A Very Old Story Painting

Ian Summers’ Manifesto In the Manner of Claes Oldenburg *** I am for an art of memories that are chips and fragments, but not nostalgic. Life lived gathering experiences and images that are searching for meaning and connections. Faces conjured forming associations with people living and dead, with persons who may never have lived anywhere but in my mind. Conjured faces. I am for faces buried for over fifty years or more guessing how I knew them. Faces haunt me in my sleep and when I am awake. *** I am for seas of people on the streets of New York. I am for remembering everyone I have ever met. I am for the rags and bones of my childhood – encountering legends and myths from the moment I broke my first Crayola to my last drip of acrylic paint splashing and peeling it from my toenails. *** I am for not knowing where I am going until the painting wheezes and whines until I alter the course. *** I am for art on tar paper that bleeds and bubbles and smells and ghosts and is unpredictable as life itself. *** I am for projects that respond to life like when I spent three months – mesmerized in front of a television set watching the aftermath of 9/11. Faces flashed for nanoseconds. I tried to paint every one of them. Gestures. Expressions. Pundits. Soldiers. Politicians. First Responders. Anyone including actors making random appearances on disconnected television commercials. Working faster. Faster. At record speed. *** Over one thousand monotypes made from thousands of plates none bigger than an index card congregating making triptychs nine feet wide. *** Faces. More Faces. Conjured faces who do not make themselves known to me until they appear in a matter of moments on my iPad and painted with my fingers. *** I am for change ups. Moving from faces to what I see out my window and on the streets of Easton. Downtown. West Ward. Neighborhoods. The beat of the city. Is this new work a response or a reaction? *** (The portrait accompanying this profile is by Saatchi artist Will Harmuth.)