james thatcher arts
Sometimes funny, sometimes kinda erudite; it's the current projects, influences and opinions of contemporary artist, James Thatcher, Pacific Northwest.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Sunday, December 3, 2017
Portfolio Spread
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Construction Study, 2014, 96", Latex Paint on Pine |
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"Hypar w/2 Equations", 2015, 14" x 7", Acrylic on Canvas |
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"Blue Braid 1/30", 2016, 16" x 8", Acrylic on Drywall Tape |
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Study based on Norwegian Architect, Soren Korsgaard, 48", Pine |
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"Curabola Layout Study", 2017, 24" x 24", Acrylic on Canvas |
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"Curabola", 2017, 24", Pine |
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Hyperbolic Paraboloid,18", 2017, Welded Steel w/Powder Coat Finish |
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"Oblique Tetrahedron", 2017, 36", Welded Steel w/Powder Coat Finish |
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"Red Bodice", 2017, 48" x 36" (2 panels), Acrylic on Canvas |
All artworks © James Thatcher
Labels:
abstract art,
acrylic,
algebra,
art,
art collecting,
braid,
drywall tape,
equations,
hexagon,
James Thatcher,
mathematical art,
minimalism,
model,
painting,
pine,
sculpture,
steel,
welding,
woodworking
Location:
Roseburg, OR, USA
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Above the Noise
Lately I have had passionate conversations at art events about
feeding the hungry. My work as a
volunteer with a food bank has re-kindled my passion for the cause.
After working in a mission based ministry in North Carolina
I understand the spiritual drive to feed the hungry and serve the poor. By serving “the least of these” we are
serving the Most High God. By ignoring
the poor and hungry we ignore Him.
Homelessness, hunger, and generational poverty are pervasive in the Pacific Northwest. My artwork doesn't communicate anything about this. What's up with that?
Homelessness, hunger, and generational poverty are pervasive in the Pacific Northwest. My artwork doesn't communicate anything about this. What's up with that?
Consider Elijah’s experience of the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire. Despite the tumult he found that
the Lord was not in them. It was
the still small voice that was the Lords.
(1st Kings 19:11-12)
The disruption, chaos, and turmoil didn't contain the Lord.
The disruption, chaos, and turmoil didn't contain the Lord.
We are moved emotionally by what we see and become swept up
in our circumstance, our society. Then
we express ourselves out of the abundance of our heart: anxious, angry, afraid....
Our circumstances can blind us to the ever
present, all knowing, all powerful God. We
are reminded that those things which are seen are temporary and that the unseen things are eternal. (2nd Corinthians 4:15-18)
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"Single Red", 2017, © James Thatcher |
Clean lines, concise edges, and sequenced colors are
an expression of faith and not the world’s noise.
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Pine study based on the work of Scandinavian architect, Soren Korsgaard; © 2017 |
I’m keeping on.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Cut, Paste, and Scale
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Not being able to visualize an art project motivates me as
an artist.
I was mulling over different ways to render the hyperbolic
paraboloid after creating 30-8” models in bamboo last winter.
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An early version, bamboo, 12" |
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Hyperbolic Paraboloid in a Cube, bamboo & acrylic paint, 8" |
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4 Hyperbolic Paraboloids in combination |
I liked the idea of building the artwork rather than simply
continuing to render it by drawing or painting the image. I settled on using drywall tape to create a
piece. It costs about a penny a foot and
it won’t wrinkle when painted. How would
it weave together to build that torqued grid of the hyperbolic paraboloid?
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"Hyperbolic Paraboloid with Equations", acrylic on canvas, 14" x 7" © James Thatcher 2016 |
It didn’t!
It became a
surprise braid instead.
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Drywall tape sketch, 48" x 24" |
Here’s a brief time lapse video of an early take on the project. Notice the shaped canvas in the background. Ideas
to extend the original concept are already underway.
The braid image has some issues as a focus project because it’s simply too big at 48” across. What size makes sense? How would you present it? Mounted on a plywood panel? Pinned to the wall? As shaped canvas paintings?
Exploring the range of sizes from ¾ scale to 1/8 scale offered
many possibilities but presentation was still an issue. The 1/3 scale seems best as it yields a finished
piece of 16” x 8” which can be effective as an individual unit. Combining pieces still maintains a manageable
size.
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Scale comparison, full size to 1/3 scale |
I can mount these to sheets of paper or float them in simple
metal frames. I could laminate them and
suspend them because both sides are different.
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Front side of braid, gesso on drywall tape, 16" x 8" |
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Back side |
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4 braids in combination, gesso on drywall tape, 16" x 16" |
Lots of Possibilities!
You know how caterers make spiraling stacks of napkins? It seemed like a simple presentation but that project held a surprise. Here's a 30 second time lapse video of the effort (I really like the soundtrack):
http://jtnwdc.wixsite.com/jamesthatcherarts
Labels:
abstract art,
algebra,
art problems,
art production,
artist,
braid,
building,
contemporary art,
drywall tape,
hyperbolic paraboloid,
minimalism,
multiple imagery,
painting and sculpture,
paper,
scale,
square,
studio
Location:
Roseburg, OR, USA
Thursday, March 3, 2016
DC 1980's
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The Belmont Grocery in the Adams-Morgan Neighborhood, Washington, DC, Summer of 1984 |
Nihilism, drinking
and dancing; and the brilliant new music…and hormones ruled the night. Life was so heady in the '80's. Didn't it seem like nuclear war was just around the corner?
