December 2009

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Vixen (Inari)

(sold)

December 21, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 11 comments

Vixen (Inari) cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 17.2 x 29 cm ( about 6 3/4 x 11 1/2″ )
medium: cut and torn paper on wood
click here or the image for large-scale foxiness

Blinded by cleverness into seeing only cleverness, undone by our own cunning.

The fox makes a great symbol, from Aesop on up ’til now. No other two-legger or four-legger embodies that same complicated and conflicted mix of clever, cunning, hunger, pride, independence and nobility. They serve beautifully as both hero and villain, sage and fool, in just about every culture. Look at Inari, Japanese god…or goddess of…well, just about everything. Plus, they just look awesome.

Like Words of Carrion Comfort, Vixen is a little bit of an experiment with shape and texture. Where I used mostly color combinations to try to bring out a softness in Carrion, here I combined that with a little bit of torn paper and some translucency.

Vixen (Inari) is also part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

Words of Carrion Comfort

(sold)

December 16, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 9 comments

Words of Carrion Comfort cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 17.2 x 29 cm ( about 6 3/4 x 11 1/2″ )
medium: cut paper on wood
click here or the image to crow louder

If there ever was an argument for spontaneous generation, it is the carrion-craving crow. The park near my home is infested with the big-beaked birds and they are eternally carrying out raids on the neighborhood garbage bags. But for all their ever-present…um, presence, I have yet to see a baby crow. As a boy I collected discarded robin’s eggs, without ever finding the slightest evidence that crows hatch. Instead, they seem to come into the world fully formed and filthy.

My theory is that dark and ominous thoughts float out of our heads and congeal in the upper atmosphere. There they take on feathery form before plummeting back down to earth to caw annoyingly and take part time jobs as evil omens.

I’ve been combining cut paper and wood for awhile now, and I really dig the way the natural textures and colors work together. Lately I’ve been thinking about using different shapes and kinds of wood. This is one of the first experiments in that vein. Something about the rounded shape of the wood felt feminine to me so I’ve been exploring ways to get a softer effect from the hard-edged paper, mostly by way of color combinations.

Carrion Comfort is part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

2010, a Year in Paper

December 13, 2009 in Japan, News | Add your comment

2010 Patrick Gannon Cut Paper Calendar
Click to see a bigger preview

The 2010 Cut Paper Art Calendar, featuring 12 of my favorite (and seasonally appropriate) works is now available. Made entirely of cut and torn paper (and often wood) in his studio in Tokyo, Patrick’s artwork is a collision of American and Japanese pop-culture, mythology and wonderous creatures amid a landscape of jagged edges and amazing textures.

And look, Lulu has this nifty new preview thingy! It might take a minute to load, but you can flip through all the art, including the brand new From the Bamboo Forests of the Night, just for 2010′s Year of the Tigger!

Gallery Show: EtoEtceTora at Gallery kópis Tokyo

December 9, 2009 in Exhibitions & Events, Japan, News | Add your comment

EtoEtceTora at Gallery kopis, opens December 13, 2009Ooh, this is gonna take a little work.

The title of the show, I mean. See, I totally didn’t get it myself until my stupendous wife explained the triple-layer pun to me. I don’t know if I’ll do it justice, but I’m a-gonna give it a whirl. 干支 (Eto) means the 12 Constellations of the Chinese / Japanese Zodiac; which just happens to be the main theme of this particular show. Et-cetera means what you think it means, but in katakana it reads エトセトラ. Say that “Eto-se-tora”. Following so far? 2010 is the year of the Tiger, in Japanese 寅 / Tora. And there you have it, three pronunciation-puns-in-one.

Oh yeah, and there’s gonna be all kinds of art on the wall from a bunch of talented folks. I’ll be a tiny part of the show, and plan on hanging out in the gallery a bit, at least on opening day and closing day. Stop on by if you happen to be in the neighborhood or own a Leer jet. Here’re the details:

Name: EtoEtceTora 「干支　エトセトラ・・」

Place: Kópis Gallery (http://www.g-kopis.com/)
near Kiyosumi-shirakawa station, Tokyo
ph. 03-5639-2381
1-2-12 1F Shirakawa, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0021

Dates: Sunday, December 13 – December 19, 2008 (Gallery closed on Tuesday, the 15th)
Time: 11am to 7pm (from 1pm on the 13th, until 5pm on the 19th)

Email me for times I’ll be there (though punctuality I do not promise).

Here’s a link to the gallery (all in Japanese!)

And here’s a map).

English directions from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa station: Just use exit A3, when you finish climbing the stairs take a left and then another immediate left. When you hit the road, go right and the Kopis Gallery will be on the next corner. Takes about 3 minutes.

From the Bamboo Forests of the Night

(sold)

December 2, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 13 comments

From the Bamboo Forests of the Night cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 8 x 10 inches
medium: cut paper on board

Good old William Blake knew what he was talking about. Entangled in the vines and bamboo of the shadowy forest, no other animal has quite the same combination of feline grace and stealthy, coiled threat as the tiger.

虎視眈々 (koshitantan) is a yojijukugo, a Japanese idiom made up of four kanji. In this case, 虎 (ko)=tiger; 視 (shi)=eye or gaze, and 眈々 (tantan; the second character repeats the sound of the first) = to aim with ambition. Together, they mean to wait patiently while ambitiously keeping your eyes peeled for the opportunity to strike. That sure sounds like a tiger to me.

The tiger is the third animal in the Chinese (and Japanese) zodiac. I’m not sure why s/he didn’t just eat the mouse and the cow and grab first place. This particular tiger is also the second preview from The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.