Lawndale Annex

DW and I went to an art exhibit opening at Lawndale Annex Friday night. It was mostly paintings but there were some sculpted objects and a couple of videos. Lawndale Annex is in the 4900 block of Main Street. They have ample parking.

We were talking about a painting when we were introduced to the artist. He was a normal looking young man with very short reddish hair. You always think of artists looking artsy in some way. He did not make that effort. The place was packed. There were a lot of the observers who did make the effort to look artsy.

I said something complementary about the three dimensional quality of some the objects in the painting. That got him talking about his motivation for the piece. I tried to act intelligent to keep him going but I had no clue how to react. I could not see where in the painting his motivations showed up.

The canvas was large, maybe three feet by four feet. Lots of the canvas was bare white. There were objects of different styles. Some objects seemed to have a relation to each other. But other things had no relation that I could see.

He did not mention any message, thank God, because I certainly could not see one. He said he was breaking away from realism in previous works. This work was a whimsy. He did not use that word. He said something about making fun, of himself, of his previous work. He called it playful.

But it was stark. There were different kinds of images, some flat and one color, some showing shadows. None of the objects were identifiable. Maybe that is what he meant by playful.

I mentioned to him two flat shapes in the lower right that DW and I thought looked like demons. That reminded him in a previous work he did draw characters from a fantastical SciFi book, I forgot the name. He said that was the geek coming out in him.

He stayed talking to us for a few minutes then politely excused himself to move on. He was so ordinary I do not think I would recognize him again.