...for what I want to see

New painting in progress

Last night, I had a bit of a revelation about where I am right now with my work. There is now an overwhelming need for less density in the paintings, or perhaps a different type of density. I'm not sure what that will look like, but it will be different from what I've been making lately. I came to this realization after making connections between my recent work with the densely layered compositions of glyphs and my current emotional state.

The past few days have been rough, emotionally. The death of Walter Wallace at the hands of Philadelphia Police is the latest in a too-long line of similar events that did not need to escalate to an extra-judicial execution in the street. He was having a mental health crisis, had a knife and approached the police, who fatally shot him ten times from at least ten feet away. 

This didn't have to happen. Wallace didn't have to be killed in front of his mother, family and neighbors like that. I keep asking myself, "Why couldn't they at least shoot him in the leg, incapacitate him and de-escalate the situation and get things under control?" The outcome is always the same with Black lives when it comes to policing; shoot to kill, maybe ask questions later. 

Standing in front of a newly repainted work last night, I realized that I really needed to step back and re-evaluate things. I took some white paint and covered up all but one pink, blob-like form. When the white dried, I made a loose grid of lines with an acrylic marker, over which I brushed some matte medium, smearing and blurring the grid. I looked up an album of the Daily Observation photos in my photo stream and sought out something that I could use from one or more of those shots. I found a couple of curvilinear forms that loosely replicated and over those, placed a reddish blob form in the lower left corner. 

I felt such a relief looking at this relatively pared down image! All of the denseness underneath showed through in the textures, but other than that, this painting now breathed like it hadn't before. The heaviness was gone. I realized in that moment that I wanted and needed to move to a different phase of this project with the glyphs; that I needed to focus on some of the other surfaces and instances of marks that I see every day in the streets. So far, I've been concentrating on the 'communication' aspect of this work, which has a very graphic feeling to it. The painted, multi-layered systems I make are full of a type of tension that I like, but that same density now feels overwhelming to me. 

I'm sure that my emotional state has finally caught up to what I've been doing in the paintings and it's just too much. Between the ongoing problems associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, the continuing social strife brought about by the killings of Black men, women and children by police authorities and the current toxic political climate, I'm just feeling overwhelmed. I've been fairly successful at keeping myself focusing energy on painting, but now, I need to change the energy of my paintings to reflect the breathing room I need, instead of the suffocating mournful feelings that keep coming back because of everything going on. 

TM

 

The same and yet, different

In my studio: It's Not The Same You, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 60" s 60"

I've been letting this one sit for a while, although I mentioned it in my last post. It's a new 60" x 60" painting on canvas titled, "It's Not The Same You" (the title comes from a line in The Cure song, Labyrinth, that I happen to like a lot). This is the first large painting on canvas that I've attempted at my home studio in a while because, until a few weeks ago, I didn't have room to even think about making something of this size there. Most of my work in this space has been smaller and was being made in a former smallish bedroom that lacked adequate wall space for something this large. Most of the work that I've been making in-studio has been up to about 30-36" on the longer side. 

I realized a few months ago, that I was going to need more work space, but was stumped on how to make that happen. I don't have money to pay for an outside space, so I chose to convert the front room of the apartment into a work space in addition to the bedroom. I got rid of a couple of dressers and a bookcase, put plastic on the walls and floors, plus and additional layer of drop cloth on the floor. Now, I have a version of a studio that I've envisioned for a long time. I can make larger paintings like this and be able to step back at a decent distance to evaluate them. However, the only way that this is possible is because I've moved a good amount of my personal belongings into my girlfriend's home. Without that support, I would still be trying to figure out how to make this work. 

Over the past couple of years, I've been able to make large temporary murals and installation pieces, but they were either made on-site or in another space that could accommodate the scale of those pieces. Being able to return to stand-alone paintings on canvas of this scale has felt great and has also brought some of the usual challenges. From the start, this painting has felt like one that I had to get out of my system; it's a large scale amalgam of ideas that I've been working on in smaller contexts over the past four years or so. In the past, I've been fond of working on similar paintings at the same time, forming a series of sorts. My present feeling has me looking to break with the past by having more visible distance between some of the paintings. The glyph forms are the only thing that will carry over from one painting to the next. Some will have more of those forms and others will have fewer. For example, I've already begun painting a second 60" x 60" painting that will probably have little in common with this one, compositionally and colorwise, in the end; it has a shimmering black/purple background with a layer of gridded glyphs, so far. I've gathered a lot of new visual ideas these past few years and now I'm feeling comfortable exploring them more deeply on a one-on-one basis, and not rushing to make too similar paintings so much. 

