The Series Continues

These paintings are 90"x 65" each, oil on canvas. There are ten in this series now and I plan to make more. I hope to find a space to install them sometime this next year.

Colin Smith

Also while in Chicago, I met up with photographer and musician Colin Smith. He showed me some of his work, mostly self portraits set in his home. I felt like I had been in a similar place before: as a portrait painter, I got stuck with myself as the re-occurring subject matter. However, Colin's photographs are much more successful at self portraiture and documenting daily life than my self portraits ever were. Colin keeps a regular blog of his work.
This gorgeous photograph of cut sweet potatoes on a blue cutting board has the same tranquility and skillful composition of a good Morandi painting. Colin Smith is a talented artist doing some beautiful work, check it out.

Jeff Forsythe

While in Chicago I visited Jeff Forsythe's studio. Jeff was preparing for his exhibition at the Perimeter Gallery which is now up. Many of his paintings borrow compositions from famous Japanese paintings and twist them into his new ideas. I had a preview of the perimeter show where Jeff was showing many small paintings. One image that sticks in my mind was of the The Great Wave at Kanagawa by Hokusai Katsushika painted on the side of a seventies style van.
Forsythe is also making sculptures of cakes in various states, cakes standing, cakes that have fallen and are melting, etc. The cake sculptures are painted with oil and carefully executed gold leaf stripes. The cakes also appear in Jeff's paintings.
We looked at many of Forsythe's paintings and perhaps his most successful to date is "In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree" painting. The undefined space in this composition created an atmosphere, projecting a mystery to the work and drawing the eye into the painting.

Eye in NY

These pictures are from our Chicago show. Every show was a different visual experience.
Human Eye has a few seven inch records coming out in the next couple months. We also plan on recording more material over the holidays. We may hit the west coast this summer so look out for degenerate mutant rock n roll visiting your town soon.

Brice Marden at MOMA

I went to New York again and had the opportunity to see a retrospective of Brice Marden's work. The show followed Marden's career chronologically from his early minimalist color work through the evolution of his squigily line paintings. The early work is painted with oil and bees wax creating a consistent surface of beautiful, flat color.
Later Marden continued with a more exposed process but still found an equal effect. The work is full of layers of space created by organic line shapes and revisions. I felt a physical closeness to the work throughout the show, like I was inside the painting and navigating my way around. The scale of the work in relation to the negative space is mostly responsible for this absorbing effect. If you are in New York, don't miss this powerful retrospective of high quality paintings.

I've been busy making pictures while at home, but now I'm going out again for most of the month of November. Human Eye will be playing some shows in New York, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago. I have seen a lot of art and music and plan to write more when possible but for now I must go back to work.

It's Halloween!

Santa Fe Pumpkin

Leo Valledor

I spent some time in Califorina last month and had a chance to see Leo Valledor's work at the Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery in Pasadena. Valledor uses a colorful pallete, not shying away from metallic paint. Painting with acrillic, Leo has a consistent matte surface contrasting with the metallic creating a sharp depth. The shaped canvas work is similar to the work of another LA artist Charles Arnoldi who according to the latest Art in America is showing at the Charlotte Jackson gallery in Santa Fe.

Morandi in New York

I was in New York a week or so ago and found some time to visit the MET and a few galleries. The Voulliard collection at the MET was impressive, the show included many Cezannes I haven't seen before, an amazing Gaughan, Van Gogh, etc. The Sean Scully show was up but I found it frustrating that Scully's work doesn't grow or change much. I also visited the Gagosian Gallery and saw a large collection of drawings and stinky insect work by Damien Hirst. The Thiebaud Gallery was showing Morandi which was the highlight of the day. Morandi is one of my favorite painters, his work is very sensitive to light and space. The paintings are abstract for still life work. The Morandi paintings are loose but nurtured with precise earth colors. The colors aren't as subtle viewed in person, the color was suprisingly rich.

Going On Tour

I am going away for a while, i'll post new stuff whenever get an opportunity. The Paybacks are going out for the "forty days and forty nights of rock" tour. If we are coming to your town please come visit us. We have a hot new record called "Love Not Reason."

