Sunday, November 15, 2009

A New Gallery





Artists Without Boundaries

As many you know, aside from the body of work I have that I create on my own in my studio and on location, I have amassed a large body of work over the past three years that I have created with artist Tali Farchi.

I met Tali in 2006 when I did an interview for Copper Press with her and Benno Hübner about their multi-media / multi-disciplinary performance called Mo(ve)ment. Since that time Tali and I have been working on many projects from graphic design to producing performances as well as painting. A most fascinating aspect to this working relationship is that Tali lives in the Netherlands.

The design projects we have worked on over the years have been able to be done by sharing ideas and files over the internet. In fact we have recently formed a trans-Atlantic design firm we call Two Designing. More information will be forthcoming on this project. But the paintings that we have done together have required us to be together in the same workspace. This is an unusual way to work, and if it was not unusual enough another unique aspect of this body of work is that it is painted live on stage, and is created along live musicians.

The first time that we worked in this way we were in Amsterdam at the Fringe Festival in September of 2007. Since then we have worked in New York City, Chicago and Michigan. October 2008 found us working in Israel, and this last summer we were in Windsor, Ontario and Toronto.

While we have created hundreds of paintings as we have gotten together, the work that we did in Windsor really was elevated to a level new excellence. We eventually realized that we had to work on materials that were more substantial, and that brought us to working on stretched canvases.  We were immediately taken with what these paintings have become.

During the shows that last from 25 to 40 minutes we create several paintings that are mostly on paper. Only one of these paintings on canvas were created during each show, so there is a special focus given to these pieces. There is an energy that we derive from the music and it really influences the marks we make and the colors we use.  The paintings are projected on a huge screen so that the audience and the musicians can see what we are doing and this in turn gives the musicians have something to respond to as we paint with the music. This dynamic method of creation is exciting because it is so very in the moment. 

When Tali and I are painting these pieces there is only the now.

Please look at the Collaborative Gallery of the work that Tali and I have created.