TM

 

Thorough considerations

 Detail of a work in progress, September 2020

A few weeks ago, I purchased three 60" x 60" pre-stretched canvases made by *Fredrix. In the past, I would not have dared buy a pre-stretched canvas, preferring to stretch my own instead. Back then, and I'm talking about 15-20 years ago, store bought canvases were simply not well made at all. They were usually prone to warping and the quality of canvas, in addition to overall workmanship, was pretty bad. However, having worked at Artist & Craftsman for just over four years, I got to see and experience first hand the different kinds of quality of art materials that are out there. Seeing how well the Fredrix canvases were put together was great to see. The solidity and strength of the wood stretchers themselves won me over. That, and the fact that a very well-respected painter colleague of mine uses them for her work prompted me to try them out. 

Aside from the occasional temporary mural-sized pieces I've made over the past couple of years, I had not been making larger paintings of 60 inches plus for at least 6 years. All that changed this year  because of two things: needing larger sized works for some of Bridgette's clients and starting to work with a new gallery in Los Angeles called ParisTexas LA. Before this year, going back to 2013, I hadn't worked on canvas much at all, preferring birch panels, instead. For a lot of my work, I prefer the hardness of panels over canvas because the panels can take a lot of abuse from sanding and scraping. The flexibility of canvas is nice in it's own way, but I still prefer panels, overall. The only thing about panels that I don't like is the propensity to warp above a certain size and they tend to become too heavy and cost a lot to transport. 

So, a couple of weeks ago, I began painting on one of the three canvases I have and I love how the first one has turned out. With canvas, my painting habit is one that's additive, as opposed to the panel works where I can employ both additive and subtractive methods of image-building. What I love about the Fredrix canvases is that they are really tight. I've been able to stretch larger canvases pretty tight, but these are drum-tight for well into the painting process. 

The one new larger canvas I've completed is titled, "It's Not The Same You" and employs a lot of image-making practices I've introduced over the past three years of so on smaller surfaces. I feel like it's one of those stand alone paintings that I absolutely had to make in order to fulfill the promise of so many recent small works and ideas pulled from the temporary mural pieces  and wall- based installations I've been making as of late. The second of these canvases has already started out being something entirely different in how I'm envisioning it and I'm loving the potential in it. 

One thing about being able to focus on my painting full time is having the time and head-space to more thoroughly consider what I'm doing with my paintings. Being able to have the time to really let a painting sit for a couple of days and to be able to look at it any time of the day is still somewhat foreign to me. I'm excited at being able to engage with the work on a day-to-day basis and not have my energies redirected to day-job tasks. Having had all of those years of making the most of a few hours a week dedicated to my painting has helped a lot in terms of realizing how much I can get done now.

*Note: this is not a paid endorsement for Fredrix products, I'm just voicing my own opinions about their canvases*

Processing...

Detail of a new painting in progress-August, 2020

It's been about two and-a-half months since I became a "full-time" artist. Even though I've worked my entire teen and adult life (my first job was at age 13, working as a bagger at a neighborhood grocery store), I've always considered myself a full-time artist, in spite of having day jobs. Art was (and is) always at the forefront of my being; it's been one of the few constants in my life and really keeps me going. I could never picture myself doing anything else with my life and now I have the opportunity to explore and expand my life and practice without giving over so much of my time and life energy to a day job. 

I touched on this a bit in today's virtual conversation that I had with Sandra Felemovicious. The interview was part of her "Tap Into Your Creativity" artist interview series on Instagram Live. The short version is that before the pandemic and lockdown, I was involved in a couple of art projects: one with a group show at Towson University and the other a mural through Philadelphia's Mural Arts program. During the pandemic, I completed a print series with master printer, Alexis Nutini. So, there were all of these opportunities that required a lot of time that I knew I wouldn't have if I continued working at Artist & Craftsman, so I gave my two weeks notice. 

