New Work

Since I haven't posted in a long time, I am including images of some of my current pieces which are collages, assemblages and paintings.  They include works that are political reflecting what is going on in this country.  They are expressions of my feelings about the Me-Too movement, immigration, climate change and the presidency.  Others are more humorous and a riff on things that I think are funny.  I have also been working on abstract pieces and hope to do more of these in the future.

"Behind the Bars" 8X10

"Peeking" 11X14

                                                            "American Ghost Gothic" 11X14

                                                               "Looking"  11X14

                                                 "In the Name of Religion"  11X14

                                                        "Reflections"  11X14

                                                             "The Doorway" 12"X12"

                                                   "The White House aka The Swamp" 6" X 8

                                                       "An Unsafe Passage" 11" X 14"
                                   

                                                           "Authentic" 8" X 10"

                                                    "Destroy this Mad Brute"  11" X 14"

                                                   "Corruption on High" 13' X 13'

                                                       "Abstraction"  10 1/2" X 11"

                                                           "Ice Melt" 4"X 4" X 5"

                                                          "Adrift"  8" X 3" X 1"

"Climbing Out of Their Shells"  5" X 4" X 1"

Black Lives Didn't Matter

I have been thinking a lot about the injustice and prejudice that many people in this country have perpetrated over the years towards African Americans.  I decided to create an artwork that depicts those sentiments.  Although the piece reflects an earlier time, the message rings true today as well.

The piece is titled "Black Lives Didn't Matter" and is mixed-media on canvas 8"x10".

My Latest Works

MY LATEST WORKS

Since I have not posted in a long a time, I have chosen to feature some of the mixed media pieces that I have completed over the past year or so. I have continued to combine acrylic paint with collage on canvas along with mixed media collage on paper.  In addition, I have continued to create assemblages made with found materials.  Below are some examples:

"People Power" 10" x 8" assemblage

"Maze Run" 22x28 framed mixed-media acrylic on canvas 

"Contemplation" 11"x14" framed collage

"Alice Meets the Rabbit" 10"x16" mixed media diptych 

"Memories" 15"x15" framed collage

Using Words with Collage

It's been a while since my last post and I wanted to display two new collages that were made during this last semester using collage and words.  The first one is obviously political in nature and close to my belief system when it comes to civil rights.  We see Uncle Sam pointing to the flag and with the motto "liberty and justice for all" beneath.  The illustration however is taken from an flyer that advertised the sale of slaves during the 19th. century.  Irony is the context.

The second collage is a fictional account.  I had an old postcard of hikers perhaps during the turn of the century.  One of the women was removed and her presence is still there only ghostlike.  It then occurred to me to use words to compose a letter to her husband explaining her long absence.  I used various materials including lace to give it an "old" quality.  I even dyed the paper and burnt the edges of the note to add authenticity.

Spring Collage: Women Artists and the Word or the Act of Writing

This semester we are focussing on contemporary women artists who use words in their work.  One of the best known is Shirin Neshat an Iranian artist who resides in the United States.  According to an introduction before a Ted Talk the following offers a brief description of her work:
Her photographs and films offer a glimpse of the cultural, religious and political realities that shape the identities of Muslim women worldwide.
Here is an example of her altered photograph using words as a veil:

I found a current photo of the actress Tilda Swinton in New York Magazine that I altered it by adding henna to her hands and a bird's wing to her shoulder.

"Fourth of July"

In keeping with my intention to combine painting and collage I recently finished my latest piece.  With homage to Kandinsky I once again created a painting influenced by his shapes and colors.  The collage elements come from a bunch of postcards celebrating an old fashioned fourth of July.

"A Container" - Constructing an Assemblage

Continuing the theme of different materials this semester, a container  became an interesting vehicle for expression.  In keeping with my interest in assemblage (creating a sculpture out of found or everyday objects), I decided to use a wooden cigar box donated by one of the other students.  I am also drawn to imagery of people from earlier times.  I then created a family tree including members of mixed races and figures of native Americans along with actual twigs.
Below is the result:

Materials for Collage

For my collage class this semester, the focus has been on materials.  For example, one week we worked with corrugated cardboard, the next week a garment, and the third week a book cover.  The instructor started with a surprise quote to stimulate developing a finished piece. For the piece on the left I used scored cardboard and torn paper.  The piece on the right is a cover for a make-believe book that I entitled "Grim Fairy Tales."

"Circus"

Recently I visited the Guggenheim and for third time I went to a side gallery to view Kandinsky's paintings which he did while in Paris.  I was very taken with many of his pieces and decided to try my hand at creating a painting combining his influences and some collage.  His use of color, line and shape had a great affect on me and helped me to get back to painting which has been dormant for a long time while concentrating on collage.  Below is a result of my effort:

A Visit to the Magritte Exhibit at the MOMA plus some New Collages

Recently I went to the new Magritte exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art which is closing the second week of January.  Included are 80 works by the artist done between 1926 and 1938.  He was a master of the surreal and the show is outstanding.
 

"Displacement, transformation, metamorphosis, the “misnaming” of objects, and the representation of visions seen in half-waking states are among Magritte’s innovative image-making tactics during these essential years."

I recently completed several collages that were interpretations of some of Edward Hopper's paintings - a continuation of the theme of this semester.  

