Katherine Ace

BRIAR ROSE BIRTHDAY  oil on canvas

FISHERMAN'S WIFE  Oil and charcoal on canvas

FITCHER'S FEATHERED BIRD (with eggs)  Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

FROG KING  Oil/alkyd with paper and small objects on canvas

TALES FROM THE GROUND UP  Oil/alkyd with paper on canvas

There is a narrative aspect to Katherine Ace's paintings that does not stem solely from the fact that many of them are based on the tales of the brothers Grimm. It's rather that they function in very much the same manner as the stories.  By juxtaposing unexpected and often improbable elements they create associative possibilities that encourage interpretation and meaning. Although some of the paintings have clearly illustrative aspects, picking specific visual imagery from the source material, illustrations usually interpret a text more literally. But underneath the literal imagery of folktales lies a bottomless well of meaning. As the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim pointed out in his book "The Uses of Enchantment", the message of a fairytale may change many times even for a single listener or reader depending on age and experience. Each story is so loaded with images and ideas that one must construct a relationship between it and one's personal experience in order to develop an interpretation. Interpretations will vary as widely as the audience. Ace's paintings work much the same way, attempting to trigger a kind of narrative instinct. A painting cannot tell a story on its own, being only a static image frozen in time. But stories bloom in the minds of human beings like wildflowers in spring. We dream them. We select moments in our past and ignore others in order to create stories about who we are. Stories define us. At their root, and at the root of all language, and possibly human consciousness itself, lies metaphor. Science is mankind's best tool for creating and discovering knowledge about the world around us. But far older, metaphor, in the guise of language, art and stories is how we create and discover knowledge about ourselves. These are the kind of paintings one could live with for a very long time, allowing their meaning and interpretation to slowly evolve and grow.

There are a lot more to look at on her website. Although there is no easy browsing through the images they're worth the extra little effort.
http://www.katherineace.com/

In other news: I'd like to apologize for the huge delay. Unfortunately I will be gone most of August so don't expect new posts then either. After that, we'll see. I want to continue the blog but may change it in some ways. Maybe add some interviews? Maybe more thematic posts featuring multiple artists. I'm not really sure. But thanks to everyone who's enjoyed following along.

Jackie K. Johnson

"Lures at Mill’s Edge"   2014   oil on canvas   48” x 60”
photo by Aaron Johanson

"Paragraphs Stand in Dance"   2014   oil on canvas   48” x 60”photo by Aaron Johanson

"Stories Off the Hip #2"   2012   oil on canvas   40.75" x 32.75"

"Thinking of Shad"   2010  oil on canvas   48.75" x 60.5"

"Stories Off the Hip #1"   2012  oil on canvas   40.75" x 32.75"

"Hand Work"  1993  clay   12" x 7.5" x 8.5"

Jackie K. Johnson has a new show of work up in May at Laura Russo Gallery in Portland, Oregon, which means I get to actually go see it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen abstract art that suggested a narrative potential to me so strongly. On the face of it, this doesn't make all that much sense. How can abstract art be narrative?

Clearly the abstraction is not complete. There are representational references, not least of which is the three dimensional modeling of the shapes, suggesting that they are not simply shapes, but things, and things have names. The human mind giddily imposes meaning on everything it absorbs. In some of the paintings I see trees and leaves, hills and waterways, and bits of architecture as if they were aerial landscapes or maps.

The reference to landscape is at times unmistakable. But they don't strike me as just any kind of map or scene, mere depictions of a place, but maps as interpretive illustration, depicting journeys or histories. Some even use the imagery of lures and bobbers to accompany the occasional fish like forms that hover cloud-like overhead, lending the pieces even more specificity to their potential interpretation. And yet they remain inscrutably, mysteriously abstract.

Some of her work is organized quite differently, suggesting a kind of arranged presentation, a still life perhaps, but still grounded in a story, like Marsden Hartley's famous "Portrait of a German Officer". The fact that they are titled "Stories off the Hip" gives me hope that my narrative reaction to the work is not so far off base. Some of her older sculptural work is more obviously representational but somehow less narrative and more purely visual. But there is a definite visual consistency between them and the paintings.

