about the artist /// pennsylvania /// john harris project /// portraits /// electronic-mail /// first run publishing /// italy
gallery /// press /// blog /// twitter /// facebook /// rss /// updated: 1/2/12
As I work part-time in the evenings @ the Art
Association of Harrisburg, every day I experience this beautiful view
on my way across the bridge. This day was a particularly beautiful sunset
in the spring. I quickly dug about in my pants-pocket where my phone usually
is, to snap a few pics before I made it the length of the bridge. I wanted
to capture and dramatize the sunset as it contrasted and back-lit the Capitol.
I painted the profile with a straight-edge. Although the sharp contrast
of the lights and darks in this piece are a common tendency in my work,
sharp Sign-Painter's lines which I used along the horizon and edges of the
columns, are not. This is most obvious with the SUV, on the right, in the
foreground. I could not resist the brushy, painterly style for very long
and as I strained against it for most of the painting- when it came time
for the most prominent element to be added- my reaction to my own discipline
was vehemently exposed.
#capitol-1
This is the first in a series of paintings of the PA Turnpike.
I took them on the way back from dropping Andrea's daughter off @ Indiana
University of Pennsylvania. There is, to me, a very post-impressionist feel
to this work. A few months ago I had been watching a documentary on A&E
Classroom very early one morning about the lives of Van Gogh and his peers
and it apparently stuck with me as a recent artistic influence. Especially
I think because of the similarity in subject matter. Farmland is something
I've always wanted to paint and have little experience with. My memory and
recent experience helped complete this, my first exploration into these
uncharted waters of a long-awaited vision.
#turnpike-1
"PA TURNPIKE #4" is an odd scene from the modern
Pennsylvanian landscape depicting a strange dichotomy in the natural topography
supported by the composition as well as the weather conditions of the particular
day I took the picture in the fall of 2008. I painted the electrical station
and wires running across the front with a rough, imposing motion. This imposing
motion highlights the station, with the cloud-cover supporting this feeling,
by breaking just at that point where the station sits on the mountain-side
and leaving the wires and trees in the foreground brilliantly lit by direct
sunlight. The background is shadowed by the clouds and causes the interesting,
rainbow-like color transition, from the bottom to the top of the piece.
The electric station seems to impose on the landscape as I painted it because
of our nation's new interest in "green" technology. When it was built it
was probably described in this light as a "shining jewel" of progress. In
this new "green" modern perspective, it may be described as destructive
of a large swath of the mountainside foliage. When lit as it is, it burns
darkly, a scarring reminder of the wasteful, arrogant destruction, lack
of creative discipline and environmental consideration in our methods used
in technological development of the existing power grid. In this painting
I was fascinated by this composition and the beauty of the subject matter.
The composition and supporting symbolism celebrates the beauty of the Pennsylvania
landscape as it appears at the time it represents. It is a typical scene
one might see driving along the Pennsylvania Turnpike across the unfathomably
beautiful State of Pennsylvania. Please take a ride, see it for yourself,
and perhaps you'll see this very sight. Take a picture and interpret it
in your own way.
#turnpike-4
.png)
Over the past hundred and thirty years, the paintings in that index [Mei Moses Fine Art Index] have outperformed bonds by a wide margin, and over the past fifty years they’ve performed about as well as stocks, too.
- The New Yorker Magazine (Google search "investment art".)
This was completed soon after the new historical lights
were installed, lining the bridge entering Harrisburg. They make the formal
entry drive into the city even more dramatic and beautiful.
Molloy is beginning a large- scale version to measure fifty inches or about
four feet wide. In contrast, this measures eight inches high by ten inches
wide.
It is currently on display in the Upstairs Retail Space of Gallery @ Second.
#downtown-1
The same day I had my camera-phone out of my pocket to take those pics that would become the 'State St. Bridge Sunset' painting, I took the photo for this work. This building is a bit after the bridge crossing, right across Walnut Street from the Social Security Administration, and is one of the buildings in the Capitol complex which houses some facet of bureaucracy with some unknown function essential to the Commonwealth. I thought the sign might be an interesting aspect to a painting of a landmark structure, as well as being a landmark itself. It is also an unusual element to my painting, as I seldom use any printing or legible lettering in my work. As a painting, I am very pleased with this in an academic sense. I feel that it has a very classically-modern, contemporary-painting feel. It makes me feel a part of modern painting tradition. In that sense, it is a success to me. How others feel (critics, academics, etc.), I know not. I do know that the constant nagging stress to forge new traditions and styles in modern/contemporary painting is not acomplished or even attempted in this piece. My reactionary stylistic process, in this case, I satisfied by conforming to my idea of the norm. In other words, I like that in this painting I was able to just paint and produce my idea of a typical American scene, in a common fashion and feel confident that I succeeded in doing so.
This romantic yet gothic view is the latest in a series
of dramatic views from the steps of 21 North Front Street in Harrisburg,
the first Governor's Mansion in Pennsylvania.
The work measures thirty-two inches high by fourty-two inches wide, and
is the perfect showpiece size for above the couch or behind the desk in
the office.
This style and technique is a phenomenon to watch as it has been very favorably
received by the viewing public, receiving comments of "breathtaking" and
a quite sincere interest in purchase by Mayoral Candidate, Nevin Mindlin
, during the recent Mayoral race in Pennsylvania's Capitol City(Harrisburg
2009). It is currently on display in the Upstairs Retail Space of Gallery
@ Second.
#riverfront-1
This is the first in a series of slightly romanticized views
of the old Bethlehem
Steelworks in Steelton, PA.
Overgrown, less-used and unmanicured, the still functioning enterprise
(twice-leased, somewhat depressed, and no longer American) leaves stoic
reminders of the incredible wealth, imagination, and power that came from
these buildings. The stories of pay, lifestyles and the abstract sensations
of the lives of locals who were around in those days and saw fit to tell
me about it, are alive in my mind as I wander through this process of revisiting
a tempered version of those unassuming jumbles of rust, brick and weeds.
#steelton-1
The Fulton Bank building in Downtown Harrisburg Pennsylvania.
The dark silhouettes of two great glittering structures weight the fore'
of a blazing sunset tempest.
pa.htm/#downtown-10
The Fulton Bank building in Downtown Harrisburg Pennsylvania.
The wet street glistens in swirls of green, the brake-lights of a car stopping
in the skyscraper daylight bleed into it.
pa.htm/#downtown-11