People often ask me to participate in group shows with the stipulation that the piece should be small. I can understand that, they want to fit a lot of art into a limited space, it makes sense. Unfortunately, I have found that trying to reproduce the paintings I have been doing in a small scale just doesn’t work. Read the rest of this entry »
I am putting a piece (or maybe 2) into the Summer Vacation show at everyones favorite art space in Boston, The Distillery Gallery. Also included in this show are lots of other Distillery artists and some of our talented Friends (including Caity Veil who, I just bought this great piece from). The openings are always a good time with interesting art (obviously) along with fun people and (best of all) plenty of cold Narragansett beers. So, come out to Southie on Thursday July 12th and join us.
July 12 – August 31, 2012
Opening Reception: Thurs, July 12, 7-9pm
www.gallery.distilleryboston.com
gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 9-5 or by appointment
The Distillery Gallery is pleased to announce a group exhibit of works
depicting or inspired by Summer, warm weather, and/or vacation.
Generally speaking, the gallery scene slows down during the mid-summer
months. Many commercial galleries close up altogether for some or all
of this time. The Distillery Gallery, instead of taking time off, will
exhibit the “Summer Vacation” group show.
Caught up with me buddy Michael Grattaroti at Open Studios a couple weeks back and he just sent me over this video he shot that weekend while exploring The Distillery. The clip came out great so check it out!
Also, on a side note, what do you think about videos on the site? I have been thinking about doing a time lapse of a painting, is it worth the effort? Would anyone watch?
It is almost time for South Boston’s annual Spring Open Studios event. My studio will be open for visitors – along with around 50 other artists in The Distillery and down the street in the King Terminal – on Sunday June 3rd from noon to six. For those that have been to The Distillery building before, there are quite a few new artists this year so it is a great time to make another visit.
Working on paintings is always so much like dating. The start of a new piece is always filled with excitement, I end up staying up late into the night painting and when I am forced to leave its side, I am still daydreaming of the endless potential of my new fling. Unfortunately not all relationships are like the movies, some thing are just not meant to last and sooner or later every minute is pure torture. This latest painting started out easy but, putting the finishing touches on it seems to be dragging out endlessly. While I am happy with how it has come out, I can hardly stand the idea of working on it another minute. I think that means it is time to put it aside (for now) and start something new.
While I was trying to finish this piece, and dreaming of the next painting I received some great news. I walked out to my mailbox expecting the normal assortment of junk and was instead greeted by a letter from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation notifying me that I have been awarded a grant to help fund my painting. Needless to say my idea for the next painting went from, “make some small paintings to sell at open studios” to, “make the biggest best painting possible.” So I immediately stretched myself a monster canvas and got to work. The new piece is all laid out and the under painting is nearly finished so, check back soon too see what the next piece will be.
Next month I am participating in a show over at Lot F Gallery along with two of my favorite Lot F artists, Josh Falk and Sean Flood. I will be showing some of my large paintings along with the next set of mixed media pieces. As always, the art will be good, the people will be interesting and the beer will be free so, be sure to come by the opening.
New works from three Boston artists. Each with strong and distinct styles. A number of large substantial works will be available, as well as a range of other pieces.
Refreshments will be provided
For more information and pre-sale appointments email info@lotFgallery.com
I just finished three new small-ish mixed media pieces. I started out by sketching out a simple line drawing of the portrait, then scanned it in and used the sketch to create a halftone pattern for screen printing. Then, printed the image on primed panels and went back into the image using my normal methods of painting. Mixing the mechanical looking screen prints with some pixelated looking painting seemed like a good combination and, overall I am pretty happy with the results. I am thinking about pushing this technique further by using more layers in the screen print but I need to mull the ideas over a little more before I make the leap. In any case, would love to get some feedback on these pieces and, if you like them, head on over to Lot F where all three (one printed in red, one printed in blue, and one printed in black) are available for sale this month.
By the way, excuse the junky cell phone photo, sent the pieces out without getting a decent image… oops.
I recently sat down to talk with Carina Wine of Abstraks Magazine. After reading her profile of Adam O’day I knew I would be in good hands and the article did not disappoint. So head to abstraks.com or, click on the image below to go straight to issuu.com and read the feature (along with a great look at the Distillery Gallery) in the December 2011 issue of Abstraks.
This link seems to be long dead, but I found a scan of the article, on Howard Tullmans site. You can head over there to check out the article, along with his amazing art collection, but I will also re-post the images here. Images are big so it might take a minute to download. I will also add the original text whenever I can find it.
As usual, still refining this painting, but good enough for 1080 pixels. I feel like this composition is finally working with this attempt, third times the charm, I guess. Visually, it feels the most interesting and refined I have managed. Beyond that, the glitchieness is really starting to play an integral role in the piece, which feels important. Source image is just what it sounds like – I cut in some audio of the model saying the word “no” – as if it was another piece of video. That unexpected piece of information confuses the video player and gives us this moment of destructive chaos.
Anyways, let me know what you think, even if (especially if) you think this whole idea is garbage. It feels good to make one of these work, feels even better to finally make an interesting painting while devoting most of my mental energy to organizing a five-year old’s Zoom meeting schedule… More thoughts to come on this painting and the direction of this series as a whole.
