This piece is at the top of the stairs so it is one of the first things you see. The round piece is attached to a painted screen. You can't see it here, but there is a piece of thread that connects this piece to another circle-on-a-painted-screen piece (more like a morning-time one), with origami birds attached to the thread. Not sure yet how I feel about the thread and origami birds, but I like the individual screen pieces.
Most of the paintings were orange and black, or orange or black. This piece is called Moonless Mountain. Wendy White posted on Forrest Bess recently, and one of my reasons to visit Chop Suey was to try and find a Forrest Bess book - I didn't find one but my FB radar was up and my mind was very much in tune with these paintings. Here is a page of Forrest Bess paintings.
It cracked me up reading her labels, the prices were $33, $99, $111, $222, $333, $444, $555, $777, with one for $5,432.10 and another 3,000,000 rubles. It was all so random - perfect and funny for Richmond because nobody ever buys anything anyways. There was no painting for $666.
Some of these cell-phone photos are so bad. The wall around the one above is too white, and around the orange painting below so blue - but it was all the same color.
So simple, so little done here, but it is clearly finished. I wonder if it happened for her as easily as it looks like it came? I sometimes am able to make a painting just happen, but that usually surprises me. More often I'll make something that looks like it came a lot easier and quicker than it did.
Fingerprint windowpeople and one small antenna.
The black one has a smaller canvas glued to it, and an asteroid or shooting star. I think that asteroid is cut from a magazine or something, it isn't painted. There is a texture to the smaller glued-on canvas that I was associating with the moon and craters before I stood in the right light and saw that it was a handprint.
Here is that little one viewed from an angle.
Michelle Arthur at Chop Suey closes March 5th
4 comments:
I just wanted to thank you Martin for your beautiful gift! It is hanging on the wall of my studio, I plan to photograph it and post it if you don't mind. I love the tendril ends, it is a fragile and sweet object.
MM
Thank you very much for the link to Forrest Bess.
MM - You are very welcome. Your comment on the finding post was so nice.
Hi Grijsz!
i am looking at these pictures now and thinking i need to go back to enjoy this show again.
Grijsz - i went to your blog and saw the older paintings you posted. i want one of your paintings someday. maybe i will get one when i come to Tusheti.
if i opened a gallery i would definitely give you a show. do you want to have a makeshift show somewhere? i would be happy to try and organize something for you somewhere, if you don't mind showing in a coffee house or something like that.
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