Mark Flood uses tatters of tatting to create astonishing works
02/20/2002
By JANET KUTNER / The Dallas Morning News
Lacy patterns in sensuous colors ? not what one expects from a strapping
artist known for fractured forms and
strident messages. But breathtaking as Mark Flood's new paintings are,
they nag at the senses like loose threads,
proving that beauty can have an edge.
The buzz was out well before the 44-year-old Houston artist's show
opened at Angstrom Gallery, as collectors
clamored for surreal pictures with strange names such as Dragonseed,
Green Blood and Cigarette Burn. Even
buyers weren't sure what they were getting.
Granted the lace has gaping holes and tattered edges with strings
hanging down. It's all an illusion anyway ? what
looks like fabric glued to canvas is really only paint. Mr. Flood uses
the lace like a stencil, drowning it in color then
draping it across the surface to transfer the pattern.
It's a tricky process. If the paint's too wet, it smears. If he waits
too long, the lace gets stuck.
"Much of what I do ends up in the garbage can," Mr. Flood admits.
"At the end it's like pulling the backing off a Polaroid ? I don't know
what's there, and I can't see what's coming," he
says. "Then I basically have to chain myself to the bedpost to keep from
going back in and messing around with it
some more."
Chancy as the process is, he's produced astonishing results. Works
ranging from the sentimental to the maudlin evoke
emotions as disparate as ecstasy and angst.
The color combinations, which Mr. Flood says are inspired by bird
species, can be jarring. And while some lace looks
like vintage stuff from Grandma's attic, some appears to have gone
through the wringer.
Either way, the textures are a remarkable blend of tiny dots and
fish-scale patterns that come together in pointillist
fashion to form an image.
And image is a factor, despite the abstract features of the work. The
lace depicts flowers confined within neat borders
that Mr. Flood in turn breaks down. Implications are that efforts to
control nature are flawed, and beauty knows no
boundaries.
A self-confessed control freak, Mr. Flood has forced himself to
relinquish power over much of what he does. Rather
than tear the lace by hand he ties one end to a tree and the other to
his pick-up truck. Like a mad chemist, he
experiments with all kinds of different paint products ? acrylics, dry
pigments, thinners, retardants and something new
called "interference" that produces iridescence.
He thrives on surprise, which he says has become an addiction.
"Sometimes I can't believe I painted that," he says.
"But the fact that these things are so unlike me ? I like that."
He's been an art obsessive all his life, he says, and has worked at the
sublime Menil Collection in Houston for 15 years.
But for most of his career he bucked tradition ? ran a shoestring
gallery in an offbeat Houston neighborhood with
fellow artist Jeff Elrod and helped Mel Chin explore art's role in a
consumer society via a collaboration with the
popular television series Melrose Place.
Dallas audiences may remember Mr. Flood from a group show at Angstrom in
1998. But those paintings were
irreverent takes on pop culture and art world exploitation.
It took long periods away from the studio and considerable
soul-searching to get him interested in notions of beauty.
Oddly enough, the new paintings are an outgrowth of works made by
collaging laser prints of things like copulating
frogs and a guy fixing his car on lacy patterns that functioned as
decorative backgrounds. Originally he planned to line
the laser prints up in boxes along one edge of the canvas and put the
lace on another side. But he soon realized he
was "very interested in the lace and couldn't care less about the
boxes."
Initially he worried that the lace alone might not be enough. Ultimately
he gave in to his feelings.
"I'm not afraid to do something transgressive and bad ? I've proved
that," Mr. Flood says. "I just finally decided to do
what I wanted to do, not what I thought I should do."
"Mark Flood: New Works" is on view through March 2 at Angstrom Gallery,
3609 Parry Ave. across from Fair Park.
Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and by appointment. Free. Call 214-823-6456 or go to
www.angstromgallery.com. | |
