T O D D G R AY C O N T E M P O R A R Y
r e n a i s s a n c e
P O P
A R T I S T
s e r i e s
Stealing Time from
________
The Renaiss
by Todd
m the Faulty Plan
_______
sance Series
d Gray
TIME TURN
I had been a student of art history for many years I had been thinking for some time about what it takes These questions created a desire in me to somehow pla the basis for thi
I have always loved the art of the early Italian Renaissan as the beauty and spirituality of the art of this time. I amazing frames and altars of this incredibly rich artistic t my art squarely into an historical context while being tr
I had been making art for more than twenty-five years an own unique visual language. I was proud of it but fe I decided to do just that. This catalog of ____________
Picasso once said that painting is just another way of writing for most of my life. I have been writing for longer work with meaning and more substance. I wanted to of writing, I felt I had something to say. Historically, I energetic and beautiful (and I was very successful with my life and thoughts. This was not an easy endeavor a
I cannot escape my love for Pop art. Never could. I was and their images have had profound effects on my life a Their clean lines, bright colors and powerful energy alw art communicates large ideas through simple means. Renaissance and the Pop art of the sixties and bu I have been creating for so many years. I have tried to what is not necessary and leaving in the end, something is a complete story. These paintings are visual ima in for over twe
NS ELASTIC
s and often wondered how, as an artist, I fit into it. s to be a great artist and what makes ‘great art’ great. ace my work into an historical context and that became is body of work.
nce (Botticelli, Fra Angelico, etc.). I love the altars as well I then came up with the idea - if I could combine the time period, and paint my own work into it, I could place rue to my own art and creating something entirely new.
nd had a prolific body of work in which I had created my elt the need to continue to grow and reinvent myself. f new work is the result of this intention. ___________
f keeping a diary. I don’t keep a diary but I have been r than I have been paining and I wanted to inject my new o say something meaningful because after forty years had been making paintings and sculptures that were this), but I wanted my new work to be a visual ‘diary’ of as I was trying to do this in my language of abstract art.
born in the same year that Pop art came upon the scene and my art. I was drawn to them like a bee to a flower. ways intoxicated me. I love the simplicity in which Pop I have melded my favorite periods of art - The Italian uilt upon them with the unique visual language that o do this in as simple a fashion as possible, cutting out g that is complete. Like a song, or a poem, each painting ages of my life, painted in a language I have written enty five years.
PLAT
1 Law of Attraction, 2007. Acrylic on wood, m (43 in. wide when doors
2 The Great White Hope, 2008. Acrylic on wood (43 in. wide when doors
3 Waiting for the Aliens, 2007. Acrylic on wood.
4 It’s All Too Much, 2010. Acrylic on w
5 10,000 Hours, 2011. Acrylic on wo
6 Art Star, 2012. Acrylic on wood, mixed
7 The Main Thing is the Main Thing, 2012. 64 in. x 32
8 More is not More, 2010. Acrylic on w
9 Homage, 2012. Acrylic on wood
10 Point Zero Two Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acr Also reproduc
ATES
1. mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 2 in. x 5 in. s open). Three images
2. d, mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 2 in. x 5 in. s open). Three images
3. Mixed media, gold leaf. 83 in. x 127 in. x 5 in.
4. wood. gold leaf. 60 in. x 47 in. x 7 in.
5. ood, gold leaf. 70 in. x 40 in. x 6 in.
6. d media, gold leaf. 31 in. x 31 in. x 6 in.
7. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 2 in. x 6 in.
8. wood, gold leaf. 41 in. x 51 in. x 5 in.
9. d, gold leaf. 47 in. x 27 in. x 7 in.
0. rylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. ced on cover
LAW OF ATTRACTION
If you open up your heart to what the world has to offer, the universe will open up to you and you can have your dreams. Another way of saying this is that we get what we focus on and the universe re-arrange’s itself to conform to our version of reality. Thoughts become things and that which we hold in our hearts and minds, we can magnify into our lives… like a magnet. ____________________________________ This painting is framed in a copy of a 13th century Italian Altar. With the doors closed are the words… stress, fear, anger, guilt and anxiety repeated over and over. In the center of these words is a subtle heart. On top of all of this is gold leafed barbed wire. This barbed wire is a metaphor for these basically negative emotions that we hold within us, protecting and repressing us and holding us back from experiencing so much more that life has to offer. I painted this on the exterior with the intention that when we open the doors, we metaphorically open up our hearts and break past these negative emotions that hold us back and you can have whatever you dream. The universe opens up for us!
