FIAT LUX Canvas

CANVAS

VOLUME 6, 2019

AMERICAN P L AYG R O U N D BRIAN BONER

A Dark Whimsy

By Kelly Vaughn

It started with birds.

painting a large mural on the side of Roosevelt Row’s monOrchid Gallery, and the result was a sweeping story

They are magic and metaphor for painter Brian Boner, and

of hope.

there were thousands of them near his childhood home in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Great murmurations

In the image, a little boy stands atop words from Mother

of birds moved like life across that wild sky. Separate.

Theresa: At the end of life, we will not be judged by how many

Connected. The way things find and figure nature.

diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by, “I was

“I always wondered what was in the middle of that,” he

hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you

says. “They go into the ground, they hang out, and then

clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”

there’s this great upheaval of dust and feathers. I think about it on a micro level. A group decision causes that.

The boy, modeled after Boner’s son, Jasper, holds a

Chaos erupts from that.”

watering can. From it pour hundreds of birds in flight.

In Boner’s family’s yard, though, the grackles and the

The image is buoyantly lovely, bold against a bright white

blackbirds faced a reckoning. They moved into other birds’

wall. Boner worked with The I Have a Name Project, a

nests and took over. They were violent and surly. Separate.

non-profit devoted to helping those less fortunate. The

Disconnected. So, Boner learned from his father early on

mural was a tribute to those that had died homeless on

that the blackbirds and grackles needed to go. The idea —

the streets of Phoenix. Murmurations are believed to act

the birds — were imprinted on the painter.

as signposts, attracting all the other starlings in the area so that the birds can roost together. Safety in numbers.

Then, his father faced a grave diagnosis.

When there are hundreds of birds all wheeling and turning together, it makes it much harder for predators to single

“In my mid-to-late 20s, my dad developed a rare condition

out one particular bird. The awareness and outreach raised

called primary progressive aphasia,” he says. “Ultimately

by this mural, coupled with the joy it brings to so many

he lost his ability to communicate. It began with writing,

people, transformed the meaning of the birds from sadness

reading and, eventually, speaking. I lost my father.

to light.

Painting black birds became a metaphor for the loss of my father, and for the loss of that connection with him.”

“To me, it’s a very unifying image,” Boner says. “I felt I’d turned that experience of losing my father around —

Years later, though, long after Boner had moved to Phoenix, a happy reconciliation. He’d been tasked with

turned it into a different thing with that mural.”

And with American Playground, Boner further explores

hunt in packs. While you may only see one, there are

In Trajectory, Boner’s sons have been or are readying

feelings at a very basic level. People will bring their own

the ideas of youth. Of pain and hope. Of known and

always others around.”

to swim. Stars fire in front of and behind them. Those

joys and hang-ups and everything to the paintings. But,

shooting stars can be interpreted in any number of ways.

essentially what any painter really wants is to invoke emotion, memory. To connect with the viewer. Feeling.”

unknown. Many of the paintings include or are inspired by Boner’s two sons — Jasper, of course, now 7 years old, and

In another, a girl sits atop a rest stop dinosaur. In the

If nothing else, though, they are that external influence,

Elias, age 3. Moreover, they inspire curiosity. A look at the

background, a forest fire burns. She is on the edge of

that thing beyond human control. That unpredictable

world from a new perspective.

danger. In still another, Elias stands next to a massive

uncertainty.

buffalo.

“I’ve painted children off and on, even before I had my

In Barricade, three desks are huddled together in a sort of

own,” Boner says. “I’m interested in the way that they’re

“It’s one of those things where the buffalo could move at

constantly seeing something for the first time and the

any moment and could easily move wrong,” Boner says.

wonder of that. But since I had my own kids, that’s

“The potential is there for something bad to happen, but it

“Barricade is a reference to a story I remember from one

developed even more because it’s hyper focused. You see

may not.

of the school shootings,” Boner says. “A teacher had

how they see things, and you find yourself explaining

curious tableau.

used some desks to barricade the door as a shooter was

some totally metaphysical concepts I never thought I’d

In all of the paintings, you’ll find some degree of tension.

walking the grounds. I really felt it was interesting — the

have to explain to somebody. … But of course the kids

It’s a result of Boner’s own experiences, as well as a

juxtaposition that an object traditionally used for learning

don’t know what it is.”

holistic view of the struggles and triumphs of modern life

in a ‘safe’ environment could be used to try to keep a

in America. Collectively, his work is both reflection and

predator at bay.”

