THANK YOU!

As New Year's Eve is fast approaching, I want to extend a sincere "thank you" to all of you who have checked out this blog over the course of 2023. Last New Year's Eve, I made a resolution to focus more time on my creative collage endeavors and to try to post more on the blog (both of which I was successful in doing). Not only did my efforts create more content here, but it also motivated me to spend more time in the studio and respond to calls for work for various exhibitions. Except for the generally alarming state of higher education in America, and the disgusting administrative decisions that were made at my home institution, 2023 has been a good year overall -- it seems like it has been the first year I have felt "out of" the COVID pandemic (although, ironically, I did have COVID in August). I fear that 2024 will be a disastrous year for the country, politically, and for me personally (I will not burden my blog with details at this point). I hope that positive human spirits and creative processes will prevail. Once again, thank you all for showing interest in my blog. I wish you all a peaceful, healthy and happy new year to come! 

Christmas day finish-up

 Here's a piece I finished this Christmas day. A bit different from my normal style. I'm okay with it ;-)

"Hats off to Rene"

Here's my latest piece. When I was experimenting with these elements, a composition soon "popped", that reminded me of Rene Magritte's work. Interestingly, I did this the night before I went to see the exhibit I reviewed below... which also was reminiscient of Rene Magritte's work, methinks.

 

Fenimore Art Museum (Cooperstown, NY)

 I was completely blown-away by one of the the current exhibits on display at the Fenimore Museum of Art. The works of Nancy Callahan and Richard Whitten are simply amazing!

Nancy Callahan, who resides in the greater Syracuse (NY) area creates impressively complex, and stunning assemblages and dioramas which harken back to Victorian-age curiosity cabinets. Accompanying -- or perhaps introducing -- the beautifully composed visual elements which comprise these intricate artworks, are Ms. Callahan's intriguing artist's statement, which include historically accurate (as far as I can tell) and wildly interesting information which seems to drive her creative explorations. For example, this statement...

accompanies this large cabinet assemblage...

This statement accompanies the largest "assemblage/sculpture" in the show...

Here is a selection of other works by Ms. Callahan...

Now, on to Richard Witten's work. This artist is THE MASTER of the illusion of depth in his oil painting! It is difficult to comprehend that all of these artworks are created on a flat surface (even when you're standing in front of them at the exhibit). Two aspects of Mr. Whitten's work enhance the illusion of three-dimensionality. The unique and distinctively-shaped panels on which Mr. Whitten paints his work defies the standard reference to a rectangular frame with which viewers are accustomed. These unique shapes then afford the viewer (consciously or not) the ability to abandon the standard "rules" of perceiving the works in the two-dimensional space on which the exist. The other aspect of the work which maximizes the illusion of three-dimensionality of the work is the exquisite use of color constancy and contrast, as well as the dark color palette. Taken together, these aspects of Whitten's work create a powerfully illusionistic and pleasantly aesthetic ouevre.

Holiday card 2023

So here is the finished piece, entitled "Peace Rising". I posted a bunch of intermediate steps in the previous post. The green edges/borders had to be cut down significantly to fit the desired size.

 

Holiday card 2023 (intermediates)

 I think I will post the finished piece here; and then do a follow-up post to show some of the intermediate steps to get to the final product. Hmmm... or maybe I should put the intermediate images here, so that the final product is the most recent post. Yes, I think that will work better...

Another finished piece

I have been working on iterations of this piece and the monkey piece for weeks. I was determined to try to finish both this weekend (the calm before the storm of finals week for the semester). I'm pleased that I was able to get both finished. A good friend of mine told me that this is not an obvious "Specht" piece. I kinda like that (because it was somewhat intentional).

Not sure what this piece will be entitled. 

John Loy

John Loy is a wonderful artist from the Utica area! He taught for years at Munson-Williams Proctor Arts Institute. His paintings and collages are quite bold and compelling. This collage is featured in the current Member's Exhibit at The Kirkland Arts Center (Clinton, NY). The photos don't do the piece justice because of the glass reflection. I love the composition. And what makes this collage especially compelling to me, is that the paper used in this composition is billboard paper; so it's super-saturated, and you can see the "pixellation" of the color process (similar to Ben Day technique).

The process of experimentation

One of the things I tell folks when they ask me about my creative process, is that I am first-and-foremost, an experimenter and a "recognizer". I LOVE to spend time in my studio area "simply" looking at all the interesting images that surround me; AND then, experimenting with/exploring how the various images and elements look wen they are combined in various ways. As anyone who has seen this blog before, sometimes I have photographic records of various intermediate compositions... but often times I don't, either because I didn't take a photo to begin with; but sometimes I delete them to try to keep my image library from getting too overwhelming. I had the "background" image of this cathedral for quite a while (I think at least two years) before I finally "put it down" in the piece I posted just previous to this one. You can see some of the intermediates when I was getting close to the final composition; as well as some of the earlier experimentation.

"3001: A Space Oddity"

After many hours of detail cutting and experimenting with "perfect" placements, here is the piece I finished last night. Seems like I'm gravitating to a bit more complexity in my recent work. I like it.

 

The Utica arts scene

Wonderful evening of Utica art! Daniel Buckingham opening at The Westwood gallery of 4 Elements Studio; followed by the opening for Victor Lenuzzi at The Other Side. SO happy to be part of the art scene in Utica!