Atelier Frey
Work created at home between March 20 and May 20, 2020
48 x 24 inches, Oil on Canvas over wood
After being inside for weeks, I brought my easel and paints outside. There is so much fodder in this ever-growing, changing, beautiful and seldom-enjoyed yard. A Penny Board on its back, greek cement sculptures, and pots galore. I intend to eventually create my own Villa of Livia to fill four walls. Round manmade elements continue to sneak into these paintings.
18 x 26 inches, Oil on canvas
The fig leaves remind me of human hands fidgeting as if to say, “we are still here!" The expression "fig leaf” is widely used to convey the covering up of an act of an object that in embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance. Since POTUS won't wear a mask, maybe a fig leaf would do?
24 x 48 inches, Oil on canvas wrapped over wood panel
Obsessed with artifacts, "the things” we keep or even hoard (the ridiculous TP hoarders of SIP). A figure sits in this bookshelf still life, the stability of a home, of isolation. Our home is like a salon from floor to ceiling. Howard's father made this bookshelf, his grandfather used the tools in the frame on the wall. Howard is always in pain, recovering constantly from illness or falling, yet HE holds everything and everyone together. ["The Struggle" in the “In Process” section of the site is about his end-stage disease fight for life and my plea to UNOS.org]
I had begun this painting the day I left the studio to stay at home in March, 2020. I was thinking about my beloved books and their future extinction…
Sometimes ideas are coming right at us and we still don't see them.
What is becoming extinct for you? Books, species, White, Black, Javan, and Woolly are kept alive by art prints, like Albrecht Dürer's in 1515, or by playing Ark: Survival Evolved?
Species: D. bicornis
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Order: Perissodactyla
I've been photographing at home, but now decided to paint my mop and cement bucket. Something about it. The hair-like mop pieces are different every time I walk by, the tentacles, the clean-up. It reminds me of the squash flowers I drew in Italy when it was 110 degrees at 9 a.m., but life was normal. We stayed inside to avoid the heat, not a virus.
Shelter-in-place image of my son, required to stay home from work and from the Marine Core. Online with friends for many hours every day… How long will this last?
36 x 48 inches, oil on canvas
I finished this observation piece right before the quarantine. Our things, our artifacts reflect who we are. My own studio space is not complete without a banana on the wall and blue tape! Encouraged to slow down, observe, and paint from life for a while, which was actually good preparation for staying home. My previous show of paintings, Below the Fold, was based on photos and memories.