The Red Toque: Geoff Molloy

Showing posts with label Geoff Molloy. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

A SIMPLE LIFE - WINCHESTER GALLERY, Victoria, BC - DEC 3 - 18 - Opening DEC 5th 6 - 8 PM

...looks like the farmhands went for lunch...

List of Works

1) Pink Cowboy – Mixed Media Assemblage – 44 x 72 inches

2) Crazy Horse– Mixed Media Assemblage – 44 x 72 inches

3) Don't Fence Me In– Mixed Media Assemblage – 66 x 48 inches

4) The Homesteaders– Mixed Media Assemblage – 40 x 58 inches

5) Red Ensign - Encaustic/Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 33 x 82 inches

6) My Coat I – Acrylic on Blanket/Panel - 24 x 48 inches

7) My Coat II – Acrylic on Blanket/Panel - 24 x 48 inches

8) My Coat III – Acrylic on Blanket/Panel - 24 x 48 inches

9) The Homsteader - Mixed Media Assemblage – 20 x 58 inches

10) Jacks Toque – Mixed Media Assemblage – 20 x 12 inches

11) Voyager Toque - Mixed Media Assemblage – 20 x 12 inches

12) The Voyager - Mixed Media Assemblage – 10 x 64 inches

13) Treaty Medals 1-7 – Mixed Media Assemblage – 22 x 14 x 6 inches

14)Treaty Medal 8 – Mixed Media Assemblage – 8 x 18 x 5 inches

15) Treaty Medal 9 – Mixed Media Assemblage – 9 x 13 x 5 inches

16) The Good Book– Mixed Media Assemblage – 72 x 26 x 8 inches

17) Golden Stack– Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 48 x 40 inches

18) Making Hay– Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 48 x 40 inches

19) The Hay Wagon– Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 48 x 40 inches

20) Two Stacks– Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 48 x 40 inches

21) Wagon Wheel– Mixed Media on Blanket/Panel - 48 x 40 inches

22) The Future– Mixed Media Assemblage – 6 x 14 x 5 inches

23) Take No Prisoners – Mixed Media Assemblage – 6 x 14 x 5 inches

24) We Are The Magic– Mixed Media Assemblage – 6 x 14 x 5 inches

25) Chocolate Moose– Mixed Media Assemblage – 6 x 14 x 6 inches

PINK COWBOY

CRAZY HORSE

DON'T FENCE ME IN

THE HOMESTEADERS

THE RED ENSIGN

MY COAT - I

MY COAT - II

MY COAT - III

THE HOMESTEADER

JACK'S TOQUE

THE VOYAGER TOQUE

THE VOYAGER

TREATY MEDALS 1-7

TREATY MEDAL - 8

TREATY MEDAL - 9

THE GOOD BOOK

GOLDEN STACK

THE HAY WAGON

MAKING HAY

TWO STACKS

WAGON WHEEL

THE FUTURE

TAKE NO PRISONERS

WE ARE THE MAGIC

CHOCOLATE MOOSE

Friday, November 1, 2013

The Haystack Story

The Haystacks are a series mixed media paintings that are part of my upcoming exhibition A SIMPLE LIFE at the Winchester Gallery in Oak bay. Show opens Dec 5th 6 PM - 8 PM and runs Dec 3rd - 18th.

Making Hay
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

How did a series of very classical looking paintings pop out during the creation of a very different body of work? I've been wondering this myself. It is most interesting to me how I process my experiences in the studio. Creating and exhibiting such a wide range of styles in a single exhibition is generally frowned upon in the art world. I try not to worry about the why and the what. My part of the equation is to create it. Let each person decide for themselves what a piece means.

Golden Stack
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

I am blessed to have such a variety of skills in the studio. I have so many people to thank for that. There is no doubt that being in Amsterdam twice this year and spending so much time in the Rijksmuseum has had an influence. There is a classical, almost biblical look to the work but the creation was far from traditional. I set out to describe haystacks through texture, beyond that I had no objective. I did whatever I had to do to resolve each piece, painting backward and forward through the entire series. Oddly the first painting, Making Hay, was the last piece completed. All paintings are executed on wool blankets glued to plywood substrates. The under painting was done in acrylic. The haystacks were created using encaustic and the skies were over painted in oil. They don't get more mixed media that that!

The Hay Wagon
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

Three Stacks
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

Two Stacks
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

Wagon Wheel
Mixed Media/Encaustic on Blanket
48"W x 40"H

Sixty kilometres outside of Phnom Penh on route from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville this past April we passed many farms with old fashioned haystacks in their yards. I knew the minute I saw them that they would fit thematically with the work I was in the midst of creating back on Gabriola. When we arrived back in Phnom Penh two weeks later I set about finding a driver that could speak a little english and knew the countryside. I arranged to be picked up at the hotel shortly before 5 AM by a Cambodian guide in a Tuk Tuk. The driver quickly realized that we would be better off on a motorcycle on the rough roads of the Cambodian countryside so we headed to his place to change vehicles. It was on route that we witnessed a man being swarmed and beaten to death by around twenty hoods. Cambodia is a hard place, backwards in many ways and very dangerous. Not that long ago the Kumar Rouge were rounding up and killing people by the thousands. There was nothing we could do but keep moving or fall victim to this gang.

