Inside/Outside

Inside/Outside

Painting and Drawings by Bruce McColl and Don Resnick

July 21- September 25, 2005

Artists' Reception with Question and Answer: Thursday, September 22, 2005, 4:30 - 6:30 PM, Nott Memorial

"I explore the subject of domestic and personal interiority: working from sources as diverse as observation, drawings, and memory, the resulting paintings represent my experience of time, place, and people rendered in abstract, and largely poetical terms."

"The subject matter and inspiration for my paintings is the intense experience of the particular light and space of a place, at a unique moment. Painting is my way of sharing what I have seen and experienced."

Remnants

In Remnants I explore the subject of domestic and personal interiority: working from sources as diverse as observation, drawings, and memory, the resulting paintings represent my experience of time, place, and people rendered in abstract, and largely poetical terms.

These paintings incorporate many influences. The recent application of knit forms--in this case, doilies and knitted shapes--reflects my continued interest in the nature and appearance of domesticity.

IIn this lengthy process of building, knitting, and layering, I am creating a space in these new paintings for memory and the imagination to freely reign. I am creating a space for abstract, semi-abstract, and representational shapes to rhythmically dance and play, wholly functioning as “remnants” to my interior life lived and embraced to the fullest.

The use of these crocheted and knitted forms creates a tangible bridge between the capable hands of women (in this case, my mother) darning functional and decorative objects for the home with the hands of this painter who is drawn to the humble beauty of these shapes.

In addition, many of the places, objects, and people I allude to are the same that I have painted for years, yet now they are referred to more abstractly. The shape of a curve, or the color of a shape, may reflect the curve of my wife’s body, the nestled form of our infant daughter, or just as well it may silhouette my favorite heirloom vase. Analogously, I have begun to explore places that are meaningful to my life’s experience. From one painting to the next I have tried to create a fluid canvas of time and place wherein elements from the past, present, and sometimes future, as well as views from the interior and exterior, are layered in rhythmical harmonies. I find it richly rewarding to be free to make these leaps of memory and association while I paint.

Don Resnick

I have no political agenda, believing that "One of the projects of art is to reconcile us with the world, not by protest, irony, or political metaphors, but by the ecstatic contemplation of pleasure in nature…" as Robert Hughes said in The Shock of the New.

My paintings are not documentations of a place, but rather my response to the natural world, often to places of stillness and solitude. Quick sketches made on site serve in my studio as springboards for memory. Working swiftly and spontaneously, trusting intuition, I strive to keep the initial spark alive.

Why should a serious artist want to paint landscapes almost 100 years since Cezanne's death? Artist Ernst Benkert cogently observed "the resources of tradition, including the tradition of landscape painting, are inexhaustible. Nothing 'ends' or 'dies' here. There is no 'progress', no 'perfection', no 'final word'. Cezanne knew this better than anyone.... Nature, the world 'out there', still contains work for the painter, still suggests that meaning can come through the meditation of painting. Nothing, not the invention of photography, nor the indifference of contemporary artists, can destroy the potential of this dialogue."