I may be way off base about the whole narrative issue but it hardly matters. At any rate, artistic intent isn't everything. Skill and a practiced hand can lead artists to accomplish things beyond their ideas, and preconception can be a restraint on creative potential. At the very least these are a hell of a lot of fun to look at. I'm looking forward to doing so in person very soon.

Kris Manzanares

"Girl at Rest / Speed"  oil on panel  48" x 32"  2014

"Fight"  oil on panel  14" x 14"  2014

"Eggplant"  oil on panel  14" x 18"  2014

"Leaving Austin"  oil on panel  23" x 14"  2013

"The Mustard Eaters"  oil on birch panel  32" x 49"

This is a post that's long overdue. Turns out I started to write one in 2012 but got sidetracked and apparently forgot that it never went up. I knew Kris in Arizona more than 15 years ago when she was a sculptor. Having children made that work more difficult but she found time and space to paint instead, a difficult transformation that she made look all too easy. It also transformed the very nature of her art, much of which involves metaphorical narratives based on the lives of her children. But her work is as much about atmosphere and technique as well. She combines very controlled drawing and realism with expressionistic brushwork, the backgrounds often dissolving into pure abstraction. There's something about them that really captures the bright heat of summer days in the southwest. But whether she's painting figurative psychological narrative, a simple landscape or a still life, they are all clearly echoes of her personal life, the small moments and seemingly insignificant objects that together constitute a life.
You can see much more of her work at krismanzanares.com
and if you happen to be in the Phoenix area go see her work in person at Paul Scott Gallery in Scottsdale.

Julian Bell

"Exercises at Imber"  2004

"Delhi Metro"  2007

"The Skylit Room"

"State Offices, Zadar"

"The Arrest at Nevada Bob's"  1999

Julian Bell is a British painter who enthusiastically embraces representation and narrative and finds plenty of fresh energy in that age old effort. He says he's "interested in the funny things people do on the earth," and that seems like a pretty good summation of his style and subject matter, both of which are widely varied, from landscapes to interiors and figures, depicted in rough gestural drawings or tight realism, rigid formal compositions or looping fish-eyed panoramas. The unifying element through all of it is a fascination with the comically vast range of human behavior and our often bizarre transformation of the landscapes around us. The human world seen through Julian Bell's eyes is neither a horror show, nor is it one of awe and wonder. It may occasionally strike you as one, or neither or both, but ultimately it is simply a fascinating place of unlikely peculiarities. 
Enjoy.

You can see more work at his website: http://www.jbell.co.uk
or at: http://www.stannesgalleries.com/bell.html

Julian Bell is also a writer and author of the recent history of art "Mirror of the World".

I'd like to thank Chester Arnold to pointing me to his work.

Aron Wiesenfeld 3

"The Garden"  36" x 30"  2012

"Greenhouse"  33" x 30"  2012

  

"The Grove"  36" x32"  2012

"The Settlers"  25" x 20"  2012

"Delayed"  31" x40"  2012

Here's another favorite artist of mine that's well worth revisiting. Aron Wiesenfeld's work has always reminded me a little of Chris Van Allsburgh, but the psychological territory of his narratives skews somewhat older and a good deal darker. The whole idea of narrative art is to tell a story. Not the whole story of course. That's beyond the scope of a single static image. But as any connoisseur of film or fiction can tell you, it is often what you are not shown, and the things untold that evoke in us the most profound reactions. Aron Wiesenfeld's paintings are the merest glimpse into elaborate stories that the mind can't help but explore, to fill out and expand upon. His characters are young, most frequently girls, on the cusp of adulthood, and his themes are the themes of youth and coming of age; vulnerability and powerlessness, fear and insecurity, but also, and most importantly, wonder. What more could you want from a story?

