Carl Berrien Smith |
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About the artist
Carl Berrien Smith was born in Darien Connecticut, and he always wanted to be an artist. He made drawings and paintings since kindergarten, and all the way through High School and on into art school (and decades beyond). His style has always been one of self-expression and figurative narration. More recently his artwork tends toward surrealism with leanings of abstract expressionism and cubism (and now, purely abstract).
He studied painting at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, MA, under Professor David Smith. There at art school, Carl blossomed as a narrative expressionist painter much like the German Expressionists of the 1930's. Carl's paintings are bold in color, and are shocking narratives of human behavior, social and political visions in a jaded landscape. His primary vehicle for narrating his visions is by painting a figure he calls Hugo, an alter ego he began drawing back in the sixth grade. Hugo in Carl's mind is a big angry man with a penchant for wild women, booze and violence. After graduating from art school with a B.F.A. in 1991, Carl painted constantly, exhibiting his works in Fairfield County.
Then in 1994 he enlisted in the Marine Corps to be an infantry combat artist. After a military discharge, in 1995 he had his first solo exhibition in New York City. From there he has shown his art in galleries from New York to Barcelona, Spain. His work is in numerous private collections and on permanant display at the Reflex Contemporary Museum, Amsterdam. Carl exhibits also with the Vicious Circle in Greenwich, CT and also serverd as President of the Art Society of Old Greenwich.
For the last fourteen years, Carl has worked exclusively with fellow Swain School graduate Kelly Morgen Christopher on collaborative and individual artwork, and have exhibited together in Connecticut and Maine.
Thoughts from the artist
20240302 0651 hours aqua studio
oh yeah, saturday morning.
was listening /watching M.O.D. concert at whiskey gogo 2001(approx). so fun.
i still paint every day. so abstract. in a few decades all the art will be in a dumpster, so that realization is comforting. i can do what i want, purely abstract.
i added sand to the gallons of housepaint now, since nothing matters at the same time everything matters.
had a few art cells at kellys farm; next one is cell64 on the 23rd (also her equinox bonfire party).
i start and end each painting daily, well within an hour each, and paint over everything daily. the moment of painting passes and nothing remains. the big sea of atoms keeps moving and i am a tiny paintbrush. my marks are already gone. maybe one tomorrow.
He's Dead Jim
M.O.D. (band)
Track 8 on The Rebel You Love to Hate
Please don't beam me down with Kirk, McCoy and Spock
Cause if you do, I know that you'll be dead by one o'clock
Maybe I'll be vaporized or crushed beneath some granite
Bones will look at Jim and say "I'm just a doctor, dammit!"
I'm an extra on Star Trek
It's my break on TV
The fourth man in the landing crew
It's the last you'll see of me
They didn't ask me if I wanted to go
And if they did, I would have told them no
Just because my shirt is red this doesn't have to be
Every time they beam down four they only beam back three
I'm an extra on Star Trek
It's my break on TV
The fourth man in the landing crew
It's the last you'll see of me
So when they need men to beam down, don't be a volunteer
Just stay up at the helm and help Sulu steer
The Enterprise is much more fun when Scotty runs the crew
So you beam down, I'll stay aboard and have some tribal stew
I'm an extra on Star Trek
It's my break on TV
The fourth man in the landing crew
It's the last you'll see of me
20230926 0806hours
I finished the Tea Set painting and now will send out postcards of it. I think about stardust these days and how we are all billions of years old, and endlessly recycled.
20230429 0726hours aqua studio
Painting abstractly is quite a release. I can think of nothing, and describe it. Nothing. At an atomic particle level we really are all connected. An opinion can stand on it's own but holds no water. A collection of similar opinions become an accepted truth but nothing more. The "We,"You" and "I" are nothing more than opinions. I paint nothing, the paths of atoms.
As of this morning and a run to Home Depot in my red van, I now have my ten sheets of plywood to work on "The Tea Set" painting. When it is done I will do a photoshoot of it outside Mather Junior High (now it is the Darien town hall). It will then be a postcard. I started listening to Pink Floyd while at Mather in 1982 on 8 tracks. The Tea Set was their original name, back when they were real voyagers of time and space with their experimental rock.
20221226 0705hours aqua studio
Kelly's daughter Cassie got married last month and while I was sitting in Kelly's car on the morning of, I began drawing fully abstract. When I got home from Maine I began to paint in same manner. Ever since then I have been painting fully abstract. I reached the goal finally. I completed the Eid Mar Personal Pizza painting, and Half Shell Mary and Horseshoe Pizza, in abstract. I am pleased as punch with them, and I am doing likewise with all the leftover/takeover collaborations here in Greenwich.
