I enjoyed David Brooks’ column in today’s New York Times about the use of metaphor in everyday thought.  Ever since I read Philosophy in the Flesh, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (referenced in the Brooks column), I’ve been interested in both embodied cognition and the use of metaphor in our daily reasoning.  I’ve tried to bring some of those ideas into my artwork in paintings such as Journey (we see life through a journey metaphor), In Light of Our Knowledge (we equate light with understanding in many metaphors), Moving Forward (time and our lives take on spatial metaphors with detours and leaps), and Having in Mind (where understanding is seen through a containment metaphor).

In Light of Our Knowledge, acrylic on canvas, 36x36

My 2-person show is up for another two weekends at Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. Here’s a wide-angled panoramic view of my half of the show:

This weekend (Apr 24/25) is also Lambertville‘s annual “Shad Fest“, a celebration of a fish I’ve never really heard of. But it’s an art- and food-filled festival right in the middle of the town.  I’ll be at the gallery all day on Saturday if you’d like to stop by and say Hi.

I’m happy to announce that one of my paintings, Arising, has been accepted into the Mercer County Artists 2010 show.  The show runs from February 23 through April 1, 2010, with an opening reception on Wednesday, February 24, from 5-7:30pm (at The Gallery @ Mercer County Community College).  This year’s juror was C.J. Mugavero from The Artful Deposit gallery in Bordentown, NJ.

Arising, acrylic on panel, 30x30

I recently finished the following painting, which will be appearing in my 2-person show at Artists’ Gallery in April.

Conceptual Framework, acrylic on panel, 24x24, 2010

In a nice article in tomorrow’s (Feb 14) New York Times, Roberta Smith comments on the sameness of New York’s museum exhibitions with this suggestion:

What’s missing is art that seems made by one person out of intense personal necessity, often by hand.

Agreed! 

Charles Katzenbach and I will be hosting an opening reception for our upcoming show, Reflections, at Artists’ Gallery, on Saturday, April 10, 2010, from 6-9 pm.  The show will run from April 9 through May 2 (gallery hours are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 11am-6pm, and by appointment).  Please note that as of March 2010, Artists’ Gallery is located at 18 Bridge Street in the heart of Lambertville, NJ.

Foundations, acrylic on panel, 12x12

Most of my abstract paintings are in some way related to my interests in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science.  One of the themes that underlies this work is the notion of embodiment, that how we make sense of the world is very much tied to the physical nature of our bodies.  I became interested in this particular theory around 2004 after taking two classes while I was living in New York City:  (1) Brain Gym, which tried to link certain exercises with a kind of mental fitness (see also the book Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head); and, much more significantly, (2) a course at The New School based on the book Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

While the number of books on embodiment in its various forms has grown in recent years, I haven’t seen much about it in the mainstream press.  Today, however, The New York Times’ Natalie Angier has written a nice primer on the subject: “Abstract Thoughts?  The Body Takes Them Literally.”  The article highlights some of the fascinating research that shows, for instance, how metaphors we use when thinking about time are so embodied within us that we actually tend to lean forward when talking about the future and lean backward when talking about the past.

Artists’ Gallery is moving to a new location in the heart of Lambertville!  Beginning with our March 2010 exhibition, we’ll be at:

Artists’ Gallery
18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530.

In addition to work from all of the artists at the gallery, the GRAND REOPENING exhibition will feature landscape paintings by Joe Kazimierczyk and Michael Schweigart.  Please join us for this special reception:

Saturday, March 13
From 5-8pm

Our new location is just steps from the bridge linking Lambertville to New Hope, right in the heart of the shopping, dining, and gallery row section of Lambertville.

The August 12, 2009, issue of the U.S. 1 newspaper has a very nice, detailed profile about my artwork by Susan Van Dongen.  U.S. 1 is the business and entertainment newspaper of the Princeton area Route 1 corridor.  You can read the text version on their site here or you can click on the preview below for a larger image of the newspaper, reproduced with permission of the author.  Don’t forget there’s an opening reception this Friday night (August 14) from 6-9pm for the group show, “Dreaming,” at Gallery 125 in Trenton (125 South Warren Street, Trenton, NJ).

A Former Computer Engineer Picks Up a Brush, US1, August 12, 2009

I’m happy to report that my painting Expectation will be included in the Trenton Artists Workshop Association’s 2009  Summer Show, this year being held at Gallery 125 in downtown Trenton.  The title for this exhibition is “Dreaming”.  I recently played a little game where you grab the book nearest to you (you’re not allowed to find the coolest book), turn to page 56, find the 5th sentence on the page, and then set it to your status on Facebook.  I picked up the book Teach Yourself to Dream, sitting on the desk next to me, and found the following sentence:

It is partly because of these deep aspirations that flying is one of the most exciting dream experiences open to us.

Not a bad sentence to go along with this painting in a show about dreaming.

This painting is different from many of my other works in that it’s painted on a solid (very heavy) piece of wood (which in fact was once a table top), approximately 18″ high by 60″ wide, and it hangs a few inches off the wall because of some wooden spacers that were once part of the table.  (These dimensions also make it hard to exhibit properly here on the web site…)

Expectation, acrylic on wood, 18x60 inches

Here’s a detail of the work:

Expectation (detail)

The show, Dreaming, will be up at Gallery 125 (125 South Warren Street, Trenton, NJ) from August 14 through September 4, 2009.  There will be an opening reception on Friday, August 14, from 6-9pm.