BIBLIOGRAPHY
Portland Press Herald,"Wedding's Unguarded Moments," Valerie Cann, November, 1999
SF Weekly, "First Thursday Report," Marcy Freedman, February, 1998
SF Live, "Walking Art," Thomas Gladysz, November, 1994
Vampires, Jalal Toufic, Published by Station Hill, 1993,
commentary on Arnold: pp. 60, 61, 160-163 (with illustrations)
SF Sentinel, "Ted Arnold: Seeing is Believing," Rand Welles, November 21, 1991

GALLERY REPRESENTATION
McGowan Fine Art,10 Hill Avenue, Concord NH 03301

REVIEWS

Ted Julian Arnold (born Princeton, NJ, 1956) received his BA in Visual Studies from Dartmouth College, Hanover NH. He has been exhibiting with the Catharine Clark Gallery since 1991.

A Thin Line: New Paintings by Ted Julian Arnold are not works of traditional easel-sized dimensions nor painted on a conventional surface. Arnold’s latest works are in three formats: singular panels, diptychs or triptychs, and they combine oil paint and collage. the panels are actually chair backs, which when presented as a group at eye level suggest a thin line of ribbon encircling the gallery space, and lead us to believe we are looking beyond the gallery walls. Most of the works are rendered in either earthy organic hues or brilliant blues coupled with metallic leaves. In the late 1980’s and early ‘90’s, Arnold painted abstract canvases with "keyholes" of realistic renderings. Now his newest paintings are, in a sense, the keyholes of representation removed from the context of their abstract surrounds. The work in A Thin Line explores the intimacy of domestic moments and the physicality of relationships. The paintings offer a glimpse into the often unnoticed beauty of banal human interaction. The confined space of the chair back provides only enough room to render a portion of a facial element: eyes, mouths, brows: figural references: the slope of a woman’s back, arms embracing a torso, a pink shoulder. The restricted scale of the painted chair backs refer to the narrow band of information which we’re able to absorb in any given situation to create a cognitive reality from the excess of visual stimuli. The fragmentary nature of our visual experience and disjointedness of memory and recollection are here captured leaving the larger context in which these situations occur up to our imagination while emphasizing the beauty of ordinary moments.

Maine Sunday Telegram, Sunday, November 4, 1999
Simple scenes capture weddings’ unguarded moments

Ted Arnold’s exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Davidson & Daughters on High Street is a feast for the eyes and the imagination. The title, "Knowing a Little," belies the extent of Arnold’s knowledge and understanding of our inherent humanity.

A wedding ceremony is the leitmotif of most of the works on exhibit. To Arnold, the ritual of a formal wedding process is pure theater and rife with symbolism. As he views it, each person in a wedding party is in costume and performs a specific role that is contrary to his or her normal way of being. The bridesmaids and groom are perceived as symbols of youth and beauty, and the bride and groom are idealized beyond what they are in everyday life.

Deceptively simple pieces such as "Groomsmen on Silver Check" depict the real story. Arnold empathetically captures those small, off-guard moments of tense anticipation, fidgety awkwardness and unconscious distraction.

"Groomsmen," painted in oil on a slender arched wooden panel, focuses on the necks and shoulders of four groomsmen, in white tuxes and shirts. His keen intelligence and acute attention to the small details brings the fragmented moment to live. A red boutonniere is not quite aligned in its buttonhole, and a slim bow tie is slightly askew. chins just in the frame, facing different directions, indicate inattention.

There are no faces. None are needed. The natural representation of this tiny snippet of a moment is enough to light the imagination and evoke the entire scenario according to our own conjectures and preconceived notions.

Therein lies Arnold’s gift, to imply a fuller story by rendering a tiny part of it. Hence, "Jeans, Lace, Dior," a collage of oil and mixed media non a large wooden disk, depicts the bride in an elegant white gown - her groom and possibly his best man slightly behind and beside her in full regalia - hints of the live that preceded the wedding day. Barely discernible, collaged in the swirling edges of the skirt, are a necktie, pieces of tissue and wallpaper, textured fabric, grains of sand and even the inner security foil of a peanut butter jar. More apparent are a pair of patched denim cutoffs along with a piece of delicate lace. A man’s arm caught mid-motion, the contrasting sweeps of brush strokes and the flow of the lower part of bridal gown fill the piece with energy and swish the viewer into the momentum of the moment.

Particularly enchanting are the oils done on rejected crowns of chair backs that were given to Arnold by the Bradco Chair company in Lisbon Falls. (He used to draw the workers) In " The Anniversary," several are joined to form a circular piece that curls around a wall. Painted figures twirl and whirl around the dance floor on both the inside and outside of the curl. The curved crowns seem to add rhythm and movement to Arnold’s painted narratives.

"Traffic I" and "Traffic II" also painted on crowns, capture pedestrians caught on a curb, stilled by a traffic light. There is a jaunty sway to the women’s bronzed bare shoulders painted on the curve. The white Strapless dresses dazzle in the coppery hues that evoke the heat of a summer’s day.

What makes Arnold’s work so strong is that underlying his narratives is a commentary on the lives we lead, a feeling that there are rich complex lives behind the images.

There are sculptures too. The most striking, "Social Adjustment," is constructed with found objects. A large wood screw is attached to a wooden block to replicate an old-fashioned book press. The block is painted with a baby’s face that has one ear flat and one protruding. If the screw is turned, the block is lowered into a copper cylinder. If turned too tightly, the sculpture becomes unstable. Pause for thought.

Apart, in a small enclave of the gallery, is a charming collection of exquisitely painted teacups. Bits of music scores form the background of one or two of the more decorative cups. With these paintings, Arnold takes us away from the whirligig of his vibrant fragments of life and gives us a chance to catch our breath and enjoy a moment of quiet contemplation.

–Valerie Cann

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