Exploring the world opened up by a work of art
This week’s showcase:
Oscar Camilo de las Flores
“El Gran General” Conte crayon on paper, 79″ x 50.5″
The “Big Macs” are his balls. . . . but wait there’s more, much more. . . . OMG, TMI. Made you look.
Too much information can be disturbing, deadly in its extreme. (Just think ingesting disinfectant.) In this time of “Isolation” we are being bombarded with WAY too much information. We are like sitting ducks in front of a screen, fixated on every morsel of information. And like moths to a flame, we can’t avert our eyes or ears from the oncoming disaster.
So it is with this drawing. Oscar, like Dante, has been through hell, plumbing the depths of human depravity, laying bare for us a prescient tome of all things vile. This portrait of war-mongering generals has everything from forbidden swastikas, icons of commercial greed, machismo, arrogance and ignorance, to a skewered Christ figure (representing us, the General’s subjects) inside a keg upon which he sits and relieves his bowels. Wow.
Every square inch is chocked full of information to keep us mesmerized for days. And Oscar’s rendering technique is equally engrossing in acuity and 3D reality. (I’ve never seen a conte crayon drawing of this scale, this detailed, this clean.)
. . . All to bring home the point of what is real. Because somehow it captures the vile, the destructive in all of us. Like it or not, it resonates. But unlike raw “shock art” which is soullessly designed to merely ascertain if you have a pulse, this piece brings a certain pleasure and release from having seen and faced the worst. And dare I say it, there is beauty in something so disturbing and none the less truthful.
The subtitle of this series is “Exploring the World Opened Up by a Work of Art”. Fortunately for us, opening the world of art is not limited to pretty colors, California light, and the right number of cows out to pasture. It includes the oh so dark, yet oh so beautiful world of Oscar Camilo de las Flores.
OUT OF ISOLATION #1
Out of Isolation #1 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Lawrence Gipe, "Thames, 1946" Oil on canvas, 48" x 60", 2017-2018 While it is evident that these merry souls are not practicing proper "social distancing", they certainly do exude a familiar sense of isolation in an otherwise dark and moody time. To be more precise, Gipe's [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #2
Out of Isolation #2 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Wosene Worke Kosrof "Queen of Words II," Acrylic on linen, 25" x 20", 2017 The world according to Wosene Worke Kosrof is one of non-stop talking. Everything and everyone can't seem to get enough of the latest gossip of a thousand story tellers that fill the [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #3
Out of Isolation #3 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Elena Zolotnitsky "After the Shower," Oil on paper, 24" x 23.25" custom framed Time to reflect is an unexpected luxury of "Isolation." An expansive opportunity made possible by being forced to stop . . . then listen, look, imagine, feel . . . repeat. Until suddenly, [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #5
Out of Isolation #5 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Nikolai Atanassov "Last Days of the World" Oil on canvas, 70" x 207" Spoiler Alert! Isolation Mandate to End on "The Last Days of the World." In the Apocalypse According to Nikolai Atanassov, his painting brings all humanity together melded in a sea of vibrant Turner-esque [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #6
Out of Isolation #6 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Harry Carmean "After the Bath" Oil on canvas framed, 33.5" x 27.5" In this time of Isolation, to touch — a basic yet potent essential life force — has become fraught with hesitation, anxiety and fear. "Art is a form of contactless consolation when the most [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #7
Out of Isolation #7 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Chris Blum "Fake News" Mixed Media Diorama Framed in Box - 13.5" x 13.5" x 4.25" Art is work. It doesn't just somehow happen to us. It provides new material, new places, new paradigms with which to think — And the rest is up to us. [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #8
Out of Isolation #8 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Patrick Duegaw "The Builder Removed" Acrylic, ink, screws, and polyurethane on sheetrock with aluminum frame, 23.5" x 16", 2008 Patrick Duegaw's 2008 self portrait "The Builder Removed," is oddly prophetic, revealing just how ahead of his time he really was, and really is (mask and goggles [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #9
Out of Isolation #9 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Carlos Gomez Mojica "Dialogo Con Mis Excesos" Charcoal on canvas, 55" x 71" Coping in a time of Isolation and unease — as seen in Art. Carlos Gomez Mojica's "Dialogo Con Mis Excesos" (Dialog With My Excesses) posits as many questions as it answers. Still, this [...]
OUT OF ISOLATION #10
Out of Isolation #10 Exploring the world opened up by a work of art This week's showcase: Christie Marks "Everyday India 5" Mixed media, paper bags, ink, oil, acrylic on panel, 30" x 24" "All lives don't matter." "All colors are not equal." Ah, the power of Now, that even two broken pots can be seen as an emblem of protest. You bet! [...]
