Bill Hailey is old enough to know better but young enough to think he can still get away with it.

He was raised by missionaries in various Asian countries but gleefully continues to embrace the notion that beauty and the devil are the same thing.

He has a Masters in Painting but wants his money back, with interest.

He thinks there are 3 key rules for making a painting, just as there are for living a fulfilled life, but that unfortunately no one has a clue what they are.

He thinks that when we realize all is madness the mysteries fall away and life stands explained.

He thinks that the secret of life is likely in the sauce and that perhaps love forgives any crime, save that of boredom.

He thinks everything bad may be secretly good for you, and he imagines that the gods laugh when we die.

He believes no knowledge is certain, and that biography lends death a new terror.

He thinks that in this world which tramples truth and drunkards alike if you can’t take a joke you can get
the fuck out of his house.

He thinks our greatest fears lie in anticipation, and he believes in forever, and thereafter.

He thinks that a certain point attitude is all we have left and that if you can read this it may already too late.

The current painting series, MOTIF, explores drawing activity first as a deferred then as a direct marking system. Each painting is a synthesis of these two separate marking styles both based in action, but separated by time and how color is perceived. These two opposing forces achieve a perpetual spatial ambiguity, which is underscored by continually shifting patterns within the picture plane. In the deferred marking system, a translucent layering of previously painted acrylic strokes, the color is prismatic. Color appears as the result of light reflecting back through the transparent strata. The compilation of oil painted gestures floating on the surface creates a tonal calligraphic tapestry of pigment color, whose optical weight contributes to the visual tension in the painting. This fluid script floating along the surface partially conceals and episodically interrupts the rhythms of its underneath counterpart encouraging the viewer to peer through the variable openings of the pigmented lattice in a persistent attempt to reconcile the conflict between these two marking systems in the MOTIF paintings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

FILAMENT, an interaction between light and line, combines the sequenced light simulations of Bill FitzGibbons with Creighton Michael’s dimensional drawing to create an environment, in which the viewer encounters the tangible nature and sensual pleasure of drawing. By employing, as the primary light source, a collaged video loop of both artists captured in various marking activities, FILAMENT fuses the viewer’s participation in real time with the artists’ historical marking segments.  As in their previous collaboration, EELight 2006, FitzGibbons and Michael continue to weave the ethereal with the material transforming the gallery’s visible envelop into multiple layers of shifting space inhabited not only by the physical remnants of drawing activity but also the apparitions of past action. Unlike EELight, where the viewer was simply allowed a vicarious experience observing a fantastic theater of light and objects through a glass barrier, FILAMENT encourages the viewer to physically explore through time, space and sound, the episodic process of drawing.

Painting and Buddhism are old friends and sometimes they go out partying. Once Painting told Buddhism he remembers visiting his grandmother as she lay in an elaborate gold bed, in a mansion with vast tall ceilings and dusty gold curtains.

Painting was five years old and his mother was whispering, holding his grandmother’s hand. Painting was staring at a television image of a tall tree falling while his grandmother lay dying of bone cancer. It is the first visual memory Painting has and he can still see the tree falling silently to the forest floor over and over again.

Buddhism smiles at Painting with eyes glistening and says: “Exactly so. Who the f*ck knows anything? The precious teacup is already broken and the wind is in the trees.”

Maybe it happened that way – maybe it didn’t. If you tell me this is how it happened I’ll tell you I made it up.

Winners of New American Paintings Issue #90

Juried by our own Toby Kamps, Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art for the Menil. This exhibition is in conjunction with Open Studios Press as well as these contributing Houston galleries: Darke Gallery; Hooks Epstein Gallery; McMurtrey Gallery; Betty Moody Gallery; Gallery Sonja Roesch; Anya Tish Gallery; Wade Wilson Gallery.

Artists exhibited at the show will be:

• Mark Aguhar
• Michael Bise
• Gregory Michael Carter
• Joseph Cohen
• Garland Fielder
• Wayne Gilbert
• Jonathan C. Leach
• Marcelyn McNeil
• Howard Sherman
• Joseph Wooten

Objects speak to me. They hint at their own destiny and of the interaction they want to have with other things.

