I met Alan Peckolick at his openings at Atlantic and ArtSpace Galleries both on West 29th Street (in the same building) and had a much better time than I expected.  Was busy trying to finish up some work as I have Jury Duty to do in Kings County on Wednesday and found one show – his, that was right down the block;  a couple of conversations and glasses of wine later, here I am.

 Checker 30 x 40 acrylic on canvas  by Alan Peckolick

Besides enjoying the lettering and font work – the colors were wonderful and had real feeling – the kind of stuff that painting, for me, is made for.   I asked Alan a few questions and got back a couple of answers that I’ll briefly go into here.

Alan Peckolick has been a graphic designer for some time, but reinvented himself into a painter, and a fine one.  Alan distinguishes graphic design/illustration as solving someone else’s problem while painting is solving your own (the artist’s) problem.  Interesting.

There’s a lot of layering, the paintings were done in acrylic and all by hand; Alan started with photographs 95% of the time when he first began painting in 1998 or 1999 (don’t remember for sure which year it was).  Now, Alan Peckolick uses photos 5% of the time and imagination for the rest.

When is a painting done?  When he can’t think of anything else to do in the painting.  Alan said he’s selling his work because he’s running out of room in his studio to store the paintings  – and, it appears several of his paintings were already sold when I arrived to his openings at Atlantic Gallery and ArtSpace Gallery.

There were several admirers of Peckolick present and while the galleries were not crowded when I arrived, I sensed that there were serious art lovers among those present and I spoke to a few of them – that’s how I know for sure.

I notice that Peckolick’s paintings are “finished”; every part is worked to a certain level – much as I feel I treat my own work – it’s more a state of mine really.   Like I said, I enjoyed looking at Alan Peckolick’s paintings and speaking both to the artist, his gallery dealers and several of those who attended the openings.

I painted this study today, as well as another, a self portrait against Mont Saint Victoire.  I wasn’t able to resolve the portrait, so I didn’t try to finish it.

Spent most of this week in Washington DC at the Emetrics Summit and only got back early Friday morning.

The nude study above was of a Colombia University graduate student majoring in Psychology; actually, I was able to research the model first and then decided to paint her, before coming over to the Brooklyn Artists Gym today.

I also attended an opening of Rick Dragon at BAG, which also happens to be a friend of Drew Knapp (Drew is my oldest friend, someone I’ve known since 1970).

I managed to walk into “A New Way North” (new gallery location) at Lyons Wier & Ort Contemporary Art featring the art of Patte Loper.  A quick Vodka later, I was looking at the fine paintings/illustrations with deer, somehow … not getting it….not understanding why these works are interesting in the first place or what dancing deer have to do with the rest of what’s in the picture.

This picture, above, was the easiest for me to understand – at least the deer looked like it belonged in the mountain landscape….but most of the rest of the works looked more like illustrations of two deers making out in various urban settings ….. and that seems to me, to be more intersting as an idea for some people, than it actually is to look at.

For me, painting is about what happens on the canvas, on the surface, it’s not so much, about games we’re playing with the mind – even though some feel that..this too, is Art.   I did pick statement our of the online press release for the Patte Loper show:

“…The works in A New Way North are developed through the appropriation and reproduction of images from these events, making what was lost by cultural memory again iconic. Loper subjects these chosen images to an idiosyncratic reproduction process in which things are left out, added, eroded, and exaggerated. This reproduction is followed by the insertion of wildlife (in the form of deer), which intrude upon and interrupt narrative expectations. These metaphoric fissures in logic are what ultimately lead the work towards the mysterious and unknown – an uneasy resolution, but perhaps appropriate one, during a significantly charged scientific and political moment.

Well, maybe it is Art, but it does not mean I want to really look at it much, or that I understand it, or even want to take the effort to understand it.  Look, I’m not really a connoisseur of the Alfred Hitchcock film, “North by Northwest,” the 1959 signing of the “Antarctic Treaty”, even though I recognize Hitchcock’s dramatic genius as filmmaker.  The problem is .. can you take what Hitchcock did and translate it into a painting – or make paintings about other films?  I think, the answer is yes, but this artist, to me, did not succeed because I’d have to have been a Hitchcock fan to really understand the connection and that…I feel, is asking too much of the viewer.   We love Hitchcock, everyone does, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that a series of paintings about, will work

And if it did work - it needs to be done in the language of painting – not by symbolic references that are lost on 99% of the people who view it…but that’s just my opinion, as a painter.

What would have been more helpful, for me, is some actual statement from the artist, that is easy to understand, not cryptic, like the stuff at the gallery last night, that explains why these deers are part of every painting….what’s that all about … what’s the point of it all?

I know I need to make it over to the Metropolitan Museum, hopefully on Friday night or Saturday, to see what the New York Times terms Splendid Threads Off the Walls of Monarchs along with the Rembrandt show.   As far as the tapestries, I’m wondering how many are by Rubens?

“…After the Rubens tapestry made its careful journey up the Met’s grand staircase, it was delivered into the waiting arms of a team of conservators, riggers and technicians. First the tapestry was laid flat on the gallery floor, which had been covered with acid-free paper. Then it was loosely folded in pleats, to ensure that the fabric wouldn’t rip. Conservators were on hand inspecting its condition. “

I’m very much looking forward to seeing the Rubens tapestries in this show, along with the rest of it.

Been so busy getting ready for my trip late this week to Washington DC for the Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit that it’s been  harder to focus on Art (since my last painting on Sunday, that is).   But one thing did change this week … I bought an iPod Touch, or iTouch, and put some of my videos and paintings on it – I’ve always wanted to do this.