Paul M. Nicholson, all images © 2008-2009-2010
in the studio 2008/2009

New, Recent, & works in progress:

Hands, 2009

This work was included in an exhibition called Stations, July 3 - 25, 2009 put together by an artist group called The Working Relationship [TWR]. Stations takes place at the Community School of Music and the Arts [CSMA] in downtown Ithaca, and the String Room Gallery in Aurora, NY. Stations begins a dialog between otherwise disassociated art spaces, creating avenues for exchange and developing working relationships."

For this project I was intrigued by the idea that there were two parallel exhibitions taking place in two Central New York towns. I started thinking about this in comparison to the two venues sort of like the two treatments in an experiment. I thought about how viewers would be seeing a versions of a group art show, each with the same set of artists and often connected work and pieces, but that each experience was a different set of work and place. Given the geographic distance, Some people might see both shows, but the majority would just see the one. I started to think about how these two populations were each getting a different treatment and my 'experiment' began to take shape.

I was working with a set of photographs of these doll hands interacting in various ways, a handshake, a caress, a dismissive gesture; and started to think about how the relationship between one hand and another seemed to change radically depending on slight changes in positioning. This is not unexpected, the relationship of objects changes depending on an infinite number of variables and graphic variations. With this in mind, I started to think about this mirror exhibition that was taking place across the lake, in another town and it occurred to me that one of the simplest variations was making a reflected image, thus changing of which hand was dominant. For my work I was using both a right and a left hand and by taking the mirror image it caused the corresponding image to change the right-hand or left hand dominance. I like the idea that the viewer would identify with one or another hand or another, depending on their right to left read, visual literacy, and dominant handedness. I edited down my photographs into four where the right hand was 'dominant' and created four mirror images where the left hand might be described as the protagonist, then one set shown in Ithaca, and the other in Aurora NY.

“Sweet Dreams” employs two 1’ by 1’ foot blocks that sparkle as if made of out of sugar. On top of each cube sits a white coffee cup and saucer, drank to near the bottom. These remnants of a warm conversation remind us that a very familiar human interaction has just taken place.

Thousands of people sit down in local banks all across the country. They sip coffee with someone they’ve known for years. They share intimate details of their lives, their hopes and dreams, and plans for the future. The piece alludes ultimately to the shared risk and responsibility; it also reminds us that some of the sweetest dreams are financed more by saccharine than sugar.

The unfinished dark liquid leaves a perfect black circle in the bottom of the cup. When left on top of a pristine white cube, a transformation occurs changing the objects into to a pair of oversized dice. The resulting roll is “snake eyes”, symbolizing the ultimate losing roll.

Sweet Dreams, (in studio) 2009, Various Materials.

Equestrian Monument
Installed in Delaware Park, Buffalo New York, 2008

In my 2008 work, Equestrian Monument, I’ve created a formal tribute to the spirit of play. Like many traditional public monuments this sculpture consists of a large proper pedestal but instead of having a charging hero sword in hand atop an equine companion; it displays a child’s jumpy horse. My monument forgoes the mythic ruler or military commander leaving the saddle unoccupied. In the tradition of the varied tomb[s] of the unknown soldier around the world, the figure is not literally present alluding to the missing spirit of he who once occupied this noble seat.