Here Comes The Night!...The art gallery is ready to open

Please join the artists of 13 North for the opening of the gallery and its inaugural reception on Friday March 7th from 6 to 10 pm, a group show of the founding members. The work covers a broad range of media and subject. Wacky non functional conceptual tables, a 7 foot book, digital images, paintings of all sizes and media. Please stop by for a drink, take in the art, and meet the artists. The gallery will be open full time, so please visit whenever you like, even by appointment (aka with me).

We have been renovating a space for the last couple months and are really exciting about a new venture for this sleepy little town.

13 North is at....13 North Centre Street in Merchantville NJ, just north of Chestnut Street. Please contact me if Google lets you down when you look for directions. And be wary of those famous Merchantville coppers...Always happy to stop you to say hi!

What else can I tell you? Leave a comment and I'll respond. I might even update this blog with new pictures of paintings so check back soon and often.

EJ

A Comment!!!

Today's comment comes from C.A., a local friend who didn't know how to post a comment (much like myself)...She has always had insightful and heartfelt things to say about my paintings. Pretty nifty huh...I couldn't've said it better myself. So thanks, C.A.


"I have a lot of respect and appreciation for your process. The influence of your passion for environmental studies, geology and evolution make your work interesting. The earthiness, the grittiness, the raw intension and the harmony of color compliment each other well.

I also enjoyed your perspective on how evolution can reflect the transcendance of human emotion. It worked for me!"

Problematica

Problematica is the name given to fossils that you just can't classify. You could have the oldest rock...the best specimens...and just have no idea how they relate to other organisms, extant or extinct. This painting was made with mixed media, including grout and stain. Some people really like the colors; others don't. I happen to like the colors, which are unique to my work. (I made it in the fall of 2004, shortly after the New Mexico dig, which resulted in many blue and tan paintings)...As usual, I would like to reproduce the general idea but I just can't do it. I wonder what other colors I could try to do it in.

Suggestions please?

Blue With Wax

I tried in vain to recreate the methods used in "Yellow and Green" and didn't come close. But I did use wax, which was kind of...fun. Using wax, acrylic and oil at the same exact time was a serious juggling act. Little bits of reds and greens come through the final layers. I doubt they show up on this photo.

It was painted in the winter of 2005.

On The Line (mixed media on canvas)

The blue, yellow, green and white painting below is called "On The Line". What can I say about it? Someone said it looks like a teepee. Great. It is more figurative than most paintings...but it's not a teepee. At most I thought of a sailboat. I think the perspective is a little jammed up. Whatever the triangular figure is, I don't know if it is moving into or through the painting, or to the left or right, along the "horizon". What are the white and blue fields doing? Beats me. Are they at odds? ...

You tell me. Leave comments, please.

Parched (mixed media on canvas)

The tan painting below is called Parched. I named it on a whim, I guess, because I submitted it to the faculty art show at my high school. Made in the heat of summer (2006), it includes oil and acrylic as well as polyurethane...and probably some dirt and grout. I did apply the heat gun to it a little bit and it was so hot out, the painting actually caught on fire a bit. Whoops.

The leaf in the bottom right corner fell on the canvas as it was drying in the back yard. I swear. I like that it stuck there. It speaks to the tenacity of nature and such. A painting like this made me realize that while I am addressing ideas of permanence and ... non-permanence (temporariness?). It is really the material itself that is in charge of getting this message across, NOT the composition. The new owners of the painting will be fortunate -- or unfortunate -- enough to see the painting change through the years, as other paintings have done.

The needs of the materials, as far as drying is concerned, limit the amount of time I can work on one canvas during a given session. So even my ability to paint is not permanent, despite old fantasies about painting around the clock. I could always set up several canvases the way I used to do jigsaw puzzles when I was little: set up three in a row, mix up the pieces, and put them all together at once.

"Parched" is headed for a private collection.

Turning Rebellion Into Money (Hopefully)

Second Saturday. June 9th. Reception 6-10ish.

Groove Ground on Haddon Avenue in Collingswood.

I should thank Mike and Chris(and Sarah) for having me again. I think it's my third time showing paintings there.

New works that I can't claim to be a series, plus the return of the glass paintings (the ole tagline was "Imagine painting with a brush in one hand and a hammer in the other"). They seem to be more subdued now, thanks to some newer and more pragmatic (boooo) techniques.

Hope you can make it/will have made it.

I'll blather about the two images I included later on.