Ward Schumaker

Last San Francisco Paintings

2012-01-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow my wife and I close our San Francisco studio in preparation for our move to New York, where we plan to live in Manhattan for a year. Here are the last three paintings done in California, created between November 2010 and January 2012.

Rococo File 10 acrylic on canvas 64" x 45"

Rococo File 10

Rococo File 11 acrylic on canvas 67" x 46"

Rococo File 11

Rococo File 12 acrylic on canvas 62" x 42"

Rococo File 12

New York, New York

2012-01-01T22:10:00.000-08:00

Just to make sure 2012 means something new, Vivienne (my wife) and I purchased one-way tickets to New York. We'll be living there for eleven months, from 01 February until 31 December. Who knows what changes that will bring about?
Happy new year everyone.

New Works 2011

2011-12-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Numb (2008-2011) 38" x 25"

Golem Likes a Pretty Face (May-July) 48" x 34"

Rangoon (2008-2011) 25" x 38"

Rococo File 06 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Dark Radio (June-July) 25" x 19"

New Los Angeles (June-July) 25" x 19"

Amsterdam (June-July) 25" x 19"

Rumplestiltskin 02 (June-July) 25" x 19"

Rococo File 02 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Rococo File 03 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Rococo File 07 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Rococo File 08 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Rococo File 09 (Sept-Oct) 25" x19"

Rococo File 01 (Sept-Oct) 25" x 19"

Moon Atlas Paintings

2011-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

In truth, I did not expect to sell my hand-painted book, Moon Atlas, in the Zeitgeist show; but it sold and because there were certain things I very much wanted to retain for myself, I created some paintings as an extension of the book.

Moon Pie 18" h x 24" w mixed media on board

Moon Calendar 01 18" h x 24" w mixed media on board

Moon Calendar 02 18"h x 24"w mixed media on board

Moon Shark 24" h x 18" w mixed media on board

I Am the Orange Man 18" h x 24" w mixed media on board

Smiling Crescent Moon 24" h x 18" w mixed media on board


This Mortal Coil 18" h x 24" w mixed media on board

The Collage Show | Jack Fischer Gallery | San Francisco

2011-11-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

Jack Fischer has put together a show of collage, including two of mine, Doorway and Rothko, from the series I'm currently showing at Ivan Karp's O K Harris Gallery in New York. There are twenty-two artists in Jack's exhibition, among them, Dennis Parlante, Val Britton, Deborah Barrett, Alejandro Chavetta, John Hundt, David King, Catie O'Leary and Matt Gonzalez.

Doorway, 10" h x 6" w, mixed media collage

Rothko, 10" h x 6" w, mixed media collage

You are invited to the opening, Saturday, 26 November, 2011, 4-6pm

Jack Fischer Gallery | 49 Geary, Suite 418 | San Francisco, CA 94108

Zeitgeist Opening | Nashville | Geography Lessons

2011-11-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

With Susan Knowles

With Manuel Zeitlin

Lain York

With Anna Zeitlin

Collector Mancil Ezell

With Chief Curator Mark Scala of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts

With Sylvie Fortin of Art Papers


With Ellen Meyer, president of Watkins College of Art, Design and Film

Writer/artist Denise Sanabria

Opening Party | O K Harris | Identity Papers

2011-11-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Despite a snow storm (with lightning and thunder, no less) we had a terrific turnout for the opening at O K Harris, and we thank all who made it through the slush and cold to attend.

With gallerist Ivan Karp

Writer Sophie-Anne Delhomme and writer/illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme

New Yorker cover artist Jorge Colombo

Photographer Lori Barra and designer James Reyman

Illustrators Jillian Tamaki and Sam Weber

With artist Manuel Schmettau

Illustraotr Susan Hunt Yule

Illustrator Katherine Streeter


Bruce Block, artist Vivienne Flesher, and friends

Illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Peggy Roalf of DART

Designers Pamela Geismar and Pete Friederich

Designer Joseph Caserto

Designer J J Wilmoth and friend

Leslie and Satchel Harding

Sam Weber and Chris Silas Neal

Campbell Harding

With writer Pam Ivinski

George Hambrecht

Illustrator Chris Silas Neal and Jed Nebalsky

Leslie Harding and illustrator Alexa Grace

Katherine Streeter's pup

Everyone's a critic

Transformative Text by Denise Stewart-Sanabria

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is a review of my current show, lifted from Art Now Nashville:

Transformative Text

By Denise Stewart-Sanabria

November 10, 2011

Geography Lessons at Zeitgeist Gallery

Ward Schumaker has been interpreting text into visual narrative for most of his working life. Though he started out in fine art over 40 years ago, he evolved into an internationally recognized illustrator for most of his career and is still heavily involved in the business. His illustrational style uses text as an integral part of the drawing to identify his clients and their products. Eleven years ago, he journeyed back into his mind to create for himself.

Geography Lessons, his second exhibit at Zeitgeist Gallery, is imagery contained within, or detached from, the construct of the codex. Three artist books join nine isolated framed pages in a richly tactile and absorbing show. Schumaker’s process begins with morning meditation. The random words and streams of consciousness that evolve during these sessions – and also from his dreams – form the narratives of his various series. He seeks to be a kind of visual medium, searching to process ideas that are larger than he is. The results are confined to, but seem to expand from, the pages of his hand-bound books.

Ironically, his choice of media is mainly book paste. Wielding it like paint, and indeed often mixing it with acrylic, it is brushed and scraped on in layers that cover his surfaces like the detritus of time. The text, both stenciled and cut, joins random clippings often sourced from vintage French magazines and newspapers. French companies still make up the majority of Schumaker’s commercial clientele, and he has no shortage of media brought back from his regular trips to the country.
(note: French clients made up the majority of my illustration work in 2011, not in general.)

