Rev. Bill Comeau
This Woman - Bears Watching
This Woman - Bears Watching
mixed media
39" x 27"
39" x 27"
January 25 through February 13, 2009
Rev. Bill Comeau and Allen Russell Hallė: Good News Art
Rev. Bill ComeauRev. Bill Comeau and Allen Russell Hallė: Good News Art
Artist's Statement
From the past will come our future; what it holds, a mystery. Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
Over the past three years I have spent time with two master painters: Vincent Van Gogh and Amedeo Modigliani. Both flashed across the sky and burned out long before they could give us a view of all they had to say, all they saw on this dusty ball we all inhabit. I have been drawn to them on several levels.
First a very personal journey. My father died young. He was a jazz saxophonist who could not read music. He died leaving a legacy of several recordings that I have listened to until they have been reduced to scratches. I have always wondered what more he would have done. There is a promise in his solos that might have led to greatness. I feel the same about Vincent and Modigliani.
Secondly, my own quest to find a place in the art world has led me to study with a friend whom I met when we were both in our thirties. Her name is Sas Colby, one of the bright lights in the book-art world and marvelous teacher. Both in Spain and New Mexico, Sas pushed me to find the sacred in the ordinary. Much of the journey involved walk-abouts to find treasures in the trash discarded along the road of life. This series of mixed media acrylic paintings combines objects (including crushed cans) that document my stay in Taos, New Mexico, and portraits (Modigliani style) of my fellow students and Mabel Dodge Luhan at whose home we met. It was a deeply spiritual time for me and I felt the movement of the Creator in the creation of these humble works.
Allen Russell Hallė
Biography
I started creating art and music in 1952, at the age of 5. I was self-taught, frequenting libraries and studying books on art. I would also create drawings of family members. I always enjoyed making faces and shapes.
I studied art in school. Afterwards I worked in advertising and became an art director.
To learn more I traveled to the United Kingdom and began exhibiting my work there. In the early 1970s I joined the watercolor society.
I have exhibited in many shows, although I have never kept a record of the exhibition titles.
I retired at age 37 to make art my full-time career. Now I am in my 60s and still going at it.