Index:
-- Home - that would be this page.
-- Gallerie - A gallery of artwork.
-- Curriculum Vitae - Resume and Curriculum Vitae
Contact
Richard Donagrandi
7356 N. Damen, APT 1S
Chicago, IL
Winter 2006 News
Whew! It's been a rollercoaster of a couple years! Since my last website update, I've bought and rehabbed my condo, and travelled quite a bit both for fun and for the day job. I've even sold a couple more works even though I haven't been producing!
This year, I'll be revamping this website, ArtScope.net (that I produce), and restarting up my studio.
I just bought a new (film) camera to do some black and white photography. But I have lots of material I've collected over the past year and a half to get back to painting with, too. With any luck, I'll be able to have a open studio around Summer Solstace.
Summer 2004 News
This year has not been very good, so far. The house sold and the week I moved, I was rear-ended and the insurance company totaled the car. So now I'm car-less. -- This has put a damper on things like taking studio time at the ceramics studio as I thought I would...
Not content to retreat and nurse my wounds, I have been traveling a lot. So far this year, I've been to Phoenix, Palm Springs, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Berlin (Germany), Saugatuck (Michigan), and will be traveling to Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Detroit, Traverse City (Michigan), and Hawaii. I may also include Ft. Lauderdale, too, for the IGLA (swimming) Championships in October.
My new condo is on it's way to development, and won't be ready until November at the earliest, and my studio is in storage until then. But I was recently asked to take part in a group show during Around the Coyote sponsored and curated by Chicago Art Source... So I will have at least one show this year.
 | At Lincoln Inn Fields, 2003 |
Winter and Spring 2004 News
Much has happened since my Blackbird show last October. Unfortunately, everything that's happened is non-art related, yet profoundly life-altering. The consequences have led me to close my studio space in the Flat Iron, and I am currently in the process of selling my house and moving into a new condominium space. I may be able to incorporate work space into my new condo, but right now, everything is up in the air.
Interestingly, preparing a new condo space to move in to has inspired me to return to ceramics. As I may be "homeless" for a few months this year (actually living with friends until the new condo is completed) -- I've decided I may rent some studio time at Midwest Clay Guild and do some ceramic work through the year. I'm suddenly inspired to do some glazed tile work, and maybe some wheel-thown or hand-built vessel works.
For those who did not know me in college, other than painting and drawing, I had two other areas of artistic focus, interest, and exploration: photography and ceramics. In ceramics, Michigan State spoiled me with their glaze formulation room. Most ceramic studios only provide pre-mixed, bottled glazes. Michigan State had a whole room devoted to mixing glazes from scratch so that budding ceramicists could develop their own glaze from flux, colorants, and such from scratch. I made some really interesting glazes while I was there including those that color the tiles I put in my garden patio. -- I'll be sure to keep this site updated with the results of this summer's work.
In the meantime, Chicago Art Source and Thomas Masters Gallery continues to show and sell my works on paper. Chicago Art Source is also helping me "store" a couple of my oil paintings. -- I've been traveling a lot recently and collecting sources and ideas to continue expanding these series. Be assured that next year, I'll be painting up a storm!
Statement
My work focuses on landscape, and on our perception of time, place, weather, quality of light, objects and dynamic energy. I am inspired by the ancient Buddhist and Hindu practice of seeing without seeing; being without being.
"Donagrandi's uniformity of format and composition at first glance seems a placid vehicle for visual expression, although it does create an effect of formal dignity. The framing and exhibition of each piece as an artwork to be investigated invites a superficial interpretation of it as a mere object of decor. Attention and time do however reward the perceptive. Donagrandi's studies in abstraction, like the Asian rituals of discernment, are starting points toward an appreciation of the refined interplay of color nuance. The merits of each piece are best appreciated by contemplation: like much that is pleasurable in life, their charm eludes words and logic. One stares at them in the way one examines bright sun or overcast cloud-glow on field grass -- intently and at leisure. They evoke the tremulous vision of heat on soil, and of reflection in water."
--G. Jurek Polanski, ArtScope.net, http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/lifepatterns0999-2.html
Blackbird Photos
Here are a couple pix from my Blackbird opening this last Fall...
