Connacher Art

Paintings in Progress - Residue Series 2

2011-10-04T12:37:00.000-04:00

Continuing the experiment... exploring new painting techniques and deeper emotional awareness by getting physically connected to the act of creating.

Materials + Techniques:

Acrylic paint, duct tape, gasoline/fire, water, digital print....

Size:

24" x 24"

Paintings in Progress - Residue Series 1

2011-10-04T12:28:00.000-04:00

Continuing the experiment... exploring new painting techniques and deeper emotional awareness by getting physically connected to the act of creating.

Materials + Techniques:
Acrylic paint, duct tape, sandpaper, driveway broom, gasoline, water, rain....

Size:
40" x 40"

Sold: 22" x 28" Red Brick Love Print

2011-09-26T17:48:00.002-04:00

Thanks you Loriann & Jonathan

Funky Monkey Show Up!

2011-08-31T12:26:00.000-04:00

Solo Art Show @ The Funky Monkey

2011-08-25T18:09:00.000-04:00

Artist Reception

Friday, September 2, 2011

7-9 PM

Show from: August 28 - October 2, 2011

Funky Monkey Cafe & Gallery

130 Elm Street, Watch Factory Shoppes

Cheshire, CT 06410

203 439 9161

www.thefunkymonkeycafe.com

Sold: 22" x 28" Dark Blue Love Print

2011-04-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

Sold: Custom 22" x 28" Love Print

2011-03-26T17:48:00.000-04:00

Sold: 36"x36" Love Print on Canvas

2011-02-25T08:51:00.000-05:00

A Ice Shell Game

2011-02-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

Like ice on snow we create personal shells to block out our disappointments, our fears and our anger – all in the name of protection. The shell is a wonderful tool to hid behind while reflecting the world back at itself. The surfaces can be smooth, rough, or uneven but it will always act as a barrier, not protecting us from the world but from our uniqueness, our light and our happiness.

What’s hiding under you shell – you might be surprised!

A new commissioned "branded" artwork!

2010-12-23T10:27:00.001-05:00

This piece was commissioned by aabalone[red] for their client SSJR - a law firm specializing in intellectual property matters.

Abstract Boundaries

2010-11-22T17:16:00.000-05:00

A series of photograph highlighting edges of boundaries made from a drop cloth, house paint, spray paint, duct tape, rain, leaves, and a broom.

Show Up! Artist Reception - Thursday, November 18, 5:30 - 7:30

2010-11-10T18:22:00.001-05:00

Artist Reception:

November 18^th

5:30 – 7:30

Stamford Government Center

10^th Floor

888 Washington Blvd.

Stamford, CT

Additional “Seasons of Love” samples!

2010-10-27T07:48:00.001-04:00

The “Seasons of Love” series of prints represents the uniqueness of each of our own experience with love and evolution of that experience as we grow.

Love is a very personal response to our personal needs and wants as we project them on another soul. If we are awake in love, we will be able to see our barriers to a higher self-awareness. If we are blinded by love, then we only see a mirage of self-perfection.

Adding to my visual language

2010-10-25T18:26:00.001-04:00

So can anyone tell me what material(s) I'm playing with in this composition?

Solo Show @ the Mayor’s Gallery – November 8th – January 5th

2010-10-17T17:56:00.000-04:00

Seasons of Love - Red
(One of a series of 14 prints)

Boundaries: A visual story about how we maintain, protect and evolve our personal stories.

Come to the Stamford Mayor’s Gallery and see what I’ve been up to over the past 2+ years.

On view:

New Typographic Nudes, Typographic Clusters, Typographic Expression and a Typographic Landscape! Also on display - a new series of prints entitled “Seasons of Love”!

Artist Reception:

November 18^th

5:30 – 7:30

Stamford Government Center

10^th Floor

888 Washington Blvd.

Typographic Burst - in the Inaugural Exhibit @ the Old Town Hall

2010-10-07T14:58:00.003-04:00

Cultural Connections

Inaugural Art Exhibit

EXHIBIT OPENING

Sunday, October 10, 2:00 – 5:00 PM

Old Town Hall Museum

Corner of Atlantic and Main Street

Stamford, CT 06901

Show Dates and Times

October 10 - October 23, 2010

Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat from

Noon to 5pm.

