June 2010 News | Opt out of News
state of the studio
Things have been busy around here with new influences from ceramics, and from different lessons I’ve learned in drawing. Probably the single most important thing that every artist needs to learn is the value of value in a piece. If one can learn to properly use value, nothing is impossible. I would even go so far as to say that value is even more important than drawing ability in some ways. You would think that after working as an artist for over 10 years that this principle would have become very highly developed. But for me this has been an ongoing and painfully slow development. Fortunately, at last, I can see this fundamental taking firm root in my work. Guess I have a very thick cranium :o) Then again, I have always been a late bloomer in life. Why should this be any different?
SHOW
Watch for my upcoming solo exhibition at the Misquito Hill Nature Center Art Gallery. The show will be up for 8 weeks starting October 2. The gallery is located at N3880 Rogers Road, New London, Wisconsin.
VIDEO
I’ve always wanted a video camera. Film making has been an interest since of mine since my first film studies class in college. Recently I got a phone with video. The quality of the camera is marginal. But it functions. And as it turns out, the quality of the video resembles Super 8 film. Kind of grainy and shaky. And it also turns out that I really like that less than spectacular quality. It feels a bit like I the way I paint – that is, a representation of reality. Not a facsimile of it. So I’ve decided to add some of those videos so you can get a better idea of what sparks my imagination and what sends me to the easel to discuss what I have experienced.
postcards
1/12 <3 | 3 x 2 inches | oil on panel 2010
walworthpark #1
Walworth Park #1 | 10 x 16 inches | oil on panel 2010
Spaces that are timeless and eternal. Cathedrals. All descriptors used by painters throughout history expressing their awe found deep in woods, alone, transfixed and uplifted to the point of worship. A nice tradition.
sketches
Landscape #2 | 7 x 10 inches | graphite on pencil, 2010
diffident bear
This small fiberglass polar bear, after being displayed in town through the summer, will be auctioned off at a fundraiser for the American Family Children’s Hospital & Vilas Zoo this coming October. It was a very unique project for me because of painting on a 3D surface. I think my studio classes this spring really helped prepare me for this type of work and it was a really fun project to be involved in. Thanks, Sarah! :)) More Diffident Bear photos ->
2010 | Diffident Bear | 11 x 14 x 16 inches | acrylic on fiberglass casting 2010
ceramic sculpture
My life was sort of consumed this spring with studio classes at MATC (Madison Area Technical College). I had the pleasure of taking classes from some of the best professors available. Agnes Chwae gave me the Metals/Jewelry, Joanne Kirkland filled my brain with fundamentals of ceramics, and Andrée Valley gave me a sculpture’s vision of what is possible with ceramic sculpture. Thanks all three of you, and a special thanks to Agnes for her incredible sense of humor and depth of knowledge :o)
Pear detail
why i paint
“Once something is sketched, it belongs to me and I thoughtfully arrange it on my painting surface where it is reborn.”
Todd Starks creates paintings using a variety of visual languages to talk about emotional space, shape, color, pattern and humor. With a painterly style, Starks carefully builds up impasto layers, using wet into wet oil paint, and allowing shards of underpainting to show through. Formally, the pieces are about composition, color harmonies, shape, and texture, yet each piece reveals a sensory and spritual connection to the landscape around him, and a dynamic interplay between conscious and subconscious thought.