Sep 1 2006 10:00P The Lager House, Detroit, MI
Sep 5 2006 9:00P Way Out Club, St. Louis, MO
Sep 6 2006 9:00P Mike's Tavern, Kansas City, MO
Sep 8 2006 6:00P South Park Music Fest-Fairplay Hotel, CO
Sep 9 2006 9:00P Bender's Tavern, Denver, CO
Sep 12 2006 9:30P Casbah, San Diego, CA
Sep 13 2006 9:00P Safari Sam's, Hollywood, CA
Sep 14 2006 9:00P Moe's Alley, Santa Cruz , CA
Sep 15 2006 9:00P Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Sep 16 2006 9:00P Great Basin Brewery, Sparks, NV
Sep 17 2006 8:00P Great Basin Brewery, Sparks , NV
Sep 20 2006 8:00P Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ
Sep 21 2006 9:00P Plush, Tucson, AZ
Sep 24 2006 8:00P Aquarium, Fargo, ND
Sep 26 2006 8:00P 400 Bar, Minneapolis, MN
Sep 27 2006 8:00P Knickerbocker's, Lincoln, NE
Sep 28 2006 9:00P Mad Planet, Milwaukee, WI
Sep 29 2006 8:00P High Noon Saloon, Madison , WI
Sep 30 2006 8:00P Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA
Oct 10 2006 8:00P Fineline Music Cafe, Minneapolis, MN
Oct 11 2006 8:00P Double Door, Chicago, IL
Oct 12 2006 8:00P St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI
Oct 13 2006 8:00P Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
Oct 14 2006 8:00P Towne Ballroom, Buffalo, NY
Oct 15 2006 9:00P Lime Spider Akron, OH
Oct 17 2006 8:00P Mercury Lounge New York, NY
Oct 18 2006 8:00P Maxwell's Hoboken , NJ
Oct 19 2006 8:00P Middle East Underground Cambridge, MA
Oct 21 2006 8:00P Gooski's Pittsburgh, PA

Breaking the Symmetry

My work is evolving into symmetrical patterns that break in the center. This collision in the center of the canvas is a glimpse at the beginning of a new idea.

Roni Horn

Roni Horn is showing a mixed collection of the work at the James Kelly Contemporary. Displaying a great variety of media from rectangular bar sculptures with text to cone forms, photography, and painting. The experience is difficult like good art tends to be. There must be a story behind most of the work but some work is purely simple formalist compositions.

Jordan West at CCA

The Center for Contemporary Arts current show entitled Senic Overlook features art work relating to highways and the aestetics of highway engineers. Jordan West's work in the show is a series of paintings that look familiar. Im sure I have been to a couple of these places in different parts of the country. It goes to show that abandoned gas stations and boarded up restaurants can look the same no matter where they are. I feel a sense of nostalgia about these places and I swear that I have been there before.

POEH Center Opening

The Pueblo of Pojoaque, POEH Cultural Center and Museum had an exciting opening last Friday. The event included traditional Native American dancing, music, food, and the art of Roxanne Swentzell and Marcellus Medina. Nah Poeh Meng, "The Continuous Path" by Roxanne Swentzell is an impressive installation divided into six rooms. Each room is based on a seasonal theme describing aincent Pueblo life. The sculpture was great but I was really impressed by the murals in the installation. Swentzell's work, also on display in the gallery/tower building includes stone work, masks, and many clay figures with narrative themes. The band Chocolate Hellocopter (led by Swentzell's daughter) played, they mixed poetry with rock music.

Tasha Ostrander

Tasha Ostrander's show,“Deer Self I Hurt the Urth” is the currently on view at the Linda Durham Gallery. The large scale digital prints of plants and animals explores a psychological portrait of the self. This show is a little confusing but that may be the artist's intent. The strongest image in the show is of a deer's head mounted on a green and white wall. The image is seperated into four quarters. The scale of the piece really demands attention. I think that the deer represents the artist's self disconnected with nature. The digital media of plant forms seem to reflect an abstracted understanding of nature. The Linda Durham Gallery is always presenting shows that challenge the viewer. I may not always understand but I will keep going back to satisfy my curiosity.