About Reed's Work

First an idealistic art school under graduate, then idealistic graduate student majoring in painting and drawing, my working career is chronology is as follows:

psychiatric hospital intern, pottery sales person, private school art teacher, condo house cleaner, billboard designer, advertising agency intern, again a graduate student, junior art director, senior national account art director, unemployed senior art director, marketing manager, marketing director and now, marketing consultant, freelance writer and an idealistic painter. 

Life transforms and moves us in ways we sometime don’t expect. My recent paintings represented on this website have literally surprised me. I would finish a painting and think “where did that come from?” Unlike in my past work I felt intense need to paint in figurative objects which became a compulsion.

Although my work is figurative, it is intended to be idealistic rather than realistic. Even though they represent objects, the objects themselves, and the space they occupy, are intentionally paper thin and lack depth, like stickers your child might get at the doctor’s office. The objects inhabit a world of contrasts, where natural form is juxtaposed with shapes, rectilinear designs, stripes, artificial horizons, flat space and color fields.

Isolated objects have interested me my entire life. I like them because, while in

 plain sight, they are overlooked and yet have amazing resonance. In a newspaper article about one of my shows, my art was labeled Neo Pop. After reading that, I did not necessarily disagree with that. I like to give small things their due.

The paintings in the Relics Collection are objects associated with memories, most old, some new. The Chairs themed collection also have memories attached to them. The Striped Bass collection was an experimental departure that began as a funny idea of creating fish as a fetish metaphor. In the Harlequin Collection, once alive, now inanimate, fruits and vegetables become characters on a stage with their own personalities.

Thank you for visiting. I welcome your feedback, thoughts and questions. Follow me on Instagram @reedspainitings or contact me at reed@creativebrandcontent.com.

Description
The medium for most of my formal painting was oil, but my medium of choice now is acrylic. I have never liked painting on canvas, mainly because of the bounce back when you apply the paint. Instead, I have painted mostly on paper or hard surfaces untempered masonite, plywood and, most recently, wood panel. I have gravitated into using mediums that were previous unfamiliar to me such as acrylic resin, faux gold, silver and copper leaf and joint compound as a texture. Using these mediums have been challenging and stimulating at the same time.

Education
BFA Art Academy of Cincinnati
MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art

Most Recent Shows
2019 Emerging Artists Gallery
2019 Westlake Exhibition Gallery
2019-2020 Alexander Heath Gallery