Eric Painter’s Heart and Soul
Eric Painter likes to play around with the concept of “concept”
— both in language, what he calls “verse vica,” and in art,
specifically his “meteor metaphors” and “painture.” For the exhibition
“Out of the Frame” opening Thursday at Marshall Arts, he’s joined by
two artists, Steve Webb and Miller Pipkin, whose approaches also lean
toward the mind-bending.
Painter began his meteor metaphors several years ago with a stone
sculpture that reminded him of a meteor, which got him thinking. “Life
is like a meteor,” Painter says, explaining that he sees the energy
released from a fallen meteor like that of a person who may no longer
be around. His “paintures” are a mash-up of sculpture and painting
turned inside-out. Instead of drawing a plan for a sculpture, he makes
the sculpture first, free-hand, and then makes a painting, creating a
work that is literally outside the frame. “It’s two different ways to
use perception, the illusions of form in space,” Painter says.
“Sculpture is solid, more form itself, while painting is infinite.”
Webb defines one of his large paintings in the show as “urban
archaeology.” Webb, who is a builder, did a painting of a wall in a
Second Street building he worked on. A removed staircase had left an
image on the wall, and what Webb saw there was a history of people
going up and down the stairs.
Miller says his abstract-expressionist paintings and sculptures are
philosophy-driven and forms of self-expression that arise from human
experience. That’s not always easy. One series of works showing at “Out
of the Frame” represents pure torment for him. “It’s hard for me to
look at,” Miller confesses, “but it’s good to have that dialogue with
myself.”
“Out of the Frame,” opening reception Thursday, May 21st, 6:30-9
p.m. Eric Painter will give a gallery talk during the reception at 7:30
p.m. Exhibition Through June 7th.