LUNES , EL DIECINUEVE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ

Yesterday we met up with our friends Jesse and Sarah and went for lunch out at Louis' Diner by the Pacific Ocean, overlooking the riuns of the Sutro Baths, then walked around the Presidio, visiting the pet cemetery and the old airstrip, Crissy Field. Below are a selection of photos of pet headstones from the cemetery. R.I.P.

DOMINGO, EL DIECIOCHO DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Alcatraz Ave, Oakland, near Adeline, where we walk to catch the BART. The two shop windows are fancy dress-costume shops. I feel a Popeye scrimshaw coming on ... especially after recently painting Swee'pea in a painting to be exhibited at the Rayner Brothers Gallery soon.

SABATO, EL DIECISIETE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Yesterday went finally got into San Francisco. I did the Geary St. galleries and then SFMOMA. They've got a great collection show on at present - Calder to Warhol and photographs from their permanent collection. Highlight was the room of late Guston paintings (four post-'69 late works and one '65 black blob paintings). The weird thing about it was receiving a text from a friend from NZ who has a common interest in Guston - spooky.
I also got to see 'A Life Lived', a doco on Guston and his painting filmed in the early 1970's then again in 1980 during his retrospective at SFMOMA just before he passed away. I missed screenings of this doco in 2003, when I visited the retrospective in San Fran, then again in london in 2004 when the retrospective was at the Royal Academy, then again at the Drawings exhibition at the Morgan Library, NYC in 2008, so I'm now glad that I've seen it. The funniest part of the documentary is that he's 'demonstrating' how he paints a painting - a klan hangover painting - all the techniques and brushstroke styles are whisked up on the linen - a total performance, then at the end of the movie, the painting is destroyed and erased out (obviously when the cameramen are out of the studio) so all we see is a faux-act of painting, a performance for the camera - nothing is really gained by the viewer watching it. He was obviously very aware of the camera during the whole filming process over the ten year span - he's constantly spiking the lens. The most interesting aspect of the film is Guston's demeanor. In the earlier filming, he's confident in his performance, yet in interviews from 1980, he's quite anxious, unsure and hesitant. In a floor-talk, he's asked by an British woman, what would he like to leave behind, as in a legacy, to which he states he's never thought about it, but that he wants to end up in the same place as Goya and a simple pat on the back from the members of his pantheon and a "good work, sonny" comment would do him just fine.

VIERNES, EL DIECISEIS DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A new drawing finished and framed-up today. The drawing is of Morris Graves, a Seattle artist who died in 2001. I found his work through a book called Villa Delirium, about the ceramics of Charles Krafft. Krafft started the Mystic Sons Of Morris Graves, Seattle Lodge No. 93 in 1991 to establish the importance of the artist's role of Northwest mystic painters. It is said that he possessed an acute awareness of perfect pitch for color and line from his infancy.

JUEVES, EL QUINCE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Before leaving New Zealand, I got one of Paul Rayner's 'Jesus Saves' money-box crucifixes. It's an excellent to my crucifix collection, now numbering just over one-hundred.
The current Rayner Brothers exhibition, Cheesy Moulds is an exceptionally good show with a mix of mould works, teapots, photographs and money-boxes. A must-see if you're in Whanganui, New Zealand.

MIERCOLES, EL CATORCE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A sign on the way back from Sth Berkeley down Shattuck Ave, nearby is the Berkeley Bowl, a great place for fresh bread, great produce and a stunning collection of beers including Scrimshaw Pilsner.

MARTES, EL TRECE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Two pets that we've been looking after over the past few weeks. On the left is Tiny, who we looked after in Putiki in Whanganui, New Zealand. She's a feisty number but happy to chat after you get to know her. Now we're looking after Senor O, a brilliant dog, originally from Barcelona, Spain, now residing in Oakland, California. Belly scratches mandatory.

