Rob Carpenter : Paths of Moving Points

FIRST WEDNESDAY OPENING RECEPTION: 02/06, 6 - 9 P.M.
artICULATE aRTIST tALK: sUNDAY, 02/10 AT 4 P.M.
 

Rob Carpenter’s fascination with line continues with this latest installment of his Paths of Moving Points series. The evolving series of drawings, which began eight years ago, are oftentimes likened to tapestries by viewers. Though this wasn’t Carpenter’s initial intent, he has come to accept and recognize that the hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of lines used in each work act like threads, visually intertwining themselves on paper in much the same way that threads do within a single textile.

“Line is the only manmade element of art. The others (shape, texture, color, and value) are all elements that exist in nature,” Carpenter explains. “Line can be used to visually create shape, suggest texture, and simulate value. Color is arbitrary; the artist chooses this rogue element.”

Carpenter’s line making is both slow and deliberate, resulting in a meditative process. Using layers upon layers of solid, dashed, or squiggly lines, textures and colors develop. Decisions regarding what the next layer of lines will materialize as (in terms of color or width, for example) is often a response to the preceding layer. As the layers build up, these decisions become increasingly difficult and the stakes of success and failure grow.

A Mississippi native, Carpenter earned his B.S. in History at Mississippi State University and M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing at Louisiana State University. Carpenter has been featured in Studio Visit Magazine and New American Paintings and has received two grants for outdoor sculpture and painting. His work has been featured nationally at the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco, the William Dale Gallery in New Orleans, The Medici Center for the Visual Arts in Philadelphia and The Metropolitan Gallery in Arlington, VA.

Carpenter served as a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Nicholls State University (Thibodaux, LA) from 1991 – 2012.

This exhibition is presented alongside the latest works from Eleanor Owen Kerr and Matt Morris. All works from these four artists are on view, free of charge, during normal gallery hours (12 - 6 p.m., Tue - Sun) through February 28, 2019.