In Moon Atlas, a 56-page book, Schumaker’s poetic and minimalist rendering of the awareness of planetary movement translate the concept into a mysterious science that might be confused with mythology. He has utilized magazine clippings of France’s original coverage of the American moon landing, which lends an additional disorientation to the discourse. Pages of monochromatic moon-mapping images are jarred by the intrusion of intense color, as when day follows night.

The nine framed pages reference geographic regions that are united in a general sense of remoteness. They are heavily atmospheric, and contain visual abstractions that along with the text seem to describe mood, or fleetingly remembered details of place. In The Himalayas, burnt orange smears of what could be blood or dirt are overlaid with the white of cracked, dirty ice. The Carpathians is darker, and dramatic. The faded text of its name is ominously surrounded by dark cloud forms and slashing vertical lines of pigment.

In Zaragoza, the text “Puente” (bridge) is stenciled along the top and underlined with a broad stroke of black, bringing to mind Zaragoza Puente which spans the Rio Grande and connects El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico. Though it might be a bit of a literal translation on my part, the colors underlying Schumaker’s pale gray smears of pure book paste reflect the earth tones of the semi-arid geographic area. The tone of the unpigmented paste is the constant throughout Geography Lessons. It grounds the work in a solid organic base that connects to much of the source material that we are familiar with, in our pursuit of how we document geography: from old maps, plaster reliefs, low contrast interstellar satellite photographs, to the negative space of the book page.

Geography Lessons will be at Zeitgeist Gallery, 1819 21st Ave., Nashville, Tenn. from Nov. 3 through Dec. 17, 2011

Denise Stewart-Sanabria

Denise Stewart-Sanabria is an artist and a frequent contributor to Art Papers and Number.

Begins Ends Each Moment

2011-10-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

Begins Ends Each Moment, mixed media on two wood panels,
10" h x 16" w (Aug-Oct 2011)

Moon Atlas

2011-10-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

Moon Atlas is a hand-painted book I've created especially for Geography Lessons, a show at Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, November 2011. It's a large book, page size approximately 25" high by 15" wide, 56 pages, with a binding by John Demerritt. Collection of Janice and Manual Zeitlin.

Identity Papers | O K Harris Gallery | New York

2011-10-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Ivan Karp of O K Harris offered me a show after seeing my mixed-media works in the book Identity Papers. These are small pieces, 10” tall x 6” wide, made up of sketches from illustration jobs, hand-cut paper calligraphy, and stencils. I am very pleased to be showing in a gallery with such a rich and important history.

Ivan Karp served as co-director of Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959-1969, during which time he was instrumental in launching the careers of pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann and John Chamberlain. In 1969, Ivan broke away to launch his own gallery, O K Harris. The establishment in SoHo as the first gallery on West Broadway helped inspire the development of the area’s fine arts character.

In addition to being at the forefront of the Photo Realist movement in 1969, OK Harris was among the first galleries to exhibit the work of Duane Hanson, Deborah Butterfield, Manny Farber, Richard Pettibone, Robert Bechtle, Marilyn Levine, Malcolm Morley, Arman, and many others.

OK Harris exhibits contemporary art and photography, and on occasion mounts shows of antiques and collectibles. In its capacious facility, it is able to mount five one-person shows simultaneously and has seven such exhibitions each year.

My wife, Vivienne Flesher, and I are looking forward to attending the opening, 3-5pm, on Saturday, 29 October 2011.

The show remains up until 03 December 2011.

O K Harris 383 West Broadway New York, NY 10012

tel 212 431-3600

Being Everyone

The 20th Century

The Big Come-On

Your Father

Geography Lesson | Zeitgeist Gallery | Nashville

2011-10-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville will mount a show of my work, Geography Lessons, during the month of November. Zeitgeist has been very kind to me, giving me one of my first shows, Grace, back in 2005, and has included me in a number of its group shows as well. This exhibit consists of ten paintings and three books, including one just completed, Moon Atlas. There will be an opening beginning at 5pm on Thursday, 03 November 2011. My wife, Vivienne Flesher, and I look forward to attending.

Zeitgeist Gallery 1819 21^st Avenue South Nashville, TN tel 615 256-4805

The Aleutians

The Apennines

The Carpathians

Ward Schumaker | CV | Bio

2011-10-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ward Schumaker has shown in San Francisco, Shanghai, UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, Charleston, and Nashville. Schumaker’s work has been purchased by painter Eric Fischl; novelist Isabel Allende; television commentator Rachel Maddow + photographer Susan Mikula; designer Woody Pirtle; fashion/costume designer Han Feng; landscape architect Topher Delaney; composer Allen Anderson; composer Peter Scott Lewis; poet Sean Finney; and Oprah producer Jim Kelly.

In Los Angeles Schumaker is represented by the George Lawson Gallery; in Shanghai by Stir.

Solo Exhibitions:

Geography Lesson; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; November 2011

Identity Papers; O K Harris Gallery; New York, NY; Oct-Nov 2011

Composers; Skinner Howard Art; Sacramento, CA; June-July 2011

Composers; George Lawson Gallery; San Francisco, CA; Feb-Mar 2011

Misspells + Cross-outs; Stir Gallery; Shanghai, China; Sept-Oct 2010

Fashion + Logic; George Lawson Gallery; San Francisco, CA; Feb 2010

Nina Zurier Photographs + Ward Schumaker Paintings; Hilliard Architects Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Aug-Nov 2009