LUNES, EL DOCE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Bye bye New Zealand, especially Whanganui.
(Photo by JK Russ at 'Eye of Night' (RIP) circa Nov, 2009)

DOMINGO, EL ONCE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
The final state of my palette, Putiki, Whanganui

SABATO, EL DIEZ DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Below are the final three works I'll finish in New Zealand. They are intended as a triptych and read as a narrative. From left to right they are titled Creator, Nurturer and Lifegiver. The are all oil on metal and framed in a Mexican Colonial style. The photo was taken at Paul Maseyk's studio in Putiki, Whanganui.

VIERNES, EL NUEVE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Tonight is the opening of the Carey, Smith and Co Whanganui Arts Review at the Sarjeant Gallery. It's always a huge turn-out and a good chance to catch up with locals.
I've got the alien painting below in the exhibition and Jo has one of her new, framed collages.
Might see you there....

JUEVES, EL OCHO DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Meta-redux/revisit to San Marco Convent in Florence.
I'm holding up my catalogue from my exhibition, The Museum of Inherent Vice from 2007. In the catalogue is a photo I took during my first visit to San Marco in 2004, featuring a conservator painting a fresco in one of the exterior apses in the courtyard. I returned in 2008 and decided to re-photograph the same scene but with the finished fresco. I also did this at the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Del Carmine with Masaccio's Tribute Money fresco cycle (I'd used the disciples from the fresco in a painting of mine) and also in the Vatican with Raphael's School of Athens, of which I'd used the swastika-decorated arch that frames the fresco.

MIERCOLES, EL SIETE DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
I've just finished a couple of new scrimshaw (which I'll post here soon) and while I was looking through my archives, I found images of a scrimshaw object in the North Otago Museum in Oamaru (bottom, right).
After returning from a trip around the South Island in 2005, I made the Oamaru Altar (top and bottom, left; 2006, 380 x 300 x 310mm, oil on found wooden bowls, scrimshaw, wire and thirty New Zealand five-cent coins). I wanted to add something in the centre of the scrimshaw as they look like an archway so I painted a small wooden bowl that was kicking around.
The photograph of Christ I took at St. Patrick's basilica in Oamaru. I was pretty close to deleting this image, until I uploaded it onto my computer was stuck by its Cubist or Futurist-type aura or penumbra.

This work is part of a private collection in Petone.

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Philip Guston paintings at MOMA from the Edward R. Broida bequest, 2008. (Click on the image to enlarge it)

LUNES, EL CINCO DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Las Vegas, Fourth of July, 2008 (sans fireworks)

FELIZ CUATRO DE JULIO!
Bath Salts, (recto) 2005, oil on two canvases, 480mm x 330mm
(John Trumbull vs. Marcus King)

SABATO, EL TRES DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A mighty-fine day today, doing domestic duties while psycho-dog looks on.

photo: JK Russ

VIERNES, EL DOS DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ

I'm often trawling the internet for retablos for sale and I came across the one on the left (excuse the poor quality of image) of San Jose or Saint Joseph. It interested me because it very well could be by the same artist who painted a San Jose retablo that I own (right). Often, the attributes of each saint were replicated by many artists so that there was a continuity of symbolism of the saint, so sometimes what you think is a retablo by Geronimo de Leon or the Beestung Lip painter is a copy of them, or possibly both the artists had drawn from the same source, such as a Spanish Colonial painting or a hand-coloured print. In this case, I feel pretty certain that both these retablo are painted from the same hand or at least from the same production studio. Even though the retablo on the left is more loosely painted, it's a bigger retablo than the one on the left, so usually the artist would have kept his concentration of detail for the smaller scale retablos. Another giveaway is the way the isometric or orthographically formed structures (such as a the table on the left and the bible on the right) are constructed and painted. These objects are like they've been copied from a fish-eye lens image of the form. A strong indicator of the artist's hand is the way the faces were painted, but because of the low resolution of the image on the left and the damage to the paint surface on the retablo on the right, it's too hard to assertain the similarities AND of course the colours - which was the first thing that piqued my interest.

