Lineup with Ball

Stella's interest in cylinders is less obvious in recent weeks - she routinely prefers to build with arches and other chunky shapes and, especially, connecting toys like Lego bricks. However, after studying various cylinders in my studio and becoming rather attached to the shape, I wanted to continue painting them. Also, during a New Year's visit to Austin to see my family I had a great conversation with my sister, Paige, about blocks. Our talk has informed some of my thoughts on the subject ever since. We were eating gelato at Dolce Vita, my favorite espresso bar in Austin, and talking about children and play. It was fascinating. Paige is a very talented Pre-K teacher who has seen lots of block play over the years. She told me that some day Stella is going to start lining things up, as do many children at some point in their early development. When I came over for dinner later that day she showed me photographs of children lining up little figures and blocks across the entire length of a table. There's just something fascinating to them about ordering their world in this fashion.

After returning home I started to imagine what Stella's "lineups" would look like. Lineup with Ball, oil/canvas, 12" x 24" started with a few cylinders and a ball lying around my studio. The rest is imagined. Cylinders are such a fun shape to repeat across the width of a long canvas, and each object takes on its very own personality. I anticipate exploring this topic in future work, especially once Stella starts contributing her own designs.

Blocks at Sunset

Blocks at Sunset, oil/canvas, 24" x 12", is another exploration of the boundary between landscape and still life. A few blocks scattered around my studio served as the models for this painting. The strong contrasts, long shadows, and warm hues on the blocks as well as the faint pink and orange above the horizontal line at the top of the canvas remind me of sunset. The location of the depicted blocks is left open for your interpretation.

My goal was to convey the sense that these blocks are individuals brought together by chance. When the sun goes down on Stella's toys they are once again left to their solitude, albeit in the company of objects with stories much like their own.

For more of my thoughts on the intersection of landscape and still life genres, please visit my Tea at Sea blog entry.

Artist Statement Posted

Just a quick note to say that I've added my artist statement to the website. You can find a link to it and my biography in the "Artist Information" section at right. Thanks for looking!

Balls

Although many of my paintings are inspired by Stella's own creations with blocks, balls, and toys, sometimes they develop independently after prolonged observation in my studio. A few balls scattered across a table become subjects for a painting or a couple of stacked blocks inspire a dreamy interpretation of building. The archetypal forms of balls, cubes, cylinders, etc. lend themselves to deeper study and reflection when the house is quiet and my favorite toddler is sleeping happily.

Balls, oil/canvas, 12" x 16" is an experiment with dark underpainting. I scraped down an old canvas and applied a dark layer of paint to cover the surface. The rest of the painting was completed in only a couple of sessions at my easel. Sometimes this lack of layers can make a painting feel flat, because it's difficult to work dark and light values simultaneously. In this case, however, the dark layer underneath helps contribute to depth. I like the darker tone that resulted along with the energy conveyed by the "wet-on-wet" brushstrokes on the balls.

Falling Cylinders

As Stella approaches the tender age of two, the stacked blocks grow taller, the falls even greater, and the cries louder still. We push boundaries every day: she explores the world and tries to control it and I learn how to stop a crashing lamp mid-air. This morning as she munches quietly on her oatmeal I hear the echo of yesterday's mantra "No!" bellowing down the corridors of time and arriving with a tickle in today's tender ears. This is a new day and time for a new series of towers to build and watch tumble - blocks, books, chairs...all objects are play. We stack, build, crash and, in the end, only the crashes really matter. Around here, a tower is only finished when it falls.

It is in this spirit that Falling Cylinders, oil/canvas, 24" x 12" was conceived. It is a celebration of the act of stacking, the inevitability of falling, and the quiet beauty of the fallen.

Five Cylinders

Five Cylinders, oil/canvas 24" x 12" is an homage to Stella's beloved cylinders. It depicts the work of a tidy, hopeful toddler before the distraction of greater ambition overtakes her. Cylinders are some of Stella's favorite blocks, although they must be the most challenging of all to stack. She likes to group them together in a special "cylinder only" area on one side of the table. Sometimes her play ends there and a sorted space is her reward. Other times she starts building with them immediately.

Stella is still learning that the long slender shapes are difficult to balance end-on-end and after only three or four cylinders a meltdown is imminent. She takes her little defeats in stride once or twice, but after a few more failed attempts the uncooperative blocks are punished with an angry swipe of her hand and sent crashing to the floor. Next, Stella collapses dramatically in her overstuffed toddler armchair and begins to discuss her favorite aquatic life - fish, sharks, rays - as though nothing ever happened! I pick up her blocks and try to follow our new conversation about a trip to the aquarium.

I painted Five Cylinders with tighter brushwork than usual in part to spend extra time observing the shapes and the play of directional light across them. However, the smaller brushstrokes and more detailed rendering also convey the sense of order and potential energy I felt observing them. It's as though even the blocks, themselves, tensed at the thought of their upcoming fall.

Tea at Sea

Tea at Sea (Stack Narrative), oil/canvas, 12" x 16" departs from the dreamy meditations of Teacup and Two Balls to flirt more openly with surrealism. In Tea at Sea I explore imagination as it relates to play. Although Stella is still learning about "make believe," fantastical accounts of the lives of her toys are not far away. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if some day soon she told me her own story about a teacup adrift in an ocean of blocks.

After creating many landscape and still life paintings over the years, I find the intersection of the genres interesting - a still life that resembles a landscape and vice versa. The use of a horizontal line near the top of the canvas conveys space, whether it indicates another object such as a table or rug or else a larger surface such as a field or desert, or, as in Tea at Sea, a mythical horizon. The extra foreground on the canvas encourages imagination and free association. I love the quirky anthropomorphic quality that objects can acquire in the right setting.

Teacup

Teacup (Stack Narrative) oil/canvas, 12" x 16" continues the storytelling started in Two Balls. It is a meditation on space and relationships. It also introduces props associated with "pretend play" into my work for the first time. Although my primary subjects include building blocks and related "manipulatives," I also enjoy exploring the aesthetics and psychology of objects related to pretend play - dress up, tea parties, play house, and baby dolls. In Teacup, one of Stella's favorite objects joins the party of blocks and balls and ends up in a stack of its own.

It is so wonderful how, once again, an object's intended use means little to Stella so long as it can stack well. Her decisions about which things can stack together do not discriminate against objects that aren't blocks. I hope her heart always remains this open!