It's been a little surreal, in a way, being able to fully concentrate on my artwork and related projects exclusively. The transition period is still going on, even if it felt that there wasn't much of one. Every day is different within the overall structure of daily events. There were no heavenly choirs singing the day after I left the job, just the knowledge that I had a lot of work ahead of me. There was no time to reflect because I had to get to work right away on a few things. I'm just now beginning to have some comprehension about what my life is now. It feels like both a natural state of being and completely alien at the same time. Still processing.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

One of the things I've been trying to figure out is how to have a larger studio space with the need to make larger paintings again. Both Bridgette and ParisTexas LA have requested larger works for clients. The least expensive way to do that was to clear out the front room of the apartment. So, last week, Julia helped me empty out and move three dressers to the curb, along with my bed. Opening up that space was the best thing I've done in a long time here. The only tasks left are to find floor coverings to protect the wood and to cover the wall I'll be using to paint on with plastic and wood railings to hang paintings from as I work on them. 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I'm in an extremely fortunate position, particularly since we're in the midst of a pandemic, but I also know that this is the time for it to happen. As Sandra pointed out in today's conversation, I've worked my entire life to get to this point. And it's true. While things have turned out somewhat differently from what I imagined when I was younger, I've had steady opportunities that I was able to take advantage of and worked my way to where I am now. I don't know what's going to happen next, but all I know is that I need to keep going and keep painting. 

Printmaking again...

Detail: Collaborative print with Alexis Nutini

This post is an addendum to the one I posted last week. I had more thoughts about this collaboration that I wanted to share, so here goes: I'm in the midst of a print collaboration with master printer, Alexis Nutini, that is being generously funded by the Brandywine Workshop. What's happening here is we're moving into the second and middle layer. I'm trying all sorts of combinations of blocks and colors and offsetting the blocks on this layer to create some spatial interest. The third and final layer will play off of the first two. i'm hoping to capture some of the tension between layers that happens in my paintings and works on paper-the blurring of layers in some places and more distinct passages in others. 

It's been interesting working in a collaborative way after not doing so for most of my creative life. The one exception being a painting/drawing collaboration that I did with my friend, Joni Woods back in the 90s, which was an amazing experience. The current one with Alexis is turning out to be really good, as well. 

The biggest issue I've had to deal with is letting go of the spontaneity of how I usually work in favor of making instructions for Alexis to carry out in the printing. This isn't a bad thing, just way different than I'm used to operating. What I'm finding is that I'm needing to step back and be more intentional about what kinds of choices I'm making in the work. I'm taking longer to think about the possible outcomes before committing to which blocks to have Alexis use and where they are placed. Even so, there's still a ton of room for unforeseen and interesting unintended aesthetic incidents to occur: surprises in how some of the inks interact with each other, sudden changes in opaqueness and transparency depending on where your eye lands, as well as shifts in spatial rendering. 

Looking ahead, there will be a third layer to work with and this will be where everything comes together or falls apart, depending on the choices made. There's going to be some that I'll want the layers to overlap in such a way as to be indistinguishable overall and others with more 'breathing room'. We'll see what happens.

Matter. at Gray Contemporary

Honored to have Transmission VI on view in Matter. at Gray Contemporary (Houston, TX) until 8.01.20. 
Image:
Tim McFarlane
Transmission VI
acrylic on panel
8” x 6”
2016
(photo courtesy of Gray Contemporary)

Gray Contemporary

Matter.
6.27.20 - 8.1.20
Theresa Anderson, Mary Bucci McCoy, Amber Cobb, Deborah Dancy, Mel DeWees, Neil Fortune, Tommy Gregory, Sarah Elise Hall, Monique Lacy, Ernesto Marenco, Mary Bucci McCoy, Tim McFarlane, André Ramos-Woodard, Dave Swensen

*All gallery percentages of sales within this exhibition will be donated to Black Lives Matter Global Network.

A long history of neglected attention to another type of pandemic arose by the demonstrations of many brave young activists and concerned citizens in this country to the abuse and systematic racism that has plagued the American Black community. Through Black Lives Matter this inspirational movement has now spread worldwide.
Our current exhibition Matter is comprised of artists from different racial backgrounds joined together by the color black to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement along with all the protests worldwide. The works within this exhibition were not made specifically for this exhibition, but rather by their day to day studio practice. As this exhibition is less about individual perspectives and more about the unity of us individual artist’s coming together as one to support and stand against any form of racism or oppression. In show of support Gray Contemporary will donate all Gallery percentages of sale within this exhibition to Black Lives Matter Global Network. 

Comme

Wait, but also work

On Sunday, 7.05.20, I finally started a long-awaited print collaboration with master printer, Alexis Nutini of Philadelphia. We've been talking about working together on something since before I moved out of the 1241 Carpenter Street studio building, where I had a studio for a couple of years and where Alexis still maintains his. The idea is to produce a variable edition of block prints that will be released sometime this coming fall. 