20220116 1017hours aqua studio
Kelly and I had art cell 57 two months ago at her farm @stoneyacresmaine
The next cell may be next month (I am picking up a half pig order also from the farm). I ordered a new ford cargo van, delivery in 6 months. Time to move the big paintings in style. My most recent works are here @carlberriensmith2
The current aim is still to go further absract. I am using more grays both warm and cool in effort to better cloak the pizza narrative or atleast push the color composition onto the front burner and the hidden messages way on back burner, so to speak. To try an be completely abstract makes me feel like I cannot breathe, in that my usual expression measures (russian letters, female contours and symbols etc) will not be evident. That will be a stretch for me (like trying a raw vegan diet that lasts as long as 30 hours).
Kelly and I have one active collaboration (five painting series called the five functions). It is in Maine currently. All the other active collaborations are to be completed in place and completed with numerous texts back and forth for each one.
I hope to complete every single painting that has been sitting around Greenwich studio (from recently started last year to 2 decades old unfinished pieces). At that time I can start brand new art.
20210530 1058hours aqua studio
Kelly and I had our first art cell after a year of working separately, in Maine at the beginning of the month. It was cool. Her farm has grown immensely. Since that art cell I have worked harder to design a "template" to both glorify our pizza ideas and also make abstractions for what is after pizza(narrative and colors).
2020-12-31 0825hours aqua studio
Such a terrible year.
Painted alot though.
Kelly and I got featured in a Maine Arts Journal
Link; http://maineartsjournal.com/kelly-morgen-christopher-and-carl-berrien-smith-collaborative-artists/
I finished a number of individual pieces. All of them reflect on the art cell and pizza. It is the primary narrative. I gave up on seeing "beyond", and even "within". I just want to not see. That is when the images show up in my head, of their own accord. I see finished paintings in my head, and rush to get the thumbnail ideas down on boards. That is why I always have fifty to eighty paintings sitting around in various stages. The layers of narration and images are due to passage of time and revelations of new themes that make me return to unfinished works with dust on them. Whatever works.
Most recently I stumbled across Democritus and his main statements that nothing exists except atoms and empty space. All else is just opinions.
Also, I found the work and writings of Ed Leedskalnin, and his coral castle near Miami.
Great stuff.
I paint every day. My vacation time from work allows me to paint all day for days on end. So cool.
2020-04-02 0720 hours
The most recent art cell #55 was at Kelly's house on March 14th. We completed the Exploding Pizza painting (8 feet by 12 feet). We decided to focus more on our own individual work and much less collaborations (prehaps just one collab each year). I have been working on a theme regarding Hugo and how that alter ego is a window of space and time for me to view from, while connected to the Pizza theme of mine and Kellys'. I refer to paintings based on this theme (authorship) as painted by "Hugo eats pizza", and as being heavily influenced by Kelly and her own work.
There are many paintings here in Greenwich studio needing to be completed (both collaborative and my own). I am focusing on these for now. Most of which are very close to finishing, and needed time away from them to change my perspective. With constant electronic communications with Kelly up in Maine, we will finish our current collection of works for exhibit.
Just received two 8 foot sheets of plywood from cool carpenters working next door. I am starting a new painting this weekend with them as an 8x8 foot piece called EID MAR PERSONAL PIZZA. It will narrate my entire being within the art cell. Also in the works (other than those needing completion already) is an 8 foot self portrait called
honora patrum. Another one for this summer is an 8 foot by 24 foot (yes) called Half Shell Mary and Horseshoe Pizza.
2019-11-22 0542 hours
I was in Maine last weekend painting at Kelly's house at art cell 52. We nearly finished "Billy Rubin's Paint by Number Strip Club". Turns out later, Kelly finished it and we will hang it in Stamford on December 7th at the 25th Anniversary show of the Viscious Circle.
Kelly is here that weekend for our art cell 53.
2018-04-08 0700 hours
I am listening to an old Pink Floyd bootleg from 1969 in Amsterdam. I have listened to Pink Floyd since 1982 when I drew surreal cartoons. That music has always been with me, putting me in a place to create. Kelly and I have had more cells in Boston, Maine and Connecticut. We had two solo shows together recently with 37 paintings. Sales were good. Once that pressure receded, we were then able to be absorbed with the purely creative end of our art. We have worked with the ideas of underwater life (in particular jellyfish and anemones), flowers on land and in ponds, and planets, moons and rings. It is very inspiring when trying to fuse it all together in a narrarive, laced with human ideals, moral navigation. Currently we post all our new material at this location;
http://www.suntidestudios.com/
Enjoy.
