I’m pleased to announce that I now have a presence on Artsy, thanks to the efforts of Arts Gowanus, our local arts organization here in my neck of the woods in Brooklyn.
For starters, I have listed 10 paintings for sale on the site. I intend to add at least a few more, and then perhaps rotate them occasionally. If you see something you like (or if you know of another painting of mine that is not there), feel free to contact me to discuss.
Lifeworld 28, oil on canvas, 20×20″, 2014 (detail)
So join me in celebrating the arts and artists of Gowanus and take home a piece of original artwork from a local artist! I’m donating my painting Lifeworld 10 (2013):
“Lifeworld 10,” oil on canvas, 20×20″, 2013
Need I say that this is a rare and amazing opportunity to obtain one of my Lifeworld paintings at an amazing price?
By buying a ticket to the ArtWorks event you are buying a chance to “win” this fabulous painting along with 74 other great works made by artists working in Gowanus. Plus you’ll support the critical mission of Arts Gowanus to promote, support and advocate for local artists and a sustainable arts community in the Gowanus neighborhood. Here’s a link to some of the other artworks available.
In case the art isn’t appealing enough, don’t miss the food, drink and revelry.
Tickets are on sale now, $250 single, $300 for couple, which entitles you to one original work of art… Click here to buy tickets!
I’m pleased to announce that my work is appearing at The Ploughman in Park Slope, Brooklyn as a part of Art Slope, a week-long arts festival in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Ploughman offers Artisanal Cheese / Charcuterie / Craft Beer and Beer on Tap. It’s located at 438 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, between 14th and 15th Streets.
Featured at The Ploughman are four paintings from my Lifeworld series. The paintings will be on display through October 28th.
Clockwise from upper left: Lifeworld 12, Lifeworld 27, Lifeworld 10 and Lifeworld 29.
Art Slope started September 17 and runs through September 25. Read more about the event here.
In other news:
Are you a video or performance artist? Do you know someone who is?Gowanus Swim Society has an open call for video and performance art. The work will be displayed during this year’s Gowanus Open Studios (October 14-16). But hurry! The deadline for submissions is this Thursday, September 22! Click here for the open call.
The Lifeworld project continues, and I’ve recently published definitive photographs of the latest paintings in the series. Here they are:
“Lifeworld 36,” oil/mixed media on canvas, 20×20″, 2016
“Lifeworld 37,” oil/mixed media on canvas, 20×20″, 2016.
“Lifeworld 38,” oil/mixed media on canvas, 20×20″, 2016.
“Lifeworld 39,” oil on canvas, 20×20″, 2016.
So I’m making [slow] progress toward my goal of 108 Lifeworld paintings. To read more about the Lifeworld project, click here, and to see all the Lifeworld paintings completed so far, visit my flickr album here. As always, Lifeworld paintings are for sale. Contact me for more information.
Hello everyone from frigid New York City on this Valentine’s Day 2016!
I’ve been retooling my studio set-up and finally (last weekend) completed the first* second oil painting of 2016 (and the next in the Lifeworld series). So here we have it:
Lifeworld 36, oil/mixed media on canvas, 20×20″ (51x51cm), 2016
A detail shot of Lifeworld 36
Lifeworld 36 continues the adventure. I’ve also been exploring the ever important topic of studio safety and reducing toxicity in oil painting. I’ll write up more of my findings on that topic soon. In the meantime, enjoy the paintings and stay warm!
The new painting on the easel chez moi
*actually, the first oil painting of 2016 is this little sketch (below) – a trial balloon for a suite of paintings I’m planning that are inspired by the Fontanelle cemetery in Napoli, Italy.
A quick sketch to check out the new painting setup, January 2016
My apologies – It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve posted a “featured painting.” Life has a way of happening.
