I enjoyed our exhibition at The Fitzpatrick Building Art Space with the sublime painter Sergio Lepore, sound sculptures by Victor Alexander (seen above performing at the show with Butoh Sonics, with link to full video below in comments) an awe-inspiring reading by Brian Smith from his book Tucson Salvage, a special screening of the award winning (Culver City Film Festival) documentary by his wife Maggie Rawlings Smith, and an incredible performance on electric violin by Brian's brother Barry Smith. This was a phenomenal weekend.

I titled the show "An Anomalous Level Of Anomaly" after the above painting to the left, which I'll share the statement for below. A favorite at the show was the next painting:

Fore Behind The Curtain

Oil Paint, Whip-Mono-print, on Canvas 30” x 40” $1500. 

Fore Behind The Curtain continues my experimentation into what I call “counter-realism” and whip painting. I wanted to title it something about allegory but I couldn’t figure out why, so I’m saving that. The more apparent thing to me was a foresty-like curtain from which emerges an image into the foreground. This brings up a number of linguistic issues and I’ll leave it to you to hopefully enjoy.

“Fore” as an adjective -
Situated or placed in front,”the fore and hind pairs of wings”

“Behind the curtain” - In concealment or hidden; the secret people who really control situations; people from the shadows who are in charge.

 A whip has many catastrophic associations, but it also gives me a couple other things: A.) It delivers a mono-print. A onetime mark left on the canvas dependent upon but substituting realism, like the font of a printer’s plate, yet in this case with a whip, to be transferred — in controlled chaos. B.) Because the whip mark is printed by whipping it, whereby it twists and turns on its way down, particularly if done in heavy winds (flowing up from Mexico where I live, in Bisbee Arizona) there is an impact of unpredictable chaos to the imprint that is to occur. I then go in and detail the marks, giving them more contrast, and bringing back to them a different sense of order than what of the print remains. Every moment is repurposed into the next moment. In this painting I have also brought to bare some of my techniques from the Teapot Paintings, a study I performed while living over at Miami Art Works.

An Anomalous Level Of Anomaly 

Oil Paint, Whip-Mono-print, on Canvas 30” x 40”  $1500.  

An Anomalous Level Of Anomaly continues my experimentation into what I call “counter-realism” and whip painting. As a concept the title relates to my development of two theories, “Synchronicity Intersections” and “Inter-Rare Events” (or “In Terra Re-events” should you enjamb the spelling differently.) 

I “felt” the ideas in this work as I developed both theories and this painting concurrently, though on and off, over the last several years.

I needed to finish this painting for this show when I realized the concepts fit on both levels, to this event. This culminated when I saw that of all the times for intense rain, it was forecasted for Miami Loco. But in my theory, as it pertains to art making, this is interesting. A Synchronicity Intersection is a place in the earth where synchronicities frequently occur (anomalous coincidences.) Inter-rare Events are places in the earth where they temporarily occur. The latter a festival, the former a place with deep holes dug in a metallic part of the planet, for instance, a mining town. My thesis is that synchronicities will occur more often where you can find an anomalous level of anomaly in such places as where there may be a more than average level of oddities, though not necessarily triggering the phenomenon, but itself coinciding with it. A place/time like Miami Loco. The point is, then, to create art/document/record precisely at such dates and times as here and now at The Fitz on Keystone just below the long stairs to the old mine.

Cracks In The Border 

Oil, Graffiti Marker, Encaustic-Gesso-Grosso, Whip Mono-print & Cracks on Canvas, 60” x 48” $3200.  

Cracks In The Border continues my experimentation into what I call “counter-realism” and whip painting. It’s newest innovation is creating lines from cracks.

A whip has many catastrophic associations, but it also gives me a couple other things: A.) It delivers a mono-print. A onetime mark left on the canvas dependent upon but substituting realism, like the font of a printer’s plate, yet in this case with a whip, to be transferred — in controlled chaos. B.) Because the whip mark is printed by whipping it, whereby it twists and turns on its way down, particularly if done in heavy winds (flowing up from Mexico where I live, inspiring the title) there is an impact of unpredictable chaos to the imprint that is to occur. I then go in and detail the marks, giving them more contrast, and bringing back to them a different sense of order than what of the print remains. Every moment is repurposed into the next moment.

Cracks In The Border takes the whip painting concept a step further, hybridizing at a level of materials the various other techniques of my development and style, and adding to them the fractal geometry of cracks in their natural order. 

The yellowish whip marks in the red background are not made with oil paint, but are made with a gluey “gesso-grosso” which is normally a substrate that you paint on, like gesso or plaster, which it is both, as well as functioning as pigment. 

And in this instance, I made the plaster out of pure copper-calcite. Once dry, these marks are then painted with sun-bleached beeswax, damar tree resin, and oil paint, to delirious ends. Once dry, the painting is then coated with damar varnish, and set out in the desert sun for curing.

“Counter-Realism” is a play on the term ‘counter-intelligence’. In this era of counter-intelligence and marketing, so-called reality/realism is more constructed than ever. But it always has been. We are only beginning to understand this as a species. This absolutely impacts any notion of realism — or abstraction, in art. From ideas, techniques, and traditions of “representational art” to how we cognitively process those things, or what we call reality as we seek to represent it, communicate it, or explore it, or propagandize it, all impact the future of art.

I also posted some poems around town, and in the show where they were performed, from the Bisbee Poetry Normalization Project.

To purchase a work or schedule a possible exhibit of my paintings, poetry reading, or Philosophy of art discussion at your art space, please contact me directly through here, Facebook, Instagram, or [email protected] 

Special Thanks to the Webb and Palmer families, David Huber (photos), Sergio Lepore, and the members of Butoh Sonics.