2017-02-28 1433 hours
I am so close to going pure abstract. I had a thought to further an idea and googled it. The search came up with the artist Alan Davie. He was an inspiring Zen abstract artist. I will continue on my path....
Cell 30 2017-01-14/15 A 2 day cell in Maine
No viewing of the milky way again due to weather. Good stars and shiny moon atleast.Kelly and I are looking at some newly finished pieces. The foot pedal for Joe is done. The little painting of a nuclear reactor from 2000 is done (17 years long). Kelly grids and bubbles continue to push our work forward. I am still trying to go FULL abstract. The "remember kitty" #26 painting we both dislike so I am testing abstracting now on it. It is 2am sunday morning. We will review marketing before I leave at 2pm today. We ate great indian food in brunswick for lunch, then Kelly cooked bear burgers from a kill Hannah made. We had our cheese and a baguette. I got Kelly her vodka mix again.
Sunday 0900 marketing; It is very important to Kelly for our marketing to be astrong effort. I am of the mind to draw attention to our work from additional sources as well. Our new discipline for abstract painting is that anything that touches a painting must be used with eyes closed. I gave Kelly her orange and teal paint. Wendy can make her own kabucha by saving bits of mushroom. Ten day turnaround. I will finish egypt painting for next cell.
Cell 27 2016-07-15 A three day cell in Greenwich
0800hrs Friday morning; Kelly drove down from Maine last night. We reviewed the progress on collaborative pieces, takeover pieces as well, and individual works. We talked until 0330 hours this morning. I showed Kelly about thirty older paintings of mine, each recently emblazened with pizza template. I also showed her the three Joy series pieces I worked on, Egypt, 3D (new) Tra Bong, and Kelly gave me the 9 1/2 cheeks painting she took over and finished abstractly.
Kelly brought large and small pieces of hers (large ones still in her car which turned out to be determined as finished double diptychs). Those four pieces were of abstract female forms drawn in oil stick and very little paint was needed to show the composition. Also Kelly had a new series of abstract narratives with blue chairs that looked like both David Hockney and Francis Bacon were whipsering to her mind's eye. A set of fabric sheets with hand drawn nautical mapping and figurative fisherman (from our college days) were also brought. They will become a triptych. Kelly brought a ten inch painting of a window interior (cross between a Mondrian and VanGogh bedroom), and another small dyptick of an abstract narrative with the three graces.
We had visitors on both Saturday and Sunday to view our work. It went well.
Sunday 2016-07-17 Day three 0800hours; Today we began cataloging our work. I knew I had maybe 40 or 50 pieces to write down, but with all of Kelly's new work and our work together we easily passed 108 pieces here. Not bad. So much work to do. We are still sending out our pizza postcard for marketing our art.
2016-05-23 2228hours I continue on an abstract path. I paint over most anything in my studio that has not yet been completed, with lines I paint with eyes closed so as to projecet what I see when creating within an art cell. Kelly and I had art cell #26 recently. We embarked on several new joint pieces where the blueprints were exectued without seeing; the narratives are secondary. Both new pieces reflect the joys of life; and also the Martha's Vineyard clay pits that used to allow for people to strip down and lounge about in the wet clay, then bake in the sun ( afterwhich to jump in the ocean to wash off).
The "Soldier's things" will be another 3D abstract narrative based upon the song by Tom Waits on his great Swordfishtrombones album. It is a sad song reflecting upon the fleeting and soon forgotten essence of all people, this example being the last and worthless objects owned by a dead soldier being sold off at some tag sale somewhere. The new joint piece will incorporate all that Kelly and I put in our collaborative pieces (acrylic paint, plaster, clay, found objects and large wooden frames that fold like diptych and or triptychs since we travel back and forth to each other's studio to work).
The Pizza with Everything was completed early this year and we just ordered the marketing postcard for it.
