Chapters
by Daniel Stuelpnagel
Chapter Two
untitled # 91 (2000)
collection of Chip and Cindy Padgett (Baltimore)Land, sea and sky. One of the most powerful, primordial compositions that can register in the mind of any sighted, gravity-bound creature.
Along with trees in the forest and mountains on the horizon this is one of the compelling visions of our natural world that encompasses all of the elements, and defines our fundamental notions of horizontal and vertical.
This was the first painting I sold for more than a thousand dollars. It was purchased for $1,500 by collectors who acquired several other pieces and also sponsored and hosted a wonderful home show for me in 2000, a year when I was becoming more prolific, creating more than thirty paintings while still intermittently working part-time jobs.
What was the driving force that enabled me to suddenly triple my output ? A combination of things, including participating in exhibitions, gaining sales, and thus confidence in the value of my work, and more.
I experienced a growing fascination with the duality between the seascapes and geometric abstractions, two somewhat disparate styles that seemed complementary or convergent.
I was leading the work by choosing to stretch either squares or long horizontals, so intention would propel me to tackle a series of geometric abstractions or seascapes and alternate back and forth. It was confusing.
untitled # 75 (2000)
collection of Bradford Nixon
(Washington, DC)Since studying with Dan Dudrow at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore between 1991 and 1993, I had created a foundation of work based on this dualistic interplay, and as the work accelerated, I began to see a connection.
I envisioned the seascapes as minute details of the geometric works, small sections extracted from a larger and more intricate whole. And the hard-edged grid squares, with their dynamic yet highly-ordered structures, became interpretable as crystalline molecular models, perhaps grains of sand on the beach. It seemed to me that it had a great deal to do with scalability and interconnectedness.
untitled # 86 (2000)
collection of Jeff D’Eramo and
Margaret Anderson
(Washington, DC)I was working full-time at a frame shop in Adams Morgan for the summer, bicycling seven to ten miles a day after work, and generally enjoying a low-budget but very happy existence.
A piece on canvas came through the frame shop that needed to be re-stretched, and the old six by four foot stretcher was being discarded in favor of one custom-cut to a slightly smaller size, so I got a free stretcher and began work on the largest piece I had done since college.
# 86 took about a year to complete, and represents a powerful effort to unify the emerging theme of scalability with the integration of geometric and organic elements.
I showed this piece along with five or six smaller works at the Adams Morgan Festival, and when Jeff came and talked about it and inquired about the price, I told him it was five thousand. As he stood there without saying a word, I steadily came down, negotiating against myself, until we reached an agreement for a thousand, and a good sale was made.
Given the scarcity of large pieces in my oeuvre during my early career, this pivotal piece is unique and remarkable. My efforts to integrate the natural and harmonious elements of earth, sea and sky with the technology-inspired and highly calculated grid-based works were becoming successful.
untitled # 84 (2000)
collection of Chip and Cindy Padgett (Baltimore)I continued to break the boundaries of conventional use of color, developing the skills acquired in studying some of the master works of the 20th century and the broad possibilities they implied.
I consistently took chances, even as I created paintings in representational and logical palettes, I also ventured out into strange and surrealistic realms, determined not to get boxed in to doing just aesthetically pleasing work.
I was influenced by looking at the works in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, especially the East Building, as well as the Hirshhorn Museum, the Philips Collection, and countless galleries and other venues; I was becoming immersed in the world of art.
untitled # 73 (2000)
collection of Oggi Ogburn
(Washington, DC)This piece won the jury award for Best Abstract Painting in the competition at the Adams Morgan Festival. One of the jurors was gallery owner Norman Parish, of Parish Gallery in Georgetown, where I had been going regularly to openings since showing in Blues Alley in 1998.
It took me a couple of years of going to the same galleries over and over, to study the scene, the people, and the art work, before I had the nerve to show Norman a book of slides.
Once I had received this jury award, he had obviously seen my geometric work, and was interested in it. I had spent the time to research his aesthetic interests by attending his shows, so when I finally approached him after having met him a few times, he was receptive, and indicated his agreement to schedule a solo exhibition at some point in time during the next couple of years.
I was elated ! Driving up Wisconsin Avenue, I stopped at Chadwick’s and sat on the deck and got a shrimp cocktail and a gin and tonic, celebrating what I believed would be the first real step into the art world I was beginning to see. Little did I realize that it would get more and more complex, and that I would later look back on those magical days spent painting alone in my flat with a combination of nostalgia and disbelief.
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