Andrew Reach at the Riffe gallery

Let's Get Digital is the show currently on display in the Riffe Gallery in downtown Columbus until July 8. It explores how current artists utilize technology and confront the issues technology raises in life and artmaking. There's a lot of good stuff there, so if you're in the area, check it out.

Featured prominently are the works of Cleveland area Andrew Reach. Big, colorful, clean and inviting, his work has a lot which would attract the interest of a painter. But even knowing the theme of the show, my disappointment upon realizing they were digital canvas prints was severe. The perfect flatness, the even sheen, and the perfection of all the curves and lines were all evidence an artist's hand were never even close to these works. What had at first seemed so interesting, so playful, died before my eyes. It just looked tacky.

Upon reading the placard explaining his work, I immediately felt like an asshole. Reach is physically impaired: he uses digital means to produce work he literally could not using traditional art techniques.

I'm a big proponent for the primacy of process and materiality in art. I like seeing the artist's journey in a work. Being able to reconstruct that journey through brush strokes, partially painted-over or scratched-out areas, or even just seeing how the paint naturally flowed over the canvass is one of the central joys I get from looking at art. The image is not just itself: it's a tour guide to its own history. Digital prints can't do this, and even if they do, it's artifice. Ultimately, I felt digital canvas prints were solely the realm of "fine art" prints of those tourist photos you can buy at art fairs in the summer.

But obviously this is not fair. Surely it should not be used to reject Reach's work out-of-hand. Digital is certainly a valid process for him. However, does that mean digital is only valid for those with no other choice? Is it some artistic slum populated only by cripples? Obviously not.

Ultimately, this experience hit home the idea that to approach art, you have to check your preconceptions and biases at the door. Art, all art - high, low, good, bad - needs to be approached on it's own terms. From my process-based idea, Reach's work absolutely fails. But I wasn't lying about its virtues. The pieces are friendly, playful and ultimately highly complex. The computer-aided perfection and use of the grid belie compositions which ultimately rely on Reach's artistic intuition. They are large enough to engulf you in their own world and explore their intricacies and surprises.

Reach's work is valid not because of any disability on his part but only because it works. While its format may suggest a more traditional painterly approach, those were not the themes it ultimately explore. I just had to check my expectations to enjoy it.

Spirit Photography

 I guess its not really common knowledge that Ghostbusters didn't coin the term "ectoplasm." It originally referred to the spirit material which would exhibit itself from mediums' orifices when they were connected to the spirit world. In actuality, it was usually regurgitated cheesecloth.



I'm fascinated by these photos. They straddle a line between comedy and horror. While to the modern observer they are so obviously faked that the idea that these could ever constitute proof of the supernatural is laughable, they did up the ante in terms of effort from the simple double exposures that one usually thinks of when thinking about spirit photography. They also exhibit an unnerving aesthetic despite (or maybe because of) their chintzy natures.

I've done a couple of projects based on these images. Here's one where I meticulously copied original pictures in ink and then later tried to recreate the picture based on my memory.

Here's my addition to that tradition, with a full figure exhibiting itself from my meditating body.

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow

Just a sketchbook page but it needs some explanation. This is based on this lesson from Surviving the World where Dante suggests that the classic Christmas song Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire is actually a horror story. Lord knows it has plenty of creepy imagery, not the least of which is children with glowing eyes. I tried to imagine what the poster would look like if it were made into a movie.

It was also the first time I played with my new watercolor pencils, so that was fun, too, even if the color is a bit wonky.

Aspen Mays - From the Offices of Scientists

My adviser sent me a link to Aspen Mays the other day. Her work is really cool in general - conceptually deep while maintaining formal beauty. Awesome. But I especially want to talk about this particular show of hers: From the Offices of Scientists .

As the name suggests, this collection of works is constructed out of materials she found in scientists' offices. It points out, in a very funny, very poignant manner the mundanity of scientific research.



At its core, science is about asking the most profound questions we as a species have ever asked. It's seeking to find out where we came from, how we function, even the very nature of reality. That we can pool even some of our resources to that endeavor speaks bounds for the wisdom of our society (or at least gives me some hope to balance out my reaction from some of the more stupid crap we humans pull).

The reality of scientific research, however, is far from that sublime ideal. It happens in dingy basements on old office furniture. There's not enough money to fix equipment. Experimental results (those profound secrets mentioned above) are filed away in cardboard boxes.

These works crash together big ideas and everyday existence. This resulting loss of this romantic ideal is a little sad: even our greatest accomplishments can't transcend the everyday. At the same time, it is quite hopeful. Even though we can't escape our blah material existence, we don't have to to achieve great things.

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I'm a recent graduate from OSU with a BFA in Painting and Drawing. This is going to be my space where I post images of work and thoughts about art or anything else that I can't condense into a snarky comment on other social media.

I studied physics in a past life, and my work to date is an attempt to rationalize those two worlds. Their respective worlds exist parallel to one another but their differences in my experience tend to be over stated. Both require inspiration and creativity with a large amount of work to realize that potential. The process I use to create my paintings tries to mirror the research process. Each is a full and honest document of finding the image. I borrow from the graphical language of charts and graphs but also incorporate more gestural marks.

I would try to sketch out a fuller view of my interests, but I think it would be more worthwhile to actually start posting content and letting that develop as it may.

As a side benefit, hopefully, the discipline of keeping a blog will inspire me to actually make a full website at some point.

Senior Show

Some images from my work on display now at the graduating senior show. I would recommend everyone who's able to check it out, there's some great work on display there from everyone involved.



MacGuffin I
2010
Acrylic, ink and guache on Panel
30 1/2" x 47"


MacGuffin VIII
2011
Acrylic, guache, and charcoal on panel
72” x 48”


MacGuffin IX
2011
Acrylic and chalk
30 1/2" x 47"


MacGuffin VII
2011
Acrylic on canvas
48" x 48"


And here are some installation views:





The show is up until Sat, Dec 10, with a closing reception from 5-7 pm.