Gary Justis's Open Salon Blog

A Professed Reality: two short videos

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:04:39 -0400

Unending Sequence, 2012, macro video, light emitting diode, paper stencil,

dimensions variable

In understanding time’s mutability, we use stories to comprehend things otherwise invisible. As we think of light moving in a straight line, we thus understand time to have a similar linearity…moving from a single point, in one direction... This can be altered by the mind.

The properties of light in nature, inspires innumerable fictions when we use our illumination-based technologies. With film, video and projection, the indications of light in Nature seem to transmute to substance (within the illusion of the image) With these images, there is functionality with the physical and cerebral worlds…the unassailable photons in service to the imagination. Art emerges into its newly professed reality.

Candle Flame in the 5^th Dimension, 2012, macro video, light emitting diode, electric motor, reflective aluminum tape, dc power source, dimensions variable

The Roswell Paintings of Shona Macdonald

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:03:07 -0400

Around # 5 (small), 2011, oil on canvas, 19 x 39” (larger image)

Shona Macdonald’s landscapes offer the simplicity and affirmation of knowing our imaginary wanderings through, around and beyond her images are not thwarted by any limitations. Our eyes do not stop, or even pause at the deftly painted horizons, nor do they stop at the dusty topographical transitions that yield rock, soil, brush, man-made structure or subtle change in the very atmosphere.

Around # 4, 2011, oil on canvas, 40 x 50” (larger image)

The Artist finds moments in her visual research of the topography around Roswell, New Mexico that describe a lonely tribute to the invisible features of a dry, semi-desert plain where silence and stillness are its requisite virtues. There is a deficit of features to the harried eye, but to the contemplative observer, the riches reside among the harsh construction and ultimate annihilations of man and nature.

Around # 3, 2011, oil on canvas, 40 x 50” (larger image)

An initial viewing reminds us we are far from our comforts in these astonishing environments, yet as we enter the landscapes and linger, we eventually become immersed in moments that have a familial quality, where unsullied formations made by either man or nature seem to exchange poetry with the sky itself. An alignment with the subtle treasures of these fair plains breathes “home.”

Around # 1, 2011, detail of panel 5 from a series of 6 panels, oil on canvas, 24 x 72”

Around # 1, 2011, detail of panel 4 from a series of 6 panels, oil on canvas, 24 x 72”

Around # 1, 2011, detail of panel 2 from a series of 6 panels, oil on canvas, 24 x 72”

During her residency at the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Roswell, NM, Shona Macdonald created a series of landscapes from which these few examples are taken. The last three panels shown are from a large work comprised of 6 panels. The entire work can be seen on Ms Macdonald's website. Carolyn Brooks, Associate Director, Roswell Museum and Art Center gives us the following description:

"For her exhibition, Around, Shona Macdonald has been focusing on specific views seen from and around her studio in Roswell, NM, investigating unknown ‘space,’ and re-presenting it as the more familiar ‘place’. Her exhibition will consist of a six-part painting, depicting a 360 degree horizontal view of the perimeter surrounding the RAIR site, floor installations based on the desert surface and drawings depicting fragments viewed, again, from the vantage point of her studio".

Shona Macdonald was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and now lives in Western Massachusetts where she is Associate Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to this, she lived and worked in Chicago and Bloomington, IL. She received her MFA in 1996 from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her BFA in 1992 from Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Selected solo shows include venues such as the Engine Room, Wellington, New Zealand, (2010), Proof Gallery, Boston, (2009), Reeves Contemporary, NYC, (2008), Den Contemporary, LA, (2007), Skestos-Gabriele, Chicago, (2005), Galerie Refugium, Berlin, Germany, (2002), and Fassbender Gallery, Chicago, (1998 and 2000). She has participated in over sixty group shows including galleries and museums in Melbourne, Australia, Glasgow, Scotland, Calgary, Canada, and in the USA in Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Savannah, and Baltimore. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, Art News, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and in New American Paintings. Shona Macdonald is a 2009 recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NYC.

This article first appeared in "does this make sense" an online opinion forum of ideas.

Veiled Nature: the drawings of Larry Miller

Thu, 5 Apr 2012 08:04:36 -0400

Modern Movement, 2009, marker on paper, 24 x 18 inches

Author's Note: These drawngs are true to their actual appearance. They are airy and subtle, and in some cases, might give the impression that the documentation is lacking...it is not.

The work of Chicago based artist Larry Miller comes out of an attitude towards the “sensations” he experiences in the creative act. This is probably most obvious in understanding his painstaking drawing technique where he amasses thousands of applied dots of diverse intensity and color to make an image.

For Miller, the paper surface he confronts, even as he begins with its unadulterated whiteness, implies a vastness of space that gives an ample field onto which the imagination might project a visual indication of pure consciousness. This is the “applied wreck” of reality and fiction that most serious artists confront in the search for the elusive border between the recognizable and untried image.

Magnetic Attraction, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Miller talks about his process:

"For me, each dot is a gestural action. Space is altered in each instance that a new dot is put down. I respond intuitively to the unexpected play of dots as they accumulate to help create my forms."

Artists continually make assumptions about the inner characteristics of all matter and hidden spaces in the world. They speculate on qualities of the unseen, while celebrating the mind’s theoretical images of things kept from their gaze in the natural world. With these delicate drawings, Miller opens the elusive door of Nature for our gaze, manufacturing both care and impulse in the infusion of light and color upon the page. He is a master of a type of temporal space that is understated as we look at the actual work, but with careful and purposeful skill, he manufactures images that remain in our memory; indelible, meaningful, and beautiful.

