My interest in collecting found and often anonymous paintings started in the 80’s with my long time friend and x-mate Susie Maclay, stimulated by exposure to Dada, Surrealist and various political found object and collage work. I came to find these discarded amateur paintings more personal, meaningful and aesthetically/conceptually interesting than many of the painting movements I studied in art history.
The important factors for me in choosing paintings have been price (everything must be under or close to $10 or so) and content (I’m primarily attracted to paintings that confound meaning or origin in a way that is disturbing to existing artistic sensibilities and/or exhibit deeply banal, personal or melancholy scenes that strike me as simultaneously saddening and hilarious).
I find that after a few years of collecting, I’ve ended up with quite a number paintings of lone figures
or objects against a somewhat desolate ground and paintings that exhibit a distinct connection between two elements or entities within the canvas. Those are two of the contrasting and related themes in this selection.
Since I started collecting, shopping for found paintings has become somewhat of a fad in certain
post-modern interior design schemes, which has made interesting material a bit more difficult to find. My tendency toward shopping for them has also slowed down as a result...but I still occasionally clack through the Nagel prints and longhorn posters at Thrift World or St. Vincent de Paul looking for another priceless masterpiece.
I used the majority of my collection (supplemented by those of Susie and Laura Maclay) in conjunction with a film projection installation recently at the 1/4 Hora gallery in Elgin, TX.
