Garden Variety in 9 Parts

This is an image of Garden Variety in my studio. This is the piece that I have installed in the sculpture garden at Maxwell Fine Arts in Peekskill NY for the "Unexpected Visitors" group exhibit. The piece consists of 9 16x16" cement pavers with plaster and latex paint elements imbedded.

More images of Garden Variety

A few images of Garden Variety in situ at Maxwell Fine Arts

TORRENT installation no. 1

 

Saturday marked the opening of 10x10x10.  Here are some pics of the first installation.   

  

This installation is a gesture that alludes to the realm art, and ideas existing in service of the financial.  Indeed much art owes its very existence to economy, industry and financial success, and the utilisation of art as promotion may well be a suitable quid pro quo, but so much of it is is presented in exhibitions like this one which have more to do with promotion than actual engagement for its own purpose.

The signs are works create by a handful of fine artists, who are:  Steve Rossi, Erica Hauser, Todd Sargood, Franc Palaia, Heather Sardanopoli and myself.  I have posted a map denoting each of the artists signs here.  The for rent signs are displayed and supported by an ad hoc framework of my own artwork.  The pieces cum structural elements are actual paintings and portions of broader works both from over the past couple of years. It is the signs that are the focus of the installation.  Although they are created by artists, embued with their personal sensibilities, they are still function, mostly, as signs.  The artwork that supports the signs is more marginally visible, and not frontally so.  The motif of asking artists to create For Rent signs also refers to the sillystupid "art" projects like Cows on Parade that cast artists in the role of tchochke decorator centered around the unifying theme of a fiberglass sculpture lawn ornament in the form of cows.....or cats.....or bulldawgs.  A couple of years ago, I attended a meeting where a representative of some Hudson Valley event was speaking and one aspect the organizers were planning was an exhibit of artist painted oars.  Really enlightening.  High culture, for sure.  It's essentially the concept of artist as sweatshop worker volunteer with the artist's "visibility" is offered in lieu of payment.

  

My next visit to Ellenville will be next week to participate in a book discussion at the Ellenville Public Library.  The book to be discussed is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I finished reading it this morning.  I imagine the next installment will factor this experience in some form when it .  

 

  

A mix of older work (Ardour) and more recent endeavors.

  

 

The canvas is part of "Making One's Way" from 2005, with two parts of Garden Variety from 2006.

  

 Below are a couple images from two of the other artists with window installations.

 

One view of Elizabeth Peters' installation.

 

Ryan Roa's fixtures of notty pine at a former video rental store.

Habitat improvement

More updated photos of my habitat over at Spire. I've rigged up a transparant roof, and temporarily blocked up some of the open areas just so I can get to using the space, and continue working on the structure at a more leisurely pace.

I'll be adding one more of the Garden Variety pieces to this facade, an arm that will protrude to support a hanging sculpture I'll be working on.

You can see the Habitats of Marnie Hillsley and Sara Mussen to the right of mine. We've got a regular village developing now.

A great silhouette cast on this face of the structure as the sun was sinking behind the hill.