The Forked Road: A Journey of Friends: Art Bomb-9/12/2014 Dennis Ashbaugh

Aleathia says:

The great thing about having your own blog is that there is the freedom to change your mind at the drop of a hat. I am my own editor (as terrible as that might be) and can choose to pivot when the wind blows. My original idea for today was to start a two part series on Joan Miro which looks at the beginning of his career and the very end. This is an insanely involved project that I now see requires a bit more thought and research.

However, I love the idea of looking at an artist's career visually from start to finish. How did the world influence them? What became their muse through the years? Did they alter their technique to allow new ideas to flourish?

I am one of those people that stand in awe of artists. I have always wanted to be one, but never put the effort forward to achieve it. I have been afraid of failure most of my life and thus it has kept me from pushing outside the boundaries set for me by society. I am well aware of being able to break that habit. I must be an old dog.

While picking up the Miro books at the library, I found this odd little book called American Painting in the 1980's. I had to laugh since the 80's are coming back in full swing. So much neon that I could barf. It was hard enough the first time. Inside were bio pics of artists which were decidedly 80's and then one representation of their work from that era. I thought this would be a quick replacement for the Miro project until I could finish it. Ha.

I flipped through the book and chose 12 artists whose work I really enjoyed. My thought was to feature one from their early career and then one now. It wasn't as easy as that. Almost half have faded into obscurity or gotten "real" jobs. The remaining 7 artists have amassed such an interesting collection that supports transformation that I couldn't be so nonchalant with their work. So, here starts a 7 part series on artists whose fame on the art scene happened in the 80's.

Sadly, for as decorated as some of these artists are now, I have never heard of them. I love modern art with a passion. I feel a bit cheated that I have not taken in their offerings before. This week will feature the work of Dennis Ashbaugh.

Dennis Ashbaugh was born in 1946 in Red Oak, Iowa. He spent his younger years in California where he learned to surf. In 1969, after attending college in California, he moved to NYC where he immediately started showing work in that art scene. He has remained there to this day. He is an internationally decorated/acclaimed painter and sculptor. He was the first artist to ever use DNA marking patterns in his paintings. His major themes in content are computers, clones, DNA, networks and viruses both biological and computer generated.