Chapters
by Daniel Stuelpnagel
Chapter Eleven
untitled # 261 (2004)
collection of Funk & Bolton, Attorneys (Baltimore)Two steps forward, one step back, to pick up something I had kept on the shelf. I had often felt like the geometric abstractions were piling up in my creative mind.
Maybe I thought that I was not being sufficiently prolific, or that the seascapes had been a diversion from these more intricate compositions. The truth is, each painting is part of a series of long-term developments, and at the same time, each piece must be able to stand alone and encompass the broader creative gesture.
Each series and body of work created context for the other, developing musical rhythms and counterpoint to give life to these colorful compositions.
untitled # 265 (2004)
collection of Funk & Bolton, Attorneys (Baltimore)This series of geometrics began with # 261 and unfolded in a focused group of a dozen pieces, following that basic composition with various permutations, each involving a different color palette.
untitled # 267 (2004)
collection of George Hershman (Baltimore)An austerity of subtle impasto and elegantly-composed grids spiraling out of the boundaries of the fixed ninety-degree angles that had previously anchored the square compositions, with circular brush strokes emanating out from the center, these multi-layered abstractions hold the viewer’s concentration.
Emblematic and narrative works evocative of the conflicting emotions and experiences through which I had been traveling, these pieces embody the concept of Exploratory Searchery; the feeling of delving into life through the creative process simultaneous with travel and exploration, and making the parallel journey to one’s geographical movements in the studio, yielding fully-developed works of art using an object-oriented model with the capability to facilitate intersubjective transference.
Certainly, I felt as though this was a profound development, bringing as it did a recapitulation of several years’ experience in a handful of strong paintings. And I began to see a connection leading from the geometric structural framework and its earlier interpretations to the foundation upon which I wanted to continue to develop elaborate yet refined visions of the natural world; sea and sky, and, finally, land.
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