JUEVES, EL UNO DE JULIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
I've just been sorting out my box of oil paints, to see which ones to store (you can't travel with oil-paints because they're flammable ... I found that out the hard way at LAX in 2003) and I found this very small and very old tube of Windsor & Newton cadmium scarlet. It was given to me by Rob McLeod in about 2002 and there was a point where I was mixing a brush-hair-worth of it through every colour I used to paint with. It gave the colours a beautiful smoky, hazy quality to them, which was needed for the paintings I was painting around 2004 - 2006 that had primarily white, neutral backdrops.
I've bought newer tubes of this exact brand and colour, for exorbitant amounts of money, but none of them have matched the pigment quality of this tiny tube.
Thanks Rob!

MIERCOLES, EL TRIENTE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
ANOTHER WORK I'M MISSING LOOKING AT: Helm Ruifrok's The Virgin and St Anne (after Da Vinci), (1999, conte on paper, acquired 1999). We always have this hanging in our bedroom, except for it's brief stint in a friends lounge while we were overseas in 2008.

MARTES, EL VEINTINUEVE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Now that we're unofficially in transit, I'm really starting to miss the 'familiar' things that we used to look at everyday, notably many of our artworks. One of the works I seem to be missing the most is a set of glazed ceramic tiles by Scott McFarlane that used hang on an adjacent wall to the stove in our kitchen. While cooking, these works would keep me company and I'd be drawn into their individual symbolism.
Jo and I selected these particular works one night after dinner and several beers with Scott. I'm really pleased with our selection as it seems to balance symbols of abstraction, parochial New Zealand, Western art history and contentious contemporary events and paranoia.

LUNES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
The image below arrived in my inbox last week - a nice surprise to see one of my Whiteworld drawings framed up and hanging on the wall at my friend's house in the Wairarapa. The drawing is a profile of Joseph Merrick, aka 'The Elephant Man' (you need to scroll about 3/4th's down the page and he's in the left-hand column).
He's probably one of the original '27 Club' although he wasn't a musician, but an amazing model-maker and a Freak-Show curiosity.
I do like the casio-tone on the floor - Obviously a photographer has taken this image.

DOMINGO, EL VEINTISIETE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ

The past year here in Whanganui so far has been a cyclic year. By that I mean my work has picked up on older aspects of my practice, including specific compositions used in the past and a rejigging and re-interpretation of symbolism. When this happens, the progression in my work feels like it's slowing down, but the intricacy of the reassessing of symbolism is very rewarding at the time of drawing and painting.
The cycles seem to be in three-year spells, the weird thing is that I find myself rummaging through all my sketchbooks, dating back to 1995 and redrawing images into my most recent sketchbook without realising it, so I guess that's the main reason for the re-infection of older ideas. I guess you never totally empty out a vein that you're mining at the time, so you go back to it, reinvestigate, mine a bit more.
Serendipity also seems to play a big part too, as in the image below for instance. I've drawn over the etching below to give it new life and to try out some new compositional ideas that I've been using in recent retablos. The original etching, titled Faith Waste was copied from a drawing of the same titled from 2004, now in a private collection in Wellington (scroll down about 3/4's of the page to view). Recently, when sending some works to a gallery, I found some of the test prints of the etching in a folder, so I decided to draw on them. One of the results is shown below.

SABATO, EL VEINTISEIS DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Just a reminder that the Creative Hawke's Bay Invitational Exhibition is finishing this Sunday at the Hastings City Art Gallery. Below is a detail on one of the works I have in the exhibition, Rectángulo De Tiempos Del Final (2009, Oil on wood and a leaf; scrimshaw and nails, 325mm x 770mm x 90mm).
The half head/half skull is a classic I've been using a lot recently, a pertinent symbol of mortality, copied from a very small German bone carving I saw at the Met in NYC. Since then, I've found many images of the half and half kind, some of the best are 19th century Italian wax sculptures, used as medical guide, I believe. The dodo is also a great symbol for mortality, first used at artschool in a set of drawings in 1997. I started reusing the dodo in my paintings in 2003. He's holding a bank note in his beak and is standing on Charlemagne's chalice.

