John Greiner-Ferris Studio
  • Home
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Paintings & Drawings
  • Riding Shotgun
  • Home
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Paintings & Drawings
  • Riding Shotgun
Search

To Be Human

1/26/2021

0 Comments

 
To Be Human. Acrylic paint and colored pencil on board; 16" x 12". 2021

"There is a reason we have developed emotions such as empathy, kindness, compassion, and hope. We are a species capable of destroying ourselves. We developed these emotions out of survival. If we hadn’t, we probably would have destroyed ourselves long ago."

The quote comes from a much longer monologue from a play, Turtles, that I wrote. The monologue ends with that line, "...and that is what it means to be human."

Some might say, some might accuse, that artistically I like to obfuscate. That's not it at all. What it is, is that I don't like to give pat answers to questions, and I like to raise more questions than answers. I want the viewer or the reader to work. When they work, versus just sitting back a la Netflix and having information or opinions spoon-fed into their brains, as if the tops of the their heads were lifted up like so many lids off the slop bucket and the remnants of the dinner plates scraped in, people evaluate their own opinions and values. So, if the viewer works just a little bit, they'll get the gist of what I'm saying, and might come up with something on their own.

And by God I love color. It's really hard for me to pull back on color. Even when you think I'm painting black, I'm painting color. It's not black, but more than likely phthalo blue mixed with a little Mars black, not the other way around.


0 Comments

Save The Children

1/14/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Save The Children; Mixed Media: Acrylic paint, colored pencil, crayon, and chalk on board; 11" x 14"; 2021
Nothing never ends the way I imagine it: paintings, stories, plays. And that's the fun of it all--the discovery. What you see and learn along the way about the world and yourself and your place in the world. If that doesn't happen, I get bored and stop. (It's the reason I quit acting and starting writing plays and making theater instead; I stopped learning about the world and myself from acting.)

I had an idea for this painting and started it and the painting pretty much said, nope, I don't want to do that, I want to do this. It is exactly like listening to the characters as you write a story. And you can pretty much hear the clunking sound every time when a writer inflicts themselves into the story, where everything goes flat and you're removed from the world of the story.

By listening to your painting you become a better painter. With the painting there is a teacher/student relationship. Don't ever think you know more about painting than the painting.

And if I could explain it in all words I wouldn't have painted it.
0 Comments

Good Year: A Memory Play

10/22/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Good Year: A Memory Play; Mixed Media on panel: collage, acrylic paint, color pencil, blown chalk dust with mouth; 9" x 12"; 2020
How long did it take you to make it? It looks like something my sixth-grader could do. (Well, at least it's not his three-year-old; that's a step up.) It took weeks. Not weeks of hands-on work, but weeks of thinking, staring, dreaming about it in my sleep. So, I guess you could say, Welcome to my nightmare? No, not really a nightmare at all, but actually a very good memory. The impetus for this piece: I was at college and it was a beautiful spring day in southern Ohio and I was young and my life was ahead of me and I was hanging out with my roommates and friends. It's the time passing, and it's the now, that makes me do what I do; what makes the painting do what it does. You just have to listen and hear and look and see. What does the painting want you to do? And what I hope is that the viewer can see quickly what took me such a long time so see.
1 Comment

    Author

    John Greiner-Ferris is an artist in the Boston area. Sometimes he makes images. Sometimes he writes. Sometimes he does both.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019

    Categories

    All
    2020
    2022
    Abstract
    Abstract Image
    Abstract Painting
    Acrylic Painting
    Ai Weiwei
    Amy Barrett
    An Artist's Life
    Art And Poetry
    Art During Covid 19
    Art During Covid-19
    Art During Social Distancing
    Art In The Time Of Covid-19
    Art In The Time Of Social Distancing
    Art In The Time Of The Coronavirus
    Art Is Not Precious
    Beard And Weil Galleries
    Boston Artist
    Boston Painter
    Boston Photographer
    Brewster
    Cape Cod
    Cape Cod Bay
    Collage
    Color
    Color In Motion
    Conceptual Art
    Contemporary Art
    Contemporary Art Dealer
    Contemporary Artist
    Contemporary Landscape
    Contemporary Landscape × Contemporary Photographer × Landscape × #wip × Work In Progress
    Contemporary Landscape × Contemporary Photographer × Landscape × #wip × Work In Progress
    Contemporary Photographer
    Contemporary Photography
    Coronavirus
    Curated Fridge
    Curated Fridge Summer 2021 Show
    Dave DeWitt
    Dave's Greens
    Daylgith Savings Time
    Fine Arts Photographer
    Geraniums
    Graffiti Art
    Harvesters
    High Speed
    Highway
    John Greiner Ferris
    John Greiner-Ferris
    Just Kids
    Landscape
    Low Light
    Lunar Eclipse
    Mants Landing
    Massachusetts
    Massachusetts Artist
    May 16
    Memory
    Michele And Donald D'Amour Museum Of Fine Arts
    Microscope
    Microscopic Images
    Mixed Medi
    Mixed Media
    Moderism
    Modern Art
    Modern Landscape
    Multi-media
    Mutli-disciplinarty Artist
    New Year
    Night Photography
    Noh Theater
    Noh Theatrre
    Norton
    Organic
    Organic Farm
    Organic Farming
    Oyster Farming
    Oysters
    Painting
    Painting During The Pandemic
    Patti Smith
    PH21
    Photograhy
    Portugal
    Provincetown
    Provincetown Banner
    Quincy Painter
    Razor Clams
    Robert Mapplethorpe
    Sandwich
    Self-portrait
    SoWa Artist
    Spring
    Springfield Art Museum
    Springfield Museum
    Sprouting Garlic
    Street Art
    Sustainability
    Tennessee Williams
    Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival
    Text Based Paintings
    Text-based Paintings
    The Artist's Life
    Theater
    The Creative Process
    The Lady Aoi
    The Night Of The Iguana
    Time-lapse Photography
    Truro
    Urban Landscape
    Urban Landscape Photography
    Washi Paper
    Wheaton College
    #wip
    Wollaston
    Work In Progress

    RSS Feed

HOME
ABOUT
PORTFOLIO
CONTACT
BLOG
PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS
Picture
All images copyright © John Greiner-Ferris
  • Home
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Paintings & Drawings
  • Riding Shotgun