24th West Michigan Regional Competition in Lowell, MI
The new painting, “Twilight in the Wood”, is on display at the Lowell Area Arts Council as part of the 24th West Michigan Regional Competition. This year’s juror was artist Armin Mersmann who is known for his masterfully rendered, highly detailed large-scale drawings. He chose an excellent selection of representational works for the exhibition.
Twilight in the Wood, 2010, painting by David Jay Spyker,acrylics on canvas, 14"x18"
Twilight in the Wood, painting by David Jay Spykeron display at Lowell Area Arts Council, MI
The show runs through April 10, 2010, and is worth the trip to go see it.
Three Paintings at Carnegie Center for the Arts
"Vessels", 2008, by David Jay Spyker, Acrylics on Canvas, 30" x 42"
It’s that time of year again, and each year I express my fondness for the Carnegie Center for the Arts and the annual regional art competition held there.
This year I am pleased to show three paintings at the competition, and I do hope you will visit the exhibition.
The opening reception is always well attended by the artists and by a very supportive regional community of art lovers.
"The Journey", 2009, by David Jay Spyker, Acrylics on Canvas, 24" x 36"
Both of my larger paintings, “Vessels” and “The Journey”, should be fairly easy to spot right away.
You can read more about “Vessels” in a previous article.
“The Journey” was also exhibited last Autumn at the Art Center of Battle Creek’s 28th Michigan Artist’s Competition.
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My third piece on display will be the small painting “Water Study”, which was done in 2008.
"Water Study", 2008, by David Jay Spyker, Acrylics on Canvas, 5" x 7"
The 2010 Regional Art Competition runs from January 17 through February 20; the opening reception and awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, January 17 from 2-4 pm. You’ll find the museum in Three Rivers, Michigan. Please visit their website for directions and additonal information.
28th Michigan Artists Competiton at the Art Center of Battle Creek
My recent painting, “The Journey” will be displayed at this year’s Michigan Artists Competition at the Art Center of Battle Creek.
"The Journey", 2009, by David Jay Spyker, Acrylics on Canvas, 24 x 36 in.
Should you wish to attend, the group exhibition opens with a reception on October 4 from 2-4 p.m., and remains open to the public through October 24.
For directions and contact information, please visit the Art Center’s website here: www.artcenterofbattlecreek.org
“Vessels”
I started work on “Vessels” in 2006 not long after completing the painting “Flow”. After a few months I pulled it from the easel to store face-against-the-wall (sometimes you just need to do this with a particular painting), and it wound up staying there for all of 2007, and some of 2008 while I dealt with the worst part of a long term, cornea-scarring injury to my right eye. When I finally put this piece back on the easel I worked at it on and off until it was finally finished in December of 2008. Sometimes a painting just comes together almost as if it’s fulfilling a mystical destiny, and occasionally it’s like pulling the teeth from a running wolf.
"Vessels", 2008, Acrylics on Canvas, 30" x 42", by David Jay Spyker
I have been entranced with waterfall images lately – by “lately” I mean the last few years – and the idea of this space surrounded by an impossibly long and meandering wall of plummeting, rushing water was something I couldn’t get out of my mind. The myriad boats swirling and bobbing about in the swelling waters of this basin symbolize us – humanity as individuals, and as a whole. Each of us is in our own boat (we are the boats), and we all drift about together in the same dangerous and beautiful flow of life.
Carnegie Center for the Arts Competition, 2009
I have a small piece titled “Wave Study” in the 2009 regional competition at the CCA in Three Rivers, Michigan. The Carnegie show is always one of my favorites; it’s such a wonderful old building, they always put on a very nice opening, and there is typically a great selection of art to be seen.
Wave Study, 2008, 5" x 7", Acrylics on Canvas by David Jay Spyker
The Carnegie Center for the Arts/W.R. Monroe Museum utilizes all available exhibition space for a generous showing each year. It also happens that the Carnegie is where I had my first full solo show – at the time, Tom Lowry was the director – so it definitely holds a special spot in my personal artistic history.
