THE MUSIC THAT YOU HEAR NOW IS:
"MULTIPLE ONENESS I", by Matt Sullivan, electro/acoustic oboe
FROM "TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES
by, Ken Cro-ken and Matt Sullivan
The concept of earthwork art summons images of soil, water, wood, rock formations or other tangible materials. The greater focus within my art experience is nature's process and the invisible forces that shape all things. I work paint like soil. Nature is my collaborator and makes its every influence known. I am an ecosystem artist developing each 2D and 3D painting in seasonal conditions of high heat and extreme cold at various levels of humidity and altitude to experience the power of natural elements in response to the materials I lay upon the canvas and elsewhere. This is a physical investigation using paint. Paintings are set in motion to recreate the push-pull forces and respond to distinctive environmental influences as further inspiration toward the completion of each canvas. I define this activated palette as Speed Elements and learn about paint and our planet simultaneously. I reflect deeply on the relationship between the act of painting and the art of nature.
"Nature has her own best mode for doing each thing and has told us plainly over time;
and if we decide to choose our own ways as opposed to natures';
nature will not be slow in undeceiving us."
- RALPH WALDO EMERSON -
I set my Speed Element paints into motion to mimic the push-pull forces that shape and mold all things
to create telescopic and microscopic views of the earth and places scattered throughout the universe.
This is a phsyical investigation of paint
and learn about paint and nature simultaneously.
SIX FOOT SQ. SNOW PTG JAN. - APRIL 2010 January 12, 2010 NY, NY EV
Reactive and Proactive Improvisation describe my influence and input
once the initial work has been set in motion.
Through my activated palette, Speed Elements, nature continually reveals its every influence.
ACTUALIZING EARTH, NATURE & SELF.
"Idealism acquaints us with total disparity between the evidence
of our own being, and the evidence of the world's being.
I am incapable of any assurance and nature is, on the other hand, perfect."
- EMERSON -
SIX FOOT SQ. SNOW PTG JAN. - APRIL 2010 Feb 12th, 2010
"DEEP BLUE ST. PETE."
2006
Nature’s involvement in all things led me to realize that all of the visual arts are earthwork. I take this not only as a given but as a starting point. My emphasis is to react to the actual, followed by other forms of perception such as realism or abstraction. Nature will be involved whether I create paint experiments indoors or on location regardless of media. This art recognizes, accepts, embraces, and reveals the role of nature in all things, including all we create. My art accepts the fact that I cannot create art in a vacuum and the benefit of "going with the flow". I understand the need to create these compositions consciously in concert with nature. There is a comfort in knowing that I never had to abandon being a painter to create earthwork art. Nature in itself is inspiring and I ride her coat tails with amazement. My
relationship with nature continues to motivate my perception and
reactions to the conduct of paint as inspired by "The Conduct of Life"
published by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1860.
"THE CONDUCT OF PAINT" by Ken Cro-Ken, RELEASE DATE: SUMMER 2012
celebrating Ralph Waldo Emerson's 150th Anniversary of "THE CONDUCT OF LIFE".
*** Edited with a wonderfully talented writer, Catherine McWeeney.
What one sees when observing a planet's surface is a visual record of past events.
I set a painting in motion and predict events/illusions in advance of their actual appearance
but as a true experimentalist, I want to create experiments that I do not know the basic outcome.
I am pleased to say that it goes beyond my imagination but not my abilities or efforts to peer into the universe.
I mix paints and catalysts to recreate the push-pull forces that shape and mold all things.
As a result of using this "activated" palette, I call "Speed Elements",
I can see not only how space appears but more importantly, how it moves.
MULTIPLE ONENESS
A TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES
THE MUSIC THAT YOU HEAR NOW IS:
"MULTIPLE ONENESS I", by Matt Sullivan, electro/acoustic oboe
What one witnesses with my Speed Element paintings is the last "frozen" vision.
Setting a painting in motion live offers an audience countless visions and further narrows the gap between
the act of painting and the final painting placed on view.
When an activated painting comes to rest, the viewer only sees the one vision left behind.
A painting can reach an incredible peak early on in the process of "honing in" on a place.
Part of the challenge is an attempt to leave that as the lasting impression.
Time and nature wait for no one and I am thrust between the immediate past, present and future.
Timing is everything and therefore, a major component to the "equation".
* Video captures images that eluded capture by the canvas.
Paint experiments come to apparent rest and can more accurately be called a "painted".
It is the video that could more accurately be called the "painting".
Simply put, I manipulate space, time and matter... and the matter is not just paint.
