3:32 PM: ANO KATO means topsy-turvy in greek. the series began with the painting you see on the right, titled parade. it's based on photographs i took of a parade in athens in 2009. it was shown in my 2010 solo show at skoufa gallery, athens, and is now in a private collection. it was the inspiration for a series of paintings based upon images as seen from above, which as always been a passion of mine. the ANO KATO exhibition took place in houston, texas at gremillion & co. fine art in november, 2015.
starting a new watercolor/collage /
4/16/22 watercolor/collage 10 3/4x 23” as it looked at 3pm today
2:40 PM: this morning I started work on 4/16/2022 watercolor/collage, which is 10 3/4x 23” and has a brother and a sister the same dimensions. two of them will make it into the exhibition, depending on how this one turns out. as of right now, it has many of the same figures as it’s next of kin. let’s see how it develops. we’ll be walking up the trail shortly, so I may stop here. R is coming over at 8 am to work on framing the remainder of the frames, so I should be able to get an early start.
4/15/22 watercolor/collage framed / crestone conglomerate / artist statement /
4/15/22 watercolor/collage, which i framed yesterday and will be included in my I FLY exhibition.
a crestone conglomerate rock outside my studio
8:19 am: yesterday afternoon i took a walk around my studio, just to get a little fresh air, and photographed this crestone conglomerate rock. these rocks, which are everywhere in our landscape they are the result of “are a good indication of what the landscape looked like 200-300 million years ago when they were formed…..but it contains much older rocks.”
so as we walk the rails or even go shopping in town, we are constantly reminded of where we came from.
yesterday afternoon, after my little walk, i framed 4/15/2022 watercolor/collage, one of the approximately 12 watercolor/collages that will be hung in my upcoming exhibition, opening this coming friday at space gallery in denver.
BELOW is my artist statement, which is being emailed out by the gallery.
After watching the closing celebration following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics I could barely contain my feelings. I felt like I could fly! These paintings are inspired by the beautifully costumed figures in that celebration. They are dancing, jumping, singing; they look like they are flying, or about to.
Around that time, I had a very challenging health scare. When I learned that my sight would be saved through the ground breaking surgery performed by Dr. Seibold, once again I felt like I could fly! Thus the title: I FLY, with the subtitle in Greek: PETAOW. As a gesture of gratitude, this exhibition is a benefit, with a large portion of sales going to the University of Colorado Dept of Ophthalmology, where it will support research.
My mentor, when I lived in Greece, once said to me, "All good or great painting is abstract." It has taken me decades to integrate that comment. These paintings reflect an important stage in that process.
This new work integrates a number of directions and styles I've experimented with over time. Abstraction and realism join, and elements of collage disrupt predictability, allowing the viewer to create their own interpretation of each composition, and return again and again to a new experience.
Mark making has been going on as far back as we know; on rocks, cave walls, paper, canvas....children are arguably best at it. Unencumbered by belief systems, they simply follow their spirit and move their arms and hands accordingly. Every time I enter my studio, I remember this.
4/14/2022 watercolor/collage /
4/14/2022 watercolor/collage as it looked moments ago, at 3:09 PM
3:09 PM: I got rid of most of that bright yellow in the upper center, as well as that black above it, which was definitely too intense & made a few other changes.
4/14/2022 watercolor/collage as it looked at 2:30pm today
2:29 PM: this is a revision of a piece I did back in February and had sitting in the house. it was kind of pale, and definitely needed more. so instead of starting a ne horizontal, which was mikela’s commission, I decided to work on this one first, in part as a warm up, since I haven’t painted in 2-3 days due to the framing I was doing.
i’m not sure about that yellow in the upper center, so i’m going to sit with it for a bit & see what I want to do.
BELOW: the before and after. maybe I should have left it alone? let me sit with it a while.
it's COLD out there / starting 4/1322 watercolor/collage /
3:53 PM:just got a new commission from mikela to create another horizontal watercolor/collage for the exhibition, to match this one:
i’ve made a tinted ground with inks and will start working tomorrow morning. BELOW: the tinted ink ground on arches paper. what you see on that white paper in the middle are my tests of the color I wanted to use.
the tinted ground on arches watercolor paper cut to 11x23”
11:43 AM: when i woke up this morning it was 11° and overcast. now the wind has picked up & is gusting to 35mph and the temperature is hovering at 25°F. mikela has the car today, so I walked over to the studio dressed like this. didn’t think i’d need gloves any more this season!
paintings for the exhibition on my east studio wall /
12:54 PM: I continued mounting the watercolor/collages on the grey mat board & placing them in the white frames. my next task is to attach wire to the back of the polyptych series oils mounted on board, it’s a little tricky trying to attach wire to the rough backing of masonite board, so i’m testing out whether or not it will work to drive a very small nail into the back of the thin wooden moulding so I can attache a piece of wire, which will look a lot neater than gluing the wire with construction glue.
so i’ve got 8 watercolor/collages framed, but all the acrylic which you see reflecting now will be replaced by glass.
