Imagination

Bruce MacGibeny rarely painted from life — that is, using models — but he always painted about life. As he wrote in an essay on figurative painting, “The meaning of life is the subject of art.”

His images, whether visual or verbal, came from his expansive imagination and emotions. The poem “Imagination” describes what it was like to be him, faced with a fresh canvas or blank piece of paper or block of clay.

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Imagination

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The blank wall

—

Had everything
On it.

—

On it on it on it

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World war three
A lovely maiden
The Pacific Ocean
A football team
A football
A foot fall
A Thumbprint
A Waltz
Four convicts
Automobiles
Lightning
A guitar
Shoes
Tension
Fear
There
Here
Everywhere
A
Totally
Blank
Stare.

—

And yet . . . . .

—

Blank.

—————
———
—

But
Far
From
Empty.

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———
—

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The artist’s website, MacGibeny.com, has been updated with new images of his artwork. Please visit MacGibeny.com in the future for more information about his work and life.

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Poem copyright 2011. All rights reserved.

Night House

Bruce’s painting Night House is on view now in the National Small Oil Painting Exhibition at The Wichita Center for the Arts. This juried exhibition, which is held biannually, is open though October 24, 2010. According to the press release, the exhibition was established in 1981 to stimulate interest and promote excellence in the medium of oil painting.

In Night House Bruce imagines a slice of a neighborhood at night, with its interplay of light and shadow and a chimney on the main house suggesting the human life within. In addition to applying the oil paint, he removed it selectively by incising it with a palette knife, adding dimension to the picture.

Night House
Oil on canvas
15 x 19 inches

Copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Bird and Book

A paean to learning, and birds.

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Bird and Book

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The Eye . . .

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And . . the beak

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Came
Checking . . .

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On the page . . –

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Peeking . . to see . .
What?

—

For if a
Mere bird

—

Could
Unlatch the treasures

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What

—

Could a man do?????

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Neverthe . . . less

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It Is a fact

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A
Bird can act

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AS
Tho
It were . . . . .

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Highly
Intelligent

—

And
Who
Is
To
Say?

—

So . . . .

—

Peck
Away!

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———

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The Reader
Oil and mixed media on canvas

Artwork and poetry copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 49th anniversary to Bruce and Emilie!

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The Kiss (after Brancusi)
Marker on cardboard on paper, 11″ x 8.5″

Artwork copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Stream

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The Stream

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The Stream —
MoVes and moves —
And moves

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On – – –
…….Through rapids

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…………..Through falls

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…………..Through valleys —

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And . . .
Mountains

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Through centuries
Through millennia

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The Stream!

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All debris
Of
History

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SWept . . into
One
Crescendo

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Defying . . . . .

—

And

—

Defining

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Why we

—

Why we all

—

Came

—

FRom where we did

—

And Are going

—

To
Where

—

We’re
Going!

—————

———

—

The Stream
Oil on canvas

Artwork and poetry copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Visual Rhyme: Still Life Within a Still Life

The poetry in this post is not verse but visual rhyme.

One day, perusing the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, I happened upon a painting that looked familiar: Still Life with Cup, Jar, and Apples by Paul Cézanne, circa 1877. Where had I seen it? Not at the Met … but somewhere, in person. My memory led me soon enough to look through photos of Bruce’s artwork, and there it was. It is the framed still life in Bruce’s oil painting Still Life Within a Still Life.

Cézanne has been called the grandfather of modern art, and there have been several museum exhibitions during the past couple of years highlighting his legacy. This time last year, the groundbreaking show “Cézanne and Beyond” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art explored his impact on generations of artists. “Cézanne and American Modernism,” focusing on his impact on American artists, is currently on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art before traveling to the Phoenix Museum of Art. If you would like to know more about Cézanne’s innovations and see specific examples of how they were accepted and rejected in still lifes by other artists, visit my favorite art blog, Tyler Green’s Modern Art Notes. Green’s write-ups ‘Cézanne and Beyond’ in Philadelphia, ‘Cézanne and Beyond’ in Philadelphia, part two and ‘Cézanne and Beyond’ in Philadephia, part three are must-reads that had me thinking about this topic long before I discovered the Cézanne “Easter egg” in my father’s work.

Bruce readily acknowledges Cézanne as an inspiration, perhaps second only to Vincent van Gogh. In appropriating Cézanne’s still life, he modifies it by cropping the composition tight, exaggerating the gleam of the brightest apple and giving the picture a gilded frame. He acknowledges its influence; honors it by hanging it on his imagined wall; but departs immediately and purposely from its style.

Where the Cézanne is quiet, weighty, the MacGibeny is bright and tongue-in-cheek. (When originally asked the title of this painting, Bruce jokingly called it “a number of objects on a table.”) In contrast to the earthy, relatively realistic colors of the Cézanne, he uses jewel tones that are even more vivid in real life than in the photo, radiating from the small canvas.