Semi-Private Conversation, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

The exploration of beauty in our age is important. This is critical amongst the formidable challenges of our social systems, and the malleable structures of our very culture. A masterful respite for the collective mind occurs with an emersion in beauty. This is a weighty enterprise…one that re-connects us with an affable version of our humanity.

Staghorn, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Magnetic Attraction #2, 2011, marker on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Chilkat, 2010, marker on paper, 18 x 24 inches

Hook, Line and Sinker, 2010, marker on paper, 18x 24 inches

Interactive 2010, marker on paper, 18 x 24 inches

Sounding, 2009, marker on paper, 23 x 14 inches

Pollination, 2009, marker on paper, 24 x 18 inches

See more work by Larry Miller

This article first appeared in "does this make sense" an online opinion forum of ideas.

Layers of Memory

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:02:05 -0500

I was thinking about how images sometimes take our minds to a place that transcends the very substance that makes up the content of the picture we are looking at. As an addendum to memory, photographs offer a priceless role in helping us to capture moments that deform our sense of time. In turn, we continually critique the space between thought and materiality, reconciling the identities and placement of what lies in view. There is value in the questions we consider.

We want to see new things, and offer our minds conundrums that stretch our thinking processes. Even when our minds are lazy, stretching our thoughts is similar to stretching our muscles at the start of the day. In a general way, the activity feels good.

Capturing “things as they lay” in the still life images seen here signifies the shuffling activities of small projects interrupting a certain order…the more permanent objects in my little domestic setting are neatly compartmentalized, tranquil and at rest. The papers, envelopes, receipts, and appliances are transitory, and my visual record of this transitory stuff makes a distinctive statement in the sanction of a “living space.” Seen in this more generous context, there is beauty in the contrast between material chaos and order.

Snapping an image close up, then pulling away in a secession of pictures extends the limits of the original images’ allotted time. It is similar to a filmic moment, but with the added pleasure of thousands of missing frames. The time between images is immeasurable, and distinct from movies in the portions of time lost without any record. There is a scintillating mystery in this.

With a collection of objects, my visual record can take an array of forms. I like to study the peculiar things my wife and I collect, hoping the unexpected, fanciful details will conspire to enhance my understanding of the conflict between order and chaos in Nature. I’m not collecting dental, or medical equipment, but rather warmer objects that are closer to simpler labors.

Memory Pots are works of art that show cast-off fragments, the accumulated “crust” of experience, bonded to a handmade, or manufactured object…most commonly a glass, or ceramic container with an interesting shape. The small shards, shells and other objects affixed to these forms show little difference with the detritus we see on a littered street, or in an old, abandoned house or apartment; yet in most cases, the fragments have been selected to fit with all the other forms, similar to the wall building artistry of a free-minded stone mason.

The difference in masonry and the construction of these pots lay in the fanciful disparity of small fragments, all containing bits of history through their former function, moving from utility to a more abstract realm, while remaining stubbornly purposeful. The putty, or bonding agent records the fingerprints of the maker/s. in some cases the prints are traces from an earlier century. These objects preserve a subtext, recorded from myriad situations of domestic commotion, taking place within the space of one, or several lives. They offer a visual record that survives, independent of diaries, news articles and digitization. The visual power of these forms lies in their multifarious surface comprehended as a whole object, mimicking the texture and complexities of us…the remarkable containers of experience.

This post first appeard in "Does This Makes Sense (dtms)", a platform for critical thinking.

Body Powers

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:02:45 -0500

Waiting for things to heat up in our foundry can sometimes inspire body language that suggests ancient geometries, or architectural edifices. photo by Nancy Fewkes

I have always believed in the power of body language to transmit information back to one’s self. I have heard historians say the open hand gesture, or waving, is endemic to every culture, originally showing a person is not holding a weapon. I think it is more likely our ancestors were holding their hands high, saying to themselves, “Dang, that’s a nice looking arm holding up my hand! I hope they are seeing this!”

In the course of a day, body motion, divided into its myriad parts, includes the movement of our limbs, down to the flow of blood and the undulations of our colon. Sensitivity is the key… stimuli from the environment will sometimes cause involuntary movement, making things known first to one’s self, then, in some cases, to others. The collected parts of a single body, in a single day, moves on average 1,100 miles. That’s a lot of information for someone to think about, and out of that comes the complex patterns of new languages.

I used to marvel at my dad’s body language when he hit his thumb with a hammer. I would imitate his spontaneous dance. I didn’t immediately understand he wasn’t dancing for me. Reading the language of his face for a few seconds, I knew I had triggered an anger response. Being young and inexperienced, I took this as a sign to dance harder, clinching my eyes shut. Then I felt the force of his body language across the back of my head…

Thinking about sensitivity the other day, I remembered an ancient fairy tale where some princess could not sleep because there was a pea under a bunch of mattresses. It was some kind of test of her sensitivity. This seemed barely plausible to me, especially when most peas were not refrigerated before the 20th century and it would have squished flat under all those heavy horsehair mattresses.

I think it was probably pee, not a pea…I have tried to sleep on a mattress with pee on it. Believe me, it’s nearly impossible. Regardless, that’s something to think about…sharing similar body language experience with a princess…now I understand…powerful stuff...

Some examples of Early 20th Century Body Language...

This young man realizes, at the moment the photographer takes this photo, that his choice of attire (taken on a dare) might not be the right way to be remembered for posterity in his college portrait.

Historically, people have used unusual props as an important component of their body language. This picture seems to shout, “Man! I have a massive headache. I hope the photographer is getting this."

...with a stark example of contemporary Body Language

A heartening demonstration by a concerned neighbor screams,

“I hope you guys are behaving in there"

"Oh My!"

A shorter version of this piece originally appeared in The Basement