m. girón

 My work runs roughly in four main directions. 

A. Faces

Most are the paintings of simple faces, based on spontaneous line drawings which endlessly spring from my pen, one after another.  These form arrays of varieties within families of caricatures.  Though simple, some are quite elegant.  One day they will make for lovely or fun sculptures.  For now, the paintings vary from under two feet in height, to twelve feet.  The larger, graphic works depicting various aspects of Latino identity are portable murals aimed at South Omaha. (see mural studio gallery in Portfolio)

The other faces are portrait studies in proper proportions.  For a twist, I might impose one of the caricature faces onto the representation of a fully formed head (see “la india”) or paint briskly with a “wild” color palette (see “Vicente Uribazo”). 

B. Figural Narratives, Reproductions and Alchemy

Over the past couple of years, I have borrowed compositions from a series of alchemical engravings named Atalanta Fugiens, first published in 1617.  During the process of bringing them to life with colorful oil paint, I began to shift towards looser brushwork and a broader exploration of figurative narratives with metaphoric and spiritual underpinnings.  In a recent work along this thread, “Colossus” returns the figure to the landscape (another favorite subject) and demonstrates my desire to be immediate and painterly.  This desire may be translated onto borrowed imagery as well, as in an interpretation of Francisco de Goya’s etching, “Estragos de la Guerra”.

Some paintings, such as “Midas”, follow a more traditional technique, inspired by Dalí and the Baroque.  That pull towards the more traditional forms of Western painting is evident in closer reproductions of paintings which I may occasionally undertake, such as the rendition of Jacob Jordaen’s 1622 oil, Allegory of Fertility.

C. “Pure Abstraction” (Non-representational paintings)

The summer of 2007 marked a challenging and invigorating return to non-objective, process-driven, large-scale paintings.  In one month, all thirteen works were vigorously painted, using four-inch brushes, with the largest work being 8×10’.  Some of these are dominated by a single color or even grayscale, whereas others may be broken into vibrant palettes in gestural shapes. 

D. Printmaking

Though I have printed works by hand using traditional printmaking processes, most of my prints are digital recyclings of antique works, especially other prints.  These may become very abstract, with the goal being to expand upon the originals, and not to capitalize on established work.  I have produced relief, intaglio, lithographic and “screen” prints in spurts over the years.  These typically relate to earlier figurative narratives, allegorical figures, landscape, or process-driven abstractions.

 

Short List of Influences:

Salvador Dali
George Baselitz
Anselm Kiefer
Eric Fischl
Pablo Neruda
Georgio DeChirico
Francesco Clemente
Frederico Garcia Lorca
Alchemical engravings
DaVinci, C.G. Jung
Joseph Campbell
Velazquez, Goya, Titian
Michiko Itatani
Akiro Kurasawa
Van Gogh
Raoul Dufy
Jack Levine