details of the ANO KATO show paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

i selected these for my gallery talk tomorrow at 6pm. i'll tell you later how i plan on using them

new gremillion/houston pics /  by Philip Tarlow

here are some new pics; gotta run to the science museum, more later

notes from gremillion /  by Philip Tarlow

9:47 am: my opening was truly wonderful. i gained many insights into my work that could only be gleaned from people who have new perspectives on the ANO KATO series: a pilates teacher and former ballet dancer;  a collector of my work who is seeing this series for the first time and purchased one of the pieces on the spot; gallery staff.....

dan, who can be seen in some of these shots, is a doctor and good friend from crestone who flew down for the show. the story telling evening is part of the moth, a national story telling organization. a story telling evening/dinner was organized last night. we heard some great stories and i was moved to tell one about kyriakos, my street cleaner model from the '70's in athens.

notes from gremillion /  by Philip Tarlow

11:45 am: we're hanging the paintings. i think these paintings are emade for an intimate space, and are less effective on the spare, almost surgical walls of the gallery space. that's about all i have to say at the moment. ron and i, (he's owner of gremillion and a friend of over 20 years) had a conversation about abstraction. the mindlessness of a lot of it since de kooning's era. houston is warm & humid. definitely not 8,000 ft! ron & lisa have embarked on a major renovation/expansion of the house, which so far looks spectacular. 

eddie will finish hanging the paintings this afternoon, with my help, our crestone friend dan will arrive from denver in a few hours, and we'll go food shopping, cook dinner & shmooze.

trail walk /  by Philip Tarlow

6:;59 am: it was a spectacular day yesterday, so we walked up north crestone creek trail. we encountered old friends, made new friends, envisioned the success of actionlab. mikela seems to emit a rainbow as she walks. the image on the lower right seemed at that moment to encompass the variety of beauty on the trail, where living and non-living become one.

portraits of greek painters /  by Philip Tarlow

10:16 am: in 1978 i made a series of portraits of greek artists i knew and were friends of mine. an article about these portraits was published in the art magazine popular at the time: zygos. the article was written by one of the artists i painted: the late rallis kopsidis. he painted in a style very much influenced by the byzantine tradition, and he himself looked a lot like one of the byzantine saints. at a later date i'll translate the entire article and post all the portraits. for now, here are the first few sentences, which i just now translated. and this is my portrait of kopsidis, in egg tempera on board.

this is my translation of the first few lines of text:

life’s journey is written upon the human face. saints and murderers speak through their painted eyes and reveal what they tried so hard to hide. philip tarlow is one of those artists who paints the human figure, as do many of us artists. he doesn’t prettify whatsoever. he paints them just as he sees them. this is a tough art form; there are painters who idealize their subjects. then, the portrait loses it’s beauty, because it’s beauty lies precisely in it’s truth.

2 works / framing collages today for space gallery /  by Philip Tarlow

1:51 pm: IT WORKED. this 1/15/14 collage, 12.5x6.5"  was glued down perfectly and is now flat as a pancake! this will be very useful for the rest of these collages, whenever i frame them. i haven't spent much time framing my work; i prefer to have it done professionally. but now that i've learned how to mount these collages on mat board, i plan on doing more. i'm really the only one who know just how i want them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:28 pm: today i'm continuing to frame small collages on archival paper to deliver to space gallery next time we're in denver. here are some pics of the process. on the lower right, i've glued one of the pieces to mat board using archival glue and weighted it with heavy art books, revealing my favorite artists in the process!

8:43 am: the collage on the right measures 16x16" and is mixed media on canvas. this, and a sister piece hanging just below it on the wall beside our bed are unique transitional pieces which will remain in our collection. i was dissatisfied with this painting, which was done at the tail end of my smaller series of views from above, now called ANO KATO. the image derives from a series of photos i shot from above at a shopping mall in denver. the composition felt too jammed with realist elements. so i introduced collaged elements, including bits of paper oil palettes i save for this purpose, and the image of a watch; one of many sent to me by my dear friend louis, from houston. thus, the ano kato views from above were married with the collaged abstractions from 2014. these are the only two paintings where this occurred.

on the left is one of those 2014 collages i speak of in the previous paragraph, titled a.p. grande complication, on archival paper. i framed it yesterday and will take it to space gallery in denver, where my abstract work is now represented. on row 2, a.p. grande complication. the leg in the center of the image is taken from a vintage japanese animé book i bought on ebay. a.p. in the title refers to the audemars piguet grande complication watch in the center-left portion of the collage.

a night at the crestone creamery /  by Philip Tarlow

the crestone creamery represents a turning point in the trajectory of crestone. like crestone itself, it's not a place; it's an energetic. our friend dan's costume is halloween related. he stands in front of one of my ANO KATO paintings hanging in the creamery.