"Garden Gate" in situ, photo by Michael Turek

It’s the last week for the current show at Union Theological Seminary’s James Chapel. The last day to visit the show is Friday, May 21st, 2010.

For those who are too far away in space or time to see the show in person, here is one more set of photos. Click to see them big.

These were shot by Michael Turek, who uses his pro-photographer powers to make nice clean lines happen in the incredibly vertical space of the chapel. It takes some special equipment to gather this much of the space into one photo, and I know it took some post-shoot work to make these look so good. So thank you, Michael! To see what Mr. Turek can really do with a camera, go visit his portfolio, it’s super-beautiful stuff.

David Beahm and Randall Stoltzfus Pose for Jacob Ouillette. Photo by B. Yanev

Thank you to everyone who came out to the reception for the exhibit “Crossing” at Union Theological Seminary on April 15th. It was a great crowd, and lovely to spend some time in that magnificent space with all of you.

The brilliant cellphone camera photo above is courtesy of the inestimable B. Yanev.

The album below is the work of the talented Steve McFarland. Check out more of Steve’s work by visiting his website. Click on any of the photos to enlarge:

Gold leaf glints in a new painting, "Perigee"

The show at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is up and almost complete— there is one more painting loaned from a private collection that will be added later this week. What a cool experience it was to see the paintings go up on the walls of a English Gothic chapel! I am excited that I can share some photographs with you of the paintings being installed in the space:

A big thank you to Troy Messenger, Emily Otto, and Scott Bodenner for their excellent help with the install.

The exhibit will remain at Union until May 21st, 2010.

Complete information is posted here

"Transfigured," 2008, oil and iridescence on linen, 28"x48"

I am pleased to invite you to view a special solo exhibit of paintings in the lovely neo-gothic James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary. It’s a spectacular setting, and we are using the opportunity to put together a mini-retrospective of work that will resonate in this unique context.

If you’re not familiar with Union, it’s worth a visit. Founded in 1836, the school has been one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity since the late 19th century. The seminary is adjacent to Columbia University, Teachers College, Barnard College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the Manhattan School of Music. Its Burke library is the largest theological library in the Western Hemisphere. In fitting with the school’s urban context, Union has been home to leading lights of both liberation and womanist theology. The school’s approach has long been ecumenical and oriented toward social justice.

If you are able, please join us for the opening reception:

April 15, 2010 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Union Theological Seminary
James Chapel
3041 Broadway at 121st Street, NYC 10027 (map)

The exhibit runs from April 6 to May 21, 2010.

Event details on Facebook

"Dark Sky" 2009, oil and gold leaf on panel, 24" x 48"

Brooklyn is one tough place to see the night sky from.

I am fortunate that I spent much of my childhood beneath an unpolluted night sky in rural Virginia. It is my memory of that overwhelming field of glowing stars that inspires paintings like Dark Sky (above) that I make here in my Brooklyn studio.

It’s a personal dream of mine that someday we might be able to see a few more stars in our city skies, and just maybe access the giddy awe I remember feeling as a child. How spectacular would it be to see a fully visible night sky merging with the city skyline? The closest I have come to seeing this was during the blackout here in New York City in 2003. But another possibilty exists– one where city lighting is managed to reduce pollution without turning out all the lights. We can achieve city nightscapes that allow celestial and earthbound lighting to coexist! The earth-side lights would be enough for safety but shielded to limit glare and planned so that excess light does go where it is not needed. Energy would be saved. We might all sleep a little more soundly. And the visual dream that is always present above all of us could begin to reappear.

Good lights=dark skies

One organization that shares this vision is The International Dark Sky Association. The IDA seeks to raise awareness about the advantages we can gain from intelligent lighting. The IDA website is loaded with information on how to design or purchase better light fixtures (like the one in the photo on the right), as well as information for educators and all sorts of ways to become personally involved in the cause. You can always donate! My favorite sections are this page of links to satellite photos of Earth at night and this fantastic guide to growing your own local dark-sky aware environment.

Next time you step outside at night, look up. How many stars can you see from where you live?

This weekend I will be participating in the Dumbo Arts Center’s Pop-up Sale. The opening is Friday night 2/26/2010 from 6-9PM, and the sale continues Saturday, 2/27 from 12-8PM and Sunday 2/28 from 12-6PM. DAC is located at 30 Washington Street, Brooklyn, NY. go here for DAC’s contact info and directions to the gallery.