The 2009 Regional Juried Arts Show runs January 18 – February 22, and the opening reception and awards ceremony is on Sunday, January 18 from 2-4 pm.
Small Website Update
The Tree, Graphite on Paper, by David Jay Spyker
I finally put some drawings in the drawings section on my website; it’s only a handful, but it’s better than nothing.
I’ve also been playing with a new, clean color scheme, and updating some links. I wanted something more simple so I used whites and very pale greys for the background, and shades of grey for all text and borders. There is still a complete remake of the site in the works one day, which will include some things to make it easier to update, and a clean-up of some other issues that still exist. It will be some time yet before that happens, and maybe someday I will also get around to adding some more paintings.
My other project has been setting up this blog at its new sub-domain. Writings have been transferred over from my original blog, from the news section of davidjayspyker.com (that section no longer exists), and from notebooks and various loose sheets of paper covered in my chicken-scratchings.
The drawings are here.
Addendum: My main website went through a major overhaul in May, 2010, and all drawings have moved to their new listings at www.davidjayspyker.com
A Trip to the Art Institute of Chicago
On a recent trip to Chicago we spent several hours in the Art Institute viewing our favorite paintings, and seeing some wonderful, recent acquisitions. It had been a long time since our last visit there – too long, really, maybe two, perhaps three years – and it was an interesting experience. Much of the American art collection had been rearranged, and the place had that weird, alien-yet-familiar feel at first.
In The Sea by Arnold Bocklin (detail)
I say it was an interesting experience because, from my perspective, I knew I would be viewing these pieces through eyes which have been changed by personal study, and through experience as a painter over the past few years. My hope was to see new things, new techniques, and expanded artistic languages and expressions within the layers of paint that hang upon those walls. I was not disappointed.
It is amazing how much a painter can learn about another artist and his techniques by studying his work up close. As I learn more, I come to see more information twinkling in a masterpiece, and the more I see, the more I learn. I find myself wondering what I will see and understand after another decade or two of study and painting.
On this visit, I was paying particular attention to the various representations of water in the American landscapes, and in the more classical realistic works. There was something I sought, and I think that perhaps I found it, but only time at the easel will reveal what fruits will be borne of the experience. I am hoping for a rich harvest.
Remember to visit often the things you love, lest your soul starve, and your heart wither.
~David Jay Spyker
A Brief Thought on Artistic Community
Recent events in my own life have reminded me of the importance of community between artists. It is all too easy to become insular, isolated, when living as an artist. Our work requires hours of solitary action, observation, and thought, but without creative interaction – between artists, and also between artists and the world at large – there is indeed a certain void in our lives.
The Wings of Butterflies
Originally written February 3, 2002 at 4:12 a.m.:
I am in the studio working and listening to “Queen’s Greatest Hits II”; music has always been tremendously important to me, and I grew up listening to Queen. I remember the day that Freddie Mercury left us (what has it been, something like ten? eleven years?), and the profound sense of loss that I felt upon hearing the news. A lasting knot visited my stomach on that day. Of course I never knew the man personally, but he, along with his fellow musicians, laid their hearts bare for all to experience through the intimate nature of their words and music; when an artist takes that kind of risk, we all are given the opportunity to come to know that person on a close level. If we take that opportunity, then they become part of us, we are enriched.
The day Freddie passed, we all knew that there would be no more Queen, that the clarion song of that voice would no longer grace our ears, and that the world had lost some truth and magic; but we also knew that he had left us with something of himself that would endure even well beyond our passing. I listen to the music, and he is alive in a corner of my soul. It is something I will always carry with me. It is hope.
My thoughts inevitably drift from Freddie Mercury to Martin Maddox. Martin, that clenched knot returned to my gut when I learned of your death. You left your soul raw upon your canvasses, bleeding your heart dry with every stroke of the brush. I am glad to have known you; your work is as much a part of me as is my own – thank you.
To Freddie, Martin, and all those deep and daring souls who have gone all too soon (is it ever not too soon): your souls are “painted like the wings of butterflies” – fly. We will carry on with the show.