In Vitreous Humor

Group show with the Fine Art Ramblers moves to NC

2012-01-10T19:03:00.006-05:00

Coming up, opening on Jan. 27th, is a group show with fellow Fine Art Ramblers Patti Brady, Jim Campbell, Bob Chance and Phil Garrett at the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC.

Commission piece

2011-12-29T21:49:00.005-05:00

Titled by the client, "The Last Fall", documents a view looking north towards the North Carolina / South Carolina border. 15 x 48 oil on wood panel. Completed with Williamsburg Oils.

Near complete, just as studio is damaged.

2011-06-24T15:17:00.005-04:00

Well, I was nearly finished with the still life when a heavy wind storm blew two large pine trees onto my studio roof and nearly demolished it. Had it not been a Wednesday evening, I might have been inside working on the painting, just under one of the large cross ties supporting the roof. These are now all down and all of the objects on the table were swept away. Lucky me! Insurance should cover most or all of this, I hope.

Weather is OK now, so looks like I'll be working out doors for awhile. I added the Hohner harmonica in an old style case, which they no longer make. This is the type of small cardboard box the harmonicas came in when I was much younger.

This piece was a particularly difficult exercise in exact realism, using personally significant objects from my youth. The tandem forces of music and painting, and the reference to religious indoctrination hang in the balance here. My fascination with light effects, particularly ultraviolet light, and my experimentation with DayGlo tempera paints are recorded in this autobiographical still life painting. I have submitted this to the Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Juried Exhibit. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Progress on Black Light Confirmation.

2011-02-05T17:39:00.003-05:00

Current state of "Black Light Confirmation". I have been working on this auto-ethnographic still life for a little over 2 years, off and on. I intend to finish it up in the next couple of weeks in time for submission to the Oil Painters of America national show. I am balancing natural light, artificial light from outside the picture and the glow of the UV lamp I used when I was 12 or 13 and started painting with Day-Glo tempera paints. The lamp glowing under the reflection in the dark purple/red glass lens came out pretty well. I still have the remainder of the cornet, small jars of paints and the lamp base, bracket and bulb cover to bring to a finished state.

Back in the studio.

2011-01-15T12:49:00.002-05:00

Back to work on the still life oil (16x20) on panel in the studio. The heater I installed last winter works like a charm, and will do so even better when I finish insulating the remaining 2/3 of the walls and ceiling. This is a picture of the studio interior. Making good progress on the painting itself and will feature that when I am done. I also have several notes about the process and will share those.

Industrial Skyways Exhibit

2010-11-03T10:14:00.007-04:00

I will be opening a 2 person show with Grace-Anne Alfiero at the Studio @620 AnneX in St. Petersburg, FL on Saturday, Nov. 13th at 6:30. I will exhibit several new pieces, including West End Backside, bricolage no. 2, and a collaborative piece with Grace-Anne titled "Angels on the Beach".

West End Backside, bricolage no. 2

2010-08-09T16:31:00.012-04:00

"West End Backside, bricolage no. 2" 2010
Oil on canvas, found object assemblage. 24 x 44 in.

This painting was entered in the 2nd annual juried exhibit at the Trillium Arts Centre in Travelers Rest, SC. It was awarded the 1st place honors at the show's opening and will be on display through September 11th. The piece includes the other two 16 x 20 inch oil panels which, together with their companion piece, West End Backside, bricolage no. 1 (see below) was conceived as a triptych landscape panorama. These two were made into a diptych and combined with artifacts from the location. No. 1 is currently on display at the Fuller Gallery Featured Artist Exhibit, SC Botanical Gardens.

I am also gearing up for a show at the Studio@620 gallery in St. Petersburg, FL opening the 13th of November. Here is a statement I developed for this piece:

In this present work I have combined two visual art traditions; realist urban landscape, painted entirely on location through direct observation, and found object assemblage of artifacts, collected from within the space pictured in the painting. This painting/assemblage is the second one from this location.* Together, they form a triptych arrangement of this view.

In using this process, I have tried to form a more complete sense of place. The paintings themselves could be viewed alone for their surface content; a painterly “moment” of time and space at a specific location. However, when seen together with the other objects in the assemblage, they become part of an abstract composition. Lines of motion, shapes and color in the painted image inform the arrangement of pieces of debris. The physical process of painting affords me the opportunity to study and observe over long periods of time.

I spend about 2 and a half hours each day sitting at the location and during “stretch breaks” I walk around in the vacant areas and in between buildings, helping myself to any discarded things which capture my attention. Some objects are just purely abstract in terms of color, texture and shape. Others are more literal, or sometimes more metaphorical in their relationship to my perceived understanding of the natural environment and human presence. Creating the paintings "on location" adds my own presence to the historical reality of that place, and the canvas and paint are transformed into yet more artifact. Together with the found objects, all are combined and on display become a form of contemporary urban archeology.

