One Casey McGlynn, of the Toronto Minivan Gallery, inspires me to once again pick up a paintbrush. Although I've never spoken to him-well, beyond "hello", his work moved me-his color combinations and imagery pushed me to come home and mount a big panel o' wood to some backing strips...and prime the big old thing. I have tons of drying old tubes of oil paint from my Dad (who collected these, leaving them in their original artist palette-boxes) and was thinking I might try a unique palette-one thought out and carefully mixed-and then work out an image...a reverse of image-first thinking. What's (possibly) at stake here is a loss of spontaneity, which seems to be what I most admire in so much of the painted work that I pursue. Drips, mistakes and crossouts...false starts partially covered over, notes to oneself-Basquiat, Twombly speak to me here-as does the work of Justin Robinson, Nathaniel Mather (met at Folk Fest last week) and Clint Griffin (another member of the Minivan Gallery)...pursuing the essence of this work is like chasing after someone I need to possess -someone you need to ultimately have as a lover.
Met another interesting fellow at the FF-one Shawn Wallace, whose West Virginia background and family led him to paint quasi-comic portraits and interesting apocalyptic landscapes...crossing Mad magazine, Weird Tales and outsider drawings of imaginary architectures, Shawn is a humble sort who, much like my friend Ricky Parker, can spin tales for you all day. Many of the tales are taken from his family history. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk to him all that much as I had a booth to attend to and my own sculpture to sell. I was so torn as to what to buy from him, I purchased nothing...but then I called him up on Saturday and asked him if he'd ship me a painting I'd seen...I wanted more than one, but settled-if you know me, you know it's rare-very rare-for me to buy artwork...I have a new painting, 2 new drawings, a print and a sculpture from this show. The latter two pieces are from John Fesken, whose work fascinates me: he makes these intimate little boxes/scenes that give me the creeps...the one I got plunges me into another landscape/mood everytime I give it a look and I have it prominently (but not too obviously displayed in my living room.
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Hello There!
I am Shawn Wallace, the artist at Folk Fests wife. I just came across this article you wrote and wanted to thank you for what you said about Shawn. He says thank you also. I know it was written awhile back, but I was searching for anything that may have been written about him this year and found your writing. Thank you once again for what you said. You're a great writer and we apprecaite your comments.
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