Cell 26 2016-05-14 2 day cell in Hartford Maine
0800hrs saturday morning; some rain overnite; no visible milky way. a very fruitful cell sofar, as kelly and I are pushing the limits of our cubist, surreal and abstract active paintings/pieces. We finalized the photography of the 8 foot pizza painting. Ther are many active pices ongoing. I brought some in my new subaru impreza 2015, Kelly had many here at her house, and we began two additional pieces (both depicting people baking in the sun in the marthas vineyard clay pits). Both of thise pieces are part of the joie de vivre series 1 to 7. Kelly worked on the junkmail piece and added particular colors not there prior, and pushed it to near wonderful completion.
We both have multiple takeover pieces which we just applied either dribbles of jackson pollock, or the autopainting abstract pizza template. The efforts are similar to the "she wolf" painting by jackson Pollock where he seemed to have a pinting sitting around, the repainted fully over 3/4 of it and thus tripling the complexity of it.
Kelly and I are working on the seven joie de vivre pieces, and today we started painting our 3d piece from cell25 (plaster moulds of each other assembled in a small tree like a bonzaii.
Sunday; painted all day long, and also looked at my older day planners to pin down earliest art cell dates and activities. Are cell one was 2009 february 21 in sharon mass. Today we worked mostly on the joy series.
2016-03-06 1345hours I added my new work. It has moved forward and left behind narration. It is abstract. It is only what I see and feel, devoid of storytelling. The viewer is left to their own devices and observation.
2015-09-20 1733hours Cell 24 will be in november in boston. Kelly has pushed the auto drawing onto a new and greater abstract path. Where I would close my eyes and autodraw a nude woman with very relaxed contours (more accurate), Kelly will close her eyes and OTTOdraw what she sees on her inner eyelids, what her mind's eye shows against what light shines through her eyelid (be it sunlight impressions or sense of pulsing blood).
I started a large painting based loosely on both Kelly's back yard view of milky way and also her OTTO drawing technique. It is 4 feet by 12 feet, 6 wood panels and called milkyway.
2015-09-05 3 day cell #23 in Maine
Kelly and I did a joint autodrawing about this longer cell at her house. We have 4 pieces called Joie de Vivre which is about Kelly sunbathing nude/enjoying life (not necessarily Kelly ). We are working on explaining our Bowel art Movement as being one's whole being expressed with eyes closed. I want to further explore both auto drawing and auto writing, loosely based on the Surrealists in the 1930's.
We are also working on the "train leaving station" from cell 19, then also Kelly's cubist auto drawing [painting that I had for last 2 months. Kelly did blueprint for train leaving station in 3D and now has it for next 2 months. Kelly has wonderful view of the milky way from her yard.
2015-09-06 We started a second joint autodraw themed as the nature of our bowel art movement. I will bring it home and fill in with dots. Kelly worked on "ones's own being" which has four sections and each will show the 4 art movements leading us to were we are going as the bowel movement. This painting is a takeover board from 4 years ago called mechanical anus (insert irony).
Another new thing for us is our new "takeover technique" where we find our own unfinished pieces and deliver them to eachother in the cell to be reborn as a joint piece. I have many to submit to the cell...
2015-09-07 0700hours Kelly works on one piece at a time with perfect concentration. I bounce from piece to piece at random to work on. We worked longer hours together than ever before and also came up with numerous workable ideas. Clearly this was the best cell yet.
2015-08-22 0940hours Hi. Two cells in recent past and one new one in Maine in 2
weeks.... Kelly and I are working steadily on several surrealist, cubist and
pointilist mix media paintings jointly.
I am also working on the soda jerk nine eleven piece (and various other pieces). My
blueprint drawings are turning more into finished pieces in themselves so I will treat
them as such. I auto draw each day and the female forms are sooo relaxed in them.
Unheard of in my eyes wide open drawing, ever. I am starting to auto write too. I
am starting a book about my art; it will be by Hugo Diner and about Hugo Diner but
the illustrations will be mine. Thanks to Jovey for inspiring.
So much art to do. So many visions. Screaming to portray new visual language like
klingon in dots.
2015-28-02 1645 hours; cell 19 "Pizza with Everything" will be the next collaborative piece that Kelly and I will market to galleries. It already shows our abstract surrealist and pointilist efforts. In two weeks we meet to complete the piece ( 4 panels).
My own efforts mirror the joint work in that all my drawings are "automatic", as are my blueprints and subsequent mix media paintings. I draw with eyes closed, then fill in space and also design further with pointilism. The drawing above is an example.