Saved!; Townsend Center, UC Berkeley; Berkeley, CA; March-May 2008

Books and Drawings; Meridian Gallery; San Francisco, CA; Feb-March 2008

I Am Big Heaven; Stir Gallery; Shanghai, China; June 2007

Grace; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; Jan-Feb 2005

Pretty; Seam; San Francisco, CA; July-Aug 2004

Gertrude Stein’s Paris France; Moe’s Books; Berkeley, CA; June 2000

Ward Schumaker Drawings; Shakti Gallery; Long Beach, CA; 1983

Group Exhibitions:

Sight and Identity; Stanford in Washington; Washington, DC; Oct 2011-Jan 2012

Physical Graffiti; James Oliver Gallery; Philadelphia, PA (group show) Sept-Oct 2011

Rebound: A Survey of Contemporary Artist’s Books; Sonoma Valley Museum of Art; Sonoma, CA; June-Aug 2011

Seeing Gertrude Stein; Contemporary Jewish Museum; San Francisco, CA; May-Sept 2011

Unbound Book Art; Bedford Gallery; Walnut Creek, CA; Jul-Sep 2010

Kaboom!; La Luz de Jesus Gallery; Los Angeles, CA; July 2010

California Summer; George Lawson Gallery; San Francisco, CA; July 2010

Selected of the Selected; Korean Cultural Center; Los Angeles, CA; Feb-Mar 2010

Appropriations; Rebekah Jacob Gallery; Charleston, SC; March 2010

Art Miami Basel-Aqua Art; George Lawson Gallery; Miami, FL; Dec 2009

Gallery Artists Group Exhibition; Stir Gallery; Shanghai, China; Sept 2009

2009 Lawson Gallery Artists; Shasta College; Redding, CA; Aug-Sept 2009

Selected Drawings; George Lawson Gallery; San Francisco, CA; Aug 2009

Who Cares? Works on Paper; Stir Gallery; Shanghai, China; May 2009

Being: Stir Gallery; Shanghai, China; September-October 2008

Works on Paper: Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN: Aug-Sept 2008

Salon; Exploding Head; Sacramento, CA; Sept 2006

X Libris; San Francisco Center for the Book; San Francisco, CA; July 2006

23^rd Annual; Berkeley Art Center; Berkeley, CA; July 2006

Surface Tension; Korean Cultural Center; Los Angeles, CA; April 2006

Picture Mechanics; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; March -April 2006

The Shape of Words; Exploding Head Gallery; Sacramento, CA; July 2005

Picture Mechanics; Exploding Head Gallery; Sacramento, CA; Sept 2004

Dialogue; Pete & Susan Barrett Gallery; Santa Monica, CA; Feb-Mar 2004

Detail; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; Jan-Feb 2004

Switchyard; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; July-Aug-Sept 2003

Picture Mechanics; Zeitgeist Gallery; Nashville, TN; March -April 2003

Picture Mechanics; 69A Gallery; San Francisco, CA; March 2002

Four Artists; Montalvo Center for the Arts; Saratoga, CA; 1983

Related Professional Appearances:

Collections:

Drawings and paintings in public collections:

Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

Limited-edition Yolla Bolly books in public collections:

Boston Public Library

California Poly State University

California State Library

California State University, Hayward

California State University, Chico

Claremont College

Indiana University

Kansas State University

Los Angeles Public Library

Miami University Library (OH)

New York Public Library

Occidental College

University of Alberta (Canada)

University of Buffalo

University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Irving

University of California, Los Angeles Library

University of California, Riverside

University of California, San Diego

University of Iowa

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

University of Missouri, Kansas City

University of North Carolina

University of San Francisco, Gleeson Library

University of Southern California

University of Utah

San Jose State University Library

Scripps College, Denison Library

Stanford University

Swarthmore College

Wake Forest University

Hand-painted books in private collections:

Donna Anderson and Henrik Kam; San Francisco, CA

Philippe Arnaud; Paris, France

Mary Austin and Brewster Kahle: San Francisco, CA

Bob and Cathy Barner; San Francisco, CA

Laura Cirolia; Oakland, CA

Topher Delaney; San Francisco, CA

Eric Fischl and April Gornik; New York, NY
Lori and Nico Frias: San Rafael, CA

Fran and Bud Johns; San Francisco, CA

Emiko Kaji and Peter Scott Lewis; San Francisco, CA

Paulette Long; San Francisco, CA

Stefanie Peek; San Francisco, CA

Cameron Woo; Berkeley, CA

Exhibition Design:

Unlimited by Design; created wall-sized illustrations for exhibit; Cooper Hewitt, The National Design Museum, Smithsonian, New York, New York

Physical Graffiti | James Oliver Gallery

2011-09-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

Artist Pam Farrell has picked 12 artists from across the country for a show that will "focus on the transformation of ephemera and otherwise quotidian materials, and who create mystery in layers of more-or-less common art-making materials…” The show will include two of my paintings, The Alps and The Euphrates. The work of fellow San Franciscan, Dennis Parlante, is also included. You are invited to the opening, Saturday, 10 September, 6-9pm.

James Oliver Gallery, 723 Chestnut, fourth floor. Philadelphia, PA 19106

The Alps

The Euphrates

Being Everyone

2011-07-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Being Everyone

Berry

Blue

Blue Dot

Breathe

Doorway

Fact

Finitum Non Est Capax Infiniti

Flame

Ill Humored

Maybe

Muse

Plaid Patch

Pretty Face

Revelation

Rubber Band

Talk Much

The 20th Century

White Picket Fence

The Big Come-On

Your Father

All of these collages (except Pretty Face) measure 10" high by 6" wide.

The images contained in the collages were all made by the artist, often many years ago.

