Leaves

Autumn Leaves

This particular series is in part the result of a request by a gallery for smaller framed pieces. I purchased various sized shadow box frames and started to develop paper to fill them. It happened to be autumn when I started making the paper. Seasons have often been a source of inspiration in my work and I regularly make my paper according to the season at hand. It seems like an obvious extension of the passage of time element of my work to explore seasonal changes as well. Leaves, of one kind or another, have too been a major influence in much of my work. In early works I would often embed leaves to add texture to my paper. In my “Peace Paper” series I inserted olive branches to add texture and symbolism. Because I make all my paper outside it seems only natural to use what I have at hand in the paper. In these later pieces instead of imbedding the leaves I have pressed them into the surface and later removed them to leave an impression. Undulating colors was the driving force behind my work when I started painting these works. I was experimenting with getting some areas to recede while others advance. Although it is hard to see in the photographs, in the art itself, they really start to work.

Flowing Leaves

Leaves

Blowing Leaves

Falling Leaves

Early Undulations

Undulating Pangaea

Several years ago while doing a show at U.W. Sheboygan I was surprised to see an instructor with his students in the gallery looking at my work with 3D glasses on. He asked me if I had ever looked at my pieces through 3D glasses? When I told him I hadn’t he handed me the glasses to give it a try. It was like looking at the work for the first time. I had always been conscious of the interactions between the colors and in fact that was what had inspired the art in the first place. What I wasn’t prepared for was the depth which the glasses produced. In some cases the art appeared to be almost a foot thick. Since that day I have been striving, off and on, to get this effect without the glasses. It hasn’t been until the last year that I have really made some head way. These pieces where actually in that first show at Sheboygan. Two of them, Flutterbye and Undulations, I have since sold to The American Girl Doll Company. This group will always hold a special place in my heart because their purity and simple sophistication. I have since been able to achieve more depth in some of my pieces but I still enjoy the plethora of color when I look at these.

Flutterbye

Rainbow Moon

Residual Trapezoid

Undulations

Reflections of Home.

In my earliest art pieces the landscape is implied. The dilemma has always been how to represent the landscape without it becoming too contrived, to predictable. Because of the passing of time element in my art, landscapes seem like the perfect vehicle. It wasn’t until I started what I later referred to as the “Reflections of Home” series that I really became inspired to try landscapes. I had found some old pictures I had taken of the Mississippi valley when I was young. I have always had a fascination with the river and the bluffs that line it. Again the problem lay in how to do a landscape without compromising my overall focus and oeuvre as an artist. I found the solution in drawing the image by placing cord under a second layer of paper and then tearing it through that layer to leave an image. I wanted to continue with my original color changing principles of cool colors in the morning that warmed up as you worked your way past eventually leaving the warm colors of afternoon. It is interesting to note that the original vision for my color changing paintings had come from some early college works I titled “The Sun on the Swamp” series which traced the relationships between the swamp and the elements that worked on it. Here I was returning to those roots. I have always thought of my works as neoimpressionism. In these works I was revisiting the impressionists’ preoccupation with light change during different periods of the day. Unlike the impressionists’ I let the light change the painting. Depending on the light direction or viewers’ orientation the color will change. I am somewhat limited in my palette of colors. As an artist I have set up certain perimeters which I feel uncomfortable going outside of. Is funny how we as artist spend our early years tearing down established order only to surround ourselves with an even more rigid set of rules. At a later time I will take a look at some of my later landscapes which are done in a different method.



Mississippi 1 (left)



 



  



Mississippi 1







Mississippi 1 (right)

 


Mississippi 2




Mississippi Night




Mississippi 3

 

Hidden Agenda Series

It is long overdue but I have decided that one goal for 2011is to write a blog about my more traditional art. For this purpose I am going to hijack my Dolmen Project site for the winter. It is easy for me to make excuses to not write about my art so the first excuse to overcome is “where to start”. I have decided that since I will never resolve that issue I am going to do what I do best and just ramble.



