A Spring Frost

"Spring Frost"
Acrylic Collage on Board
45"x60" 2011

Working with glued layers of tissue paper that has been painted, cut and pasted on the board, I attempt to suggest that the horizontal irregular bands of textured white appear to float over an tightly organized grid.

Drawing with color and line

"Striations 2"
Acrylic, sand on board
24"x28" 2010

My interest in this work was to keep the markings consistent thus allowing the color divisions to become more dominant. The linear aspect of the work reminds me of Mark Tobey whom I studied closely in graduate school.

Smaller study- 2012

"Parcels"
Acrylic Collage on Board
24"x38" 2012

Parcels is about the grid- the compartmentalization of aligned elements. The ground creates an ambivalent space while the smaller grid units align and offer visual pacing.

2012- Paintings (continued)

"Hatchpatch"
Acrylic on Canvas
48" x 56" 2012
(detail to the below)

Hatchpatch is an attempt to in-formalize the grid. Typically the grid serves to formulate compositional matters thus allowing an immediate and spontaneous response to marking, line, divisions, marking, and color. Linear elements reenforce, combat, contrast, and demarcate units, form clusters and define shapes in a suggestive way. This allover marking unifies the surface, substantiates the gesture, and alludes to the cropping of an expansive space.

2012- paintings

"Carnival"
Acrylic on canvas
48" x 55"
2012

I have been working on this painting for over a year. It is my intention to explore brush painting. You may think this is a natural for anyone who claims to be a painter. The fact of the matter is that I have been attaching elements to my paintings for my whole career and this along with a very few of my works are exclusively executed with a brush and paints. I enjoy the drawing with color aspect of the this piece. Hope you do as well.

Resonating Patterns exhibit in Saginaw, Michigan

Link to an article in the Saginaw

Acrylic Collage

"Transformer"
Acrylic Collage on Paper on Board
2010
32" x 43"

My titles seldom make reference to pop culture, but in this case, I felt the machine-like coloration and texture made a connection with a popular movie. The fragmented grid is not only cubist, it suggests the grinding of planes causing pressure on the "Nude Descending the Staircase" cascading of the red vertical band that divides the collage in two unequal sections.

I enjoy laying tiles of paint. The complexity of the design draws me in to study the positioning of every unit- alignments and disruptions. Each section is cut from a larger sheet of acrylic that is first poured on plastic sheeting, dry-brushed, scrapped, sprinkled on... manipulated to create textured flows of color and markings. The assemblage of sectional units creates a new paradigm - a new structure- a new statement.

I am now exploring new materials for collage work. My works spans small texture and color paint collage studies, large works on paper to major works on board.

Preparing work for an invitational

"Glacial Shift"
Acrylic collage on board
2011
48" x 60"

This work is the latest in a series of acrylic collages that will be on display at the Detroit Artist Market, Detroit, Michigan, September, 2011. The formality of figure and ground fluctuates from shifting planes to a more stabilized grid background. The shallow space references the picture plane. Sections of peeled paint are adhered to board and using a dry brush technique, color and texture are accentuated.

Video of my show at Paint Creek Gallery

A special thank you goes to Mary Fortuna, Director of Exhibitions at Paint Creek Gallery in Rochester, Michigan for encouraging me to request a show at the gallery and for this video commentary. I especially enjoyed working with her and with all the wonderful staff at the gallery.


A link to the video

Recent Paint Collages

"Broken"
Acrylic collage with found type, 12"x12"x2", 2010

In this series I explore the depth of the visual message by interweaving non representational form with language- symbiosis, semiotics, and syntax

Recent Collages

"Emperor Etotosh"
Acrylic Collage with found type and images on board, 12"x12"x2", 2010

Recent Paint Collages

"Abandoned" and "A Sign"
Acrylic collage with found type on board, 12"x12"x2", 2010

Carved Surfaces

"Rockledge"
Acrylic, polystyrene on board
2000's

For a few years I experimented with using a razor blade as a drawing tool. After cutting into a polystyrene surface, I painted the surface to give an overall look of rock formations or a carved wooden surface. The shifting planes in "Rockledge" create a tension by implying that glacier shifts form striations in the surface rock.

Shaped Form

"Surface Crust"
Acrylic Collage on Board
2009, 24" x 24" x 1.5" approx.
© Dennis Guastella 2009

This is a study for a larger work. I wanted to explore the shaped canvas much like my free-form collage work. Ripped sheets of acrylic are layered and in some cases create alignments, thus, developing a grid-like underlying structure. Basically, I really enjoy the play between structure and spontaneous marking. This theme runs through all my work, whether I am extruding dots of paint in a random application or aligning gestured marks, my intention is to create this tension between the plan and the accident.

Night Sky

Night Sky
Acrylic Collage on Board, 2010
24" x 24"

Night Sky is another in a series of paint collages. The layering of paint fragments alludes to suggestions of order and dimension while emulating the painterly process of overlapping planes of color and texture. The division of space is not so much influenced by a referential experience, rather, the coloration inspired the title.

Magicland
Acrylic collage on board
2009
32"x40"

Subtle shifts of color are created by peeling, tearing and gluing acrylic sheets of dried paint on board. Several seems that jut in from the outer edges of the work were created by abruptly ending flows of color and texture. Drips of paint were poured on a resistant surface and then peeled and adhered to the textured surface. I was striving for a contrast of meticulously applied units of paint with a more spontaneous flow of paint. The overall effect is somewhat whimsical- thus... "Magicland"

"Vessel 3"
Approx. 6" x 9", 2010
Acrylic Collage

I am still thinking about these studies being made into larger works. I think as studies they succeed. On a larger scale the statement will undoubtedly move beyond the intimacy of this smaller scale and onto more massive relationships. The title alludes to large and bulky steamships.

"Cliffs"
Acrylic Collage on Board
48" x 60"| 2009/2010

This painting was just completed. The horizontal stripes are proportional and systematic in design. The individual units are peeled paint clippings that disrupt the original patterns of color and tone, thus giving distinction to each independent unit.

"Terrace"
48" x 48"/ 2010
Acrylic Collage on Board

This is a revision of a piece that I have been working on since 2009. The tiles are cut paint peelings. The "grout" was brushed in and rubbed to give this an aged quality. Hope you enjoy the work.

"Byzantine"
Acrylic on Paper/ 2008
30" x 40"