My piece "The Whole Night Sky" that will be in the show.
Thought I’d mention to you an exhibition I’m in down in Salem that will open up next Friday night the 7th from 5-7. The show will be up till late June at Bush Barn so hope you can get over there and see the work if you’re in the neighborhood.
My plan is to have eight to ten new assemblage/oil paintings in the gallery. Just a few more touch ups needed here and there…
Here’s the info:
The A.N. Bush Gallery presents: Assembled: Narratives in Wood and Metal
Featuring a spectrum of contemporary 2D and 3D assemblage works by regional artists: Rick Bartow
Andries Fourie
Andreis Fourie's work: "Waterberg" - He's also in the exhibit!
Chris Giffin
Ann Kresge
Tim Timmerman
On view May 7- June 24 Opening receptions: Friday, May 7, 5 to 7 pm
Bush Barn Art Center Hours:
Tuesday-Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday & Sunday, noon to 5pm
Salem Art Association
Bush Barn Art center
600 Mission Street SE
Salem, Oregon 90302
503-581-2228 www.salemart.org
An Image of "Like a Samba." currently being performed at the Newmark Theater
If you are in the Portland area can I suggest you get to the ballet this weekend? Oregon Ballet Theater is doing a series of five works called “Duets,” which are worth getting out to (http://obt.org/).
I will admit, the ballet is something that has really grown on me in the last couple of years. Prior to that my only experience really was the Nutcracker or something of the like when I was a pup.
My recent years of exposure has been due to befriending two men who are dancers with OBT. They have opened my eyes up to a world of symmetry, rhythm, and form in a totally different method than what I typically do, or outside the often static arts that I function in. It’s been wonderful, and actually their work has affected the most recent body of mixed media pieces that I have been working on completing for the show at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem that will open up the 7th of May (http://salemart.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=186). Details about that in a later post….
OBT is performing at the Newmark theater this weekend for three more performances. Get there if you can; there next production “Bolero” coming June 4-6 at the Keller shouldn’t be missed either.
Below is a video clip of a very small part of one of the works they are doing as part of “Duets” entitled “Like a Samba,” choreographed by Trey Macintyre. It’s a blast. This is not OBT performing but another company; the work is getting out to see- indeed.
Click on the below link to see the very intro of the work- it’s not on You-Tube so you have to go to the site to see it: http://vimeo.com/2952103
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
C.S.Lewis
(I find this quote pretty assuring in light of the culture found in the arts especially over the past fourty years or so. Truth telling hasn’t necessarily been the priority and it seems irony is king as of late.)
Rona Pondick: Otter, Stainless steel Edition of 3 + 1 AP 30 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches 2002–05
Came upon a nice article in the May issue of Art News on the sculptor Rona Pondick. Thought I’d give you a heads up about her work. A intriguing sculptor in her fifties she creates amalgamations of human and animal forms using her own body or face as the jumping off point.
Her work seems to give nods to issues currently in the social and scientific world. She reminds me an analytic sculptor when approaching human/animal/plant forms, rather than a more mythic/poetic approach like the works of Kiki Smith. Dancing with the current trend in the arts of constructing beautiful mutants for the viewer to engage with, her work also seems to be about the beauty of the very material she is sculpting in and using contrasting textures: the smooth reflective nature of stainless steel melding into the detailed texture of human skin.
An installation shot of Meghan Headly's exhibition "Near Dweller"
Until graduation Saturday the 1st of May, there is a wonderful senior art show up at our Minthorne Art Gallery in the Hoover building at George Fox entitled “Near Dweller.”
Some small very curious little assemblages in the show using pate' verre objects that Meghan created.
A gradating senior of ours, Meghan Headly did a wonderful job creating a body of work that is technically intriguing, and conceptually rich. Drawing upon her experiences of studying the conflicts in Rwanda and Ireland, she has put together a collection of mixed media works rich as poetry. Her art gives nods to Robert Rauschenberg, Kathe Kollwitz and others with a painting style and pallete all her own.
If you happen to be in Newberg. It’s work a look-see. And yes, I’m bias on this one.
A moving large piece of Meghan Headly's work in the exhibition.
"A Suggestion as to How Many Times to Knock Before you May Possibly Get an Answer," Tim Timmerman, oil on panel/mixed media, 26"x17"x4", 4/10
Here is the other parable (or parable #1 from the earlier post) that is now complete. This one is based on the friend knocking in the night. Here is the scripture:
Luke 11; 5-10
5Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
7“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness[a] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
This work was difficult to photograph as it is purposely dark (it’s night you know) and there are small figures and other items purposely hidden behind the grid. There is a dog, donkey, couple, fruit, St. John and an owl that you can find when you see it in person. The bottom of the piece has a series of bingo balls with various numbers (the title is a nod to them- try, try, again).
