THIS IS NOT A PIPE Drawstring Bag

This picture is La Trahison des Images (The Trechory of Images). The piece was painted by surrealist painter René Magritte in 1929. The writing at the bottom of the piece, Ceci n'est pas une pipe, literally translates to say, "This is not a pipe."

I chose this as the title of the show for two-fold reasons. One, I have been a glassblower since my apprenticeship in Boulder, CO from 2000. In that time, I have absolutely no idea how many glass pipes I made through the years, decades. I still have my gear and don't completely consider myself retired for painting, but this show is not about my glass. THIS IS NOT A PIPE... and, that's kinda funny.

The second reason I chose this title was because this painting, itself. I remember the first time I studied this painting. I was in AP Art History in my Dallas high school. It was a smaller, dark classroom adjacent to the art classes. Back in the day, art history classes were usually always dark, accompanied by the clicking of a slide projector carousel. When this particular piece first glowed on the screen, my friend that spoke French giggled. And, on the surface, this piece is a bit of a chuckle. But, as Magritte famously said, "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see." It's a rather esoteric explanation for what this piece means yet this piece is a brilliant illustration of what he means... as well as the bigger picture of all art, in and of itself. THIS IS NOT A PIPE... it's a representation of a pipe.

You see, all art is a representation, even the work that doesn't reflect imagery found in the natural world. Most of my work is just that, not reflective of the natural world. My work is nonobjective. It's color. It's mood. It's inspired by feelings and memories which are explained a bit by the written accompaniments... hance, THIS IS NOT A PIPE.