Front Room
Eke Out and Get By, 1991 (left)
Mixed Media, Variable Dimensions
Who's the poorest man on earth?
Started out as a gardening catalog. Ended up as a clothes line sign.
Ax Prints, 2008 (right)
Color Reduction Woodcut Variable Edition, 66" x 150", 22" x 30" module
Picture chopping wood
Marking days
Establishing pattern
If this was a wallpaper pattern, I'd call it Calendar.
As usual this started with a process idea and then took a turn for the better. I'm motivated by process but often disappointed by the visual results. Also thinking how a violent act can make something beautiful. The ax is dull.
Front Room
Ax Prints, 2008Color Reduction Woodcut Variable Edition, 66" x 150", 22" x 30" module
Picture chopping wood
Marking days
Establishing pattern
If this was a wallpaper pattern, I'd call it Calendar.
As usual this started with a process idea and then took a turn for the better. I'm motivated by process but often disappointed by the visual results. Also thinking how a violent act can make something beautiful. The ax is dull.
Front Room
Eke Out and Get By, 1991Mixed Media, Variable Dimensions
Who's the poorest man on earth?
Started out as a gardening catalog. Ended up as a clothes line sign.
Front Room
Pads, 2008Wallpaper, Acrylic Medium and Acrylic Wash, 30" x 22" each
These are for sale
I made them that way
Nostalgic attempts to look back
At a vanishing printed past
Front Room
Pads, 2008Wallpaper, Acrylic Medium and Acrylic Wash, 30" x 22" each
These are for sale
I made them that way
Nostalgic attempts to look back
At a vanishing printed past
Conference Room
Winter, 1992 (left)Mixed Print Media on Paper with Handwork, 75" x 44"
Couldn't tell what it looked like till spring.
This work is a compromise.
It exists somewhere between what I want and what I get. Between the universal ideal and the private and personal experience. Between fantasy and fact.
I want to make ends meet.
Winter Elements, 1990-1999 (right)
Mixed Print Media on Paper, 15" x 22" each
By then it was too late to do anything about it.
Conference Room
Hammer Head 1, 1989 (foreground)Printer's Ink Hammered on Paper, 10" x 10" each
It was a noisy affair
With my 16 ounce Stanley and ink
Bang Bang Bang Ink
Bang Bang Bang Ink
I do like working this way - even though I think I can draw well – in the printed work I do, there's always this other thing called process or the printing process that gets in the way or demands some recognition – in a way I feel less responsible for the images cause the print process makes it – its not as direct as pencil on paper let's say – there's something that comes between me and the image.
Ax Prints, 2008 (background)
Color Reduction Woodcut Variable Edition, 66" x 150", 22" x 30" module
Picture chopping wood
Marking days
Establishing pattern
If this was a wallpaper pattern, I'd call it Calendar.
As usual this started with a process idea and then took a turn for the better. I'm motivated by process but often disappointed by the visual results. Also thinking how a violent act can make something beautiful. The ax is dull.
Gallery
Untitled (Ball Pieces), 2009-2010 (left)Catalog Collage on Paper and Wood with Handwork, 30" x 22" x 5"
I am in receipt of the catalog you sent me recently
I need to buy some new clothes
I really appreciate receiving it
Thank you very much
Kenneth W. Gray or Occupant.
The balls of catalog pages are glued to an armature or frame. After coating the balls with shellac they are broken or shredded and turn into a field of paper bits.
I tried different things with different catalogs – using seasonal catalogs to see how the colours of the cloths and thus the art may change.
This is another link of my work to the fiber world.
Cut Out Smithsonian, 1998
Catalog Collage on Muslin with Handwork, 74" x 30"
Nothing is cheap
Nothing is easy
Nothing is free
Nothing lasts forever
Nothing is perfect
Gift catalog from the Smithsonian – take out the objects – take out the power.
Head and Hands, 1987
Reduction Relief Print, 52" x 64"
Process illustrated – I made a reduction relief print using this book's covers as printing plates. You can judge this book by its cover.
Gallery
Untitled (Credit Cards), 2009-2010 (left)Color Monotypes, Image 2 1/8" x 3 3/8"
These are NOT real credit cards
And your name is not here
Send me some more
And I'll do something with them
Untitled (Ball Pieces), 2009-2010 (middle background)
Catalog Collage on Paper and Wood with Handwork, 30" x 22" x 5"
I am in receipt of the catalog you sent me recently
I need to buy some new clothes
I really appreciate receiving it
Thank you very much
Kenneth W. Gray or Occupant.
The balls of catalog pages are glued to an armature or frame. After coating the balls with shellac they are broken or shredded and turn into a field of paper bits. I tried different things with different catalogs – using seasonal catalogs to see how the colours of the cloths and thus the art may change.
This is another link of my work to the fiber world.
Head and Hands, 1987 (middle front)
Reduction Relief Print, 52" x 64"
Process illustrated – I made a reduction relief print using this book's covers as printing plates. You can judge this book by its cover.
Cut Out Smithsonian, 1998 (right)
Catalog Collage on Muslin with Handwork, 74" x 30"
Nothing is cheap
Nothing is easy
Nothing is free
Nothing lasts forever
Nothing is perfect
Gift catalog from the Smithsonian – take out the objects – take out the power.
