I chose to
title my show "Picturemaking" as
this term emphasizes the
compositional construction of a
painting over its literal
meaning. Though I recognize the
allegorical potential of the
imagery in my paintings and the
recurrence of motifs, I don’t
paint a body of work around a
particular literal theme. I try
not to have ideas to illustrate
or to interpret in any way the
imagery that evolves from my
sketches into finished
paintings. The prospect of
suggesting a story through
imagery is less important to me
than the sheer act of playing
with the formal elements of a
picture (shape, color, texture,
etc.) in the context of
representational painting.
Underlying my process is a faith
in the formal language that has
developed within the rich
tradition of painting. The form
of a work can give credibility
to the absurd concoctions of the
subconscious and breathe new
life into the interpretation of
stale subject matter. |
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Bather
Acrylic on Canvas, 2009
30" x 15"
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Fishermen in the Old Country
Acrylic on Canvas, 2009
54" x 68"
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The Courtyard
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
44" x 26"
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I try to
employ a variety of conventions
to create an architecture within
the image that suggests more
than a snapshot of reality. This
architecture reveals itself
through formal relationships in
the work, such as how a shape or
passage of color is repeated or
line is used to direct the
viewer's gaze. I use pictorial
devices to figure out how to get
from one place in a painting to
another and consider how the
surfaces in the work change the
effect of that journey.
Sometimes a very balanced
distribution of color over the
whole of a work is used to
mediate the discrepancies in the
styles of the parts. As I obsess
over the peculiar compositional
mechanics of a picture, it
becomes a contraption which
engages me more by the odd
resolution of its design than by
the self revelations it might
produce. |
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High Tide
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
32" x 38"
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The Preacher's Son
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
42" x 44"
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Marooned
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
20" x 28"
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This show
includes over 20 painted created
during the past four years. As
with my previous work, these
paintings are the result of a
purging of my subconscious that
begins with a daily routine of
sketching mostly from my
imagination. I often attempt to
sketch figures in poses or
groupings which set up an
illusion of sculptural space
that fits tightly in the
confines of the picture frame.
Over time I revisit past
sketches cutting and pasting
imagery in a way that defines
the space of the picture rather
than merely occupying it. By
interconnecting figures and
elements of their setting I hope
to bring a sense of
inevitability or intent to their
placement in the picture. When I
arrive at a sketch that seems
balanced and interests me in a
manner that I can’t take it any
further as a sketch, I begin
painting. Sometimes I will only
hold on to a single figure from
a sketch over the course of the
painting totally reworking the
imagery because of the change of
scale and formal parameters like
color and texture that painting
affords.
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The Catch
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
16" x 12"
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Shark Fishing
Acrylic on Canvas, 2007
46" x 34"
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The paintings
in this show vary in their
degree of realism. Though the
pictures often stretch how
things really appear and
sometimes juxtapose seemingly
disparate objects, the worlds
they represent usually obey the
same physical laws of our own. I
continue to use texture as a way
to explore the gap between the
illusory image of a painting and
its reality as a physical
object. I am intrigued by the
dialectic of texture
simultaneously heightening the
three dimensionality of the
illusion while reaffirming the
painting as a relatively flat
decorative object. --
John Tarahteeff
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