After we switched to a motorcycle we headed for the country, I wanted to be in the haystacks when the sun came up. It was quite a contrast smelling the hay and watching the sunrise while the memory of the horrendous beating we witnessed on the way settled in. Over the next twelve hours we tootled around the countryside photographing over three hundred haystacks and hay wagons. Even though I was physically in Cambodia, in my mind it was 1890 and I was standing on the Canadian prairies. Often when I look at something I will be formulating in my mind an artistic approach to rendering it physically and capturing its spirit. Back in the studio nothing ever goes entirely the way you expected it to. I had to make a lot of changes to the images and my approach to get the desired effect. I stripped away everything that didn't contribute to staging a peaceful place for the haystack. Every element and technique in the work has to do with creating the right environment for the hay. I also wanted to draw a subconscious connection between hay and gold. When it comes down to it we can't eat gold and in the context of A Simple Life the hay is more valuable than gold. I truly believe that there is a growing trend to get back to basics. Get connected again to our food, water and the earth. This work is timely, I think it will resonate with many folks that feel the same way about the state of things. Stop the merry go round, I just want to get off. Like many people I yearn for a simple life where I can focus on the things that matter most.

Detail of Wagon Wheel

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Upcoming exhibition - A SIMPLE LIFE - opens Dec 5th

Dec 3rd - 18th, Winchester Gallery 2260 Oak Bay Ave, Victoria, BC

Reception Dec 5th, 6 - 8 PM

"We have wandered so far from the land. In a couple of generations we have gone from a relatively simple existence to a life of consumption and disconnection".

Making Hay

Mixed Media on Blanket

48"w x 40"h

Crazy Horse 44"w x 86"h

The Homesteader - The Red Ensign - The Voyager

The Good Book
Mixed Media Assemblage
52"w x 40"h (open)

Don't Fence Me In
Mixed Media Assemblage
66"w x 44"h

The Homesteaders
Mixed Media Assemblage
44"w x 60"h

The Hay Wagon
Mixed Media on Blanket
48"w x 40"h

Golden Stack
Mixed Media on Blanket
48"w x 40"h

Wagon Wheel
Mixed Media on Blanket
48"w x 40"h

Two Stacks
Mixed Media on Blanket
48"w x 40"h

Three Stacks
Mixed Media on Blanket
48"w x 40"h

The Toques and Chocolate Moose

The Treaty Medals

3 - Altars (size of a shoe box)

This latest series honours our heritage while raising questions about our future.

In May 2012, while driving to Toronto, I explored a Saskatchewan homestead with a descendant of its early settler family. This once wild prairie, just 30 kilometres outside Val Marie, abuts Grasslands National Park. It is where heaven meets earth. A Simple Life was conceived as I wandered the homestead, now a bone yard of old wagons and sleighs laden with rusting hardware, weathered and rotting into the rich soil. I utilizes this hardware in many of the pieces contained in this body of work.

In the midst of making A Simple Life, I travelled to Cambodia where I photographed more than 300 haystacks. Spending time in the Cambodian countryside was like going back in time...in my mind I was on the Canadian prairies a hundred years ago .

Both the prairie-based assemblages and the encaustic/mixed media haystacks pay homage to a much simpler time. I'd like to think that this work offers viewers a little peace and quiet...a chance to reflect on a less complicated time. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply

“Jeff's works are sly love letters to Canada - quirky, capricious, frank, and thought provoking.
His dream-like images probe this country’s soul. ”

Charles Pachter

Detail of Wagon Wheel

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Horizontal Flag in progress

A few images of my artistic journey

That's a cabinet scrape sitting on the flag, I scrape the surface after I've coated the entire piece.

Detail of the surface that I like to work on...chunky and rugged.

I use a string to get my lines. My reference is a very crappy photo I took of an old flag that hangs at the door of my studio.

Starting to add colour...

Blocking in the four main colours.

Starting to add the subtleties. There are a number of different kinds of line in the piece, It's really important that the lines are correct or the piece won't work.

The finished work
60 x 38 inches
Encaustic on panel

THE WORK

Molloy's work focuses on culture through the use of its stereotypes, traits and artifacts.

Jeff employs a wide variety of distinctive techniques, tools, and personal processes that result in truly unique, instantly recognizable work. Jeff is curious. His creativity shifts and twists in response to his materials. Beeswax, tar, pigments, remnants of human civilization – all react differently to the tools and techniques he employs. Carving, painting, sculpting, applying heat and blunt force all contribute to objects that may resemble paintings, yet may just as easily be mechanical and functional in nature.

To Molloy, line is a physical thing, something that is cut and gouged. His surfaces are built up and scraped away. Jeff uses homemade tools to draw, paint, carve and burnish his surfaces of wax and tar until they reflect their own history.

“I've always believed that experimentation, not technical skill, is at the core of creativity. Artists should be explorers, and the world of art should remain a place without rules or boundaries.” Jeff Molloy

In 1995 encouraged by a photograph of Jasper Johns’ famous encaustic work, Flag, Molloy began to experiment with encaustic. He comments, “I recognized in Johns’ piece a number of aspects that have become paramount in my own work. The impact, power and inherent meaning of cultural objects and how they can be used to evoke emotion and memory...I wanted my work to mimic the real thing but, as an art piece, be more interesting than the motif itself.” Molloy achieves this by tapping into these emotions and memories and presenting them as highly articulated works of art. The encaustic works tread the line between painting and sculpture. Where paintings tend to provide context for their subjects, Molloy’s pieces intentionally strip away everything but the object itself.

“The context for the work is the environment in which it is shown. It just makes sense to me that the space should play a role in the perception of the work,”