At the top of the altar is a magnet. There are a number of magnets throughout this piece as I believe that we magnetize whatever it is we focus on into our lives - be it good or bad. The radiating target circles (on top) are our thoughts moving.
THE GREAT WHITE HOPE The original inspiration for this piece came from the Hebrew word ‘Toevah’ (toe-eh-vah) and is defined as an act so alien to our values and understanding that it cannot be understood or explained. It was at this time, The Bush administration was ended and leaving, Obama was being inaugurated and Bernie Madoff’s ‘toevah’ was coming to light. The goal of much of my art is to continue to connect the past with the present and in this piece, I have endeavored to do it here as well. I decided to use classic Pop art imagery as the basis for this piece. Not only did Pop art have its birth in 1962 (my birth year), but I also came to realize how significant and important these particular Pop images were in my own life as an artist. The explosion by Lichtenstein, the hard edged lines and bright colors, the numbers, words and imagery of Indiana, the targets and flags of Johns… they have all had an enormous effect on my life. _________________________ I decided to put the Obama image (made famous by modern pop artist Shepard Fairey) on the front of the altar after I went to his inauguration in Washington D.C. I painted it in black and white pearlescent and it stands in direct contrast to the bright pop art colors of the rest of the painting. Behind Obama’s image is the word ‘hope’ in a multitude of languages. On the inside, I used a classic image by Lichtenstein of a comic book fighter jet shooting a missile at its target and exploding. This goes right through Warhol’s soup can (through the Toevah) and represents the awfulness and futileness of the war we found ourselves in. It then explodes (as in the original image) with ‘hope.’ Behind the soup can are the words hope and change (in hebrew) repeated. I chose to put my own classic ‘sphere’ in the very center of the piece to place myself squarely into the context of art history. The numbers ‘44’ and ‘62’ are references to Obama (the 44th President) and 62 (the year I was born and the year Pop art was born). The entire bottom of piece is infused with classic pop art imagery. .
WAITING FOR
This painting was my first one in many years (and the first in this “I hope the Aliens can save us”… it was essentially a call out to the unive ___________________
I decided to place famous cartoon aliens in each window - representative thousands of years. I then ‘sainted’ each alien, put a large halo
Saint Marvin the Marian is standing on the National Intelligence Es our going to war. I covered it and much of the rest of the paintin Not finding weapons
Saint Kang (from the Simpsons) is reading ‘My Pet was reading (upside down) to the school The two inner Saints, Yoda and E.T.
The God or Jesus, I used the image of a classic ‘Area 51’ little-gree ironic statement towards our failed immigration policy. On top of his sombre public-relations debacles of the war. At the top of
At the top of this painting is the greatest visual image to come to light from meant to control the masses with fear - but actually a very pretty a (similar to U.S. paper money) and added the ‘-ed.’ This was
R THE ALIENS
series). It was inspired by a phrase I uttered out loud one day… erse because of what I thought was the waste and futility of the Iraq war. __________________
of the haloed saints and Gods that were painted in altars similar to this for o around each one and had them all looking towards the center.
stimate (NIE)... a fatally flawed and biased study created to justify ng in oil, as I believe that was what much of this war was about. of mass destruction.
t Goat’ upside down. This was the book that Bush l children when the planes hit the towers. were chosen because they are wise.
en-alien man. He is called Jesus and is a Mexican alien and a small ero are the words ‘Mision Cumplida’- which I believed was among the larger his throne is the logo of the Halliburton corporation.
m our war on terror - the Homeland Terror Alert. It was pure propaganda and colorful image. Below this I chose the words ‘in God we Trust’ s just a reference to the conservative right wing at the time.
