Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Underground



I avoided the secret lab tonight. I thought, I should be in the studio tonight - then called a friend to try to set up a Go game instead. When that didn't pan out, I settled for an evening watching season one Prison Break episodes. None of this stopped me from thinking about my paintings, of course.

I went back and looked at some pictures of a series I did a few years ago called Underground. I did these on a weird-ass material known as aluminum foam. As it was described to me, the guys who were making it would melt aluminum, pump air through it, and add special sauce. The final product appears very foam-like, although it is clearly aluminum. I was given some samples by a friend of mine. I recall clearly the day I picked it up. It was a hot summer day and I left the stuff in the back of the station wagon I was driving at the time while I was at work. I learned then about a curious property the stuff had - it gathered and stored heat. When I left work, it was so hot, I couldn't lay my hand on it. I made 8 paintings on the samples I had, using oil paint, and all called Underground.

I'm not sure exactly why I went back for a look at these. Maybe they'll help guide me through these new ones. I don't know.

By the way, this oddball aluminum foam material was given to me by my friend Charlie, a fellow I haven't seen in some time. Hey Charlie, if you're out there somewhere, let's get together and catch up.

3 comments:

Gardenia said...

That is looking really good.

I'm surprised the aluminum would make a good material to paint on - they would need to be protected for warmth and getting to cold wouldn't they or would it affect the paint?

Stagg said...

I like this painting.

Anonymous said...

The texture is amazing Mr. A,