Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Artist Goodwin describes his works as 'metamorphic'

LAKEVILLE — When a visitor stopped by his studio in Pittsfield, Mass., last week, artist Joe Goodwin showed hima piece of burned bone he found while “gathering.â€

“Look at the colors, the texture where the outer part burned off and left that marrow exposed,†he said.

Goodwin, whose abstract paintings are on display at the Tremaine Gallery at The Hotchkiss School, described his work as “metamorphic.†He finds inspiration in volcanoes, lichen on rocks, the walls of a moss garden in Japan patched over the years until the natural and manmade combine into a single entity.

“I like a geologic look, a painting that looks like it happened.â€

He’ll leave a drip or two, however, just to remind the viewer that it was, in fact, painted.

Goodwin has been painting abstracts since graduate school at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign.

It represents a complete shift from his undergraduate days as a superrealist, recreating photographs as faithfully as possible.

“I came in with a superrealist portfolio; I was the only one there. When they asked me why, I didn’t have a good answer beyond ‘People say wow when they see it.’

“I got in a real quandary. I stopped painting and started gathering material — from junkyards, railroad yards, anywhere. I had a big pile in the studio, and I started exploring sensibilities.â€

And after doing some installations — “what was called ‘assemblage’†— Goodwin started painting again, in abstract form.

“I don’t try to mimic things. It’s an exploration of the unconscious.â€

He begins a painting with a colored ground base, applied to the canvas “without any intention.â€

“Then I pick up a brush with another color and start playing.I build on that. The painting dictates how it goes.

“After a few layers I get into decisions about contrast, balance and harmony. Things begin to flow, and I make formalist decisions without really thinking about it.â€

He’s been trying to make a red painting for a while. “Every time I try a red painting it comes out green or blue.â€

How does he know if a painting is not working?

“It’s just sort of irritating — like some people.â€

Goodwin received a big commission for a one-man show in Frankfurt, Germany, in the mid-1980s. He had four months to create 10 pieces, a task he found daunting, and when he encountered a problem with one piece, “often the answer was in the next one.â€

So now he works on several paintings at the same time.

“I don’t have failures, they just change. I’ve exhibited paintings, then brought them home and painted over them. I’m painting from inner necessity. It’s about getting out of your own way.â€

Goodwin sipped his coffee, thought for a moment, and continued.

“It’s like jazz — you need the formalism, but then you break the rules while still knowing when you’re going over the line.â€

The show at the Tremaine Gallery continues through Feb. 3, with a “meet the artist†reception on Saturday, Jan. 16, 4 p.m. For more information see the gallery Web site at hotchkiss.org/Arts and then do a search for Goodwin.

Lakeville Journal

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Seeing isn’t always believing. Sometimes it’s the lack of a defined picture that can be the most compelling. And when Alex Harvey of Shinbone Alley sings his supernaturally charged sea shanties and street ballads, the unseen will be downright scary. On Oct. 30, the historically inclined storyteller and performer will create a spooky evening of forbidden tales and yarns through a carefully chosen series of songs at Spencertown Academy of Arts.

The repertoire for the performance is a bit fraught. Over the years, Shinbone Alley has explored the world of folklore through music. Though the group usually features two musicians, Harvey, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, will be performing solo. That is, of course, unless you include the spirits.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield
Vieux Farka Touré
Proivded

Desert winds rarely blow into the Berkshires, but on Nov. 5, they will carry the Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa music to Race Brook Lodge.

That evening, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, often called “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will play at the lodge’s Event Barn in Sheffield, Massachusetts, at a benefit for the foundation Touré directs.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.