Bio
Love gets under our skin, it’s where we come together. Paint got under my skin, it was love at first sight. We lived in the Canadian forest when I was a kid. And that forest got under my skin. It was in my first painting when I was four. I wasn’t allowed to paint at home, too messy, so, I painted it elsewhere. Someone threw it out by day’s end, but I still remember that roaring fire in my ear as I painted. I was smitten.
Then there’s water, a lifelong love. I bought my first waterfront property in my twenties. The rhythms of water have a hold on me, can’t look away.
work-in-progress scenes, a number of people have told me it changed the way they see things. The former Chairman of the Toronto International Film Festival said to me, “This is not an art film, this is film as art; you are creating a whole new genre.”
A few years into the film project I resumed painting. Everything had changed when I wasn’t looking. The conductor, Wayne Jeffrey said, “Black’s earlier paintings are songs, the current paintings are symphonies.” They’re the growing Indigo Cadre collection. Early risers know that first light, it’s a
I think I would have lost something if I had formally studied art.
For some reason, I seem to already know how to do the things I do best. That comes with an insatiable appetite. It’s a long walk from the creative part of the brain to the frontal cortex. Explaining it might puncture something and drain the magic.
So far, each era of my work has rolled out into the next. Before I began painting, I was an illustrator and art director for a dozen years. That was a good preparation, and a point of departure. The transition wasn’t smooth. Illustration and art direction are about unreasonable deadlines and clients. Painting can be embarrassingly personal, and it’s done when it feels right. Different planets.
Suddenly, after many years of painting, circumstances flung me into making a feature film. It felt like home. After watching just a few
private time. They’re not there for the light, they own the day. They are the Indigo Cadre.
These paintings and this film complement each other and that combination reaches more people. It’s about being present, and feeling it. The nature of film and the nature of paint does something different for each person. These are two parts of a broader, longer creative arc.
That’s the background and the foreground, I’m in the middle. So, there’s my changing portrait. It’s never static; the film grows, the paint flows, they come together in The Beggars Banquet Project. Stay hungry.
As for the customary bio details, my work exposes far more skin than they would dare.
Love gets under our skin, it’s where we come together. Paint got under my skin, it was love at first sight. We lived in the Canadian forest when I was a kid. And that forest got under my skin. It was in my first painting when I was four. I wasn’t allowed to paint at home, too messy, so, I painted it elsewhere. Someone threw it out by day’s end, but I still remember that roaring fire in my ear as I painted. I was smitten.
Then there’s water, a lifelong love. I bought my first waterfront property in my twenties. The rhythms of water have a hold on me, can’t look away. I think I would have lost something if I had formally studied art.
For some reason, I seem to already know how to do the things I do best. That comes with an insatiable appetite. It’s a long walk from the creative part of the brain to the frontal cortex. Explaining it might puncture something and drain the magic.
So far, each era of my work has rolled out into the next. Before I began painting, I was an illustrator and art director for a dozen years. That was a good preparation, and a point of departure. The transition wasn’t smooth. Illustration and art direction are about unreasonable deadlines and clients. Painting can be embarrassingly personal, and it’s done when it feels right. Different planets.
Suddenly, after many years of painting, circumstances flung me into making a feature film. It felt like home. After watching just a few work-in-progress scenes, a number of people have told me it changed the way they see things. The former Chairman of the Toronto International Film Festival said to me, “This is not an art film, this is film as art; you are creating a whole new genre.”
A few years into the film project I resumed painting. Everything had changed when I wasn’t looking. The conductor, Wayne Jeffrey said, “Black’s earlier paintings are songs, the current paintings are symphonies.” They’re the growing Indigo Cadre collection. Early risers know that first light, it’s a private time. They’re not there for the light, they own the day. They are the Indigo Cadre.
These paintings and this film complement each other and that combination reaches more people. It’s about being present, and feeling it. The nature of film and the nature of paint does something different for each person. These are two parts of a broader, longer creative arc.
That’s the background and the foreground, I’m in the middle. So, there’s my changing portrait. It’s never static; the film grows, the paint flows, they come together in The Beggars Banquet Project. Stay hungry.
As for the customary bio details, my work exposes far more skin than they would dare.