Hyde Mural in Place

2010-09-27T08:58:00.000-04:00

Mural Commission for The Hyde School

2010-09-22T17:58:00.006-04:00

Digital image of the mural

Snapshot of 4 of the 5 mural panels

This project was to create a piece of art for the entrance to the newly renovated boy’s dorm at the Hyde School in CT. The mural’s visual elements are the letters that make up the word HYDE and the theme is about the rich texture of the learning experience that children receive there.

As the project progressed, it became evident that the space required a piece of art that could withstand the rigors of dorm life but also have a strong enough presence and energy to draw people into the building. In the end the mural size became 36” x 180”, made up of five 36”x36” panels. Each of the panels where digitally produced, printed on canvas and stretched.

Special thanks goes to Jamie Delaney, A Hyde Parent, for being such a great partner on this journey.

Drawings - exploring the medium again!

2010-07-11T12:54:00.007-04:00

It has been many years since I actively sat down with pen and paper to explored line and gesture. I'm finding it a frustrating but a great activity to become present to the moment. Quick sketches are a wonderful abstraction of life, with just hints of the original subject.

Now available on eBay - Typographic Nude Greeting Cards

2010-06-02T18:51:00.003-04:00

A set of 6 cards (3 red and 3 blue) for $10. Check it out at: http://myworld.ebay.com/connacherart/

On Children - By Kahlil Gibran

2010-05-25T14:33:00.006-04:00

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You my give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

But seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He love also the bow that is stable.

By Kahlil Gibran

Compost Art!

2010-05-16T11:56:00.003-04:00

It is amazing where we can find and appreciate unique and spontaneous beauty - all we have to do is open our eyes, our hearts and our selves to possibilities!

This composition came about when my wife, to have me make only one trip to the compost bin, stuck the old roses into the jar! Thank you Carroll.

Typographic Nude in The Art of the Northeast Show

2010-04-29T06:20:00.005-04:00

"Art of the Northeast"

the 61st Regional Exhibition/Competition

April 30 through June 11

One of the most anticipated regional juried shows of the year at the Silvermine Guild Arts Center. Open to all media and artists throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Throughout its history, AoNE has been a showcase for many emerging artists who have gone on to receive national acclaim. This year's juror is Katie Rashid, Director of the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York City.

Opening Reception and Awards Presentation, Friday, April 30 from 6pm to 8pm

Commissioned Painting Delivered

2010-04-18T17:27:00.004-04:00

This commission was done for a dear friend in California who truly embraces the notion that we are all on multiple paths that lead to multiple opportunities and connections.

Art on Fabric - new possibilities!

2010-04-14T13:00:00.002-04:00

New possibilities about yourself.

2010-03-25T16:02:00.014-04:00

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous –

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people

Won’t feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest the glory of God within us.

It is not just in some of us: it is in everyone,

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously

Give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love (New York: HarperCollins, 1992)

Art featured on Artsy Shark

2010-03-12T15:17:00.006-05:00

Artsy Shark – a site for emerging artists.

Contains interviews with companies that buy from artists, educators who counsel art students, and successful artists themselves who share their best advice and encouragement to the next generation.

http://www.artsyshark.com

New Burst Paintings for the New Year!

2009-12-31T10:52:00.004-05:00

Quote on Vision

2009-12-08T17:22:00.004-05:00

"The most pathetic person in the world is a person who has their sight but no vision." by Helen Keller

Portfolio’s published!

2009-11-23T08:55:00.003-05:00

As retrospectives of my paintings over the last 6 years, these portfolios highlight the major themes of my work and give context to them as they relate to my own personal journey.

Each portfolio is a full color, 7-inch square book, containing an introduction and 10 samples of my work.

Now available through Blurb.com

New Series of Paintings - Typographic Burst

2009-11-06T16:40:00.007-05:00

Artists Proof 2009

In this new series of paintings, I explore what happens to boundaries, self-imposed or not, when they are challenged. By confronting boundaries, like tearing down a wall, they become fragmented and easier to deal with. As you clean away the debris, fragments combine to create complex and beautiful patterns.

I have taken a single word in multiple colors and sizes and fragmented it in a circle that is expanding off the canvas. Unique edges are created to give the impression of dynamic containment that holds us in by our choice. By challenging all boundaries, we create our own context to live by.

