Oxides, acrylic paint, with intaglio lineation on canvas on board, 60cm x 120cm, unframed. © circa 2002-3 W Roberts. Inspired by the original eighties Blues Brothers movie.
30 October 2008
Blues Brothers in Chicago
Oxides, acrylic paint, with intaglio lineation on canvas on board, 60cm x 120cm, unframed. © circa 2002-3 W Roberts. Inspired by the original eighties Blues Brothers movie.
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9 comments:
Let's hear it for abstraction, breaking rules and barriers, and opening doors which allow greater possibilities. I kidded with Nicholas that my goal is to paint with leaf blowers, rakes, brooms, and fire hoses. Well to be quite honest I wasn't kidding. And as soon as I've raised the money you're all invited.. well mostly all - at least those with a sense of humor and a good aim. Your landscape Wayne is a symbol that we can all be bold and not cower behind safe convention(s). Financial considerations are a good excuse for being reluctant in ones approach to painting; playing it "safe." But I don't see that here and that's a good reason to hang out. So excellent painting my friend... !
This is a great example of what I think of as an Australian view of the landscape which emanates from the indigenous viewpoint. A place with spacial generosity, not only pertaining to the two axis of physical dimension but also to the imagination.
Aboriginal art has always encompassed the inner and the outer. Indigenous Australian perspectives never sees the universe from an ego based position. A *Me and it* relationship as europeans do.
I think this means seeing the world in the form of relationships and inclusion. The man and the universe are one. Hence the absence of horizons.
For me this piece has that quality. It's a quality I want.
Many thanks WK for your very kind comment! Coming from someone such as you means a lot. I love your idea of painting with "leaf blowers, rakes, brooms, and firehoses" !! I have 'hosed down' (with a garden hose under pressure) one of my largest (more traditional) watercolours (and at least one abstract I can think of) out in the yard, with the dogs looking on in delight:) It worked wonders. I have actually painted with some similar 'odds and sods' (oddly or not so oddly, some would say 'an odd sod-of-sorts') LOL. Thank you for seeing a certain 'boldness' in this work. I guess it's a 'Blues Brothers boldness thing' here. A vibe I love about the movie is that the Blues Brothers are disarming in their boldness (against all odds) and ultimately succeed in saving the orphanage, largely via the true vehicle that carries them through (manifest variously): the bluesmobile, music, 'charity' ...of good intent or aim (as you say).
Your comment encourages in so many ways. So many thanks again W.K.!
Cheers and very best wishes,
~W
Hi Wayne,
Talk of "leaf blowers, rakes, brooms, and fire hoses" does have me intrigued…
Make sure to video and post on YouTube…
I have not seen the movie Blues Brothers (she says cowering in the corner of Wayne’s Blog) Oh well…nevermind.
Is it something instantly recognisable associated with the movie?
I see a map like painting as if captured via aerial photography.
Hi David, Your writing here shows that you thoroughly understand the 'quality' to which you refer (and modestly round off in your concluding words)!
Your insights concerning the wholeness of the universe and the Australian landscape (especially as originally conceived of and articulated by the first and indigenous owners of this land) contain beautiful and wise prose. You've formed kind connections and resonances extending beyond that which first inspired this work! The way you see the 'absence of horizons' as emblematic of 'inclusion' gives me hope that maybe my art is on the right track here or there! The indigenous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (as mentioned in my NMA post) is a particular inspiration to me.
'Meaning' is surely interactive: a form of (as you say) 'inclusion'. Interconnectedness is the touchstone of meaningfulness.
Just as music is a language that is 'universal', connecting times and cultures, so too the abstract language of forms, lines, shapes, colours, textures, of visual art resonates through time and space, within the consciousness, the imagination... on many levels.
cheers and thanks again,
~W
Hi PG,
Yes, that's a good idea to post a vid on YouTube on painting with 'paraphernalia et al'..LOL!
No probs regarding not having seen the Blues Brothers movie;) The painting is inspired by the original eighties movie: The Blues Brothers.
It's a classic, IMO. A star-studded cast including a virtual 'who's who' of R&B music adds a rich dimension to the screenplay. Elwood Blues (played by Dan Aykroyd) and Jake Blues (played by the late John Belushi) are the Blues Brothers. They're two R&B musician-hoodlums with good intent under a cool laid-back unflappable deadpan exterior. The movie opens with John being released from Joliet on good behaviour. Elwood (who's the slightly more religious of the pair) insists on visiting 'the Penguin' (at the orphanage where they grew up in Calumet City Illinois). She gives them the news that the old orphanage is to be closed: the church needs 5,000 bucks in county taxes to keep it going... Jake says no problemo, we'll have the money for you in the morning, but the Penguin sees red and refuses to accept their 'filthy stolen money'... they fall (under her swashbuckling ruler) backwards down the stairs... they go straight...in their quest to the save the orphanage... somehow they have to raise the 5,000 bucks legitimately and get it to the Cook County Assessor's office in downtown Chicago on time. The movie 'tells, sings and shows' the wacky, intensely colourful, and ultimately racy story of how they did it.
Yes there is a kind of aerial perspective to the painting, a 'map', but only as an in-principle guide.
cheers & thanks for cruising by,
~W
One reason I get such a charge out of seeing your work - any work - is that I know you can paint pretty much anything and everything you want. So like a master musician who has all the notes at his command, it's fascinating for the audience to see WHICH of those notes he chooses to play. All of your abstract work commands my respect because I know it's WHAT YOU WANTED TO PAINT at that moment. That is huge. That is the Holy Grail of Art. And....I suppose...could be....the result of...a man who's on a mission from God? :) BTW, I just kicked off a 5 day workshop today and I imagine you'll be getting another round of visitors to the site.
and I see you're now onto Sandra Flood - hate to meet her in a dark painter's alley! way way way up there on my list these days
Nick, thanks for keeping an eye out here... (I'm working on a new post, soon hopefully).. Anyway, yes, Sandra Flood's work is outstanding IMO.. the figuration, colour, tone, compositon... imbues her work with a certain timeless, trance-like quality... I felt an immediate rapport with her art. thanks again & cheers, wayne
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