"Bowling Alley" series of paintings

This series of paintings was created from 2000 to 2002.  I worked on it at three separate studios over those three years.  The first one was created surfing the Presidential election of 2000.  We all knew at that moment that we were going to war in Iraq...the second G. Bush won the election.  It was a seriously depressing day.  The tragedy caused by Bush is felt around the globe.  And we haven't even started to feel the money end of it.  Mark my words...We are headed for the biggest financial crisis our nation has ever seen.  All of it can be blamed on the unethical use of government to make a select few people a lot of money while everyone else is raped for every penny they own.  Save every penny you make now, as you will need it when our nation's economy eventually crashes because of our illegitimate president George W. Bush.  

Artists Statement

The use of title in this series is intended to present the cultural metaphor of a Bowling Alley to communicate a general view of the condition and direction of current events.  If one were to look at political language as a bowling ball just released, hurtling blindly with a calculated force, and one were to look at us, the people, as pins, one might see how spin works.

Adam M. Considine 2002

Bowling Alley 1 "The Election of 2000" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 2 "The Robotic Lion"

oil on canvas 

36" x 60"

Bowling Alley 3 "The Streetlight and the Machinegun" 

oil on canvas

36" x 60"

Bowling Alley 4 "The Factory and its Master"

oil on canvas 

36" x 48"

Bowling Alley 5 "War Crimes" 

oil on canvas

20" x 80"

Bowling Alley 6 "Angel"

oil on canvas 

36" x 36"

Bowling Alley 7 "The Lion" 

oil on canvas

50" x 50"

(Bowling Alley #8, "Mad Cow a," is missing forever.  Someone purchased it and I can't find them or remember who they were.  I did not have time to take a photo when it was sold.)

Bowling Alley 9 "Mad Cow b" 

oil on canvas

44" x 74"

Bowling Alley 10 "Ape Guevara"

oil on canvas 

22" x 18"

Bowling Alley 11 "A Vegetable with Arms"

oil on canvas 

22" x 18"

Bowling Alley 12 "Dancing Robot"

oil on canvas 

22" x 18"

Bowling Alley 13 "Memorial"

oil on linen 

56" x 56"

Bowling Alley 14 "The Bomb and the Bird at the Base of the tree"

oil on linen 

70" x 30"

Bowling Alley 15 "Saint G a"

oil on linen

Bowling Alley 16 "Saint G b"

oil on canvas 

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 17 "Iron Northern Pike"

oil on linen 

36" x 48"

Bowling Alley 19 "Stone Arch" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Bowling Alley 20 "I" 

oil on canvas

60" x 30"

Bowling Alley 21 "The People a" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 22 "The People b"

oil on canvas 

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 23 "The People c" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 24 "Sounds a" 

oil on linen

30" x 15"

Bowling Alley 25 "Sounds b" 

oil on linen

30" x 15"

Bowling Alley 26 "Sounds c" 

oil on linen

30" x 15"

Bowling Alley 27 "Improvisation" 

oil on linen

70" x 50"

Bowling Alley 28 "Stained Glass a" 

oil on linen

40" x 20"

Bowling Alley 29 "Stained Glass b" 

oil on linen

40" x 20"

Bowling Alley 30 "Stained Glass c" 

oil on linen 

40" x 20"

These oil paintings were created out of anger and frustration...

...when we think we know the truth.

"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, 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 the 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 50 pound bag for twenty dollars.  If I was lucky, I had canned tuna to go with my rice.  Things sucked.

This six-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: "The Attributes of the Arts and the Rewards which are Accorded them"

Throughout my life, there have been a few paintings that heavily influenced me to become an artist.  As an artist, I partially blame my career choice on this painting.

Jean-baptiste Simeon Chardin

French,1699-1779

"The Attributes of the Arts and the Rewards which are Accorded them."

1766, oil on canvas.

I saw "The Attributes of the Arts and the Rewards which are Accorded them" for the first time while on a grade-school field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It changed me forever (as powerful paintings do).  I already wanted to be an artist, and after seeing this painting, I was convinced that being an artist was the most important work a man could aspire to do.

This painting is currently on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Go check it out and enjoy its truth and lies.

"You can be sure that most of the high positions in the country would be empty if one were admitted only after an examination as severe as the one we painters must pass."

-Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.