i55: landscapes

artist statement

A year and a half in the making, i55: landscapes developed during the hours I spent on my morning commute over the seemingly ugly, barren, industrial Stevenson Expressway (Interstate 55). Rather than focusing my attention on the frustrating bumper-to-bumper, stop-and go-traffic, I began making an effort to take in my surroundings from a new, more positive perspective. I focused on seeing beauty in the ordinary and mundane: unintentional compositions and unexpected contrasts and colors; differences between “permanent” man-made materials and the ever-evolving, softer sides of nature; the effects played by lighting, weather and season and the results of destruction or deterioration. I tried to notice changes to anything in my visual field that provided a new way of looking at and seeing things that may otherwise seem not worth a second glance.

Taking in my surroundings in this new way led to the creation of this series of paintings and photographs, these “abstract” urban landscapes – the beauty of my mornings.

-----------------------
Opening Reception

Vertical Arts in Steamboat Springs, CO.
Friday, October 1 at 6 pm
Show runs October 1-31, 2010

I can't believe it's all coming to an end after all this time. To learn more about the development of this project, take a look here. And do stop by if you happen to be in the area!

PS: I will be posting all the images here, but not until after the show!

The i55s.

Ran into this statement by artist Anne Madden on Ill Seen, Ill Said last week and thought the timing of it being posted and my exposure to it was a notable synchronicity. It really sums up a good deal of what I've been trying to wrap my own head around regarding my soon to be exhibited series of landscape paintings of the Stevenson Expressway (Interstate 55).

I am here before you, a visual artist, a painter with my necessarily-subjective viewpoint looking out from the landscape of my life. And this necessarily-subjective viewpoint is all that I can bring you, born as it is of my experience of being a painter, of seeing my way and trying to make sense of being-in-the-world, with the constant self-questioning that accompanies this.

I will give you some reflections on this experience. I imagine that most artists, whatever their medium, are trying to uncover or discover a reality beyond actuality, trying to make visible invisible aspects of the world, however they conceive or perceive them to be.

~ Anne Madden

Not exactly how I approached these paintings, but this makes a lot of sense to me.

Chicago is pretty.

Yep, I'm about to enter that awful traffic, but I still think our skyline is beautiful. And I am happy I live here.