Baby Precious Always Shines

2011-07-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

Leah Garchik of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas had used the word “cow” as substitute for “orgasm.” But I’d read they’d actually used it as a euphemism for “bowel movement.” (Leah used the word “turd.”) I had read about it in a book, Baby Precious Always Shines, edited by Kay Turner. Ms Turner wrote that there had been a health fad at the turn-of-the-century, centering on healthy digestion, and that Alice had regularly experienced trouble in that area; she’d possibly suffered from something like irritable bowel syndrome. Re-reading the book, I thought it plausible that Turner’s suggestion was correct. And though to some the love notes left by Gertrude for Alice might appear crude, I felt they revealed a typical concern of one lover for another. More––the notes are affectionate, touching, and at times rather funny. I enjoyed them so much I decided to turn some of them into works-on-paper for myself.

Treating her from top to toe

From befront to behind

From left to right

And hugging her tight

I love my wifey so completely

Oh so completely, and she is

To have a lovely cow a real

Cow splash goes the cow now,

Splash splash splash lovely

Baby smelly cow comes out of

Baby anyhow now

Blessed baby, baby

Is all warm coffee

Is all hard bath is

All warm cow coming

Out of the little behind

Is all warm and baby

Is free from harm

Here oh so here

Baby all flowers and vegetables

Sweetness my own jelly belly

My own sweetness sweetness

No mistake

Baby when

She is

Awake

No mistake

With a blue notebook. And

A pencil. I speak to baby

I speak to little stomach

I counsel mister to be good

I suggest kisses to speak

Quickly and what do I say

To Petunia. Oh Peetunia

Her and her

two apples

inside her

Always the news

That she is me

And I am she

These works-on-paper measure 25" tall x 19" wide.

Seeing Gertrude Stein: The Catalog

2011-06-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

The catalog for San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum show Seeing Gertrude Stein is excellent, filled with a multitude of photos and interesting art, designed beautifully, and it's a good read. I'm pleased the authors include an illustration and three paragraphs about The Yolla Bolly Press edition of Paris France:

“In 2000, the Yolla Bolly Press of Covelo, California, created a fine-art edition of Stein’s book Paris France, originally published in 1940. The text is Stein’s running commentary on the habits and national character of the French. The writer talks to the reader as if across a dinner table, telling stories and rendering opinions––occasional clichés––about French cooks, French food, French cooking, French wars, French soldiers, French dogs, French fashions, French education, French conservatism, and French adoption of American-style modernities such as automobiles, cocktails, and electric stoves. The text has an anxious subtext, for Stein was writing in Bilignin during the first year of the war; she has a lot to say about soldiers, food rationing, and the hardships of living in the country. It is not one of Stein’s better-known texts, and the Yolla Bollly edition revitalized it with graphics, typography, handsome paper, elegant design, and an afterword by George Plimpton.

“The idea came from Ward Schumaker, a well-known Bay Area book artist, who first encountered Stein as a teenager in the late 1950’s, when, living with his family on a Nebraska farm, he read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. The book introduced him to left-bank Paris and its artists. He adopted Gertrude and Alice, as he puts it, as his new “friends-on-the-page,” there being no one remotely like them in his Midwestern community. He continued to read books by and about Stein and brought forty years of “friendship” to his collaboration with the Yolla Bolly press. For the cover image––and another image inside the book––he drew Stein in her familiar pose of talking with her right arm raised to her head. Under the image, as if handwritten, were the words from the book: “I cannot write too much upon how necessary it is to be completely conservative that is particularly traditional in order to be free.” The quotation stresses the irony of one of Stein’s staunchest beliefs in her later words, that tradition grounded people, making them feel safe and comfortable and free to be radical in thought and art.

“Stein’s text and Schumaker’s images offer a lovely confluence of minds, for both writer and artist are warm and accessible companions. But it is clear that Stein is the star, Schumaker her gracious admirer seeking to animate bits of her text and make us read her words more avidly. His graphics pay homage to the vagaries of Stein’s storytelling––figures float in space, motifs are emphatically repeated, words become beautiful forms. And the placement of drawings in the book obeys the same logic––or illogic––of Stein’s prose: a turn of a page might reveal an image, unpredictably but delightfully there. Usually Schumaker’s images respond to specific passages, but sometimes they expand on the text to include more of Stein’s history. When Stein writes of how undistinguished her quarters were in rue de Fleurus––less than a hundred years old––Schumaker responds with an image that lists, in animated block lettering, the many artists who passed through 27, rue de Fleurus. He also understands Stein’s affection for dogs, a subject she mentions often in her text because she has just acquired Basket II, her second white poodle. Dogs appear here and there in the book, simple silhouettes or succinct drawings of different breeds, and from a variety of perspectives; the canine body language is so perfect you know Schumaker identifies with Stein’s dog-centric home.”

The book, written by Wanda Corn and Tirza Latimer, is available through the museum bookstore.

Skinner Howard Sacramento Hangs Composers

2011-06-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's really interesting how the same work looks in two different galleries. At George Lawson Gallery, the composers series was hung one after the other, in a column-like cadence, which fit well into the square room. Skinner Howard Gallery resides in a huge old brick building and many of the pieces were hung on movable walls, upon which Gwenna and Pamela Skinner hung the pieces in groups.

Seeing Gertrude Stein | Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco

2011-05-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

In 1990 The Yolla Bolly Press agave me the chance to pick a title to illustrate, any title. I picked Paris France by Gertrude Stein and Yolla Bolly published a limited edition, letterpress version. This coming month San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum will be including it in "Seeing Gertrude Stein," a show curated by Wanda Corn. I'm pleased to be included in this show.

Announcement card

Le seul bien qui me reste au monde c'est d'avoir quelque fois pleuré.

It is not a secret but one does not tell it.

27, rue de Fleurus

Les Grandes Têtes

Portrait of Gertrude Stein: "I cannot write too much about how necessary it is to be completely conservative that is particularly traditional in order to be free."

Basket fait le beau.

