Paintings

Mines of Kinds /  by Joe Olney

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Mines of Kinds  acrylic and graphite on panel with drilled holes  34x42  SOLD

This is a mashup of a "disrupt" minefield pattern (drilled into the panel) and a field of geologic unconformities (the paint and graphite bits). A little tribute to my active duty days at the National Training Center in California.

Unconformities are tricky little buggars found in the rock record. They are the planes that separate rock masses when sediment deposition is not continuous, usually due to a period of erosion before the sediment deposition picked back up. I say they're tricky because they denote a loss in recorded time. It's tough to know what actually happened when you've lost time. Disrupt minefields are also tricky little buggars. They are meant to disrupt an enemy's plans, causing them to panic and lose precious moments. Warfare and geology are gritty businesses not for the faint of heart.

The last time I was part of an emplacement crew was in 2000 or so, training in the Mojave Desert as a wiry 21-year-old army combat engineer dude. My comrades and I were in this low area at the foot of a small mountain and the sun was just calling it a quits for the night. Below our feet was a mixture of big rocks and little rocks with a light dusting of sand on top to conceal the chaos below. The mines (inert) weren't too bad to put in, but the razor-wire frat fence around it was the real challenge.  We spent hours pounding those pickets into the red rocky ground. Half the time the pickets would just bounce off a rock just below the surface, sending vibrating shocks into our hands and arms with each "Pang!" of the heavy, black picket-pounder. Sometimes we could find a crack in the rock to work with, but other times we'd have to find a softer spot to the right or the left, making for a wavy edge along our fence. Fortunately, I can't quite picture the fruits of our labor. The mental image is all but gone. Maybe it was dark by then, but I'll bet it was one of the roughest looking minefields we ever put in - haha! Needless to say, I enjoyed putting this painting's minefield a lot more.

Tube Top/Bottom /  by Joe Olney

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Tube Top/Bottom  acrylic on wood panel  16x20  SOLD

Another little ditty that follows the stripe theme. There are these times when things far away (say, a horizon) line up with things close up (a horizontal edge of some sort). In those moments it seems that space is collapsed and the world becomes flat just briefly. Keeping still keeps that phenomenon going; any movement and it falls away. I love those moments of being still and seeing weird things that destroy a logic that a moment ago seemed so sound.

Nice Try, Tie /  by Joe Olney

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Nice Try, Tie  acrylic on wood panel  12x16  SOLD

I'm a bit happier these days and am making work that reflects that. This piece and others that follow this post refer to my studies in geology, my time in the military, a deep attraction to stripes, and a recently developed appreciation for the benefits of meditation and meditative work. Maybe the attraction to stripes has something to do with how they vibrate visually or describe a texture that begs to be felt. I don't know what it is, but I enjoy creating them, toying with them, and looking at them immensely.

sidenote:  For simplicity's sake, I've included prices with the title/medium/size info. If you see something that speaks to you that you'd like to purchase anywhere on this site, please don't hesitate to contact me: joegolney@gmail.com , olneyjoe@hotmail.com , or give me a call on my cell if you have that handy. In most cases I can ship it out the following day.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the posts!

Joe

Aunt /  by Joe Olney

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Aunt  ink, acrylic, and gesso on paper  23x22

I have these photographs of my family that I've been using for various projects. This one refers to a picture of my aunt (or grand aunt, rather) holding my sister, I think. Tough to tell sometimes who's who with pictures of babies.

Distorted George, 1969 #2 (Camo George) /  by Joe Olney

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Distorted George, 1969 #2 (Camo George)  gesso and acrylic on paper  22x25

Having more fun with this image of George Carlin being a goofball. I decided to expand the view to that of the original image while pushing "digital distortion" look a bit into the decorative. I have him slightly camouflaged here, which wasn't really planned, but I like it. Well, it was sort of planned. I had been thinking a lot about Ann Gale's work and how her subjects dissipate into their surroundings. I suppose that's the aim of camouflage, too. With this painting, I think had I aimed for a camouflaged look on the outset, it wouldn't have turned out quite like this. I've tried making an image like this before (with lines making up the figure in the foreground and also the background) with pretty bad results. Something about the boundaries of the body being too strictly adhered to makes for a stiff drawing or painting and one-way ticket to the garbage can. I'm much happier with how this whacky picture turned out. It seems loose enough, and it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Distorted George, 1969 /  by Joe Olney

