The Art of Fred Martin
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From small watercolor, gouache and computer
printouts to large acrylics...
A selection of paintings, 1992-93

Images marked
** are described in the catalog for my 2003 Retrospective at the Oakland Museum of California. 
Click the
** to go to the description.
Click here for directory to all 1990's paintings.

Click here for directory to all paintings

Scroll down for the paintings, click the image for a larger view.

 

Paintings in 1992.
The old year of 1991 ended and the new year of 1992 began with the last of the paintings/collage/computer printouts made from old, old work--scraps from the mid 1960's and before.  This folder/painting consists of the last of the Beulah Land poppies from a suite of drawings from 1965, a text from the end of 1991, and a "sunflower in the sky" computer printout drawing from earlier in 1991.
 


December 30-January 1, 1991-2
Exterior of the folder of
The Dust and Ashes of Beulah Land
Watercolor with computer printout collage
18 x 24 in.
 

 


The Dust and Ashes of Beulah Land
Watercolor with computer printout collage
18 x 24 in.
(Collection Oakland Museum of California)
 

I was teaching 20th century art history in the spring of 1992.  In talking about Kandinsky and the Blue Rider, I played some of the music of the time--Schoenberg's Transfigured Night and the Mahler 2nd, the "Resurrection."  I made a broadside "...about the Resurrection" to give to the class as an example of the concerns of that time, and also made several copies of it in the form of a collage, an art-piece I could both keep for myself and give away to people.  I do not know what the people I gave the collages to thought, nor do I  know what the students in the class thought, nor if anyone ever kept their copies.



"About the Resurrection"
broadside, dot-matrix printout with watercolor
11 x 8.5 in.

"...about the Resurrection"
a collage from a broadside for a class
Undated, spring 1992
approx. 22 x 15 in.
 

 

I began to court Stephanie Dudek in March of 1992.  I went to China that summer, and on my return decided to change my medium from the computer printout/collage with watercolors which I had been using for the previous five years to acrylic as response to the enormous increase in the energy in my body that was my response and fuel to my courtship of Stephanie.  I began by continuing the "sweep up all the leavings" of the latter 1991-early 1992, but no more computer (my arms were as passionate to move as they had been in the old "Carpenter" days of 1966-67 after finishing the Beulah Land book.  Among the leavings to be swept up were fragments of Tarot card linoleum block prints from the early 1980's.  "Love Conquers All" was one of the results.


Love Conquers All
Acrylic block print on paper,
Undated, fall, 1992
30 x 22 in.
 

 

Paintings in 1993
Stephanie Dudek and I were married December 19, 1992.  These two paintings were the immediate result.  They are about wedding rings--and I had designed her ring with a tiny ruby as symbol of the touch of blood of marriage.

#1, January 1993
Acrylic on paper, 60 x 44 in.
 

 


#2, January 1993
Acrylic on paper, 60 x 44 in.
There was a "Valentines" show at the Pier 23 Restaurant in February of 1993.  I made a lot of valentines, all sizes and shapes to learn how to use acrylic.  Also, to proclaim my new feelings of love.
** Venetian Hearts Still Beat
Acrylic on color etching
February, 1993
 

 


A Valentine on Swords and Staves
Acrylic on color etching
February 1993

Untitled #10, Spring 1993
Acrylic with collage on paper
approx 40 x 30 in.

Untitled #16, Spring 1993
Acrylic with collage on paper
approx 40 x 30 in.

Untitled #6, Spring 1993
Acrylic with collage on paper
approx 40 x 30 in.
 

 

It was planned that one of my classes in the fall of 1993 would be a graduate seminar on the spiritual in art.  I was now filled with the roar of the life of the senses and of the mind—and what is spirit if not both of those pulsing together in our bodies between earth and heaven.  I decided to make a backdrop for the first class meeting.  It would be enormous (it’s 126 x 126 in.) like stage backdrops are supposed to be, with flesh on the left, mind on the right, earth at the bottom and heaven at the top.  I somehow imagined myself standing in front of it at the first class meeting to introduce the subject of the seminar.   By the time the semester started a certain timidity set in and I never used the backdrop.  By January of 1994, however, its size got me going on a series of paintings of this 126 x 126 in. size.


Body and Mind, Earth and Heaven
June 7-14, 1993

[Click here for the 1994 "Large Diamond" format paintings.]

 

Click here for directory to all 1990's paintings.
Click here for directory to all paintings