Luis De Jesus just sent me new images from my show. I hope to get a more comprehensive set of images posted to the gallery section in the very near future. This was a very big show that developed over a couple cross country moves with big chunks being created in LA, Ohio and New York. Due to transportation and storage issues, I didn't always have access to the previously completed work. (While working in Ohio I didn't have access to work made and stored in LA, while working in NY I didn't have access to any of the other work.) This made for a number of different responses to the Runaway text, yet there was a certain consistency in the show as a whole. I made drawings in locations where I didn't have reliable access to a suitable printer. During the installation process, more than 20 pieces were returned to storage, and will likely never be seen; I was working up to the night before shipping the final pieces to the gallery. There is an excerpt from the runaway text on this site, and a larger excerpt at Matthew Timmon's exceptional short Fiction site: http://www.joyland.ca/stories/los_angeles/runaway_excerpt. For those of you who are interested in the full catalog --which reproduces the complete text but offers more design mayhem than stolid reproductions of individual works, please write to: Gallery@LuisDeJesus.com.
Shipwreck scratched into the plexi. A ghostly presence hovering above, and casting slight shadows upon the frozen lake.
Shipwreck scratched into the plexi. A ghostly presence hovering above, and casting slight shadows upon the frozen lake.
This is a 6x7 foot piece, the biggest I've ever worked.The lines of the ships line up, though fail to at certain points. The waves are clunky swaths of competing op-art patterns.
The main install shot. Ghosts of ships scratched into images of water with a silver mist of paint on the inside of the glazing.
These are my favorite pieces from the show. Literary borders, things used to frame text within a codex, framing images which become references to my writing. There is no text in this work, but conceptually it creates a dialog with literature and bookmaking conventions. The borders are scratched into the digital/photo image and painted over. When I thought the work was seeming too masculine, I would apply a mist of glow in the dark paint, undercutting the possibility of machismo with a mist of kitsch.
Photographs, made in the woods, those solitary walks that seem to be an unending inspiration for my work. "Framed" with Xacto scratches and layers of paint. These are extremely fragile, and two didn't make it through shipping.
A Romantic version of geometric abstraction. The lines of ships, the lines of trees, the mysteries of where air and water currents might lead, the crashing of waves and rumbling wind. I think of Nadar photographing from his balloon and Maldoror's shark. This piece is about 7 feet tall.