Rattletrap

In the spirit of the New Years I have decided to start with the “Rattletraps” or “Hidden Agenda Series”. My wife, Eileen, showed me an article on the cathartic nature of putting a decorated bottle by your bed with a note pad to write down anything that may be bothering you and lock it away in the bottle before going to bed. It reminded me of my rattletraps.

The “Rattletrap” or “Hidden Agenda” series, a succession of art pieces that rattle when you shake them, started as the result of two separate influences involving unusual ways of recording an event. The evidence of the event is later disguised so that it cannot be discovered without the destruction of the art object containing it.

The first influence was a ceramic student whom I had met in college. I have forgotten his name but I will never forget his art work. His work was the result of his traumatic experiences in Viet Nam. For him his art was therapy. He would craft slab boxes in which he would write his experiences and thoughts on the insides of the slabs. He would then seal them up, fire them and his secrets would be sealed inside. It was his way of expressing his feelings without letting them become public knowledge.



You'll Never Know



On a less serious note, an artist friend of mine, Bruce Harstad, after writing a short story, inserted the ending in an amulet made of decorated burlap, bound in leather and then sealed by dipping in beeswax. The joke was that if anybody asked about it you could say “It was none of their beeswax”. Beyond this he placed a curse on the object so that anyone who opened the amulet to read the ending would have bad luck. It was all done in fun but the idea of not ever being able to read the ending without destroying the amulet intrigued me.

These artists were the inspiration for the hidden agenda series. Without handling these pieces you would never know that anything was hidden within. But as soon as you start moving them you are troubled by the sound of objects rattling within. Again the mystery and irony of never being able to know what is hidden inside without destruction is the impetus behind these pieces (destruction is the means to knowledge).

Wine & Song

Finally the series becomes a sort of time capsule. In this light, I have decided to try to make at least one addition to the series every year. Although I will be the only one to know what is in them it is a way to record a segment of my life.




 Before the Fall

 

Closed Circut

Parnell Tower

Day 22 (10/10/10)
After Kayaking at Mauthe Lake yesterday, we decided to go hike the Parnell tower trail today. As expected it was beautiful but the trees had not changed color as much as we thought. We had hiked the trail last year so we knew what to expect. It is the longest three and a half mile hike you could ever experience with hidden obstacles hidden under the leaves and lots of ups and downs. Part of it runs along the ice age trail and there was a race going on today. I can’t imagine running, it is hard enough to keep your feet walking. Rocks mean materials for building cairns though so building is what we did.



New Prairie Build



Day 20 (8/31/10)

I had started out the year with such high aspirations but tomorrow school starts and I feel like I never even got started. I guess I could chalk it up to other distractions and a busy summer but that would only be an excuse. No, it was a lack of direction and motivation. It is interesting to note that as my motivation has waned so has the motivation of the forces bent against me. I was surprised to find that after a month many of my sculptures were still standing. Even though most were still standing I did find two down. I decided to rebuild them differently than what they had been before.

New Question of Balance

Can you find the Dangler?

Return of the Biting Ants

Day 19 (8/2/10)

I can’t believe it has been almost a month since going out on the trail. When setting out I was expecting everything to be lying in waste. It was actually a pleasant surprise to find most things in varying degrees of togetherness, even the “Prairie Memorial” which is quite fragile. Of course most of the precarious parts, like cairns, had toppled but I spent a little time repairing them. I noticed that the dog treat station had been changed from a wooden dispenser to a plastic container. Hopefully nobody had molested it. It’s one thing to knock over my sculptures, which are not made to be permanent, and another thing to destroy a family’s memorial to their beloved father. Maybe it was changed for a less sinister reason. I took the time to set up one tie build that had been down since last fall. I think I will call it “Special K”. It looks like a large K and its special. It needs more done to it but I wanted to just get it up. I also build a new build today that I am quite proud of. I call it my “Giacometti Build” because it is tall and slender and has a very Giacometti look to it. It is kind of precarious so I may have to shore it up a bit in the future. Oh yeah, I just about forgot to mention the return of the biting ants. Soon after starting the build I noticed I was again covered with ants and they were mad. It was so great just being back out on the trail again.