Whirlpool
Whirlpool is a painting done by the square inch. The canvas was drawn up in one-inch squares. A series of photographs taken on the Chippewa River were collaged together and drawn with a corresponding grid. (The image of the whirlpool was taken from the Shawtown Bridge during spring high water.) This is not the Bill Alexander school of happy painting. It is boring, tedious work. I wore out dozens of #1 sable brushes. The painting is 30" x 40", or 1,200 square inches. If all goes well, I can paint at a rate of two square inches per hour; 1,200 divided by two equals 600 hours (minimum) painting time, or ten 60-hour weeks.
It is an image of unique perspective, looking down and through. There is no horizon line, no real point of reference or scale beyond the lattice work — which may or may not be represented as actual size. There is a contrast of close, shallow space with deep or ambient space. It is about being in two different places at once, or being in the same place at different times.
EXHIBITIONS
> 1987: ArtsWest 8, L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
> 1988: Robert J. Gehrke — Cast Metals, L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Whirlpool, 1987
oil on canvas
30" x 40"
private collection
It is an image of unique perspective, looking down and through. There is no horizon line, no real point of reference or scale beyond the lattice work — which may or may not be represented as actual size. There is a contrast of close, shallow space with deep or ambient space. It is about being in two different places at once, or being in the same place at different times.
EXHIBITIONS
> 1987: ArtsWest 8, L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
> 1988: Robert J. Gehrke — Cast Metals, L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Whirlpool, 1987
oil on canvas
30" x 40"
private collection