I've learned that sometimes, there's definitely a right time, place and space for a lot of things. Not everything, because sometimes you have to take advantage of a situation or loose the opportunity. At other times, you have to let something sit and things marinate before the universe helps to open a door for you. In this case, as in a lot like this, there was a confluence of actions that conspired to make this collab happen. I met Allan Edmunds, the founder of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, while working at Artist & Craftsman Supply last year. At the same time, Alexis happened to have been working on making prints as part of a program at Brandywine. Alexis and I started up with talk of a collaboration and in the meantime, I had the chance to talk with Allan again, trying to learn more about Brandywine. 

Fast forward to this year. Alexis talks to me about a possible print project that would be funded and supported by the Brandywine that would culminate with a two-person exhibition with myself and sculptor, Miguel Horn. Outside funding falls through for that project, but Alexis and myself move ahead with plans to make a variable edition of prints from my glyph forms, which is being supported by Brandywine. This is just one example of how things can take very circuitous routes to realization. Patience and perseverance wins the day, always. 

Website update: Daily/Observations

Above: ©Tim McFarlane: Daily/Observations: StopStop

Today, I continued with updates to my website by adding a new section called Daily/Observations. This section contains selections from an on-going photographic series I started in 2018 that documents interesting visual stimuli that I see every day on my walks around Philly. The city is a living thing, helped along in its evolution by all who live here, in big ways and small. I'm continually looking for what I consider interesting, mostly anonymous and interlaced histories that make up part of our public visual life: discarded clothes, drips of paint and plant material combine with yesterday's lunch leftovers on a newly paved concrete sidewalk with it's own system of angled lines and markings.

There's so much that captivates me that I constantly feel compelled to document it.There's always some combination of random things thrown together in unintentionally artistic ways that's hard to resist. The happy accidents of human existence. A lot of the energy of things and scenes I take note of in the streets finds its way into my work. I'm not attempting to capture what I see; only the essence, the energy that causes me to stop and pay attention.

Coping with Covid

Untitled, 2020, drawing/collage on paper, 30" x 22"

Studio view, May 2020

A few years ago, I had to move my studio into my apartment to keep my art practice sustainable. After some adjustments, I'm more comfortable working at home in a much smaller space. Just in time, it seems, because when the stay-at-home orders came, I was ready. With everything going on; the sicknesses, deaths and myriad socio-economic issues coming to the fore, the best thing I thought I could do was to continue with painting. It’s one of the main stabilizing forces for me.

Life right now is a difficult roller coaster ride. One day, I can work for hours at a time, the next, because of mental fatigue at everything happening at once, all I can do is have a nap, hang out with my cats and watch movies and videos. However, amid all of this, I’ve made new paintings, updated my website and dealt with with other admin tasks that I normally don’t feel that I have time for.

I also cherish those days when I’m not physically productive. The time to just think, daydream and contemplate has made living through the pandemic a bit easier. Another side affect is that quarantine orders came during the transition from winter to spring. Experiencing the renewal of nature gives me hope for renewal of life beyond (or with?) Covid-19.

Tim McFarlane-'Transmissions' at UArts September 7-30, 2016

I made a video walk-through of my show, Transmissions, on view now at UArts (Philly) through Sept. 30th. The work is best seen in person, and you still have a couple of weeks to get there!

Tim McFarlane
Transmissions
September 7-30, 2016

Gallery 817
Anderson Hall, 333 South Broad Street, 8th Floor
**Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm**

*All of the work in Transmissions is available for purchase. Please contact Bridgette Mayer at bmayer@bmayerart*

New solo exhibition-Transmissions at UArts (Philadelphia)

Tim McFarlane-Transmissions

 Transmissions features a selection of new paintings and works on paper from 2015-16.

Tim McFarlane
'Transmissions'

September 7-30, 2016 
Opening Reception on Wednesday, September 7th from 4-6pm.
Gallery 817, Anderson Hall, 8th Floor, University of the Arts, 333 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA

Transmissions was curated by Marcelino Stuhmer and Charles Browning of UArts.

