Day 4665: Old Houses Leap & Explore & Cartoonist, James Kochalka

    

"Unfair": Acrylics and Ink Brush

  

Want music?

    

Click:  Lionel Richie, You Are.

 

2GN2S

Jumbled Old Houses Leap & Explore

In ‘Passing Time,’  by Seth Clark 

All images courtesy of Seth Clark and Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Philadelphia

Crumbling shingle roofs, peeling plywood, and fragmented framing characterize much of Seth Clark’s recent work, in which spheres or mounds of dilapidated houses serve as studies of texture, material, time, and neglect. In new work on view this week in his solo exhibition Passing Through at Paradigm Gallery + Studios, he’s made one mindful addition: limbs.

The Pittsburgh-based artist’s collaged paper paintings, pastel and ink transfer drawings, and sculptures reflect his interest in the chaotic aesthetic of collapsing houses. More recently, his jumbled compositions have sprouted legs, strolling or running and adding a sense of both urgency and playfulness to the architectural forms.

Drawing on daily observations and photographs, especially of Pittsburgh’s suburban row houses, Clark assembles references for window frames, siding, gables, roof lines, and more to emphasize various states of deterioration. Found materials and papers provide the paintings’ layered textures, which he then ages with ink washes, charcoal, graphite, pastel, and acrylic. His new works are dollhouse-like and a smidge brighter than in the past, with the addition of cheerful pinks, yellows, and purples to complement darker browns and grays.

Clark’s anthropomorphized constructions suggest the nature of inhabiting—something akin to the soul of a place in addition to its physical makeup. The artist “attributes this change to recently becoming a father and developing an urge to instill hope into crumbling houses and broken window panes,” the gallery says. “What was first a sobering reminder of mortality has now become a message of how, even in states of chaos and decay, there can still be enough joy found in dark places to pick up the pieces and create something new.”

Passing Through runs from June 6 to June 29 in Philadelphia. 

See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

James Kochalka

JAMES KOCHALKA is one of the most unique and prolific alternative cartoonists working in America today. His comics have been published internationally by almost every alternative comics publisher; he's recorded several music albums under the name James Kochalka Superstar (making him a favorite at college radio stations across the country); and he's developed animated cartoons for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Hangover.

 is an American comic book artist, writer, animator, and rock musician. His comics are noted for their blending of the real and the surreal. Largely autobiographical, Kochalka's cartoon expression of the world around him includes such real-life characters as his wife, children, cat, friends and colleagues, but always filtered through his own observations and flights of whimsy. I found him through the Substack  group. 

James Kochalka

  

 

A 3+ minute video, Red and vs Black ant , here

 

 

 

  

 

Just because ...

 

Emperor Shag

With electric blue eyes that stare straight through you, and orange eyebrows that look hand-drawn by a god in a hurry, the Imperial Shag doesn't just belong to the sea - he owns it. Perched on rocky cliffs, diving into Antarctic waters like a torpedo in tuxedo feathers, this bird isn't here for your amusement. He's here to hunt, to survive, to raise a chick in sub-zero storms... and still show up looking like a gothic prince. Unlike most birds, Imperial Shags can dive up to 150 feet deep, using their dense bones to sink quickly and catch fish with eerie precision.

 

 

Wednesday's Smiles ...