Tag Archives: chris dahlquist artwork

Grandpa’s Hayrake by Jeff Boyer

February 29, 2012 by Chris | 0 Comments

Grandpa’s Hayrake

We cousins would climb onto a copious seat
worn slick by rain and sun,
the trousers of men both thick and spare.

We made a kind of game: Each setting of the giant tines
could chart your life. High for smooth,
hardship low, and tragic on the ground.

An overbuilt machine, no amount of hay
could need that bulk. The elms
would whisper secrets in the yard.

Lilacs by the road pushed against the drive
and hid approaching cars from view.
The tires hissed on tar as they sped by.

Only three or four, I knew enough to open wide the door
before ascending to the beds above
to let the breezy nighttime secrets through.

In the side lot under moon and stars
the rake would arc the metal tines like years
and shape the wind in rows.

Jeff Boyer (collector)

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Thanks Jeff for sharing your poem with us!

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Pick of the week, February 27

February 27, 2012 by Chris | 0 Comments

 

Mile Marker 225, 23x35

 

The show Warming Up to Spring closes tomorrow. This image seems to be the stand-out, selling in three of the four sizes. Is it your favorite? If not, please tell me in the comments which one is.

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A view from the studio

February 22, 2012 by Chris | 2 Comments

While making a long journey, we concentrate on the steps needed along the way, careful to keep our footing.  It often isn’t until we reach our destination and raise our view that we can appreciate the surprising distances we travelled.

These last few days in the studio before leaving for a show are always my favorites, especially when it’s the first show of the season. This is the first time I get to physically see the artwork all together, when it’s finally realized, and not just how I’ve been picturing it in my mind for months.

I began planning this series and making work for this moment last October. Because of the all the steps needed and the drying time (especially of the largest pieces), I work with images that I won’t see trimmed and framed for months. Not to mention that the source photograph was likely taken at least a full year before that. That is a long time to wait!

 

There is a fleeting moment when I have arrived at the destination I have been traveling towards all winter, when I can bask in the accomplishment of the journey for a few days. After these sweet moments of reflection, I lower my head and begin to push toward the next destination.  Away we go again!

This year I have figured out a way to share the view from here! (but the view is fleeting, only until February 28th, details)

 

Peace of the week, Feb 20

February 20, 2012 by Chris | 0 Comments

Today I am taking a day away from the studio to select artists for Art in the Park in Columbia, MO. Mostly a regional show, I am excited to see what my fellow Missouri artists have to offer. I will also get in a bonus visit at one of my favorite galleries, the Perlow-Stevens Gallery. A great day in the making for sure.

(And my drive to and from Columbia today, 250 miles round trip, will be a little warm up for our drive to Florida next week.)

Mile Marker 275, 16x22

 

This and other pieces like it can be found right now in the “Currently available” tab at the top of the website.

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Warming up to spring

February 15, 2012 by Chris | 2 Comments

I added a show to my schedule and didn’t tell anyone – until now.

For many years our first shows of the season have been in Florida. With the copious amounts of sunshine, the beaches, the warmth, who could resist it this time of year? And because we do love all of those things – and we do love the patrons and friends we have made there over the years, our annual pilgrimage is still on. But why should the warm, tanned people of Florida always get the first look at the new work coming out of the studio after my winter’s creative bout?

How about those of you still in ear muffs and longjohns? Why must you wait until the sun gets high enough to warm your northern climes to claim some of the soothing golden prairie as your own?

So on the appointed day please pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy the show! Let me know asap which one I can mark sold for you because on February 28th it will be packed up and on it’s way to Florida!

Warming up to Spring

Friday, February 17 – Tuesday, February 28
Right here at chrisdahlquist.com
byob


Peace of the week, Feb 13

February 13, 2012 by Chris | 1 Comment

Happy Valentines Day.

My valentine and I are busy in the studio getting ready to begin our show season. Two weeks until we leave for Florida, but who’s counting?

Mile Marker 262, 15x29 (x 4 pieces)

 

Please contact me to check availability.

 

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Street theater

February 2, 2012 by Chris | 1 Comment

There is time for art

Musicians and street performers are in almost every plaza and jardin. And this week there is a street performer’s festival that has brought artists from all over Mexico to every corner of Guanajuato. (Really one should be forewarned so when they encounter a troupe of clowns wielding swords in an otherwise deserted callejon they don’t become TOO startled!) I have seen plenty of places that have buskers in the streets, subways, train stations, etc. but something makes this distinctly different – in this unhurried pace of life people take the time to sit and watch.  Not only is there art but there is audience everywhere! How/why is it that people have become too busy for this, hurrying past with one ear cocked?

