2016, A Morsel about the Year, in Review

A few days ago, when I posted Byron Anway, Art as Portrait, WordPress reminded me it was time to write about The Year in Review. Here’s something. WordPress provides a lot of feedback. I can easily click onto my statistics page and see how many people have been on my site, the country of origin, and the source of the search engines used. But, it is really false to have written the word people in the previous sentence. Early in the year I started receiving a lot of hits from programmed computers all around the world.

When I bake cookies (which Bonnie and I’ve been doing lately) I like to line all my baked goods up in neat little lines and count them before anyone else gets to touch one. No damage was really done by all those anonymous computers hitting on my blog, but they screwed with my counting-crazy mind. I like to count real things, not fake ones, even though counting is really just white noise.

When Russell helped me set up my blog three years ago he said, “You need to say how often you’re going to write, when you will be posting, and stick to it.” I did that for the first two years and struggled with keeping to the schedule this year. On the other hand, most of those freeloading computers disappeared almost immediately when my posts started appearing at less predictable times, and I am a happier now, without them. I’m planning to go back to Tuesdays now, and see what happens.

Thanks to Laurie and John for the Centerpiece, and to Bonnie for the darling plate, and declicious cookies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Byron Anway, Art as Self Portrait

A few years ago, about the time Byron headed off to Nebraska for graduate school, I pointed to a huge blank place on our kitchen wall, and commissioned a still life painting of fruit.

At 14 inches by 18 inches, we enjoyed the resultant painting on a smaller wall. Since we moved across town, the painting graces the west side of our dining room. On the east wall, beneath the elk skull Byron bought me a few years ago (a la Georgia O’Keeffe), we are enjoying another painting Byron made, one he did not burn in The Bonfire of Paintings.

Somewhere recently I read that all art is self-portrait. With that view in mind, when he painted the first work, Byron had just recently moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. His nearest friend was Stephen Gunvalson, teaching Spanish an hour away in Omaha. Byron lived alone (not a good idea) in a deplorably sad apartment he had chosen because of the price and the two good looking women he saw entering the building, neither of whom turned out to be living there. Resident raccoons scratching around inside the walls were the closest thing to his roommates.

Inside that painting, the room is dark. All the available light is  entering from outside the house. Clara Anway (at the time), sewed the tablecloth. Russell Anway made the platter. I brought him the peach.

The second painting, the one above Zane’s head, is a much larger painting. Byron has met Courtney, who lives behind the well-lit door on the  left. Now, it’s very dark outside (on the right). But, what’s inside, now that’s inviting.

 

 

Byron Anway/New American Paintings

Byron Anway’s painting career began when he was still a one-year-old. I know because we started it together. We had fun. In the bottom of a big gray tub of memories, I’ve saved some of that early work. I’m told it’s not common for someone to carry an interest through life as consistently as Byron has painted.

Red | 6″ X 8″ | 2014

When Byron began to develop his personal painting style, nobody was surprised he painted people. Besides round objects that bounce and fly through the air and off walls, the guitar and people have always been his magnet. The crowd out there. No strangers.

John 2 | 6″ X 8″ | 2014

Most recently, rather than individual portraits Byron’s been covering paper and canvas with masses of people, people crowded together at concerts, demonstrations, a Beer Party. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLweAacBlCW/

Beer Party | 48″ X 60″ | 2015

Every figure in each of these paintings is drawn and then painted individually. Setting details are minimally represented, but clearly indicate the flavor of the location. These are big paintings, and I hear they will soon be even bigger.

Event 1 (circles) / Watercolor / 28″X22″ / 2016

Currently, Byron’s work is featured in the publication,  New American Paintings 126.
The Western Competition. Now Available.                           https://newamericanpaintings.com/artists/byron-anway

Nice!