IT’S ALL TOO MUCH 2009 was a crazy year. The economy was tanked, the stock market was collapsed and real estate was in the gutter. Amidst all this insanity, my business partner and I decided to go against the grain and continue to invest in real estate, hire more employees, and put all our efforts into growing our businesses… basically doing completely opposite of what normal (sane) people would do. It was a pretty crazy time. It was overwhelming. One night, I re-read a recent journal and saw that I was starting almost every entry with the words... “its all too much”… a reference to a song by The Beatles that often played in my head. ‘Its All Too Much’ perfectly encapsulated my life at this time. The frame was built rectangular and dominant to resemble a freight train and the center was painted like its headlight coming right at you. The color in the center is like an explosion and the word scribbled over this is “AAAAGHH”… a scream. The words above the center of the painting are part of an entry from my journal which I projected onto the painting. It was my intention to keep this painting as honest and naked as possible. It is an accurate snapshot (painted in my own visual language) of a pretty chaotic time.
10,000 H
It is said that it takes ten thousand hours of doing so reflected on this fact, I realized I was well past twenty-five thous my love for making art and the realization that I have put so It is an altar to my appreciation for how lu I love to do but be able _____________
The frame is based on a 13th century Italian altar. I w medieval church. The four ‘X’s’ in the corners are the
The geometric chips are metaphors for the many hours and yea universe... ascending from dark to light... from nothing to som numbers ten thousand, eleven
At the bottom of the piece are the words ‘Time Turns Ela It is about how time becomes irrelevant and stand
HOURS
omething to become an expert at it. When I recently sand hours dedicated to my art. This painting is an homage to much time and effort in my life into this single minded focus. ucky I am to be able to not just know what e spend my life doing it. ____________
wanted the top to be like a stained glass window of a e roman numerals for 10,000 - an X with a bar over it.
ars of my life spent making art... this energy moving out into the mething... from possibility to reality. In the background are the thousand, twelve thousand….
astic.’ This line is from a song by my favorite band, Phish. ds still when I am doing what I love (creating art).
ART STAR Art has always been my center. No matter how lost I might be feeling, art has always been where I can go to get grounded. This is a painting about how many countless times I veered away from my art, losing myself, yet when I was able to get back to it, was able to find myself again. ______________________ I wanted to revisit Pop art motifs that have always inspired me and I used them throughout. At the top of the painting, I used a line from an old Billy Joel song - “I’m sure the lights gonna hurt my eyes…” I have thought of this line for decades each time I lost my momentum and was not painting. He was talking about being away from his music and knowing the lights of the stage were going to hurt when he got there again. At the bottom of the painting, I am speaking of the loss of momentum and how important momentum is in every aspect of our lives. It is the same with making art. When away from it, it is often hard to get back into it, but when you can get momentum with it, the ideas and creativity flow like an effortless river. In the main body of the piece ‘Art’ is repeatedly painted (in pearlescent paint) to reselmble felt wallpaper in an old Italian restaurant. The desire, once again, is to compare and contrast (in an historical perspective) Johns (target), Indiana (star), frame (Renaissance)... with the desire to be a real Art Star (just like them).
BRIGHT SHINY OBJECTS The main thing is the main thing and Art for me has always been the main thing. It is where I can go to find my center and it is where I often forget to go when I most need to. This is why I like painting targets. They are a perfect visual metaphor for finding my center. The genesis of this piece came from choosing to do something (I really did not want to do)… while I was in the middle of painting this piece. I then realized how easy it is to be distracted in life from the main things. _________________________________ The targets I chose were classic Jasper Johns targets. Behind the targets is the word ‘distraction’ repaeated over and over on the left and right. In the center are the words ‘learn forget’ repeated over and over - basically the story of my life. In the two outer windows are small glowing orbs. These are painted in glowing pearlescent paint and they stand out dramatically against the flat background. I shot arrows through each of these orbs as a metaphor for how easily it is to be distracted from what is important in life. They represent the ‘bright shiny objects’ of distraction from the main things of our lives. I purposely left the center target window arrow and orb-less. At the bottom of the painting is the phrase ‘stealing time from the faulty plan.’ We go through our lives wasting time doing things that are unnecessary and unimportant (like spending our lives behind a desk shuffling paper or watching TV)… when in reality, time is among the most valuable things we have.