Visit my website and click on the 'Paintings 2016' section to see images of recent paintings, some of which will be in Transmissions: TimMcFarlane.com

New studio/POST 2015

1241 Carpenter Street is the new address for my attempting alchemy.

My studio is now located at 1241 Carpenter Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147, #200. Come by and visit on Oct. 3rd or 4th during the first weekend of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours and while you're here, stop by the studios of several other artists in the building, in addition to guest artists. I will have a selection of new and older works, plus possibly some new works in progress. Visit my POST artist page here: Tim McFarlane: POST

My building is also a stop on the Philadelphia Open Studio Trolley Tours, so if you or someone you know is interested in a guided tour of artist's studios that weekend, find more information here: http://philaopenstudios.org/post/guided-tours

If the trolley tours aren't your thing, and you aren't driving, my studio has plenty of public transportation options nearby, including the Broad Street Subway (Ellsworth/Federal stop), nearby bus routes including the 64 (east and west on Washington Ave.), 4 (north/south on Broad Street), 23 on 12th St. (south) and 11th St. (north).

Throwback: Stratum I (2007)

Stratum I, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60" x 72"

This painting was first shown during my 2007 solo exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. 

Untitled Still No. 4 (gold)

Untitled Still No. 4 (gold)

Photo collage

New edit of a photo that I took last winter as part of a self portrait project. 

Moving the studio, pt. 1

For the past month, all I've been packing, packing, culling, packing, culling doing more packing and generally being overwhelmed with the amount of work that I have with me. That, and the fact that the new studio will be much smaller than my present one. Although I've gotten rid of some old work that I really didn't need to keep around any more, it feels like I've barely made a dent. It feels like I have way too much work with me.

I knew that this move was going to cause me to have to make some changes and adjust to a new reality and it's already happening. I'm going to have to re-evaluate my relationship to the amount of work that I make. I can't help myself most of the time, because, well, this is what I do. However,  seeing how much work I've made over the past thirteen years that I'll be moving puts things into perspective a bit. It seems like I need to slow down with the quantity of work that I make and find a way to sell more.

Change...

The time has come. After 13 good years here in Old City, I will be relocating my studio during the first week of August. Another entity in the building is expanding and I can't compete on price in that area, so I'm going. My landlord was nice enough to give me 8 months notice back in March (my lease officially ends at the end of December). I started looking around almost as soon as I found out. I just found a new work space yesterday. It's smaller than my present space and will require some very creative storage solutions because of the amount of work that I have with me. One upside is that my new studio will be only 2 blocks from my apartment, so that's a good thing. I've wanted to have a space really close to where I live for a while now, and thankfully my timing was really good. 

So, of course there are the expected mix of emotions: some sadness for having to leave such a good space that has been instrumental in helping me make some of my best work, so far. On the other hand, this move is a chance to shake things up a bit and make room for new things to happen. I feel like I was more ready for this to happen than I previously thought. I mean, the writing was on the wall, with all of the new construction of high-end condos going on at 3rd & Market, not even a half block away, I was going to have to move sooner or later. Thankfully, several things fell into place, including my landlord's generous notice and some funds becoming available to make relocating easier than it could have been. 

I'm still unsure about how I'm going to deal with the size of the space that I'm moving into, but I'm going to have to make it work. I've looked around a bit at a variety of potential studio spaces and having to re-enter the studio rental market after 13 years was a little tough in terms of how far my present budget will go. However, the convenience of being this close to home is a huge plus for me. The storage issue, however, is going to present some challenges. I'm working out something with my new landlord which is going to ease the problem, but I know that I'm gong to have to cull some much older work in order to make this new situation work without having to look at another monthly bill for storage on top of rent. I'm working on that issue and already have some potential solutions. Tomorrow, I'm going to begin the process of looking at everything that I have in the studio and determining what I want and what I should keep of the pre-2000 paintings. Then, I have to determine exactly what to do with works that are the weak links. I'm sure that I'll be destroying some things that I know I don't need to have around any more, as I have in the past. Culling artwork every so often is a good practice and it has helped me a lot in years gone by. It's time to get moving on to the next phase of my art life. 

Everything Happens At Once

Everything Happens At Once, 2013, acrylic on panel, 72" x 48" (diptych-two panels, 36" x 48" each)

A favorite of mine from 2013, shown here by itself and in an installation photo from my 2013 solo exhibition, Presence, at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. On the left is Large Green Mirror, 2013, acrylic on panel, 48" x 36".

Summer Show at BMG

 A bit of promo that I made up for my works in the Summer Show (group exhibition) at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. The show continues until August 29th and the gallery's summer hours are: Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. 

60815bb

60815bb, 2015, iphone collage

Signal To Sound

Signal To Sound, 2015, acrylic on panel, 20" x 16"

One of five new paintings in the 2015 Summer Show at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery through August 29th. When you plan on visiting the exhibition, please note that the gallery has begun operating on its summer hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. 

TimMcFarlane.com