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Last Tuesday afternoon, May 25, 2010, Patterns in Flight Triptych was installed at 924 N. Pennsylvania, Indianapolis, Indiana, the home to the Arts Council of Indianapolis.  I was to be present to capture some images from the installation process. Patterns in Flight Triptych is a collage of three pieces from my latest dynamic still-life series, Patterns in Flight. This print of my work is a vinyl banner on the windows of the building and will remain installed for one year.

The entire butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be August 6, 2010 during the August First Friday and the series will show through August 28. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

First the rolled panels are unboxed and are ready to be applied to the windows. Right: These are the three windows the butterfly paintings will be adhered to.

This May, the Arts Council of Indianapolis is moving offices from the Guaranty Building at 20 N. Meridian Street to 924 N. Pennsylvania St. Their new location, called the Metzger Building, is an art deco building covered in white tile and built in 1928. It once housed a roller skating rink.

As a part of the Art Council of Indianapolis’ Picture Windows Program, a Public Art Indianapolis project, the Arts Council requested from local artists images of current work to display on a large 36′ by 10′ banner. The above collage of three pieces from my latest dynamic still-life series, Patterns in Flight, was selected. This, Patterns in Flight triptych, will be a vinyl banner on the exterior of the building. The Patterns in Flight triptych is scheduled to be installed Tuesday, May 25, 2010 and will remain installed for one year.

The entire butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be August 6, 2010 during the August First Friday and the series will show through August 28. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Unwound", oil on Fiberboard

I spent an hour today taking in the show, A Working History of Things to Come, works by Eric Hudgins in Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage.  The show is aptly titled, as the paintings build upon themselves and foreshadow his current work.  Overall, Hudgin creates pieces that have interweaving patterns, ideas, and colors.  His work explores the relationship between technology and nature.  The older pieces in the main part of the gallery contain a dichotomy of nature and technology.  They relate, yet remain separate.  In the “red” room, one finds abstract paintings that seem to contain something somewhere between the extremes.  All of the pieces are painted with care.  The surface of the paintings are smooth and therefore do not obstruct the viewer from the content of the painting.

Among the earlier works on display, Cecoprian and Convergence caught my eye and mind.  These works are surreal in nature and representational in execution.  The work is presented in black frames that add to the formal, traditional feeling of this earlier work.  Eric Hudgins sums up his ideas when he states, “I believe there may come a day when technology is viewed as being just as natural as nature itself.”

"Cecoprian", oil, acrylic, ink, graphite on paper

In Cecoprian, the viewer is presented with a moth.  Half of the moth is natural.  The other part is created with intricate designs and patterns, melded with nature.  There is a combination of nature and technology, yet they stand as separate elements.  In Convergence, the dialogue between nature and technology takes on a different dimension as an alligator hatches out of a light bulb and an apple split in half reveals half of a white natural apple and half of a mechanical object.

"Convergence", detail

"Convergence", detail

The larger, newer, abstract works in the red room are displayed as frame-less, wrapped canvases.  These works are narrative, containing forms interacting with light in space and time.  The subject, although abstract, is the result of natural and mechanical influences.  It is a combination of the two separate ideas that Hudgins was previously working with.  A detail from Divine Turbulence shows how one of the planes in the picture, painted like a sky, is transposed next to a mechanical shaped plane.

Symmetry is the element that seems to hold both Running a Finger Along the Edge of Madness and The Rise of Fall together.  The paintings have energy and motion, but are stabilized by vertical symmetry.  In the first of these two paintings, it is symmetrical to the point of having a different light source for each half.  In the latter painting, there is a single light source which opens the space of the painting up to include a singular, symmetrical object.

Running a Finger along the Edge of Madness

The Rise of Fall

The show will be up through May 29.  Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is open 12-4 on Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment.

An expanse of clouds, July 2009.

The title of the show, Approaches to Abstraction, describes the variety of the pieces in Dave Voelpel’s show.  The media of the pieces range from acrylics, oil, watercolor, collage, and mixed media.  These seemingly diverse pieces are tied together through layers and the theme of landscapes.  In the piece to the left (Voelpel has not titled any of the pieces in this show), there are at least three abstract landscapes combined into one painting. The horizontal layers contain the possibility of multiple landscapes stacked vertically within the picture plane.  There are also translucent layers that add depth to the images.  These physical, tactile, textural layers are complemented by layers that are constructed for composition or to provoke thought.

Most of Voepel’s paintings are spontaneous and en plein air (painted outdoors). Instead of carefully composing before he paints, he chooses items for his collages out of a bag.  “Every piece is new, fresh, and original,” says Voelpel, when discussing his process.  When he is working on an acrylic abstract painting, he uses both, additive and subtractive approaches. He treats the paint in a variety of ways with the result that it emulates watercolor, glaze, and sometimes encaustic.  Voelpel does not include titles with his pieces so that viewers can interact with the image without being influenced by a title.

The opening for the exhibit is April 2, 2010 from 6:00 – 10:00.  The show will be in place April 3rd through April 24th by appointment only.  To make an appointment, call Dave Voelpel at 317-345-3426.

Five Seasons Studio Gallery
1125 Brookside Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
April 2, 6pm

Detail of a piece that has a Newspaper comic page as a base with collaged faces and translucent layers of acrylic paint.

This small piece has an encaustic appearance with depth created by subtle use of white. The layers of white give an atmospheric appearance.