COMING SOON:
The Good Life
New work by Abq artists Andrew Fearnside, Hilda Kirschner and Derrick Montez.
Tortuga Gallery
Opening Friday 8/3/18 6-9pm
Live art process: Saturday 8/18/18 10am-8pm, "Sonorous Sonora," Sonoran desert cactus construction with music TBA
Artist talk and other events TBA

For the past couple years, I've been swept up in the international attraction to succulents and cacti. (Here are the two Pinterest boards I've been saving images to: Succulents and The Good Life.) There are endless images of the unearthly oddness of these beautiful plants, generally removed from their native environments, ensconced in tongue-in-cheek hipster pots, and bathed in the pastel hues of the Spring/Summer collections du jour. I fall for these images, over and over, as do millions of others.

What's going on here?

I don't know for sure, but I do know that all over the world, all of us sensitive aesthetes are mulling over something. My hypothesis: that something is our way of wondering about the Good Life. Is this it? What if it isn't?

And what if it is?

So far, my production plan consists of:
– 40" x 30" vertical rectangle and 30" x 30" squares, based on the image proportions beloved by the iPhone and Instagram
– use of the reduced and carefully curated palettes of fashion folks sharing their work freely.
– use photos I've taken over the past couple years as source material for drawings both projected and freehand

I'm excited to at last play with the pattern-clash tools Nathalie du Pasquier perfected. How much is too much, drowning in the visual noise? How much too timid, not enough? And what do those feelings tell me about the Good Life?

There's no way I'll completely match the colors of the fashionistas, as I'll be building color through many, many layers. I want to clarify and simplify the process I developed for the paintings of the last few years. I want to see if I can let these paintings rest easy, rather than diddling them into a complexity that may not really serve them.

The Good Life (6am)