And now Kyle and I are off to see some art –  two gallery openings, some street theater and our friend the cellist in one of our favorite restaurants.

 

Street theater in front of Teatro Juarez

 

From the book I am currently reading:

Starting to Wander: Living and Traveling in Central Mexico by Stephen Arthurs

“There were broad palatial rows of steps leading up to the entrance of the very opulent theater, but on this night (and on most nights as we later learned), the steps had been commandeered by the general public for use as bleachers for the sole purpose of watching entertainment just as medieval as the estudiantinas: street clowns. It seemed fitting somehow that the common people had turned their backs on the ostentatious grandeur of the Teatro Juárez, and were making their own amusements outside in the streets, the true home of mexican culture.”

 

Do you make enough time for art? What could change so that you did?

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Architecture as Teacher

February 1, 2012 by Chris | 1 Comment

There are a lot of poets in Guanajuato

I have been thinking about the poets a lot this last week. Having never known an ex-pat community anywhere else, I don’t know if this is unusual or the nature of those prone to leave the US. Perhaps poets are just naturally drawn to the magical town of Guanajuato. Or perhaps it is something about studying and living amongst another language. I know that Kyle and I have been speaking in a type of shorthand, both in English and in Spanish. When I am uncertain of the pronouns and all the little connector words, it seems that ideas get distilled down to the most basic elements. So much so that all of the complex ideas I had about life here in Guanajuato spilled out of my head in four simple lines this morning.

The Teacher

silently yield to one another.
move slightly to make passage.
patient in the steps.
there is room for everyone.

 

silently yield to one another

move slightly to make passage

patient in the steps

there is room for everyone

 

What do you think? Have you lived as an ex-pat?

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Pick of the week, January 23

January 23, 2012 by Chris | 0 Comments

My languages are so jumbled up right now all I have no words to offer, but please enjoy the piece of the week.

Mile Marker 220

Contact me to check availability.

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I have a confession

January 19, 2012 by Chris | 15 Comments

I have a confession

Besides being late with another blog post, and having my languages so jumbled I can barely speak or write in english or spanish, I am also having a hard time photographing in this city. I had the same difficulty last year and perhaps that is what has drawn me back.

Yesterday Kyle was feeling a bit under the weather, so I took a short walk to get him some pozole verde (the sure cure for whatever ails you). The best source of this miracle is a restaurant, Tapatio, approximately 400 yards from our apartment. I can’t adequately describe to you how much life there is between here and there. Imagine within the length of four football fields is the symphony hall, 3 basilicas, 1 major state university, 1 garden, 1 plaza, a dozen street vendors, 100’s of homes, dozens of restaurants, and smells of both open sewage and fresh tortillas. Now line all of these items up and paint them each a unique bright color and insert 100’s of people making sounds that you are trying desperately to understand. This is just a simple errand to pick up a cup of soup.

 

Look at all those textures!

This city is in every way the antithesis of my artwork. The close proximity of everything and everyone, the brilliant colors stacked one upon the other, the cacophony of sound and smell has my brain on overdrive. And while the research on sensory processing by my good friend Dr Winnie Dunn has allowed me to understand intellectually why my brain is short circuiting I still find it disconcerting that I can’t “see” this city.

So yesterday as I was leaving for my walk, I gave myself an exercise to focus my eyes. What I am unable to do in this bombardment of stimuli is to focus, so by giving myself strict boundaries, I could begin to see. Using only my Iphone camera (so I would not get caught in technicalities) I would photograph anything yellow that I encountered. Things became more clear (and Kyle got rather hungry)!

A few selections from my yellow walk:

dahlquist_yellow1.jpgdahlquist_yellow15.jpgdahlquist_yellow8.jpgdahlquist_yellow10.jpgdahlquist_yellow11.jpgdahlquist_yellow12.jpgdahlquist_yellow14.jpgdahlquist_yellow3.jpgdahlquist_yellow7.jpgdahlquist_yellow4.jpgdahlquist_yellow5.jpgdahlquist_yellow6.jpgdahlquist_yellow9.jpgdahlquist_yellow16.jpg

 

What tricks have you learned to help you “see”?

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