Check back in the new year - there will be images of 3 new bursts!

A Pop Up Show @ The Funky Monkey

2009-10-29T11:21:00.011-04:00

My work will be on display from October 29 - November 1 at The Funky Monkey in Cheshire, CT. If you are out looking at the fall colors this weekend, stop by The Funky Monkey and check out my paintings and have a cup of coffee and lunch - great food.

Pop Ups are spontaneous and brief art shows that can appear at anytime and at anyplace, then simply disappear. Keep an eye out for them, you never know who or what you might discover.

Tracey Burrill, owner
The Funky Monkey Cafe & Gallery
130 Elm Street, Watch Factory Shoppes
Cheshire, CT 06410

(203) 439-9161

www.thefunkymonkeycafe.com

Phil Nelson Showing @ the Stamford Mayor's Gallery

2009-10-27T20:27:00.004-04:00

My good friend Phil will be showing his new series of high dynamic range landscapes photographs this November. Like with all his work, these photographs are beautifully composed but with the increased range of tone and color they blur the edges between photography and illustration. Wonderfully powerful and a must see!

Quote on Art

2009-10-11T21:44:00.004-04:00

"Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see."

by Paul Klee

Quote on Greatness

2009-10-05T18:07:00.001-04:00

"Greatness arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Life actually consists of small things done well. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is honoring these small things now instead of pursuing the idea of greatness." by Ekhardt Tolle

Autumn clouds, by Olga Fernandez

2009-10-03T11:46:00.006-04:00

Autumn clouds are so heavy.

They just hang there. Still. Their cloud bellies full of summer memories.

They mull them over. One at a time.

Little cloud eyes pinched tight to push each memory movie forward.

Forward.

To the horizon.

Where the earth will soon again bow to welcome the spring sun as it swings around the earth to skate across their puffy cloud faces.

Waking them.

Lighting them.

Lifting them.

Up.

To where tomorrow never ends.

Photo & Poem by Olga, my dear friend and great creative collaborator.

Out of the corner of my eye...!

2009-09-27T18:48:00.003-04:00

Often when I’m working, walking or cooking and my mind is wondering, I catch glimpses of what I think is movement, mirages crossing my peripheral vision. These visions are a sense that I’m not alone, that maybe I need to pay attention. But pay attention to what?

We all live very busy, complex and challenging lives and quite often we do not take the time to stop and pay attention to signs around us that might help or warn us. So the next time you see something out of the corner of your eye, stop and look. You might be surprised by what you see.

Our Some

2009-08-29T23:05:00.009-04:00

Below is a poem I wrote trying to understand who I am and where I’m going as my children start to head out on their own.

Our Some

Some say we are the sum of our experiences.

Some say we are the sum of our years.

Some way we are the sum of our relationships.

Some say we are the sum of our dreams.

Some say we are the sum of our work.

Some say we are the sum of our contributions.

Some say we are the sum of our children.

Some say we are the sum of our love.

Some say we are the sum of our doubts.

And some say we are the sum of our debts.

I say we are simply some of ourselves:

changing

growing

expanding

building

creating

sharing & feeling…
our sum!

Following my path - filling in my story.

2009-07-17T09:13:00.008-04:00

36 x 36 each

These three typographic nudes where sketched out more than a year ago. They speak about being presented with two very different life paths I could take.

One path is about following my selfish needs and remaining in a protracted adolescence. The other path is about learning and following my principles, and stepping up to be the man that I am.

In each of these paintings, as in my other typographic nudes, I am the light color that the black shape tries to constrain and the color field supports.

Looking back, these paintings were anticipating future choices – choices for which I just had to pay attention. Now ask yourself this: what in your life are you not paying attention to that might be helpful or serve as a warning?

A Father’s Day Observation - In their Eyes!

2009-06-21T09:20:00.004-04:00

Don’t for as moment think that fathers become fathers for some altruistic reason. We do it for what we get to see.

The look of a new born child as they take their first breath.

The look of a baby at a midnight feeding.

The look of a child in awe of a sandcastle.

The look of a teenager as you hand over the keys.

The look of a young adult as they choose their college.

We see ourselves in their eyes and we know ourselves. In their eyes we remember what is important – our love.

Now off to see my father, so he can look in my eyes.