Once again this piece likely will be in a Parable exhibition that will be traveling out and about, and also may show up in the art show down at Bush Barn in May.
Saw a movie as of late with Gary Buhler one of our painting professors at Fox that I wanted to recommend to you.
“The Art of the Steal” is a intriguing documentary on the Barns Collection of Post-Impressionist art in Philadelphia. Barns specified in his will not to ever move the collection from his home, as well as a number of other particulars that the city of Philadelphia seems to be disregarding in the name of getting more tourists and making money. Some reviews have claimed the movie is one sided but if you look at the will, it does seem that something very unsavory has happened. Clearly what the man wanted posthumously he is not getting.
Moreover I liked how “The Art of the Steal” gives you a good idea of the big business of museums now a day, paintings that were made to enhance lives and living spaces are now priceless pawns fought over. Was that the artists intent? It’s a little disconcerting.
"Hope Too Much" Tim Timmerman, oil on wood/assemblage, 25"x15 1/2"x6".
Here is one of the finished parables (see blog post from March 25th). From those of you that posted, and those that I spoke with it seems most nailed this one as the parable of the prodigal son. Good job.
With the current work I am moving the figures out of the painting and am constructing them out of various materials. I learned the hard way in constructing the figures for this piece how effective sanding bits are on a foredum shaft tool. It did a great job removing wood, and a bit of my left thumb. Still bandaged up but I’m on the mend. More lessons to share as to what NOT to do…
I was pleased with how this turned out. The figures reminded me a bit of some of the work I saw at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art last fall. Their folk art section of that museum is full of wonders and delights.
The title of this work actually comes from other notes I had on the same sketchbook page where I had drafted out possible compositions of the work. I had written down a different more typical title for the piece, but “Hope Too Much” fit like a puzzle piece for the work.
Detail of the figures for "Hope Too Much"
Hope you enjoy the piece, it may be in the show I have up coming at Bush Barn in Salem in May (depending on what else I finish), and possibly may travel with a show CIVA is doing on the parables beginning late summer.
Recently got to the “Disquieted” show at the Portland Art Museum. http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/feature/DISQUIETED The title, “A Proposal for Thought,” or “Highlights of Contemporary art from the past 20 years,” seems more appropriate but “Disquieted” is a bit more catchy I suppose, even if the work doesn’t come across as such except for notions regarding traditional art making.
Jaume Plensa’s light up heads are quite wonderful if only they didn’t have text on their faces, and Takashi Murakami has a visually engaging painting in the exhibition. The highlight for me was Bill Viola’s work, “The Quintet of the Astonished” I have not cried looking at work since seeing the Ghent Altarpiece this past summer, but this work got to me: A slow moving tenebristic ballet of five individuals reacting to something of devastating proportions I found it moving indeed. Viola never seems to faulter creating thoughtful work that is technically flawless.
Attached is the You-Tube video of it, but it is far faster then how it is presented in the Museum, nor is it the whole thing and because of its scale it lacks some punch, but you’ll get the idea. (How’s that for some caveats before hand?)
I am reading a biography on George Bellows and came upon his involvement in the pivotal Armory Exhibition in New York in 1913. This exhibition would introduce America to all the new trends that were happening in France: Cubisim, Futurism, Post Impressionism and the like. Art in America after the exhibit would never be the same.
I choose to write the quote here in full because I found it very rich, and funny:
As soon as the show opened to the public the following Monday, the Reception and Publicity Committee sprang into action, requiring Bellows and other to station themselves at a desk near the entrance, greeting visitors, escorting them, if need be, through the exhibition, and attempting to answer any and all questions, no matter how bizarre.
His friend Randall Davey later recalled that a very frequently asked question was “which way is the most expensive picture? The wide-awake young artists at the desk, said Davey, “Took turns taking these visitors to our own pictures and giving them a real fancy price.” Probably the most famous guest to take the guided tour was Theodore Roosevelt, who was escorted through the maze by Arthur B. Davies himself. The ex-president was heart to shout, “That’s not art!” whenever confronted with a work by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque or Constantin Brancusi. Finally they reached Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase. Bellows had hung it in a conspicuous place near the exit, where the thickest crowds tended to gather. “Where’s the woman?” demanded TR. When Davies tried to respond, he was interrupted by another snort: “He is nuts, and his imagination has gone wild!”
(From “George Bellows” by Mary Sayre Haverstock, Merrell Publsihing, 2007)