If you like these images, do yourself a favor and take the time to look at more. I posted his work twice before in December 2009 and June 2011. And you can see much more at his recently updated website: www.aronwiesenfeld.com

David Blackwood

"March Wesleyville, From Bennetts High Island" 1976

"Fire Down in Labrador"  32" x 20"  1983

"The 'Friend' Bound for Labrador"  20" x 32"  2007

"Hauling Job / Sturges house"

"Visitation on Bragg"  20" x 16"  1997

While I usually post current work by younger newer artists, I am occasionally made aware of my profound ignorance of older successful living artists. David Blackwood is a case in point. His piece "Hauling Job/Sturges House" was featured on the cover of E. Annie Proulx's famous novel "The Shipping News" back in 1993. But I just wasn't paying attention. Well now I am. His narrative prints capture the history, myths, legends and life of the seafaring people of Newfoundland. It's beautiful and haunting.

You can find out more about the artist at his website: www.davidblackwood.com
But if you want to see more work you'll have to troll through the many galleries that carry it. Among them are:
www.gallery78.com
abbozzogallery.com
www.mayberryfineart.com
emmabutler.com
www.winchestergalleriesltd.com

Thank you Mr. McDevitt for the heads up.

Kent Knowles

"Urchin"

"Oddity"  acrylic on canvas  40" x 30"  2013

"Song"  acrylic on canvas  30" x 40"  2013

"Niagara"  acrylic on canvas  40" x 30"  2013

title unknown

Kent Knowles, in addition to being an artist, is also apparently an illustrator, an animator, a screen writer, and a parent. For those of you who don't have kids, that last bit of information makes this list all the more impressive. Despite the limitations of dividing finite time in to a plethora of pursuits, he still manages to be a prolific painter (please pardon the alliteration - it just happened that way, I swear). More importantly though, he's a very talented painter as well. He combines an obvious love of traditional techniques with a contemporary narrative sensibility. That sensibility, often lumped under the loose term of pop-surrealism, often flies in the face of twentieth century post modern concerns, embracing narrative forms, illustrational techniques and dark humor. The illustrative styles that most members of this creative tribe employ are detail oriented and tight. But Mr. Knowles, an illustrator himself, and author of the children's picture book Lucius and the Storm, uses loose confident expressionistic techniques that serves to heightens the effect of his evocative imagery. His characters, frequently young women, seem lost in a perplexing and sometimes frightening, but always fascinating, natural world. Looking back through his early work I began to wonder if his drawing style and subject matter wasn't some kind of odd amalgam of Odd Nerdum's stark surrealism and the large-limbed figures of Picasso's neo-classical phase. Maybe you could throw in a little early Lucian Freud for good measure. But whatever it's sources or inspirations the results are uniquely his own.

To see more visit the artist's website: www.kentknowles.com
You can see original work at Linda Matney Gallery in Williamsbirg, VA
and at Kai Lin Art in Atalanta, GA

Eric Edward Esper

"The Water Crib Fire"  oil on linen  20" x 48"  2013  (from the series - "Chicago Disasters")

"Green Hornet Streetcar Inferno"  oil on canvas  22" x 27"  2013  (from the series - "Chicago Disasters")

"1977 CTA El Train Derailment"  oil on canvas  24" x 36"  2013  (from the series - "Chicago Disasters")

"The Manson Family's Spahn Movie Ranch, 1200 Santa Suzana Pass, Chatsworth, California, 1969"  

oil on canvas  24" x 48"  2009 (from the series - "Cult Temples")

"Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, Jonestown, Guyana, 1978" 

oil on canvas   24" x48"  2009 (from the series - "Cult Temples")

