exhibition installation photos

Here are a few shots of our exhibition at Bennett Galleries in Knoxville. They have a great, HUGE space there full of fine work. Its definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Our show, "Americana", alongside painter Charlotte Terrell will be up through the end of May.

Big thanks to our Bennett contact Ginger and all the rest of the Bennett gallery family for taking such wonderful care of us and our work!

i think i can talk about this now...

I've repeatedly referenced my 'secret commission' project recently in an effort to keep you all on the edge of your seats. You don't know what I'm talking about do you? Oh well, hold on to your socks 'cause I'm breaking my silence...

I was approached in January of this year by Allison Davis, head of marketing at West Georgia Health Systems here in LaGrange. WGHS is at the tail end of completing a major addition ("In addition to providing a new “front door” to health system, the four-story South Tower will include expansions of West Georgia Health System’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Cardiovascular Services, Labor and Delivery and the Emergency Departments"). To honor the architect of the expansion plan, hospital president and CEO Jerry Fulks, Allison and the executive board were interested in commissioning a large public work for the new lobby.

After lots of back and forth concerning image, size, placement, etc., our work was installed this week, just in time for the South Tower grand opening. The image is "Groundbreaking", oil on linen, 48" x 72" and will hang on the second floor of the new lobby, looking down onto the ground floor. CEO Fulks is the figure standing the farthest forward in the darkest suit.



While I wasn't originally super excited about the reference photo we used...


...a longer look brought me alot to get excited about. While each of the figures is basically upright, there is lots of great 'physical personality' here from man to man. I also love the slightly shifting repetition of the hands, shovel handles, and hard hats which create a quirky, stuttering rhythm across the composition. We used the plaid underpainting as a tongue-in-cheek reference to men's suiting material. All in all I'm very excited about how it turned out.

We were honored to take on this project and honored further still by the artists we will be hanging beside in the hospital. WGHS has gone out of its way to feature original art, mostly by local and regional artists, in the new wing. We will be sharing walls with Guthrie Killebrew, Melinda Clair, Maragaret Reneke, Lamar Dodd, Keith Rasmussen, Vee Brown, Terri Codlin, and many more. In addition to purchasing local work and presenting works from the hospital's own coffers, they will be partnering with the LaGrange Art Museum to feature works from their permanent collection. While some states require that a certain percentage of the cost of new public building should go toward art, Georgia is not one of those. Kudos to WGHS and Ellerbe Beckett for going above and beyond.

gallery opening, Knoxville

Our show with Bennett Galleries in Knoxville TN opens tomorrow night, Friday from 5-8pm. We'll be exhibiting our newest work alongside painter Charlotte Terrell.

Shown above is our "Side Yard Garden" (oil on canvas, 65" x 85")and a piece of Charlotte's I lifted from somehwere on the internet! Those of you super familiar with our work know that this is not a new piece for us, but it's definitely a favorite of mine. The image was taken form a beautiful photo of Genna's father Peter in Ukraine when he was a young man. When I saw Charlotte's work, I knew I wanted to show this piece alongside hers as it's a better fit for her more subtle pallette. (I promise everything else is new!)

Hoping to see some of you there. Genna and I are splitting our 'couple' so that he can travel to Jackson GA to set up for our Saturday show, so I'd love to see some friendly and familiar faces. I'll be meeting Genna in Jackson on Saturday where the show runs until 3 pm. Details on the Jackson show can be found on the website of the show promoters/artists Scott and Kathrine Allen-Coleman.

recent acquisitions

One of my favorite things about traveling the 'art fair circuit' is the opportunity to add to my own little art collection. I thought you might like to see who I brought home from our last outing. The pictures are not of exactly what I bought, just works by that artist.

In Atlanta I picked up a charming little watercolor of a woman mooning a penguin by Rhode Island funny man Greg Stones. Its title is 'penguin, woman, bum'. This one is 'penguin, sock monkey, death'...



In Birmingham I made two purchases and two trades. My buys were a little drawing/mono print piece by Mark Traughber (this is my actual piece)...



and a sculpture by Joan Rasmussen whose website is beautiful and won't let me steal her pictures.

My trades were a fantastic robot with a spy glass by Anthony Pack (who I couldn't find a website for). His business is called 'Urban Folk Art' if you'd like to google him.



and a large painting by my all time art crush Kathrine Allen-Coleman.



Check them out so they won't be mad at me for using their images here without their permission!

show updates...we won!

Hello everyone! Many thanks to all of our new friends and dedicated collectors that made our 'Dogwood' and 'Magic City' great shows. We were delighted to be honored with awards at both shows...best in category for the former and a merit award for the latter.

Special thanks to our friend David D. in Atlanta who took home my personal favorite from our most recent collection, "Masters of the Universe" (oil on linen, 48 x 36). David is the best.

Magic City was a challenge as Saturday's forecast called for 'strong storms with the possibility of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes.' Huh. Show director Eileen made the very wise decision to shut the show down for Saturday, so Friday night we packed it all up. Sat. we went to the art museum (excellent) and the movies (date night, also excellent) then Sunday we had to set everything back up again for the day, work the show, and then break down again that night.

I'm tired.

We're finishing up a project today and tomorrow that I can't tell you about yet. It's a secret...maybe next week. Then we're on the road again for a whirlwind trip...Asheville to pick up work, Kansas City for a show, Knoxville to drop off for a gallery show, home for two days, back to Knoxville for the reception, on to Jackson GA that same night to set up for a festival, then home. Holy cow...beer me stamina.

Hoping to see you all somewhere soon!

OH, OH, OH Ps. I forgot to tell you that Genna and I are headed to Sausalito CA this September for our very first west coast show. I have no idea how to do this, so if you're an artist and you've done it before, I'd love to hear any advice.

new neutrals

I know its hard to tease out from our work what is mine and what is Genna's, but if you can you realize quite quickly that my palette is actually quite restrained. Most of the cacophony of color in our pieces emanates out from the underpainting.

In a few of our newest pieces, I am employing an almost completely neutral over painting. For example, here is our new "Upright Tarpon" (48" x 24"), finished day before yesterday:


If you look closely, my layer is almost entirely grey, black, tan, and taupe.

Another new one from this week (Boy Line, Bike Tangle, 48" x 36") sports a brand new color that I don't think I've ever touched before...a soft, peat-y, bunny rabbit brown that I think everyone will be seeing more of:



Have a beautiful day everybody!

reservoir dogs

In Houston at the Bayou City show a few weeks ago, a prospective client told me that my newest piece, "Striding Plaid Foursome" (oil on linen, 36" x 60"), reminded him of Reservoir Dogs. I can't tell you how much I loved this comment as the reference for this work made me think of every cool, slow-mo 'guys walk toward the camera to an awesome song' movie scene. Those get me every single time, from R. Dogs to The Right Stuff to Swingers to my recent favorite, Paul Rudd and his rag tag groomsmen in I Love You Man.

Did I just tell too much about myself?

Anyway, I came back from Houston and had to make another. Here is "Boardwalk" (oil on linen, 36" x 60", $2800):



and here is the progression of the plaid foursome: