Publications and Events

It has been a week of exciting developments. I am preparing for a number of things in the near future.
I am Photo Editor for the next issue of Storytelling Magazine and am excited to see the resulting product.

I received notice yesterday that images of my work will be published in the December issue of Philadelphia Stories, a non-profit magazine distributed in PA, NJ and DE.

In early March, I have a studio visit with a gallery in the Old City district of Philadelphia. I enjoy the presentation in this space and the area is absolutely mobbed during the city's monthly First Friday event. This is particularly exciting for me because Philly is my city of origin and I have yet to exhibit here.
I am getting ready to ship a painting to Canada for the first time...

On April 24th, The Upstairs Gallery at Sandcastle Winery in Irwinna, Pa will hold a grand opening reception from afternoon into early evening. The collection includes two of my works and I may hang new works for this event as well. The winery is beautiful and situated in a charming area full of antiquing and parks.

I have some other very exciting things in the works that I will likely be able to schedule and announce shortly. My new website is working toward completion and my first grant application is due Monday!

2010 and Beyond



I am in a state of gathering information and gearing up for the next phase.
I am narrowing down applications for grants and residencies. The idea of applying was recommended to me many times in the past years, and I even visited residency locations out of curiosity, but for one reason or another I was not ready to apply. I wanted to build my families of paintings as they developed naturally without particular goals or audiences in mind.
I seem to have reached a point where I have a strong and cohesive collection of recent works. I can confidently say that these pieces represent my development as an artist and where I want to go with my work.
Many sketches have come from this period. Mostly just experimentation with composition and without association (aside from the ever present landscape).

I am working on finding a larger local studio space to more easily continue my series of large-scale paintings. I have also been conceptualizing the process of enlarging my knit works. I will have to refine my prototype of enormous circular needles fashioned out of wood and coated wire. I plan to start with '3-tier stump', which resembles the body of a woman, and am hoping the materials will have enough stability to match my height or larger. That series will definitely require a large space and I'm looking forward to putting those in to motion.
My new website is to be complete very soon as well which I am very excited about. Many good things on the horizon!
(Kandinsky at the Guggenheim '09)

Current Events

I currently have 5 Paintings hanging at Borough Gallery in Burlington, Vermont. The Place You Hang Your Hat opened November 8th and will close December 6th. For those of you who couldn't make it to the opening reception, there will be a closing reception coinciding with the Burlington Art Hop and events in neighboring galleries ( http://www.seaba.com/ ). I will be there with my family and am very excited to share this group of works. I will follow up when I know more precisely what time I will arrive.
Click on the links below for a better idea of the gallery (the original Magic Hat brewery!), statements and a sneak peak of the work. There are ten very interesting artists in this show with a range of mediums.
http://boroughgallery.wordpress.com/
http://boroughgallery.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/the-place-you-hang-your-hat/\

I am also happy to announce that, after a great deal of preparation and redesigning the space, The Gallery at Sand Castle Winery in Irwinna, Pennsylvania is now open. I have two pieces available through this gallery. You can view information about the winery here http://www.sandcastlewinery.com/, although images of the gallery are still to come. There will soon be an opening soiree and I will announce details as soon as I can! Sand Castle has an enormous collection of works by artists of varying styles and mediums. It is located right on the Delaware River in a very cute area that hosts many antique stores and historic small towns along with a network of wineries and free parks (including one of my favorite childhood romping grounds http://www.davidhanauer.com/buckscounty/ringingrocks/ ).

Size


Landscape Miniature 1 (Canopy)............Landscape Miniature 2 (Roses)...........Landscape Miniature 3 (Trunk)


Some miniature paintings from 2004 resurfaced when I last moved and unpacked. I matted and framed them for the exhibit this summer, but apparently they were too small to hang on the chain system they had installed so they weren't shown. The poor guys were just too little.
Each piece is about 4''x4'' and they are done in oils on paper.
One of the things I love about these is the significance of texture and brush stroke. The motion of my hand is incredibly pronounced. One of my favorite teachers taught me to use the largest brush that you can, and I keep that in mind always. A sense of motion and continuity is really brought to life by using a larger brush when possible and only scaling down if necessary.
One of the difficulties that I find with working large is that the brush is comparatively so small. Working large, I have to do with my whole body what I do with just my hand on a small canvas. The marks I make are recording my motions. I enjoy working both large and small and it requires a real adjustment to switch back and forth.

I went to the PMA and wandered around all day yesterday. I honed in on Mark Rothko, Arthur Dove and Renoir. All in adjoining rooms, which I found odd but handy. "The large Bathers" were so beautiful. I couldn't move for a good while. Even when I don't feel like I need it, looking at works like this recharge my batteries. It's so important to view the originals.

Art Overhaul

(Earlier Post From Thursday, August 13, 2009)

Hello! I had fallen off the wagon a while back there, but have now updated my profile and will be checking in regularly.
I have been creating a series of oil paintings measuring around 48''x60'' that I am just about ready to show. I will be putting together an exhibit in either Philadelphia or NYC. I am likely canceling the Baltimore show that I had set up because the venue's wall space is rather limited in terms of size and weight. A beautiful location, but perhaps not the best place for my current work.
In the past, I have made the mistake of adjusting or redirecting my art in order to fit a space or an audience and, now more than ever, I must make the art that I am moved to create. The joy of being an artist stems from the satisfying act of taking an idea, or even an emotion, bringing it out of our private minds and into our world as a physical object.
When an idea first appears on canvas, it is often jumbled and needs a good deal of refinement in terms of design. This is where knowledge of functional compositions, value relationships and color theory can save you years of pondering. I do believe that a very strong idea with poor design can express the intended information or emotions, but the piece may be awkward to view and cause an unintended feeling of tension. As a mediator, the artist must stay faithful to the idea that they have decided to share, but express it in a form that can be received by the viewer. Achieving both can be a struggle, as the idea does not often appear in the most organized form.
The family of works titled "Abstract Wetscape" are meant to pull the viewer inside an expansive landscape. The features of these landscapes are undefined to allow each viewer to apply definitions that work for them. I wanted to provide enough vast space for the viewer to feel free to frolic, and provide enough features to make the space warm and inhabited yet leave them undefined to be completed by the viewers personal requirements.
Thanks for taking an interest in my work!
www.moore-art.com
myspace.com/moorepaintings
www.flickr.com/photos/23272215@N02/


I am trying to bring this year-long knitting project in to some form of completion. I have many more ideas that I would like to create, but the time that this type of work requires is kind of absurd. Some pieces in this collection took upwards of 30 hours. I didn't get much painting done while I was deep in to this project...in fact I didn't do much of anything except knit. I was hurriedly knitting section after section because I was so curious how it would turn out. Then when a piece was finished, I would excitedly jump in to the next while everything I had learned from the last was fresh in my mind.
The project was an incredible learning experience in several ways. As I brought these familiar characters from my paintings and drawings in to 3-Dimension I better understood them-How light and shadows fall on them, How solid and balanced they have to be to realistically stand on their own, how they relate to one another. The pieces have such personality and I think these sculptural renderings may be a more natural, more expressive way to present them.
I really advanced my knitting skills as well but, beyond that, sharpened an ability to understand shapes in terms of the many planes that make up a surface. To make these shapes, I had to individually build all these tiny, colliding planes with their subtle differences and I had to do it in a way that led seamlessly from one to another.
I find the whole concept kind of mind-boggling. Knitting on a circular needle produces rows of slip knots that spiral upward like a coil pot. Knitting on straight needles stacks flat rows built in alternating directions, back and forth like a typewriter. I alternated between these types of needles almost constantly and also needed double-pointed needles for a good deal of the work, as I encountered many openings too small to maneuver through with circular needles.
I wanted the works to be all knit and no sewing, so I had to create the shapes in one flowing piece. I felt that to knit sections separately and later attach them, causing seams and stitches, would bring to mind the process of me making the piece and that the power of the shape might be diminished.
I became very interested in the concept of a large structure of slip knots. There were some pieces that I spent 20 hours or so on before I decided to scrap the idea and reuse the materials. I dropped the stitches off my needles and lightly pulled the string of yarn. In a few moments the piece unraveled and there was nothing left but kinks in the yarn.

