Ironton Gallery exhibit

September 25, 2008 | Filed Under Art 

The show entitled “retreat” opens Friday Sept 26th at Ironton Studios in Denver. I’ve attached a few images here, all are poly plate lithographs and vary in size from four to six feet respectively.

Retreat, an explanation Retreat is an installation of two artists’ work; mine are large-scale monochromatic prints of rustic, changing buildings, Donna’s are expressively painted deep forest scenes. The result is an experiment in the idea of a place described in two very different ways. Images of dwellings and buildings reoccur in my work. I started this particular series with a painting of what my mausoleum might look like – given the chance to design it myself. It looked like a squatty sort of hive, if you’re wondering, with a big ‘H’ above the door. That image was the grandmother to these pieces; the masonry in this work was sampled from that original painting. Hermits, entropy, impermanence and the impersonal work of nature are among my current preoccupations. As I conceived the gallery space it was clear that these ‘building’ paintings needed their antagonist; the natural world of the woods that will reclaim the efforts at constructing in their midst. But I didn’t want a forest as I would create it. I wanted something to contrast with the starkness, something rich and oily. I approached Donna with my ideas about creating this environment, and she responded with works that reflect her unique point of view. Prose and poetry are the scaffolding these paintings, and the show, are built on. Works by Thomas Merton and Carl Sandburg were important touchstones as well the writing of Walt Whitman (”all goes onward and outward”) and Annie Dillard. – JHH

 

Grass, by Carl Sandburg written in 1918

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo, Shovel them under and let me work– I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?
I am the grass. Let me work. ‘resting house’ 80″ wide x 60″ tall x 2″ deep ‘graft’ 21″ wide x 27″ tall x 2″ deep ‘blossom’ 48″ wide x 60″ tall x 2″ deep ‘tower’ 40″ wide x 60″ tall x 2″ deep

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