photos by Boyd Ogle II
Hackett/Mill (San Francisco) showed work by David Beck and Jess (Collins) at Expo Chicago 2016.
Beck is a mixed media artist whose work often included meticulous carvings and intricate surface detail. His work borrows from cabinet makers as much as from fine artists. The elephant here uses four different types of wood, gouache and brass. This piece has definite whimsy.
Lest you think his use of these exotic woods is environmentally unsound Beck uses found materials in his work. Not all his work is small in scale. His 2006 piece, MVSEVM, was featured at the reopening of the Smithshonian American Museum of Art. The piece is a five foot by five foot sculpture that has small painted portraits, drawers for little artifacts, cabinets showing curiosities and odds and ends dangling from the ceiling.
Collins studied science and was drafted into the army and worked on the Manhattan Project. This inside look at the potential for devastation had an effect on the young man. He had a premonition of impending nuclear war, quit his job and became a full time artist. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute).
Petals of Paint is an amalgamation of figurative painting and abstract expressionism. We see these are flowers but they are not a direct representation of any flowers of the real world. This piece is based on a haiku by an 18th century Japanese poet.
Hackett/Mill (San Francisco) showed work by David Beck and Jess (Collins) at Expo Chicago 2016.
Beck is a mixed media artist whose work often included meticulous carvings and intricate surface detail. His work borrows from cabinet makers as much as from fine artists. The elephant here uses four different types of wood, gouache and brass. This piece has definite whimsy.
Lest you think his use of these exotic woods is environmentally unsound Beck uses found materials in his work. Not all his work is small in scale. His 2006 piece, MVSEVM, was featured at the reopening of the Smithshonian American Museum of Art. The piece is a five foot by five foot sculpture that has small painted portraits, drawers for little artifacts, cabinets showing curiosities and odds and ends dangling from the ceiling.
Collins studied science and was drafted into the army and worked on the Manhattan Project. This inside look at the potential for devastation had an effect on the young man. He had a premonition of impending nuclear war, quit his job and became a full time artist. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute).
Petals of Paint is an amalgamation of figurative painting and abstract expressionism. We see these are flowers but they are not a direct representation of any flowers of the real world. This piece is based on a haiku by an 18th century Japanese poet.
Yawning Elephant With A Very Long Trunk,
basswood, holly, ebony, cherry woods, gouache and brass mechanism
by David Beck
Petals of Paint, oil on plywood, by Jess (Collins)
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