1.18.2010

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Seven New Collages


Jessica Hagen-Hill, Owner of Jessica Hagen Fine Art,
asked me to participate in the 5th Anniversary Show and Celebration at her gallery this January. Jessica and I met over 5 years ago at her post at the now closed Station 29 in Newport, RI. It was there that we forged a long lasting relationship between Gallerist and Artist. Almost six years later, with
many adventures in our past, I obviously was eager and estatic to, again, join the ranks of artists that have graced the walls of Jessi
ca's Gallery.
Thanks to several of Jessica's clients, I have had the opportunity to call myself an artist over the past six years. From Newport, RI, to Puglia, Italy, and now in Brooklyn, NY, Jessica has provided the services and space for keen collectors to view and appreciate my work. Art Collectors like Susan Ruf
and Michael Walsh, Alessandro Giuliani, and a few others, have trusted my and Jessica's partnership and purchased work that has lead to my continued perseverance in this challenge that is - being an artist.
While working in Brooklyn, NY, (miles away from beautiful Newport...) I still ponder on the beauty
and solitude of the amazingly quiet moments spent in my studio in Newport. Also, my trip to Italy (see older posts...) always seems to creep into my brain while plugging away late night in my studio here in Park Slope...

A place of never-ending noise, this place called Brooklyn has presented itself as a never-ending conundrum of balance between time, space, money, family, and strangers. While I exist in the heart of museum world, each day is a struggle to forfeit
the precious time and cash to get myself uptown to the Geug' or the Met or wherever - or spend those golden minutes on a painting in my studio here at home.

But...Where do the birds fit in?

Some folks know me as a bird watcher, some as a bird hunter, but either way, I love the "winged, bipedal, endothermic, vertabrate animals that lay eg
gs." (thanks wikipedia...)

The image of the bird crept into early paintings...three of which began the Jessica Hagen /Kevin Gilmore art relationship.

For the past few years, birds have not landed on my canvas.

Recently the birds have landed in Brooklyn:




A poem by Anne Pierson-Wiese if i may:

Birds Hitting Glass

On the way to my job the other day I sawa pigeon sail out of the park on a tide
of morning light, coast weightless across the wide
street and swoop smack into the glass wall
of a bus stop shelter. There was the soft sound
of a pillow being punched, the bird slid
down against the glass, wings frozen askew mid-
flight and then suddenly was up — rebounding

into the air, gaining altitude gradually
like a small plane with a bomb in its belly,
banking over the traffic uncertainly
and returning to the shelter of the trees,leaving in the fine dust on the glass a faint
tracery of feathers at point of impact.

This made me remember other birds hitting glass.
The hawk diving with unerring aim from high leaves
along the parkway, as if lured by the windshield’s
flash, and glancing off darkly — half thud, half flap
into the shoulder grass. The partridge storm-blown
with a neck-snapping crash into a cottage
window in Vermont, cracking the ripple-edged19th century glass — hard to know
how, lifting its sleek, freckle-feathered, hollow-boned
body from the sodden and soil-spattered fern
border the next morning — like air breaking ice.

The chickadees drunk on the cherries that liefermenting in the sun each summer
outside the new library with its blue-stoned
walk, ornamental fruit trees, and three-story plate
glass wall designed to let the public glimpse
tiers of books inside but proving fatal
to the scores of tiny birds taking off tipsywith all the conviction that accompanies
drunkenness. The shock of slamming up against
reality happens more slowly when you don’t have wings.


12.01.2009

This is why you should sign the inside cover of a book you give as a gift!





I couldn't believe the dates on these. Imagine - 1884. This book was probably the only gift McLoughlin received that year! Maybe that's a stretch but...

These books are frail and weathered - and full of fragments perfect for collages. Thanks "Sandy" and Rhudele Moorerji!


Kevin Gilmore: 4 new paintings/collages



















each mixed with rock
8" x 8"
acrylic and collage on canvas
november 2009
brooklyn, ny




















one day in the sun.
in the same way:
8" x 8"
acrylic and collage on canvas
november 2009
brooklyn, ny




















738
8" x 8"
acrylic and collage on canvas
november 2009
brooklyn, ny




















given an x
8" x 8"
acrylic and collage on canvas
november 2009
brooklyn, ny
__________

Yes, finally, a stream of creative energy hits me again - in time for a group show at Shop Art Gallery - http://www.shopartstudio.com/ - in Brooklyn, New York. I swear it has something to do with the moon...(at the time of this posting the full moon is in 22 hours...) These are for sale at the show, and what a holiday bonus it would be for me to see these go to new homes just in time for the New Year!

I found a few old books of which pieces found their way in these collages:

1. Rasa=Jala=Nidhi or Ocean of Indian Chemistry & Alchemy Vol. I.
Compiled in Sanskrit with English Translation by the Author

2. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas or The Marvelous and Exciting Adventures of Pierre Aronnax, Conseil, His Servant, and Ned Land, a Canadian Harpooner. Translated from the French of Jules Verne.

I only add this info based on the lovely script on the inside cover of each of them. I think it warrants a new posting with a reproduction of each.




10.21.2009

"Driftwood" a donation for Latitude 14

This was a small 9" x 12" piece I painted for a donation for Latitude 14 - http://latitude14.org/ind/ - in support for their newest project red fly/blue bottle. It went to a silent auction and resides somewhere in NYC.

7.06.2009

happythankyoumoreplease


I ran into the set designers who were getting the set ready for a new flick called happythankyoumoreplease. They were discussing what to do with the "abstract" painting that was needed for the shots when I walked by. On the stoop 5 doors down from me in Brooklyn sat this large painting... well sort of a Pollock-inspired action piece...yikes it was a bit of a disaster. I was on my way to work but boasted that I could do much better given 45 minutes. The rules were simply that it needed to be black and white to match the feel of the set. So here are a few screen shots...