po

While I was in Memphis I caught up with a fraternity brother who lives there. His family has a landscaping business. Anyway I went with him to see several ongoing projects. Two of the projects lead me to make this painting.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The background was the color of the cement used in the back patio area and fountain of a townhouse. The purple dots came from the color of a sidewalk path that connected a house to a basketball court. There’s not much more say about this one other than the fact I liked the color combination.

oo

Sometimes a certain icon keeps popping up in my daily life. The story of this painting begins with rabbit images featured in an art show at Cheekwood Art & Gardens in Nashville. Artist Joseph Peragine chose a white rabbit as he explores the theme of “vulnerability” following 9/11. Also included in the show were images of Sherman tanks. Apparently its design was one that did not do well in tank to tank combat.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

When I arrived back to Memphis, I thumbed through a book I bought at Cheekwood. In it I stumbled across a photo of a sculpture located on the grounds. Sophie Ryder built her sculpture, Crawling Lady Hare, in 1997, when she was an artist-in-residence. It was constructed out of tightly bundled galvanized wire supported by a steel armature.

The following day I met an art professor, my family put me in touch with, over at Rhodes College’s Clough-Hanson Gallery. There was an exhibit of T. L. Solien’s work. Several of his pieces included cartoon-like rabbits. I don’t remember if this one is the show, but it was similar to the ones included in the brochure I picked up. His surreal images depict events in his life.

Some weeks later when I was back in New Orleans I noticed a story about a giant pink bunny sculpture erected on an Italian mountainside. A Viennese group of artists, calling themselves Gelitin (Gelatin until 2005) stated that giant stuffed toy was “knitted by grannies of pink wool.” The idea was to give people the feeling of being the giant, Gulliver. People who have visited the sculphttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifture have been invited by Gelitin to upload photos to the website photo album.

Well having encountered these four instances of rabbits, I decided it was a good symbol for me to represent my evacuation to Memphis. Also, the day I went to Cheekwood, I was trying to get my mind off the fact that Rita was delaying my going back home. The excursion was an additional escape, if you will. For this painting I decided to paint a simplified white rabbit with a green background. The white rabbit was one I first saw At Cheekwood. The green background has to do with the Cheekwood gardens.

This painting begins with a film I saw in Memphis entitled “Forty Shades of Blue.” It was filmed in Memphis and the director was on hand to take questions after the movie. Well, I didn’t like it enough to stay. In fact I hated the movie. In the plot, there was a love triangle with people that just did not interest me. Overall I found the film irritating and depressing.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

That being said, some of the background shots included flickering blue lights. I previously have discussed bokeh/circles of confusion. Well that part interested me. As I mentioned before, my order of canvases, beyond the first eight, did not arrive until the day before I left Memphis to go back home to Metairie.

Back home I saw many roofs of houses covered with blue tarps. Well, that’s the blue I used to create a background color. My composition had a number of variations of that same blue color. This is the first instance where I consciously mixed something from Memphis and something from my return to the New Orleans area as I continued working on these dot paintings. As for the title, it is pure coincidence that "no" (New Orleans) was the title for this content. The title for each of my dot paintings, in this series, is assigned according to its date of completion.

mo

“mo” is another painting based on my day trip to Nashville. My first stop was at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The building is large, spacious and modern. There I viewed a group show entitled The Fragile Species: the New Art Nashville. In the show catalog, Director Susuan H. Edwards describes the works in this one sentence:

The Fragile Species: the New Art Nashville brings together the work of twenty-one artists who in various ways address the vulnerability of the body and the transitory nature of life.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

My painting is a reaction to one piece, in the show, that I really liked. It is called Especially Considering Exposure and it is by artist, Barbara Yontz. Specifically I imitated hanging threads with my dots. My colors choices were a result of seeing the show as a whole. Many of the works had a medical feel to them.

Although the exhibit had its theme, my painting concerns my trip to The Frist, one of handful of stops in Nashville. Visiting Nashville was propelled by the fact Hurricane Rita forced closure of roads into New Orleans at a time when I was hoping to return home. It’s not every art exhibit that moves me to create art. However, this one did.

On a side note, this was the same week when I managed to contact my neighbor who was able to tell me my house fine except for some minor roof damage. This was in mid September of 2005.

Cuatro, Cinco, Seis

My small dot paintings are not the only ones that I have in progress. I still have three larger ones that I have not finished. They are part of group of six. In October of 2006 I pulled an all night marathon to finish the first three for the Poydras Home Art Show.

As much as I liked how they turned out, I do not want
to repeat the same process for the second three. So, for the last year the second three have sat in a spot where I am forced to look at them every day. I'm still undecided on how I will finish them.

Cuatro

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Cinco

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Seis

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

lo

lo” was inspired by Paulette’s, a French restaurant, in an old section of Memphis. The restaurant is in walking distance of a movie theater and a performance theater. The interior tile work helped me choose my colors. Anyway I was surprised how quickly my order was served for each course. When I asked about that, my server told me that they know people are anxious to get to a movie or play. I enjoyed the dishes I ordered both times I dined there.



acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

ko

As for this piece, it was based on an art show I saw while in Memphis. The show opened at the University of Memphis Art Museum. It was called “The Perfect Show.” All the pieces were by artists who worked in very detailed compulsive manner of perfectionism. There’s one piece that had black enamel dots that was the specific trigger for this one.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The other interesting point is that this show was originally supposed to show the at the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center in the summer of 2005. However, the CAC did not have enough money to follow through. Anyway, I’m glad I had an opportunity to see it. I went to a program given by the curators of the show who talked about their experiences in pulling the show together.

In painting the dots on this piece, I mixed paint with acrylic polymer gloss; so these dots are translucent. When I finished I thought more about the green mold that plagued folks who had water in their house. I’m glad I did not have to contend with that issue.

New Batch Update

And now for an update on my new batch of dot paintings . . . I posted the thumbnails here already. At this time I am hashing out the color choices for my canvases. Granted this is only the first coat. However as soon as I can narrow down what I intend to do with color, the better. Then I’ll just have to remember which color names I combined to produce what.


26 - 5" x 5" s, acrylic and color pencil on canvas

io

You remember the painting ao depicted the path of Hurricane Katrina? Well this one shows the path of Hurricane Rita. Just follow the middle green dotted line. Although this one slammed southwest Louisiana, it made New Orleans flood all over again. But that's only part of the story of this one.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The storm didn't hit until a weekend. Some friends of mine ended up in Memphis around that time. We ended up going to see "Pretty Persuasion." The film was filmed at the same school as "Donnie Darko." In this one the boys wore blue shirts with their uniforms and the girls wore pink shirts with their uniforms. So that's where some of the colors came from. I don't remember what me choose the other colors. Anyway, so much for that one.