NEws & Updates 2/12/08: Portraits Completed, Yin & Yang

Hello fellow art lover,

Great thanks for so much support in the reinvention this dusty medium of oil painting.

I originally experimented with the oil paint with the full conviction that it was a dead, irrelevant art form, but upon returning to my studio late many nights ago, I found it consuming tubes of paint and ideas gleefully, very much alive and hungry to digest the new.

Painting still lives and grows, consuming anything that is thrown at it. I now enter studio flinchingly to face this demonic angel, the betrayer of inner worlds and candid mirror of outer ones.

Portraits of Actor Armen Garo Completed

I completed the two portraits of actor and police officer Armen Garo (Salvatore 'Coco' Cogliano in “The Sopranos”) through Gallery Z in Providence.

Armen Garo, h16 inches x w12 inches, oil on canvas, by Marty McCorkle

Armen Garo with Red Halo, h18 inches x w14 inches, oil on canvas, by Marty McCorkle

I also made some oil studies of Armen:

Studies of Armen Garo, h11 x w8 inches, oil on black paper, by Marty McCorkle

Thanks, Armen. And thanks Berge Zobian, director of Gallery Z in Providence, for organizing the commission.

Headless Wolf Portrait Unveiled

Saturday Jim Wolf and some friends came for the unveiling of Jim’s portrait. Jim wanted the portrait based on a beloved photo of himself dressed for a costume party. To save on paint we replaced the mask with his own face.

Jim Wolf, h36 inches x w24 inches, oil on canvas, by Marty McCorkle

Notice the second Wolf dozing in the background. Some attendees of the unveiling insist that another wolf can be seen in the form of the shadow cast by the chair.

Tangling Yin and Yang

I completed a painting inspired from the Tao’s of yin and yang, the depiction of duality underlying our experience. I envisioned the profound yin and yang principle as a pedestrian spectacle: two scrappy wrestlers tangling under the blurred wheel of life’s amusement ride.

Yin and Yang, h46 x w32, oil on canvas, by Marty McCorkle

Three Martys Sneak Out for Beauty Treatment

A Triple Self Portrait eluded Gallery Z with a visit to a neighboring beauty salon. A gallery had intern loaned the stored painting for exposure in the salon but did not think to inform the gallery director, Berge Zobian. Its absence from the gallery became aparent prior to its shipping to Esteban Sabar Gallery in Oakland.

The three Martys returned from the salon looking remarkably refreshed.

Triple Self Portrait, h22 inches x w 34, oil on canvas, by Marty McCorkle

Solo show scheduled in Gallery Z in Providence

Correction to last update: I’m scheduled for a show at Gallery Z in September, 2009, not 2008.

Be happy.

--Marty McCorkle

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