If you're going to be near the Oregon coast in June or July, please stop in Astoria and see my solo show at
RiverSea Gallery.
Preview the show online here: http://riverseagallery.squarespace.com/artists-2d/don-gray/
Here's the statement I wrote for the show:
"I’ve always been intrigued by that exact tipping point when paint ceases to be just paint, and this other 'thing' appears. Almost magically, a welter of marks and colors can coalesce into something we recognize: a tree, a face, a seascape.
The works in this show address oceanic or coastal themes, but they are really about where that tipping point of perception resides. All of them began with the same process: random lines and colors rapidly applied to the panels. There was no pre-determined idea of what the paintings would look like, beyond the vague notion of having something to do with the ocean. I gave myself over to intuitive process, allowing each painting to travel where it seemed to want to go. Some chose to stay more or less abstract, others demanded more specific levels of depiction. They raised questions for me. How many, or few, visual “cues” do we need to recognize a subject or concept? What does it mean if we say a painting is “abstract” or “representational”? Where does one leave off and the other begin? Are they really separate things at all?
All these paintings are imagined inventions. All, in one way or another, dance around with the idea of how we comprehend what we see."
"Stormcatcher"
RiverSea Gallery.
Preview the show online here: http://riverseagallery.squarespace.com/artists-2d/don-gray/
Here's the statement I wrote for the show:
"I’ve always been intrigued by that exact tipping point when paint ceases to be just paint, and this other 'thing' appears. Almost magically, a welter of marks and colors can coalesce into something we recognize: a tree, a face, a seascape.
The works in this show address oceanic or coastal themes, but they are really about where that tipping point of perception resides. All of them began with the same process: random lines and colors rapidly applied to the panels. There was no pre-determined idea of what the paintings would look like, beyond the vague notion of having something to do with the ocean. I gave myself over to intuitive process, allowing each painting to travel where it seemed to want to go. Some chose to stay more or less abstract, others demanded more specific levels of depiction. They raised questions for me. How many, or few, visual “cues” do we need to recognize a subject or concept? What does it mean if we say a painting is “abstract” or “representational”? Where does one leave off and the other begin? Are they really separate things at all?
All these paintings are imagined inventions. All, in one way or another, dance around with the idea of how we comprehend what we see."
"Stormcatcher"
"Ascent"
"Jetty"
"Expanse 2"
