statcounter

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Paintings: Past and Present

This exhibit at The New Gallery reintroduces my work to  Houston. For over 20 years I have been absent. Technically I have had maybe 5 shows during that period, but they were uninspired. Around 1990 I lost myself.  I convinced myself into becoming someone else. I worked very hard at it. I gave my all to 20 years of realist, photo inspired pictures. I painted as much as I always do. Was it a complete loss? Souless Yes, but I did learn a great deal about painting. What I am now doing is a result of that period in the wilderness.  I cannot dwell on it; I have too much to do and not enough time. People seeing this show do not remember my work although I was very large in the 70s and 80s. The show has work from those years and work from the present. Here are pictures of the show,
The newest work in the show.

From the left: a transitional Waterfall from Santa Fe years, a Santa Fe inspired
high mountain memory and some geometric Santa Fe landscape inspired doted pictures

From the left: Praying Man with Flying Flaming House from My Mexican period 1978,
the Icarus that was begun in Rome and worked on several times over 30 years
until I sell it, it is still a work in progress. I like it in this stage, and Apollo slaying the Pythion Serpent,
done in 1986 after my Rome period. Look up the story...Goggle it.

Moon Dog 1977-2012 acrylic/glitter and the Human Condition 1974 acrylic/glitter

It is a good installation. I picked 90% of the works and Thom Andriola installed them and even took my advice. This is the first show ever that I have chosen and helped install. The space is wonderful.

Alligator in a Swamp 1976 acrylic/glitter/mud and Flying House 1973 acrylic/glitter/wall paper

Big Rock Candy Mountain  48 x 60  2009
I painted this in painting class at Tomball College. It is a major  transition painting, done  after the picture on the right of the Waterfall.

Passage 38 x 48, The Basin 48 x 60, and The Leap 36 x 48
 Done in January after MM and I went to Terlingua.
Here are some pictures at the opening.
I am talking to Ron Clark who cuts my hair.
MM and ES
In front of a 1973 Winged House painting. Themes like this have returned to my work.
Al Smith gave me a burnt piece of wood and I  embedded it in dirt and acrylic and glitter and it became an Alligator in a Swamp; from the early 70s. I was doing Alligators then.

Two of my students came to the show.
This is called Moon Dog. Andy Feehan brought me a large black Mexican Hairless Dog who was so spooked and crazy with terror that it immediately raced out an open door into the night, never to be seen again. The painting followed in 1977 and later  rolled up until this year when I re- streched it and enhanced it with more dots and glitter. I am still convinced of the legitity of glitter.
I started using it in the 60's and it returns. 
My hip is giving me problems. I had a cortizone shot which has calmed the pain, but a Doctor needs to tell me what is wrong. I want nothing to curtail my work. School is almost over. I have three weeks in the studio before summer school and I have plans.
Here are some new works.
Passage  36 x 48 acrylic  01-2012
Bad Lands, Terlingua  48 x 60 acrylic  01-2012
La Isola della Donna  48 x 36 acrylic 03-2012

Convergence  36 x 24 acrylic 02-2012  

La Isola della Serina  24 x 30 acrylic 03-2012

Many Paths  30 x 24 acrylic  03-2012
Here is the studio in February with the Bad Lands in progress
Some pictures start as horizontals and become virticales, The one on the eisel became virtical and called Donna della Lago. The Basin is in the back and in the front is Painter's apron #6
Painter's Apron #6  36 x 36 acrylic collage  03-2012
Terlingua Cloud  24 x 20  acrylic  02-2012
Cloud  24 x 20  acrylic  04-2012
Cactus and Suculent 16 x 20  04-2012
Another Destination  24 x 30  acrylic  04-2012
Tentative Position  18 x 18  acrylic/glitter  04-2012








1 comment:

  1. Nice post, Earl.

    The show looks good, and Thom deserves recognition for giving you a free rein to pick the work and then doing such a good job with the installation.

    "Moon Dog" brought me back to the time of those trips to Mexico City. Those poor dogs were all raised in cages like chickens, and unfortunately they needed to be brought slowly out of their terrified condition, perhaps with tranquilizers, but definitely with a lot of TLC. There's a time in the youth of all creatures that must be filled with love and respect in order for any basis for future adult bonding to occur. It's true with people, dogs, and all other intelligent beings. Those dogs were orphans when I found them, and all were fully grown and raised without enough human touch. There is quite a bit that I regret about those tattoo projects, being the first to do it all and making mistakes. I wanted so much for it all to be painless and humane, but quite a bit of it was not. Your painting captures the anxiety these dogs felt.

    ReplyDelete