Garden and Gun

“I recently made alterations in my work and adopted the idea of “Southern Casualism” (based around recent critical writings of provisional painting and new casualism). In the new work I am aligning myself with the “New Casualist” abstract painters while maintaining my long relationship to Southern Visionary art. My approach with “Southern Casualism” is to allow the mistakes to be seen, reveal first thoughts and moves, while considering the subject equal to material application. In the studio I am exhibiting the flippancy and immediacy of my sketchbook work. Uncomfortable color relationships are forced into balance. A variety of paints, markers and textures create the weight the paintings require. The paintings are abrupt, elegant, considered and spontaneous at the same time. Flaws are exposed intentionally and self-consciously.



“Garden and Gun started in the dentist’s office a couple of years ago when I picked up the magazine Garden and Gun -- more interested in the title than the content. At first taking only the title into consideration I thought of making paintings exclusively of gardens and guns. That idea did not offer enough depth and died even before painting started. Next, came the idea to expand beyond the title and into the articles of the magazine. I started painting from that point, neglecting to see the illustrator’s perspective. The breakthrough with the work came when I began to extend thoughts of mental collage into the work. Finally, the combination of prototypical articles, personal history and pop culture served as a point of departure into the paintings. This exhibition, Garden and Gun, presents inquiry and investigation of universal culture heavily doused in experiences that are distinctly Southern.”



Tad Lauritzen Wright

October 2012