Friday, January 22, 2010
When I spilled the waxed paper bags out of the folder, along followed an old book of poetry which disintegrated as it fell. The pages leapt out of the book and onto the waxed paper bags . Gluing scraps down and smearing WhiteOut over the words began the process of composing. I began looking closely at the words, which were not covered, realizing fresh cryptic poems were writing themselves. I simply helped them along adding marks with ball point pens from the hotel room (sharpies wouldn't write over the wax) and stamped words of my choosing. I carried them in a cigar box back home to the studio. They were first shown at Gem Gallery on Peaks Island.......In their ephemera state, viewers saw them more as cards than paintings. So, I adhered each piece to a birch panel with resin and wax and painted a few translucent layers of oil paint. The result is what you see here. There are 22 total pieces in the series which equals one whole Foods paper bag. Pretty nice huh?
The paintings you see here were compiled on the floor , in a room at the Mountain View Hotel in New Hampshire. I was on a shoot and knew I wanted to be making something . I had been cutting up paper bags and putting them into small bundles and wrapping them with the handles from the bags. An obsessive compulsion to ward off idleness.
So, with a stock of bundles of bags, I melted the wax mixture and proceeded to dip each piece into the wax. Then I plastered over the wax and sanded it down. This is the point at which I packed them up and brought them to NH. Along with WhiteOut, glue sticks and sharpies.
