The Art of David Rubin
at the Alaska State Museum
November 1, 2013 – January 4, 2014
"My paintings go through a gestation period. As the embryo passes through every stage of evolution (Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny), so does the painting start off in a primitive state evolving finally to look like it was painted by a human - and then... maybe... by a painter."
David Rubin
2013
Portrait of Jean & Louis Bartos
2007 Oil on Canvas
Louis is a sailmaker and Jean, a weaver. That is a Swedish loom behind her while Louis wears his sewing medals.
Like Father, Like Son
1990 Oil on Wood
Dan Bartos, Ketchikan born and raised, poses in his spiked hair and punk black leather jacket against a backdrop of the quaint little fishing village, Ketchikan. His father Louis also shaves his head. Dan, who is now teaching art in Idaho, is stricter with his children then Louis ever was with him. The frame was made to resemble a Renaissance altarpiece; a person would sit at a table facing the painting, eye to eye, and meditate on the face of a saint or the Virgin Mary. I had the parts and design in mind but it was my friend, Homer artist Robert Walsh, who put it together, and I painted it. It’s not really gold.
Photographs by Sara Boesser
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The Troll Family Bible
1994 Oil on Canvas
Scene in Edmonds Bay
2005 Oil on Canvas
On my first trip to Alaska, on the M/V Columbia, the naturalist on board gave a talk and described how bears would swim from island to island. I wondered what would happen if a pod of killer whales came swimming by. It wasn’t until practically 20 years later that the owner of the Ketchikan Mining Company, Lynn Strauss, pointed to the blank wall over the only escalator in Ketchikan and asked me, “Isn’t there something that you’ve always wanted to paint?”
From the collection of Lynn Strauss
Ketchikan – Average Yearly Rainfall: 162.17"
1987 Oil on Canvas
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Ketchikan – Average Yearly Rainfall: 162.17”
1987 Oil on Canvas
Soon after I‘d finished it, Hall Anderson put this on the cover of The Scene, the Ketchikan Daily News weekly Arts Section. At that time I thought I’d call it Fall Winds Blow Over Ketchikan.
Hall was the Ketchikan Daily News photographer. He almost always used the cover of the Arts Section as a venue for his own work and chose a painting instead. I’m always grateful.
It was bought by Tim and Stormy Royer. Stormy is the daughter of Babe & Boots Addams who were friends with Fred Machetanz and who owned the Trading Post in Ketchikan when I first got there in ’83.
In the collection of Tim and Stormy Royer
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The Troll Family Bible
1994 Oil on Canvas
This painting began as a still life
involving dead fish I did in a workshop
conducted by the artist James Cobb.
My friend and fellow Ketchikan artist,
Ray Troll, saw the dead fish (!!!!!) and
asked me if I could try to get him and
his wife Michelle in there somehow
– so I came up with this. The figures
are Adam and Eve from the Ghent
Altarpiece by van Eyck and the two
little mischievous angels are from
another painting.
The frame was conceived by me and
then realized by Ketchikan artist and
woodworker Beth Antonson. Then
I painted the two mermaids in their
niches. They’re actually boat bumpers.
From the collection of Ray & Michelle Troll
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The Wearable Art Show
2005 Oil on Canvas
Ketchikan Theatre Ballet
2008 Oil on Canvas
This composition is the result of a malfunctioning camera that didn’t advance the film and just kept piling one image on top of another as my friend Carol Alley shot pictures of her daughter Stephanie dancing in different numbers during a performance by Ketchikan Theatre Ballet. Carol then showed the image to me, suggested that it looked like a painting and that I should paint it.
From the collection of The First City Players
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Top Left:
Settler’s Cove
1990 Oil on Canvas
From the collection of Craig & Hilary Koch
Top Right:
The Lurthern Church Against a Purple Cloud
2000 Pastel on Blue Paper
Middle Left:
Behind Robertson Building
1998 Oil on Wood
Done after teaching one night.
Middle:
House of the Shore
2007 Oil on Canvas
Middle Right:
Jimmy’s Creek
2005 Oil on Canvas From the collection of Jim Annicelli
Bottom Left:
Sunset Over Ketchikan
2000 Pastel on Brown Paper
Bottom Right:
Moon Over the Narrows
2006 Pastel on Blue Paper
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The Wearable Art Show
2005 Oil on Canvas
This is from a photo shot by Dr. Ernie Meloche during Ketchikan’s renowned Wearable Art Show. It is of Stephanie Alley. That year’s theme: Fly By Night.
The frame is a masterpiece of woodworking and imagination by Ketchikan-born artist and woodworker, Beth Antonson.
