of the burnt and twisted areas...they are harmonious in a defiant context...there is also interesting shadows created by the twisted form...adding to the mood and success of the piece...

Valerie Hegarty does a great job formally, tieing all the elements together, this piece, Niagara Falls, takes a representational painting and breaks it down into its most simplistic, formal elements...the viewer transitions out of the representational picture plane and into the three-dimensional world...a world free and uncertain...

The Devil is in the details

Drawing and drawing and more drawing...this obsessive exploration by the Elvis Studio is rhythmical and detailed...holy cow there is a lot going on in this image...it is part of a series of works on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...there is a certain frenetic energy in these kinds of works, they are unique and laden with minutia...slow down and really look at drawings like these...they go beyond the large sweeping movements of the Abstract Expressionist...they are not meant to be inhaled, but to be savored...

Difference in scale is incrementally narrow compared to traditional works, but if you were to focus in on an 18th or 19th Century cornucopia, you might see this much visual information...simplified and uniform marking creates visual harmony...larger black forms spread throughout the picture plane carries the eye around...exploring darker ideas and developing uncommon relationships...

The Cure for the visual blues

Some funky, band posters really catch my eye visually...The works of Michael Michael Motorcycle, are fun and well done visually...there is a mood to the work, the way the figure and animals are drawn, the whimsy of the font and the color usage...hearkening back to the 60's and 70's psychedelic posters of bands like Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane...

The head of the figure (Robert Smith) is up from the direct center with the animal forms radiating from him...there are images behind the figure and behind the figure to increase the depth of field and increase interest in the picture plane...I also really like the edges of the image field...they break into the white border in a variety of ways, organic lines, spirals, dome shapes and with parts of the animals...color usage is also effective and spread throughout the picture plane, carrying the viewer's eye throughout the picture plane...the strong complimentary color scheme adds to the whimsy and intensity of the overall image...I am cured!

A Painting of Precious Fires

Large scale, intense paintings...the works of Enzo Cucchi are what pulled me into art making...I saw a piece entitled, "The Houses go Downhill" which changed the way I saw painting...it was a vast landscape on fire, turned slightly up, like a Cezanne table, with two precariously set long rectangular homes, teetering and looking to fall in a wedge shape...and behind it, a small wagon, lost in the pulsing landscape...as if their prosperity had vanished in a burst of flames...

The piece above has that same kind of painterly intensity...I can also appreciate the decorative quality of the fire plumes in a spiral...Cucchi is a painter and is not shy about the application of paint...the material is in harmony with the form it represents...flowing in the objects direction and describing accurately the sensation of the moment...this piece also visually has that heat, with a strong contrast between the black background going off into space infinitely and the whitest, hot flame of the plumes...the twin figure's role in the piece is uncertain...they seem to be part of the flames, but they could also be at war, battling and absorbing the precious fires...

Chained to this image

What is appealing about a personally frightening image? How can you look when it is difficult to accept something culturally? Mapplethorpe challenges those conventions and confronts viewers with technically skilled and perfectly photographed...he seduces the viewer with balanced values and sensual contrasts...

We are intrigued by these kinds of works, images that reflect the underbelly of society...those taboo elements occurring in our society...in the 80's these kinds of images were sexually charged and anti-establishment...the context of this image, a suburban living room, is in contrast to the dress of the couple and the possibility of what could be happening next...this conceptual divide leaves us wanting...searching for closure and reconciliation...an effective formal devise in creating interest in visual intensity...

In an visceral and emotional way, we are chained to these individuals...we want to look away, stare past the couple...but we are captured by the image...compelled to look...