But better late than never! This week I’m featuring Lifeworld 2, an intriguing work from 2012 — one of the very early pieces in my ongoing Lifeworld Series. Lifeworld 2 is now available in my Square store. I am offering free shipping anywhere in the United States. If you’re in the New York City area and would like to see the piece, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Lifeworlds is a long-range painting project I started in 2012. The project started initially out of a desire to explore the square format in painting. The inspiration for this was not Instagram as one might easily suppose, but the square format Landscape paintings of Gustav Klimt. I then chanced upon the evocative term “Lifeworld” in the philosophical writings of Edmund Husserl and from the confluence of these two streams the project was born.
“Lifeworld 1″, oil on canvas, 20×20” (approx. 50cm2). Summer, 2012. The project starts here!
Now, three years into the project, Lifeworlds continues to evolve and develop. I decided early on that I would continue to make square format paintings under the title of “Lifeworld” until I felt that I had exhausted the possibilities of the format entirely.
In reality, the possibilities of this form may never be exhausted. Therefore, I thought it best to put a cap on it: so the idea arose to work toward the completion of 108 paintings.
Lifeworld 14, oil on canvas, 20×20″, 2013
Why 108? Those who know me and have followed my work for a while will also know of my interest in Buddhism, and the influence it’s had on my work. 108 is the number of prayer beads in the Buddhist japa mala (a Buddhist rosary). The number is given various meanings in Buddhist cosmology and additionally simply refers to any proverbial big number in the same way that a “myriad” (literally Greek for “10,000”) has come to stand in for anything large and virtually uncountable. So, instead of making some infinite number of paintings, I will make 108 to represent that infinity.
Since one of the uses of a rosary or japa mala is to count repetitions of chants or prayers, a nice thing about the number 108 is that it emphasizes how the project becomes a kind of prayer or meditation on the artistic process, and on the artist’s relationship with his environment — what I’m calling a Lifeworld.
“Lifeworld 12″ mixed media on canvas, 20×20”, 2013.
So, I see each Lifeworld as a snapshot of a particular state of mind formed when the artist encounters his subject. Although frequently quite abstract, each painting results from the process of observing my surroundings. The square is both the container for the composition and also one of its principal motifs.
As of this writing, the newest Lifeworld pieces are numbers 32, 33 and 34, all completed earlier this year. The precise imagery continues to evolve and shift, all the while remaining within the parameters of the project: square format and 20″ x 20″ (around 51cm2 — 50.8cm to be exact) in size.
“Lifeworld 32”, oil on canvas, 20x20in., 2015.
“Lifeworld 33”, oil on canvas, 20x20in., 2015.
A small note about the size: there are a couple of early Lifeworlds, numbers 5 and 7, that are actually 24×24″ (60cm2). I was still experimenting with the parameters at this stage; I may end up going back and redoing these to fit the program.
Lifeworld 7, oil on canvas, 24x24in., 2012.
So a big project like this needs help, which leads me to …
How you can help:
A big project and entails certain tangible challenges to the artist (not to mention all the intangible challenges!), not least of which are the cost of materials, the cost of studio space (ever-increasing in New York City) and the potential storage costs (108 paintings take up a lot of space!).
So I’m reaching out to you — dear audience! There are several ways you can help:
1. Lifeworlds are for sale! Some have sold already. Prices currently run from $800 to $1,200 for each painting. If you would like to see or purchase a painting (or two or three), contact me. I do hope to mount an exhibition of all or a selection of the paintings in the future — and how cool would it be for you to have a painting that you own in a major retrospective of my work!
2.I accept tips, donations, contributions … etc. If you’re not up to purchasing a painting at the present time, you can also contribute any amount (no matter how small) toward the project through Venmo (the best! No fees for you or me!) or by clicking the paypal donate button below. The arts has always existed through the kind generosity of its patrons.
Wow, if you’ve read this far, I really appreciate your interest. A brief outline of the project (as well as some images) is available on my website, and all of the Lifeworlds can be viewed together on my flickr account. I’ll continue to post future developments here. Stay tuned!
You must be logged in to post a comment.