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Distorted George, 1969  gesso and acrylic on paper  9x12

I've been making a lot of heavy stuff for a while, so I decided to lighten it up a bit. This drawing is from a still of George Carlin performing on, I believe, the Tonight Show in 1969. Shamefully, it's taken from his Wikipedia page, but fuck it, the original image made me laugh as he always has. As I made this one, I decided to pass the source image though a couple of imagined modes of distortion - first by the lined static common of the era of the original broadcast and then through a more digital distortion of the video viewing we enjoy today through youTube and other online video sites. Distortion on top of distortion. Something like that.

Reflection /  by Joe Olney

IMG_0121IMG_0113IMG_0116 Reflection  sanded gesso on canvas over panel  approx. 33x41

This sort of work is not the easiest to view. It requires time and patience. It's a conceptual piece that I finished last year, and it addresses the tension one feels when starting something new. I feel I've had a lot of experience with new starts. Unlimited freedom can be a little overwhelming, but it can also be uplifting, terrifying, intimidating, and refreshing. These mixed feelings can bring about a hesitant pause in the face of endless possibilities. In that pause, important (and not-so-important) decisions are made. I chose to refine this gessoed surface to mirror finish in order to heighten the tension of what comes next: Mark number one, the first swipe of the brush, that first step on a new trail.

As for the reflection, it's one that denies the self. Because of how it's made, one cannot see one's own reflection in it, only that of their surroundings. Personally, I find that sometimes I can be my biggest hurdle to get over. If only I could get out of my own way. If only I wasn't so aware of myself, my fears and my past and more aware of what's around me, I'd be able to move on to the next thing. So with this in mind, I tried to catch the silent moment when misgivings are denied and new challenges are about to begin with clarity, courage, and openness.

for M and B

Linden Row Show /  by Joe Olney

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Range  wood  12x16split landscapes

Gristle in place  wood, gesso, encaustic, acrylic medium 12x16wood 3

Neither here nor there  wood  12x16eye for eye

An arm and a leg and an eye for an eye  wood and encaustic  12x16 

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Speak English, will you Doug?  wood and encaustic  12x16

Above are five pieces that are in the show at Linden Row. Here are the details if you would like to see them in person:

Who: Terry Brown, Janis Goodman, Joe Olney, Martha Saunders, Paul Thulin, and Randy Toy
What: The American Landscape
When: January 18 – April 29; opening is February 1, 5-9pm
Where: 100 East Franklin Street Richmond, VA (across the street from the Richmond Public Library)
For more info: http://www.1708gallery.org/education-and-outreach/satellite-exhibitions.php

New series/new show /  by Joe Olney

 wood2JOwood1JOwood3JO wood4JOWood Series I-IV  sanded wood or sanded wood, gesso, encaustic, and gel medium  all approx 12x17

This is a series I'm working on for an upcoming group show at Linden Row Inn called The American Landscape. In the fall semester, I really started getting into sanded surfaces. In a piece I will post soon, I polished a gessoed canvas to a mirror finish. For some reason I enjoy the monotonous and repetitive process of refining a surface. When working with wood I find that there are countless mark making possibilities within the layers of plywood. This is nothing new. If you take a walk anywhere where there are exposed beds of sedimentary rock, you'll see the most amazing line work on the eroded surfaces. I had forgotten about that. For a long time, I haven't had an artistic outlet for my interest in geology, and I didn't want to force it. I wanted it to come about organically. And luckily for me it has. When I'm making these pieces I'm taken back to what I learned in my sedimentary and stratigraphy classes at William & Mary, my junior year field trip to Big Bend, Tx, Army desert training in the Mojave Desert in my active duty days, and, of course, my deployment overseas in the Middle East with the Virginia National Guard. And with those places in mind, these works (to me, at least) become as much about  landscape, topography, and geology as they are about meat, skin, fat, fir, and various types of wounds. I also enjoy the optical properties some of them possess. By sanding them at certain angles, the skewed orientation of them hopefully creates a tension in the viewer. However skewed they may look, though, the outer dimensions of them are all at right angles. I wanted there to be a  stabilizing counterpoint to the off-kilter quality that some of them exhibit. I will be making many more of these, and I'm excited to see how the series evolves as I experiment with scale and in the introduction of various mediums and wood types.

