June 30 through July 26, 2011
Ryan Organ, Carrier & Sunday Grip will be DJ’in the opening.
Chuck Bloom: Before the painting is finished, the vision is already fading to memory. I can only hope that I’ve understood enough of the message to help me further along this tiresome trek. Most of the time these “visions” are not complete – just bits and pieces of things, like symbols. The paintings themselves are very organic in nature. They all stem from my established visual vocabulary, but evolve in ways that are not premeditated or even foreseeable. In this way I work very closely to André Breton’s notion of automatism, which he believed must be present in works of art or writing in order for it to remain in the sphere of Surrealism. It is mandatory as a Surrealist that artwork explore a mental space outside the field of normal awareness, in a place where consciousness, unconsciousness and all things possible and impossible exist as one. At the nexus of my work is a concern and philosophy about the environment and man’s place in it. Global warming, overpopulation and the breakdown of basic human communication and the resulting “fractured humanity” we endure are at the forefront of my concerns; however, elements beyond my conscious knowing seep in. Many elements in my paintings are of the seemingly familiar or mundane, but evade a total accessibility and a clearly defined meaning. In this way I speak in a kind of “visual metaphor,” or perhaps what some have called “enigmatic poetry.” Doorways and windows are passages from the outside to the inside, from one place to another, that is their definition and I use them no differently. They can be bricked or boarded up, open to darkness, a stormy horizon, an idyllic interlude or even a source of water for things in one world from another. Depending on how they are depicted they can represent the hope of another unspoiled world or a reminder of what is left behind or avoided. They are opportunity or the lack of opportunity. Opening the windows of minds, tearing open the locked doors of our rationalism creates endless possibilities for the future of humanity. This manipulation of subject matter is natural and balanced. Ultimately, the psychological state of events is for you, the viewer, to extrapolate – the results of which you may find you least expected. My ultimate goal is to walk right into one of my canvases and never return, but the door opens and the door closes in a blink of the eye. The barriers are endless and the map I followed getting here is torn and unreadable. Perhaps I’ve pretended to know where I was all along just to feel more comfortable, but it doesn’t make it any less real. An artist does what he must. I am a Surrealist because this how the world presents itself to me and I in turn relate to it. I am a thinker and a visionary. I am hopeful and curious and apocalyptic. I am alone in this place and I am trying to find my own answers, this is why I paint what I do. And, my art will never match a couch.
http://thegoodfoot.com/gallery/
current show is there now
Twitter@HungryEyeball
Eyeball Photos on Flickr
@HungryEyeball on Instagram
Vote for a Favorite Portland Artist + Gallery
Blog Feed