2014-11-16 0645 hours; cell 18 was excellent; Kelly and I began a four panel mix media piece in abstract surrealism named "Pizza with Everything" (working title). At the next cell we start another piece (same style) in clay and acrylic. We have now numerous pieces in rotation that each of us works on and then when we meet, we swap pieces so both of us continue to push each piece further...
We made and mailed out a marketing piece (postcard) of the pirate beach circle jerk, to galleries and museums.
2014-10-11 0639 hours; Art cell 18 will be the third cell based on surrealism in mix media. Kelly and I are making more joint pieces together ("Pirate beach circle jerk" for example) and they complete faster since two of us are working on them. We are exploring pointilism and surrealism and mix media in our joint pieces for now. The narratives are randomly chosen.
I added the entire art cell log below (beneath the triple lines)
For individual work, Kelly is making her ceramic Budes at http://www.thebude.com/
and her collective work covering her wide scope of talent and mediums are at http://www.suntidestudios.com/kelly-christopher-artist.html
For my own paintings I am still working in pointilism with multi layered narratives, and have begun using automatic drawing and writing techniques. Turns out that I draw better with eyes closed....
2014-6-28 1624 hours; After several more art cells with Kelly Christopher from Swain School of Design, we have worked on new collaborative pieces; "Abex", "Breasts of Tiresius Morgan", "Swain Hippocampus and Profit Lautreamont Smoking at Big Dans, and another surrealist piece with the backside of the Abex plaster cast (the latter two as well as "Uneasy Francis Gorky" are not posted yet). Our mixed media works together are each based on a different art movement that appeals to us. The surrealist movement will be our sixteenth art cell work session theme in august.
2014-1-26 1050 hours; I added the finished version of "Cactus 13". For my current painting series I want to tie my narrative symbols together into a simplified structure (not unlike the Wackoburger "W") for a replicating/cookie cutter design. This must include the Hollowmen (as wafflemen in upside down W tripod shape), the cactus for the overall architecture, the three graces for
beauty and femininity, some grid design for tile as the narrative is now secondary to the overall aim, and the technique takes frontstage. I want them to have the pointilist action of seurat, colors of Henri-Edmond Cross (he painted before seurat), intent of early cubist Picasso, wild visionary drive of van gogh and dreamy mindfulness of dali.
A few new pieces entitled "in the hands of josie", and "three graces at avignon" will encapsulate my direction as the narratives will be almost hidden under the bedding of dots, scumbling of layers, and color, scale, perspective dissociation.
2013-7-27 0655 hours; I added the finished version of "Nancy and the Inside Jobs", and also a new collaborative piece with Kelly which is a politcal/social commentary CACTUS painting with a POP ART influence. We will be working soon on a few pieces in the NEO CLASSICISM style.
2013-5-27 1150 I have been painting in varying styles such as cubism, pop art and bauhaus with my art school painter friend Kelly. I am a narrative expressionist painter though and cannot stop seeing the world through that particular lense of my mind's eye. People are still stupid and cruel meat bags slithering around this planet's surface till their clocks run out. ahhh much better.
10.28.12 0908 hours. Oops. Still painting each day. New update on more works in progress. "Nancy and the inside jobs" is about just what it takes to mobilize millions of fear based people to believe a lie and blindly move in the wrong direction, willingly giving up their children into a meat grinder in order to benefit a ONE PERCENT of a populace; again and again throughout the idiotic rewritten or actual history of our meaningless and destructive species.
My other new painting is called Abortion Survivor. It is about how (we will just focus on the USA for now) over one million babies are murdered each year in our land of the free, and it is ok. Although I think humans are baseless, meaningless and temporary smelly bags of meat; a direct killing is STILL a direct killing. Right, Wrong, Good or Bad; go ahead and ply your own artificial moral lingo in anyway that helps you sleep better. One million murders a year, and yet gun violence is on the news each day at less than five percent of the abortion numbers. There are victims of abortion who SURVIVE the atrocity of burning alive from saline poisoning, as well as other mechanized slaughter techniques. They live, and they are pissed. I am also working on a blueprint about the face of god is madness. 3.13.12 0528 hours. My latest paintings continue with the discovery and examination of both good and evil in the ruinous heart of man. The soul and all universal energy is embodied in simple geometric shapes revolving around the narratives. 12.12.11 0604 hours. What our senses perceive are electrical signals issued to our brain, and the interpretation is partially based on previous experience, and any residual effects of trauma. My works in progress attempt to compartmentalize the actual signals sent to the brain into visual Cezanne-like geometric shapes. If I see a hare and hunter in a field, and there is some distortion or interference in signal quality as it travels from my eyes, ears and nose, what picture then will be issued by my brain? 8.21.11 1937 hours. What would your soul look like if your mind fractured; multiple personalities emerge and they all loathe you, and your entire life swiftly fedexed to hell? 8.15.11 1558 My current paintings are an effort to visualize how someone may become "un-hinged", and thereby react to their inner and outer (demons)environments (both mental and physical) by any ends and means which then would likely wind up on your local or national news media evening lying news.
