The Art of Fred Martin
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A selection of paintings...
February 2005



Unless otherwise noted, all paintings are acrylic on paper, 44 x 30  inches
Scroll down for the paintings, click the thumbnails for larger views.

Note: These paintings were actually begun at the end of January 2005. Each was begun with a text written on the painting,
and each painting was intended to be largely simply a calligraphic of the text.
The text is given as the "Was" immediately below the painting.
Work on the paintings was resumed the last couple of days in February
and the first day or two of March. The "Is" is what the calligraphic text then became.


 

Studio notes at the time of finishing the last of the February 2005 paintings:

March 4, 2005.  Oakland, afternoon
You know, you’re not going to make any money out of my stuff.  At least not for the next hundred years, and then only if people then procreate, fuck and die as I have done now.

March 5, 2005.  Oakland, afternoon.
Walking across 41st Street where it meets Piedmont Avenue, I saw a young woman leading her parents across the street.  She was holding her small, frail father’s arm and assuring him he could walk the thirty feet.  She reminded him of a family friend who went for a walk each day, and how healthy the exercise was.  I saw her father’s virile youth when he begat her, and the strong young father who once led his little girl by the hand across the street.

“Procreate”… the curse laid on us by life, the curse of the pain of love because everything dies.

 


#1, February 2005.

Originating text:
 I have no church nor temple
to hire me to show forth the glory of its god.

 I learned this is the church/temple.

 

 


#2, February 2005.

Originating text:
I have no prince for patron
to decorate his palace.

I learned I am the prince,
my body is the palace,
this is the mural.


#3, February 2005

Originating text:
I have no museum to purchase my work
for masterpiece for social improvement.

I learned this is my work.
 

 


#4, February 2005

Originating text:
I have only always day by day
on ageing paper the markings of my life.

I learned these are the marks.

 


#5, February 2005

Originating text:
I have no new forms to bedazzle
the wonderment of the world;
I have only old forms old age all time
and tender care for the dying.

I made the care.

 

 


#6, February 2005.
Acrylic on paper, approx. 44 x 44 inches.
 

Click here for March 2005