Landscape Painting
Ever since I came back to Guam I've been painting landscapes. Its a very strange feeling, since for years as an artist on Guam I loathed landscapes. Mampos ti ya-hu sa' puru ha' tourist art ayu.
My art was primarily abstract or expressionistic, and that sort of stuff sells poorly on Guam, where the sensibilites of both tourists and locals tends to desire historical representative work or charmingly inoffensive tropical landscape art. So for years I basically survived off students loans, constant extensions on my work study contract and by flirting with middle aged gay men to get them to buy some of my work. I'm not a household name by any means, but I do take some small pleasure in the fact that you can find my work hung in hundreds of homes on Guam (or maybe they are tucked away hidden in closests, or forgotten fallen behind couches). Even though I never could have survived on my art alone, I still do cherish those years when I was actively producing work and actively reading about art, talking and thinking about art. Desde matto yu' tatte duru hinassosso-ku put manu'uyu fina'nu'i ta'lo, or about having another art show.
My last solo exhibit was more than five years ago, and I'm kind of itching to have another one. But this begs the question, what type of work will I exhibit? For the first time in my life I'm actually considering having a landscape show, I have no idea why, but I just keep painting them. This could be a sign of my maturing sensibilities, or it could be related to the two grey hairs that my nephew found the other day (buente kumekefatta yu', no?)
Here's one a just finished a few days ago:
My art was primarily abstract or expressionistic, and that sort of stuff sells poorly on Guam, where the sensibilites of both tourists and locals tends to desire historical representative work or charmingly inoffensive tropical landscape art. So for years I basically survived off students loans, constant extensions on my work study contract and by flirting with middle aged gay men to get them to buy some of my work. I'm not a household name by any means, but I do take some small pleasure in the fact that you can find my work hung in hundreds of homes on Guam (or maybe they are tucked away hidden in closests, or forgotten fallen behind couches). Even though I never could have survived on my art alone, I still do cherish those years when I was actively producing work and actively reading about art, talking and thinking about art. Desde matto yu' tatte duru hinassosso-ku put manu'uyu fina'nu'i ta'lo, or about having another art show.
My last solo exhibit was more than five years ago, and I'm kind of itching to have another one. But this begs the question, what type of work will I exhibit? For the first time in my life I'm actually considering having a landscape show, I have no idea why, but I just keep painting them. This could be a sign of my maturing sensibilities, or it could be related to the two grey hairs that my nephew found the other day (buente kumekefatta yu', no?)
Here's one a just finished a few days ago:
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