Exhibit "Paintings After Algebra"

"Paintings After Algebra" Exhibition of oil paintings by Neil A. Collins.
All work was produced between May 2013 and August 2013
Open Reception at Shane House. Friday, Aug. 16th, 2013
      Math was never a subject I was interested in as a youth and I actually despised it as a child in school. I began creating art seriously when I was a teenager and began painting professionally, although I am self taught.
       In the fall of 2011, I enrolled in Pima Community College, in "pre-algebra" an order to see what I had missed out on and also an order to answer some questions I had about the exponential growth of technology. I have since taken a math class each semester and finally satisfied my curiosity, this spring having taken 4 math classes over the past few years. It is a serious accomplishment for me, although it may not seem important to anyone else.
      After this last spring semester, I came out of the math with a serious urge to create art. I feel that the work has a new life in it. It is also clear to me that the math has allowed me to return to my art with new unexpected skills. These skills are both technical and conceptual.
      Math and especially algebra is all about seeing abstract relationships between things an order to work out solutions that might not be found if the problem were attacked directly. This could also be used as a way to describe art.
     The "problem" in art, can be seen as the attempt to communicate feelings and thoughts that might be lost if they were simply described using words. Instead, colors, shapes, textures and symbols are used to solve the problem of communication.
      I am also interested in basic questions such as "What is the purpose of art?" my own conclusions about this have to do with a process of feedback. I feel that it is the job of the artist to take in information (learn or experience), to then process that input (think, wonder, dream, compare, contemplate) and then to output the result (communication, creation, expression, meme-spreading). This cycle of feedback is an important aspect of my art.
      I also like the unpredictable nature of the work. Many times someone will see something completely different in one of my paintings than what I meant to say. This is wonderful Everyone should have their own experience and hopefully talking to me doesn't ruin it for them. All of these painting were created in the past 2 or 3 months, during this summer.
    My work is all for sale and I also offer "THE EASY PAYMENT PLAN".
    Enjoy!

Oil Painting "Screens and Tubes"

oi      This painting was inspired by an installation piece that I saw while reading the book "Living With Art".  The piece was called "TV Buddha"by Nam June Paik. The piece featured a Buddha statue which was sitting, looking at an image of it's self on a television screen. The Buddha was also being filmed, which was the source of it's own image on the TV.
        This is a very interesting idea, so I decided to explore it further in the context of the current NSA controversies.
        I also began thinking about America's love/hate relationship with television, which has now been transferred onto the new digital medias as well. I often see people complain about things like Facebook and teenagers who text in public. Television used to be called the "boob tube" implying that it is for stupid people or that it will make a person stupid. Modern society despises it's addiction to the "Tube" and now social media, accusing it of creating a mindless, antisocial state of zombiehood.
         Isn't it interesting though that an empty, quiet mind is in many ways held up as a virtue when it is seen in Buddhist meditation, which coincidentally many times is achieved by sitting, focusing upon some arbitrary point several feet in front of the meditator? Both the Tube medias and Buddhism seem to have a few interesting things in common. Another interesting coincidence is how they invalidate the physical experience, while placing an over-emphasis on the virtual (or spiritual).
        This makes me wonder if being "glued" to a screen, wether it be a tv or a computer, may be similar to meditation, and vice verse.

Nam June Paik. "TV Buddha" 1974, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Sunburnt Vehicle oil painting series of 3

       One day, I was riding my bike down an alley off of 4th Ave in Tucson and I came across what looked like it had been a recent car-port explosion. There were 2 burnt vehicles and a trailer, all of which had been destroyed along with the collapsed cinders of the car-port structure. I photographed it and made this series of oil paintings.
       This series of 3 paintings is a good example of how many times art is a kind of feedback loop of ideas and the world that those ideas are about.
        Here is what I mean:
 I saw the burnt vehicles and I was inspired by the destruction, the peeling, discolored paint and the textures of heated metal. I photographed what I saw, what inspired me. Then I painted the first version (#1), paying close attention to the shapes and textures that I liked.  Next, I put away the photos and painted #2 from looking at the first painting, allowing the shape of the vehicle to conform to the satellite dish. Finally, I painted #3 from looking at the finished satellite dish painting, putting the newly resulting shape back in it's original background.
       The process of feedback intersts me. This is the way that thoughts and ideas can build, one piece informing the next. A concept could continue to change and build on earlier states but there is no clear rule to say when it is actually done.

Oil Painting, "Sunburnt Vehicle 3"

"Sunburnt Vehicle 3", oil on panel.
21" x 23"
Completed Aug. 8th, 2013.

Oil Painting "Muted"

"Muted" Oil on panel.
16" x 16
Completed Aug. 10, 2013.

This piece is a collaboration between Pia Pilar Mogollon and myself. It began as a work of virtual photography, documenting actual events that we both witnessed and even instigated. We experimented with the alienation of an individual that will remain nameless, faceless and voiceless.
       In the world of emails and social media sites such as Facebook, if a person harasses or annoys you, they can be reported and "blocked. This is the equivalent of a digital restraining order. It's also like a  form of exile, especially if they don't know that they are blocked. What would it be like if someone had been blocked by many people in their community without being aware of it? What if when you saw them in public, their body was seen as simply greyed out? If they talked to you, their voice was "muted". As we interact increasingly online, in virtual environments, this idea of muting becomes an issue really of developing the ability to "edit" our own experiences, as we gain the freedom to choose who will talk to us and who we will have to deal with. In many ways, we are offered the choice of who will "exist" in our own realities and who wont.

Oil Painting, "Sunburnt Vehicle 2"

"Sunburnt Vehicle 2"
Oil on Metal Satellite Dish.
22" x 32" x 4" (concave)
Completed July 25th, 2013.

Oil Painting, "Mona Lisa After Giger"

"Mona Lisa After Giger"
Oil on Panel.
22" x 32"
2013

H.R. Giger, born 5 February 1940 is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. When I was a teenager I would sit in the coffee shops of book stores like Border's and Barnes and Nobles, many times for hours looking through Giger's art books hoping to be influenced by his unique style and vision. This artist was one of my major influences and inspirations as a young person. 
     This painting is a hybrid work. I have combined 2 elements an order to explore the idea of idol and celebrity. The 2 elements combined in the piece are:
     (1) the painting style and design work of my favorite artist of my youth, H.R. Giger
 and 
     (2) my own reproduction of what I see to be the world's favorite painting, "The Mona Lisa".  

Oil Painting "Sunburnt Vehicle"

"Sunburnt Vehicle"
Oil on panel,
21" x 24"
Completed on June 19th, 2013.