TrelArts

Greg Treleaven Artist Statement

Using scraps of plywood, moulding, hardwoods and found objects, I
make an assemblage which pleases me. I then heat beeswax and mix
it with pigment, which I apply to the wood. Sometimes the wax is scraped
off and reapplied, or altered with a torch in different ways. I wire the backs so they can be hung in any of four directions, and one of the challenges I face is to make them work in any view, especially when viewed from an angle. Often, scraps of wood are added for balance or contrast as the piece develops.

There is no particular meaning to any of the pieces, although I try
to allow each piece to set it's own mood. This is not something I plan
very carefully, as the mood emerges during the process of making the piece. If I'm lucky, some of the work has a whimsical flavor, some resembles music, and some projects an air of either mystery, or, in the words of Francis Bacon, a kind of "exhilarated despair".

My watercolors begin with what my friend Jeff Wallace used to call "an argument", or hypothesis, which is either proved or not as the piece develops. Sometimes it's about depth, sometimes its about color, or texture sometimes it's about balance.

They are based on the same structural proposition which inhabits green square, red square, and many other of the wall constructions. these are in turn based on a watercolor I did some years ago which in one orientation becomes a kind of clown face, and in the other rotations, interesting variations on the two square, one square, rectangle all within one square idea. the titles, of course, are just my way of having a little fun with the audience.

The portraits here were developed from obituaries selected randomly from the newspapers. Sometimes they are whimsical, sometimes intentionally ridiculing, sometimes angry, and sometimes come from a deeply felt connection with the photograph. It's rare that I actually read the text of the obituary itself. Often I would include a headline, more for graphic content than anything else, but sometimes something more political is intended.

The series of portraits of Deng Xiaou Ping was inspired by a photo in Vanity Fair Magazine I Saw in 1988. These portraits have more definite political content.

My sculptures are about freeing up the clay to show something new about the subject that I've never seen before. I am a believer that sometimes the medium itself will show the artist what direction to take the piece. I am not a believer in the rigorous control of the medium to suit the artist's purpose. Pieces composed and articulated with this kind of control are not really much more useful than atomic weaponry. If my sculptures cease to surprise me, I destroy them.

Resume, 2003

EDUCATION
Mass College of Art BFA, Painting, Honors 1990
Studied with Rob Moore, Dean Nimmer, Chuck Stigliano, Paul Rahilly.
Boston University BA in English minor in Poetry, Film 1974
Studied with John Malcolm Brinnin, Anne Sexton, Charles Simic, George Starbuck.

EXHIBITS
Williams Montgomery Gallery, Newport , RI 2000-2002
Second Parish in Hingham, Hingham, MA 2001,2002
Quincy Blues Festival Show 1997
First Night Quincy 1998
South End Open Studios, 1990-1999,2001,2002
Boston Corporate Art 1997
"Ciao! Italia", Northern Essex Comm. College, October, 1995
Creative Arts Workshop "Refiguring the Figure" 1995, New Haven, Conn. Review N.Y.Times 4/30/95.
Institute for Contemporary Art Benefit Auction 1994
Boston Center for the Arts "South End Connects II" 0ct 1993
Kingston Gallery, Boston. "New Art 93"
Yeserski Gallery, Boston. "Anything But Paper Prayers" 1992, 1993, 1994
338 Newbury St. CRI inc. "The Untitled Show" 1992
Channel 5 WCVB TV "Nightshift" 1991 Spazi Fine Arts, Housatonic, MA Dec. 1990
Nicole C. Gallery, Boston, MA 1990
Cambridge Multicultural Art Center, "The Mask" 1990
Yeserski Gallery "In the Spirit 1990
Mills Gallery, Boston. 1990
Boston Printmakers at DeCordova Museum 1988
COLLECTIONS: Lois Torf , Stephen Mindich, Anne Belson, Cecille Lemley

PUBLISHED POEMS: Exquisite Corpse Magazine

EXPERIENCE:
Sculptor, commissions:
The Woodward School in Quincy, MA. Centennial Sculpture
Town of Weymouth, MA. Martin Luther King Award,
Art Department Head, South Shore Charter School, Hull, MA. 1995-1996
Art Institute of Boston, 1991-2 Sculpture. Saturday Studios program
Business Owner:
Owner of Greg Treleaven Carpenters, specializing in Custom Finish Carpentry
since 1976. www.treleavencarpenters.com