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The
Creative Surround/The Framed Image
The conventional view of the frame as creative or protective edge as tasteful
and discreet presentation is eschewed in favor of unique and individual
statements.
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David
Bierk conceives his historically based, lusciously painted
oils with a specific surround, be it steel, textured concrete or rusted
iron, contrasting a contemporary hard material (associated with construction)
with the sumptuousness of the paint. In PORTRAIT IN STONE, OPHELIA, FROM
JULIA MARGARET CAMERON, the concrete in its stolid, solid nature frames
the lyrical, dramatic face painted in oil, inspired by a Margaret Cameron
photograph. |
| Carolyn
Brady's watercolor, FRAMED, is an invitation to view an intimate,
complex and voluptuous interior still-life of a shapely Chinese red antique
lamp topped by a striped silk shade. Behind the lamp hangs a rococo framed
mirror, gilded with leaf-shaped flourishes and cartouches. Reflected in
the mirror is the boiserie paneling of the room and golden glowing lights
On the table next to the lamp, in contrast to the antique-framed mirror,
is a black and white snapshot of a young woman in a contemporary brass frame.
The "framed" ensemble of images reminds us that we are always
looking through layers to perceive the world around us. |
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Mark
Depman's still-life Cibachrome photos are "family portraits,"
views of the artist's life and the compilation of "things" he
puts together in his home. Framed photos of family and friends, framed watercolors
of intimate scale by the artist, his computer, a butter dish and knife,
postcards concerning gallery exhibitions, nothing is outside the range of
the camera's eye. It takes in a slice of life, a "frame of film"
with musical rhythm provided by the frames within. |
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| Don
Eddy's multi-panel paintings are either about the dialogue
of the panels enframed by a beautifully crafted, perfectly selected wooden
structure, or frameless, with a frame suggested by the tympanum shaped panels.
In CATENA AUREUM, the golden chain, the artist surrounds a central panel
of sky and clouds with twelve images; some are images from nature, a bird,
a fish look out at the viewer, others are symbols of history; a gothic gargoyle,
tracery from the ceiling of Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides. The chain
of life surrounds the image of eternity, sky and air, all viewed through
a frame of multi-window panes. |
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| Juan
Gonzalez conceived his works with an architectural frame in
mind, as important as the painting or drawing itself. At times the frame
became a construction onto itself as in NACIMIENTO where the frame is a
small elegant reliquary, the structure housing the Annunciation image. In
RIMBAUD'S LILY, one of the artist's final paintings, the frame is a pure
white tiered surround for an image that is infused with the symbolist poet's
words of flowering. Like museum paintings, the artist chose to put the name
of this work on a brass plaque attached directly to the white painted wooden
frame. By so doing, he was objectifying his subject, infused with the pulsing
of life, making it an object to be viewed from afar, a dream-world needing
its anchor. |
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Michael
Gregory has for many years painted his own frames, working
a warm green into the black edge. He has also created several images, paying
homage to the masters of trompe l'oeil. In his newest painting, the trompe
l'oeil is, in fact, a painting of the back of one of his paintings; the
wooden panel on which he paints, the support for the panel, the back of
the frame, a tongue in cheek message on the creative surround. |
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Lucy Mackenzie, the
frame, too, is part of the process. Working for many months on each small-scale
painting, she contemplates the nature of the appropriate surround. More
often than not, she herself makes the frames, chooses the moldings, cuts
them, paints them and joins them to the painting. In YOUNG GIRL WITH CARNATION,
the tender image of a young woman based on Petrus Christus is surrounded
by a perfect marquetry pattern, a thin veneer in perspective that focuses
the eye on the blossoming of a young girl to womanhood. |
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Susan
Norrie's concern for the placement of objects in our homes
incorporates the concept of placing a canvas within a wood veneer panel
as part of a diptych painting, one half the painting is oil on canvas, the
other half (of the same scale) has a canvas inserted and placed into a cabinet-like
frame. It is permanently situated, unmovable, immutable in contrast to the
fluid surface of the accompanying oil. Taking her cue from art history,
from Durer's etchings with momento mori placed in cabinets, Norrie comments
on art entering the domestic environment. |
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John
Okulick's wall constructions either center on the grid, a frame-work
for his perpectival sculptures or the ellipse which spirals into space.
The grid is a window, always in wood, sometimes smooth in its execution,
sometimes revealing the rough character of the material. In his new piece,
he combines his use of the material, wood, with his interest in symbolic
imagery. |
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For
Frank Owen there is
no separation between painting and frame, it is all of a piece, all painted
in acrylic on canvas, often in bas-relief. Inventing a system all his own,
he paints layers of acrylic on top of one another, Owen builds a skin of
paint which he adheres to the canvas. In WIRE TRANSFER III, the central
field is a glowing golden wheat color with images from nature appearing
at different depths, leaves, sticks, stones, a celebration in quiet hues
of the Adirondack floor. Surrounding the golden field is a gray painted
frame also containing images of nature, this time in relief. There is a
visual play between the inner field and its surround setting up a dialogue
between two and three dimensions, between painting and drawing, between
painting and sculpture, an ever-rich terrain. |
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| Joseph
Raffael's newest paintings address the frame as inner border,
a motif throughout his work. At times he has chosen to paint an abstract
border in oil or watercolor surrounding a "representational" image.
At others, such as in ILLUMINATION SUMMER, the border is as important as
the central mandala image, it is in perfect balance. The mandala, a Tibetan
based circle within a square is a meditation object. Images from nature,
clouds, flowers, tress, accompany dancing figures as the world turns. Surrounding
the mandala is the on-going stream of life--colorful bubbling water with
jewel-like passages all surrounded by a thin ribbon of violet painted border. |
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Yuko
Shiraishi's pure abstract paintings are often squares within
squares, rectangles within rectangles. In ABREAST SQUARES, Shiraishi paints
a sea-like azure turquoise color on six panels, surrounding each square
with a frame of linen, the material on which the painting is created. The
panels range from very thin, almost flat, to a few inches in depth; the
square within the squares ranges from almost filling the entire field with
a tiny border-frame of linen, to a tiny painted square with an abundant
frame of linen. In each panel the square with a linen border focuses our
view into a color of tranquillity. |
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window into the work of art, the frame functions as a portal into the artist's
soul and personal vision. |