(French cooking is) Fashion and Logic

Country Life in Wartime

Dog Man

Pavanne for Dead Twins

Tower of Horses

Les Fleurs Farouches

________________________________________________

Two Kitchens in Provence by M F K Fisher

The Yolla Bolly Press gave me the opportunity to do Paris France because the year before, 1989, I'd done a book for them that had sold out in two weeks. This had only happened once before.

The book was Two Kitchens in Provence, by food writer M F K Fisher, a memoir of life in Provence in the 1950s.

The Stein book was filled with stories, events I could illustrate. Not true of Two Kitchens. For it the work was less specific to the text, more evocative of the tone.

Both books contain an Afterward written (and signed) by a celebrity:
the late George Plimpton wrote for Paris France; Alice Waters did Two Kitchens.

I loved working for Jim and Carolyn Robertson at the Yolla Bolly Press. Jim and I would get into shouting matches, big fights. He was the only friend with whom I ever felt comfortable doing that.

My wife, Vivienne Flesher, also did a book for Yolla Bolly, Vittorinni's Tears and Wine.
Jim died soon after it was published.

After Jim's death, Carolyn decided to quit publishing books. It was a great loss.

Ever since I've searched for another client to fill the hole left by Yolla Bolly's absence. But I've never found one. That loss is part of the reason I returned to doing personal work, hand-painted books and works for the wall.

Still, nothing takes the place of a duo like Jim and Carolyn.

Rebound: A Survey of Contemporary California Artist's Books.

2011-04-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased that two of my hand-painted books have been chosen to appear in the upcoming show, Rebound: A Survey of Contemporary California Artist's Books, at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. The exhibit will open on Friday, 3 June, 2011, and hang June through August. The museum is located at 551 Broadway, Sonoma, California, across the square from the picturesque Sonoma City Hall.

One of the books to be included is Respite--Markandeya, 2006, 32 pages, page size 25.25" high x 19.5" wide, with a binding by John Demerritt. The book is my faulty recollection of a Hindu myth concerning Markandeya. You can go to The Gitas for the real story; my version reads this way:

Respite

The whale beached itself upon the sand.

Its mouth opened.

Upon its tongue sat a little boy.

The boy stood up and walked out onto the sand.

In his hand he carried a branch with leaves.

“I hope you enjoyed your rest, my son,” said the whale.

Then it turned and re-entered the waters.

The little boy smiled, waved good-bye,

And turning towards the rising sun,

Began to sweep the beach.

Skinner Howard Sacramento Composers Show

2011-04-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

I’m pleased that Skinner Howard gallery in Sacramento has picked up the Composers show from George Lawson and will be exhibiting it during June and July 2011. The opening is scheduled for Thursday night 9 June, and I’ll also be there for Sacramento’s Second Saturday on 11 June. The gallery space is a unique warehouse, large and very industrial with clerestory windows and lots of natural light. Skinner Howard is located at 723 S Street, Sacramento, CA 95811.

Installation of Composers at George Lawson

2011-02-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

George Lawson hung 19 of my Composers Series for the current show: 6 in the foyer and 13 in the Room for Painting.

It was densely hung, which I liked.
I wanted to overwhelm the viewers if I could.

George likened the space between the works to columns in a temple consecrated to composers.

Here you can see a bit around the corner into the foyer.

I didn't find out until after the opening that Isabel Allende had purchased one of the paintings, Prokofiev, for her son and daughter-in-law, Nico Frias and Lori Barra.

George and me in front of Gavin Bryars and Prokofiev.

Composers at George Lawson Gallery

2011-01-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

George Lawson will exhibit 13 paintings from my composers series, February 6 thru March 12, 2011. You're invited to the opening, Thursday, February 10, from 5:30 to 7:30. George Lawson Gallery is located at 49 Geary, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108. For more information, visit George's website.

Also on view: Recent black and white photographs by North Carolina-based Tama Hochbaum

Composers 2009-2010

2010-10-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

Igor Stravinsky

Sergei Prokofiev

Hector Berlioz

Heitor Villa-Lobos

Henryk Górecki

Gavin Bryars

Gavin Bryars (detail)

Bela Bartok

Charles Dodge

Dmitri Shostakovich

Francis Poulenc

Paul Hindemith

J S Bach

Kurt Weill

Leoš Janacek

Joseph Haydn

Louis Andriessen

Phillip Glass

Satoh Somei

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Erik Satie

Aaron Copland

Alban Berg

Antonín Dvořák

Anton Webern

Arnold Schoenberg

Arvo Pärt

Gabriel Fauré

Gaetano Donizetti

George Gershwin

All the works in this group are 49" high by 34" wide, mixed media on paper, to be mounted on wood.

Geography (2009-2010)

2010-09-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Addis Ababa, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Brooklyn, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Finland, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Kazakhstan, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Krakatoa, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Le Pays Dogon, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Mauretania, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Mozambique, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Murano, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Nîmes, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Saskatchewan, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Aleutians, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Alps, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Apennines, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Appalachians, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Balkans, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Carpathians, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Caucasus, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Euphrates, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Ganges, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Himalayas, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Mississippi, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Niger, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Nile, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Tigris, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Urals, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Volga, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

Shanghai Stir Show Sept-Oct 2010

2010-09-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

I have a show opening on 25 September in Shanghai, at Stir Gallery. Gallery director Jianwei Fong will be showing four large paintings on canvas, as well as numerous works on paper. The gallery is located at 1 Mao Ming South Road, 2F, in the French Concession. The show will hang until 24 October 2010.