Not all of the knit works are photographed yet because they are somewhat difficult to display at this point. From the beginning, I had planned to build a removable support system as I knit(in some cases balloons and in some wire) and then use a fabric stiffener to support the piece enough to remove the armature and leave 100% yarn. The pieces that are stretched over wood frames are pretty well supported as is, but others have very little strength on their own.
I need to knit some things to sacrifice to experimental stiffening so I can find the correct method and materials to preserve these forms. Please let me know if you have any experience with this type of thing. I have held off on it because I am very concerned about losing the softness of the yarn.
Below are some images of knit works and the origins of the shapes:

Organic Periscope

Moss Muffin

3-Tier Stump













Back to Eden (Trees, trees, trees)


I completed "Cicada Tree" this morning. I have been working on this piece for the past few weeks. This was a particularly interesting study of nature because this is a time when slight seasonal changes are occurring rapidly. Each day there are remarkable differences. Shadows are becoming more severe, the air is crisp on either end of the afternoon, cicada are leaving their shells everywhere, and some trees are just oozing with sap.
I am finding all the change very inspirational yet difficult to capture in its fleeting nature. I am flooded with ideas but scrambling for the time to execute them in a careful way. There is so much editing to be done before a canvas is even stretched.
I have been trying to squeeze self portraits in between projects. This helps because it sort of removes the aspect of subject matter from the work and highlights stylistic and theoretical developments. It is always interesting to view works and then a self portrait of the same period. They offer information about one another. The self portrait to the left was done about a week ago in watercolor. I have been relearning the medium and am surprised how difficult it can be. With this, you have to allow the paint to do what it is best at. You kind of can't go wrong if you just give the paint some space. It is really beautiful when you do.

Growing up and even in college, my strongest artistic influences were members of my family. We had an exhibit this summer of works by 8 family members. Most are or were professional artists in one form or another and have life-long archives of artwork. I have always revered these elders as the best source of information and technique, as their work to me is basically perfection. I have recently developed a need to really invest some time in looking at other artists...ones outside my family. I have always held Cezanne and O'Keeffe in mind, and lots of others have come and gone as well. But now I feel I need to really search artists, new and old, to inform my own work.
As I read last night, "The experiences of the artist ineveitably bring him into contact with his environment and traditions; he cannot work in a historical vacuum". I wouldn't say I'm working in an historical vacuum, but I took this as advice.

And what I learned from the trusty Cezanne:
"Get to the heart of what is before you and continue to express yourself as logically as possible."

"But you know all pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as the things done outside. When out-of-door scenes are represented, the contrasts between the figures and the ground are astounding and the landscape is magnificent. I see some superb things and I shall have to make up my mind only to do things out-of-doors."

"The painter must devote himsef entirely to the study of nature and try to produce pictures which are an instruction. Talks on art are almost useless."

New Works


Hello!
After moving and taking a while to settle in, I have started to paint at an incredible rate. I am beginning a new family of work and the style change is very exciting. Most works are large scale, 48"X60", and there are more to come very soon. Please take a look at the gallery to see the new posts. Thank you for stopping by!

freestyle knitting














I've been working endlessly on a project I'm calling freestyle knitting! It is a 3-dimensional investigation of common characters from my paintings and drawings. All knit and embroidery, no sewing and no pattern. Just one constant form. For now, they are supported by a wire armature. The piece I've shown is on a stretcher measuring 16''x16''. When the series is complete I will stiffen the yarn and remove the wire. This is not the finished product, but I wanted to post the progress. Many more to come!

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I have recently hung a series of three paintings at Premiere Fine Arts Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. I then began working at the gallery on weekends, so stop by any Saturday or Sunday and visit me!
I am concluding a project of four textural abstract pieces that I am really excited about. I should be able to post pictures of the finished work next week.
I have been working strictly in the abstract realm for many years now, but have recently become interested in moving away from that. I am excited to open up the doors of a new creative phase, but I'm sure that the years of developing my current style will carry over in to whatever next genre I take on.
I have been painting models at a local arts center and working on pastel landscapes as well. These interests are growing and I'm curious to find how they will merge with my current abstract painting style.