The Paintings & Drawings of Syracuse Artist Nate West

Here's another Syracuse based artist whom I first encountered via the VersuS group show back in May -- painter Nate West, a native of Manlius NY who had the good fortune to take painting with my hero Richard Williams at OCC. Nate has shown his work at Tech Garden & the Delevan Center / Szozda Gallery, which is more than I can say for myself right now.

I immediately sensed a shared influence of Archille Gorky in Nate's forms and his use of both line + color has rubbed off onto me since first encountering his canvases back at VersuS. Here's a very small sampling of his constant output of work, and I'm very much looking forward to showing my own paintings with Nate in the Utica "Art In Windows" project & wherever else we can find some wall space.

"As a child I spent my free time trying to copy comics this led to a obsession to communicate visually every thing that happens in my life seamed to be able to force out this way and it gradually led to my own style."

"I have always loved the way that my work has allowed me to access my mind to express themselves. I feel like color is always chosen as an emotional need based on where my mind is at the time. As the work progresses I alter the color based on this same emotional connection with my memory and it slowly evolves as the painting comes together."

"I look and try to translate my world in my paintings I have great moments of horrible sadness that lead to bursts of intense work. I am able to control my mental state this way most of the time. As I work my mind flashes memory's that cycle visually through my mind sometimes this becomes so intense that it paralyses me if I can't keep up with the work."

AWESOME!

Now WHO could that possibly be??? Look for Nate on Facebook, very unique & talented painter who's work updates are always surprising, to say the least! ;D

P Is For Piranesi (1995), acrylic and pencil on wood panel, 24 x 48 inches.

A painting from graduate school at SUNY Albany's MFA program which quite unexpectedly became my favorite single-surface piece from the Shoppingtown gallery exhibition in June/July. Contemplating re-working the motif on a somewhat larger scale -- a rare example of my use of color, which was dropped soon after the piece was completed at the urgings of instructors who felt I relied too heavily on it. Only now am I allowing it back into my work after urgings from colleagues who said they found the ones with color so much more engaging. Ying/yang bro.

The Post Standard & Syracuse.com - Syracuse West Side arts: Building creative muscles in teens and rebuilding a neighborhood

VERY important article for the emerging arts sceners in yesterday's Syracuse Post-Standard by Maarten Jacobs on the effort to re-vitalize Syracuse via the arts, art education, public arts projects; I'm proud to have friends & colleagues working on the effort & have plans to get involved as well.

 One of my ambitions has been to teach drawing, if nobody will let me do it in a school I'll be DELIGHTED to go to a community center and help young urban dwellers find something else to live for other than the life of a street thug. Or just giving folks a positive message about their world, and how art can (and always will) enhance their lives.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/syracuse_west_side_arts.html

The Drone Zone - Work In Progress, August 2 2012

The Drone Zone, 2012, acrylic on wood panel, 18 x 96 inches (unfinished).

One of the pieces I'm currently working on and delighted to have a couple weeks ahead of me to throw my energies into trying to get it ready for an event in Utica later in the month. It's actually an elaboration on the "Landscape With Soup Cans & Trees" ideas circa 2009 painted on a section of wall boarding I'd pulled from a heap along W. 28th St. when living in NYC. 

The depiction is of Syracuse about to be overrun by a barbarian army of trees, soup cans, folding chairs & small round tables. Meanwhile, unmanned aerial drones (the worst kind, according to that pinhead Alex Jones) circle ominously overhead, armed with weapons-grade "bath salts" delivery systems just waiting for their chance to strike.

Here's the painting it was derived from, 18 x 48 inches, acrylics on canvas & part of both my 2009 Sparky Town and 2012 Shoppingtown gallery exhibitions where it proved surprisingly popular:

Artworks From The Gallery - "On The Grind" Film Screening + Art Exhibition, S&R Custom Motorcycles Utica NY, July 31 2012

Some images of the artwork on display at the "On The Grind" film screening + art exhibition at the S&R Custom Motorcycles compound out in Utica on Tuesday. Which turned out to be something of a wish come true -- a 3 person show with Tim Rand and Tony Thompson, whom I would single out as two of the most formidable artists I have encountered since leaving NYC in 2002.