Recycle, reuse, remake
Stretching ideas and materials for new work
As part of my current exhibition, “Black Drawings & Other Things You Didn’t Know About”, now on view in The Gallery at Mercer County Community College, I made two new wall collages: I Wanted You To Have This and There’s No Mistaking What Happened, shown below. These pieces are the fourth iteration of an idea that began back in 2019. I was in a period of trying to figure out how I could expand my painting and drawing practice beyond the rectangle and square formats of paper and canvas. The answer came in the form of wall-based installations or wall collages, as I like to call them.
I have a couple of guidelines about these works:
They only exist for the duration of the exhibition or project. They are meant to be temporary and not replicated. They are photographed and videoed for documentation purposes.
Each new installation is to be comprised of drawings from older ones. I believe in recycling art materials and this gives me a change to reimagine the older parts in new contexts.
Those are to two main guidelines, but other things do and have come up, most notably the need to make new drawings for new spaces. I always bring new paper and other materials with me whenever I have a chance to make a new installation, just in case.
I Wanted You To Have This, 2024, mixed media, dimensions variable
A short video of me installing I Wanted You To Have This at The Gallery at Mercer County Community College.
Above: There’s No Mistaking What Happened, 2024, mixed media, dimensions variable
A few steps back…
To get a better idea of how this idea has evolved, here’s a quick look back at the earlier versions of this idea, in reverse order:
Tumblr (2022), was a three part piece that consisted of one large semi-circular arrangement of drawings and two smaller parts nestled at the juncture of the wall and ceiling at opposite ends of the space. As can be seen above, this work was much more sculptural than the new version and from a distance could appear much more substantial than it’s materials reveal themselves to be on close inspection.
All of these works are made with drawings/paintings on paper, clear acetate, frosted mylar and reflective mylar. The only things holding all of this on the wall are push pins, small nails and in some places, tape. This version also included colored rope that was used as a kind of drawing device in the overhead space and visually connected the three parts of the installation. After it was done, I feel like this one had peripheral hints of John Chamberlain and maybe some Frank Stella in it.
Until The Break of Dawn (2020) was the second wall-based collage installation that I made. It was part of the group exhibition titled, “All Night Party” at Towson University (Towson, Maryland just outside of Baltimore). For this exhibition, I was given a four-sided movable wall onto which I drew and attached drawings on. All of the works on paper were installed intact, unlike subsequent installations where I liberally tore down works on paper to fit my intentions.
I was particularly happy when co-curators Erin Lehman and J. Susan Isaacs came to Philly for a studio visit and were excited about the idea of letting me make an installation instead of me showing traditional paintings hung on the wall. The install and exhibition took place during the height of Covid which meant there were few visitors to the show, aside from those students and faculty allowed on campus at the time.
I’d made some new drawings for this piece in the studio, but as usual, it’s not until you’re in the same space as the wall that you understand whether you have enough drawings or not. In this case, I did not. Thankfully, there was a Baltimore location of Artist & Craftsman Supply that was open that Saturday (I was working at one of the Philadelphia locations at this time. Found what I needed and the rest is history. I managed to put this one off in about 10-11 hours over two days.
And now, the one that opened up this path for me: You Don’t Know The Whole Thing (2019)
You Don’t Know The Whole Thing came into existence because someone really wanted a certain kitchen. It’s pretty simple, actually. A designer friend of mine worked for the German luxury kitchen design company, Poggenpohl in Philadelphia. From time to time, he’d host art exhibitions of Philadelphia-based artists in the showroom, which seemed appropriate as clients could see real art in the spaces instead of posters from Ikea or wherever.
One evening, I received a text from my friend asking if I’d be interested in “doing something” with a space in the showroom that had until very recently housed a demonstration kitchen in it. Attached was a photo of the space. A client had purchased the demo kitchen earlier that week and he was itching to use that space for art. Of course, I said “sure!”.
Above: Watch until the end to see why this piece has the title it does
The idea of expanding my drawing and painting practice into the realm of installation art had been knocking around in my head for the better part of four or five years and here was a perfect, low stakes opportunity to experiment. The idea was to make drawings both in the studio and on-site so I could respond more directly to the existing architecture. This space was interesting because of the 10 inch set-back that framed the space. I knew that I needed to engage with that in order to make this work stand out and take control of that area.
I devised a plan to make drawings in the studio, roll them up and bring everything I needed with me to the location to make the work. I also had a specific idea about attaching the drawings to the wall with small nails, push pins and tape. I wanted the work to evoke a strong presence from a distance, while seeming more fragile up close. I also wanted this work to be one of a kind and vowed that every subsequent version of this idea would be completely different from the last and therefore be directly tied to it’s space, surviving only through photos and videos. The final stipulation is that each subsequent piece would incorporate surviving drawings from earlier versions.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this literal look back at how these installations have evolved. I’m not sure what shape the next one might take nor if or when I’ll make another one. I guess it all depends on the opportunity and if there is the desire to make more. Earlier this summer, I thought I was done with making them. However, the opportunity of the show at Mercer County offered me a way of seeing how a new iteration of this idea could generate some excitement for me. The two new works face each other from a good distance from opposite ends of the exhibition space. It’s pretty dramatic to see how they play off of each other. That’s what got me into wanting to do more this time.
One of the differences with the new wall collages is that I’ve incorporated other disparate objects into the mix. Studio rags, small works on paper and works on cardboard found their way into the new pieces. It’s all evolving and I’m getting excited about new possibilities.
I’ve been without a working laptop for almost a month now and it’s really making me adjust things with writing here. It’s taken me much longer to get this out than normal, at least a week longer. I only have my studio desktop to work with at the moment and I’ve had to really sit with how integral the laptop had become in my life. Usually, I’d do some writing when I got home from the studio at night, in the mornings beforehand or over the weekend. Now, I have to be more specific about setting aside time to type things out when I’m at the studio. I’m more used to spending the majority of my time here working on whatever I’m working on and not on the computer.
Anyway, first world problems. I’m grateful to even have a computer and everything else I have, as well and that includes you. Thanks for reading and thank you to all of the new subscribers that have come discovered this blog over the past couple of weeks. I appreciate you taking the chance with being here and reading. Thanks for lending me some of your time.
Exit
This week, as I was cataloguing some work, I realized that I have or had at least three paintings that I’ve titled Slip. This is the latest one from 2023. One of the reasons I like to give my paintings multi-word titles is because I’m at a point where I’ve made so much work and have forgotten if I gave the same title to a piece twenty years ago.
Black Drawings & Other Things You Didn’t Know About
“Black Drawings…” virtual tour
Black and white one goes all Wizard of Oz...
Just wow!!!