Tag Archives: body

The Body as Zone of Incident Guest Lecture

Posted on by under Art, Teaching

This past week I gave a talk for The Honors College at The University of Missouri. The theme this fall was The Art and Science of Living, and they asked me to give a guest lecture about the nature of the body in the context of my work. I chose to focus on a number of artists who have shaped my ideas about the meaning of the body. – from Anne Harris and Robin F. Williams to Kathe Kollwitz and Charles White.

To hear the talk and see all of the artists and images I explore in the presentation, click the link here.

Andrew Wyeth. Spring. Tempera on panel. 1978.

In Three Moving Parts at The Evanston Art Center

Posted on by under Art, Life

I have an exhibition that opens Sunday, September 29th at The Evanston Art Center. The show, titled In Three Moving Parts, is a three-person exhibition featuring nine of my own pieces alongside the works of Norbert Marszalek and Timothy P. Vermeulen.

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I traveled to Evanston this week to help install the show. It was a very fast trip – I was only in town for about 12 hours – but it is always a joy to travel those streets. My wife and I spent quite a few years in Chicago and Evanston, and those cities are close to our hearts. If you’re from the Chicagoland area, please consider coming up for the show. The opening is Sunday, September 29th from 1 – 4. Below are a few gray scale shots of the show during our installation. To see it in all its glorious surface density and color, make your way there!

Click the images for a larger view.

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I’ll be leading a workshop at the close of the show, on either November 9 or November 10. Stay tuned for information about that!

Also, I’d love to know what you think of the show – if you go, please leave comment here.

Inspiration – Jusepe Ribera

Posted on by under Art, Life

Over the last few years my work has turned on a conception of the natural geometry of the body. You can see how in images like this (“Collapse” oil on canvas on panel, 48 inches in diameter):

or this (“Revealer, Forced” pastel on paper, 23 inches in diameter):

that I am really focusing on a kind of geometric tension in the positions and movements of the body.

A lot of this has come from my interest in the work of the great Spanish painter Jusepe Ribera. In 1610 he followed the call of Caravaggio (who died that same year) by traveling to Italy to see the master’s work. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“The Flaying of Marsyas”

“The Martyrdom of Saint Phillip”

 

 

Neil Gavett, Model Extraordinare

Posted on by under Art, Life

The Columbia Daily Tribune is running a feature on Neil Gavett, one of the primary models I’ve used in my work over the last couple of years. He’s a pretty cool guy, has an interesting back story, and a staggering plethora of tales to tell. Neil is also a professional art model; he’s posed for nearly 10,000 hours and has been working consistently for over a decade in the Mid-Missouri area. Below is the first painting I ever did of Neil (Fall 2007).

neil I’ve been honored to get to know the man. In working with him, I have tried to create images worthy of the symbiotic relationship we’ve developed, a relationship that could never happen without his deep intention and purposeful action as a man and a model.

Here’s to many more pictures, Neil!

UPDATE: Here’s a related item from the New York Times today: “In the Altogether.”