If each second or moment, life event (birth to death) and all of your cells or DNA in your body are building blocks to a pyramid or roman coliseum or jefferson memorial (albeit a collection of "you", and your very brief "being" in this universe) then you are a slave to your path in the brick laying of your personal coliseum/pyramid (bypassing fate and free will at this juncture). What would happen if a fault occured (childhood head injury, or pre-determined DNA anomaly) which left a pre-disposition to petty crime/felonious or altruistic genius/ (not Lex Luthor) ?
What if such a fault(mind/body programming error) claimed a moment in a person's life and triggered a course of action like a pebble in a pond or a pineapple grenade in a daycare center?; i.e., Joseph Sixxpak lost his job and the bank is moving on his mobile home, car was repo'ed, supportive wife is waining, employment search is echo of doors slamming, and Joseph tells his wife on Monday morning that he is going "hunting for people". She dismisses him, and Joseph meets the morning breakfast rush at the local Wackoburger fast food restaurant with his .45, 9mm, sawed off 12 gauge and trusty SKS w/three 30 round clips all under his long coat on a beautiful day.
Long after the police leave, and crime scene tape is gone, a full autopsy is run on Joseph to discover a growth pressing against the amygdala in his brain. An extra brick in the wall for this pyramid, or the correct number and placement?
2014-10-11 Below is a log of the art cells and what was done at each work session;
artcells.
cell19 econolodge room 154 (again). 2015-01-17 Kelly and I reviewed the egypt piece and box3. We focused most of the cell on pizza. We worked on eachother's panels and auto painted a large elipse across piece to represent the idea of a pizza crust (to be atleast a base for all our abstracted body parts, blood , dna, celles etc and view of each others finest qualities.)
We also started cell 19 box whish is a 24x24x12 wooden box with pink primer. Kelly chose the blueprint "train leaving station" as the design for the piece to be made in layers of clay then glued and then painted. Kelly will take both pieces home and i will finish egypt and box 3 (which was a leftover template form pizza). Kelly will also finalize her bowel movement manifesto paper.]
cell 18 econolodge room 154 strange room layout 2014-11-16. A great success. Kelly and I had large lunch and discssed plans (bluprints) for 8teen (or pizza with everything) 48x96 four panels made into 2 folding dipticks; abstract surrealist mix media piece. We want the piece to describe each other ata non physical level while portraying each other;s mind, soul and body inter mingled as 2 artists in the universe seeing each others; best qualities. We began by adding rudimentary blueprint lnes on the four panels, then delved into plastering each others hand, feet, knee, or shoulder to add a mix media element to the equation. At each step of progress we look at each other hoping the other knows the right way to proceed, with the abstractions....
We also started two small studies with oil sticks as a test of mediums but chose to use acrylics on the 4 panels (with plaster). I will take home the 3rd and 4th panel (which is mostly kelly plaster body parts) and Kelly will bring home part 1 and 2 to work on for cell 19. At the next cell we will trade panels and continue same work until cell 20 (atleast).
We declare our work together in our art cells to be THE BOWEL MOVEMENT. It is our own art movement. Kelly is the leader. She promoted me to the position of asshole, and gave herself the title of Chief Rectum. Kelly is writing the bowel movement manifesto.
cell 17 econolodge room 181 backwards room 2014-09-26 and 27
surealism part 2 of 3
part 2 on sureal 16 large box painting of backside plaster (from cell one), and part one of sureal 17 (egyptian nefertiti type smaller box ((MUCH heavier diptycjh box constructed from Kelly 200 year old loom parts)) and eventually unhinged for her traonsporting to maine.
Kelly brought plaster piece of her left hand and Hannah laft hand (we used just Kelly's). I brought plaster of India's feet and Wendy's back for dyptick.
Kelly also brought a small painting leftover from last sureal cell to work on.
We finished sureal 16 piece and named it "Pirate Beach Circle Jerk"., and the new joint piece is called "The ladies of the two Lands".