VIERNES, EL VEINTICINCO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
I am attempting (in vane, I might add at the moment) to photograph the majority of pages out of my 'resource books'. As we're leaving the bulk of our book collection in storage, I think I'll feel a bit lost without all those beautiful art tomes to leaf through. Although the majority of the books I'm photographing seem to be about Spanish Baroque painting and Mexican folk art, one of my most coveted books is 'Fra Angelico: The San Marco Frescoes' by Paolo Morachiello. I had to buy a hardback copy of this edition after visiting the cloisters at San Marco Chapel in Florence. A truely magnificent place that taught me alot about composition, pictorial space; colour and line.
Below is a couple of double page spreads of The Mocking of Christ by Fra Angelico. It has to be my favourite fresco ever - the disembodied hands and head, whipping and spitting at Christ is truely abstract in its concept. Throughout the book, are full scale detail reproductions of indivdual frescoes, making it the prefect resource book.
*yikes! I just checked out the book on Amazon and it's USD$695.00! I'm glad I bought it when I did*

JUEVES, EL VEINTICUATRO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Friends of ours are selling their villa in Wellington and we checked out the photos of their abode. Like my penchant for looking through New Zealand House and Garden to see what art is hanging on the walls of the featured houses, I got a buzz seeing a few of my works on the walls on the website house-listing. Along with my work, there is a James Robinson woodcut, a Saskia Leek vinyl painting, Paul Maseyk bottles, Leigh Mitchell-Anyon photographs and a Simon Kaan print.

MIERCOLES, EL VEINTITRES DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
In an effort to make our move a bit more seamless, I've painted a couple of smaller versions of paintings I really like (that I've painted) to take over with me. They are tending to be direct scaled copies at present (as below: a copy of 'Half & Half, in stock at Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington), but of course things change subtly when scaled either up or down, so I've had to assess them, not only on their own merits as autonomous works, but also whether they have something of what the first work had, which of course is a dilemma as then you have to work out what it was about the original painting that you really liked.
I think this one is OK and I like it on a smaller scale, but I might make a few minor adjustments for my own sanity. I've given this one a different title though - between learning and reading up recently on the US constitution and assessing this painting compositionally, I thought the title 'Checks and Balances' would suit it. The scales are a good 'in' to the symbolism, but I couldn't bring myself to painting a blind-fold on the figure's face.

MARTES, EL VEINTIDOS DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
JAMES CASWELL TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: I received this email update the other day:

"...It's my belief that in a world of evaporating value...
ancient objects will forever maintain an importance.
Being genuine expressions of extinct cultural practices
and reflecting spiritual beliefs long disappeared,
they're products of vanished artistic traditions
whose significance will never diminish.

Though we're awash in contemporary ignorance and
venality they exist in a realm secure from our
near-sighted and narrow-minded modern society.
Drowning in mega-tons of worthless junk destined for
the dumpster, we're challenged to find anything that
truly expresses who we are and what we believe..."

This is one of Jim's harder-line commentaries, yet they are still words that resonate strongly with me as he's talking directly to my context and time. Rather than have a cry about it, isn't it better to realise that these are true words and, as purveyors of culture, work harder to make better images? When I read this email, it reminded me of a Smithsonian lecture by Dave Hickey about the evils of Creationism - ideas that he's been kicking around for a while, soon be be released in a new publication.
Anyway, below is an example of one of James' new listings on his website.

LUNES, EL VEINTIUNO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Happy Winter Solstice! I've just finished a copy of a print I made in 2004 called 'Pictish Adam and Eve'. The print (left) was an etching but only made it to an edition of 5 as the 'creve bites' (I believe that's what they are called) weakened the etched lines and many of them collapsed, making for a very ugly print of missing lines, mottled tones and embossing rather than ink lines. This was caused by me using a needle to scribe the lines and having too many lines close together, weakening the 'proud' areas of the plate.
Someone was very interested in acquiring this image, but since the last print of the edition was sold in 2006, I decided to redraw the 'print' for them (right). I'm happy how it came out and I like the idea of a drawing mimicking a print rather than the other way around (a stigma that burdens printmaking). Even though I was constantly sharpening my pencil every 4 or 5 lines, I couldn't get the incredibly fine detail that is seen on the etching. I'd be happy to make single etching prints just to get the fine lines.
To accentuate the etching-look of the drawing, I added toned lines around the frame of the print to show where the edge of the plate is and also random lines and marks on the backdrop of the image to mimic the nuances of the original plate tone.

