COMING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9TH

This is going to be a nice show. Cheryl Wilgren Clyne's air sweet air gallery is a nice, intimate space in the heart of Lowertown Saint Paul. I'll be showing between 15-20 pieces and a stack of prints; prices start as low as $35. For more information, please visit my facebook page. Hope to see you there!

Here are some new images. They're all very small (6"W at the largest) acrylic and ink paintings on wood. More are on the way:

"Little Tragedy"

"Little Boat"

"Little Mouths"

"Little Aftermath"

"Little Caterpillar"

"Little Comet"

Early Morning "Progress"

Welcome to the new Brown Blog. If this site looks like bloody diarrhea flecked with some paintings and words, then...that's exactly what I was going for. Anyway, I added some bat-type things while watching Midnight Cowboy. It's just a first pass; lots more detail to be added. Composition will hopefully make more "sense" when it's finished:

Okay, more later. Sleep now.

Goin' Down to Brown Town

So during an artist's talk I gave about my work earlier this week, I was asked why my newest paintings were "so brown." I dribbled out some junk about how my paintings change depending on the seasons and that the limited palette reflects my current mood or something, then I just kind of trailed off until someone else managed to change the subject. Both of those answers were sort of true to an extent, though, but I've been thinking about that question a lot. Maybe I have to just admit that brown is my favorite color. I imagine it turns people off because saying "brown" aloud immediately conjures images of feces, dried blood, DMVs, or Jeffrey Dahmer's tinted glasses and that dopey look on his dumb face. That's at least what I picture at first, but maybe that's what I appreciate about it the most: it requires you to think beyond poo-poo and dirty boogers, and gives you coffee, syrup, chocolate, Autumn, bread, soil, the Mississippi, fur, hair, skin, and eyes. It brings out other colors and gives them more richness and meaning. Well, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe to everyone else, it just makes everything look drab. But anyway, yeah. I think browns are showing up more in my work because it seems to fit with my worldview these days. (It reminds me that I should start thinking about writing up a new statement.) This whole "Undeniable Decline of America" thing has been getting to me. My paintings have always dealt with the Apocalypse/apocalypses in one way or another, either making fun of peoples' fear of it to rolling around in the weird "romance" of it, but now that I'm getting older and more sensitive to entropy, it's starting to look like my new work is trying to deal with the inevitability of it. My skies are getting rustier and my landscapes are getting scabbier. My characters' eyes- once all crazy and bulging- are getting deeper and darker. Even the Sun in this world seems like it's dimming, as it's getting harder and harder to tell if my narratives are taking place in the day or night. I know I'm a bummer, but at least apocalypses can't exist without survivors, right?

Here are some new pieces I've been working on lately:

Big Fat Work In Progress

Hey again.

Just wanted to share some images from a big piece I've been fiddling with recently. I've clearly got quite a ways to go yet, but I think it'll be one of my favorites when it's finished.

So...yeah. Today's Thursday, right? Just checking.

New Pieces for the SSCA Opening

Hi.

Here are the 3 pieces I was asked to make for the SSCA gallery's "The Nature of Romance" exhibit in Minneapolis. I have to say, I was a little nervous going into it. This was my 1st local show in a while (since I've been spending all my time working on commissions and grants over the Summer and Fall) and I wanted to try something new, so I was really surprised and flattered by the amount of positive reactions and offers for new opportunities. I got some really nice mentions in the local press too.

Anyway, so there's that. Thanks to those of you who were able to stop by!

Alex