Chapters
by Daniel Stuelpnagel
Chapter Seven
untitled # 153 (2002)
private collection (Sacramento)When I returned to the east coast, after my first successful west coast gallery exhibition, it was as if the trip to the islands were emerging again after a frenetic series of geometric abstractions. Anyone viewing my portfolio at that time might think they were looking at the work of two different artists.
Was the tranquility of the seascape something I was holding in reserve and channeling, or was it revealing my immediate experience ? I certainly felt like there were times when I was bringing out beautiful, tranquil paintings, and I did not necessarily feel completely at peace.
And plenty of the geometrics, with all of their inherent contradictions and powerful inclinations towards ordered chaos, emerged at times when I felt perfectly happy and at play.
So the appearance of the paintings and the content of my life was not necessarily falling into the interpretation to which I was tempted to subject it, certainly not in a timeline that necessarily related to the trajectory of the story.
untitled # 154 (2002)
private collection (Arlington)This was one of the pieces donated for a charitable fund-raising auction in Washington, DC, for the ILH housing project, providing assisted-care living facilities for disabled residents. Beginning in 1999, I donated paintings for arts group fund-raisers, public television, AIDS patient care, cancer research, reading programs for children, and other beneficial efforts.
Often the proceeds were one hundred percent for the recipient group, and I was happy to be making a tangible contribution, and also pleased to be able to attend special events and see my pieces sold at auction, which I felt provided a good indication of interest and value.
untitled # 155 (2002)
collection of Carolyn Eddins (Maui)Getting reacquainted with Baltimore and Washington after ten months in California (and one in Ecuador), I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted by a collector who found me and my art work through the web site.
I had been continuously posting digital photographs of the latest paintings and additional portfolio information, and when Carolyn found the link from the Sacramento gallery web site, located my web site, and we both turned out to be in Baltimore at the time, she ended up purchasing two brand-new seascapes for twelve hundred dollars.
That was enough to get me started again looking for a studio in Washington, in preparation for the Parish Gallery solo exhibition, which Norman had scheduled for January, 2003, just a few months away.
untitled # 165 (2002)
collection of John and Susan Clarke
(New York)I had been intermittently using pre-stretched canvases and some various different grades of paint, as well as stretching canvases with a staple gun. As I prepared to enter into representation with a prominent Georgetown gallery, I was determined to make a permanent and complete transition to using only museum-quality materials, stretching canvases with tack hammer and copper tacks, and stocking my studio with Golden acrylics.
This was made easier with the support of my family in Baltimore, all of whom bought paintings over the years, purchased art supplies for me as gifts, and offered a tremendous amount of support and encouragement.
Since I had relinquished a very good career path to pursue this dream, the intervening years were a source of confusion and anxiety for many of those close to me; I had no clear plan, and it seemed like too difficult a thing to emerge at age thirty and launch a successful art career.
So I was at various turns appreciative and dismissive of the perceived confidence of those around me. It took some time for me to recognize that this ebb and flow of confidence was in fact my own, reflected back to me.
untitled # 168 (2002)California was with me all along. By leaving the safety of my home ground and making a foothold out west, I had changed myself. I got some new looks, had new conversations, made new friends.
I became part of the DC art scene, and re-launched my career yet again.
“You’re back from California !” friends said, gleefully.
I had had one blowout house party in my old studio apartment before leaving in 2001, at # 409A up in Adams Morgan (that is where the web site URL came from). When I returned a year later, people were still talking about it.
I saw the artist Tariq Tucker, a fellow ArtOMatic exhibitor, at an exhibition opening on M Street one evening, after I had just signed the lease on my new studio in Mount Pleasant.
“So,” he inquired, “what are you up to ?”
I said, “I’m getting ready to have a solo exhibition at Parish Gallery in January…”
His face went flat with astonishment. “You are a bad m*%*#&*f*[>er”, he said with great seriousness.
I guess that was one of those moments when I knew, that, despite four years of being almost broke, I was absolutely on the right track.
exhibitions
about the artist
content Copyright © 2007 - Daniel Stuelpnagel - all rights reserved_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