DOMINGO, EL VEINTE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Here's Matthew in front of Caravaggio's The Inspiration' and 'Marytrdom of St Matthew' at the San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, 2008. I got into the habit of walking into whatever looked like a church, to see what treasures it held. This one was one of the best surprises.
The paintings are lit by a simple lighting system that is activated by depositing a euro coin. I kind of prefered it in the dark as it probably gave a more of the impression of the figure coming out of the darkness / cavity deep in the picture plane. Frank Stella loves these paintings and uses them to illustrate his ideas of Working Space in his lecture series available in book format now.
It was, of course, hats off in the sacred space.

SABATO, EL DIECINUEVE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
CARAVAGGIO WAS FILLED FULL OF LEAD: Scientists discover Caravaggio's bones. Info here.

VIERNES, EL DIECIOCHO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Opening Friday night in Wellington is Peter Ireland's exhibition, Return of the Native - Imagining Katherine Mansfield at Gilberd Marriott Gallery (1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place). The exhibition features 12 paintings relating to the influences on and of Mansfield in New Zealand and her displacement from her birthplace.
The works will be online on Peter's website midday Friday.

JUEVES, EL DIECISIETE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A 'hidden' work. A retablo about Johnny Cash. Hidden, as it's a work that has and will never be exhibited.

MIERCOLES, EL DIESEIS DE JUNIO, VEINTE
GETTING GASSED- Thomas Kinkade, who I've posted on before here has been arrested on an alleged DUI felony. Here's the brilliant 'Endorized' image I posted earlier.

MARTES, EL QUINCE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A new retablo, just completed. It's a monochrome and reversed version of this retablo I completed late last year. In the fashion of my last few posts, I guess the Christ figure should be called 'El Cristo del Gran Sello de los Estados Unidos de América', as the Christ figure is crucified on the partial remains of the obverse of the Great Seal. I've used the symbol on the reverse of The Great Seal many times, so I thought it would be good to tackle the more known symbol on the front. You can see past versions I tried here and here.
This painting is very much about moving overseas, as have been the last several works I've completed over the past month. Also, I've just about completed a work titled 'Checks and Balances'.

LUNES, EL CATORCE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
I've just discovered that there's a copy of El Cristo Negro de Esquipulas at St Elizabeth Parish in Oakland, California; about a half an hour BART ride from where we'll be living when we arrive in the USA. It will be great to see this copy until we get to travel to Guatemala to see El Cristo Negro in the Basilica de Esquipulas.

BELOW: Parishioners reverently lift the Black Christ, shrouded in
incense, into its permanent setting at St. Elizabeth Church
(photo by Jose Luis Aguirre)

DOMINGO, EL TRECE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Quiro Catano was the sculptor who carved the original Senor de Esquipulas in 1595. The inscription says 'In this illustrious city, the master of the colony, Quirio Catano, sculptor of the miraculous Black Christ of Esquipulas. For the eternal memory we give tribute: the committee of the fourth centenary with its headquarters in Esquipulas and to revisit'

SABATO, EL DOCE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Here is another version of El Cristo Negro, this one titled El Senor de Esquipulas, Esquipulas being the specific town in Guatemala where El Cristo Negro first appeared.
The script below the image says something to the effect of 'V.R. of the Miraculous Image of the Senor de Esquipulas who is venerated in the School of Santa Cruz of Queretaro'. The school or college of Santa Cruz (Saint Cross) of Queretaro was the first college established in Mexico to train priests and missionaries. The 'V.R.' at the start of the script is most likely a Latin abbreviation for 'Votum Ricevute' or 'Reciept' as many of the early Italian ex-votos often had the abbreviation G.R. (Grazie Ricevute) or V.F.G.A. (Votum Fecit Gratiam Accepit) which mean thanks for the graces or favours received or the votive gift done (and) the mercy has been received.
This particular retablo is available for purchase from Colonial Arts in San Francisco. If you're keen on the work, make sure you mention my name to James!

