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The Paintings of Michael Stoddard |
Artist's Statement This series of paintings is inspired thru my fascination of maps, typography, and aerial views from 32,000 feet. Whenever I took a trip on an airplane I always requested a window see so I could see the world pass by! I marveled at the crop circles over the mid-west, was amazed that I could see Wisconsin and the shores of Michigan, separated by the blue swath of Lake Michigan (it takes 6 hours going 30 knots to cross) and humbled at the vastness of the Grand Canyon. Perhaps this is why in 1997 I joined United Airlines as a Flight attendant.
As a youngster my Grandparents would frequently take me to air shows. I was amazed that planes could fly! It was only a matter of time (35 years later) that I would began to spend about 1000 hours each year serving passengers meals and drinks while enjoying the view. I soon discovered the larger the aircraft the larger the window and thus a better view. Of course the ultimate view is from the Flight Deck where I also spend a great deal of time.
I have seen the "Crater" in Arizona, the entire Grand Canyon, and the Canola Fields surrounding Calgary. I can look down and know what state/region by the shape of the fields. In the amid-west farming is greatly different than farming in the Washington D.C. area. On one flight I went up to the Flight Deck and asked with some bewilderment where we were! I could tell the typography was vastly different than where I thought we were in our normal flight plan. Normally at this point in the flight we should have been over Illinois/Michigan. Due to weather on the flight plan we had been re-routed north over Canada. As I looked adown I noticed the rough, jagged terrain, remnants of Glacier shifts, I was in awe.
So the work in this show reflects my observations at 32,000 feet from various locations across North America. On most trips I take along my Digital Camera and "collect" inspiring images from my day at the office.
~ Michael Stoddard The Painting of Michael Stoddard
Painter, Michael Stoddard has been exhibiting his colorful abstractions widely throughout the Boston area for many years. Stoddard began his career, training in advertising gradually shifting his interest towards fine art. He went on to study at the Fine Arts Work Center in Providence, where he began to develop his unique approach to abstract painting. I first saw his work last month when it was exhibited at the Urban Slipper, part of Jamaica PlainŐs "first Thursday" program. I went on to interview Stoddard to learn more about his art and process, and this formed the body of this article.
Stoddard discovered his style almost by accident. It happened in the early nineties while he was studying in Providence. He had decided to make six paintings as gifts for friends. Rather than make them individually he stretched one large canvas and divided into six sections. A friend commented that the painting seemed to work as a whole. Stoddard was inspired and the grid became his principle motif, a motif which he continues to explore and refine.
Stoddard works on masonite, a sturdy surface which allows him to employ a range of tools such as trowels, knives, and wire mesh. With these and others he paints by scraping and scratching his paints onto the surface adding layer upon layer. Stoddard works by re-working until each section has been balanced with all the others. This process creates a highly worked, rich surface in which the histories of its re-workings become compressed into what Stoddard has termed a cellular composition. The tensions between the painting's individual sections are held in check by Stoddard's intuitive and exacting sense of color. His colors are vibrant but muted, and closely related in value. They serve to bind the discordant paint handling with the otherwise placid structure of the grid. Together they work to produce a sensation of unity that while authoritative retains a handmade and human quality.
Stoddard's painting plays with tensions and their divergent resolutions. It grows from the unique combination of intuition and intention that Stoddard brings to his painting process. The balance and symmetry which his best work achieves is found rather than forced. It is this quality of discovery which lends Stoddard's painting their special character and unique personality.
Michael Stoddard's abstract paintings will be on view this month at Francesca's on Tremont St., in the South End and at Starbucks on Boylston near Berklee College of Music. Be sure to check out this up and coming painter!
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By Jonathan Richard for The Jamaica Plain Gazette, Fall 2004