Cut it Out!

Cut it out!

My San Francisco flat, 20th century.

My Los Angeles studio, 21st century.

It has come to my attention that I like cut-outs; a fact so obvious I was sure I'd already created a blogpost on this subject. The joke is totally on me because in the past I have tried to locate my post on cut-outs to show someone or another and have been so frustrated in not being able to find it. So here we go. I'm posting about cut-outs now!

My Oakland studio, 2001: a space odyssey.

For me the act of creating a cut-out is born of two things, collages and stencils. I've been making collages longer than I can remember and I really got into stencils when I worked on the restoration of The Ponce. My "chests" post dealt with stencils on another scale. Now, in this paragraph I've referenced three different blog posts that touch on the subject. But let's move on to new business shall we?

A little Japanese cut-out and my big cut-out behind it.

While researching this subject, delving into my picture files, I came across a painting I did in 2001 that represents a curious intersection of collage, cut-out, and trompe l'oeil. A cut-out is my model for the painting and what it showed was the negative space left over from a tiny figure used in a collage.I took this little cut-out  and inflated its importance by enlarging to life size for the painting. I found a photograph of the painting taken in my wonderful Oakland studio. Another shot I came across taken in Oakland shows a marvelous Japanese cut-out against one of my own. Both of those cut-outs became paintings as well.

Big cut-outs.

Another big cut-out

Medium size cut-out.

Small cut-outs.

Back in my little San Francisco flat in the early 90s I filled my floor to ceiling windows with cut-outs. It was quick, easy, and a cheap way to postpone shelling out for curtains. And this presents a third manifestation of the cut-out after collages and stencils. This is folded paper cut-out as one would do in kindergarten to make a snowflake.  Remarkably I still have all those cutouts made in San Francisco. Around that same time I made what is, I suppose, my most important cut-out. It too became a painting. Actually I can remember specifically creating that particular painting. My flat was going to be photographed for some shelter magazine or perhaps a book and I thought I should have something on my wall that would read well on the printed page. Turns out it did help make a good photograph.

Big painting made from a small cut-out.

Triptych version.

My Triptych at the Four Season Resort.

My work adapted as a logo.

Years later two different designers, Orlando Diaz Azcuy and Pamela Babey, came calling wanting that painting. The first designer bought the painting and another one, very similar. The second designer called too late. So I recreated it. Actually it worked out for the best because I recreated it as a triptych. It was made for a resort near Buenos Aires. The resort was built by a private developer who was so enamored of the piece he wanted it to play a big part in his project. And so my image was adapted as a graphic design appearing on stationery, chef's hats, guest slippers, and more. The resort, Madison, soon after its completion became part of the Four Seasons chain so their logo took over.

What follows are some establishing shots of the Four Season Resort at Carmelo. I'm establishing that my work is there, it's a beautiful place, and wouldn't we all like to stay there?  Be seeing you!

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo. Can you spot my work?

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo

Four Seasons Resort Carmelo

Studio April 2012

Studio April 2012, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

I'm thinking of another post. Please stay tuned.

Mirror Mirror

Recently uploaded my mirror paintings available at Voila!  See here.

Voilà plus

Here's more...

I went back to voilà! today, added one more picture, and took a few more photos for you. Now listen: this is virtually the first time you, my faithful readers, can go just where I've been because voilà! has an excellent online presence. Yes, now you can buy a tiny piece of me for your very own. Just click on the links, that is all the words: voilà!

 Now here for you are more images from that cabinet of curiosities on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, California, USA. voila:

Be seeing you.

Voila, Je suis voilà!

Here, I am HERE!

Yes, yes the disclaimer in my profile telling you I'm not a blogger leaves me out of the running for daily/weekly/monthly updates but I'm here to say I am at voila! ART FOR THE MODERN EYE. They're still fine turning the arrangement, adjusting the lighting, and breaking for espressos occasionally but I wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of my work there. They've got my collage series and my mirrors too. Both dating from the time of the Villa Feltrinelli project.  What was that the year? 1999?  Can't recall exactly.

I should be following this post soon with more shots of the voila! installation but there's more too. I've just hung five large works and six smaller pieces at the Thomas Lavin showroom in the PDC. Do you want to see those too? 

Soon.

50 cc

DSC03147, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

Hi!

If I'm not on Blogger it's quite possible I'm on Flickr instead.

Recently I've been trying to get Duchamp out of my system. It's tough.

And there's more.

A Day in Court

Marie Antoinette. Did she ever get her day in court?
A print I found in Linda's office.

Last week I drove up to Santa Barbara and ended up in court. But I'm innocent I tell you! I had an appointment to meet Linda Chase, an interior designer who's in Summerland just a bit south of Santa Barbara. Arriving early for our date I had a little lunch, explored the Santa Barbara Museum: very nice, then walked around the corner where I discovered the extraordinary courthouse building. OK I confess. I knew it was there. I'd been to it many years ago. It's one of those beautifully designed buildings that beckons you: come closer, come inside. So I did.

Santa Barbara Courthouse

Come closer to the Santa Barbara Courthouse.

What a court room!

Not your typical ceiling unless you are in the Santa Barbara Courthouse.

Looking  down the spiral staircase.

Looking up the spiral staircase.

Same spiral staircase. The stencil colors appear different to my camera due to the lantern.

Obviously the style is inspired by the Spanish Missions that predate the history of California as a state. Mission buildings usually have somewhat plain exteriors, smooth and white, stark against the often brilliant blue California skies. And like most missions the interior of the courthouse is dim but ornately decorated. Beautiful painted decorations. The motifs owe something to the Renaissance but this is the new world so the influence of native Americans is strongly in evidence. I really think it's the new world people who give the work it's exuberant punch.

The Ponce, Atlanta circa 1950

The exterior of The Ponce in Atlanta.
You enter under a low slung canopy and make your way to the back of the lobby which opens into tall grand space.

Tiffany ceiling of The Ponce lobby.

Panning down from the stained glass ceiling.

Stenciling in the cove. Lot's of gilding and glazing here too.

Stenciling, gilding, polychroming and glazing in the mezzanine.

I still have some of the stencils used at The Ponce!

Marbleizing painted to match some existing scagliola.

Kristen Marooney and Shane Robuck of Robuck and Company in The Ponce!

I would say the closest I've ever come to a project like the Santa Barbara Courthouse where architecture and decorative painting seem so dependant on one another is The Ponce in Atlanta,GA. That was 1981. A restoration? Perhaps it's more accurate to call it a recreation project because most every surface was primed white when I began. It was months of stenciling, gilding, glazing, and marbleizing. Coincidentally I recently met (online) an Antique dealer, Kristen Marooney, whose partner lives in the Ponce. Their company portrait uses my work as a backdrop. I love seeing that because it gives life to the place. When I was working in it there were no residents.  Kristen's choice of brilliant raspberry couldn't be more wonderful, just what the Ponce needs, a little jolt to it's Edwardian pedigree.