"HOW SOMETHING APPEARS DEPENDS ON HOW LONG ONE TAKES TO OBSERVE."
- EMERSON -
TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCES, began in 1999 with FirstAVenue, an electro'acoustic trio, playing space-time music. Eventually, there were two... In performances called- MULTIPLE ONENESS, I set paint in motion while Matt Sullivan set the music in motion with acoustic oboe phrase that are electronically manipulated. Some of those performances are now on YOU TUBE.
(Picture on left, Sarasota Tribune Jan. 2012 The photo on right, New York Times 2011 Photo by, Ari Mintz for The New York Times)
KEN CRO-KEN SETS PAINT IN MOTION
WHILE MATT SULLIVAN PLAYS ACOUSTIC AND ELECTRONIC OBOE
THE NEW YORK TIMES - MUSIC REVIEW
"... The most unusual work I encountered was "Mulitple Oneness",
an intriguing performance-art piece by the oboist Matt Sullivan and the painter Ken Cro-Ken.
While Mr. Sullivan played a melancholy lament over recorded sounds, Mr. Cro-Ken poured liquids onto a canvas
projected onto a video screen. The colorful liquids flowed through the painting’s raised surfaces
like yellow lava, swirling in strange tandem with the oboe’s melancholy tunes."
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER (Published: February 22, 2011)
"A STILL FROM THE LIVE PERFORMANCE- MULTIPLE ONENESS, ST PETERSBURG, FL. MARCH 19th, 2010 9:32 PM
Speed Element paintings are, in a sense, launched in motion;
taking a moment of chance and extending it to hours, days, weeks and years...
depending upon how far north I go within our part of the earth's hemispheres.
"Nature is a fixed point whereby we may measure our departure."
- RALPH WALDO EMERSON -
"A Brief Moment in Time"
(detail), 48" 36" 2001
I feel the need to strike a balance between my inner and outer self.
If I lose this equilibrium, I can become an intruder to my own painting and potentially scar
the paint happening; and the same could be said for everyone's relationship with nature.
"There is nothing in the universe that is not a part of the human being; the human body being a miniature or summary of the universe."
- EMERSON -
"Lake Dwellers", 48" x 48" 2007
"JUNCTIONS, 24" X 30" 2001
"LAND AND SEA", (macro/micro paintings, 3 inch diameter) 2003
"SIX FOOT SQUARE SNOW PAINTING", January - April 2010
NATURE REFUSES TO BE MISMANAGED,
- EMERSON -
Paintings from a KC-K exhibition called- "EARTH TO KEN", N.Y., N.Y. 2007
..................................................
ACTUALIZING EARTH, NATURE & SELF.
Photo of Pleasant Bay, Cape Cod, Mass. by KC-K Aug. 2009
"RIVER CRITTERS, PA., 2006" KC-K ENVIRONMENTAL FLAG , SUMMER 2007
The flag above, on the right is one of three "ENVIRONMENTAL FLAGS",
that were shaped by the wind off the East River, Bklyn, N.Y.
(ART-IN-PUBLIC-PLACES, D.U.M.B.O. JULY & AUGUST 2007)
"COMING ATTRACTION", 20" X 24" 2009
.
Roof Garden Studio, East Village, NY, NY January 2002
What doesn't have the power to create life
has the power to redistribute in space and time.
- EMERSON -
One side of my business card is not exposed to the weather; the other side is.
The two sides are eventually glued together.
The picture above, shows the Roof Garden Studio and how each card is made from an experiment of 10 cards.
Like snow flakes, no two can be alike.
"INTRICATE SIMPLICITY". Lake Mango, Fla. 36" X 48" 2012
"INTRICATE SIMPLICITY". Lake Mango, Fla. 36" X 48" 2012
The moment of chance, most identifiable to the Abstract Expressionist movement, can be extend further from the moment paint left the brush or stick, until it lands on the canvas. When asked how long it takes me to make a Speed Element Experiment painting I say that depends on where and when it is made. Painted in the dead of winter in NY could be a couple of weeks at least, and in the middle of summer in Death Valley, it might only be a few hours at most. To succeed in working with nature I must become more sensitive to what is occurring outside myself before I can actualize art and self.
To see more of my art, please click on the link below:
http://www.kencroken.com/KC-K_PAINTING_GALLERY.html
....................................................................................................................
A TIME RELEASED PERFORMANCE
NYU, Frederick Loewe Theatre, N.Y., N.Y.,
To see MULTIPLE ONENESS- SULLIVAN / CRO-KEN
* please click on the link below: *
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