Transition

Sprawling in the Onramp studio. 36 contiguous feet of working wall, and room to make a mess.










The new walls.


I'm interested to see how my work and working habits will change in the new space.

End of OnRamp Studios

All good things come to an end. We heard the warnings- the owner of the building had died, and left no will and had no direct heirs. His real estate friends are in charge of the estate, and as they are in real estate, they have no use for a building that is in a strange location and renting under market. To sell the building, they had to bring the tenants up to market rate ($1/foot), which is great (don't forget the 15% 'building load fee'). For us, we had too much space- about 1000 square feet of hallways, and then another 800 of under rented space that would need walls built (and people found and manged). And we would be put on a 1 year lease (with the implication of a rent increase or eviction with a new owner). Regardless, there was/is no way we could afford $3000. The new manager whose job it is to sell the building was quite friendly and willing to cut the space down for us, but by the time this became an option we had already mentally moved out.

So the short story- we had move on to another smaller studio space, for more money. Dana, Tina (my studiomates) and i found a reasonable space in the 'dogpatch' area of the city. I promised myself i wouldn't compare it to the previous space, which was a dream. I like to think of it as 'back to reality'. Now when people walk into my studio, they won't be in awe of the space and ignore the paintings.

The final twist is that during this time, the economy tanked and the new executor realizes that the building isn't going to be sold anytime soon for the 15m that they are hoping for. The exeuctor also now sees the benefit of artists in the building renting out smaller spaces, and is working with two studio profiteers (who we actually introduced into the building a couple of years ago) that feel comfortabel charging artists $600 for a 275 sq ft room.

And that's enough of that.

Summer

Okay, I'll start off with that i've finally posted an update to my website (www.bencressy.com) and made a few changes. Well, maybe i'm testing a change. Instead of forcing the viewer to navigate via 'superthumbs' to pages of a few select paintings that fit together, I've put all the thumbnails on one page. The page ends up being 315k and this is what i would call sloppy web design, or maybe design for the broadband age. Of course, it probably doesn't work so well for those lucky enought to be able to browse the web on their phones. I also implemented 'thickbox' which makes it easy to browse through images via 'next/previous' links instead of having to go back to thumbnails and then click the next image. For the time being the change is only on the studio side.

Anyway, on to painting news. I've been plugging away and trying to finish a couple of paintings. One is another exploration of a 'bar' painting. I've been battling the color relationships of the major forms, and spent some time moving tape to find the placement of the pure abstract element that i have yet to label with an easily understandable explanation. Well, here it is... I think it's close to finished, but anything can happen.

Icarus or Annunciation, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

Another painting that I had been working on for awhile is complete. It stands out as something different, so i'm not sure how or if it will be presented within the current body of work. Perhaps a few more will follow it and flesh out the notion. It came out of the earlier hallway interiors.

Guardian Exit, 2008, oil on canvas, 48 x 36inches

I made a few studies of the figure (admitedly from a photo) before diving in and enjoyed that each time had a very different expression.

Situational experience

I've been thinking about how a painting lives in the world.
Most artist spend inordinate amounts of time contemplating an individual piece while in the process of creating it, and there by gain a multitude of insights and associations that are rarely communicable in this age of elevator pitch statements. But 'expressible content' and immediate 'visual parsing' aside, there is often so much more to the reality of the individual piece that gets left out of the representational image that we're used to seeing. Much of this is dependent on the situation that the painting is seen.

To get specific, I have a painting (Entice: Existent) that looks a warm red-purple under regular household or gallery lights (which are super yellow). Seen in natural light the color has a strikingly different experience - it turns to a periwinkle blue purple. And then there is the reality that there is often glare in a house that can make a painting difficult to see, but if you're lucky it shows off another aspect to the piece. Relative reflective qualities are something that i've been trying to incorporate for awhile, and it plays nicely with between colorfield and 'object' elements .
Here is an example.








The presence of surface qualities is something that never really comes across in a photo. Seeing the play of glazes, or the sensation of bushwork is almost always lost. I would rather have the painting give more to the viewer in person than the representative image of print and web though, but sometimes it is frustrating knowing how much is lost.

The final thing worth mentioning is how a frame finishes a piece. There has been a trend in contemporary art to not frame a painting. It gets expensive quickly, and framing styles tend to date a piece, but simply addressing the edges makes for a more elegant finish... Call me old fashioned.

