Larry Graeber

More pleased to be in my studio managing ongoing work, wrestling with my paintings and inquiring of their relationship to one another and with my sculpture makes for the kind of work day I prefer. However, as life would have it from time to time we get jolted into a space and time that insists upon a different approach, attention and response other than the one we are accustomed. 

The last two years have been just such an occasion.  Besides caring for my parents and looking after their passing away I have been involved with two projects not consistent with my ordinary practice of art making and exhibiting, both very important to me. The first a photo and sculptural installation on a diminishing natural outcropping between here and Houston, titled Don’t Ask Why, shown at the cactus bar Space, June 2010. The other project being the curating of the UTSA 2011 summer show Margins - Without Likeness, an exhibition of six artists, where I explore the insistent application of associative intuitiveness even on work with nonobjective intentions. All of which have put me way outside of my comfort zone.

 Still in the residue of some of these events, what remains important to me is my devotion to looking to see; the sky, the ground, my family and friends, our uncertain world and its hum. These are the things that arouse my attention.

In a proletariat way and with a few tools and some common materials I am attempting to make some paintings and sculpture that reflect an instinctive awareness of the things I am looking to see.