From the collection of Rob & Carol Alley
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Anna of Ketchikan
2010 Oil on Canvas
Anna Shaffer, owner of Starboard Frames and Gifts in Ketchikan (and also the framer of most of the pictures in this exhibition), sat for her own portrait, choosing for her attire just what Anna of Austria wore for her portrait by Rubens.
From the collection of George and Anna Shaffer
George Shaffer
1996 Oil on Canvas
This portrait of George, Anna’s husband, was painted years before he met her. Anna’s portrait was painted to match this one. He is wearing the Caduceus for the Science of Dentistry. He is my dentist.
From the collection of George and Anna Shaffer
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After the Shower
2004 Oil on Canvas
The Death of Marilyn
1999 Oil on Canvas
The death scene is the setting for so many works of art: The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West, The Crucifixion by any number of painters. But none of the subjects of the pictures were actually known for posing for pictures. But here, Marilyn dies in the position of her greatest influence, posing, naked, defining the modern nude. The pose recalls her first calendar series, which gained her attention at just 18 years of age. She was on the cover of the very first issue of Playboy and, as every actor must have in his or her repertoire, here she does her death scene. As she is dying, she confuses her maid for the Angel of Death and tries to cover herself in a moment of shame as her life passes before her. But the angel is naked also and assures Marilyn that she’s done nothing to be ashamed of, it was just time to go. Becky (my model for both Marilyn and the Angel) and I were planning to start this sometime in late May but it wouldn’t be until June 1st that we would both have the time. We realized it was Marilyn’s birthday. Before starting to paint that day, I turned on the radio. It was in the middle of a very obscure version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – the song she had requested to be played at her funeral.
Frame by Beth Antonson
Anna of Ketchikan
2010 Oil on Canvas
George Shaffer
1996 Oil on Canvas
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Tasha
2012 Conte Crayon on Newsprint
Life Drawing 1
1987 Conte Crayon on Newsprint
Beaver Totem
1990 Graphite on Manila Paper From the tribal house in Saxman, Alaska.
Rattle 1 by Bill Holm
1990 Graphite on Oak Tag
Rattle 2 by Bill Holm
1990 Graphite on Oak Tag
I drew both of these during a halibut hook carving workshop given by Bill Holm at Ketchikan’s Heritage Center.
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Israel Shotridge, Kinstaadaal Bear Clan Teikweidee
1988 Oil on Canvas
I attended the Reilly League of Artists in White Plains, NY in ‘87 - ‘88 studying portraiture using the Frank Reilly palette based on the gem assayer’s scale of values. Returning to Ketchikan, I asked my friend Israel Shotridge if he would pose for me. After carving all day on the Chief Johnson Fog Woman pole (his first major commission), he would come to my studio and let me paint him.
From the collection of Phil & Katy Zeidner
David Jensen, Aanki Teeyeeneidi Tuxecan Dog Salmon House
1999 Oil on Canvas
Dave is the Chief of the Dog Salmon Clan.
From the collection of Jim Annicelli
Shy Dancer, Evelyn Vanderhoop
1991 Oil on Canvas
My friend and fellow painter Evelyn is wearing a spruce root hat and a cedar bark cape that her sister, noted Haida weaver Holly Churchill, made after examining a 100 year old example in the Smithsonian collection. The hat was woven by: Delores Churchill, their mother and foremost Haida Weaver; Bill Holm, renowned artist and educator (author of The Analysis of Form, a widely respected treatise on formline design); April, the eldest of the three sisters; Evelyn herself; Holly; and Gloria Burns, Holly’s daughter, the younger generation of cultural historian. Finally, the frog crest was painted by Evelyn. When she first saw the portrait, Delores said that Evelyn looked like she was being shy. Evelyn said it looked like the way she felt when someone asked her to dance at a Potlatch.
From the collection of Phil & Katy Zeidner
William Pfeifer, Tlingit name: Naa koo dzaaz eesh Clan: Daksdeintaan Father’s Clan: Chookaneidi Yetki Mount Fairweather House
2008 Oil on Canvas
This was done as a trade. Bill is my chiropractor.
From the collection of Bill & Mary Pfeifer
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Drawn from argillite carvings by Dempsey Bob
2001 Scratchboard
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Waterfront Storage
2002 Oil on Canvas
I found a pencil outline of this image of Waterfront Storage (parts of which were a hundred years old) on this canvas that I hadn’t seen in 11 years – not since I’d first sat in my car and drew it. As they were actively knocking down the complex of buildings to allow for the construction of Berth 4 along Ketchikan’s waterfront, I realized that if I didn’t finish it immediately, I would forever lose my chance. So I parked in the same spot and filled it all in. By this point, all that was left was what is seen here. There was no more inside. Through the doors, a vacant lot. I finished, drove away, and the next day it was gone.
I conceived the frame, Beth Antonson built it, and I painted it.
