Monday, November 30, 2009

Small Works 09 Courthouse Gallery Fine Art Announcement


I will be exhibiting 5 new 3"x6" watercolors in the Small Works Show at:

COURTHOUSE GALLERY FINE ART

Small Works 2009

DECEMBER 3 - DECEMBER 24, 2009

Holiday Open House: Thursday, December 3,

5-7PM


Courthouse Gallery Fine Art is celebrating with a Holiday Open House on Thursday, December 3, 5-7pm. A selection of small paintings and sculptures will be exhibited. Visitors are invited to enjoy the artwork, hot cider and holiday treats. A selection of the works can be viewed at courthousegallery.com


GREGORY DUNHAM, "Late Winter", 2009, watercolor, 3 x 6 inches


2009 Small Works 2009 Participating Artists

David Graeme Baker, Judy Belasco, Louise Bourne. Ellen Church,

Jane Dahmen, Gregory Dunham, Freda Dunn, Kate Emlen, Kerstin Engman, Philip Frey, Francis Hamabe, Liddy Hubbell, William Irvine, MaJo Keleshian, Starr Kopper, John Knight, Beth Lambert, David Little, Eliot Markell, Emily Muir, William Muir, Ed Nadeau, John Neville, Rebekah Raye, Robert Shetterly, Jessica Stammen, Stephen Pace, Colin Page, Gail Page, Stephen Porter, Cynthia Stroud and Michael Vermette


OPEN MON - SAT 10am-5pm

Located at 6 Court Street, Ellsworth, ME

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Influence, Inspiration and Six Degrees of Separation: Stow Wengenroth, Andrew Wyeth & Charles Sheeler


Three of the strongest and most enduring influences on my work are the lithographs and dry brush drawings of Stow Wengenroth, the drawings of Charles Sheeler and Andrew Wyeth’s drawings and paintings.



"Down East", 1958 Lithograph ed. of 40, by Stow Wengenroth (Stuckey #249)


I’m currently reading a book entitled Linked by Albert-Laszio Barabási. In it, he demonstrates how everything is linked by networks of one kind or another and that all networks follow a similar pattern of individual nodes with, maybe as few as two connections, in turn, connected to hubs with many connections, in effect connecting all the nodes with each other. One concept discussed is known popularly as, “Six Degrees of Separation”. In a nutshell, this idea suggests, (with some exceptions), that we are only six links or degrees away from anyone else on Earth. In this blog entry, I will use link and degree interchangeably while discussing the concept of the linkage of individuals.


As I pondered this idea over the weekend, I realized that my three strongest artistic influences were, at most, two links away from me. Stow Wengenroth, who I knew as a friend and a mentor, is one link from me. As a friend of Stow’s, Andrew Wyeth was two links from me, until I met him personally one day while in Tennents Harbor. At that moment, Andrew Wyeth became just one link away from me, as did Helga, who I also met at the time.


Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee

Charles Sheeler, who I never had the opportunity to meet, was another story. How many links would it take to reach him, (figuratively, of course). Then I realized, he was only two links away, because of his friendship with my uncle, the photographer, Paul Strand, who was just one link from me. The art world was becoming smaller, because of the links we are all connected to. You probably begin to see the pattern here. I have a friend, Donna, who is connected to Desmond Tutu through her work as a facilitator in conflict resolution. She is one link from me. That makes Desmond Tutu two links from me and everyone Desmond knows in South Africa and beyond is, in a sense, just three links from me. You can see how the world is shrinking. We may, indeed, be only six degrees away from anyone, anywhere on Earth.


In a future blog I will discuss the ways in which the work of Wengenroth, Wyeth and Sheeler helped form my artistic direction and sensibility.


"On the Rocks", 1984 Lithograph ed. 35, by Gregory Dunham