Artist James Griffith
11 images Created 19 Nov 2011
Artist James Griffith in his studio in Altadena, California.
I spent a few hours in James's studio, watching him, photographing him,and talking. At the time of this portrait James was coming to the end of a series of landscape paintings. I have to say normally I am not enthralled by landscape paintings or photography for that matter. It's not that I don't appreciate the beauty of the works but I almost always feel as if I'm not getting any message from the artist. Yes, it's beautiful but isn't the landscape itself the real work of art? Maybe my philistine tastes will eventually evolve enough for me to appreciate these types of work. But James had made all of these paintings as if looking through a sheet of plastic. I was mesmerized and you can see some of the works at this archive (http://jamesgriffithpainting.com/archive/) on his website. What caused him to make these paintings? He told me that he was out hiking in the forest and was into this hike for a couple of hours when he suddenly and literally came upon a wall of plastic sheeting. Now I know many people and I would include myself who would have a more typical reaction. James figured that the plastic had been put there for some reason but now was, perhaps no longer need. Instead of dismissing this, he takes what he sees to make a painting with layers of meaning. James says it best in his artist statement about this series, "it was at once stunningly beautiful and appalling…. I knew I was looking at a form that could express the problems i wanted to explore in paint". For James it would not be the simple and obvious good (nature) vs evil (man) but he would produce several works of depth.
As I was wrapping up my visit and portrait session… and I love this, James was already excited about what would become his next series. He showed me what looked like dirty brown goop and it had a strong smell of petrol. It was tar. He showed me a couple of "paintings" that he had painted with the tar. But he wasn't satisfied with how the tar worked as paint. But he was excited about figuring how how to use it and all the meanings that would layered into the paintings. He collects this tar from pit #91 from the well known La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles just 20 miles from his home. He eventually figured out how to use the tar and started painting birds and other animals using this primordial goo which of course, came from plants and animals millions of years ago adds obvious meaning. But James goes further and uses pollen, volcanic glass, copper sulfate and even human ashes to add layers and layers in almost an archeological study of meaning.
http://jamesgriffithpainting.com
I spent a few hours in James's studio, watching him, photographing him,and talking. At the time of this portrait James was coming to the end of a series of landscape paintings. I have to say normally I am not enthralled by landscape paintings or photography for that matter. It's not that I don't appreciate the beauty of the works but I almost always feel as if I'm not getting any message from the artist. Yes, it's beautiful but isn't the landscape itself the real work of art? Maybe my philistine tastes will eventually evolve enough for me to appreciate these types of work. But James had made all of these paintings as if looking through a sheet of plastic. I was mesmerized and you can see some of the works at this archive (http://jamesgriffithpainting.com/archive/) on his website. What caused him to make these paintings? He told me that he was out hiking in the forest and was into this hike for a couple of hours when he suddenly and literally came upon a wall of plastic sheeting. Now I know many people and I would include myself who would have a more typical reaction. James figured that the plastic had been put there for some reason but now was, perhaps no longer need. Instead of dismissing this, he takes what he sees to make a painting with layers of meaning. James says it best in his artist statement about this series, "it was at once stunningly beautiful and appalling…. I knew I was looking at a form that could express the problems i wanted to explore in paint". For James it would not be the simple and obvious good (nature) vs evil (man) but he would produce several works of depth.
As I was wrapping up my visit and portrait session… and I love this, James was already excited about what would become his next series. He showed me what looked like dirty brown goop and it had a strong smell of petrol. It was tar. He showed me a couple of "paintings" that he had painted with the tar. But he wasn't satisfied with how the tar worked as paint. But he was excited about figuring how how to use it and all the meanings that would layered into the paintings. He collects this tar from pit #91 from the well known La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles just 20 miles from his home. He eventually figured out how to use the tar and started painting birds and other animals using this primordial goo which of course, came from plants and animals millions of years ago adds obvious meaning. But James goes further and uses pollen, volcanic glass, copper sulfate and even human ashes to add layers and layers in almost an archeological study of meaning.
http://jamesgriffithpainting.com
