Hostile Beauty Pete's Candy Store

https://youtu.be/twdvG2Z_Kcs

Anarchists Book Fair

https://gradygerbracht.bandcamp.com/album/glossolalia

The line-up for this incarnation of this enigmatic arrangement:

Blaise Siwula: Horns

Adam Dym: Horns

Grady Gerbracht and John Loggia: percussion and electronics

Aron Namenwirth and Mary Reed Banjo and Guitar

Very happy to be playing with Ideosynchronic tomorrow friday april 15th

More Grids and Digital Manipulations

untitled uncertainty  pencil on paper 2010-2016

"uncertain certainty"  digital photograph- mixed media- macpaint, pushpins-soundboard 2016

So much of my education was directed at the the development of a style or personal language though lots of hard work. This work ethic is the by-product of the industrial Revolution and the assembly line. Modern education has modeled itself on these practices with the goal of mass producing a product. Modern art and art in general also favors this mode  of production. People are not comfortable with change. An appreciation of the history and study of the contemporary. This brainwashed my ability to think for myself. In this world were pop-ups are always blocking your vision literally and people are invading your space pushing you out the idea of making a physical object is daunting. Especially when you have finished it unless you are a brand name, most likely you will be responsible for it till you destroy it. As I have reviewed what has been coming up on 40 years of art-making mostly in the form of small works on paper for having living most of that time in NYC and moving the first 10 of those years so often that this was the best medium. At first all the influences appeared trendy as a am child of post modernism. But now those influences are seeming gracious. The arrogance to think that any of us really came up with anything for everything comes from somewhere. Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Sol le Witt, Jackson Pollack, Pablo Picasso, you drop the name. All these people are microscopes, scale shifters, medium lifters taking the tools of their time,

and adapting the fashions.  For them it was what was in the wind. They read the science, philosophy

of there time.  Now deciding what to do with all the choices and technologies at our fingertips makes the creative act more and less impactful. Instagram- with its square format and filters ease of use and really lack of commitment makes it popular and at the same time very transient. Facebook even more so as posts flicker momentarily unless they are liked or shared. They quickly are scrolled down to some hidden recess of some distant  servers hard drive until they are erased to make room for the ever accelerating new. So I come back to the Blog for here the post while like on the studio wall it may not be seen by anyone has it's place. Until the next post comes and pushes it down, everything we make pushes everything else further into the past. But in creating we invest in the hope of a future even just a virtual one.

Hand of Man 4 eyes of god

This painting above is from 1977 the second painting I made  without any instruction from the Art teacher at Salisbury School. His name was Mr. Brown and at this time I was 17 years old. I remember that the art room was always empty so I could go there to find some peace from this all boys school that was a constant source of stress and torment to me. In the painting op art which was technically and conceptually also very escapist is merged with the ocean which is pushed to the side and my eye has been separated from my body by my own hand. At the time I was an injured wrestler. I was on a wrestling scholarship so I was feeling very guilty about not being able to earn my way. I had time in the afternoons when i could not practice with the team and had nothing to do. With a ripped sternum there was little that could be done. Further my science teacher felt that i lacked the organizational skills to be a scientist so all that I felt I could do was be an artist. They had a test at the time that tells you after answering hours worth of questions what one should pursue as a career. There was no profession on this test labeled artist or painter, the closest category was interior decorator. The second image I made yesterday. It was made in mac paint taking the earlier effort and opening it up using a lifetime of art making experience. It is a mixed media. It's exists here on the screen it has no materiality it can not be bought or sold. It belongs to everyone and can be possessed by no one.

Molecular Structures

The above image is from an unfinished painting dated from 1984-85. It is 36x36" acrylic on canvas and was painted while I was a student at the university of Connecticut. It was during my junior year and I was fortunate to have become a university scholar a dyslexic one. This gave me the privilege to basically do whatever i wanted so I was spending time in the geology department looking at thin sections of minerals under their microscopes and finding diagrams of the molecular structures trying to combine the two. This was a very slow a methodical process and it was not really appreciated by my teachers in the department of fine art, but they loved the images in science. At the time I was trying to figure out where I was going to go after school. My parents were pressuring me to apply to graduate school which was not what i wanted to do. Further the faculty felt if i continued to make this work i would not get accepted to the schools I was applying namely Yale, and Columbia. I was a really good representational painter and they wanted me to work on that for my portfolio. All this pressure on one side and no support on the other forced me to cave. I think this became a pivotal moment of many for me as an artist. Never cave!!!! I will say it again and again as an artist, musician,
any truly creative person, don't listen to those who criticize your directions. No one can know where they will lead and it takes a lot of perseverance to find your voice. The unknown is uncomfortable especially to those who know not your roots. The bottom image is a hybrid that I worked on yesterday in macpaint. It exists only here- it may or not be finished- Like the previous post it spans an enormous gap of time. The decisions and additions to the image are the byproduct of much experience, pain, and pleasure. I am contemplating destroying the original and wondering how that will inform this digital image and the body of work as a whole. If anyone is out there reading this and wants the painting please contact me- as that will effect the outcome. Thanks!

The very first painting "Snake"

"Snake" 16x20" acrylic on panel 1977-2016

This was the first painting. Painting a subject that was close to my heart a snake lover I had a Reticulated Python that I kept with me in my Dorm room at Salisbury School. My Dorm Master had nightmares that the snake escaped and made his way into his room. This snake actually did escape from it's aquarium from our house in Willington and survived somehow for years before being discovered by my father hanging from the shower spigot. I used science as an excuse to bring my pet to boarding school measuring his weight gain against food consumed as a science project. I never felt like i could figure out how to finish this early work as it was a product of my imagination. The bottom image is worked into on the computer using a free version of MacPaint that came with my first Mac. As always I listened to music while completing this painting- Meshuggah!