Gallery
Altered Catalogs, 1993-1994 (left)Solvent Altered Catalogs, 10" x 8" closed
You made me an offer that I could refuse.
Most state of the art printmaking techniques are used commercially to advertise. I use solvents to modify this printed matter that comes to my door in the form of merchandising catalogs. By altering this material I negate its power and gain a certain personal satisfaction by imposing my will and aesthetic on the imagery and text. I challenge consumerist desires, confound the allure of glossy merchandising catalogs, and examine the role commercial printing plays in capitalist strategies.
Somehow You Just Know
Really making the connection with fiber by doing actual sewing – with and without thread – the accordion folding allowed sewn images to go through multiple layers of paper and appear in unexpected places – the sewing too is directly connected to the sewn clothes that are advertised.
Placing me in the same position as the workers who made the clothes. I identify with the factory assembly line worker. I used to work at Ford Motor Company – engine assembly line – Mechanical and Repetitive like the pressroom. The sewing machine was terrific.
Timeline, 1998 (right)
Cut and Coiled Catalogs in Handmade Box, 4" x 12" x 12"
Over and over again and again
No matter how hard you try
Thinking of a slice of tree trunk that you might see at a State Park. Park rangers could look at the rings and tell you about weather patterns or forest fires that had occurred in the woods while the tree was still standing. There are flaws in this piece too, but I haven't yet been able to come up with their meaning.
Paper/Wood
This took some time to make. I could still be working on it, but I decided to work for 40 hours – like a workweek and then consider it done. The custom box took almost as long. In terms of time I often think about studio work as factory work – or that there is a direct relationship between the 8 hour day and my studio work – I sometimes use the end of the 8 hour day to determine when to stop working on something.
What can I get done in 8 hours?
What can I get done in a 40 hour week?
I work 35 hours a week and I take a one-hour unpaid lunch. I also get two 15-minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Gallery
Untitled (Credit Cards), 2009-2010Color Monotypes, Image 2 1/8" x 3 3/8"
These are NOT real credit cards
And your name is not here
Send me some more
And I'll do something with them
House of Cards, 2010
Promotional Credit Cards and Hot Glue, 9" x 5" x 7"
NFS
No money
No credit
No comment
Untitled (Template), 1993
Template, Furniture Ad and Silicone, 5" x 8"
You can't make me do it
I have ways to get even
Silicon extruded through a furniture template.
Lobby
Untitled (Talk), 2009 (left)Teeth Printed Monotype, 13" x 40"
After some back and forth
It went over well
Reducing the print to its basics – ink, paper, pressure – my jaw is the press.
In some of these the teeth marks are like pixels.
Manifesto 1, 1984 (right)
Lithograph, 40" x 30"
I took a chance and told my story.
A spontaneous "performance" at a crit shortly after a class trip to NYC - I wanted to do "something good" so I laid out two large litho plates on the floor in front of some of the prints I had been working on – I told a little story about what I was interested in doing - a little story about my life – I printed the plates after the plates dried and made this print.
This piece remains relevant.
Lobby
Untitled (Talk), 2009 (left)Teeth Printed Monotype, 13" x 40"
After some back and forth
It went over well
Reducing the print to its basics – ink, paper, pressure – my jaw is the press.
In some of these the teeth marks are like pixels.
Lobby
Comforter, 1991Relief Printed Monotype, Collage, Décollage and Handwork, 70" x 80"
Not a picture in ink
Of a three dimensional space
But an object of ink, paper, and pressure
Like faded denim jeans – the flaws in the object are part of the design – wrinkles and cracks in the paper parallel the wrinkles and cracks on my face – these things are more about me than I ever thought.
I am convinced that the images I form by the transfer of ink under pressure are meaningful. I compare the extreme pressures used in my press-printed imagery to those social, economic, or political pressures that shape my life on a daily basis.
The printed object has meaning in and of itself ¬– this object cannot be made any other way but printed.
Stairs
Drinking Pickle Juice, 1986Lithograph, 30" x 22"
Self destructive
Self effacing
Self indulgence
Just a metaphoric truth about who I am.
Downstairs Hall
Photoplates, 1990Photo Emulsion on Found Ceramic Plates, 10" x 10" each
Throw it away
Till its gone and forgotten
I have been making a photographic collection of abandoned furniture and appliances for several years. My initial interest in the subject was purely documentary; an intuitive reaction to the furniture's odd appearance in outdoor environments. By now, the objects themselves are resting in some nearby landfill, but through these photographs I have managed to salvage their memory.
As art objects, their value is reclaimed, and their images provide some of the comfort, convenience and entertainment that their original owners had intended. I realize their potential as objects of personal expression – universal symbols of contemporary life; the vulnerability.
Studio
Wonderful World, 2002 (top left)Book Cover Printed Monotype and Acrylic Wash, 28" x 42"
Idea is greater than form
(I could use that)
American Government Today, 2002 (top right)
Altered Book Cover Printed Monotype, 28" x 42"
Process is greater then form
(Hey look at that book)
Untitled (Brochures), 1996-1999 (in display case)
Relief Printed Monotypes, Various Dimensions
Studio
Lovebirds, 1986 (foreground)Drypoint, 29" x 17 3/4"
I had love on one hand and hate on the other. So many emotions. So little time.
Older Brother, 1983 (background)
Drypoint
17" x 15"