Eric Esper trained as an illustrator, morphed into a landscape painter and finally combined the two to paint eerily objective depictions of the dark side of American History. In his series of "Cult Temples" he painted bird's eye views of the compounds and places of some of the most tragic cults from the Manson Family in California to the Branch Davidians in Waco, Heaven's Gate and more. These paintings are straightforward aerial landscapes. The distance of the scenes keeps the images impersonal. Until you know the title. Then, you look again. We can't help ourselves.  The distance and impersonality of images may be almost too distant, too impersonal. Beyond our pre-existing knowledge of the horror associated with what we are looking at, little else is revealed. It may be that the seeming tranquility of scenes creates a kind of dissonance. But in his latest follow up series of paintings, "Disasters of Chicago", the distance and impersonal point of view is countered by the raw drama of disaster unfolding before our eyes; an El train hovering just off the rails about to fall, the fireball of an explosion just erupting after a fuel truck strikes a street car, and in another, not shown here, the curtain's of a crowded theater have just begun to blaze presaging the tragedy that soon followed at the Iriquois Theater in 1903. In all of his work he takes a historian's interest in accuracy, gathering as much photographic reference as possible in order to re-visualize each event from any angle. I look forward to seeing where Mr. Esper's gaze will next illuminate the darker side of history.

You can see more of his work at ericesper.com
Or you can go see the real thing if you happen to be in Chicago by visiting Linda Warren Projects. His work will be on display there until August 10th and for once I will actually be able to see some of the work I post. Hooray!

Edmund Mathews

"The Offering"  30" x 40"  oil on canvas

"The Gathering"  30" x 40"  oil on canvas

"The Docking"  24" x 30"  oil on canvas

"The Immigrants"  18" x 24"  oil on canvas

"The Excavation"  72" x 36"  charcoal and acrylic on linen

Edmund Mathews began a new series of paintings and drawings just a couple of years ago exploring a world in which giant crates, steamer trunks and other containers loom as powerful symbols of human transience. We place an enormous value on home and stability, but history is a story of movement "by chance, instinct, plan or force" (as the artist says). And when people move they bring whatever material goods they can with them. This luggage, the baggage of human dislocation and relocation, takes on a mythic role in these images, as if they were the most iconic symbols of who we are, telling the story of where we came from and how we got here. The paintings are executed in a very simple and straightforward manner, no pretensions of expressive technique or highly stylized rendering. This simplicity adds to their appeal in my mind, grounding them in a way that seems rooted in common experience. Each image may vary slightly in tone, from the magical wonder in "The Gathering" to the epic struggle of "The Offering". But mostly they seem somewhat detached, mere observation of a universal truth. A truth that may be become more and more familiar to us all in times ahead. For there is a good chance that as climate around the world shifts we will see ever increasing numbers of people on the move, their lives upended and made more precarious by change. And they will cling, as travelers have always clung, to those precious things that they bring with them from their homes.
There's a few more from this series on the artists website: www.edmundmathews.com .
He has plenty of other work as well from sculpture to commercial digital work. Personally I can't wait to see more from this series which was also included in the most recent issue of New American Paintings #105 (congratulations Mr. Mathews!)

Valerie Hird

"Fourth Day"  96 x 72 inches  oil on linen  2011

"Third Day"  96 x 72 inches  oil on linen  2011

"Cycles Al-Andalus" 
48 X 72 inches  oil on linen  2004

A Last Supper

72 x 48 inches  oil on linen  2004

"the vermont book of hours - January"  watercolor, asphaltum on BFK paper 11 x 15 inches  2009

I first came across Valerie Hird's work when I started this blog in 2008. Her work has wandered from abstraction to narrative representation and back again, picking up numerous cues from and references to historical artworks along the way. A Vermont native with a deep connection to the region, she has also traveled extensively, especially through the middle east absorbing and processing other artistic traditions. Her love of myth and story has led her to explore themes as different (and yet strangely related) as religion and super-heroes. Throughout it all she maintains her own stylistic sensibilities; subtly simplified forms, a generally warm and inviting palette and an eye for complex geometric compositions.  There's a lot of work to look through at her website, and a tremendous variety as well but it's all worth it.
www.valeriehird.com
And if you happen to be in New York you could go see her work in person at: www.nohrahaimegallery.com