Abstract paintings of Will Dockery

"George Dance" wrote:
>"Will Dockery" wrote:

(Google ain't quoting right this morning, or something, so my replies are
with an *)

> I've posted a new gallery of some of my recent abstract paintings, which
> some of you may have an interest in checking out, for whichever reasons
you prefer.
>
> These paintings are made with a variety of materials from oil, watercolor
> and pastel paints, to housepaint, solvents and melted plastics:
>
> http://www.fototime.com/inv/E917106F136751F
>
> Comments and critique, as with all my work in all forms, is most welcome.
>

Reminds me of some of this guy's stuff:
http://www.skypoint.com/members/dmh7/GhostPosters/Borborygmae/

*Heh... who would have figured?

>In a couple of cases, (Ozone Stigmata being one I remember), I liked
your detail shot better than the full picture. For that reason I think I'd
appreciate the originals better if I could enlarge >them and see more
detail.

*Yes, as I noted to another person a few minutes ago:

"...The photos were not taken by Martin Scorsese, but just a pal with a
camera, so first off they're not as crisp a veiw as you'd get if you were
standing in the shed with me, but that tossed off comment is typical of your
lazy commentary. I have to say if, say, you think that these two close-ups
of a section of two of the paintings:

http://tinyurl.com/green-planet

compared with

http://tinyurl.com/cqzktb

And still shrug and claim they're 'pretty much the same', then you either
need a new pair of glasses, or you're indulging in your typical, and
tiresomely whining negativity game..."

Oh course, this person (who no doubt fancies himself a better paint dribber)
probably never made it past the opening thumbnail, if his usual standard of
critique is the way he approached these paintings.

But, yes, properly scanned or better photographed, I'm sure they'd have more
of their intended impact, thanks for taking the time to give them a try.

>Not that I didn't like any of them. "Planet Fall" had a
composition I liked; I wouldn't be ashamed to have it on a wall of my living
room.
>
>Unfortunately, this whole way of creating art reminds me of tossing
off -- just throwing something down and hopin the result is >art.

*I've thrown away and given away many paintings that I think failed...
sometimes to my regret. When I moved out of a house back in 1989, I left all
the paintings I'd done up to that point there, because they just didn't
"move" me anymore, or at least not enough to "move" them... damned heavy
pieces... I feel this batch works better, so far...

>I see
too much of that in attempts to write poetry, on usenet and elsewyere,
>and I don't like it here any better here than there.

*You might like my comix better... maybe...

>Occasionally a
good piece does result; but that's always too dependent on accident or
>mere coincidence for my liking.

*Yes, I'm guilty of about 20 years of poetry that could be judged in that
way, just over the last decade or so knuckling down to working in more
"universal language" and trying the more traditional forms... I credit the
collaborations with musicians who insist on knowing what the hell's going on
at the time with working more and more in that direction,

For example, HC /hates/ things like the title "Ozone Stigmata" and so forth,
he tried to insist we call it "Handbasket From Hell" for weeks, "You gotta
have the listener be able to find it on the jukebox!", but the words "Ozone
Stigmata" are jam-packed with multiple meanings, and I have to stand my
ground in certain cases like these... I can only pander to the masses so
far... heh.

--
"Twilight Girl" and other song-poems by Will Dockery:
http://www.myspace.com/willdockery

"msifg" wrote:
>"Will Dockery" wrote:
>
> >> I've posted a new gallery of some of my recent abstract paintings,
which
> >> > some of you may have an interest in checking out, for whichever
reasons you prefer.
> >> >
> >> > These paintings are made with a variety of materials from oil,
watercolor
> >> > and pastel paints, to housepaint, solvents and melted plastics:
> >> >
> >> > http://www.fototime.com/inv/E917106F136751F
> >> >
> >> > Comments and critique, as with all my work in all forms, are most
welcome.
> >>
> >> cool!
> >>
> >> my dad just sent me a bunch of abstract art.
> >>
> >> it's some of my favorite kind of art.
> >>
> >> my dad paints on a regular basis.
> >
> > Are any of your father's works online anywhere? I'd like to check those
> > out,
> > since abstract is by far my favorite form.
> >
> > I hope to somedays get some of Sulzbach's work scanned and online, but
> > he's
> > such a hermit-type, living out in the wouds of Alabama, it'll be some
trick getting that done.
> >
> >> thanks for sharing.
> >>
> >> (sharks beware:
> >> i've got a new pair of teeth.)
> >
> > This unsent post I just found in my "Drafts" section, from last year, of
> > another old-time artist friend of mine, you might enjoy, as well:
> >
> > Here are galleries of Barfield, my teacher, who has been highly
influenced
> > by Aborigine art and culture...
> >
> > The art of Dan Barfield:

<snip for brevity>

> > http://www.danbarfield.com/index.php
> >
> > The Dream:
> > http://www.danbarfield.com/gallery1.php
> >
> > The Reality:
> > http://www.danbarfield.com/gallery2.php
>
> my dad is very old and has never been interested
> in sharing his art but with close friends and family.
>
> we try to get him to go online like some of his
> art friends. however, he really doesn't feel
> like his work merits that kind of exposure.
>
> i think it does. however, i'm far from an expert.