Mary’s Tent

2009-06-10T16:54:00.008-04:00

Over the last weekend our daughter graduated from high school and is off to college in the fall. To mark this important passage in her life and ours - I wrote the following poem to give voice to how her mother and I where feeling. Also I would like to thank my good friend Betsy for her title suggestion!

Mary's Tent

It is white,

large and billowing in the breeze

of a Sunday in June.

It sits on a green field

that has seen many

great and small milestones

in the lives of who have

walked and played on it.

Now, on this June day

these lives are on this field,

with this community,

for one last time.

The tent holds us and reminds us

of the roles that we played

to reach this point.

For each of us the tent is

our own dreams,

our own fears, and

our own child.

So on this June day,

Mary's tent holds her one last time

as her parents held her

for the first time so many years ago.

"Addicted to Plastic" - a documentary by Ian Connacher

2009-06-09T15:21:00.008-04:00

Photo by: Gad Reichman

ADDICTED TO PLASTIC is a feature-length documentary about solutions to plastic pollution. The point-of-view style documentary encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions - which include plastic made from plants - will provide viewers with a hopeful perspective about our future with plastic.

Learn more about my brother and his movie at:

http://www.crypticmoth.com/plastic.php

Print Sale - Microsoft buys 4 prints for a new employee lounge.

2009-06-09T14:58:00.011-04:00

Typographic Swirl Blue & Green

Typgraphic Cluster 3 & 4

To buy your own prints, please visit Samuel Owen Gallery at:

www.samuelowengallery.com

Boundaries frame our perception of self – make them your own.

2009-06-08T10:23:00.006-04:00

My art is about boundaries and how they give form and structure to our personal worlds that we agree to live in. These worlds are as unique as each of us. They are made up of our experiences, our failures, our successes, and our social and family history. These worlds form the bases for our dreams or nightmares and how we see ourselves.

Step 1: Imposed Boundaries

For most of us, our worlds are not of our own making but are the accumulation of experiences from our families, schools, churches and society because these forces domesticate us into the “real” world. This process can hypnotize us to believe in what otherwise we would not believe or make important in our lives. As we grow up, a difference between our domesticated world and our own world that we are building causes conflicts with the ones who domesticated us. This is seen as teenagers push parents away - rebelling against social institutions and norms - or even, as a small child, rage. All these responses are healthy and helpful in building our own worlds, but when conflict is met with compliance a new dynamic is set up.

Step 2: Controlling Boundaries

There are many reasons why we pick the route of compliance: dominant parents, physical or emotional abuse, abandonment, or simply the lack of social models that fit our selves. But with this action, we begin to hide from ourselves, leaving us to find meaning and purpose in the worlds reflected back to us by others. Our world becomes not of our own making but one of resignation with boundaries that hide us from our own uniqueness, in silent pain and/or hell.

Step 3: Painful Boundaries

As we continue to hide from ourselves, we become more and more invested in this external/domesticated world that we start to defend as our own. When our true world/self starts to intrude, as it will because we are all unique, the boundaries of the domesticated world start to vibrate and create fear. Boundaries are very unstable because they are not real but are mirages that require an enormous amount of energy to maintain. When we grow tired of holding up these boundaries/mirages, our fear becomes visible as anger, control, hiding and denial.

Step 4: Addictive Boundaries

As time progresses, the amount of energy spent to maintain these mirages increases. We begin to look for tools to augment our power to live within these boundaries. Alcohol, drugs, sex, love, gambling can all become addictions in our battle to make the mirages acceptable to ourselves. As these addictions take hold, our true self is pushed farther back below the surface of our self-perception and is lost in the cycle of fear and pain.

If this cycle continues, our connection to our own uniqueness will become lost and we will die emotionally, and eventually physically. The one thing that can break the cycle is the one thing that we are fighting against: the destruction of our domesticated world.

Step 5: Dynamic Boundaries

By letting the boundaries fall, we are able to build a world that celebrates our own dynamic uniqueness. Often, domesticated boundaries fall only in a crisis, allowing us to tear apart the cycle of fear and bring down the world of compromises. At this point we have a choice: take on new external worlds and go back into hiding, or confront our pain, discover our uniqueness and build our own world. When you stop compromising yourself, you realize how toxic the beliefs of others really are when not questioned. The quickest route to yourself is to do the opposite of what we have been domesticated to do. Not easy, but worth the journey. It’s working for me.

