Showing at the Studio Again

I am showing at The Studio again.  Melissa McCarthy has invited me back for the third straight year and I could not be more pleased.  The first year I build a large scale installation over the course of three days entitled "Love Me."  The second year I followed with "I Shall Not Want, A Wholly Irreverent Display," which was my take on the Last Supper.  This year I've added the powers of my friend, Tom Konieczko, to bring the world, "I Had to Walk Uphill To School, Both Ways."  The show primarily features drawings, lots of drawings to be precise.  I began working on index cards and library circulation cards several months ago as I was inspired by the work of my then roommate, Tom, and the honesty therein.  I gifted him the piece "Today May Just Be Everything You Need."  Essentially the piece was something that seemed to describe the feelings and emotions that I experienced while living with Tom.  He is incredibly genuine and deep.

The following is his Pecha Kucha on Automatic Doodling.


Tom Konieczko: Automatic Doodling from PechaKucha Portland on Vimeo.



This is what I really had in mind when I suggested to him that we do a show together with Melissa.  His desire to emote the complexities of fear in small digestible nuggets of truth is incredibly poetic.  I felt that his work was functioning the same way that my sketchbooks often do.  When people see my art they are seldom as excited as when they get to flip through my sketchbooks.  I am sure that there is a sort of voyeurism that makes this more appealing but on the other hand, there is a very real truth that the artwork has not been modified for public consumption yet.  It is one hundred percent mine.

As I started laying out my more personal artworks on index cards, a very disposable and readily available medium, I was taken by how easy it was to take the filter off.  I started to trust my mark making more and second guessed my process less.  The work became about something more experiential for me than about it being a finished product.

I then determined that I wanted to paint a bit more.  I have been missing the act of pushing paint in the frequency that I used to.  So while I was listening to a Shins song I determined one painting.  A second was born during a sketching session in the ICA a year ago and the last was taken from a conversation I had on a ferry.  I kept true to the style that I was working in on my index cards, however, working quickly and without edits.  I think the result is very different in feel than most of my other work.

My sketchbook work is getting turned inside out.  There is something that feels amazing about that process.  I am excited to see how the work looks up in Melissa's new space.  Come say hello to Tom and I on Friday night if you like.  The opening starts at 4 and we will both be there.

Peace
-Mike