From the collection of Penny Hamlin
Boats on the Grid In Craig, Alaska
1983 Pastel on Brown Paper
Done while playing in the band over in Craig at the Craig Inn.
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Top Left:
Have You Seen My Dragon Tattoo?
1999 Oil on Canvas
Spent about an hour or more painting Amanda Burrous (now of Juneau) as she sat in this dress. It wasn’t a very exciting pose, so we quit. She got up and headed for the bathroom to change. She stopped, looked over her shoulder, pulled down the back of the dress and asked, ‘Have you seen my tattoo?” This was way before the movie.
Middle Left:
View From Mary’s Window
2005 Oil on Canvas
Bottom Left:
Portrait of Adrian Davina,
My Daughter, in Her
Halloween Princess Crown
1991 Oil on Canvas
Top Right:
Hall Anderson
2011 Oil on Wood
Portrait of my friend and Ketchikan Daily News photographer Hall Anderson who has taken some of the most iconic images of Ketchikan. He, Ray Troll and I arrived in Ketchikan in 1983.
Middle Right:
Settler’s Cove
2006 Oil on Canvas Board
Bottom Right:
Red Bay Lake
2002 Oil on Canvas
Done while Mary and I spent two nights in a Forest Service cabin on Red Bay Lake, way up in the northwest corner of Prince of Wales Island, purported to be the home of Big Foot. What WAS throwing the boulders in the water?
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Life Drawing 2
1987-2013 Conte Crayon on Buff-colored Paper
The frame is gold leaf, done by George Shaffer
Amputees Visit the Temple of Venus and Ponder the Ideal of Beauty
2013 Oil on Canvas
I was looking at a torso of Venus, held by our civilization to be an ideal of beauty, and wondered how an amputee or someone born without limbs feels when they see such a figure without arms, legs and in some cases, no head.
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Like Father, Like Son
1990 Oil on Wood
Dan Bartos, Ketchikan born and raised, poses in his spiked hair and punk black leather jacket against a backdrop of the quaint little fishing village, Ketchikan. His father Louis also shaves his head. Dan, who is now teaching art in Idaho, is stricter with his children then Louis ever was with him.
The frame was made to resemble a Renaissance altarpiece; a person would sit at a table facing the painting, eye to eye, and meditate on the face of a saint or the Virgin Mary. I had the parts and design in mind but it was my friend, Homer artist Robert Walsh, who put it together, and I painted it. It’s not really gold.
The Annicelli Family Portrait
1995 Oil on Canvas
As a junior officer, Col. Annicelli was the navigator on the weather reconnaissance flight that flew from Greenland to Dover, England the night before D-Day. As General Eisenhower and the Allied forces waited in London for the weather report that would determine when there might be a window of opportunity to cross the English channel and invade France, James J. Annicelli was taking a mean of the conditions, their B-17 flying so low that spray from the waves was coming right over the nose. He is here with his wife Barbara and their niece Whitney. Later, he came to Alaska as a colonel in the Army Building Corps. He oversaw construction of the first landing field at Indian Mt. Air Force Station. It took almost a year and upon finishing the job, he sent for his wife Barbara and together they drove through Alaska. They finally settled in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in a house designed and built by James. Their son Jimmy now lives in Ketchikan and this painting hangs in his house.
From the collection of Jim Annicelli
Mandy Davis
2001 Oil on Canvas
Mandy is the daughter of Marvin and Lani Davis, owners of Tongass Business Center in Ketchikan. Marvin is originally from Juneau. Mandy is a writer.
From the collection of Marvin & Lani Davis
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Janel, The Fisher Girl
1985 Oil on Canvas
Ralph Vic
2008 Oil on Wood
Portrait of a Young Girl in a Hair Dryer
1990 Oil on Canvas
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Portrait of a Young Girl in a Hair Dryer
1990 Oil on Canvas
This portrait of my friend Bonnie Driscoll is intended to first appear as if it were an old painting of an unknown person in an elegant, felt or silk hat (it is a plastic hair dryer found in an Anchorage thrift store). My title makes fun of the profession that creates titles for paintings in Art History books: Portrait of a Man, Portrait of a Man in a Hat, Portrait of a Man in a Red Hat...
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Top:
Psycho Matter
2013 Oil on Canvas
Middle:
Glow Worm
1967 Oil on Canvas
This is what we were doing in high school, my best friend Eddie and I, trying to paint light shows.
From the artist’s personal collection
Bottom:
One Point Perspective
2013 Oil on Wood
We are born with the conceptual capacity to conceive 3 dimensions on a 2 dimensional plane and are thus able to imply the eternal by suggesting infinity using the device of 1 point perspective seen here as the highway stretching off into the distance, vanishing into the horizon, where parallel lines seem to converge. It leads right back to where we come from.
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