"Word Compositions" series of paintings

Taking another look at my past as an artist in Minneapolis we come to my poetry works on canvas...


These paintings were created in 1999 somewhere during the time when I was experimenting with poetry, and they were fun.  I will explore this idea again.  I wrote three full books of poetry between 1996 and 2000.  
Sooner or later I will publish them here on this blog.  For now just enjoy this abstraction of words.  

Artist Statement

These compositions are based on a single improvisational repeated word scratched into the surface of the oil painting.  Surface and composition are the focus of this work.

Adam M. Considine  1999

Word Composition a 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Word Composition b 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Word Composition c 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Word Composition d 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Word Composition e 

oil on canvas

36" x 24"

Word Composition f 

oil on canvas

24" x 36"

Word Composition g 

oil on canvas

22" x 12"

Word Composition h 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

I love compositional poetry...

...I use it as I do oil paint.

Artwork of the month: Flemish monsters.

I have always enjoyed the nightmare imagination of hellish monsters from the perspective of christians. Regardless of what time period its from, hell monsters are funny, like Jim Henson puppets funny.

David Teniers, the younger

Flemish, 1610-1694/96

"The Temptation of St. Anthony"

17th century, oil on panel

This scary tactic is hanging on display in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts...
...go check it out and scare your sins away.

"666" series of paintings

To continue catching this blog up to the present let us take a look at my past again...

When I was working on this sextet things were not going my way.  Just before this painting I was selling my work on a regular bases.  I was also spending money like there was no tomorrow, thinking that this sales wave would never end.

It did, and as sales of paintings had stopped for several months, I was less than broke and fast going into serious debt to characters that I should have just stayed away from.  I started throwing parties where I sold paintings for next to nothing just to get some cash together for food, which sucked as I was only eating rice because I could buy a 50lb bag for twenty dollars.  If I was lucky I had canned tuna to go with my rice.  Things sucked.

This 6 panel work is a self-portrait from a previous studio.  It was painted to simply reflect the moment in a clever way. 

Adam M. Considine  1998

666 a

oil on canvas

666 b

oil on canvas

666 c

oil on canvas

666 d

oil on canvas

666 e

oil on canvas

666 f

oil on canvas

We all go through the self imposed lessons of being broke...

...It sucks, we find a way to survive and do better next time.

Artwork of the month: Nintendo and the Annuciation.

I have always found this painting funny.  My first memory of truly looking at it was with Philip Hoffman jumping in place circling his arms like wings in front of it saying "pew pew, shoots it right into the womb like a laser, LIKE A LASER" and seriously I can never get that moment out of my head when look at this painting.  

and why would I want to...

Just look at it, teasing the 2d world like an original nintendo game, 8-bit and all.  The bird shooting jesus like a laser beam... 

...shooting the kid right in there.

Girolamo de Santacroce

Italian, 1503-1556

"the Annuciation"

1540, oil on panel

A good comparison is Kid Icarus, the original Nintendo gem from 1986.

scene from a Nintendo game with lasers.

With this side by side comparison of lasers and angels from the golden age of video games we can reveal the truth of the annunciation.  Jesus was shot into the womb with a laser beam.  Right out of the mouth of a dove, or dirty street pigeon just take your pick.  

"Shark Compositions" series of paintings

This series was a painted during a time in my life (1998 - 1999) when compositional abstraction and my ideas of being the mental state of your work as you work on it was completely new to me.  I had been a portrait artist that converted to still life, and abstraction just felt right. or so I think, memory fails us as we go back and look a our lives, as I am sure it is for me.

Artist statement

This series was intended to present the various mental states of an individual soldier during and after war.  The mythology of the Hawaiian Islands to represent the identity of a shark as a metaphor to symbolize said mental state of a soldier.  The mythology of the pacific islands believe that when an individual is acting out of place he is wearing the spirit and identity  of a shark.

As a source of inspiration I looked toward the behavioral traits of schizophrenia; conflicts of confusion both rational and irrational, violence, an adolescent-like lust, and lack of self-control, as the foundation for my methods used in the application of paint.

War being what it is induces an almost schizophrenic-like psychology to the fundamental beliefs of right and wrong.  Wrong is only in question when it is committed on the individuals perception of interpretation.

Adam M. Considine 1999

Shark 1 "Knights" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

Shark 2 "Wounded a" 

oil on canvas

50" x 96"

Shark 3 "Wounded b" 

oil on canvas

96" x 60"

Shark 4 "Civilian a" 

oil on canvas

48"x 24"

Shark 5 "Enemy" 

oil on canvas

70" x 20"

Shark 6 "Liberty" 

oil on canvas

24" x 30"

Shark 7 "Artillery" 

oil on canvas

48" x 60"

Shark 8 "Civilian b"

oil on canvas 

48" x 24"

Shark 9 "Civilian c" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Shark 10 "Lady Liberty" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

Shark 11 "Acceptable Civillian Death" 

oil on canvas

22" x 30"

Shark 12 "Wound" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Shark 13 "Village" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Shark 14 "Death" 

oil on canvas

30" x 15"

Shark 15 "One Foot in a" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 16 "One Foot in b" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 17 "One Foot in c" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 18 "Four of Hearts" 

oil on canvas

36" x 36"

Shark 19 "The City" 

oil on canvas

48" x 36"

Shark 20 "Conception" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

I had a good time working on these...

...I sold all of them.

Improvisation 33 "Loring park sky" 80x60

These photos were created over the span of 5 days.  

This painting, Improvisation 33 "Loring park sky" 80x60, was one of my major works during my Improvisation series.  It took me several days of constant work to complete this painting.  I barely slept or ate.  Being too into the moment of this work (and not wanting any of the paint to start to dry so I could continuously change it as needed), I just drank coffee and smoked cigarettes for 4 or 5 days until I completed the painting.

I used to just squeeze the paint out onto the canvas, then spread it around like frosting.

Philip Hoffman was painting with me durring a few of those days.  As his apprentice he guided my decision at times toward a good composition.  Albeit, he always allowed me to make my own compositional choices.

That must have been exciting.

Almost complete.

The painting is finished.  I love working on a large surface as it is truly liberating.  

Here it is completed.