Pat Gordon has made his home in New York City for a number of years now, but he's still considered one of Tulsa's favorite artists.
A new show of his paintings goes on display Thursday at Joseph Gierek Fine Art, 1512 E. 15th St. (this evening is also the second annual Cherry Street Art Walk, with the galleries along this stretch of 15th Street opening new shows).
The title of Pat's show is "Botanica." And this is what he has to say about it:
Life can be simply described for me in terms of work. I paint what I determined to be the most glorious, soul comforting, descriptive forms that I could. Flowers. I paint what comforts me the most in my mid life.
As I continue to evolve in the process of painting, I begin to subscribe to the thought that less is more. NEVER in my life did I ever ascribe to that belief. Being a child of the 1950's with parents who had survived World War II and the Great Depression, I was joyously given the good things of life, that they had never had. I was constantly made aware of how good life was for us, locally and globally, my father instructed us in the concepts of luck, awe and chance.
I am lucky. He was right.
There are times that I stand and paint in my studio overlooking the Hudson River, in awe and curiosity of what my life has become and what my hands are doing on this flat rectilinear canvas. Sometimes I am present, and sometimes I am not.
I am curious every morning to see how those globs of randomly selected paint will eventually morph into an applied thought and a structured day for me. Believe it or not, the applied thought is actually part of a process of continual decision making, by me, on the arrangement of pigments and forms on the canvas.
Sometimes I like to think that I am in control of the process of painting, but actually the process of painting is in control of me. I am nothing but the vessel from which the elements and forms of paint are placed. It is as elemental to me as breathing or closing my eyes.
There are times that I spend more time thinking about painting then actually painting. The process of painting is still terribly exciting for me. The idea of thinking about painting is in fact more exciting. The paintings yet to be made, the ones that spin off the last painting keep me returning every day to the easel.
These new works deal with the process of reduction. Reducing the still-life to the elements that mean the most to me. The flower. Botanica.