2 Typographic Nudes now on display at Rockwell Art Galleries, New Canaan, CT

2009-05-22T17:19:00.008-04:00

Rockwell Art Galleries

Rockwell Art and Framing

9 Burtis Ave.

New Canaan, CT 06840

203 594-7177

Miles Wallace CPF

Gallery Manager

mwallace@rockwellartandframing.com

Typographic Expressions Highlighted

2009-04-26T14:43:00.008-04:00

Click on painting to see it larger.

New Series: Typographic Expressions

2009-04-07T17:49:00.011-04:00

This new series of paintings explores my relationship with emotions and how my self-imposed boundaries have restricted them. Each emotion is depicted as a word; the first time recognized words have appeared in my art. The letters of the words are compressed together, like how I have historically tried to control and contain any expression of emotion.

(Each painting is 24 x 24)

With charcoal, I have drawn over the compressed edges of the words, obscuring them while at the same time making them legible. These marks not only expand the words, as my acceptance of these emotions has grown, but has also left a residue. A residue of experience, that is not clean, polite or always pretty, but necessary to tear down the walls of shame that I have used to protect myself from my needs. This is a messy process but one that will release enormous internal energy and generate a freedom that I need to create.

Gail Wiggin, aabalone[red] - experiencing Typographic Nudes

2009-04-01T09:41:00.007-04:00

For the purpose of this blog, I have named Nat’s works “Greetings” (the painting in our reception area) and “The Day” (the painting at the end of a rather dark, windowless swath of office).

Greetings

No matter what the “headset” when entering our office, a person usually breaks into a smile or inhales in surprise when eyes meet this work. It’s lively presence demands attention simply cannot be ignored. The surface is an exercise in paradox—flat, linear forms that interact with ambiguous dimension. A story that can’t quite be seen seems to be going on just outside the canvas. Strong horizontals bisect the work—and yet they don’t. At second glance, while the forms are defined with hard-edged lines, the shapes themselves have tubular dimension and weave themselves into rather confounding complexity. We think, “Wait, where is that going? And where does that come from? And, that makes no sense but I really like it!” Only in one area is there a familiar perpendicular interaction—all the rest is freeform melody that changes with each viewing of the painting.

The red and black beckon powerfully from some primitive level and the white completes the invitation-- but wait, the third colors not white…it’s cream - a significant choice by the artist. Cream warms up what would be a complementary white and makes it a symbol—so we experience the color as an organic light source rather than as an absence.

The Day

In all truth, this painting completely changed the tone of our work area. It sits on a wall that used to be a blank dead-end that nonetheless drew the eye-- and consistently disappointed. Instead, we turn the corner and whoa, we recognize the characters but ask “what are they doing?” Gone is all semblance of a familiar axis… there’s not a perpendicular in sight. The lyricism makes sense in this painting. There’s a perfect balance in the upper reaches that confidently coalesces into a single black stroke that funnels down towards the bottom of the work like a tornado’s arm. It has an agenda and it is to harness the senses. Something is being created here. We can almost hear the wind blowing.

Gail Wiggin, April 1, 2009

(Thank you my friend for your wonderful insightful words. As an artist, It is a privilege learning how others see and live with my art.)

Art Sale - Typographic Nude, Green

2009-03-19T16:05:00.002-04:00

Print Sale - Red Typographic Voice

2009-03-18T17:33:00.003-04:00

Winter Residue

2009-03-11T11:35:00.005-04:00

Sometimes the most telling truths are just in front of us and all we need to do is look up from our lives to see them. Or down at our feet, as I discovered on a morning walk this weekend.

Winter had added its stamp of grime and salt on our urban landscape. This residue obscured the road markings as the residue of our history can obscure our ability to react to emotions objectively. Emotions come with a history of causes and effects that color our responses but have no present day relational meaning.

The winter will be washed from the roads by the spring rains, highlighting its marks as they were meant to be experienced - as we should with our emotions.

Removing the extraneous!

2009-02-27T18:26:00.005-05:00

Sometimes the only way to truly see what is important in a composition, or in life, is to remove the extraneous elements. In the photograph, the composition shows its true elements when the stark contrast between the white of the snow and the horizontal band of trees and distant mountain is accentuated.