3 framed paintings /
8:37 AM: these are 3 of the framed paintings that will be in the exhibition. the one on the bottom, which is one of the polyptych series, was just completed yesterday, and the rest will be framed later this week.
more framing, invitations going out /
3:49 PM: R was in the studio all day, working on figuring out the best way to assemble the wood moulding farming material we purchased a few days ago at the lumber yeard in salida. in the end, he realized he needed to order clamps specially designed for frame making, in that they apply pressure on all 4 sides simultaneously. he also applied that satin finish we bought, which makes the raw wood have a smoother, more finished look. i’ll show you tomorrow, when the clamps are off, what the first framed polyptych series painting looks like. it’s exciting for me to look at the work that has already been framed.
i’m sending out lots of invitations to friends and business associates, old & new. and we’re both a little nervous about turnout and sales. i’ve never been in this position before because this is my first benefit exhibition. if i have a show with so-so sales, so what. but now that i’m offering a large percentage of sales to u.c colorado department of ophthalmogogy for glaucoma research, i want deeply to have robust sales! so if you’re reading this, send invitations to your friends & relatives.
framing watercolor/collages 5&6/statement for uc eye center /
3:23 pm: this morning I prepared this statement for the communications program manager at anschutz-rodgers eye center, uc colorado school of medicine, to be distributed to the doctors, many of whom will attend the April 22 opening of my I fly exhibition at space gallery, denver.
i’ll review in the morning before forwarding to anschutz.
I knew from the time i could hold a pencil that i was destined to become an artist; a painter. from that moment right up to the present i have been evolving as a human being and as a fine artist.
a turning point came when, after getting a routine eye exam, i discovered that i had glaucoma. once i read up on it, the full impact hit me and it dawned on me that i was in real danger of losing my vision and no longer being able to paint.
when i first met dr. seibold, i immediately felt a deep trust in his knowledge and abilities. just as important, i felt his compassion for me as an artist afraid of losing my most precious sense: my eyesight.
he let me know that, while partial damage had already been done to my optic nerve, he could return my vision to normal. the ground breaking surgery he performed literally saved my sight and allowed me to continue my career as an artist. and for that, i have deep and lasting gratitude. i experienced an epiphany of sorts. my eyesight, which until then i had taken for granted, beame a priceless gift. i felt as though i could fly. thus, the title of this exhibition: i fly, with the subtitle being the greek petAow.
this exhibition, the proceeds of which will support glaucoma research at u.c. department of opthalmogogy, is a small expression of my gratitude. it's my first time doing a benefit show, and it will not be the last. i love the feeling!
my life in art could be divided into chapters, the first being my time at antioch college in ohio. i was fortunate to be under the tutelage of an art professor who knew exactly who i was and where i was headed. he gave me the tools and, most important, the encouragement i needed at that moment. my first exhibition took place at the antioch student union. all but one of the paintings sold, giving me the confidence early on that i could, indeed, support myself as an artist.
after graduating, a friend proposed that we hitchhike together through europe. serendipity led me to greece, where i lived and painted for 15 years without once returning to the states. there, i had numerous sold-out solo exhibitions and became the first american to have my paintings enter the collections of the benaki museum, the national gallery-alexandros soutzos museum in athens and other greek museums.
during that chapter of my life, the nature of my work was realist. my subject matter was the uniquely beautiful greek landscape. simultaneously, i painted portraits and figures. adjacent to my studio was a construction site, and the workers, with their newspaper hats and expressive faces & bodies, came to my studio to pose. this became the source for a series of paintings that were very popular with the greek art buying public and became the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles.
when i returned to the states, i settled in nyc, where i became a member of one of the foremost realist galleries at the time: fischbach, at the time located on 57th st. my paintings during that period were of nyc architecture, many of which contained figures strolling down the street. my work can be found in the collections of many individual and corporate collections, including american express, chemical bank & others as well as museum collections such as the hirshhorn museum & sculpture garden in washington, d.c. and the collection of the u.s. state department.
my wife mikela and i moved to crestone, in the sangre de christo foothills of the san luis valley 25 years ago. we built our house and my studio, both at 8,000 ft.. recently, i've entered what i consider to be the most productive and interesting chapter of my life as an artist. the knowledge and skills i gained while painting landscapes and figures in greece, as well as my many plein air excursions to make paintings at our local creeks, are being integrated into a new form of expression which, in all huimility, i would describe as uniquely tarlowesque.
recently, we watched the tokyo olympics on tv. at the end, there was a celebration, with acrobats, dancers and singers dressed in very beautiful costumes. i found photos of the celebration online and printed some of them out. they became the source of inspiration for the paintings you see in this exhibition. the dancing, leaping figures reflect how i felt at the moment i realized my vision would remain intact. they have been integrated into an abstracted landscape, with collaged elements that introduce unexpected shapes and colors and interrupt that predictability i so dislike in a painting. they introduce a complexity of meanings, resulting in a richness of marks and a surface that allows the viewer to revisit the painting and have a new experience each time.
and this afternoon I completed framing these 2 watercolor/collages, which I think look pretty good on the grey board I selected.
Figures on the beach, Andros /
An oil on linen painted in 2010 of figures on the beach opposite Chora, Andros.