Dueling Minds: Closing Reception, Friday March 30th

I hadn't thought to show you the closing show postcards Dale had made (above, front & back). I've wondered if these make the same impact they used to, but they did come in handy at Leslie's CD release party, when we had a chance to meet people that weren't at the opening for the Dueling Minds show. The pieces on this card were a good example of how many of the canvases Dale & I crafted for the show shared uncanny similarities- I shared my thoughts in an earlier post which you should read if you haven't.

Come see the show at our closing reception this Friday:

DUELING MINDS: COLIN SHAW AND DALE WILKE

Closing Reception: Friday, March 30th 2012 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Concrete Ocean Art Gallery
2257 S. Jefferson Avenue, at Shenandoah
Saint Louis, MO 63104
(314) 448-1796
(314) 497-0199
See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)
email me if you are interested!

Anomaly

As I said in my last post, many of the canvases Dale and I created for the Dueling Minds show shared striking similarities, but not all of them.  Our respective versions of Anomaly also turned out very different. An anomaly is a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form- certainly a word most relevant  to our "conversation in canvas" on the individual and perception.  Dale utilized a seemingly more organized method, overlapping a fabric pattern transferred in paint onto a warm khaki ground, metallic gold filling the horizontal magenta bars floating above the surface of the canvas. My version of  Anomaly doesn't have surface texture,  any spacial illusion in the monochromatic, circular swirls merely implied. As chaotic as it looks, Anomaly did begin in an organized fashion, two perfectly measured pencil circles overlapping in the middle, still visible in the finished piece. Several of my peices for this show began with a circle- it's the perfect shape, no beginning and no end. And when you aren't sure where to start, a circle will get the ball rilling, so to speak.

 

Anomaly, D. Wilke

acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"

Anomaly, C.M. Shaw
acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"

$150.00 each/$275.00 for the pair

Concrete Ocean Art Gallery
(314)497-0199


Come see the show at our closing reception at Concrete Ocean, March 30th from 7:00-11:00 PM!
See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)
email me if you are interested!

The Process of Illumination

As a contrast to the alarming similarity in the work Dale and I created for the Dueling Minds show, I offer this unusual pair, The Process of Illumination. Painting in a completely non-objective manner was a stretch for me, and I felt this one most radically illustrated the departure in style. Yes, I performed a sort of minimalism on most all the canvases for the show, but Process is perhaps the most raw of all of them- it was hard for me to discern the point in which it was complete. There were many layers of iridescent & titanium applied over the initial pencil drawing, and after I'd gone back  to punch up those lines, it seemed to be finished. A lot of interesting associations were expressed to me upon the first viewing back in February, but for myself, the point of illumination of synapse at the moment of understanding was illustrated there in the middle ground, the spindly lines connecting there at the horizontal row of circles. I had to resist not strong handling the the canvas, keeping it's gauzy nature intact.

The Process of Illumination, CM Shaw

acrylic/pencil on canvas, 20 x 24"

My monochromatic canvas turned out far different from Dale's, shown below in cool cobalt ground with it's surging drainpipe of aqua. Though shown side by side as in the poster above (as they hang in the gallery currently), it's fun how the "spout" in Dale's painting nearly aligns with the thready connection points in mine to it's left. Dale mentioned in reference to the "spout" something to the affect of how we are presented with a multitude of ideas that when mixed up, come out in the end our own individual point of understanding, or illumination.

The Process of Illumination, D. Wilke

acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"

$150.00 each/$275.00 for the pair

Concrete Ocean Art Gallery
(314)497-0199

Come see the show at our closing reception at Concrete Ocean, March 30th from 7:00-11:00 PM!
See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)

email me if you are interested!

The Depths

The Depths, CM Shaw

acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"

The Depths, D. Wilke
acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"

$150.00 each/$275.00 for the pair
Concrete Ocean Art Gallery
(314)497-0199

I spoke about this pairing from the Dueling Minds show in a previous post, but wanted to give you a closer look at each of them. As I said, it's easy to see the upward, unfurling movement in these canvases, not to mention the harmony of colors, including the highlight/foreground use of red paint. And though I'm pretty sure Dale wasn't trying to paint a seahorse in his canvas, when combined with my bubbly painting above there's a sort of quasi-aquatic thing going on here that's undeniable in my eyes. While they are unique, they compliment each other well, and would make great companion peices in the same room.

Come see the show at our closing reception at Concrete Ocean, March 30th from 7:00-11:00 PM!

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)

email me if you are interested!

Daughters of Cambodia CD Release Show & Photography Exhibit!

Friday, March 16th at 8pm

Daughters of Cambodia presents

Leslie Sanazaro CD Release Show for the new album “First We Cry, Then We Laugh”

Concrete Ocean Gallery

2257 S. Jefferson Ave.

St. Louis, MO  63104

$10, kids free, light food and drinks served

There will be a photo exhibit on display for one night only from photographer Alexis Santi, featuring images from Leslie's travels in Cambodia visiting women and girls around the country.  Additionally there will be a projected photo show during the live performance of all the new music.  The band  includes an amazing assemblage of players, icluding Teddy Presberg and his Resistance Organ Trio, Dawn Weber, Eric Grossman, Rebecca Ryan, Irene Allen and more!

A local reperesentative from anti-human trafficking group Rescue Restore will speak briefly about the issue here in St. Louis. ALL PROCEEDS from the new album sales benefit AFESIP in Cambodia.. We hope to see you this Friday night at Concrete Ocean to celebrate and raise awareness for the issues of human trafficking and women’s safety around the world.

*Visit the Daughters of Cambodia website to read about my dear friend Leslie's project addressing the enslavement and forced prostitution of women and children in Cambodia and around the the world.

Two

"Two"  2011

acrylic and pencil on canvas, 36 x 24"

$175.00

This is the first abstract created for the recent Dueling Minds show at Concrete Ocean when I began work last summer. I was calling it Two Sisters while working on it, as I had no real name for it, and I'd already made a drawing called Two Sisters- a "working title" if you will. Experience in comletely abstract, non-objective art was limited for me. Not knowing where to begin, i put two big circles on the canvas, bisected them, and i was off and running from there. As friends began commenting on it in the studio, all sorts of interpretations were given, ranging from "two orbs" to "two planets", and inevitably "two breasts". I began to realize they would tell me what it was, as the viewer often will. It was percieved almost universally as two items or objects, so I left it open to interpretation as "Two". I've been known to couple subjects in my work many times in the past, though never this purely. It's very simple. I've been a fan of Jasper Johns' painterly handling conventional symbols since college. Johns' flags, maps, targets, and numbers may rely on this schemata to answer the need for subject, but seem to be a vehicle for pure joy of brushstrokes.

At the beginning of discussions between Dale and I for the Dueling Minds show, duality was the topic: duality in personality, tastes, perception/percieved value, society, artistic vision, style, and method, and on and on... it was a very open ended conversation, peppered with our normal day-to-day experiences, frustrations, societal  issues and politics, and shared mirth. While it's ended up in the room adjoining our concept portion of the show, I feel it really fits with the theme of the whole thing really well. The two spheres/circles are seemingly identical, but they are not, their difference in their brushstrokes wildly varying. Like two people, they may both have two legs and arms and a head, but entirely singular beings. As such, this is painting is best enjoyed up close and personal. 

Come see the show at our closing reception at Concrete Ocean, March 30th from 7:00-11:00 PM

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)

email me if you are interested!