VIERNES, EL ONCE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
I painted the ex-voto on the left while in Las Vegas. I based the figure of Christ on an ex-voto I had recently purchased from Jim Caswell at Historia Antiques in Santa Monica. The Christ-figure is commonly known as El Cristo Negro, the origin coming from a vision of a dark-skinned crucified Christ in Guatamala in the 1500's. A crucifix of El Christo Negro was commissioned later that century in honour of the visitation. Another possible reason for the name is that years of worship in the tiny hut would have coated the crucifix with a patina of candle soot.
Unfortunately, the text on the ex-voto on the right, painted in 1940, has disintegrated as it was written in ink. This shows that the ex-voto was part of a production line of images painted, then the devotion was added at a later time, after the client had selected which saint to make their devotion to.

JEUVES, EL DIEZ DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Whoops, I missed my cue for this particular image: it's a detail of the poster for the Sex Pistols seminal gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. I was born on this day, 1976. Apparently in the crowd were the members of the soon-to-be Warsaw, who turned into Joy Division and to a lesser extent, Mick Hucknell from Simply Red. Needless to say, the effects of the Pistols playing in Madchester wasn't all positive.

MIERCOLES, EL NUEVE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to collate and order a whole swathe of ephemera in amongst the packing and moving.
I found this article in my files and I believe, was the only reportage on my residency at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Scotland in 2003. It goes to prove that newspaper reportage cliches are endemic the world over.
I still keep in touch with Sarah Christianson, now living in California and exhibiting her photographs widely; I recently heard from Nicky Bird, that she was going to be NZ and Australia researching photographic archives. Unfortunately, I've lost contact with Henry, Jason and Woody.
At some point, in the not-to-distant future, I'm hoping to return to Arbroath and refamiliarise myself with Hospitalfield House (and its great director, Willie Payne) and the surrounds of Arbroath village.

MARTES, EL OCHO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Here is the original image that I used as raw material for the previous post. I'm not sure when I saw the image for the first time, but it is reproduced in an Australian photographic catalogue called Mirror With A Memory, I think by Helen Ennis. I bought a copy of the catalogue at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra while in holiday in Australia in 2003.

HAPPY QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY (EL SIETE DE JUNIO)
The closest I have to a 'royal' image - Pauline Hanson wrapped up in an Australian flag on a marble capital.
I can't remember what the title of this painting is, nor who owns it but it was shown as part of 'Panoramas and Painted Objects' at Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, 2001.

JUEVES, EL TRES DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
We're off to Wellington for a few days, back soon. We'll be at Happy (cnr of Tory and Vivian streets) on Friday night for The Tenderizers and Butterfly P!G, starting at 8.30pm, then at the Southern Cross on Saturday night. Photos to follow.

Bank Ballance, 1999, oil on canvas, private collection, Wtgn

MIERCOLES, EL DOS DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ Now that we are unofficially in transit, questions keep coming into my head on what it is going to be like to make work in a new country. Given, I've made and painted a few artworks overseas (6 large canvases in Arbroath, Scotland in 2003 and several ex-votos and cruz de las animas works while in Las Vegas in 2008) but this time, I'll be needing to exhibit them and because I'm in a new context, things might alter my perceptions on my practice - or perhaps, that's what I'm hoping. One of the main reasons of being in the States, especially on the West Coast, is that I'll be around quality examples of Spanish Colonial Painting and Mexican Folk Art. When we arrive in The USA, we're flying straight up to San Francisco to housesit for some friends in Oakland. I'm really looking forward to being in San Fran as there's the Palace of Legion of Honor, the dealer gallery scene on Geary St, but most importantly Colonial Arts, a gallery in the middle of North Beach that specialises in Spanish Colonial Painting and Mexican Folk Art. The gallery is run by James Eddy, who I met in July 2008 when we took our second trip up the West Coast.

