PAINTING COLLABORATIONS

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I have always wondered why other Artists who spent hours around each other in colorful debates, never "took it to the canvas" and created paintings and sculptures together? Yes, out of those talks arose all of the Early Art Movements of the 20th century. 

Could you imagine though, what the works of Art would've looked like if our Historical Art Legends worked together?

Were their egos too strong or too weak to paint on the same canvas? How many fights or accidental murders would've happened from creative disagreements? When you spend a living flinging your emotions, reactions and rationales onto the canvas, it can leave you turned inside out. Honest communication with one's self 1st then with others is key. 

That is the challenge: To create a picture knowing that in the process you are painting over each others space, mixing colors, combining ideas like jazz musicians improving on the stage. 

I've found that there are a few ways to approach this. 1) Have an honest friendship in the beginning 2) Have several talks about Art, the subject matter, materials, timeline, framing & finishing, exhibiting or other possible outlets.

This section covers all of my painting collaborations with other Artists over the years. Most I remain in contact with, a few have drifted apart...

"Johnson, Kidd, Love, Miller..." the teacher called out during roll call. It was the seating arrangement in my 9th grade science class at Princeton High School. Love didn't want to sit next to Colin and since Colin was quiet, sketching and looking at comic books, I traded seats with Love. It was like finding a comrade in arms... two quiet, geeky kids that liked to draw and read comic books.

I was black, he was white. It reminding me of my instantly connecting with Scott H. in Kindergarten when I made Big Brother and Little Brother.

It was 1984, we both liked Prince and this new movie Purple Rain. DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was the comic book multi-issue that was changing the landscape not only in it's epic storytelling, but also in it's impressionable drawings by the legendary George Pérez.

This comic book along with talking with Colin and making sketches in science class was the direct influence into creating my United Heroes characters and the path that would follow.

After the 9th grade, I left the Princeton High School district, switched to Woodward and lost contact with Colin until the ACA college years...

During the fall of 1988, I was surprised to reunite with Colin Miller, 

whom I hadn’t seen since I’d left Princeton High in 1985 and switched 

to Woodward High. 

With my interest in Special Effects Makeup application, “The Door” was made with classmates Colin Miller and Tim Talbert and was displayed at the ACA open house. After this showing, it was photographed and used as a promotional poster for ACA the following year.

After graduation we parted ways but kept in contact over the years. 

Recently, we've made two new paintings for the 1st time in 25 years in 2016.

DKNG – Drew Kidd & Nathan (Nate) Goedl painting collaboration series that produced 34 paintings of various sizes made between 2003-2007. 

We started off using Pastel and Charcoal "The Sauce" sticks on paper, then switched to acrylic paint on large paper, canvases and wood.

The 1st phase we worked out color schemes and lines as well as mix pastel and "The Sauce" on different textures of paper with a jazz /Hi-Tek soundtrack for influence. They all happened in 2-3 sessions before we switched to my spot which starts phase 2. The 1st paintings transitioned from the figurative approaches we were taking in pastel to dreamlike self representations on black surfaces.

The 2nd Phase of paints were documented in a series of videos.  Nate even plants the seeds for the future... The 3rd phase of paintings were created at the ground level store front, Court Street Studios (across the street from my apt/phase 2) and are documented as one long video and a series of short snippets.  Music was a vital part to our creative process all the time.  Space also lent itself to experimentation. 

The 2nd phase experiments with gravity and how it interacts with the panels attached in various ways. One of the pink sheets of paper is only attached with 2 paperclips hanging on plastic. This also affected how we could apply paint to the surface since not every one could take the pressure of a brush upon it.

Several paintings have been used for both 1st & 2nd Phase Custom Art Merchandise.

Doug and I have known each other since 2002 when I returned to Cincinnati and had my 2nd show at Kwame' Clay's gallery where he purchased one of my works. Over the years we have exhibited in each other's shows and have had many great conversations about Art, comic books and philosophical takes on character development.

On my 49th birthday in 2018, I hung out at Doug's studio and over the course of 7 hours, we painted on 20 mini canvases. The goal was to create multiple images that could be combined differently changing up the overall painting each time. Doug paints and draws characters constantly for his original comic books and paintings, so this was a fun challenge for him to not create any characters and go strictly abstract. 

As we were finishing, I saw what could be perceived as a face on four blue panels with black paint indicated a face that turned into 2 faces... mine and Doug's. It wasn't without characters after all. Lol.

The 2nd collaboration with Doug (aka: Fangs Doo Wop), took place @ his studio once again and the day after my birthday 12.2.22. This time more figures and faces were incorporated into our paintings and the 20 mini canvases are connected together in two shapes, a horse and a spinning top. 

Several paintings have been used for both 1st & 2nd Phase Custom Art Merchandise.

Derek Snow was my 2nd collaborator. We bonded over Public Enemy & Sade songs and he lived around the corner from me in Avondale. 

I had left home at 19 and was staying at my friend DJ Redd's grandma's house with Woodward classmates Redd & Andre and Redd's cousins.  

I was breaking out on my own away from my family, supporting myself while I attended ACA in the day.

We did this 1 and only painting over the course of 1 day. While I was drawing the center figures and flower, he worked on the other areas. The checkerboard pattern was a favorite of mine and stippling was a  drawing technique I was experimenting with at the time. Peace, Love and Death/Change are the 3 figures sitting inside the white flower. 

There is some slight damage to the painting due to time and being moved around so much.

I met Chris Harris through a mutual friend Kelly Niemier who was a photographer and a MSJ classmate. He was forming his own collective, Queen City Collaboration and came by Court Street Studios a few times.  I had a recent solo exhibition at the Blue Rock Tavern in Northside and had booked another show.  

After some talks, Chris and I decided to try a live painting collaboration 

at Blue Rock Tavern.  I had also incorporated a live sound and video mixing on the stage and became too wrapped up in making music than painting. He was a little upset by that since he wanted to do more collaboration paintings.  

Shortly thereafter, I closed up the shop and moved back to NYC for a year and lost contact with both Chris Harris and Kelly Niemier.

Bill Ross is the Director of Thundersky Gallery in Northside. During the Spring of 2011, we created 2 large painted canvases for the Superwhat? exhibition that I was putting together for that summer.  

Bill has a recognizable cast of characters that he paints in vivid colors. There was no planning out of our paintings. When I showed up to start, he had already drawn in and painted his figures which took up the entire canvas...

Ok... I would have to take another approach and use the negative space to create my "characters" and background colors. These paintings were exhibited at least 3 times, but since me and Bill have not spoken to each other for years now, the paintings may no longer be around to look at. 

At least there are videos and photos of this particular moment. 

Sometimes collaborations work, sometimes they don't.