We were lean
and fabulous; pale, cold and tough: the hair, the shoes, the style and fashion,
the daring and wanton will to play all night long….
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Julian Schabel, "The Patients and the Doctors", 1978 |
Of course, it ended in a train wreck relationship which was
soul crushing but inevitably sobering.
A painful marriage that broke all chains of communication and the 80’s
ended years early. Our Neo-Expressionism
died quickly, having grown too big for its britches and ironically
usurped by the menial and anonymous “Neo Geo”…
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Peter Hailey, "Two Cells with Conduit", 1986 |
I still mourn. All of
it: Bad choices, the heat of the
moment, the broad laughters and sweat on the club’s dance floor. We were using
and abusing with deep passion and regrets, walking home in the frozen night straight into the next onslaught.
And then
it was gone, and for what? Shaved heads, goatees, and Metallica (which we all took as a joke), and junkies from Seattle?
It had to die. It was
a brilliant flash and we who survived re-emerged Born Again. We looked away, not to some new thing but to the common; as if it were a new
thing. Our friends had marriages and
children, careers…then we too….
We were radiant children of a time and place:
altogether unique and lovely.
Labels:
1980's,
art history,
bad choices,
change,
Corcoran,
fabulous,
Nan Goldin,
Neo Geo,
new wave,
Nihlism,
nostalgia,
Peter Hailey,
punk,
sobering,
Washington DC
Location:
Berlin, MD 21811, USA
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Incidental Discoveries are Crucial
An artist does an awful lot of artwork in a lifetime. Ideas overtake our imaginations and we rush on generating ideas, sketches, artwork and proposals.
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Ideation Drawing: Hexagon Variations © James Thatcher 2012 |
Use
a “focus project” to concentrate on a single successful image from those labors. Produce 30 identical versions with no
variation in size, process or subject matter. This will stabilize studio output and
concentrate your art making processes and effort.
And
it will generate a market of strong reliable imagery.
I’m
in the midst of the second focus project in the past twelve months. The first focus project was 30 small
paintings, 8” x 10” each.
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Transformation Hexagon © James Thatcher 2015 |
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© James Thatcher 2015 |
This
second effort is sculptural and the discoveries are compelling.
In
a 2-D focus project you only have finished work at the end of the process. Suddenly you’ve got 30 finished pieces. The joy and beauty of this 3-D focus project
pops up in unexpected places as assembled sections need to be stored.
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Proposal for Public Sculpture © James Thatcher 2015 |
These
incidental discoveries are crucial. They maintain creative interest during the long
weeks and months of production. You don’t want to break the momentum of your
epic focus project but these ideas can also be works in themselves.
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18 Corner Pieces, Bamboo © James Thatcher 2015 |
So
be sure to photograph and make note of your ideas. Also consider making drawings and paintings
of these various stages after completing the main body of work. They represent a strong direction for future
artworks and possibly your career.
Creating 2-D artworks extends the depth of your 3-D portfolio. It’s a separate/additional body of work that supports your sculpture installation. They provide a wall mounted display to accompany your floor display in a pre-curated collection.
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Model for Sculpture/Painting Installation © James Thatcher 2016 (What if this were a giant outdoor steel sculpture with a digital billboard behind it?) |
Brilliant!
The
dedication displayed by presenting your ideas in a volume of related artworks
is impressive. Your vision is clearly
defined and explored at a depth displayed only by the most professional of artists.
(Welcome
to the big time)
Labels:
art,
art production,
artist,
conceptual art,
Corcoran,
Focus,
hyperbolic paraboloid,
installation art,
James Thatcher,
minimalism,
model,
multiple imagery,
multiples,
painting and sculpture,
studio
Location:
Berlin, MD, USA
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Same Mind, Different Focus
I enjoy seeing one thing lead to another and have become involved with ocean imagery after our recent move to the beach: The sand fleas, the flounder, the shells...
This relief was modeled with Sculpey clay. In the next step of the process a flexible mold is made from a different formula of Sclupey and plaster versions are cast.
The plaster casts will be affixed to panels as reliefs and painted.
Please check out some previous blog posts that illustrate similar effects.
Whether individually, multiple reliefs on a single surface, or multi paneled arrays--you may notice a continuity in approach regardless of subject matter.
Same mind, different focus.
http://jtnwdc.wix.com/jamesthatcherarts
A wood carving relief begun several weeks ago made me curious about how to create multiples of a whelk shell quickly.
This relief was modeled with Sculpey clay. In the next step of the process a flexible mold is made from a different formula of Sclupey and plaster versions are cast.
The plaster casts will be affixed to panels as reliefs and painted.
Please check out some previous blog posts that illustrate similar effects.
Whether individually, multiple reliefs on a single surface, or multi paneled arrays--you may notice a continuity in approach regardless of subject matter.
Same mind, different focus.
Labels:
art,
beach,
cast,
moving,
multiple imagery,
multiples,
ocean,
painting,
panel,
plaster,
pop art,
relief,
Sculpey,
sculpture,
studio
Location:
Ocean Pines, MD, USA
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