MORE IS NOT MORE The inspiration for this piece came after I returned home from a trip to Guatemala. While there, I saw some barefoot children playing with a stick and a ball and they seemed happy as any children I had ever seen. Upon my return, I was at a friends home and their children had literally piles of toys - many unused... many un-opened! I started reflecting on the children I had seen in Guatemala and had the realization that my friend’s children were no happier than the poor children I had seen in my travels. It made me think about our consumer based society and how we are brainwashed to believe that we need more and that ‘we need to be more.’ This became the genesis for this painting. More is not more... and more, so very often, does not seem to lead to happiness. Quite the contrary. ____________________________ The main body of the piece has shooting blocks of color flying in every direction like a modern freeway. Each one going everywhere in a hurry to get more, to make more, to be more... and yet maybe, going nowhere at all... just rushing and hurrying. Frantically trying to get more. I painted it to look as if submerged in water. At the top of the piece are the words ‘not greater than or equal to’ and inside the top ring is the arithmetic symbol for ‘not equal to.’ I chose it for its relevance and also because it looks like a spiritual symbol in the piece. In the bottom corners are the arithmetic symbols of greater than and less than. In this case... ’less than.’
HOMAGE I consider my art to be the fountainhead from which all the gifts in my life start and emanate from. It is my center and I have always sat with awe and respect for what it has given me. I have been painting seriously for more than thirty-five years, and these beautiful and simple geometric spheres (the ones seen throughout this and most of my paintings) have been a part of my art and my soul, literally, from my very first piece. I have no explanation for this, or for my fascination with these spheres. All I know is that they have been there from the beginning and I have never grown tired of painting them. This crazy sphere has, in its own way, given me life. This painting is an homage to them. Though they are relatively simple, they have evolved much thoughout the years and I look at these geometric spheres as being a part of my DNA. I have always believed that our bodies are microcosms of the universe. In other words, if you look at our bodies under a high powered microscope you will find that our bodies are actually made up of 99.999% empty space just like the universe. These spheres remind me of the atoms in our bodies and are, once again, the DNA (or building blocks) that makes up the very essence of my art… and my life.
.02 PER
The Jewish people make up just .02% of the Earth’s wondering about their historical contributions to society, despite I then started thinking how they have been persecuted since tim ways, thrived). These thoughts b
I started thinking about the Nobel prizes. Chemistry, Medicine, mankind. I then started to wonder how many of the recipients ( that the number of Jewish Nobel laureates was staggering and way to actually quantif contributions ____________
The entire painting is painted in pearlescent paints. This pain It looks like stained glass in a temple or church. Across the b metaphor for the tall chimneys of the concentration camps in th image. Coming out of each ring are small geometric chips. Th chimneys. As the chips rise into the night sky, they become ligh This lightening of the colors symbolizes the great spirits of the Je no matter what life
Behind all of this, you can see words. These words are every na in the late nineteenth century. They are intentionally faint, but qu sky. At the top of the painting are the words point-ze
RCENT
s population - an incredibly small number. I started e their small number, and whether there was a way to quantify it. me immemorial and how they have always survived (and in many became the genesis for this piece.
, Peace, Literature, Physics... and what gifts these prizes are to (historically) might be Jewish. When I did the research, I found d ‘significantly disproportionate’ to their population. Here was a fy the Jewish people’s to the world. ___________
nt, coupled with the gold frame, give it a deeply spiritual feel. bottom of this Altar, I used five geometric rings. Each ring is a he holocaust. I painted red inside each ring to complete the fiery hese represent the ashes of the Jewish victims rising from the hter in color until, as they float at the top, they are pearl white... ewish people… Persevering and succeeding throughout history, e throws at them.
ame of every Jewish Nobel laureate since the Nobel prize began uite visible as they are painted against a black pearlescent night ero-two-percent and at the bottom, the Nobel prizes.
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