For a good period of time now I have been haunted by Robert Mapplethorpe. You know and I realize I have written much on this one man, and apparently I am not through with him, nor he with me, yet.
I revisited his opus, X Y Z, almost 25 years exactly from the first time I saw this on the opposite coast, in a show at LACMA on its final weekend. After, having to find a quiet corner where alone I could shield my face with sunglasses in an effort to hide the tears I could no more contain as they streamed down my cheeks, I wondered at the profound effect his work had on me.
I still wonder on this. Unsure of the why of it, but happy and thankful in some odd way to have this experience. Searching for the meaning to my response and finding, what?
1988. It was the beginning of my own life, a fledgling artist, and Robert was showing me his.
2013. Midstream in my life, hopefully if averages apply, and I wonder at mine in comparison. Grateful to have the breadth of time and experience now as a mature artist so I can revisit this powerful series. Seeing my place in it and recognizing my own ideas and ideals...beauties magnificent and terrible to behold. Both equally wondrous. Like a storm containing all within itself.
In March I began work on a series, a series started a few years earlier in photographic images I created and filed away for the...future. A friend I met in 1988, and who as it happens satellites in and out of my orbit, reconnected with me asking if I would consider donating a painting to a charity he chaired. I was happy to be asked, and even more happy to be able to participate. So, the series I had on files would be executed, giving the first one to this charity. Silver 101, as it relates my image of Los Angeles in history and traffic. Silver being the screen, obviously Hollywood, land of endless illusion and where the past always meets the future presently... and the endless traffic, jammed together.
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Silver 101 #1
Oil, Oil Stick on; Red Rabbit-Glue Gessoed, and Black Gessoed, Canvas
30" x 19"
2013
Michael Gardner
And then working in this silver, tearing up as the aluminum it contains burns my eyes, I realized that there was a previous file as yet un-executed too.
Robert Mapplethorpe's Auto-Portraits.
And so, Saint Robert I begin to execute. Analyzing his auto-portraits taken with polaroid, and painting them for him and also for me as I consider them self portraits as well. Producing the right shade of gold, noble and gesturing toward something from the past, became foundational to this work.
Saint Robert #1
Oil, Oil Stick on Canvas
14" x 12"
2013
Michael Gardner
Both of these series, Saint Robert, and Silver 101 are in process, and will be seen in their entirety on my web-site when they are finished. Who knows when that will be? In the future.
