Roller Paintings 2021

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Roller paintings are paintings made with rollers, sometimes referred to as brayers by people in the print making world. The works in this section of the website were all made with various tools including paint brushes, fingers, etc. But what distinguishes them enough to give them their own section on the website is the fact that they were made with rollers.

Furthermore, the works in this section are all small and all on paper. These are essentially sketches. As sketches they are often among the most intimate things I make and closest to the creative nexus of my efforts to discover how to paint what my creative urges are dictating.

Because there are a lot of these works, I can not write about each one as I have tried to do with each entry in the other sections of this site. I will just say that in addition to being among my most intimate creations, they may be the most intellectually original. Over the course of almost 30 years I have explored the connection between repetition, memory and how we use things like that to construct reality and time. A roller inherently repeats itself with each revolution. And yet it is modified by so many factors that obfuscate, sharpen, replicate and overlap as well as leave untouched space. The possibilities for spontaneous creation and variation are endless. Furthermore, it is fun.

If you are persistent, you can start with the older sub folders and work your way up to the present. You will see how this technique and it’s ideas are inherent in the very beginning but definitely develop in complexity and quality over time. Enjoy!

“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021
“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021
“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

“Roller Paintings”
Oil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
2021

“Covid 19”
Oil/panel
32 x 26”
2021

If I sat down with the intention of creating a painting to express my thoughts and feelings about the pandemic I would probably come up with some cool stuff using charts and graphs or images of corpses lying unattended on gurneys in hospital corridors or people in face masks and shields. And some of it might be powerful. But I don’t think anything would have come close to expressing the overall mood that this and a few other pieces convey.

They are strangely elegant even while they are pervasively gray and sad. They are intense and even a touch hopeful which summarizes the way I felt much of the time throughout the pandemic. This past year has seen some of the worst and some of the best of humanity on full display. Additionally, there was more death and more death closer to home than most of us have ever experienced. And yet, there were also amazing acts of kindness everywhere as well as breathtaking ways in which members of the scientific community, even the monetized scientific world, worked together to create vaccines in a very short time.

It’s hard to say how, but in some intuitive way I hope these pieces summarize those myriad and conflicting aspects of the Covid Pandemic. That was not my intent when I painted them. I was simply placing myself in front of the blank panel with no particular idea or even motivation. When I paint this way I call it being in service of the gift. I am just trusting that something meaningful will come out even if I don’t feel like painting and certainly am not inspired by anything. In fact, when I did these pieces I was fighting the pandemic urge to just sit in my comfy chair and watch Star Trek reruns. Now, I only wish I had done more.

“Covid 19”
Oil/panel
24 x 24”
2021