Sisters from Surabaya, acrylic on canvas, 67" x 47"

Chrysanthemum, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 48"

Veut Dire, acrylic on canvas, 66" x 47"

Semaphor(e), acrylic on canvas, 67" x 46"

Entrance/Exit, mixed media on paper, 38" x 50"

La Serena Noche, mixed media on paper, 38" x 50"

Toledo, mixed media on paper, 38" x 50"

Leibniz's Bubbles, mixed media on paper, 38" x 50"

Paintings 2003

2010-09-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Double Chinatown, oil on canvas

Hell Lake, oil on canvas

Loop Milk Orange, oil on canvas

Prune Orange Dish, oil on canvas

Yellow Mask, oil on canvas

Pale Chinese Dancer, oil on canvas

Double Whale, oil on canvas

Lovely Smoke, oil on canvas

Masked Obelisk, oil on canvas

Scraggy Dumbarton, oil on canvas

Paintings 2004

2010-09-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Breugel in Purgatory, acrylic on canvas

Crazy Mickey, acrylic on canvas

Lawn Sprinkler, acrylic on canvas

Like Pollack, acrylic on canvas

Mickey in the Woods, acrylic on canvas

Mickey Mouse, acrylic on canvas

Noguchi Tornado, acrylic on canvas

Rubber Band Lantern, acrylic on canvas

Paintings 2005

2010-09-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

A Big Heaven, mixed media on paper

Dracopede, mixed media on paper

Halloween, mixed media on paper

Heaven Appears as an Event on the Horizon, mixed media on paper

Saved (blue), mixed media on paper

Saved (red), mixed media on paper

Saved (white), mixed media on paper

Silence, mixed media on paper

Small Record Player 01, mixed media on paper

Small Record Player 02, mixed media on paper

Paintings 2006

2010-09-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

Belly Dancer 01, mixed media on paper

Belly Dancer 02, mixed media on paper

Dialogue, mixed media on paper mounted on wood structure

I Am Big Heaven, mixed media on paper

Heaven and Hell, mixed media on paper

Rodeo Stars, mixed media on paper

Paintings 2007

2010-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Big Heaven, mixed media on paper

Dance Lesson, mixed media on paper

Doily, mixed media on paper

Krishna Buttercup, mixed media on paper

Leibniz's Bubbles, mixed media on paper

Rumplestiltskin, mixed media on paper

Saved Diptych, mixed media on paper

Think of You, mixed media on paper

This May Sound, mixed media on paper

Paintings 2008

2010-09-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Archipelago, mixed media on paper

Betty, Nude, mixed media on paper

Fairy, mixed media on paper

No More Names, mixed media on paper

One Nation, Four Flowers, mixed media on paper

Possums, mixed media on paper

Red Telephone, mixed media on paper

Talbot, mixed media on paper

Three Monkeys, mixed media on paper

Vladimir and Estragon

Unbound | Lesher Center for the Arts' Bedford Gallery Show

2010-07-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Unbound, a show of artist's books at the Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, includes three of my books: Shostakovich, 5-and-Dime Deluxe, and God’s Femur. Opening Thursday, 17 July 2010, 6:00 to 8pm.

Shostakovich

5-and-Dime Deluxe

God's Femur

California Summer | George Lawson Gallery

2010-07-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be showing a new painting on canvas, The Proximity of Water, at George Lawson's summer group show. Everyone is invited to the opening, 15 July 2010, 5:30 - 7:30.

The Proximity of Water

Shostakovich's Suits

2010-07-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

I’d come down to the waterfront earlier in the evening, to the offices of Walter Landor, advertising man and San Francisco celebrity, a man who carried on his business aboard an old ferryboat, The Klamath, berthed at Pier Five. Landor died recently but his company continues on the boat. Landor had purchased the ferry for a song at auction, had it refitted with offices, a dining room, a bar; and parties have been held here over the years, important parties filled with important names––Princess Margaret, Nureyev, Andy Warhol, The Stones, all kinds of luminaries. Photographs of them appeared the next day in the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. This wasn’t one of those parties. This was simply a group of guys I’d lunched with daily during an earlier time in my life; one of them works here and arranged for us to use the dining room. I hadn’t wanted to come drink with them, they’d never been my type; they were gregarious, successful and moneyed, while I was the opposite. To them I appear a loser, I’m certain of that. For years, though, I’d held myself above them and their kind by thinking of myself as an artist. But years had groveled by, I hadn’t produced much, few knew of anything of the work I’d created, fewer still cared, and I wondered, would I ever even make it as an unknown?

I tried to sit through the drinking with a pasted smile but wasn’t entirely successful. All the others looked so good: nice clothes, fairly trim bodies, grey hair looking a bit distinguished––and I could only imagine their cars! Me, I don’t even own a car. And my age broadcasts itself loudly by hair loss, a slight paunch and a terrible case of rosacia; my nose is pocked, bloated and purple. It’s always purple even when I don’t drink and I’d needed more than one drink tonight to get through the lack of a meal. At some point I also needed to take a piss and excused myself and stumbled out of the dining room, into the hallway. Where was the bathroom? I’d been to a number of parties here and remembered a private suite in the center of the ship, down a floor. It had a rather grand bathroom. I would go there.

I clambered down a curved, tightly-walled stairway and discovered that some women were using the suite, five or six of them, drinking wine, slightly tipsy as well––and I realized I, too, was tipsy. Suddenly I remembered that Landor had let no one use this bathroom; it was his Personal Shit House and I’d known about it only because I’d bought to one of his parties one Dixie Flattersly, a lovely peroxided and some-time hooker, a bar maid at the circular hotel that used to exist up on Bay and Columbus. Landor had been a notorious womanizer and Dixie’s beauty had gotten me into his inner sanctum. I had no excuse for being there tonight, but no matter; I couldn’t remember where the other bathrooms were and the women didn’t seem to notice me. I slipped quietly into the john.

