Props this week for a Ryegate Corner, Vermont artist whose abstract work grabs our attention and whose thoughts on the creative process are worth exploring as well. Props for Christopher Quirk - a painter, writer, and filmmaker who largely splits his time between the Green Mountains and the Big Apple. 

Initially I ran across his work in the series Binary. My first impressions were largely guided by looking for the duality hinted at by the series title. In the piece 3054 we find the halves we may have been looking for, but they are messy and ooze and stick to one another, rely on one another, reflect one another, and generally reinforces the neccessity of opposites and tension.

BINARY (KATALOGS 3054), 2019

In the piece 3069 I found myself considering repitition - it's utility and sometime futility. Each expression similar but unique exactly like each of us.

BINARY (KATALOGS 3069), 2020

What really ended up calling to me about Christophers work was his own words describing the process:

The creative impulse is renegade, and domesticates poorly. The more it is bridled by dogma or scholastic strategizing, the more bloodless the results will be. Ambition can quickly go from being a salutary impetus to an enemy, as you size up a work in process against some cheap and illusory specter of achievement or progress. That road goes nowhere worth going to my mind.There is plenty of space for cognitive processing, evaluation, and editing in the making of a painting. No work is complete without it. But I’m talking here about a deeper choice, a finding of a deeper motivation and direction and following it. The relinquishing of certain control demanded in yielding to the unknown is often scary for me.

Well we think his reliquishing of control has benefit us all. We encourage you to check out his other works and writings. Friday Props for Christopher Quirk and his deft hand at abstraction.

Check out his works and give him a follow:

Artwork: Christopher Quirk website

Medium: https://christopherquirk.medium.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherquirk/

Store: https://christopherquirk.net/store/