Adding the word "FOREVER" to your image changes everything! I recommend it to all of my artist friends--instant gravitas! Granted, any word will change your piece, but what a word! Thanks Donna...who knew!?
Monday, March 18, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Andrew Warhola
Concerning Andy Warhol
I never met Andy
Warhol but I was removed from his presence once.
But that
presence seems to inhabit plenty of art work these days…my own included. Whether I am manufacturing cabinets or
knocking out dozens of paintings, the foray into production work hearkens to
that 60’s Factory aesthetic; and pays homage.
I’m surprised
to consider The Factory as a precursor to some classic Minimalist artists and
their use of industrial practices.
Picture their artwork (as different as it could be both visually and in
attitude) as being directly influenced by Warhol: The cube sculptures of Sol LeWit, the boxes
of Donald Judd…He brought multiple imagery to contemporary art, as well as mass
production, although the cited Minimalists pursued different ends and
means. Curious….
Portraits of
Campbell soup cans (or was that Still Life?) were the uncomfortable birth of something
different; made more so by its proximity to the triumph of Abstract
Expressionism. In the immediate wake of the
introspective Abstract Expressionists came one who depicted the plainly visible
world in iconic fashion.
Similar to The
Ashcan School, with its own depictions of the everyday, Warhol also staked out
the territory of everyday life (the boring) as subject matter; as well as the controversy
of “urban realism”*. Consider the early
Warhol as an extension of this classic New York interpretation of art/life….
Fun
stuff! …And what about Mr. Brainwash!?
* Weinberg, H. Barbara. "The
Ashcan School". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ashc/hd_ashc.htm (April 2010)
Thursday, March 14, 2013
After nearly 30 years I've rediscovered the high heel shoe as subject matter...above is a selection from the current collection; all measure 8" x 10" and are rendered in stencils, spray paint and solvents. Available individually or in numbers to create a fetching array!
Background: In 1982 while a 3rd year student at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC I was participating in a public art project sponsored by COLAB from New York City. A buddy found an abandoned high heel shoe and casually offered it to me. My assemblage aesthetic kicked in: I fastened the shoe to an equally abandoned cymbal stand and beheld a delightful result!
Much studio work and numerous unauthorized public street artworks evolved from that initial artistic connection. Good times ensued: good associations, good connotations, notoriety...easy to digress!
Not to re-live the past but surprised to find myself re-visiting the imagery...with some different styles! I was looking for work to follow up some stencil based valentines I was able to find venues for; thinking about seasonal subject matter I threw the high heel shoes into the mix of spring flowers, sports references, seashells, autumn leaves, snowflakes and stars...never got past the shoes!
Stay tuned for more on the subject!
James
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