Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
"Emergent Images"
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"Dream Girl," 2019 Enamel wash and gesso on canvas, 7" x 10" James Thatcher 2019 copyright |
The diminutive “Dream Girl” begged for a larger version.
Replicating textures on a large scale is a recurring issue in the
studio. This was no exception and it has led to a new body of
artwork.
Using hay on a very wet surface would cause a paint wash to gather around
the hay and would theoretically result in a frost-like pattern that might
approximate that background texture.
Not so much. But pouring more paint over that experiment created
such an interesting result that I didn’t need the girl’s portrait
anymore.
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"Dream" 2020 Enamel wash and alfalfa on canvas, 44" x
66" James Thatcher 2020 copyright |
The question of how to get that frost-like texture continued to puzzle
me. The next attempt was crumpled paper with an added wash.
The way the wash gathered in the wrinkles created wonderful possibilities
for free-style composing.
All other ideas have been banished.
Success caused me to prepare dozens of crumpled and washed papers to draw
into during the coming days.
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| Forty papers. |
The “Emergent Images” series currently stands at 30 pieces which measure
7” x 10”. There are a few additional quarter-sheet works.
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"Emergent Image #3" 2020 Enamel wash and pencil on
paper, 7" x 10" James Thatcher 2020 copyright |
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"Emergent Image #10" 2020 Enamel wash and pencil on
paper, 7" x 10" James Thatcher 2020 copyright |
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"Emergent Image #16" 2020 Enamel wash and pencil on paper,
7" x 10" James Thatcher 2020 copyright |
I look forward to creating drawings using full sheets (22” x 30”) as this series moves forward.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Letter to SeymourPowell
I'm an artist with an idea that happened with the combination of a couple of images in Photoshop.
I believe there is an opportunity to partner with industry/tech to create shaped flat screen displays that could be fastened to structures, conformed to structures, or to joined to each other to create sculptural forms.
Could triangular flat screens be fabricated to display video or images? In the structure illustrated, the bottom could be open for installing electronics, ventilation, and access. It could be either large or small.
I work with octahedrons regularly (eight equilateral triangles). This would create a fascinating screen/object. At this time I'm interested in making a few sculptures that feature this technology. I believe that funding and exhibits are available for such objects and applications. We can conquer the world from there.
Does this technology already exist? Is this brilliant? I am looking for a partner.
I got your name from this article:
https://www.theverge.com/2013/
Sincerely,
James Thatcher
Monday, January 7, 2019
A Letter to Noah Purifoy
Dear Noah,
Thank you for your generosity. Creating the free desert museum in Joshua
Tree, California provided my family with the honor of experiencing your
immersive art in the expanse, rather than in typical white rooms, although the sculptures
would be striking there too.
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| Corrugated structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Having the Drinking Fountains positioned near the
entrance creates a heart-breaking context for the entire collection. Have the fountains ever had running
water? Providing drinking water at the site would cause disturbing interactions with those works.
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| Drinking Fountain Installation referencing "Separate but Equal" facilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_but_equal |
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| Detail of "Colored Water Fountain," referencing "Separate but Equal" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_but_equal |
How would it feel to drink there? Privileged, outraged; what about guilt, rebellion, spewing, and trouble...? The fountains are a volatile work with unmistakable content. They influenced all of my thinking as I
wandered through the rest of the artworks.
Ouch.
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| Entropic sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Feelings of personal and cultural devastation hung over me throughout
your acreage. These are amplified by the
years of entropy, wind, and gravity that pull and twist the works to the earth in
your absence.
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| Figure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Did you intend for the
gradual effects of time to continue to fashion the works? They work with your assemblage techniques,
pushing the feeling of a life endured under institutionalized degradation; not
from an overt system like prison, but our culture. My culture.
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| Entropic sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
As an artist I understand the joy of making, the freedom and rush as artworks come together, and how they can change by adding a new part. I appreciate the gratification of being absorbed in creating.
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| Stack of chairs by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
But I believe that we express ourselves from the abundance of our heart. Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder haunt your imagery?
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| Metal sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The idea of using anything at hand to create a shelter,
wiring it together, piecing…the urgency of your creation speaks of desperation,
of using anything to pull life together.
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| Structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Ultimately, what's inside us is what we have to work with. Your power, outrage, sorrow, compassion, and urgency,
conjure up images of shanty towns, homeless encampments, southern Appalachian hovels.
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| Structure Interior by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| Steel sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The metal arrangements relate the message abstractly. As linear structures they are
entropic, slouching compositions, but they communicate social
injustice as a part of the whole installation.
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| Aluminum sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
As
abstractions they are dystopian; but in context with the house-like installations they
are direct and real. Dystopia is a
philosophy, but your life experience takes this body of work beyond words.
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| Stick sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| House structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| Ground arrangement by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The heaps, whether stockpiles or installations that may have collapsed, are a sad but potent
conclusion in themselves.
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| Ground arrangement by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Piles of stuff for future use, or trade, creates an environment
of disorder. I have seen crushing
poverty operate the same way while in ministry in southern Appalachia.
(Maybe I’m the one with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.)
Sincerely,
James
Monday, December 17, 2018
"Disarray"
I’ve chosen to paint this portrait on banana box liners
because they’re so awful. They are stained,
crumpled, and gross. They reflect the
nastiness with which we serve the poor and are symbolic of the way we care for people in need.
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| James Thatcher Copyright 2018 |
This liner paper is the cheapest available. They come out of the boxes so rumpled that I have to iron the paper to make it possible to use.
I choose to paint with primers instead of “artist colors” for
similar reasons. Gesso is not intended as
a finished surface. It is cheap, stark, and dry looking.
Allowing the brown paper to show as an extra
color follows the rationale of using rough materials used to depict a rough situation.
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| Filling in the painting according to plan, but then... |
But the real moment of this project happened because of the brown paper. The head's structure had become confusing. Where did the hair begin and forehead end?
It was awkward so I decided to only use the four center panels of the face. As I continued to work on this cropped center section I had to move a panel aside to keep paint from getting on
it.
BREAKTHROUGH! It looked fascinating. Then I added back several other panels crookedly
which distorted the child’s face.
Consider the awful reality of a young disrupted life and the people we’re
creating. Disintegrated, unstable, disorderly,
chaotic…what was I thinking by lining up those panels so fastidiously in the
first place?
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| "Disarray", 2018, 84" x 60", Black & white gesso on banana box liners. James Thatcher Copyright 2018 |
Order is contrary to the form and content of this image. This portrait became terribly expressive and more troubling by rearranging the
pieces.
Success came in a moment and the painting finished quickly. Stay mindful.
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