nicholas blake seals
born • 1970, huntington, long island, ny, usa
exhibitions • (2005) art league of long island members show, dix hills, ny (honorable mention) • Artexpo NYC • (2004) celebrating the arts at art-trium, huntington arts council, huntington, ny • 27th annual small works (juror: molly barnes) 80 washington square east gallery (ny university) nyc, ny • (2003) museum of computer art (site of distinction) • abstraction VI, digital/experimental III, period gallery (online) • salon exhibition of small works, new arts program, kutztown, pa • invitational exhibition of postcards, dana gallery, missoula, ms • (2000) harborfields public library, greenlawn, ny • (1994) upstairs gallery, huntington, ny • (1993) northport community gallery, northport, ny • (1992) lamantia gallery, northport, ny • (1991) northport community gallery, northport, ny
collections • mr & mrs tom auletta, mr & mrs joseph carbonara, mr jon cooper (suffolk county legislator), mr & mrs nicholas dimauro jr, mr steve ebinger (mhk cpa pc), mr mike esposito, greenlawn fire district, mr gerard heller, jordan construction products inc, mr james j kelleher esq, mr & mrs derek mckane, mr & mrs gerard j mckeon (nyra), mr & mrs victor mullen, mr lawrence nacht, mr & mrs joe palermo, mr & mrs nicholas racanelli jr, mr & mrs steve roffman, mr frank rose, mr david seigel esq, sonic underground records
education • school of visual arts, nyc, ny • suny empire state college, ny • the art institute online
statement • i'm interested in non-representational gestural mark making and action painting, as well as graphic design and the interaction between foreground and background. i'm also compelled to further visual discussion on the assumed seperation between "high and low" art, primitive versus formal. since 1994, i've worked almost exclusively (ironically?) with a macintosh computer, using a mouse in place of a brush.
partial reposting of an article by Chaz Gormley entitled "The Return of the Primitive in Art"
Art represents a symbolic means to represent an essentially unconscious process that is exploring and channeling the primitive darkness trying to arise. When a person in contact with a living primitive level of the psyche, rational consciousness fades, or temporarily dies. This can be a very painful or damaging process, thus the terror felt about contacting the primitive. Art becomes, by necessity, the new means of proceeding through this endarkened world, replacing the lamp that reason provided in the everyday world of Newtonian mechanistic or positivistic thinking that cared only for the light. The one-sidedness of such a viewpoint easily constellates the primitive shadow and projects it onto the environment, which is one of the main reasons for the political and environmental destruction we see all around us. Art lives in and moves through the irrational and the chaotic, forming these energies into meaningful structures for the personality, and sometimes for the society. Examples of art profoundly shaping a society include Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and Goethe’s Germany (Tarnas, 1991). Through its shaping of form and consciousness, art can transform the primitive darkness in the psyche into a new spiritual light to guide oneself and others towards wholeness and the feeling of liberation (Adler, 1979). Without such a lamp, an irrational destructive urge may take hold of the psyche – a primal revenge manifests for the centuries of rationality’s inflation. Art marries unconscious darkness to the light of ego conscious. In this marriage lies the regeneration of the psyche, society and life – this is the symbolic erection of the new world. The rebirth comes with a renewal of feeling and vitality, and a sense of being called to the work (Von Franz, 1975). Art can teach the ego how to differentiate between the essential and the superfluous, not according to rational strictures, but verified by lived experience. Once the ego has experienced the power of primitive energies to meaningfully shape life experience, the belief in scientific causality, as the only way to describe the world, is shaken forever (Woodman & Dickson, 1996). The primitive energies of the psyche, when functioning in a positive manner, move the focus of life back from machine to organism, from the soulless environment of rationalistic dogma to the individual as part of an organic life community. When functioning negatively, these primitive energies can transform the person into a pure mechanical automaton, with a tendency towards violence or exploitation of others. Essentially, as the ground level of the psyche, the primitive layer functions in a, non-causal, homeostatic, self-regulating manner (Adler, 1979), thus it can appear either positively or negatively. Its style of manifestation depends on the attitude, and the needs, of the ego or the social group. The primitive connects with “an order that emerges [from within the psyche] instead of being imposed [by outer rules or institutions]” (Woodman & Dickson, 1996, p. 39), and reflects the inner order alive in humans and all other life forms.
the article can be read in its entirety here: http://www.kellymoore.net/Chaz.html