bencressy After exploring some ‘hallway scenes’, or interiors seen from an oblique angle, I found myself engaging in the painting of a floor or wall surface. How to handle a shift in space that happens in 2 dimensions while trying to represent 3 dimensional space. I also find myself playing off of isometric perspective (parallel lines) and 1-2 point perspective. Perspective rules are made to be broken.
In the ‘Hallway Interiors’, the spatial aspects are my primary interest and the ‘content’ or subject is the pictures within the painting. While not consciously trying to document the terrifying crash of the mortgage crisis of 2009, I discovered after the fact that this group of paintings perfectly captured it.
Someone racing to bring some news, while a character digests in an unsure posture. Fight or flight?
Herald, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The bankers in charge of the shell game that is modern finance
Shell Game, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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So many people getting caught in a bad situation.
The Hammering, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The party is over and everyone is gone, including the light in ones eyes.
Emptied, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The notion of retirement in comfort is further away.
Comfy Chair, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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This could be titled ‘the new haircut’
Happy Couple, 2009
oil on canvas, 1 of 3
14 x 11 inches
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From right to left:
Consummation: Adulterated, 2011
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Lure: Distraction, 2011
oil on canvas
36 x 48 inches
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Comparison of Maladies, 2011
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Fishbowl: Bluebloods, 2011-12
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
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Indecision: Lurching Wall, 2014-15
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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I don’t usually have a plan for the meaning or the content when I begin a painting, and am pleasantly surprised when I think I know what it represents as it nears completion. This selection seems to poke fun at ideas of success and failure.
Cupcake: Haggle, 2010
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Reaction: Indeterminate, 2010
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Dominatrices, 2011
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Contract: Variations of Red, 2009
oil on canvas
36 x 24 inches
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Pass, 2008-09
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Bread and Circus, 2011
oil on canvas
36 x 24 inches
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This group is also from the wandering table series. The table with its symbolic elements wandered from an abstract spatial field to a landscape space, to outside of some architectural structures and finally to an interior space. Along the way, the symbols and elements gathered to a picture or mirror or window on a wall, oblique and confounded perspective, and a mystery of the table elements.
Blue Bar: Critical Mass, 2013
oil on canvas
36 x 48 inches
Where to start a story of ones painting life when it has been a continuum is a challenge. I choose this somewhat arbitrarily as it is from a good time in my life. I had been living in the ‘upper’ Tenderloin in San Francisco, working several jobs downtown and teaching in Santa Rosa.
I walked everywhere (except driving to Santa Rosa). My sketchbook drawings were mostly filled with bar drawings, while my studio paintings were of a ‘wandering table’ series. This painting captures both the bar and the table, along the spatial concepts I have been exploring over the years.
Flat and brushy fields of color (blue!) with elements suggesting architectural space.