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Artist Exhibitions:
solo exhibitions
2008, introversions,
grassroots arts facility,
jersey city, new jersey
group exhibitions
2008, abstract perceptions,
skinner's loft, jersey city,
new jersey
2007, little wonders, litm,
jersey city, new jersey
2007, holiday show, phyllis
harriman mason gallery, new
york, new york
2007, red star open studio,
jersey city artists ...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Statement for Gordon Fraser
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The earliest memory I have of making art was when I was 8 or 9 years old. I was in 4th grade and one of our first projects in art class was to make a drawing of a book we had read during the summer. A typical boy, I had read some baseball book and proceeded to draw a bat and ball and maybe a few other objects. When I finished I was dejected and embarrassed by my effort. Sloppy, poorly drawn objects, placed randomly on the page. It wasn't really a picture, no composition. None of the objects related to the other pictorially or as a narrative. I remember looking at the drawing of the star artist in our class and becoming acutely aware of my failure as an artist. However, not to be discouraged, I sat down and did a drawing of mountains, sky, trees, a fence, and maybe a house. Totally invented–an invented landscape. When the teacher asked the book I had read, I lied and told her it was a book called "Green Mountains" that I had read when I visited my grandparents in Vermont. Despite my satisfaction with the drawing, I felt ashamed that I had made something up and lied about it. I avoided art for years.
Looking back I see the wisdom of that little boy. The playfulness and courage of invention. Invented forms, invented shapes. The joy of a squiggle. The effortless action of a gesture. I use them all in my work now. A process that begins with a doodle or a spontaneous automatic drawing in ink or an arrangement of torn pieces of paper. Through selection and repetition is transformed and begins to take on a life of its own–to tell a story; to communicate a feeling– like a poem or a piece of music.
Like a poem, my paintings begin with an observation, a feeling, a hunch or an idea, a memory and are then refined so that every color, every shape and form, every gesture is woven together. Like music my paintings begin with a theme or a phrase and evolve endlessly as an improvisational performance. Working with egg-oil emulsions, oil-resin varnishes, and oil-resin-beeswax, I build the paintings up in layers to create a luminosity or light that glows from within the painting. I make my own mediums as a way to connect with my materials, to appreciate them, to know them. Like taking apart a watch to put it back together to see the inside. Discovery, curiosity, playfulness.
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contact artist
