Tying a Bow on Your Finger. ASK Opening.

Last night was the opening of Abstract Art at the Arts Society of Kingston, as well as Ric Dragon's, Bifurcations.  Ric's paintings were particularly beautiful, transporting the viewer into a dream world when viewed from up close.  These rich and creamy large scale paintings had a similar effect on me as did Imi Knoebel's  paintings at Dia a couple of months back.  I felt different about them up close than I did from farther away, getting to a "sweet spot" a foot or two away where my entire field of vision was engulfed by the painting.  It gives me the feeling of being totally within a painting, almost that I am part of the painting itself.  It certainly becomes part of me.  I want to start working on a larger scale again.  The larger works seem to envelop the viewer,  engaging their bodies by their sheer size alone, and the engagement of the body gives the viewer a feeling experience, not just a thinking experience, which is not to say that art shouldn't be a thinking experience, but I want it to be a feeling experience too.  Maybe that comes from my experience in the field of bodywork, or maybe it comes from my art appreciation experience, or maybe a little of both. 

My piece in the show was a little 9x12 encaustic and charcoal drawing transfer.   Described by Mr. Dragon as "poetic", Another Eleven is a drawing I did about the loss of my sister - one of a series of similar pieces focused on this theme.  Some have said they look like trees,  jail bars, tubes and pipes.  They are an accounting of the numbers 11, 111 and 1,111 in a form that attempts to organize or make sense of some nonsensical life events with an energy that is derived from the emotions associated with them.  Carol had a thing about the number eleven, so I am using it as my muse for a number of pieces.  I don't believe 11:11 is "happy minute" or  that the world is going to end at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11 or any stupid shit like that, although I do seem to catch 11:11 on the clock at least once daily.  Its almost like tying a bow around your finger so as not to forget something.

This was my first time showing at ASK, and I look forward to many more opportunities.  Would like to meet and network with some of the other artists there too, so if you are an artist in the Mid-Hudson Valley or anywhere, for that matter, be sure to leave me a comment and say hello!