Town & Country

New York, Summer 2014

Part One

I start this post with mirror images as a bridge from the rorschach/mirrored symmetries post and as a device for indicating how much more involved I became in the process of mirroring that is a part of being actually seen so that real communication is possible. It was a relief to be in places where I did not feel like a total misfit and with those so much more similar to myself in intent and interests. In short, I love New York, both town and country.

Image by Adriana Gonzales

Brooklyn Art Museum, a beautifully installed wall of mirrors combining contemporary and period mirrors.

self portrait in Fred Wilson's exquisite black mirror in the same installation

Brooklyn Art Museum figure from African Art Exhibit

Looking through these images, I was surprised not to see more in the way of abstract images, which are my forte, however, much of this trip was about contact and encounter, so these images, most of them of new friends and other figures, serve as a fitting memoir. For some such as myself, it is through the lens of art that encounter is often most interesting........

Isaac Hecker, work in progress by Fr Frank Sabatte, Director of Openings Art Collective and  the art residency at the Paulist Father's house at Lake George.  Fr Hecker was the  populist priest who founded St Mary's.

         

Mary, at St Mary's on Lake George, upstate NY & black angel in the Frick garden NYC

The angel and the mother. the dark and the light, the ever present polarity of existence on this plane. It is said that in China white is the color of mourning. Meanings and definitions fade into each other. Love and its lack manifesting in fear, wears all forms and hues. These elements of our existence, love & fear, are the opposites we seek to balance and finally transcend into the absolute supreme reality of love.

In the western tradition of alchemy, it is fitting that love should be replaced by gold, the symbol of wealth, yet another metaphoric symptom of the pathology of our (hopefully) passing paradigm. And yet,  material abundance aligns with love, but its primacy over it is a perversion that may yet destroy us.

More universally, the alchemy process results in the creation, from the combining of opposites, into the philosopher’s stone, said to be the emblem of immortality. 


The infinite love of the immortal creator, the lapis lazuli stone, ground to color the mother of god’s robes, and philosophy the questions that begin the journeys to understanding………

Sigmar Polke detail of painting at MOMA

Forever amber- the old alchemist Polke at the MOMA, many of the paintings have so much more strength in the flesh than in books. 

As a painter, i would have liked to see more paintings.  The proliferation of film and video comes off as a populist branding of a contemporary star, good humored and charismatic, which strategic technique is prominent now in contemporary practice to engage the masses in art viewing these days……

We painters love that amber resin, it historicizes and warms whatever is encased in it...........

Joachim Marx  b115

Said to be the “ultimate in postmodern painting” by fellow painters, utilizing the integration of figurative and experimental painting practices, the paintings of Joachim Marx are a fulsome juxtaposition of these elements.

Eric Jiaju Lee

Probably the artist closest to the process oriented practices of my own painting is Eric Jiaju Lee. 

Eric executed several of these experimental works in the time we were at the residency, & set up the outdoor studio over looking the lake. Eric's work is included with lots of other painting luminaries in the Brooklyn gallery  Life on Mars exhibit "Never Mind the Bullocks",  This gallery is run by painters Michael David and Fran O'Neil and is a PAINTER"S gallery in the best sense of the word.

Another work by Eric.

and more! Cooking!

Work in progress by master wood carver and scientist/engineer Anthony Santella, when finished this will be shown at the Opening's exhibit this fall in NYC. There will be a computer screen in this ladies upturned hands. I can relate! Too well!