Inspirations for Mixed Media Works

Images that have influenced the context of my work...

Joseph Cornell

Lucas Samaras Boxes

Matthias Grunewald - Isenheim Alterpiece

Reliquaries

Installations

For a sculpture class here at Miami Dade College, I was asked to do a lecture on my mixed media and installation works. Utilizing a current (maybe not so current) platform, I will attempt to showcase two pieces - "Dark As the Darkest Night" and "Studio Instillation 1."


DARK AS THE DARKEST NIGHT

This piece representing my personal history and the struggle of my family, living in coal mining country. A melding of the past and present as seen through my eyes, reminders of visiting my relatives in Kentucky: using the outhouse in the pitch black night, clothes out on the line, playing with pieces of coal and throwing them on the mountain.


STUDIO INSTALLATION 1

Recently, I installed a solo-exhibition which included an installation of my actual studio. These elements were collected over several years and on my travels. The was is a visual representation of who I am and who I hope to become, my idols and inspirations. It also included a workspace and actual works in progress to show how art is made in my world. I included images of people to get a sense of the scale. 

Intricacy and light

The beautiful lines created by the nude on the floor...the contrast of the linear line work in the floor birds meeting the soft organic flesh and shadow...this amazing work by one of my favorite painters, Lucian Freud, provides simplicity in form and arrangement...the color work is muted but rich and meaty...seeing his works in person, you get a true sense of the visceral qualities in his painterly style...

Behind the figure lies intricate folds, movement and values...in the tradition of the Renaissance, an artist was trained in observation by confronting drapery and gowns...Lucien shows great prowess in his articulating of the cloth...a balancing act between the bottom, dark, plank area of the picture plane and the fleshy, organic, flowing light area at the top...

Drawing from today

The untitled piece by Jean Pierre Nadau is a rhythmical display of obsessive images...crazy tribal figures and odd images dance around on the page like maniacs who forgot their Ritalin! The overall image is complex and saturated...the intensity is cleverly balanced by the black images spread around the overall drawing...

Visually, we group things by similar shapes, colors and values...in this piece, the black elements act as one unit, connecting all areas of the picture plane...they create calm in an otherwise frenetic composition...the viewer has an overall feeling of energy and intensity...these subjects also tell a story, begin the interact and sing together in a kind of visual harmony...the context is tribal and naive, this piece pulls you in and holds you with its energetic flow and diverse mark making...

This is not a chair

Many artists play with this notion of what is "real," this piece by Joseph Kosuth is an excellent example of this exploration...the study of symbol and meaning and how it is stretched and adjusted for the artist's purposes...when someone says, "think of a chair," what comes to mind? Can you only see the chair in the image? Or an ornate, Queen Ann chair...maybe a bean bag chair...Joseph's chair exists in three-dimensions, two-dimensions and in a conceptual definition...the same chair, but is it? I would say definitely not, and to its extreme, it is never the same chair, as long as time moves forward...you are manipulated and put through some conceptual paces here...forced to confront the "reality" of our symbolic world - thoughts, words, and images stand in for individual concepts of the material world...why does he pursue this line of inquisition? What can he gain from this line of questioning? And most importantly, how should the viewer handle this dilemma?

Not so naive

I am certainly enamoured by butterflies and their potential for conceptual play...this work has an obsessive quality which I am drawn too, but a balance of one main character and many subordinate characters...sometimes Tony Fitzpatrick's work becomes a bit formulaic...but, I think there's a strong evolution that counter's the similarities...my favorite works are the baseball card series he did earlier in his career...the other elements that resonate with me are the commercial suggestions and the everyday images from the past and present...it fits nicely with the Chicago, Harry Who, imagist style...

The patterns are beautiful in the butterfly, balanced and unique...the strong, central image creates focus and allows the other floating forms to remain fixed in the picture plane...Tony's work mimics, naive artwork, or Art Brut, but you cannot run from formal training...it digs into your brain and soul and will not let go...

Ode to Klee

A playful and simple work by Cole Morgan...I like the contrast of open space to the intimacy of the small areas of detail...some of his work looks at fruit and the grid...this piece struck me visually because of its texture and the incidental mark making...the surface is aged and worn and I am always drawn to the presence of time...as if the work has secrets and has experienced things I will never know.

That is what I enjoy most about walking an art museum, the cracks and aged surface of Gothic and Renaissance art, what that world must have been like and the imagery of that period embodying its place in history...this work has that sense, manufactured and manipulated, but built on the Klee's, Twombly's and Da Vinci's...when the world is minimal, any contrast is heightened and visible for all to see...warts and all.