Here's the skinny on the show:

What: The American Landscape

Where: 100 East Franklin Street Richmond, VA (across the street from the Richmond Public Library)

When: January 18 - April 29; opening is February 1, 5-9pm

Who: Terry Brown, Janis Goodman, Joe Olney, Martha Saunders, Paul Thulin, and Randy Toy

For more info: http://www.1708gallery.org/education-and-outreach/satellite-exhibitions.php

war painting /  by Joe Olney

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war painting  copper wire and 90 stamped, stainless steel dogtags  approx. 48x50

I've been experimenting with text lately in my work. I feel that in some cases, certain mediums can get you closer to what you want to say than others. So I guess this piece is pointing out that painting in oil (as I have been doing for a few years now) is not an ideal medium for what I'm trying to do in terms of making work about my experiences overseas. But I'll qualify this by saying that I feel limited in oil painting and painting in general because of what I'm trying to say with it. Others may find painting to be the perfect medium for saying what they want to say. And indeed it's an amazing medium with many possibilities  However, when it comes to how and what I wish to communicate, painting just isn't doing it. And so, for the time being, I've moved on to more sculptural/installation projects.

I ordered a metal stamp kit and about 100 of the tags off Amazon. The text I used comes from the color names that oil paint manufacturers use. Names like "burnt umber" and "permanent green light" conjure up so many images from my time in the military. I get flashes of charred remains or the dancing shades of green of NVGs. The use of wire is a nod to IEDs and the way in which our "enemies" communicated with us. And of course the dogtags have their own history and significance. Light, shadow, and subtle movement also plays a part in this piece.

Until January 25th or so, this piece a few others of mine as well as some of my very talented friends' work will be up at Plant Zero on the southside. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. The show is called "Good and Good for You". It's free and M-F it's open from 9am to 5pm.

This semester I was awarded a VCUArts research grant in order to expand this project. The final result should be about 5,000 dogtags or so. However, the text will most likely be from conversations I have with my army buddies and other veterans. My goal is to have the project completed and the venue where it will hang worked out by the end of next semester.

Cody /  by Joe Olney

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Cody  oil on paper  17x22  (in traveling show)

Two months before I met him at the VA hospital, Cody had ten fingers and ten toes. But in January, 2012 a pressure-plate IED took out his legs above the knee and two fingers while on foot patrol in Afghanistan. Some classmates and I were at the VA to make work for a reportage drawing class we were taking. But I didn't really want to draw Cody while I was there. I just wanted to listen. The conversations you have with combat veterans who have been what he's been through and lived to tell about it are extremely intense and personal and matter of fact. It's difficult to listen when you're distracted by the process of making a drawing from life. I realize now that there's a place for listening and a place for drawing when doing this sort of thing. The drawing's important, but the core of the work comes from making a connection with someone. And with Cody that was easy. He was calm and kind and very generous with his time even though he had his family there who came up from North Carolina. He was present but also away somewhere. And understandably so. As we spoke, his little brother (maybe 12 y.o. or so) played a FPS war-type video game set in the Middle East on the hospital room's television, which was pretty surreal. Between explanations of where he was from and how he sustained his injuries, the sound of gunfire and explosions and the constant, frantic, frustrated tapping of the controller clicked in the background. I wanted him to shut it down, but I didn't say anything. Perhaps he was playing it to better understand his older brother's life or to prove he had what it took to be tough, too. If only it were that easy. I made this piece with psychological distance in mind - the distance between being whole and being fragmented, between the warrior mentality and the civilian mindset, between innocence and corruption, between who he was and who he is, between safety and danger, and between being lost and being at peace.

gauze /  by Joe Olney

gauze oil on canvas 20x25

Above is the latest version of this painting with the previous versions below to show a bit about the process of this image. Some are interesting, some are kind of shitty, but together I thought they'd be interesting to look at in terms of explored ideas. Most of my paintings lately have gone through similar phases, however, I'm not sure how clear that is when viewing them digitally. There's a surface quality in the originals that's lost in the photographs. This is a common gripe among artists who post there work on the internet, but it should be kept in mind when viewing any work on a site - chances are a piece of artwork will have more to say in person than on your monitor.