So it's been an interesting end to the week. On Thursday night a good friend invited Leftantler and myself to an art opening at the Elissa Cristall Gallery in South Granville. The exhibition, called 'Cartographies' included this piece from Toronto artist, critic and curator Pete Smith.
To me this was fantastic, even before Pete started talking about it. It is acrylics on canvas which then has a shiny glaze. Sorry if I don't describe this properly. To be honest I'm generally quite intimidated by the Art World, despite being a proud card carrying member of the Vancouver Art Gallery!
From memory Pete talked about the painting being a kind of a collage of current day culture, something which he expresses far more elegantly than myself on his own blog.
"Billboards. Televisions. Magazines. Internet. Kleenex boxes. Movie screens. Airport lobbies. Subway tunnels. Jpg's. Graphiti. Screen savers. Utube.Portablev DVD/LCD. High Definition. Traveling through the atmosphere in waves. The speed of light. Breathingin images like air, we process and exhale."
Nice, and also the line:
"... cartographies of the visual landscape."
However, I struggle with Pete's comment "These works give substance to the ephemerality of the image." but given I understand little about the critical art, two out of three is not bad! In fact this reminds me of the Crash Test Dummies song "When I go out with Artists." The chorus of which is:
If I could see, if I could see, if I could
See all the symbols, unlock what they mean
Maybe I could, maybe I could, maybe I
Could meet the artists, and get to know them personally
Which is interesting because about two months ago, for reasons I won't go into here, I painted my first painting in thirty-five years. I was very happy how it turned out and as it happens I chose acrylics. Not because I knew anything about them but because I happened to be on Granville Island one day and I came across Kroma Acrylics. At that point I hadn't even thought of painting, but I was inspired by the colours and the fact that it's a local company that produces small volumes etc ... but I digress ...
One thing Pete did was glaze his piece. This gave it an amazing finish which I couldn't help be curious about. However, my insecurity prevented me doing anything about it. Anyway Leftantler and I went outside the gallery to get some fresh air in this mental heat wave we've been in. We happened to spot a condo we'd seen featured on a home makeover show when Pete Smith, himself, also came out to take some air.
The traditional Canadian pleasantries were exchanged and then I convined myself to be brave. So I asked Pete how he did the glaze. He explained it was some kind of self-levelling glupe which turned out to be quite tricky. The problem with the canvas was that the glupe tended to pool in the middle between the support struts. Pete explained that now he paints on wood, which is easier to deal with! I assume he stretches the canvas over word, but then, what do I know?
I then asked Pete (maximum bravery turned on) why he chose acrylics. He responded that they are plastic, and given we live in a plastic world they seemed appropriate. Especially when you go back to his quotes above!
Later, at home I was reading Michaelangelo and the Pope's ceiling (highly recommended) and in this there was reference to an amazing bridge across the Bosphorus (but that's another blog post) originally thought up by Leonardo da Vinci. It just so happens that Leftantler attended a famous exhibition at the Haywood Gallery in 1989 of the grand masters work (turns out Her Majesty (that is The Queen not Leftantler) is a big fan/collector). Leftantler still has the exhibition catalogue so I went hunting for a drawing of the bridge.
i did not find it, but I did find a drawing called a"A cloudburst of material possession" from about 1510. Now I would love to have put the image in the post but I need to apply for reproduction rights from the Royal Collection. In this application I would have to explain it was for a blog post on the 'publication' called The MooseHat Blog! I just couldn't bring myself to do it! So please click through to see it.
The interesting thing for me was that Leonardo's drawing was to quote from the catalogue "... A torrent of human artefacts and tools, including rakes, barrels, bagpipes, clocks, set-squares, spectacles, ladders and pincers - rain down on the earth from a turbulent layer of clouds." So I ask myself, how different is this from Pete Smith's "Billboards. Televisions. Magazines. Internet ..." etc?
It would appear that I can identify the dots but not have the elegance of language to join them together! I recommend you head down to South Granville and see Pete's work - it is for sale - sadly far above what I can muster, I've just settled for being inspired enough to go back to Kroma, buy some more colours and a new canvas and start working on the second painting in 35 years!