Because this work refers to a specific location, the surface representation often evokes stories and reflections from viewers. I learned, for example, that the building on the right (with the wooden staircase outside) used to host some pretty wild Halloween parties. One passerby told me of the prevalence of brothels in this part of town, many decades ago. I enjoy hearing stories like these.

I started this work in early December of this year and completed the first of three paintings by early spring. When I returned to finish the other two in this series, a building had been torn down and I was confronted with a large sumac tree which had decided to grow dead center in the composition. I kind of like that tree now, having gotten to know it so well.

Back on the trail...

2010-05-10T10:44:00.003-04:00

Now that the weather has picked up and our garden is on its way, time to venture out again and pick up the trail. I will be returning to various locations along what is known here as the Swamp Rabbit Trail, a "rail to trails" type project that has seen the conversion of an abandoned freight and passenger rail line to a pedestrian walkway and bike path. The trail passes through the once vibrant but now mostly decrepit "textile crescent" west and north of the city of Greenville, SC. I will expand on my previous efforts of combining found objects from various location with realist artwork of urban factories and artifacts in bricolage assemblage. The artwork is a point of entry and departure for inquiry into the social, historical and cultural realities of the contemporary past and of the present conditions shaping the urban cityscape. Bricks and rust, plastic, metal and glass with oil painting.

West End Backside Bricolage, No. 1

2009-12-04T16:21:00.013-05:00

This painting was just selected for the "Greenville Seen" juried exhibit hosted by the Metropolitan Arts Council in Greenville, SC.
Exhibit opening on Friday, January 15th at the MAC Gallery and will be on exhibit through Feb. 26th.

I've started a new series, comprised of a panoramic view of the West End of Greenville, from Rhett St., behind Main St. and Augusta Rd. This part of town is not often seen and will likely be gone in years to come as new buildings obscure the view. This is the first of the series, designed as a triptych, with a small addition of some artifacts collected behind the buildings at the bottom of each piece similar to much of my recent work. The artifacts are from a wooden drawer and a bit of demolished brickwork with some paint fragments on it. The sky was completed all at once on all three panels. I have also completed the under painting on the other two, and have started the building detail plain air work on the second (middle) panel. I have also posted a new statement at my website DS McCurry Fine Arts Studio.

Thank you for your visitations

2009-11-19T19:54:00.002-05:00

To one and all who stopped by my new studio on the 7th and 8th of November, thank you. This was my first "open studio" experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with over 50 individuals who stopped by on the Greenville, SC circuit. I always enjoy talking about my work and look forward to continued contact with many of you. Stop by again, anytime.

In Search of the Ancon

2009-08-05T17:56:00.014-04:00

(Albert Bierstadt. 1889. Wreck of the "Ancon" in Loring Bay, Alaska. Oil on paper, mounted on Masonite. 14 1/8 x 19 3/4 inches). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

I am beginning a new project which will involve traveling to Loring, Alaska (Naha Bay) to visit the location of the wreck of the steamship Ancon on August 29th, 1889. The wreck was captured in an oil sketch by the American artist Albert Bierstadt. I believe that he later finished the sketch in his studio, likely in San Francisco or possibly in New York. The painting now hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and I have seen it several times.

The boiler tanks (or what is left of them) are supposed to be visible at low tides, and I intend to travel to Naha Bay, stay at Loring for several days and complete some oil sketches of roughly the same size that Bierstadt did (14.5 x 19 inches). This size comes up several times in his catalog of work and is, I believe, the size of his oil on paper sketch work. I intend to use the Schoellershammer oil painting paper (108 lb) which they still make in 14.25 x 19 inch size (10 sheets to a pad).

I am just starting to research Bierstadt's travels of this period. This trip was his third (and would be his final) trip out west to collect ideas for new paintings. He had suffered several major life and career setbacks at this point (the most recent of which was his rejection from the Paris Exposition in the same month as this trip) so he must not have been in the best frame of mind. Robert Campbell also reaches this conclusion in his book "In Darkest Alaska" (2007, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press), noting the somber colors and more realistic scale of the subject and the relatively unmajestic, failure tinged content of the composition. I think the reality of his life finally entered his art-making at this point. The 19th cent. romanticism, of which Bierstadt was a leading figure, owing in no small part to his German heritage and art education, was receding like the tide, which ultimately broke the back of the grounded Ancon and perhaps Bierstadt's spirit with it.