Threshold revisted

A painting can be perfect in a particular situation and fail in another. I had a painting that would absolutely sing in a dark red room. Unfortunately, i don't have a dark red room, and while i know it would look great in that situation, it looked a bit heavy on white walls. The gallery situation of white walls is unfortunately the standard, and most people have light colored walls. so it goes...
So i decided to revisit this painting and make it more 'white wall pleasant'. Now it might go even better on a dark red wall ; )

Threshold, 2007-08, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches

Some Landscapes

It had been a rather cold and windy spring for San Francisco and the surrounding area, making it less pleasant for painting landscapes. I was able to paint a few that I'm happy with that seemed to bode well, continuing from the fall seasons work.

So here are a couple...

Golden Gate Park, Wispy Fog, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

Lincoln Park Hole 6, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches.

And a few more.. For the most part I try to stay true to the oneshot plein air tradition, but these required some touch ups in the studio.

Golden Gate Park, Marx Meadow, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

Presidio Bluffs Loop, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

Occasionally I try to push the abstraction even further while remaining true to the location. At a certain point though the work can be done in the studio (it was cold!).

Muir Beach Hills, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

Where Next? Directions to the flippant and the sublime

I don't really know what it is about a linear evolution that i so desire. Perhaps it's because i've normally worked in seemingly unrelated cyclic bodies of work. Having embraced working in series a few years ago, it would make sense that the work evolves in a nice, orderly linear fashion. At least that would make it easier for the presentation.

Within the flow there are subsets. And this is where i put them...

From the recent Bar Interiors, maybe I should make another to fill out the body of related work, but in the meantime i've started some explorations of directly depicted interiors. They are loosely representing the 'dead space' of hotels. Specifically the large hallway with the obligatory (my own or theirs?) table with lamp and literature. And the exit to the outside world. More about the subject aspect of it later. What they depict and what they are about are separate entities. Anyway, I've started 5 (22x28) and another 3 (14x11).

What I like about them:
Places for your eyes to travel and to rest. The compositions bring up a notion of speed- how fast can you reach the exit?
Quirky moments where wall and ceiling/floor start to blend together.

The downsides (i know, i'm not supposed to openly critique/disparage my work):
They feel like an illustrated idea in some parts. When the outcome is known or expected, the journey of the making of the painting is less of a discovery, less 'felt'. The impulse or impetus for the paintings existence, its drastic 'need to be' is lacking. This is probably my own issue with illustration or work that feels to easy, and the fact that i'm piling up storage issues. However, the first few are often easy, so maybe the next will have that required urgency built back in..

What i'm interested in is the broader form that carries those elements. The energy and direction of a wall or floor or architectural element. And I'm also curious about how the 'mental map' of a scene starts to degrade, either through memory or diverted attention. Eg- if my attention is on a door or scene outside the door, my vision or mental map will blur the things that are less important. (how do we represent that when the pictorial tradition and photography demand clarity?). That blurring holds potential for me- like a door to another universe is opened in places we aren't currently using in our consciouis mind.

The mystery is How!? Too fussy feels heavy and overworked. Dirty. The one shot version feels flip, illustrated. tah dah! Somewhere in between? And sadly, it cannot remain as a formula. Once discoverd, twice or three times investigated. A few more times is 'product'. Even more is 'rote'. Even more is a deadly crutch. If it gets that far, I hope it laughs regularly to the bank.

28 x 22 inches

28 x 22 inches

Exhibition at Cañada College theatre lobby

I have been invited by Bill Morales of Cañada College to install some paintings in the lobby of their theater. I figure it is good to get the paintings out of the studio for any exposure, and of course it's always good to see them up in another environment. We chose a range of work from plein air landscapes, small 'still life' combinations and two large synthesis paintings. It was interesting to see my largest paintings (68 by 83 inches) dwarfed by the scale of the walls. Here are a few photos of the installation.

Thanks Bill and Katrin

Installation view 2

View 3

Interview online

I had received a request for an interview via email. It was a little while ago, but here is the link. Thanks Spraygraphic! It was fun to do.

http://www.sprayblog.net/spraygraphic-artist-interviews/spraygraphic-interview-with-ben-cressy/

or click here

Close but how close?

It has been a slow season. Finishing up the semester teaching and all the holiday stuff, and perhaps a long preponderance of the direction the paintings are going in, have made for a limited trickle of paintings coming out of my studio. I have been slowly tweaking one painting that has been quite pleasant, but not quite ready to call finished. The process has been slow. Decisions to make a drastic change have been long drawn out. Minor studies ensued. And then jump! And then watch and stare and stare and think and try to feel. I know what i need to do, but the exactitude of it eludes me. So it goes.