Surprisingly, it was a mess. There were boxes all around, cardboard boxes that had once held bottles; since Landor’s death, did no one use his bathroom except for storage? There was a urinal but I thought I might need more so I opened the door to the toilet, entered, sat down and did my number. In Walter Landor’s private toilet. That felt good. In there I could have some privacy, to shit and think how much I hated the guys I was drinking with. Or was it me, did I hate my own lack of success even more than I hated them? Then I heard someone enter the outside bathroom and worried I’d be found. I sat still, frozen, quiet. I wanted to ready myself for exit but did I dare use the toilet paper to wipe myself? Would the noise of that action give me away? It was a man outside. I heard the unzipping of trousers and the whish of urine hitting the porcelain of the urinal. Perhaps he’d piss and leave.

He did.

I sat there a few minutes more, back to feeling sorry for myself, a creep, a loser, and at one point I feared I might actually throw up with self-disgust. I’d drunk a lot more than I should. But in time I felt better, finished my number, cleaned myself and got up to leave.

Outside the toilette, there was a sink and even though I feared alerting the women in the next room, I‘m the kind of guy who must clean his hands after either one, pissing or shitting. So even with the chance they’d hear and complain, I turned on the water and, using a still-wrapped soap next to the sink, washed. Then I looked around for a towel. Nothing. I was not so drunk I would dry my hands on my suit pants. If I’d been wearing jeans, yes, but not in my good blue suit even if it were a bit old; the moisture would show.
There was an empty towel rack mounted on plywood (good plywood, a fifties rec room look) and I opened the door beneath it. Nothing. Looking around again, I noticed a louvered door on the other side of the room: a closet? Perhaps it was a service closet, storage for things like toilet paper and hand towels. I opened the door and there was nothing but a footlocker on the floor, a trunk. There was a padlock on it but the lock had been left open. I opened the thing and inside I found a pile of suits, apparently the staff kept their uniforms here, or so I assumed, at first. But no, these were nicer than uniforms, and different. The suits did not match: some were blue, some brown, a couple black (it was a pile of perhaps ten suits). I thought guiltily: I could wipe my hands on one of these. Who’d know?

Then I got the notion, I don’t know from where, that the pile of suits was actually the ferry owner’s, that these had been Walter Landor’s suits. And, because Walter Landor had been hugely successful and because I hated him for his fame, his money, his success with women, (including I supposed, Dixie Flattersly); and because I therefore connected him with the creeps I was lunching (and drinking) with, I grabbed the top suit and dried my hands. I turned around, almost fell over (had the boat moved or was I drunker than I’d realized?) and feeling very powerful (I was using Walter Landor’s clothes to dry my hands, for God’s sakes) I began to look around the bathroom for somewhere to place the soiled suit-coat-cum-towel.

There were photos on the walls, many of them, each similarly framed, and I recognized many of the people: first and always there was Walter Landor (who’s suit I thought I was holding in my hands), Landor with Jayne Mansfield, with Herb Caen (SF gossip columnist), with a vice-president, with Mick Jagger, with…well, with almost everyone. There was even one with his wife, who I recognized because I’d been at one of the parties here and she’d drunkenly propositioned a friend, or so my friend thought. Me, I’d rather doubted it.

Feeling suddenly guilty for misusing Landor’s suit coat, I turned back to the closet to replace the thing in the trunk and there just outside the door, on the floor, lay a photo of Walter Landor and Dmitri Shostakovich. Really. Shostakovich. Shostakovich? Had the composer even ever visited San Francisco? I didn’t think so. Of course the picture could had been taken elsewhere. But what was it doing here? I remembered the noise of something falling when I’d opened the footlocker and realized the photo must have been inside the trunk and had fallen out when I opened the lid. I picked up the framed photo while I half-consciously replaced the coat on top of the pile. Absently I closed the lid while I studied the photo.

I love Shostakovich’s music. I listen to it almost everyday. His quartets, not his symphonies. I’m not into symphonies, too much bombast, but I love the give-and-take of a string quartet and to my mind, Shostakovich has no match in such matters, except of course Beethoven. I placed the photo reverently on top of the locker. On top of the brass nameplate. Brass nameplate? It was too dark to in the closet to make out the name. I opened the door wider and there I read: Dmitri Shostakovich.

Was this Shostakovich’s locker? It now dawned on me that it was actually an old-fashioned piece of luggage, the kind one might take on an ocean voyage, on a big ship, say, the Queen Elizabeth or the Cunard Lines. Had Shostakovich visited San Francisco? Perhaps to conduct? From Vladivostok, Kiev, Siberia, or…? There were only a few city names in Russia I knew besides Moscow and wasn’t Moscow on a river, not the sea? I smiled. The guys upstairs, the guys I was drinking with most certainly didn’t know Shostakovich or his music and had they come here, not a one of them would have recognized his name, how important this nameplate was, how valuable. Perhaps Landor wasn’t all-bad, perhaps he loved Shostakovich. I’d been hating Landor (again, the money, the women, the celebrity) but perhaps I’d have to rethink that.

But wait. If this were Shostakovich’s locker, why was it filled with suits? Unless, of course, they were his suits. Shostakovich’s suits.

I turned back to the closet, reopened the locker, rubbed my hand across the top suit. A pin stripe, brown with a slight fleck. My fingers ran over the material, pretty nice, but wait. I took the suit outside and held it up to the photo of Landor and Shostakovich. The photo was black-and-white but I could tell anyway (or thought I could): this was the suit Shostakovich was wearing in the picture! Which suggested (to me at least) that the suits in the trunk were truly his. I’d fallen on a trove of Dmitri Shostakovich’s suits.

How did Landor get them, and why did he keep them here? With Shostakovich now being dead (he’d died in 1975) they constituted something in the way of, I don’t know, a legacy.