Kelly blocked in nile river, giza pyramids and all columns for heiroglyphs. I did auto drawing of all heiroglyph symbols. Kelly in interim will do pointilism on the entire piece and bring to cell18 in november. I will bring two blank dyptick pieces and some plaster to work with for more nefertiti pieces and or a joint pice of Kelly and Carl fused into one artist entitled "SWF" salt water flush. Our own art movement is called the bowel movement since we dig so deep into ourselves and spill out our souls, minds and guts onto our artwork.
cell 16 surealism 2014-08-09
met at econolodge sharon mass 1330 hours
to work on joint mix media srreal piece called surreal 16. it has the backside plater piece from cell one. kelly also primed two small canvases. one surreal and another is a ground. the large surreal 16 piece has us both painting dots on it. after kelly finished applying tiles according to agreed blueprint. lots of work done on surreal 16 since we both worked together for 11 hours.
cell 17 will be same (and cell 18 also will be surreallism). i hope to get a plaster bust of wendy and the feet plaster of india. cell 18 will be backside of kelly based on nefertiti.
cell 15- still life 2014-5-17
kelly brought cow bones to work in backlighting still lifes. it was so irritating a project that we bailed and went out for dinner and watched a movie. Carl has the cow hip bones and skull in a 3d piece now.
cel1 14
february 21-23 2014
1530 hours on 21st;
we worked on joing ab ex piece from cell 13. this cell is a "cleanup" cell to complete or atleas work on all the unfinished pices from previous cells.
kelly brought palter pices from cell one (of carl torso) to apply to ab ex tub painting. i will bring this home and elarge frame and paint it.
kelly studied dead mice at smu college for color theory.
i brought 10 paintings to work on (too many). kelly worked on her neo classo painting of woman's legs beside column with falling roses.
kelly made both a copper wire palm tree (lower half) and an upper and lower torso figure from chikkn wire and paper strips of a sun worshipper.
i did pointilism and surrealism (while trying to do cubism and abstractions) with q tips. i worked on the k worm painting of a tape worm inside a woman.
kelly began a painting of a palm tree and the next morning did a strong sketch of same.
cell 13
2013-12-14
econolodge room 118 (backwards room again)
pyrat rum only
soft goat cheese only
black guiness
joint art piece began with kelly painting bath tub top view with red tiles around it. carl later added tub faucets and scumbled colors into tiles. kelly will bring painting 20"x40" home for 3d tile work.
it is planned that cell 14 will be later february and will be a catch up cell to complete previously started workds of varying art movements. we will also discuss out own art movement.
kely also brought her latest tile piece of her self nude in the surf. also she worked on her neo classical piece of a womans legs as she drops roses off of a pedestal. it has a chagal and matisse element.
kelly also started a 8x20 inch painting of flowers like a bonnard bakyard floral piece.
carl started a solo ab ex piece of a tapeworms day in kellys guts. he also worked on the cubist painting for wendy (the diptick). he also brought a hugo painting for kelly in progress (another murder of a woman).
kellly dreamt of tumblewees of crumpled plastic.
our movement is the bowel movement (working title
art cell 12 neo classicism econolodge room 141 (backwards room set up). 2013-9-13 through 2012-9 15.
kelly in very good spirits. she made in clay a 12 inch mermaid with pierced nipples. also she primed two canvases for new classo in her gradation wavy style of colors. the mermaid is of greek mythology with present day function as a vessel. kelly added child picture to the large pop art painting i returned with; the cactus denim piece, and she continued with design and color dorection.
carl started neo classo painting of the coliseum with a wackoburger complex in and around it, and also worked on detail narration on cactus painting.
saturday; kelly began 14-18 inch paiting with ionic column pillar with visible knees of woman holding a vine of flowers down to feet. carl worked on cubist painting of daughter india; adding much needed color per kelly advising.
cell 13 will be abstract expressionism.
carl also worked on neo classo wackoburger painting, drawings for new works including bekki burgers of ecoli flavors, and also the cactus piece. kelly progressed the clay mermaid with scales and realistic female anatomy. kelly began an octopus clay piece that is also a functional vessel.
artcell eleven 2013-6-29 econolodge room 144 sharon mass.
topic- pop art. it is ok, not easy.
we worked on a collaborative piece. four feet by four feet
mixed media on pre framed wooden board. Paper cut outs and denim are added to make this work have a jasper johns, robert rauschenberg and basqiat influence. i will take it home and paint in the large cactus then return it to next cell for completion by kelly (cell 12 is neo classicism topic).
kelly also worked on multiple 8x10 boards like basqiat psotcards and i aided in one with some paint and marker.
i worked on a 2x2 board with four panels like a cartoon magazine. it is a rape murder cook n eat then shit out narrative called saturday evening roast.
cell 12 will be 2 days to accommodate pending and new work.
artcell ten- saturday april 27-28 econolodge sharon mass.
