Painter Gary Komarin

A contemporary artist that I admire a lot is a painter named Gary Komarin. I first saw his work in March, a home goods store in San Francisco, where they were showing a series of his most famous Cake Paintings...I myself like seeing and showing art outside of a pristine, sterile art gallery and actually prefer to show in a more "living with art" type of venue.

Below is a selection of Komarin's work and what strikes me is that although my work does not necessarily look like his, we paint from a very similar intuitive place. I couldn't help but identify with the words of Carol Diehl, who described Komarins' process in a 2012 essay for an exhibition of entitled The Road to Dialoro:
"For most artists there is no eureka moment; instead ideas develop through practice and over time, one thing leading to the next, and Gary Komarin is particularly sensitive to this intuitive process. If his marks appear awkward and childlike, it's because he has learned over the years how to turn off his internal critic and work from a place of detachment that allows for freshness, newness, and authenticity. Komarin has built into his working method ways of keeping himself from over-thinking or becoming too precious — techniques that allow him to get out of the way and almost let the painting paint itself. "When I have to become involved," he says, "is when it can feel burdensome." Komarin keeps things fresh and loose by doing several paintings at a time, working quickly on the floor on large squares of untreated, raw, canvas — sometimes even drop cloths — with big, inexpensive brushes and open buckets of latex enamel and other copious materials such as house paint or Spackle. There's an element of control, of course, but the paint may drip, splash or bleed in unexpected ways, gifts of accident that the artist may choose to keep or not. Those decisions, while still intuitive, draw on a stored knowledge base, a liftetime of observing and evaluating form, color, and line, so that when something happens, for better or worse, he recognizes it. Komarin sees this activity as a direct engagement with his materials, an exchange rather like collaboration, where he's not making something happen so much as encouraging it to happen. As he says, "I like to be surprised by my own work."

Singer Eva Cassidy

Click image to hear Eva Cassidy’s sublime version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Click to hear The London Symphony’s Orchestration of Eva Cassidy’s Autumn Leaves

I am not sure where I heard Eva Cassidy's voice for the first time--I think I was somewhere in California at the time but it was many years ago so I can't be sure--but what is unforgettable is her voice--if there was ever a voice of an angel, this is it. Her most famous songs have been compiled on an album of greatest hits. Here is a version of one of my favorite songs: It's a Wonderful World made famous by Louis Armstrong, which happens to have been one of her favorites too (and incidentally the last song she ever performed live). She died way too young and never had a taste of how famous and beloved she would become. But we do have her heavenly music to remember her by....Since her death, her recordings have sold more than 12 million copies.

Animal Human Reunions

I couldn't resist posting this video--it's for Morgan, whose dog Frenchy gets equally excited to see her again if she has been gone for one minute taking out the garbage or away for three days. These reunions are very touching. Warning: you might shed a tear or two like I did...

Paintings of the Week

My pieces in a gorgeous home in Ketchum, Idaho. Thanks Jami and Mark, two of my favoirite clients, for the photo…

Charity of the Week: National Dance Institute

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.