Main Gallery - January 2012-What Color is Your Reality?

What Color is Your Reality?

January 6-27, 2012

Opening Reception January 6, 5-7:30pm
hosted by Altrusa Club

Featuring artwork by Mark Poteat, Jerry Stanford, Nathaniel Miller & Susan Simone.

Mark Poteat - Artist Statement:  “Factory Series”

 These works draw upon associations between Art History, personal experience, memories, and to the social and economic issues that reflect the area in which I live. The Art Historical references that have influenced these works are Picasso and Cubism, Caravaggio, the work of Frank Stella, and the etchings of the ruins of Rome by the Italian Romantic Architect and Artist Giovanni Piranesi. The connection with Piranesi is both aesthetic as well as conceptual. The closing of many plants and factories due to outsourcing, have turned many factories into modern day ruins that are an all too familiar site across the Carolinas and the nation.  I see the “Factory paintings” as metaphors for all of the plants and factories which have closed or reduced their work force.

 In these paintings I want to capture two contradictory feelings. I want to show that the structure is on the verge of collapsing, and second that it is holding on, staying together, and beaming with life.  These paintings, to me, are homages to my Father who worked in a factory for 40 years and for that matter all factory workers who were and have been the economic backbone in the Carolinas during and since the post-World War II era.

Although the content and the art historical references are an important part of the work, my main interest lies in the interpretation of pictorial space and structure. The “Factories” are an investigation into these formal areas. In these works I try to use and manipulate as many ways of showing space as possible, in order to create a space that projects from the picture plane. I play with the idea of what real space is in a painting as it relates to the illusion of space in a painting. “Real” space in a painting is the two-dimensional space of the picture plane. Therefore in order to achieve a more convincing since of illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane, the 2 dimensional space is reinforced and the illusion played off of the reinforcement.

My aim in these works then, to paraphrase Frank Stella, “is to create a space within which the subjects of a painting can live.”

Jerry Stanford Artist Statement --

I love black ink.

Leaving paper blank just makes a drawing seem incomplete to me. It may seem like a terrible shortcut to just lay down large patches of black ink, but dark areas can serve to direct a viewer's eye where I want it to go. Some artists make use of an 85/15 rule for light/dark balance, but I find it much easier to make a smaller light area stand out in a sea of darkness rather than the other way around. Too much white area lets the eye wander and the mind imagine missing elements.

As a comic artist, I constantly find artists engaged in adding color, for color has long been a staple of sequential art. I do color some of my work, but I make certain that in creating, I do not create with the expectation that the drawing will only work when colored, or that adding color will make up for what a drawing lacks. I try to make a drawing work with only black ink used, for if it works without color, it most certainly will work with color.

In the past, I have used thick, waterproof ink that was described by other artists as "inking with tar." In an era where a scanned image can be adjusted to make black as dark as possible, or filled in with black at the click of a mouse, actually laying down ink is satisfying to me in a way that using the Paint Bucket tool doesn't appease me. I also find, in a metaphysical way, the property of black to absorb light gives it an ability to draw a viewer in.

For me, black is the only color that makes its way into every work I do. Its completely necessary in order to create a new reality on the paper.

Susan Simone - Artist Statement

 My work is “Doc-u-Art”.  Each work is a story that binds the elements of a visual collection.  The story may be obvious and clearly tied to a social issue, or it may be more subtle: my reaction to a place or an event. In this sense, the work is like a set of clues. It is up to the viewer to find a story.

 

Sometimes the response may be no more than a feeling: the essence of tango and the way in which it permeates Argentina.  With more information, facts can emerge: that the  tango was born in the Boca section of Buenos Aires, a poor area where sailors danced  with one another waiting their turn in a brothel.  While I can write down the story or talk to you about the issues, I am also counting on the power of the juxtaposition of story elements to generate a response.  Whether or not you have talked to me, lined up the facts, or researched and analyzed the problem, the images stand as documentary evidence of place and event.

 

Another word I use to describe my work is as “memoryscape”.  Each final image combines multiple elements from different original “shots”.  They are layered in Photoshop to convey impressions recorded in my mind, complemented by my camera.    In some cases, I include archival material, a touchstone that allows me to bring history into my memory.  The first memoryscape I created was a combination of a photograph of people scuba diving in a fake lagoon in Hawaii alongside photographs of the lava beds that surround the hotel golf course.  It is a pretty photograph, but it is also mysterious and strange.  It is my statement against the artifice of tourism and the fear of authentic experience.  In this sense it documents an ecological and social issue through the lens of my memory.

 

I began merging images by pasting silver prints together with color.  I liked the contrast of the black and white print and the sleek color images.  When Photoshop and digital photography moved to the forefront, the transition was a natural.  Using a scanner or a digital camera, I have the freedom to meld images without the physical problems entailed working with adhesives.  Recently I have become interested in playing with the surface or “paper” I use for my prints.  In this show I have work printed on archival papers, rice paper, silk fabric, and metal roof flashing.  For example, the work from India feels different depending on the surface.  Silk is fine and elegant like a sari.  Roof flashing mounted on a board is rougher and reminds me of the mix of gorgeous color and dust, sacred water and pollution, the wealth of the Taj Mahal and the poverty of the city of Agra.

These are my memories. Please enjoy them.

 

 

Nathaniel Miller ~ Artist Statement

My paintings express my deep appreciation for the natural world’s beauty and complexity which is all too often forgotten or disregarded.

I am aware of the life that is swirling around our heads and under our feet.

I try to capture the intricacies, the magic, and beauty of living things in hope of inspiring others to preserve these wonders, not destroy them.

I believe that all living things are connected like a huge complex puzzle. My work re-examines these puzzle pieces using unique perspectives.

If my work to some appears “weird,” that is because they fail to recognize the natural wonders on our magical marble, which are stranger than my depictions.