GUTSHOT by Robert Woodbury
Featured at 2007's Works Festival in Edmonton
What else has this artist done?
Artist's Statement
The series of paintings entitled "Gutshot" are the reflections of the artist on the many textures and forms of flesh. The undulations, overlaps, pores, wrinkles, folds, scars, hair follicles that make up the character of the skin, that give clues about the age and sex, species, habits and environment of the wearer of the skin. The subtle textures of the largest organ of the body are emphasized. Perhaps you can see the deep connection of all who have skin with each other and the universe. The frailty of our existence is reflected in the subtle design of the flesh. Very visceral references to the physically human where familiar forms are transposed into something unexpected.
The fabric of his dreams and nightmares coalesces into images in these paintings, into images inviting and frightening in their uncomfortable intimacy.
As a child I would often sit in meditation on the skin and stare at the pores and hairs that covered it all and wonder at the complexity and subtle messages of that skin. You can see the decisions and debacles of a lifetime in the skin, little scars, burns, scratches. The record of your life is there.
In popular culture, the skin must be smooth and wrinkle free. There should be no hair, scars or other indications that you are mortal, frail or old. If you look straight at the ugliness within and without the human body it becomes beauty and transcends the immature preconceptions of mass culture. There is beauty in the physical form we inhabit if we look for it. Perhaps it takes the kind of perception that sees the rainbow in the oilslick, not the dirtiness of the street.
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Musing on a microcosm of human flesh Robert Woodbury exhorts an underlying unification of how living organisms relate. This series of dynamic paintings form a meditative lexicon of organic interactions.
He fuses textures with the natural flowing forms in a way that is described by many as uncomfortably intimate.
All paintings are acrylic on canvas 40 x 48 inches unframed.
created in 2005 and 2006.
Skinshot by Robert Woodbury
These 10 paintings when mounted next to each other form one long painting 20' long and 4' high they were painted in sets of 2 gradually transisting from one feeling to the next. The effect of the overall work is overwhelming. This was the centerpiece of the "gutshot" show at the 2007 works festival.
Robert Woodbury was born in Kingston, Ontario and travelled extensively in his youth throughout the US and Europe. He has attended Red deer College, and has a BFA from the University of Alberta. Working as the designer for The Cat's Glass for 12 years, his stained glass work is featured in hundreds of businesses and residences in virtually every city in Alberta. Currently a member of the Alberta Sculptors Association he has sculpted snow and ice in Quebec and Edmonton and painted murals in Ft McMurray and Edmonton, been one of the sculptors involved in the Millenium Bison project on gateway avenue, created innovative interactive artwork for The WORKS Visual arts celebration and has been an artist in residence at Cambelltown Elementary and Airbrush Instructor for Metro Community College for 4 years. His painting series "After Leonardo" was featured at Gallery 124 and was virtually sold out. His series "Monumental" of nudes and landscape fused has been on display at MUD studio.