In our lives, it is important to strip away the extraneous elements to truly see our own trees and our own mountains through our everyday landscape. A landscape that is often colored in shades of anxiety – will the bills be paid, will the kids find their way, and will anyone listen to us?

Looking in the mirror – who do I really see?

2009-02-18T14:19:00.006-05:00

About 10 years ago I was on a personal journey of discovery. As part of this journey, I joined a group of creative souls who met every month for support, encouragement and insight into our selves. This group was not large but had a creative diversity that allowed all of us to be seen by many points of view. During our meetings, to facilitate personal growth, we would be presented with questions, words or thoughts to respond to.

One of these group responses was to describe our relationship with 3 words, exposure, expressive, expansion. What came out of these words was a self-portrait, a mirror into my relationship with my father. These 3 words meant that I needed to expose my true self, by expressing who I was in my art, so that I could expand beyond my father and who I thought he thought I was.

This portrait shows a determined and purposeful self, finding his voice through his anger. Now I know this portrait is a mirror into my self and finding the truth in myself as a father, husband and artist. My art is a mirror into who I really am. The painting was left with parts undone, as was my own journey.

In the past year this personal journey has started again, it’s been almost a ten year hiatus but the themes, the dreams and the hope to understand and celebrate myself has been rekindled – just in time.

Wondering Why

2009-02-08T19:50:00.004-05:00

This poem I wrote a number of years ago trying to understand why I feel emotionally stuck in place. At that time I did not know it was about how barriers I had internalized where silencing my personal voice.

Mirror Mirror in my mind

Where do I begin to hide?

In the snap shots of my life

Delivering flashes for the masses

Never stepping out of step

Always arriving lost and wondering

Why am I with out a window?

While my life moves into sight

Building bridges that I refuse to cross

So I can run from side to side

Only to come upon myself

Wondering why

Snow Day – A Winter Muse

2009-01-28T10:52:00.007-05:00

The winter muse doe’s not come often to southern Connecticut. So her arrival is always met with a mix of apprehension and joy! She has a wondrous way of removing us from our daily focus and allowing the dream of possibilities to settle on ourselves. Her winds silence our factual voice for one of consciousness. She asks to concentrate on our place, our hopes and our soul.

As winter dances around our home, teasing and challenging, we take up skills that fulfill our human nature. A fire is built, banana bread is baked, a driveway is cleared (a adult excuse to play in the snow), and a family is close. We are brought closer to the experience of intimacy – external boundaries are suspended.

What will you do on a snow day?

P.S. I will miss knowing that John Updike is out there creating – but am comforted by his legacy.

Typographic Landscape now on display at Rockwell Art Galleries, New Canaan, CT

2009-01-15T13:04:00.005-05:00

Typographic Landscape - Teal

30 x 90

Rockwell Art Galleries

Rockwell Art and Framing

9 Burtis Ave.

New Canaan, CT 06840

203 594-7177

Miles Wallace CPF

Gallery Manager

mwallace@rockwellartandframing.com

Looking behind the edges!

2009-01-11T17:53:00.006-05:00

I’m finding it very useful to return to the typographic nude theme as I continue to explore what is behind those boundaries that have shaped us. As with all my nudes, the edges are sharp, holding their form against each other, so how can this edge be altered? Why not actually cut the edge and look behind or into the painting? Yes I cut the canvas!

By painting the back of the painting also and peeling a portion of the canvas over itself, the wood frame becomes vulnerable. As vulnerable as one becomes as we look behind our own boundaries.

New Typographic Landscape finished in November 2008

2009-01-09T20:54:00.007-05:00

30 x 60 (Private Collection)

Up until now my landscape paintings have been all about edges controlling or obscuring elements of the composition. Now I’m experimenting by blurring and pushing out those boundaries that we all live with and let control us. With this new painting some of the edges have been blurred and extended with charcoal, giving it more dimension and texture. Like this painting, I am slowing pushing out the boundaries in myself, my life, my career, and my perception of who I am. Is there a unique voice coming out of this landscape? Not always confidant, not always tidy, but yes, a voice with some growing strength.

