Yes, I really am painting garbage. I didn’t set out to paint garbage. I didn’t wake up one morning and say painting garbage would be a good thing to do. Instead, while walking near a friend’s house in Sasebo, Japan, I passed the recycling center. In it they were moving bales of recycled paper to prepare them for transport.
Japanese Recycling Center, Sasebo, Japan
Bale of Recycled Paper
The image of their surface was striking to me, like a Harnett trompe l’oeil painting, and the structure of the bales made me think of Don Judd’s boxes.
Harnett, “Mr. Hunting’s Rack”
Donald Judd, “Untitled”, c. 1968-69
Leslie Parke, “Recycled Paper – Sasebo, Japan”, 58 x 48 inches, oil on linen, 2008.
You see, I didn’t see the bales as garbage, but as a comment on art history, part of the continuum of image making. For me it carried everything from Lichtenstein’s cartoon paintings, to Jackson Pollock’s all-over composition.
Roy Lichtenstein
Jackson Pollock, “Lavendar Mist”
Sometime later, on a trip to Maine I took the recyclables to the dump and nearly leaped from the car when I saw bales of crushed cans. Again there was the possibility of trompe l’oeil imagery, but with the crushed metal and shiny lids a new element was introduced – light and the reflection of the surrounding onto the surface of the cans.
Leslie Parke, “Not From Concentrate”, 40 x 60 inches,oil on linen, 2010.
Circles, folds and bands were added to the vocabulary. So were references to John Chaimberlain’s sculpture and Jasper John’s Savarin coffee can.
John Chamberlain, sculpture
Jasper Johns, “Savarin Can with Brushes,” 1960
I would not disallow a reading of these paintings as an environmental statement, but it was not where I was coming from when I landed on this imagery.
Leslie Parke, “Diced Tomatoes”, 36″ x 58″, oil on linen, 2010.
Thanks for articulating this, and showing the references. It gives me the ability to see your visually stunning paintings in a different light.
Thank you, Andrea. I seem to see the world through the filter of existing art works.
I absolutely love the junk paintings. I’m currently working on a stack of glassware. You inspire me.
Thank you, Pat. Hope you will be posting your glass paintings on Facebook when they are done.
As I read this I find myself thinking that you “see” in ways that are more like those of a photographer than most painters. Your subject matter is “found” or “discovered” rather than deliberately modeled (think Vermeer) or arranged to convey a thought or to create a new visual reality. Positioning your work in terms of other artists’ works is interesting as well.
I’m a painter at the opposite end of the spectrum — compositions are carefully created as color and light without reference to objects; other artists’ works have no relevance in my thought process — so viewing your work from your own perspective, via the blog, is intriguing.
Stepping into your thoughts makes it much easier to understand why you choose the compositions you choose.
Jan-Marie, thank you for your thoughtful comment. For me, looking at art came first. Making art for me was a way for me to comment on art. My early work was all about appropriation, working with images from Matisse, Ingres and Giotto. But you also nailed it when you talked about “found” or “discovered” images. I like to have an element of chance or “zen” in the work. The other thing that will happen is that I will think that I “got” something from a certain image only to find that there is something missing. So, I will go back and try to find the image that I want or I will put in the thing that I think is missing. I do, at times, construct images to paint, particularly with still life paintings. I make them in a certain place in my house because I know how the light behaves there and when the best time is to do it. But the other thing that sometimes happens is that I see a painting in my head first, and then make it happen in real life.
Wonderful work, and story behind it all.
Thank you, Marie!