Lewis Achenbach : Unfine Artist
We are to say, a piece is not finished until it deteriorates into nothing; compost. Art has a self life and we should aggrandize a work’s demise. Working through the ugly to recognize the beauty. The glass Duchamp. The crevices on an aged oil painting. Transcripts fall apart in release. A tale retold until it becomes another story; your story. Icons repeated until you identify and the work can move on. Above yet another idiosyncratic couch. The poignancy is, hopefully, in the receivers’ moment with the work, that is taken with, to another piece.
The act of painting is a dialogue that I have with the surface; a call and response. The process is facilitating the work to unfold into it’s proper form. It starts as a solid automatic writing pocket of actuality. A memory, a channeled expulsion, a tug at purity and singularity. Currently, I try ‘not’ to paint in a representational way. Attempting to harness an essence of (non) subject. The high challenge is to maintain the honesty of the initial mark-making, as the work proceeds. Colors ‘ask’ to be next to one another; layered and passing on the surface. A story proceeds with color marks, slashes and logical moves. The work tells me that it is finished (for now), or that I’ve gone that one stroke too far (moving that particular piece into another phase of treatment; a chastising or salvaging. A return to prime with sculptured paint ridges underneath).
I purge found surfaces to work on, from the streets of NY and SF, to disguarded planks surrounding my PA studio. Burnt wood, stones, ancestral tools all play essential parts in a completed piece : as pattern makers, derived designs and symbols of influence. Revisiting past works has come to fruition. Example : a river flood altered paint sketches in the studio and have been reworked accordingly. Water lines and smudges have become ‘work from’ points; a collaboration. Entities, ancient writing and animal formations are manifest. I am not concerned with making anything beautiful at this point. Something genuine and real is motive.
In my vocation life, as influence, I (we) do collective art with behaviorally challenged elders and youths. We utilize the energy of the moment, exploiting particular strengths and aggravating weaknesses as part of the process. The product is instinct glorious and actual. Gently directing dusty box-shelved masterpieces into artflesh. Promoting the community support system. Maintaining civility at a primal human level. And making a physical product out of our emotional need to interrelate.
Lewis Achenbach has a BFA in Film and Animation from New York University and is a 1989 graduate of Pottsville Area High School. He lives and works in NY, Pennsylvania, and San Francisco. He is also a consummate Hobo.
Brief Work History : Four plus years as production coordinator for the independent Michael Sporn Animation Studio in NYC sandwiched between art therapy and silk screening gigs. Olive topped by mural commissions, decorative painting, teaching animation sensibility to kids and freelance cartooning.
RHSA Inc. is sponsoring the solo show of Lewis Achenbach on June 13th to June 27th, 2008 in Ashland, Pennsylvania. A non-traditionally curated, site specific presenting of fresh work. Collaborative mental health based efforts will be on display on the street level, as part of the event.
Lewis will be wearing white shoes.
We are to say, a piece is not finished until it deteriorates into nothing; compost. Art has a self life and we should aggrandize a work’s demise. Working through the ugly to recognize the beauty. The glass Duchamp. The crevices on an aged oil painting. Transcripts fall apart in release. A tale retold until it becomes another story; your story. Icons repeated until you identify and the work can move on. Above yet another idiosyncratic couch. The poignancy is, hopefully, in the receivers’ moment with the work, that is taken with, to another piece.
The act of painting is a dialogue that I have with the surface; a call and response. The process is facilitating the work to unfold into it’s proper form. It starts as a solid automatic writing pocket of actuality. A memory, a channeled expulsion, a tug at purity and singularity. Currently, I try ‘not’ to paint in a representational way. Attempting to harness an essence of (non) subject. The high challenge is to maintain the honesty of the initial mark-making, as the work proceeds. Colors ‘ask’ to be next to one another; layered and passing on the surface. A story proceeds with color marks, slashes and logical moves. The work tells me that it is finished (for now), or that I’ve gone that one stroke too far (moving that particular piece into another phase of treatment; a chastising or salvaging. A return to prime with sculptured paint ridges underneath).
I purge found surfaces to work on, from the streets of NY and SF, to disguarded planks surrounding my PA studio. Burnt wood, stones, ancestral tools all play essential parts in a completed piece : as pattern makers, derived designs and symbols of influence. Revisiting past works has come to fruition. Example : a river flood altered paint sketches in the studio and have been reworked accordingly. Water lines and smudges have become ‘work from’ points; a collaboration. Entities, ancient writing and animal formations are manifest. I am not concerned with making anything beautiful at this point. Something genuine and real is motive.
In my vocation life, as influence, I (we) do collective art with behaviorally challenged elders and youths. We utilize the energy of the moment, exploiting particular strengths and aggravating weaknesses as part of the process. The product is instinct glorious and actual. Gently directing dusty box-shelved masterpieces into artflesh. Promoting the community support system. Maintaining civility at a primal human level. And making a physical product out of our emotional need to interrelate.
Lewis Achenbach has a BFA in Film and Animation from New York University and is a 1989 graduate of Pottsville Area High School. He lives and works in NY, Pennsylvania, and San Francisco. He is also a consummate Hobo.
Brief Work History : Four plus years as production coordinator for the independent Michael Sporn Animation Studio in NYC sandwiched between art therapy and silk screening gigs. Olive topped by mural commissions, decorative painting, teaching animation sensibility to kids and freelance cartooning.
RHSA Inc. is sponsoring the solo show of Lewis Achenbach on June 13th to June 27th, 2008 in Ashland, Pennsylvania. A non-traditionally curated, site specific presenting of fresh work. Collaborative mental health based efforts will be on display on the street level, as part of the event.
Lewis will be wearing white shoes.