That is the basis of my work as an artist. I call this process Ouija Art. In creating my assemblages and installations, I reinvent or revitalize things that would normally be discarded or overlooked – and in the process become a giver of new life. Objects tell me exactly what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. I am merely a vessel to transpose their thoughts to reality. I am a Ouijist. Found objects play a very important role in my work. Things cross my path for a reason. I hear their stories, appreciate their history and help them reach their next destination.

I am fortunate enough to be able to listen and bring these objects together in a harmonious balance that is agreed upon between the objects themselves and me, the artist. The result is an evolution of new beginnings.

My next show is entitled: BLESS MY SOLE. For this body of work, I was drawn to imagery of shoes, feet and objects that are associated with them. The energy in a well-worn pair of baby shoes connected with me. Thinking of the places they had traveled and their potential filled me with a strong desire to share their story.

Through the process of creating the artwork for this show, I learned a simple truth.

Knowing the journey of someone’s soles will give you insight to the voice of their soul.

In Ready to Rumble? Maria Cristina Jadick employs assemblage, photography, printmaking, performance, video and American iconography to form installation tableaux that engage viewers in interactive dialogue about U.S. Foreign Policy and the conflicting ramifications of U. S. influence in the world. Using language and material from the kitchen, football, and the military, Jadick creates visual narratives. The narratives reflect a range of experience, from the individual to the universal, and ask viewers to ponder and comment on geopolitics, popular culture and consumerism. Familiar objects placed in new contexts become ventriloquists as they speak ominously of the threatening and dangerous consequences that may result wherever economic, military and political power is exercised.

Ms. Jadick presents an art process that enacts Democracy as it provokes dialogue about issues. Her pieces beg analysis of contemporary cultural discourse while exploring the historical locations of the particular moments and spaces in which they are presented. Reflection on the participatory and performative viewing experience itself is also promoted.

Questions are raised as the underlying themes of energy policy, war, social responsibility, current economic challenges and “unintended consequences” are referenced. What constitutes the political in political art? What responsibilities do viewers have to engage in the process? What are the costs of foreign policy decisions that focus on the preservation of our present day lifestyle? What is the significance of corporate and military omnipresence within the football milieu, especially as it metaphorically relates to U.S. foreign policy? What are the consequences of policy decisions that support a primarily fossil fuel based economy in an atmosphere of limited supply, increased demand, and aggressive pursuit of the resource; all amidst the worrying, and increasingly visible specter of environmental degradation?

Ms. Jadick encourages the open exchange of ideas and viewpoints and urges everyone to go out and “ENACT DEMOCRACY!”

“State your case, whatever it is, and may we all learn something from each other! Happy Independence Day!”

I have loved reading comics since I was a child but I actually prefer to think of them as “sequential art.” The thing I like most about them is the gutters, the space between each picture and the next. It is this negative space allows each reader to deviate from the fixed narration of the come and create an experience unique to themselves. It is this sence of sequentiality that I hope to employ both with in individual works and between works. I use everyday objects, objects that are familiar, and subvert our perception of them, whether by changing their material, arrangement or number, i.e. quantity and quality, so that those objects, when placed together allow the viewer a moment of mental free play, as if experiencing the “gutter” between (between what? the art and the everyday object? IF there is only ONE object then there is no between. EXCEPT that there are and then there would be a BETWEEN that one object and ALL the other objects). This free play of the mind, or delight, is what I believe is so special about art and humanity. In this way I see my art as exploring our perception of the world, changing normal things in ways that helps us recapture something fresh and new, that sense of wonder a child has in experiencing the world for the first time.

The work numbered 1 is a hanger with a white cloth draped on it. The hanger is made of mahagony and steel. The cloth is ambiguous as to it’s specific nature. The wooden hanger has been around for years. It is something that could be a concious decision to use or it maybe something you only see in hotels. Perhaps it reminds you of a parents Sunday clothes as it does for me. The satin cloth’s ambiguity may begin to change depending on how you percieve the hanger. It’s white purity may reference alter boys or monastic robes. It may be that it reminds you of special occasions. It’s uncertainty is where the viewer experiences the gutter.