Hope you can convince him to put some out for the world, though.

> that dan barfeild stuff is abstract.
> however, my dads stuff is more like yours.
> the barfield stuff is pretty and phantasmagorical
> in an otherworldly kind of way. it kept taking
> me to the astral plane. that's some of my
> favorite stuff. people who paint like
> that usually don't get much exposure.
> that's what makes it "art."
>
> i'm not big on discussing paints and techniques
> but i love sharing ideas like you just did.
> my dad just offloaded a few paintings on to
> me as gifts. at some point, i'll scan them
> onto a webpage dedicated to him. i really
> don't know what's going to happen to all of
> his stuff when he goes. he's got hundreds
> laying around the house.

Barfield's art almost got me arrested a few years ago, a nosy peeping tom
thought I had "dead bodies" stashed in the backroom:

----
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
July 13, 1997
Section: LOCAL
Edition: FIRST
Page: B1

HOW GROSS THY ART
Tim Chitwood

Apparently it was all just a big misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding led to a 911 call about a decomposing body in an old
house M***** S*****'s husband R****** owns at 2113 **th St. in Columbus.
That led to the discovery that it wasn't a body after all, but artwork made
of barbed wire and blowtorched Barbie dolls. But it sure looked like a body
to police. And it looked like a body to paramedics. And it definitely looked
like a body to Danny W****.

Danny is a real estate agent who with M***** went to look at the house July
2. He wanted to buy it and fix it up. It needs fixing up. The roof leaks in
places and some of the floor's rotting. The S**** now live on F**** Drive
and use the **th Street house for storage. M*****'s son Will Dockery lets
friends -- artists, poets and madmen, Will says -- store their work there.

Among those artists is Dan Barfield, who has a concept piece called
"Vietnam,'' part of which the veteran made of melted Barbie dolls. ("He
hates Barbies,'' says his wife Judy.) It now lies on the floor among other
stuff stored in the dark, northwest bedroom of the ##th Street house. To
someone who didn't know what it was, it might look like a rib cage and
sternum atop decayed matter.

That's what it looked like to Danny W**** when he walked into that musty
room, first staring up at the rafters. Then he looked down. Then he froze.
Then he ran.

He wasn't sure what he saw. Maybe a body. Maybe it was sealed with wax,
which trapped the odor. Maybe this was a bizarre ritual. Maybe he didn't
want to know.

M***** followed Danny as he dashed outside, where he tried to make a call on
his cell phone. She told him not to. According to her, she told him he'd
just seen some artwork. According to Danny, she never said that; she just
said they didn't need the police coming there.

This did not sound reassuring. Danny had to make that call. Now don't call
the police, M***** said again. She says she also told Danny her son Will had
a bad temper, and he wouldn't like Danny calling the police.

She says Danny replied that the police wouldn't do anything to her; she
wasn't involved. That's true, she said (she wasn't involved in storing the
art), but the police needn't be bothered.

M***** claims Danny then offered her $13,000 for the house, then said it
needed so much work the most he could give her was $10,000.

Danny maintains all M***** did was tell him no one should call the police.

The next day, someone called the police.

About 10:30 a.m., police and paramedics rushed to the house, unboarded a
door to get in and examined what they, too, thought was a decaying body,
oddly odorless. Then they poked it and figured out it wasn't. It was such a
weird story, the Ledger-Enquirer ran it on the front page July 4.

That's how M****** learned police had broken into the house. She was
perturbed. She blamed Danny.

Danny won't say he called police, but admits he told someone what he thought
he saw. Stan Swiney of the 911 center says the call reportedly came from a
Billy Hanson. (No Billy Hanson listed in the Columbus telephone directory
was involved; I called.)

The 911 report said someone saw the alleged corpse through a window. That's
difficult: The room's dark; the window's dirty; the art's hard to see.

The artist, Dan Barfield, says it's funny Danny W**** would be frightened,
because the real estate agent stopped by a few months ago when Dan was
moving art into the house, and this piece was out on the lawn at the time.
The artist claims the agent told him a decayed body was found in the house
once.

Danny says that's outrageous: He has never met Dan Barfield. "I would
remember that,'' he says.

Danny says he just wanted to buy the house to help clean up the
neighborhood, where he owns other property. ``As far as I'm concerned now,
they couldn't give it to me,'' he says.

Perhaps it will remain the house of scary art, where once people thought
they saw a dead body.

But didn't.
----

Barfield took off to live in Texas a year or so ago and I haven't heard a
word from him since... hope the old cuss is doing okay out there.

--
"Twilight Girl" and other song-poems by Will Dockery:
http://www.myspace.com/willdockery