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Around Boston
In order for artists to thrive in any particular place, they need three elements. They need to be near institutions on higher learning and culture – museums, universities, theaters – places where they can develop a foundation of history, expand their knowledge, and enjoy the great work that already exists. They need people interested in supporting the arts – collectors, patrons and others that can support the work financially, but also an audience. Finally, they need space to live and do their work. This includes work spaces, but also space to support the sales, performances, and community engagement that is crucial to creation. Small galleries, Artist run collectives, project spaces, performance halls – places that can support and nurture entire networks of artists.
At this point, my city is clearly lacking one of these elements, and it was uplifting to see the Boston City Council stepping up and calling a hearing to discuss affordable housing and work spaces for artists.
You can watch the hearing on YouTube here:
Like a lot of people, I was unable to make it to the hearing but, for reasons that I will assume are obvious, I care about this stuff. Since I couldn’t stand up and speak in the room, I wanted to write my thoughts about these issues here, in hopes that it would encourage some more of you to do the same.
In order for a city to thrive, everyone needs to have an affordable place to live, and the city leadership should really be doing everything they can to make that happen. That means building more houses, as well as developing programs that ensure current residents are able to remain in the places they call home. This city really needs to find ways to encourage both of those things to happen so that everyone that wants to call this city home – including artists – has a place to live. However, allowing private developers to chose to dedicate subsidized housing units to artists, while excluding other people who would otherwise be qualified, creates a system that is ripe for abuse. All that is to say, I am going to focus this on advocating for the other spaces that artists need. While it is not as fundamental as having a place to live, it is the area of this issue that is more intertwined with supporting the arts.
Based on the testimonies at the hearing, it would appear that this issue was brought to the attention of the city council by the artists that have recently received eviction notices from the Boston Center for the Arts. Before I go any further, I think its important to say that my initial reaction was to side with the BCA here. We know that there is a very limited number studio spaces available in this city. At the BCA there is apparently a group of established artists that have testified that they have the resources to pay market rate for work space, and they have instead stayed in highly subsidized spaces for decades. In my view, the BCA’s decision to restructure their studio program to force higher turnover in highly subsidized work spaces is fair in that situation. However, the real issue here is that we should not have to chose between supporting established artists in a way that helps sustain their work, or supporting less established artists in a way that helps them get their career started. There should be opportunities within this city for both to thrive.
There are more galleries in Boston now, than there have been at any other time in the last decade – but fewer project spaces, artist run galleries, spaces dedicated to experimental or difficult to sell work.
This is not a uniquely Boston problem, as cities have boomed, real estate prices have gone up, traditional galleries have struggled. They are able to take less risks, the work they support has become more conservative and easier to sell. We have seen most of the traditional galleries that attempted to support younger and more innovative artists – Samson Projects, Anthony Greaney Gallery, Carroll & Sons – dramatically downsize their efforts, or give up their spaces all together. At the same time, the artist run efforts that support those working even further out on the fringes have all but disappeared (for now, we know that artists always find a way).
I don’t have the solution to this problem, but I do know that without this support network, artists will leave.
I personally do not want to live in a city where there is no space for experimental and innovative art. I want to see new media installations that take on the internet. I want to stumble into performances that make me uncomfortable. I want to listen to local musicians without risking life and limb in some sketchy Allston basement. Obviously, I also want to have space to find some interesting paintings (and maybe even show my own). In short, I want this city to start supporting the sort of artistic conversations that lead to work that will one day find its way into museums, even if it is not quite ready yet. Right now, the kinds of spaces that support this kind of work, and give community to these artists, can not sustain themselves in this city.
Quite frankly, the current plan of giving some zoning relief to developers willing to maybe include some space dedicated for cultural use (that can also be rented by a tech startup) is just not going to cut it.
I am tempted to dig deeper into this but, ultimately I think the best approach is to encourage everyone to weigh in on this and speak up for the kind of art you make and the kinds of spaces you need. There was not a very wide demographic of artists represented at the hearing (and honestly nobody seemed to be pushing for the kind of work that I will miss seeing in this city) so, hopefully I can convince a few more people to join the conversation. Artists need space to work. We need space to come together and see what our peers are working on. We need places to get our work out for larger audiences to see. How to we make sure that Boston has a network of those spaces?
In Progress
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Not the greatest picture but, full composition of a new one that is nearing completion.
In Progress
I intended this to be a quick portrait study but, I got a little carried away. Instead, I am just going to try as hard as I can on this one. Not that I don’t always try as hard as I can when I am painting. Even when a painting turns out looking like utter garbage, I am still working as hard as I can manage to make it right. I am just not always overly concerned with actually making the painting look super realistic. So, for this one I am going all in on the realism. Whenever this is done, it is going to be about as realistic as I can manage (without totally abandoning the way I like to paint). Not sure where this is going to take me but, it seems important to occasionally reset to some kind of baseline, if only to keep from getting too lost when you start off again in a new direction from there. In any case, don’t let me act like I know how to paint any better – in terms of realism – than this one. It actually feels pretty good to just make a nice portrait without worrying too much about some greater artistic mission. Maybe I will try to find some demand for these portraits. Potentially portraits priced on a sliding scale. I spend about 2 weeks making the best portrait I can, charge about what you make in 2 weeks. We will see. I am 4 days in, with a fair amount of painting left to do here. There is still time for this one to get weird.