The work numbered 2 is a wall of satin and lead. They appear to be ribbons hung from ornate white pegs. This was created as an edition of sets of 4. The number four has appeared in my work a lot. It can refernce the simplest grid. The grid is an appropriation of minimalism which I usually subvert by subtracting 1, or allowing a blank cell in the grid. When we see repetition we generally look for a pattern. Once that pattern is recognized we tend to loose interest. When there appears to be randomness where we would expect to find a pattern, for instance in a grid or linear sequence, our minds tend to look very hard for a pattern and grasp to create our own sense of order or pattern where none exists. In creating this sequence I used a random number generator to pick the placement of the different lengths of ribbon, the placement of the lead ribbons and even the lengths of each. The numbers 3 and 4 have many different significance, not the least of which are references to the divine and humanity throught the 4 protiens in the genome.

The piece numbered 3 is a violin. I have never been able to create a work that incorporates sound that does not seem forced. This work is actually not a “full” size violin, neither is it a 3/4 student violin. instead it is a treble violin. The smallest in a theorotical family of stringed instruments each one ocatave apart. Only certain performers can play these instruments. This piece doubled as a fairwell to a friend.

The piece numbered 4 is a table with a ruffled satin cloth covering randomly placed pads of post-it’s. There are 4 different colors of post-its, each with a different pencil drawing on the top sheet. One color was randomly ommited from receiving drawings.

The piece numbered 5 appears to be a simple 2 digit counter. The intervals between counts and brightness of each digit is based on my resting heart beat. The problem of time and our experience of it is what I am investigating with this. Einstein was fascinated by time. Time is a problem in physics.

The piece numbered 6 is a bowling pin a ball of gum and a spiral of paper strips. The strips are from a sculpture that housed a paper shredder. On top of the sculpture there was an edition of prints of my signature which the viewer could then put through the shredder. I then glued the strips together to make this spiral. The end of which is hung at my height. The bowling pin is a refernece to games and rules. Game theory as applied to the artist/viewer relationship as well as to my relationship to past me, present me and future me are always important to me when i create work.

The piece numbered 7 is a chair draped in white satin on a low pedestal with a lead object next to it. The chair is an appropriation from several art historical references as well as the idea of the disguise of the drape. The drape is a reference to the game of conceal and reveal between artist/viewer, lovers, etc. The ambiquity of the lead object is similar to that of the ambiguity present in piece 1. Lead is elicits such a visceral response and is so basic of an element that it seems intrisically linked to being on earth, in the present. The white sheets does not.

piece 8 — blown glass bottle with bronzed egg. match. cast resing table.

piece 9 — straw, gum, red line, height, line, space between

piece 10-12 — shelves

13-16 — drawings

This collection owes a great deal to the “Naturalist’s Library” published in the 1840’s by Sir William Jardine, Bart and W.H. Allen and Co., in London. Pages from its more than thirty volumes are collaged onto all of the can-vases in this show. These collages are the backdrops for drawings tak-ing influence from the early annals of the physical sciences, when artwork and scientific study were closely linked. In particular, antique prints done by natural historians Maria Sibilla Merian, Karl Brodtmann, Seligmann/Edwards, Eleazer Albin and Francois Martinet. These prints became the source for this exhibits playful reanimation of natural history.

“The process of layering collage, drawing, and painting is the thread that connects everything I have done, not only in this show, but in all my work over the past five years. There is a back and forth between “hard work” and “in the moment” states of artistic creation that anchors and expands the work I do.”

There could be meaning in these paintings.

“I often try to tell a serious story in a whimsical way, looking for a character, a tool, a vehicle, to carry the plot. The vehicle in this series was influenced by the black face characters in the works of artist Michael Ray Charles . As black as those images are, I wanted this character to be white and vulner-able, invoking a notion of my own personal identity. I was also influenced by Laylah Ali, who inspired me to further develop this round eyed white face into an overly simplified figure or changing emblem, capable of eliciting a variety of emotional and empathetic responses.”

This character interacts with a variety of birds, setting up the possibility for meaning, whether it be ambiguous, as in “Fly away Home” or “All a Twitter” or more obvious, as in “Too Big to Fail” or “A Wing and a Prayer”.