Ever since I returned to painting full time I've kept a journal in the form of a searchable, cloud based document to capture the epiphanies and observations that bubble up while painting or after looking and thinking. As time passed, the journal grew to contain certain nuggets of distilled central themes and concepts that drive my art-making. Now I also keep a list of those core ideas as another kind of journal that I use as a reference of significance to test my choice of the next painting against. My hope is to stay true to those themes, and not fall into the enticements of pure decoration and representation.
One entry on my short list is: Pavement is a Metaphor. The asphalt & concrete underfoot is a record of our passage in time and place. The load bearing surfaces, repairs, wear marks, painted lines, dropped items and incidental debris are time-based art for me. Another entry is: Make the Effort. This is an admonition to turn around and capture those outstanding moments of confluence that I encounter, even if it means going back an exit on the highway, getting off the train, or turning around while walking (hopefully without incident). It means having a camera at the ready and taking the time to make sure I'm not missing a message meant for me...
These two paintings came from a recent walk to make the effort to explore in an off-the-beaten-path part of Queens that surrounds the Long Island Railroad yards. Overpasses for streets and elevated subways vault the many tracks in the yards, and we scrambled up the embankment to get to an abandoned set of rails called the Montauk Cutoff that curves up and out of the thickets to cross a nearby tributary of Newtown Creek. Views of the Manhattan skyline to the west peek through the hulking industrial landscape and the low angle winter sunlight made everything look rugged and dramatic.
My wonderful gallery representation: LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
And as always, you can also contact me directly by email: info@sethtane.com and follow my occasional photo posts on: Instagram