Tuesday, January 16, 2007

gallery news

I've recently created two "grand exposures"...they are on display and are for sale at saferis art gallery in bartlesville, ok...


"road's way" 257" x 79" (21' 5" x 6' 5") 10 panels

another route 66 inspired composition...as you may have guessed route 66 continues to be one of my favorite subjects...driving the old road has a hypnotic effect on me and my work...it is almost as if I am transported to another time...it allows me to slow down to wander and explore...I was even able to follow a portion of the old road on my way to the gallery in bartlesville where this piece is on display (bartlesville is located about 40 miles north of tulsa, oklahoma)...

on this trip I discovered an original stretch of the old route I had previously missed (and it is very easy to miss)...the first time I came this way I almost stumbled upon it, but thought I was lost, so I turned around and wandered in another direction until I ran into a more recognizable section of the old road...heck, you find yourself on a mostly gravel road almost too narrow for cars to pass, it was raining and it was dark...turning around made perfect sense...what I didn't realize was that this was part of the original one lane road...they only had enough money to build one lane from one end of oklahoma to the other or build two lanes half way...they chose one lane...and this was part of that original one lane...of course, a number of accidents, the popularity of the road and other factors remedied this short coming rather quickly and the second lane was added almost immediately...however, the road was being constantly rerouted so it appears this was one of the earliest sections to be bypassed...so there it was, this single lane of patched concrete flanked by gravel wandering about five miles through the middle of nowhere...it was a slow go, bouncing along at about 5 mph, and, as I was about to find out, the perfect route for tractors involved in last minute harvesting...at the end of this section I was rewarded with a faded "route 66" insignia painted on the old concrete...it was not a dream...


"elevated blues" 129" x 72 (10' 9" x 6') 7 panels

the el, chicago's elevated transit system, is supported by an impressive steel structure...it is the very symbol of industrial might at a glance...the broad beams with seams of rivets dwarf the cars, people and buildings it nudges out of its way as it winds through neighborhood after neighborhood, racing toward the loop, a section of central downtown chicago nicknamed for the way this very structure "loops" it...at its core, "elevated blues" features all the elements that make up this grand structure...you can see the beams, the rivets, the paint, the ironwork as it pushes itself from one panel of canvas to the next...

check out additional examples of "grand exposures"...