Testing. . . 1, 2, 3

The above drawing is in the collection of Charles Dee Mitchell. Now I wish it was in the show with the others as it is part of that series.  Please come to the opening of Parallel Process, Saturday May 10th 6-8pm with Polly Lanning Sparrow, Leslie Wilkes, and Toni LaSalle. 

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Artist Statement: 

In my work mechanical-like systems are subjected to or are participants in an indirect and formal examination of structure; or a subverted diagrammatic, engineering process. Parts are extracted, analyzed, and re-translated, using both digital and analog tools. I propose questions in the investigation and set up specific games, parameters and rules to respond to in the work’s progression. The language of line propels the work, and I use it to help make visible the parts, and to find the answer to ‘what connects to this, how is this connected to that, etc.’

The Octagon Vibration series:

Thoughts 2/14/14 with excerpts from my artist statement

These large “white” drawings on paper (60” x 44”) consist of graphite, charcoal, conte, pastel, pigment and paper collage elements. I include rulers, tape, and stencils in my process. Along side them I have been working on monotypes and drypoints utilizing stencils. This often results in embossed areas of “white on white” They are my most recent response following my L.E.D. series, as in how I vary my grounds in a series, “The L.E.D. work’s veils and values of blackish-grey follow previous works where my investigation of painted grounds focused on bright yellow, various greys, red or Pescia blue.”

The limitations of color grounds is part of my game playing, “I propose questions in the investigation and set up specific games, parameters and rules to respond to in the work’s progression. The language of line propels the work, and I use it to help make visible the parts, and to find the answer to ‘what connects to this, how is this connected to that, etc.’ ”

Charles Dee Mitchell and others have suggested to me that the viewer’s engagement in my work is in “seeing” the drawing being built in the drawing. That is very satisfying to me as the artist.

The physicality of edge that results in my collage process is desired and parallel to the embossed edge in my printmaking imagery. It becomes another way to make a line or shape, another way to delve into the structure of the image. In 1999 I began to build my drawings and paintings with scraps of wood, as another way to draw. I would have to anticipate the top view, back view, side view of the image, whether I was re-inventing the drawing in wood or re-inventing from my mind’s eye on paper; “Overall, the resulting mechanical-like systems in my work over the years are subjected to or are participants in an indirect and formal examination of structure; or a subverted diagrammatic, engineering process. Parts are extracted, analyzed, and re-translated, using both digital and analog tools.”

The Octagon Vibration series is a reference to Emma Kunz’s work, which might serve as a portion of the iceberg for a mountain of spiritualists involved in abstract art throughout art history.  “Reference,” as described with the Maldoror Drawings, or mentioned in the L.E.D. series, and each past series of my work; the “reference” is an underlying “something” which I find kinship mostly after the work is made. I am not trying to illustrate ideas or make them visible. All in all, each series is a continuity of that which resonates. Each series is a different way to approach how to make visible that which resonates. The references are more like how a poem works to help make visible or structure the thing that drives me to “make” which has no words or imagery. This is why I included a poem in the L.E.D. exhibition.

 
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(OVS-3B) Octagon Vibration Series, Oscillation Expansion, 2014, graphite, pastel, pigment, 44"x35” and below, an inversion of the image as an experiment. It doesn't surprise me that it reminds one of my L.E.D paintings.

 

"Maldoror's Lamp Series" 2013 at the Dallas Art Fair

The drawings emanate from Maldoro’s described hallucinogenic vision of a lighted street lamp floating down a dark river in the blackness of night (from Le Chants de Maldoror, Lautrèamont, 1869). The drawing’s exploration of lead pencil, charcoal, water resistant and water-soluble materials with gum arabic create a tactile quality.

(all mixed media on paper, 8x6 inches each)
click on images to enlarge

 (all mixed media on paper, 8x6 inches each)
click on images to enlarge

L.E.D (The Title of The Exhibition is Like A Poem) March 2 - April 13, 2013

Click on above invite or below images to make them larger.
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                   Paintings above: oil on canvas, 60" x 48"

Lorraine Tady

Artist Statement

2-28-13

The paintings from my L.E.D. series reference radar-like light on luminous black grounds (as from electronics.) The emotional or narrative associations poetically derived from L.E.D (such as light machines, sound, the lead element, tenses of “to lead”, the reference to paths and search, as well as temperature, luminosity and weight) interact with my visual games.

The show at Barry Whistler Gallery represents work inspired by a moment one trip of sitting on the tarmac in an airplane. I got lost looking out the window and the yellow and black lines on the runway really started to resonate with me. I really wanted to bring this into a painting and I’ve been working on these paintings for the past few years. The L.E.D. work’s veils and values of blackish-grey follow previous works where my investigation of painted grounds focused on bright yellow, various greys, red or Pescia blue. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “Remarks on Colour” is a touchstone for my questions regarding color and luminosity; and the black is also informed by Robert Moskowitz’s night drawings. I also think of Roman frescos with dark backgrounds (on one end of the time spectrum) and a Jenny Holzer installation at the DIA Foundation, NYC, many, many years ago on the other. Her installation included a huge dark room with carefully placed vertical red L.E.D. messages. The room had an odd, almost silent, yet beautiful “pinging” sound. I also enjoy works by Jonathan Lasker, Joanne Greenbaum and Terry Winters.

My L.E.D. works have a painterly, searching, as well as process-oriented use of mark and tool resulting in a very tactile surface. The paintings are built slowly like puzzles with line, color, and shape reflecting my interest in structure, light, space/spatial tension, and architecture (i.e. using aerial, plan, side-view, and map-like orientation.) Shapes and individual parts, which I use repeatedly in my paintings and drawings (and re-invent with each use), serve as a language, and are drawn from specific sources (for example, natural or man-made geometry, plastic toys, transportation terminal layouts, a Photoshop Magnetic Lasso selection tool, and my shapes themselves) and form hybrid abstractions.  The drawing is slowly arrived at yet determined and intentional.

Overall, the resulting mechanical-like systems in my work over the years are subjected to or are participants in an indirect and formal examination of structure; or a subverted diagrammatic, engineering process. Parts are extracted, analyzed, and re-translated, using both digital and analog tools. I propose questions in the investigation and set up specific games, parameters and rules to respond to in the work’s progression. The language of line propels the work, and I use it to help make visible the parts, and to find the answer to ‘what connects to this, how is this connected to that, etc.’  

My poem L.E.D (The Title of the Exhibition is like a Poem) is supplemental to my artist statement.

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Brief Biography:

Lorraine Tady (b. 1967) lives and works in Dallas, TX.  She attended the Yale/Norfolk School of Art in 1988 with the Ellen Battell-Stoeckel Fellowship. She received her BFA in painting from Ohio’s Wright State University in 1989 and, on full scholarship, her MFA in 1991 from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.

Tady has had numerous solo shows at the Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas, TX as well as group exhibitions nationally, including Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and SPACES in Cleveland. Her work was included in New American Paintings #48 in 2003. She received the Kimbrough Award from the Dallas Museum of Art in 1993 and the Ruth and Harold Chenven Award in 2010. She was nominated for the Arthouse Texas Prize, the Joan Mitchell Grant and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant. Tady is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Visual Art at The University of Texas at Dallas. She has been Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Dallas, Southern Methodist University, and Baylor University. Her work is included in the American Airlines collection, Saks Fifth Avenue, Miami, as well as private collections in Dallas and New York.