Opening tonight at Trillium Art Centre

Tonight at 7 pm for those in the area is the opening of the Plein Air Artists group show with my special exhibition of work from the Swamp Rabbit series. All of the pieces below, plus a watercolor done along the trail and a few photographs are included. Further information at:

Trillium Arts Centre, Travelers Rest, SC

New Work: "Landmark (Swamp Rabbit Series): Homeless"

This is a piece I am currently working on. This image is a "rough draft," a sketch, a mock-up, of a possible assemblage composition using the open-air painting of an old rail car on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville, South Carolina. This rail car, standing by itself on rails (all the original steel rails have been removed by now, except for those immediately under this car) really grabbed my attention as I drove over the rail path. I have encountered at least one homeless person who lived here for a brief time, and found many interesting and suggestive object/elements related to this site. I continue to enjoy how this new line of work presents an entry point for learning and understanding more about place and time and space. For example, I wondered exactly what this car was, as it did not resemble any passenger car I knew of, nor did it look like a regular box car for cargo. I learned, thanks to one of the many usual passers-by while I paint, that this one was a steam generator, located up near the kitchen car on the "Swamp Rabbit" passenger line that ran between the upstate area of South Carolina (Travelers Rest terminus) and the regional center of Asheville, North Carolina to the north. Here's a bit of history about the rail line: Swamp Rabbit line and Travelers Rest.

This series of paintings and assemblage work along the Swamp Rabbit Trail (a project supported by the Federal Governement "Rails to Trails" program), starts in Travelers Rest and will proceed through and south of Greenville city. It is quite an ambitious project and will link several important and historical centers in the region.

Sans Souci (which in French means "with no care or worry") is one of those areas which used to be a community, but has now lost its center as a community. I learned a new term related to this: "census designated place," which means it will appear on census or demographic related maps, but one cannot actually find a town center or "place" called Sans Souci. There are churches and a couple of local businesses which still use this name, but the precise boundaries and location are now lost. This location was once part of the "textile crescent" in the area west and north of Greenville, South Carolina, home to many huge textile industry related manufacturing plants and mills. Most of these are now closed, abandonded and deserted. I have located several more places I hope to paint and engage as part of this series including the old Union Bleachery site (most recently branded U.S. Finishing) and the chimneys and mill building at Poe Mills (now used as art studios).

Landmark (Swamp Rabbit Trail) Series on Exhibition

The two pieces showcased below were juried into two regional shows here in South Carolina. "Landmark: Gospel Essentials" is currently in the 30th Annual Juried Art Exhibit at the Pickens County Art Museum and "Landmark: Fertile Ground" is currently hanging in the 34 Annual Juried Exhibition at the Anderson Arts Center, South Carolina.

"Landmark: Fertile Ground"

This is a new one, built around the painting "Scott Fertilizer Plant". I went back to this site, about a year after I started the painting, and found many good objects (or they found me, if you look at it that way), especially in the buildings off to the right. There are more diagonals in this composition than in the previous one. I have also collected more interesting information on this plant, which was a mixing plant for Scott brand Potting Soil. There are, like so many locations, strange connections here. The property is currently held by W.R. Grace & Co, founded by William Russell Grace, first Catholic Mayor of New York City. The heir of the founder, J. Peter Grace has some links and membership in extremely conservative groups like the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and the Council for National Policy, dedicated to the creation of a Christian theocracy in government in the United States (and elsewhere). This company is also the one depicted in the film "A Civil Action" and has been involved in some massive contamination and environmental lawsuits.

Here is the final composition. It is organized as a triptych, with the left panel suggesting more enlivened organic and agricultural themes, the middle containing the perspective image of the plant, and the right panel suggesting the passage of time and decay, dominant with wood, metal and past images of the location.

Final version and a new title: "Landmark: Gospel Essentials"

This is a final version of the work I outlined below (compare the two), now titled "Landmark: Gospel Essentials". I am now working on another combined found object assemblage and realist oil painting using the work "Scott Fertilizer Building" and fragments

I collected at that painting site nearly a year ago. The concept of "landmark" occurred to me as appropriate to what will be a new series. The term landmark originated with the need to symbolically represent on maps recognizable, commonly found features in the landscape. Landmarks aid our orientation, creating a visual vocabulary of familiar locations.

Mapping our world, marking our world... the human interaction with the natural environment. "Landmark" seemed to me to be a good overall term for representing how I approach these locations that are at once both recognizable and undiscovered mysteries in my immediate ecology.

The subtitle "Gospel Essentials" is actually the title of the cassette tape in the lower right corner of the work. The print on the plastic case is barely visible... just a ghostly little bit of text. It was, like most all the elements in the painting, something I picked up in the vacant lot represented in the painting. I think this element, and the Dollar General store plastic bag represent something of the population closest to this site. The aerial image in the upper left shows the site, including the cell phone tower. I have marked red lines showing the angle of view of the painted picture.

My critique group liked this piece. Appreciated were the representation of multiple surfaces and perspectives, the way I carried certain line elements outside the painting into the assemblage construction. The names of Kurt Schwitters and Joseph Cornell came up. Their approach to assemblage and use of paint comes closest to this work, but I think the inclusion of a highly representational (plein air even) work as one of the elements is rather unique.

Technical note update: Adhesives...
I mentioned earlier that I used the Liquid Nails Heavy Duty construction adhesive for the wood and masonry objects. On Judy Hiramoto's suggestion, I tried the craft adhesive E6000, which is crystal clear and very tacky. It worked great on the glass (over on the upper right inside edge between the painting and the wood) and for several of the metal objects. Some elements are nailed in place with either galvanized finishing nails, or copper plated brads; I'm a stickler for the "archival". The painting itself is attached to the backing board with screws from behind.

Doing the Art Fair thing.

A year since I opened this blog about my art, repeating the attendance at the Abbeville Art Fair in Abbeville, SC. Another beautiful weather weekend, although it did threaten to sprinkle a bit early on in the morning, by mid day it had turned sunny and warmer, but not hot. Taking time out in the afternoon to walk around to several storefronts around the town square and sample different wines was very pleasant. It is a very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I was pretty lucky to sell several prints and two originals; the "Trinity Street" watercolor and a charcoal drawing I had made of my grandfather, dating back to 1983 or so. I had assembled some wire mesh walls to hang the artwork on this time, vastly improving my ability to display the original and framed prints. My next goal is to build or purchase the print bins and print several versions of the Abbeville series of images. To that end, I have recently purchased a (used, but hopefully in very good condition, as promosied by seller on eBay) an Epson R1800 pigment inkjet printer, which will print 13 x 19 or longer prints with 8 colors of pigmented archival inks.

Now.. how to do it...

The new piece below, which I have titled "Past Tense, Future Imperfect" is a preliminary arrangement. I gathered the objects and the painting and laid them out in the way I wanted. I now want to construct them and apply the materials in a permanent way. This poses some interesting challenges as there are many different types of material; brick, plastics (some hard, some soft like the bag), metal (rusty, clean, and heavy), wood, paper, glass. Just about everything really.

I have researched various adhesives for the brick and wood and have settled on Liquid Nails Heavy Duty construction adhesive. To make matters more difficult, I want to adhere all this on a plywood panel backing, and be able to gesso and add color to certain "open" areas. This has led me to explore and learn about various collage and assembly art techniques. Very happy to do that and I am liking this piece more and more as it develops. I have designs (and found materials) to do a similar thing with the painting "Scott Fertilizer Plant"... first things first though.