Not only does this look like a lot of fun, it is a relief to see a arts fundraiser being done the right way. As a painter whose work sells pretty well, I get asked to do a fair amount of fundraisers. If you don’t know, the usual set-up is to ask the artists to donate work outright to the charity, which then auctions or otherwise disposes of the work to raise money. What is funny is that a lot of arts organizations think that this is a good way to do things, taking handouts from the artists they are ostensibly there to help. In reality, the vast majority of artists need the help more than these organizations. What’s worse, tax law has generally not allowed the artist to claim any more than the cost of goods as a deduction for their donation. So a painting selling for thousands can only be deducted for the hundreds that were spent on the actual materials involved. The artist gets nothing for their labor!

Enough ranting. DAC is setting a good example by splitting proceeds with the artists for this event. Come check out the show. If anything catches your eye and you decide to take it home with you, 50% of the sale will go directly to the artist. Not only will you be supporting a great arts organization, you will be supporting the artist that made the art. Which really could be the start of something good.

I’ll have three pieces in the show, a painting and two drawings. Here’s the painting, a sweet little nocturne started during my residency at the Saltonstall Foundation and finished several years later:

"Ithaca," 2007, oil and gold leaf on panel, 9.75"x19.75"

Fellow artist and long time friend, David Beahm has definitely got those gifts. David is a talented floral designer and a sought-after event planner here in New York. Lately he has been busy creating a line of bouquets for flora2000.com.

David thought it might be nice to hang a few paintings at the party he was having to introduce the new bouquets. That sounded like an interesting context for paintings– certainly fun, anyway. But wow! Red roses looked amazing in front of the new canvas “Ishmael,” with its own touches of red and flashes of palladium. And Blue Magic Vanda Orchids were not something I knew about before, but they have a color that I really wish I could include in a painting. I’m happy to say that having a few of them sitting near a painting like “Specter,” with all that active blue, is maybe even better.

Mr. Saltz is a professional critic– he knows how to use words to set a fire. But still, his experiment with Facebook is provocative, and maybe even virtuosic. Under his guidance, critical discourse and a critical mass of interested participants are pushing Facebook up against its own technical limits. When Saltz invited artists to post statements about their work in the comments for some interactive editing, over one thousand comments resulted, which had to be spread out over seven threads to prevent automatic “deletions”! The result is a new media epic and admittedly quite a bit to wade through. But if you have ever had to write or edit one of these statements, it is a priceless read.

Saltz coaches the writer to treat the statement as a question of life or death, referring frequently to the riddle of the Sphinx. Here’s a little bit of his coaching style, in all caps:

NOW, [writer's name] DEAR, STAND BEFORE THE SPHINX; A STORM MORE HORRIBLE THAN THE WORST FEARS OF THE WORST DARK NIGHT OF THE WORST SOUL WILL COME OVER YOU; IN WAVES IT WILL WASH OVER YOU. TELL US WHAT THE SPHINX ASKED YOU. NO HURRY. IF YOU DO NOT RETURN IN 40 YEARS WE WILL SEND LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY.
REMEMBER, WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU.
I ONLY NEED FOUR HONEST SENTENCES ABOUT YOUR WORK. FOUR.

The quote comes from the December 25th, 3:59 PM comment on the thread titled Repost II: An experiment. An amazing Christmas gift!

The Dumbo Festival website has a complete list of the 80+ participating studios, as well as links that will get you started exploring what the Dumbo Arts Center calls “a one-of-a-kind art happening” and “the nation’s largest urban forum for experimental art.” You can also browse the festival’s media partner, Art + Culture, to take a peek at some of what is planned this year.

The studio is at 89 Bridge Street, between York and Front Streets, and just one block from the York Street Subway on the F line. Come up the stairs, head left, back the hall, and say hello! While you are here, visit some of the other artists in the building who are participating. DAC lists six, though there will likely be a few last minute additions.

Here’s where you’ll find us:

"Darius," 2009, raw pigment, pastel, and gold leaf on handmade paper, 7"x9"

There is something resonant about a grand landscape space presented on a tiny sheet of paper. It’s not just the magic trick of making something small read big– though that is fun. As Jake Berthot once pointed out to me– small scale implies distance, so a small scale painting of a distant landscape benefits from a multiplier effect. Turner and Constable both knew this well. One well placed pencil line tracing across the paper can set the mind to wander through a distant dream. And though I’m not either of those painters, I’d sure like to have just a little bit of the booming distance they so effectively contained on scraps of paper.

This drawing is part of this year’s Dieu Donné benefit exhibit. There will be an opening reception September 17th (tonight!) from 6-8PM at 315 West 38th Street, New York, NY. Details about the show and benefit can be found on the Dieu Donné website.