Interview with Studio Critical

Full interview at studiocritical.blogspot.com

Thanks to Valerie Brennan for interviewing me for her blog about contemporary painting.

Waxing Poetic

Wax, 2012, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches. 

I spent the weekend anticipating spending the entire weekend in the studio. I succumbed to peer pressure on Friday morning and put a wreath on the door and bought a trendy tabletop tree. I went to the closet where my mom kept all the Christmas decorations and decided to clear out that closet and donate everything to charity in one fell swoop. I made one trip to the donation center and filled 3 garbage bags. It sounds awful, but I was actually happy when I heard an ornament break as it rolled out of the box and onto the floor. Whenever something breaks, I feel relieved, as though my job of making decisions just got easier. My neighbor convinced me to save some stuff for a garage sale. I could have hung on to the plastic dirty flocked Easter bunnies in all their plastic dirty flocked splendor, but I didn't. Instead, I selected the candle that appears in the background of Christmas pictures dating back to the 60's and set about to paint.

(usual caveat: shot in the studio with the iPhone. Hi-res image to show up on website later.)

"About Face" opening reception this Saturday!

Lots of teaser images on ACME.'s website. I'm thrilled to be hanging out in a corner with an Ed Paschke.

Today, I am grateful for Paint Hands.

If the polyphonic soundtrack isn't synced up yet, do come back. And I suggest you play both at once, in round for a more robust viewing experience.

Road Trip: The Indy Art Scene

Quoting from a recent article in the Nashville Scene on the state of the arts in Nashville: As for the upside, Callaway put it best: "Say Nashville to someone, and an image pops into their head. Sure, that image may be dead-wrong, but at least we have a cultural stereotype! Indianapolis can't say that." 

Personally when someone says Nashville I have an image of the time I ran into Whole Foods to grab a vegan almond cookie to eat on my flight back to LA and I saw Keith Urban standing in line with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Is that dead-wrong? I think not. 

So in an effort to see if Indianapolis actually had a cultural stereotype other than being the middle finger of the South, and because I'm desperate to see paintings that don't look like they were voted best of anything or some other hyped-up superlative, I did a quick road trip up to Indy to catch a few painting shows.

First up was Kyle Ragsdale's solo show, Tableaux at Harrison Art Center where for the most part, figures appear to be participating in some sort of mysteriously staged production amidst a bucolic landscape. The sheer volume of paintings in Ragsdale's show was a reminder that alla prima is alive and well.

Kyle Ragsdale, Herron Morton Woodpile

Kyle Ragsdale, Here, But Not Here.

Kyle Ragsdale, Stick Pile

Kyle Ragsdale, Oxbow Chair

I was slightly less enthusiastic standing in front of Elise Schweitzer's large-scale figurative work, Centaurs and Belly Dancers at Gallery 924 at the Arts Council of Indianapolis. The respectable but predicable brushwork was evident throughout the show, but as a whole didn't engage me over the long haul. Still, the fact it was painting hanging in a contemporary art space, easy to get to and open to the public was a plus.

 Elise Schweitzer

On the way to our final destination, I was introduced to Casey Roberts of Mt. Comfort Gallery and Rachel Ritchford's show Future Days, a series of medium cool, tie-dye hued paintings of landscapes suspended in a geo-abstract trance. Elegant and trippy with enough cerebral signifiers to remind me I was only 3 hours from Chicago where Ritchford received her MFA from SAIC*.  According to the text for the exhibition, which shares its title with spacey krautrock band Can's album Future Days, the work "examines the phenomenon of geometric abstraction as a metaphorical interpretation of psychedelic and entheogenic experiences."

Rachel Ritchford, Untitled, 35" x 44"

Bonus track was getting a sneak peak into Casey's studio and seeing some of his fantastical cyanotype landscapes which I could barely peel my eyes away from...

Casey Robert's, Twin Lakes, cyanotype drawing, 42" x 52"

...And which I will segue into our last stop- Carla Knopp's equally fantastical landscape show, Kinkade Meets Turner Paints Sci-fi With Fanbrush at Dewclaw. Knopp uses the same alla prima method of wet-in-wet as Ragsdale, and infuses her usually muted palette with high-keyed transparent hues that at times border dive off the cliff fittingly into saccharine. Using the uncharted territory as a metaphorical search for new meaning, Knopp's exploratory landscapes deliver as the show title promises- a mash-up of Kinkadean kitsch channeled through Turner with fanbrush after racking up some serious hours on the Sci-fi channel. The result is a glimpse into a humorous, yet disquieting realm. Knopp and Roberts recently showed together in the Tenses of Landscape show at the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Gallery.

