Neal Ambrose-Smith

The Bright Side

Work Details

The Bright Side

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 24 inches

Inventory ID: #16470

"I’d like to believe the grass is greener at the neighbors, but I know once I get there its house of cards. They say your life flashes by in death, but I tend to review events leading to the current tragedy I’m in. Like when I smash my fingers in the car door." NAS

About Neal Ambrose-Smith

Statement, August 2020 Show
I tend to be inspired by good things: James Ensor, de Kooning, Mitchell, Quick-to-See. Perhaps I’ll murmur from Pollock to Mehretu. Even stealing a riff or 2 from Squeak makes my day. What I cannot do is extricate myself from current events, the bad to worse scenarios that affect all peoples and their dogs. Perhaps our dogs are as tired of us as we are of our 4 walls. Fox, CNN, tabloids and advertising blur the borders of the canvas, fencing in the paint, cripes! Indigenous painting with colonial borders. Fortunately, I can get my Guston on, paint the talking heads and put them on the walls. Alter-Native paintings in alternative facts.

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The Bright Side

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 24 inches

Inventory ID: #16470

The Still

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 24 inches

Inventory ID: #16471

"When am I going to know the “moment”? Is there some sort of clue or sign? I love it when I get helpful life tips from people who know. “Oh, you’ll know, you’ll know! Trust me.” Sometimes I think I’m still waiting." NAS

Painting is taxing

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 24 inches

Inventory ID: #16472

"Iron Eyes Cody at the reflecting pond" NAS

It gives me the cavity creeps

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 36 inches

Inventory ID: #16473

"A virus is upon us all again. They don’t eat, sleep or breathe. Just a magnetic shell with devastating DNA. Perhaps these are the real aliens tossing a wrench into our way of life?" NAS

If I have to listen to the news one more time

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 36 inches

Inventory ID: #16474

"Sometimes I realize I’m being sucked into the news void. News is vernacular for “tabloid”. I remind myself how alternative facts are not facts. Likewise alternative truths are not truths. This certainly goes beyond my feelings about imperfection and perfect. I believe perfection has imperfection built in." NAS

Coyote whispers in Italian

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 36 inches

Inventory ID: #16475

"Many of us have some idea of the sweet nothings we’d like to hear. Coyote is whispering some Indian Romance Sweet Nothings with Iron Eyes. Who knew Coyote was multi lingual?" NAS

Do you ever get that feeling?

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 36 inches

Inventory ID: #16476

"Where there is one there is two. That is my sinking feeling. We often romanticize other cultures, which is a healthy appreciation, but trying to become another culture is another thing entirely. Once at a dinner party I met this person who introduced themselves to me,“hello I’m wehjehk-al-et-hjkls-s.” I thought oh boy I don’t know what they just mumbled. Then they said that was their Indian name and proceeded to tell me their favorite pemmican recipe. I was really sinking in that conversation. I don’t even like pemmican. Sometimes it’s good to have some “what if?” statements to run through your mind during a crisis." NAS

That sinking feeling

2019

Oil, acrylic and collage

36 X 36 inches

Inventory ID: #16477

"I picked up the New York Magazine in my hotel and flipped through landing on an article about President Trump. Not an amazing coincidence to be sure, but the title of the article was over 100 inches long. A perfect border for my painting of another sinking human full of nonsense." NAS