Paintings & Prints featured in the Grand Opening of the Samuel Owen Gallery in MARFA Texas! May 1-6, 2008

2008-12-09T19:46:00.001-05:00

ABOUT MARFA

Marfa was settled in the mid 19th century by two distinct groups: Primarily Anglo-European families started to homestead the area by using the town as a source of supplies and social life and the Mexican families who began to migrate northward to the growing settlement. Both groups can attribute their families back three or four generations.

Marfa now has a population of around 2400. The largest employers are the Border Patrol, the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization and U.S. Customs. As Marfa is the seat of government for Presidio County, a significant number of residents are employed through the county offices.

Events that led to the cultural and economic growth that Marfa now enjoys started with Judd's investment in art and people back in the 1970's. With the purchase of much of Fort D.A. Russell, Donald Judd began the work on his permanent sculptural installations. A noticable amount of revitalization came from his activities and continued up until his death in 1994. The Chinati Foundation was established as guardian of his artworks and the museum. The foundation continues his vision as well as attracting thousand of visitors each year to Marfa.

Today, Marfa enjoys an international reputation in the art world and still remains a simple and modest place to live.

A selection of Typographic Nudes

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With the Typographic Nude paintings, edges of shapes and colors define each other! The edges control the composition, like external expectations and demands control us. These expectations are often sensual and pleasing, making one feel accepted and comfortable. In the end, all these edges/expectations are doing is holding us in place, at arms length!

A selection of Typographic Landscapes

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With the Typographic Landscape paintings, empty spaces are defined by the edges of shapes and colors. The spaces obscure and control the composition, like external and internal expectations control and obscure our true voice. This confusion or compression between external and internal expectations often leaves us with no voice – just noise.

A selection of Typographic Voids

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With the Typographic Void Paintings, the empty spaces define the composition. Like silent pauses in conversations, these spaces hold the tension and meaning in the composition. The edges of the fragmented typography are punctuations of our self-conscious language that diffuse our true voice – look for what is not said to see the true message.

Typographic Landscape appears in "Vermont Magazine", July/August 2008

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Working in my old Yale & Towne Studio

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I used this space, that over looked the City of Stamford, from June 2006 through to October 2007.

I miss watching the setting sun reflected in the building of Stamford and how the rain sounded in the afternoon as I painted.

Biography

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Nat Connacher is a painter, photographer and designer creating visual expressions of what he sees and feels around him.

Nat’s painting was selected for inclusion in the 2007 Stamford Art Association, 27^th Annual Faber Birren Color show, where he was awarded the Faber Birren Color Award. In 2005 & 2006 his paintings where included in the Silvermine Guild Arts Center’s 56^th & 57^th Annual Art of the Northeast exhibitions. In the 2006 Art in the Northeast Exhibition he received the Mary Vann Hughs Award. Nat is also an avid fine art photographer. His photographs have been accepted for display in the Stamford (CT) Art in Public Places exhibits, “Celebrating Women”, Summer 2004 and “Color/Forms”, Summer 2005 and are in a number of corporate collections.

Nat is president and creative director of Connacher Design where he combines his different artistic interests to develop visual dialogues between his clients and their audiences. His areas of expertise are corporate identity, branding and visual information design for print and the Internet.

Nat holds a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Yale University and a Bachelor of Design in Communication Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

A native of Canada, Nat resides in Stamford, CT with his family.

Artist Statement

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The liberation of letterforms from their recognized social function is the foundation for my abstract paintings. The new forms I create, allow me to explore the conflict between external and internal expectations in our personal lives. By painting bold, large, graphic, simple and colorful abstractions of letterforms, I highlight the boundaries that shape our feelings, self-image, and our relationship with the world.

These abstractions are a metaphor for our human landscape. The shapes and edges are expressions of vulnerability and pain in the search for intimacy.

We are all trying to discover who we are in a society that projects personal success in terms of position, wealth and looks. In reality, those things have nothing to do with who we are or want to be. It is in those moments of tension against what is told to us and what we know is true that I find the inspiration for what I do.

First Art Showing

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Stamford Loft Artists November 2005

What a wonderful experience, scary but wonderful! For the first time it was Ok to be vulnerable! I loved the feedback, positive or negative. It was great to watch people come into the gallery and do a double take, some stayed, some left! Some did not understood what I was doing but I always got a reaction!