Present day Naha Bay near Loring, with the wreckage of the Ancon still visible off the point. (photo courtesy of Naha Bay Preservation Coalition).

Final version of "Homeless"

2009-07-22T15:44:00.005-04:00

Formal title: Landmark (Swamp Rabbit Series): Homeless. 2009. Oil on canvas, metal, wood, glass, plexiglass, cloth, found objects assemblage. 19 x 35 x 4.5 inches.

This piece finally came together in time for the opening at the Trillium Arts Centre. It went on a little journey for a couple of weeks, on loan to the Eliot Pratt Center at Goddard College for the MFA student show during the Fall residency. The title, "Homeless," is suggestive of my experiences with an individual who took refuge in the rail car for a few days while I was doing the painting. There was evidence of other people using the car for various purposes also, but I will not go into details about that. The small pillow (or mattress as it appeared to one person), hanging from the top edge of the picture frame is after Robert Rauschenberg's work "Canyon." It fit with the homeless theme and reflected the dirty old bedding I found in the car. The archeology of these locations fuels my interest in the subject matter, expanding my understanding of the context of the location. The historical dimensions, as well as the present-oriented realities of real-estate, property and public/private domains, all contribute to the making and presentation of this and other pieces in the series.

Opening tonight at Trillium Art Centre

2009-07-11T14:51:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-04-22T20:40:00.007-04:00

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

2009-04-22T20:32:00.002-04:00

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"

2008-12-10T13:15:00.002-05:00

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"

2008-11-20T15:03:00.001-05:00

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.

2008-10-05T12:51:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-08-23T10:23:00.001-04:00

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.

Fall 2007 and Summer 2008 work

2008-08-20T09:26:00.000-04:00

The original oil painting has been added to this found object assemblage. I started to gather objects at the painting site, adding to the collection with satellite images from the internet of the location with my marks drawn on them, indicating direction and angle of view for the painting.

This new arrangement suggests to me something of an urban archeology of abandoned, liminal spaces... border territory between the past, present and future. Often these spaces are marked by borders between human activity and demographics. This location is on a busy street where lower income families live to the west (left of the image) and commercial development is taking place along this route to the north and east. I have titled this new work "Tense Past, Future Imperfect".

"Scott Fertilizer Plant"

11/17/07 - 03/15/08 4:30-5:45 PM

This image of a recent plein-air painting is facing north, looking down what is now known as the "Swamp Rabbit Trail", a recovered rail line being converted into a recreational pedestrian pathway following the "rails to trails" program. The industrial building was a Scott brand fertilizer manufacturing and distribution plant, abandoned since the late 1990s.

The CONNECTION art show and historical exhibit

2008-08-05T16:20:00.001-04:00

I was juried into this regional traveling exhibit, connecting the history of South Carolina and the Caribbean island nation of Barbados.

The Connection Art/History show and exhibit. Organized by the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor organization.

International Plein-Air Painters Featured Artist

2008-08-05T15:43:00.000-04:00

I am currently the featured artist for August, 2008 at the International Plein-Air Painters website and at their blog. Please check it out (through 08/08).

Coming soon... information about shows and exhibits in late summer and fall '08 and the possible "Liberia" project...

D.

"...6, 7, 8, 9..."

2008-03-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

"...6, 7, 8, 9..."

A group show with the above title opened in downtown Greenville, SC this past week. I belong to an advanced critique group, run through the education section of the Greenville County Art Museum and facilitated by Michael Brodeur of Furman University. There are 8 of us in the group, hence the name, exhibiting a variety of new and past works on at a new gallery, organzied through a cooperative venture between Furman University and the local branch of the YMCA. The gallery is located at 612 S. Main St. downtown Greenville.

Abbeville Art on the Square Event

2007-09-30T13:27:00.001-04:00

Just returned from the "Art on the Square" art fair in Abbeville, SC. Weather was absolutely perfect, even with the strong breeze gusting through once in awhile, just to make things interesting. The outdoor fair coincided with the "Wine Walk" annual event, where the public (with purchased ticket and armband) can walk around the town square and stop in at the designated store to sample wine and visit the shops. Highly recommend this event to all artisans. Expect this one to continually grow over the years. Sold many smaller (8 x 10) prints of the "Trinity Street" watercolor painting, and possibly one or two of the larger prints (still "thinking about it").

Welcome To My Art Blog.

2007-09-13T11:47:00.001-04:00

I created this blog to journal and post ideas about my artwork. My main website is located at http://davidmccurry.net and you are welcome to go there and view my current and past artwork. I am also a candidate in the MFA, Interdisciplinary Arts program at Goddard College, VT. This blog will act as my journal and facilitate the reflective process of my developing artwork. Welcome aboard...