BAUHAUS (neither of us enjoyed this style due to it's inherent restrictions).
We met at parking lot and had lunch at irish restaurant and studied bauhaus notes till 3pm, got our room and jammed until sunday at 2am.
Kelly- clay piece of small bust. Head has open mouth (repulsion from being bauhaus), and backside is carved out skull with multiple pilings and ball bearrings of clay. looks like kandinsky painting in 3d.
Second piece is finalizeing cubist painting form cell 9.
Third piece is palm tree painting with drawing makeover.
Carl- Put final coat of paint onto 3d painting with wired set of silverware. Kelly aided in final color design. I hate design. Worked on backlighting of cubist painting in the Bonnard nude female style.
Attempted first watercolors narrations (girl near bath tub.)
artcell9 2012-3-1 two days in brunswick at kelly studio and her apartment
carl-cubist narrative intent
Kelly and I worked on a cubist dyptik of our views of the artcells froma cubist perspective. Kelly used a gradation of value to her pallette while I used the usual polarized dark to light contrasts. We both made a small cubist study of an eye or lemon. (Kelly did the eye and NOT the lemon) depsite the video lesson I got from you tube.
Kelly also worked on designs for glass tile palm trees.
I dabbled on various non cubist works to try to complete.
art cell eight- 2012-11-23 sharon mass (econolodge) two days of straight painting!! weeekend immediately after
thanksgiving. stayed at romm 144 econo lodge
pyrat rum is kelly favorite
we both love acrylic unbleached titanium white
kelly worked on tile mosaic pieces (to finish "fire" tile
designs; she painted white between them.
we began dyptik; kelly warm multi color background
kelly- two 4 inch tile pieces of proposed tattoo chakra
kelly- tub tile painting(and glass tile) red floor
Kelly started palm tree painting.
carl- finished reese/elaine painting weeding painting of hugo at veronica lake
carl- working on nancy inside jobs; near complete
carl-started dyptich my half
carl- workd on abortion survivor; little kkorn; kyle jackroller
artcell seven august 17-19 2012 greenwich
day trip to greenwich village
diptich; two 24 inch pre framed boards; each of us draws one and then the other
must paint it in; atleast discuss theme; each painting is opposite (good vs evil?) or
are they a pan vision like a landscape?
also work on active pieces
artcell six sharon mass 5.9.12 kelly worked on penceil drawing of female face
(native american like) kelly also painted on 14 inch board of bald woman in the
bathroom pressing against a door to exit. very dark, but kelly lightened it all with
orange tile.
carl worked on nancy inside job and added green tile back groiund per kelly input
carl reworked large painting of k korn accord (kelly modeled as waitress that
hugo murders), also worked on shiteating grin2.
artcell five 1.6.12-1.8.12 at brunswick studio
kelly fixed up her painting "the evolution" 4x5 feet canvas
i worked on nancy inside jobs (grid design) and sevaral
small ones (KKORN)
artcell four- 10.15.11 sharon mass room 246 kelly worked solely on tryptich
carl worked on rubba dub painting (when it was a diptich),
and bundy fries painting
artcell three- 2011-03-25 sharon mass room 242 kelly did tree sculpture and triptich
carl began using q tips instead of brush
artcell two- 2010-11-26 kellys in canton maine cellar carl ten smallpaintings
kelly 3 doublsided five foot sheets self portraits
artcell one- 2009-02-21 -sharon mass holiday inn kelly posed; carl bacon man;
kelly plaster casted carl
2004-11-29
kelly europe
2008-04-11
visited kelly and met jenny
2008-06-28
kelly visits and we got to nyc with her girls;
had awful time at tavern on the green lunch $300
2007-07-17
first notes about having an art cell; first named as think tank;
theory; 24 hour motel room
place tarps down
art writing
drawing
talking
eating
sleep deprivation
painting
getting weird
april 18 2004
kelly visited me
2004-03-14
painted butcher markings on kellys body
2004-05-21
visited kelly
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"No Quarter for Three Graces" 2009 | ||||