Long Series #1515.

#1515

Happy to say this one has SOLD!

Have you met…Eliot Markell?

Spin Cycle
Salvaged beach rope, tissue paper, gauze mesh. 36″x42″x2″ Installation for Best Case Scenario, Brooklyn Fire Proof, 2014

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Eliot Markell.

Whirligig
2014, oil paint, tissue paper, beeswax, on extruded plaster, lobster trap brackets, and salvaged beach rope.

ART EDUCATION:

1979-80 Empire State College, SUNY., BPS. fine arts.

1973-74 Gandy Brodie School of Fine Arts, Newfane, VT.

1971-73 Mark Hopkins College, Brattleboro, VT.

Red Grid
2014, oil paint and beeswax on extruded plaster, with driftwood frame. 11″x8.5″

Artist Statement

“What differentiates painting and sculpture from décor, and how is it decided which takes precedence?Perhaps that distracting dichotomy lies in the nature of visual cognition; what you see is what you get, or if I may be so presumptuous; at least what the salon provides for perceptual priorities.You are what you’re used to eating.More adventurous artistic endeavors may seem anathema to the essentially ornamental purpose of pampered decoration meant to embellish an otherwise dreary environment.But then again unencumbered mark making was good enough for the cavemen at Lascaux. (talk about site specific!)

That the purely pretty alone should suffice for art collecting in the modern cave does not add up in my mind. Like the cavemen, I make art that might not be matchy matchy with the sofa, but will wreak its own elegantly iconoclastic version of interior design.

I hope this doesn’t sound like unmitigated hubris or egotistical posturing. I’m just going on my own sense of historical precedence. My work has always been about my own limitations.

I’ve never been a virtuoso; just a grind-it-out, seat-of-my-pants kind of artist. I prefer the hands-on ethic of vigorous, yet nuanced craft that proposes an interpretative aesthetic.

With my work, what you see depends on how thoroughly you look. Recognition of merit in the unfamiliar requires patience and perseverance.

I’ve built my oeuvre based on decades of cumulative momentum. The more I’ve stuck with it the more accomplished I’ve become at enveloping my art in a substantive mixture embodying textured layers of sensuous psyche and physical pulsation.

Chroma and atmosphere saturate my painting, imbuing compositions with an expansive spatial perspective. Loose pigment is coupled with tightly drafted, curvilinear edifices lending a formal element to the picture plane.

This painterly philosophy encompasses my neo representational “Mainescape” plein air works on paper to rough-hewn “Beach Rope” sculptures who’s principle ingredients are salvaged lobstering gear and driftwood from the shores of downeast Maine.

These multi-hued tangles of knotted beach rope are cleaned, sorted and applied to driftwood in a congruent manner. The laborious process of wrapping, gluing and stapling satisfy a fundamental urge to physically assemble a combination of man-made and natural detritus. The variety of beach rope’s weathered palette, layered onto lengths of driftwood compliment my painted images chromatically, and refer to African and outsider sources. These sculptures suggest an implicit virility rooted in figurative association.

With stenciling I’ve found there’s an “automatic” quality to painting in or around a physical boundary such as tape. When the intricate web of tape is removed it reveals unexpectedly energetic trails of pigment criss-crossing the surface. Such a process-oriented approach instigates a lively dialogue with my freehand marks, and corresponds metaphorically to my fascination with the micro/macro aspects of quantum and cosmological poetry.

The landscape in my art manifests largely through my “Mainescape”, watercolor and oil pastel works on paper and panel. Done mostly in and around Acadia National Park in Maine, these pieces are immersed in the immediacy of atmospheric effect, the oceanic tableau, and rugged rocky coastline.

This intimacy with nature has invigorated and informed my studio oil paintings. Although the plein air works tend to be more traditionally representational, the paintings more muscular gestures distill the representation of nature into an elemental yet ethereal montage.

So ultimately what should a discriminating eye be focusing on?

I enjoy eye candy on the 4th of July as much as the next kid, but when it comes to an enduring investment I go for a more in-depth sense of pictorial integrity and authentic artistic identity.

And I think that it looks good on the wall.” EM

Not The Foggiest
2013 Oil on panel 15″x12″

Conjured Fog
2013 Oil on panel 19.75″x33″

Other material relating to Eliot Markell.

Artist website: eliotmarkell.com

White Elephant On Wheels: Eliot Markell

P.S.1 Studio Visit: Eliot Markell

Art In New York City: Eliot Markell

ArtSlant: Eliot Markell

If you liked this introduction please check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.

The Arch and Curve.

I’ve put a small online exhibition together. Please check it out.

Long Series #1514.

#1514

Have you met…Bonny Leibowitz?

Bonny Leibowitz, Precious 2014 variable 10x18x9 wire, plaster, Tyvek, silk and acrylic, photo credit Harold Samples

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to. The person I’d like to introduce is the artist  Bonny Leibowitz.

Bonny Leibowitz, All Things Considered 2014 46×30 tyvek, plaster, encaustic wax monotype, acrylic, mulberrry and stonehenge paper, photo credit Hal Samples

Bonny Leibowitz has been an influential participant of the Dallas art community since the late ’80s when she moved to Dallas. The artist studied at Temple University’s Tyler College of Art in Philadelphia then worked in the gallery business, representing artists and organizing shows. Eventually, she began exhibiting her work in the region and throughout the southwest. Her one person shows include those in Dallas, Palm Springs, Chicago, Hawaii and Santa Fe, to name a few.

Her series; “Plight of the Pleasure Pods” was exhibited in 2013 at Cohn Drennan Contemporary, Dallas, TX as well as her body of work; “Symbiosis”, in the Blurr exhibition there in 2012 with a subsequent solo exhibition at the Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX.

Bonny has been recognized for her art internationally through Israel bonds, traveling to Israel in 2002 to participate in a group multi media event /exhibition there and has pieces included in “Arte Internationale”, September 2013 in Matera, Italy.

Bonny Leibowitz, Portal 2 2014 9×12 graphite and photography on yupo, photo credit Harold Samples

“My current body of work; “Suspended Beliefs” started, in part with a desire to create a variety of rich inviting surfaces. Lately, I’ve been drawn to beauty of extravagance; the Baroque and Rococo periods with their “other worldly” pinks, blues and golds

I’m interested in expounding upon some symbolic attributes of “heavenly-ness” by over glorifying the forms I create; embellishing with putti and gold gilding. I then juxtapose those elements with the presence decaying vessels and imagery which speaks more to earthly struggles.

I’m using a variety of materials including wire, plaster, tyvek, mulberry bark, vinyl, graphite, yupo, salvaged architectural pieces and acrylic along with photography; details from masterworks of the 17th century.

I like looking at the process of how we question what we grew up “knowing”, what we stay attached to and how we come to unravel the validity of long held beliefs, tweaking our stance on personal truth, purpose and legacy as we move thorough life.

I’m using these concepts to create glorious facades with a nod to vanity, history, ritual, survival and transformation.

Right now I’m getting ready for my exhibition at Art Cube Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. My studio feels like a light airy piece of heaven, it’s a great feeling and I imagine I’ll miss the environment when it ships out this November.” BL

Bonny Leibowitz, Attributes and Prayer 2014 40×40 variable tyvek, cotton and acrylic photo credit Harold Samples

Other material relating to Bonny Leibowitz.

Artist website: bonnyleibowitz.com

The Bonny Studio: Bonny Leibowitz

The Encaustic Center: Bonny Leibowitz

Lynette Haggard Art Blog: Bonny Leibowitz

Modern Dallas: Bonny Leibowitz

If you liked this introduction check out the PREVIOUS and NEXT.