I feel pretty bad having this blog and not having a chance to keep up with it. There is so much going on right now but I am really going to try to make a better effort to write, at least to keep people plugged into all of the crazy things that are going on. So quickly i will tell you a little bit about what has been happening.

First and for most, I'm going to be a dad. So that will be very cool. I've never done this before, but everyone tells me it is great. I'm sure it will be.

Late in the summer I was nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant. The application is in and I am waiting for the results. Fingers crossed.

The next crazy thing that happened is that the magazines are totally pushing my work right now. As you can see, Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles put me on the cover with my installation at Spa Sentio. It turned out beautifully and I am told this is the first time the magazine has focused on a piece of art for the cover.

944 Magazine (Atlanta) has also written an article on my work for their most recent issue. It is a great piece by a fellow midwesterner. Fahamu has also contributed to the magazine which has a feature article on Kehinde Wiley.

I've also done an interview for Points North Magazine that focuses on the Hudgens Prize. I think it will be out any day now. I haven't seen a copy of it yet. The final magazine spot is the November issue of InStyle. No photo credits but it is from an interior Susan Kassler did a few years ago with a fantastic pink nail polish drawing. oddly enough the article is about framing.

So back the the Hudgens Prize mention. I am one of the 5 finalists for Atlanta's first Hudgens Prize. It is the largest prize for a single artist in the Georgia. I am please to be exhibiting with Hope Hilton, Gyun Hur, Jiha Moon and Ruth Dusseault. The exhibition will feature not only some new works, but some new mediums that I have never tried before. I'm adding stone carving to the equation. That exhibition opens on November 30th, when the announce the winner. Seriously people, cross you fingers, do something, i mentioned the kid right.

Today I was asked to take part in FAU's 2011 version of southXeast: Contemporary Southeastern Art exhibition. Opening in Late January, I am hoping they except my installation proposal.

I'll try to post the results of everything as they come up. Watch my FB page to find out dates on exhibitions.

New photo edition.

I took this photograph at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin in 2008. I printed a small version of it for an exhibition at Indiana State University. Recently, I've been thinking about how photography could benefit the conversation between objects in my shows. Adding Julius Shulman photos to the "Building Futures" show at Solomon Projects in 2007 was a huge step in that direction.

I saw these two chairs and they haunted me for about an hour until I went back through the museum to shoot it. I originally took the photo as a document, not a piece of art. I love the story it tells, or the one you could make up. It could almost be a black and white photo. So many questions come to mind for me when I see it. Two chairs would suggest a couple, but I assumed the chairs were for security staff. So why two? If they were for the public, why not a bench? The chairs are slightly askew and appear to have sublte differences. The institutional feel of the marble floor and white chairs is somehow offset by the heat radiator on the wall and the warmth of the light coming through the window.

The window sill is illuminated, carrying the eye to the control knob at the right edge of the image. In many ways the knob controls the composition for me. Without it, the image would be rather symetrical. I loved my trip to Berlin and this image captured the essence of what i enjoyed about the city.

This image is now available in an edition of 10, with 2 artist proofs. The image is 4"x 6". They are framed alike in a narrow flat white frame, with a 1 1/2" 8 ply mat, with museum glass. It is approximately 8"x 10" in the frame.

Extending ...through line...

February 13th, 2010 ...through line... opened at Solomon Projects in Atlanta. This exhibition was the first time I took an honest look back at why I make the work that I make. Not only did I explore the process, I also examined the sources of content. One of the central pieces in the show was a set of four drawings on watercolor paper depicting the north, south, east and west elevations of the first modern home that I came in contact with as a kid growing up in Winterset Iowa. I've posted photographs of the house before on the blog.

The largest piece in the exhibition was a 17' drawing of Quai St. Michel, the entire street elevation of the street on which Matisse housed his first apartment studio. Directly across the Seine from Notre Dam. In the exhibition, the drawing hung directly across the gallery from an etching of Notre Dam by Matisse. Ironically, this etching was removed from a book containing a suite of etchings.

Seated to the left of the gallery entrance was "Charlie, meet Malevich" 2009 The introduction to the show. Modern art literally and humorously meeting modern architecture, creating a jumping off point for the show. You can't help but notice the I-beam column as you walk into the space. Painted as though an intoxicated abstract expressionist worked late into the night applying the finish, creating an obstacle in the way, giving the viewer a choice of approach to the work. There were four columns, one in each corner. They assisted in dividing the planes of the walls by hiding the corners of the gallery. This allows the viewer to almost see the space in the round, erasing the hard edge corners of the gallery. As you examine the works in the space you begin to notice that many of the works have been completed on book pages. Torn from exhibition catalogs, sketch books, and luxurious coffee table books by Taschen. All of the pages are altered by cutting, drawing, painting and collaging. I'd like to think that my artistic statements begin with creative observations.

Book pages have been a big part of my work since the beginning of my career. As a self taught artist, books were my studio, my museum, my classroom and even my professor. The investigation often leads to a need to physically alter the material to better understand what I am seeing.

It is not a surprise that I chose the works on book pages when Anna Kustera asked me to do a two person show with Charles Labelle. Opening March 26th, 2010 at the Anna Kustera Gallery in Chelsea. The front gallery space will be used as an extension of the ...through line... show. I will be focusing on altered book pages and the first generation of drawings out from the book pages. The various drawings will talk about the relationships between modern art, architecture and the iconic decorative objects of the era of modernism.