I knelt down by the trunk, a bit prayerfully (though I might not have knelt that way had I not been drunk). I began fingering each suit, working my way down the pile, wanting to touch every single one with attention. I might not be a Big Man like the guys I was lunching with thought of themselves (and some actually were) but at least I knew enough to realize the importance, the grandeur, of touching Shostakovich’s suits.

As I worked my way down the pile I began to feel a little silly. What’s the big deal? They’re suits, not music, not forgotten unknown recording or undiscovered manuscripts. They were just suits. Half way down the pile, I fell backward. (I was still feeling the booze.) In doing so, I knocked over the pile, and it was while I was righting myself that I noticed it: a hole in the chest of one of the coats, just to the right of the lapel. The hole was not just a hole, as in a moth hole, or a hole from wearing. It was frayed at its edges and the edges had a friable quality. I recognized at once the burnt edges. And the brown stains. Not just any brown, but a bloody brown, the brown of dried blood. And suddenly I recognized that this was a bullet hole. Of all things! A bullet hole in the chest of one of Shostakovich’s coats. How had that gotten there?

And as drunk as I was, there was still nothing that could keep me from the obvious conclusion: Shostakovich had been assassinated, no one knew it (or at least acknowledged it) but Shostakovich had been assassinated. It made sense; he’d gotten in trouble with Stalin a number of times. But wait, he died long after Stalin’s death. Could some one else have done it? Who took over after Stalin? I couldn’t remember. But wait once again: if Shostakovich had been assassinated, why was it not known? Reportedly, he’d died in his sleep, a victim of emphysema or something. There’d been a state funeral. Thousand had lined the streets. Or so I imagined. I didn’t know, actually, how he’d died. I just knew, suddenly knew, that he‘d been assassinated, that it had been kept a secret, and that somehow Walter Landor had learned of it, had held Dmitri sacred in his personal pantheon of musical geniuses, and had obtained and kept this suit in this locker in his private bathroom on the ferry boat Klamath, docked next to Pier Five in San Francisco.

And I was holding it in my hand. The clothing worn by Dmitri Shostakovich the day (or night) he was murdered. No. Assassinated.

And though I might not now hate Landor the way I’d hated him just moments before, somehow I knew he did not deserve to be the guardian of this Holy Grail. Alive or dead. His success precluded it. No one that successful could also be sincere enough to own Shostakovich’s suit coat. Not the one he was wearing when assassinated.

I couldn’t leave, I couldn’t simply leave. I could hear the women in the next room, drinking, laughing, talking and smoking, and I couldn’t just walk out and leave this treasure trove with them. Or with a bunch of advertising men who could not possibly understand.

I’m not a thief. I’m a mid-westerner moved here by accident (that’s another story) so I’m not like a lot of Californians; I’m honest, I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t even swear that much. But.

I pulled the suit coat to my chest, embracing it, thinking of it as a child who needed saving and me, I was Father Flanagan of Boys Town. I started to stand and leave—with the coat—when I realized half a suit is not enough. I knelt down and scavenged through the pile until I found the matching pants. I hid both, folded clumsily, inside my sport coat. Then I quietly stole out of the room. One of the women heard me, cried out—did she ask for a refill, did she assume I was a waiter? I ignored her, climbed the curving stairs and, turning left instead of right, departed from the ferry without taking leave of my friends, who I was certain, were bragging to each other of their various and many successes. I didn’t care. I was no longer a loser. Not while I had Shostakovich’s suit.

New Work | Summer 2010

2010-07-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Sisters from Surabaya, acrylic on canvas, 72" tall x 48 " wide

White, acrylic on canvas, 67" tall x 46" wide

Veut Dire, acrylic on canvas, 66" tall x 47" wide

Veut Dire, detail

Veut Dire

Make Happy, acrylic and paste on paper, 49.5" tall x 34" wide

Le Pays Dogon, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Mozambique, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Mauretania, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Saskatchewan, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Krakatoa, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Brooklyn, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Kazakhstan, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Addis Ababa, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Finland, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Nîmes, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Murano, acrylic and paste on paper, 30" tall x 22" wide

Señor Blues, acrylic and paste on paper, 50" tall x 38" wide

New Work | Spring 2010

2010-06-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Peccadillo, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

The Proximity of Water, acrylic on canvas

It Saw Itself as Heaven, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Topeka, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Bread, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Oksana, 6" x 10" mixed media on cardboard

Composers | New Work Spring 2010

2010-06-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Aaron Copland, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Alban Berg, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Anton Webern, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Béla Bartók, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Gavin Bryars, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Gavin Bryars, detail

Henryk Górecki, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Joseph Hadyn, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Louis Andriessen, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Arvo Pärt, 34" x 49" mixed media on paper

Rivers | New Work Spring 2010

2010-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Euphrates, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper.

The Ganges, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Mississippi, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Niger, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Nile, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Tigris, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

The Volga, 22" x 30", mixed media on paper

5-and-Dime Deluxe

2010-05-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

5-and-Dime Deluxe, a hand-painted book, 13" x 19"page size, 64 pages, created in 2004. The 'subject' of this book is my wife's French Bulldog, Alfred.

Obliterating St. Augustine

2010-05-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Obliterating St. Augustine, a hand-painted book, 13" x 19", 64 pages, created in 2005.

Untitled

2010-05-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Untitled, a 13" x 19", 64 page, hand-stenciled and -painted book from 2004.

Weather Patterns

2010-05-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Weather Patterns is a hand-painted book, 13" x 19" page size, 64 pages, created in 2003.

Believer

2010-05-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Believer, hand-painted book, page size 13" x 19", 64 pages, 2004.

Tuber and Blog

2010-05-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

Tuber and Blog, a one-of-a-kind book, letterpress with over-painting, page size 13" x 13", 64 pages, created 2004. Family photos of a happy little lawn sprinkler and his friends.