Edward Hopper - Nighthawks

One of Hopper's most famous paintings is "Nighthawks" pictured below. Visiting the exhibit at the Whitney museum introduced me to Hopper's thorough preparation.  He carefully rendered many drawings visiting the different sites before painting his own vision.

The interpretation that I expanded on involved using the figures, the darks and lights along with some of the geometric shapes.  Hopper establishes a mood of loneliness, alienation in much of his work.  I especially love his use of artificial light emphasizing the inside vs. outside.  Below is my rendition in collage materials.

Edward Hopper at the Whitney

For the duration of my Fall semester in collage we will be reinterpreting the drawings and paintings of Edward Hopper based on a large exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art.  whitney.org 

I plan on visiting and reporting on this exhibit within the next several weeks but for the first class a drawing of  Hopper's fire hydrant from a city scene became the jumping off point for my collage.

I decided to abstract that image using circles and biscecting lines to create an original influenced by the drawing.

What I Have Been Doing This Summer

I just finished creating two new wall hangings and I want to share them with you.  The client wanted one to be very "girly" for her daughter thus the pink, purple, fairies, flowers, dragonflies etc. and for her son she indicated that he liked musical instruments.  I will soon be returning to my collages and hopefully finish a painting that I began at the beginning of the summer.  Below are the results of the commissioned pieces.

"Metamorphoses" by Ovid

Here are the results of my interpretations of different stories from"Metamorphoses" as pictured below.

This is the tale of Atalanta who could outrun even the fastest men in a footrace.

This is the story of Peleus and Thetis grappling with an enormous seabird its body as powerful as a seal.

This is the tale of Acteon and Diana.  Diana, angry that Acteon saw her naked made antlers of a stag sprout from his dripping head.

Finally, this is the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice who turned to look at her  whereupon she fell away and dissolved.

A Visit to The Cathedral of Saint John The Divine

 I have lived in the New York City area all my life and I had never visited the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.  www.stjohndivine.org  What finally inspired me to go there was a review in the paper about an exhibit by the artist Jane Alexander.  

"Surveys (from the Cape of Good Hope) is the first major North American survey of tableaux, sculptures, and photomontages by important South African artist Jane Alexander. Her artwork speaks of lasting disfigurations in her native South Africa, yet raises issues about human nature that resonate with viewers internationally. This site-specific exhibition at the Cathedral allows audiences to experience the familiarity and mutability of Alexander's universe."

The work consists of sculptures primarily constructed of fiberglass and then painted.  They have an other worldly quality and are both fascinating and disturbing at the same time connecting animal and human forms.  Placing them in a religious setting gives them enormous power.

The Metamorphoses by Ovid

For my summer semester in collage the theme is "The Metamorphoses" by Ovid.  These are stories featuring the figures of classical mythology.  "At its extremes, passion is represented by transformation, or metamorphosis, through love, death, or radical physical change.  Metamorphosis, for Ovid, is a skeleton key to the workings of life itself and the workings of art as well."

The featured collage is interpreted by me from the following passage:
"Meanwhile, Ceres, fearful for her daughter, searched for her in every land, on every sea but in vain.  Dawn coming up from ocean at the break of day with hair still damp saw Ceres looking everywhere, and Hesperus, the evening star, saw her at dusk, looking still.  She lit torches made of pine from Mt. Etna and carried them in each hand through the frosty night, never resting, and still searching for her daughter, searching from the rising of the sun to its going down."

A Wall Hanging For Scarlet

The latest addition to my family arrived about two months ago and her name is Scarlet.  In keeping with my decision to make artful wall hangings for the new arrivals I decided to go ahead a create one for her.  Her mom wanted something "girly" so instead of baby animals I found plastic fairies to help decorate the piece along with flowers, colorful stones and butterflies.  I found a wonderful website where I could custom order unpainted letters to size and the the result is featured below.  I do commissions so if anyone is interested I would be happy to give out further information by writing to me at my e-mail address...sfidlon@gmail.com

"Here We Gogh"

Not long ago I came into the possession of a Van Gogh print and for a number of months it had been waiting for me to do something with it.  In fact, I was inspired by a recent story that featured that particular painting. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/arts/30iht-vangogh30.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The experts believe that the original colors were different from the ones we are accustomed to seeing. 

The original print as shown below.                         And here is my version.

 

"The Civil War and American Art" at the Met

Recently I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and viewed a very interesting exhibit involving the Civil War.  Here is a brief description from the website:

"This major loan exhibition considers how American artists responded to the Civil War and its aftermath. Landscapes and genre scenes—more than traditional history paintings—captured the war's impact on the American psyche. The works of art on display trace the trajectory of the conflict and express the intense emotions that it provoked: unease as war became inevitable, optimism that a single battle might end the struggle, growing realization that fighting would be prolonged, enthusiasm and worries alike surrounding emancipation, and concerns about how to reunify the nation after a period of grievous division. The exhibition proposes significant new readings of many familiar masterworks—some sixty paintings and eighteen photographs created between 1852 and 1877—including outstanding landscapes by Frederic E. Church and Sanford R. Gifford, paintings of life on the battlefront and the home front by Winslow Homer and Eastman Johnson, and photographs by Timothy H. O'Sullivan and George N. Barnard. The exhibition at the Metropolitan coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863)."

What I found to be particularly interesting is that although there were some artists at the battlefield including Winslow Homer,  they did not depict the horrors of war.  In fact, many of the paintings were more about landscapes and everyday life during that time frame.  However, it is definitely worth a visit.