Carla Knopp, Leviathan

Carla Knopp, Cyclops

Carla Knopp, First Thought of the Day

Carla Knopp, Four and a Half Worlds

*[Note: The editor spent the 90's in Chicago at the perennial deathbed of painting.]

[Note: the editor has no affiliation with the state of Indiana, any of it's inhabitants nor even a soft spot in her heart for it, but at 45 mpg, she's developing a wanderlust to see what's happening with painting within a few hours drive. If you'd like to promote some shows in a nearby city with or without a cultural stereotype, email me at maraddhac [at]  gmail {dot} com.]

"About Face," at ACME.

I'm pleased to be included in this exhibition curated by Daniel Weinberg to be held at ACME. in Los Angeles. I'll post some images (including mine) throughout the month. 

ABOUT FACE NOVEMBER 17 - DECEMBER 22, 2012 Reception: Saturday, December 1, 6-8PM

Anh Duong, Philosophy and Prostitution, 2008 oil on canvas, 38 x 24 inches

ABOUT FACE
NOVEMBER 17 - DECEMBER 22, 2012
Reception: Saturday, December 1, 6-8PM

ACME. is pleased to announce "About Face," a group exhibition of small works on paper and paintings by over thirty-five artists curated by Los Angeles art dealer Daniel Weinberg. Approximately fifty pieces will be shown throughout ACME.'s three gallery spaces.

The exhibition showcases eccentric, small-scale portraiture that distort classic presentations of the human face and/or figure. As a group show with roots in Surrealism and German Expressionism, the exhibition reflects the influences of individual artists such as Lucas Samaras' Polaroids and Alice Neel portraits. The effects of the current Digital Age are also expressed in several works.

Artists include Richard Artschwager, Lutz Braun, Cris Brodahl, Kristin Calabrese, Brian Calvin, Anh Duong, André Ethier, Asad Faulwell, Steve Gianakos, Alexander Gorlizki, Scott Grodesky, Mary Addison Hackett, EJ Hauser, Kati Heck, Jonathan Herder, Becky Kolsrud, Robert Lostutter, Ashley Macomber, Josh Mannis, Eddie Martinez, David McGee, Damien Meade, John Mills, Malcolm Morley, Ryan Mrozowski, Loren Munk, Jim Nutt, Robyn O'Neil, Ed Paschke, Joshua Petker, Jerry Phillips, Stephanie Pryor, Helen Rae, Tom Sanford, Amy Sarkisian, Allison Schulnik, James Siena, Neal Tait, Michael Tetherow, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, John Wesley, Karl Wirsum, and Tad Lauritzen Wright.

 
ACME. 6150 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048

Please Vote

I'm tuning off news coverage for the next 24 hours. I'm tired of the hypocrisy. 

View from studio window. My Obama yard signs are still intact. 

UPDATE: no, they are not intact. Someone stole them on election day. 

...but they couldn't steal the election. tsssst. 

Mary Addison Hackett, "Vantage Point," 2012, oil on linen, 7 x 5 inches

Sometimes, I could do watercolors all day and night.

The paper arrived. I've been asked to participate in an installation to be held next year at LAX. I want to have them completed before it gets too cold to use spray paint and fixative outside. Which then makes me think I should move my studio some place warmer. Like back to Southern California.

I wonder what my dopamine levels are when I am engaged with the watercolors.

A belated post on "Red," the play about Rothko

"If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment. But they won't. People can stand anything these days."

"Rothko kept the commissioned paintings in storage until 1968. Given that Rothko had known in advance about the luxury decor of the restaurant and the social class of its future patrons, the exact motives for his abrupt repudiation remain mysterious. Rothko never fully explained his conflicted emotions over the incident, which exemplified his temperamental personality.

Today's post is lifted from the parallel universe of Wikipedia.

Occasionally, I, too, just want to quit and play chess

Dave Hickey retires from the artworld. Says it has "become calcified by too much money, celebrity and self-reverence."

And that's the good news.

Waiting for Yupo

A suburban home studio. A table.

Mid-morning.

MAH is sitting at the computer trying to order paper. She pulls out her credit card with both hands, hyperventilating. 


I had a good day working on some watercolors/gouaches for a project. It might be 2 projects, but I'm waiting to hear. Optimism prevailed and I ordered enough paper for two projects. I also reeled off an artist philosophy statement for an application rather effortlessly after a couple of years of working too close to the bone. On the way to the library, I had my hair chopped off about 3 inches by someone who didn't quite understand that I didn't want a blunt cut that gives me a frizzy triangle look. My $30 haircuts have finally played themselves out. I'm fashion conscious enough to know that I look like I fit in now. My cosmopolitan locks are gone. What's next? Spanx? Jeggings?