Cézanne’s painting exploits the power of the diagonal, while Bruce works at right angles, which is unusual for him. He introduces his own modernist distortions: would a wall really be that color? The disproportionately large table dwarfs the objects on its surface. The still life on the table contains no fruit. The contours of the blue bottle undulate as if molded by hands that have held it.

The artist is inviting you into the magic of this room…and perhaps inviting you to join him in lifting one of the two glasses on the table in a toast to the master who so radically challenged tradition.

Still Life Within a Still Life
Oil and paper collage on canvas, 23.5″ x 20″

Still Life Within a Still Life (detail)

Artwork copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

See also:

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: The Glass (fragment)

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: Marbles

Painting for Easter: Jesus

Among other spiritual subjects, Bruce has painted Jesus several times. Below is a humble depiction using humble materials: paper, marker, acrylic paint straight from the tube and thinned  as needed to watercolor fluidity, and in the spirit of mixed media, a toothpick. The simple symbolism of cross and halo add to the accessibility of the image.

This work was constructed as a “quadruple,” four pieces of paper joined together with glue to create the desired size. The quadruple is a distinct format Bruce has used for works on paper, along with the “double” and the “triple.” On occasion he has done the same with poems, attaching an extra piece of paper with tape to extend the creative surface.

Jesus
Acrylic and mixed media on paper, 27″ x 21.25″

Artwork copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

CIVIC AFFAIRS

According to a CNN survey, most Americans believe the U.S. government is broken. If so, this poem written by Bruce years ago may resonate today.
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CIVIC AFFAIRS

…
A Series

Of critical decisions

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….Led to a

….Set of circumstances

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….Followed

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….By

A

—

Breakdown of facilities

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Preceded

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….By

Numerous

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Outlandish

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Developments!

—

This

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Entirely due to

—

A

Change

—

In

The

Weather!

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Four men

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EVentually

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Sat down

Around a table

—

And

Slept

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After they got

—

Got they after

—

. . .

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Straightened

—

Out — —

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Copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Art/Poetry Mash-Up: LOADED BRUSH

Is the young man in this self-portrait brandishing a paintbrush? A conductor’s baton? A magic wand? To Bruce, these are virtually the same, art and music being expressions from the same source and synonymous with magic. He could as easily have become a professional musician as a professional artist, his specialties being jazz trumpet and piano.

The poem “LOADED BRUSH,” with its textual quirks — intentionally irregular capitalization, italics, and punctuation — is full of enthusiasm for artistic creation. The painting Self-Portrait as a Young Man is just as emphatic, with a swirl of activity indicating invention and creative flow. At the same time, there is a seriousness in the young man’s face, a sense that his creative mission is a responsibility not to be taken lightly.

Self-Portrait as a Young Man is a favorite of mine because its energetic lines, intense colors and varied textures give it a power disproportionate to its relatively small size. Its construction echoes its content: there is a lot going on. The central character has so many ideas, so many decisions to make, where to begin? Bruce approached this mixed media work the same way. His choice of materials is serendipitous, “mixed media” being code for a variety of materials, not all of them intended for art making. In this painting he used acrylic paint, marker, pencil, a piece of plastic sculpted from a household product, the cap from a tube of paint, a glass marble, and paper collage, applied to a support of paper laid down on canvas. Although he knew the effect he wanted to create, he also let the materials take him where they wanted to go. As he once said about his process of starting a painting, “A line may lead me, or I may lead it.”

Note the glimpse of a bell in the upper left corner of the painting; a wave to Bruce’s mother Belle, who encouraged his artistic development from his earliest years. The bell appears here and in other paintings as a benevolent symbol.

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LOADED BRUSH

…
FUll paint brush –
The trombones
In Fat Array . . . the

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BRass section

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Hunched . . ready to play!

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The
Solid
Swinging

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Leap . . . . of a great
Swing
Band

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Handing . . . . .

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The
Baton to YOU ! ! !

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HUGE

—

This
Moment

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Of madness

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To
Rewrite

—

The
History of things

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The

—

Mystery

—

Of
Practically

—

EVERYTHING

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Self-Portrait as a Young Man
Mixed media on paper and canvas, 18″ x 14″

Artwork and poetry copyright 2010 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.

Season

Season’s greetings!

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Season

…
A
Snowflake . . .

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DIstributed on the doorstep

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Brings with it . . . .

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Holiday cheer

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Days of yore . . . seem
To
Recall . . . . . all

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The
Paraphernalia

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Of Yesterday

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The turkey . .
The Mistletoe

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The malts at the
Malt shop

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All

—

The
Finial finery

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That haunts the

—

Haunts

—

The

—

Corridors

—

Of History

—

In the great

—

Human
House!

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Copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.