Verdigris

Verdigris Triptych, 2012

Verdigris oozing in The Prague Metro.

I am getting excited for my show in Denver at the Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design. I will be showing a collection of tassel-based sculptures in solid colors, and collages that echo them. The biggest will be the green group, with a collage called the Vertigris Triptych. It is finished now, and is 86" long.

http://www.rmcad.edu/event/temporary-institute-emancipated-objects

New Collages, Let's Get Tropical

These new collages are inspired by my trip to Miami and Key West in the winter of 2010. I started making them tentatively then, and have now come back to them in earnest. Instead of exclusively using images from recycled luxury magazines, I began to combine them with images from found National Geographics of undersea creatures like tropical sea slugs and octopuses. Octopi? Octopod? One of the old Polish men selling mysterious junk and treasure every day on Manhattan Avenue has become my Greenpoint magazine benefactor. He likes to be involved. He keeps secret vintage copies of Nat Geo for me under a tarp in his flatbed.

One of the older collages has been purchased by Solange Knowles (yesss), and three of them are brand spanking new as of this week. I don't know if it's the cool fall air, making a sale, having my studio table in the apartment, or having a new show to work towards, but I am pretty into it. I should also credit a great studio visit with Erno Enkenberg last month, just before he boarded his flight back to Finland, that was pretty inspiring. I loved his idea that I make various series of collages, culled from different types of magazines: nature, science, fashion, art, etc. Thanks man.

Shout out to G. Herms.

Collector List

Open Studios is Tomorrow

George Herms Broke My Heart from 3000 Miles Away

The LA artist George Herms, who has been making work since the 1950's, started making collages last year. When I prop-styled a Paper Magazine fashion shoot for a friend last month, I was given a courtesy copy of the previous issue. In a taxi on my way home, I discovered what I thought was my own work on the back page. It was, in fact, a George Herms. After some more research, I discovered that all of Herms work is wonderful (installation, sculpture, collage, etc), and all of the press he's been getting is so great for an overlooked artist in the cannon.

However, it also sent me into a tailspin. His new foray into collages look exactly like the collage series I have been working on since 2008. Now, to be fair, there are some differences. Where I let recognizable objects sometimes creep into the collage, he does not. My pieces therefore have more narrative content. He is looser and more fluid with his resulting edges and shapes, and I have started to control them more. His collages may be a bit better than mine in their fluidity and total rejection of the source imagery's origins. His collages are also more directly relatable to his found object sculptures, which he doesn't disguise and alter with resins and paints and plasters, as I do.

I think the takeaway here is that as a younger artist, I must accept the fact that I am not yet visible enough in my career to be recognized in the discussion of his new work. He should gain recognition for his long and disciplined practice, and maybe I should be more nimble – I should be able to switch feet and dance a little differently in response to these recent developments. It burns, but it's maybe it's a challenge.

Windham

Herms

Windham

Herms