Photography by Tania Soderman

MARTES, EL UNO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
This past weekend, we shifted out of our flat in central Whanganui and now we're unofficially in transit, housesitting for a friend on the other side of the river. We had our internet prematurely cut off, so I haven't been able to upload any posts.
We'll be here for 5 weeks before driving over to Hawkes Bay and catching a flight out to LA via Auckland.
I've set up a make-shift studio for a the few weeks we're housesitting so I can finish off a couple of the works that I didn't complete in the Chronicle building studio.

VIERNES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ

Tomorrow is the last day of my exhibition, BYO: Hasta Luego Matt Couper at PAULNACHE in Gisborne.
If you haven't gotten around to it yet, you can view the exhibition here.
The exhibition features over 140 works dating back to 1998 and provides a visual chronology from my first group show in Auckland in 1999 to my most recent work featured in Represent at PAULNACHE in March this year.

Price-sheets are available by emailing either Gene Paul or Matt Nache at now@paulnache.com

Below is a photograph to show the scale of some of the works and the installation as a whole. Somethings it's near impossible to get a good idea of the size and dimensions of specific works and installations.

JUEVES, EL VEINTISIETE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ

The large painting on the wall behind the two people on the left is called A Faux-Construction Epitomizing Some Western Ideas of Whanau Through Trompe L'oeil Frivolity (2008, oil on linen and plastic, 1400 x 1030mm). You can see more images of it here on my blog or here on the PAULNACHE website.
This is a favorite painting of mine as has all the hallmarks of what I'm interested in - frames within frames, loose painting and tight painting, illusionistic objects that sit on the picture plane (in this case, two crossed 2 x 4's) multiple narratives in the painting, genealogy, painting influences and supportive friends.
On this painting, I glued on, painted over and integrated several CDs into the composition. They were lying around in my studio, CD's that I didn't listen to anymore or so badly scratched, they wouldn't play on my stereo system. I used them as a way to solve compositional issues in the painting. It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction to subside desperation and, in this case, it seemed to work. I've tried it again since, but it didn't work a second time. I guess the muse was on my side that day.

MIERCOLES, EL VEINTISEIS DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
The three paintings on metal on the back wall of this photo are the main works that I'd like to complete before leaving New Zealand in July. They feel like they are possible keepers - I only feel that now, as they come from a long time ago in a conceptual developmental sense; physically they've been around for quite a while (since the end of 2009) and I'm happy to take one off the wall, add to it, place it back on the wall an just let it set there - wondering what they will possibly look like once they are finished.
I painted the body in the painting on the left during the filming of The Gravy episode (you can see it at the 2-minute mark in the film). I was painting it for the camera so it was rushed, meaning I'll have to repaint it to get it up the the standard I want.
Even though I don't know how they will ultimately look when finished, I know that I want them to be a triptych, the heads will be buildings and each work will need individual dynamism, yet work as a whole. Now that we're physically and mentally 'in transit', perhaps the works will take a different direction.
That's enough to stress over at present.

MARTES EL VEINTICINCO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
STAND CORRECTED - After looking for the original drawing of the crucified Christ on the USA seal in my sketchbook from 2006, I found text beside the drawing, written in at a later date - referring to the ex-voto below which over the last two years, I'd forgotten about. I painted the ex-voto while living in Las Vegas in May, 2008.
The text below the image explains its 'motives'.
It's never seen NZ soil as it is in stock at Corey-Helford Gallery in Culver City, LA at present. I'm looking forward to reuniting with it when we fly back there in July.
This particular painting shows a valuable chain between the original sketch, the development of the notion in The Birth Of Death (mentioned in yesterday's post) and my 'keeper' retablo called The End Of The Beginning Of The End. To further its geneology, I started a grisaille, mirror-image version of the retablo on Monday - It's also a great way of maintaining sanity whilst shifting out of our home.