Clearing the Decks!

Studio - October 2, 2015

I'm clearing the decks people!  Stowing away all of the paintings, eye candy, and anything else that doesn't have to do with thesis show work.  What is the thesis show work you ask?  Well…the answer is vitrines.  (Vitrine:  a glass showcase or cabinet especially for displaying fine wares or specimens.)  So far I've been resourcing images exclusively from Christi's catalogues which has some of the finest examples of vitrines in all of the land.

There are about seven months until the show, so things could completely change as they so often do...the vitrine fascination is ever so gently veering in the direction of curio cabinets.  (Curio cabinet: encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined.  Modern technology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history, geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art, and antiquities.  -Thanks wikipedia.)

In-progress vitrines from Christi's catalogues, 22"x16", mixed media

Why vitrines?  Long story short…
Placing a sea shell inside of an elaborate display case has a completely different feel than placing a sea shell in a shoe box.  When inside the case, it takes on a greater sense of value.  The air inside of a vitrine is no different than the air outside of a vitrine but that encapsulated space within its glass walls instantly classifies the object as having significant importance.

It is the same feeling we put on a home.  (The subject of home is still heavily on my radar.)  I've found that it is not so much the physical structure of the house that interests me, but rather the space that is captured within it that I crave to understand.  It is the life force that exists inside - like fireflies in a jar.

drawing for double-sided vitrine

In-progress double-sided vitrine, 24"x36", mixed media

Shit got real when this book came in the mail.

Another phase of this shift in focus was a studio visit I had this week.  Members of a gallery panel swung by to check out some work and I put up the New Zealand paintings (which have been sitting in a box for 4 years) along with the panels I did in South Carolina this summer.  Seeing this work together crystalized some things:  First, I find it so interesting that the quickest, most potent way to explore home is to leave it.  I've done that my whole life.  Secondly, to show two bodies of work in my hometown that were done on site in far away places sat very well in my being.  It felt like a full circle kinda moment.  I hope that the visit will lead to a show about that very subject.

South Carolina work on the left and work from New Zealand on the right.

Goodnight for now geometric house paintings...