Geoff Disston Geoff-Disston.squarespace.com Geoff was trained in watercolors and raised in a family of plein air painters. He has moved from representational art to abstract and back again. In the late ‘90s to ’05, he was doing commission work of casual portraits. These were on large raw canvases using layers of watered down latex paint. These paintings are in New York City, Northeast Harbor, Maine, Quogue, NY, and London. Geoff has always been drawn to abstract in part because it allows for a stronger focus on the basic constructs of making images- color, form, and space. Line Paintings Although these paintings might at first remind you of Brice Marden’s line paintings, they are equally inspired by Alexander Calder’s wire sculptures- in form as well as humor. Each plexiglass slide has one continuous line drawing of an image. The painting’s title is your hint to finding the image. Succeeding slides are usually the inverse image or blown-up fragments of the first slide. As in the CERN series, the purely formal idea is one of color and spacial interactions. Here too, shadows, both real and faux, play with the viewer’s perception. These paintings are all hand drawn using a template created from a smaller drawing. The process begins with many small and quick drawings without moving the pencil from the paper. It might take over a dozen drawings until the right feel or rhythm is achieved. Everyday objects and iconic art images are all game. Using the template allows for a duplication of the drawing using different color schemes as well as combining elements to create entirely new images. Line Sculpture Derived from the line paintings, the sculptures are 3D versions of the line paintings’ central themes. These sculptures bring out the lineage to Calder’s wire sculptures except that the forms are intentionally ambiguous. For example, in the horse and rider sculpture, a horse’s leg can also be the rider’s leg. Or are the horse’s legs represented in action like some futurist painting? Here too, color plays an important role to bring out the line drawing and shadows. CERN Project These multi-layered works try to capture the energy shown from small-scale ink splatters onto a much larger scale, thus the inspired name from the CERN collider. Spacial tension is created both literally and figuratively, via plexiglass slides and through color interaction. These works clearly pay tribute to Joseph Alber’s “Homage to a Square” series as well as the controlled spontaneity of Pollock’s drip paintings and Motherwell’s ink splatters. The linear geometry of the square both compliments the free form splatter patterns while allowing for color transitions. The result creates a tension in the colors that both push and pull each other. Separating the panels elevates this effect and also gives that opportunity of natural light and shadows to add to the dynamics. The “paintings” are first made by cropping ink splatters on a small scale of 8”X 8” squares. After editing out any unwanted marks or splatters, the images are then scanned onto a computer for arranging in overlays of the slides and colors- although most of the color work is done on watercolor paper and acrylics, as well as smaller transparencies. Once the computer mockups are defined, they are sent to a commercial printer who die-cuts a vinyl negative onto the plexiglass. The paint is then applied on each panel and the negatives removed. The frames are all oak, while the larger (4X4) are custom made with a ceruse finish.