Despite the whimsy, there is also a sense of being on a

commentary.

precipice in each of the paintings. A sense of wonder and of danger. The way children find and figure human nature.

The paintings are primarily oil on canvas, though some are Jasper was young when the shooting at Sandy Hook

acrylic on canvas. No matter the media, they’re specific,

Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, occurred.

Boner says, to his experiences and to the way he feels

Take, for example, Where There is One, There Are Many,

And so, for his painter father, that was a significant

children move forward from and through significant

Boner’s painting of a solitary, black wolf. The animal’s

awakening — and it was rooted, in some ways, in a sense

events. Each of the paintings, he adds, is a story.

gold eyes are intense, its mouth open, its ears alert, its legs

of the unknown.

ready. It looks into and through the person looking into and through it.

“I think what I want people to take away is a sense of “There’s so much media coverage surrounding events

dark whimsy, because they’re all narrative pictures. They

like that today,” Boner says. “I’m not sure that any fewer

are all slivers of stories. I feel like these situations aren’t

“I feel like it really conveys that idea of some kind of

instances of that sort of thing happened decades ago,

so outstanding or odd or unreal, though. They all present

tension or fear of the unknown,” Boner says. “To me, the

but you definitely know about them more now. So many

narratives that are rooted in reality. I would hope that

wolf is summing up or judging the viewer, in a sense.

families were deeply affected by just the events at Sandy

people see them and reflect on their own situations, and

It’s trying to decide if the viewer is weak enough to be

Hook.”

how their lives are interconnected with other people. To

attacked. As the title suggests, most of the time, wolves

remind us that we all have a set of shared experiences or

Grackle Study Oil on canvas, 24" x 33" 2019

Barricade Oil on canvas, 60" x 64" 2019

Ice Cream Oil on canvas, 40" x 40" 2019

Red Tractor Study Oil on canvas, 30" x 30" 2019

Guard Rail Oil on canvas, 33" x 68" diptych 2019

New Boots, and the Dangers of Drowning Oil on canvas, 40" x 53" 2019

Active Shooter Oil on canvas, 40" x 22" 2019

Jackalope Study Oil on canvas, 32" x 28" 2019

Roadside Attraction Oil on canvas, 38" x 29" 2019

Where There is One There Are Many Oil on canvas, 87" x 64" 2019

The Cradle and the Frey Oil on canvas, 74" x 80" 2019

In the Velvet Oil on canvas, 38" x 38" 2019

Blue Ribbon Self Portrait Oil on canvas, 30" x 28" 2019

This is a Test Oil on canvas, 48" x 48" 2019

ctaofosnbih Oil on canvas, 20" x 24" 2017

Trajectory Acrylic on canvas, 48" x 39" 2019

ceurhomtefkr Oil on canvas, 24" x 30" 2017

Father and Son Oil on canvas, 60" x 48" 2019

Brian Boner

@bonerbrian

Each painting begins with a familiar subject or object. Something with weight in my life. It is the nucleus from which the story emerges. There are then metaphorical elements that converge and overlap with these subjects, creating a narrative for the viewer to discover. These elements represent observations of the contemporary world, a recollection, event, or tragedy. Through these narratives, I try to create a tension within the painting, while at the same time, eliciting a sense of empathy for the subjects and the situations occurring. I often present scenarios caught just at a moment before a possible disaster. That flash of apprehension, confusion, trepidation, or wonderment. I want the viewer to ask questions about how the subjects came to be where they are, or about where their gaze is focused, usually just out of view. I use a wide range of tools to create a variety of marks, as well as a combination of both oil and water-based mediums as they behave differently on the canvas. My approach to each painting is both planned and haphazard. In many of the works, I purposely leave sections of the canvas unpainted. The result reveals some hints to the history of the painting for the viewer to decipher, as they become witness to mistakes, unintentional marks or drips, as well as evidence of earlier attempts.

In many cases, these “voids� also serve to represent the unknown within the narratives of the paintings.

Guardian of the Innocents

For me, the act of painting is an amalgamation of my current life, past experiences,

Oil on canvas, 64" x 70"

and memories. It is cathartic, chaotic, and enlightening, and will always reflect the

2019

human condition and contemporary culture.

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