#30 from the series, Desolation's Comfort | Mark Lindsay
Dabbling in artistic discovery eventually drives me back to my more formal work. I can always feel it. At a certain point while drifting down the river I feel the need for structure. I crave a mooring, maybe even some solid land. Desolation's Comfort is a body of work that began with my MFA graduate show in 2007. On and off, I return to it, for it is the work that seems to express my most inner place. Today, I am back again.
I find the inspiration for this work in dreams, in old snapshots, and in desolate places. The work is a series of stories without narrative, of people that are now gone. I find places and people and bring them together. I then work the story to a point where it feels like it has a foundation without suffocating framework. Then I send it out to see how people feel about it. #30 in the series is presented here today. It's been on the back burner, simmering for some time. Suddenly, I decided to touch it up and declare it complete.
Creativity is such a mystery. Things percolate and churn and bubble and then suddenly they become real. Ideas spark, igniting other ideas. Disparate concepts conjoin. Now ten more images form in my head where earlier today there were none. The blank and barren canvas blooms.
#30 will make its debut at the Red Door Gallery in Oakland. The show, Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard, will open on May 1, 2009. Opening reception will be held on Friday, May 1st, from 6-10 PM. The gallery is located at:
416 26th Street
Oakland, CA
Between Telegraph and Broadway on 26th Street