Dante Cohen Paintings

November show

2010-10-30T23:30:00.002-07:00

I also have quite a few paintings up in November at the the Hillsboro Arts center.

November show

2010-10-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

I also have quite a few paintings up in November at the the Hillsboro Arts center.

Owl in a tree (with a detail of the owl)

2010-08-27T20:23:00.001-07:00

This is one of the large painting I have been working on. It measures about 4'x7'. It hangs as a scroll. I'm trying to figure out how to mount large scrolls by myself. It is labor intensive and I definitely haven't perfected it yet. This one has a respectable amount of negative space for the viewer to fill with whatever it is they look to fill empty spaces with.

Hello Kitty, Paintings with Words

2010-08-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've been putting a lot of words into my paintings lately. Hello Kitty is one example. I think doing a lot of paintings with Chinese calligraphy in them has inspired me to use English....especially since most people who see the paintings don't read Chinese.

Pile of Practice Paper in Pittock Mansion

2010-07-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

July 17th to Nov. 14th Uncertain Times show at Pittock Mansion. See a pile of newspaper. Come back each week to watch it turn yellow.

The Demise of the Newspaper

2010-05-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about the upcoming show at Pittock Mansion this summer through the fall. It is called Uncertain Times and is about the demise of the newspaper industry. I will have an installation in the show. It will be a large (the larger the better) pile of newspaper I have used to practice Chinese calligraphy on. The two paintings above will also be in the show.

Forest Diptych with Lady and Sandy

2010-03-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

The idea behind this forest scene was to take advantage of ink and washes by contrastign the dark trees in front with the lighter trees in back. I am also contrasting the relatively fine brushwork done on Lady and Sandy (You can decide which is Lady and which is Sandy) with the brisk loose brushwork of the trees. The Calligraphy couplet roughly translates, `I know my character makes it hard for me to conform. I like that I belong to no-one.' I used the li style of calligraphy.

Rain, Fire, Dog, Owl

2010-03-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

This 10"x 14" painting has some of my familiar elements. The rain is represented by ink that has dripped and flowed. There is a fire in the background and an owl picking up a dog. Is the owl trying to save the dog or is he going to take the dog and eat it? Do you care? That's the dramatic tension.

Bird Watchers (1 and 2)

2010-02-28T04:57:00.000-08:00

Both of these paintings (12"x36", ink and watercolor on paper) continue with my semi-obsession with people on cell phones. In both these painting a woman is proudly displaying a cell phone picture she took of a bird in the the tree. Something that I have tried to do in these paintings and on other occasions, is paint the cell phone signal....in case you are wondering what those curved blue lines are.

Watering His Iris

2010-02-17T16:37:00.001-08:00

This small painting(5"x8") , Watering His Iris, is one of many paintings I've been working on where someone is on their cell phone. I'm sure that some day in the not too distant future I will have a show where every painting has a cellular phone in it.

Two Young Owls

2010-01-30T16:03:00.001-08:00

Here is a small painting (6"x9") built around the image of two owls in a hollow part of a tree. The tree is painted with loose, broad brush-strokes. Everything else in the painting is more finely executed. The dog seems to sense there is something in the tree. Is this cute scene about to erupt into a bloodbath as the domestic animal tries to attack the young owls? Or will they all get along and go off together to the factory (that's what's in the background) to tour the assembly line from a glassed in observation deck?

Rabbit in the Snow

2010-01-17T16:21:00.001-08:00

For this painting, I was trying to adapt the traditional Chinese ink painting technique of painting a snowy scene. Snow is the absence of ink or color in traditional Chinese landscape painting. It was fun to suggest a landscape with just a dozen or so quick brushstrokes.

Rabbit in the

2010-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Paintings for the Lewis & Clark Multicultural Symposium

2009-11-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

Urban Garden (above) is one of the paintings that will be featured at the Lewis and Clark college Art Exhibit Nov. 11-13. The art Exhibit is part of the Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium. If you look closely at the garden, there is a rabbit, two fighting dogs, a goose, and some loving pidgeons mixed in with the humans and vegetation.

This Rabbit Must Be Dead?

2009-10-18T21:01:00.001-07:00

I was biking on the Springwater Trail the other day and saw this pudgy white rabbit hopping around the weeds near this industrial/warehouse area. I couldn't help but think that it's days were numbered so I sketched it.

Family Beach Run

2009-08-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Launchpad Gallery is having a group show with the theme of `Family' in October. It should be as spirited, inclusive, and fun as all there open call group shows are. Launchpad is one of the places that makes the Portland art scene unique and welcoming. The above painting is my most recent family themed painting. It as a family running on the beach with a wave about to caress them and stuff happening in the background. About a year I go I did a similar painting, but with birds:

Entries in Erostfest NW

2009-07-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

Erosfest (erosfestnw.com) is coming up with an art exhibit in the Pearl. The exhibit will be at Forkfly (forkfly.com) Friday August 7 through Sunday August 9.

We will be able to see why kind of eroticism has been soaking in the rain and baking in the heat.

Dante's Love Orbs

2009-06-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is a second attempt to paint a self-portrait in the style of a Tibetan Thanka painting. The opposing fish help shed some light on the theme of the painting. The first fish is saying, "Give Dante a fish and it's a meal." The second fish is saying, "Teach Dante to fish and he feeds his ego." This painting points out some of Dante's character flaws while at the same time showing some of his more endearing qualities.

Dante Meditating in a Cave

2009-05-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is another possible painting for my September PCC show. It is modeled on traditional Chinese ink paintings of meditating monks. In reality, I have never been good at a sustained meditation practice. I should perhaps go to a cave for a length of time and try.

Dante in a Thanka Painting

2009-04-28T05:13:00.001-07:00

This just completed 24"x36" ink and watercolor painting is loosely based on the tradition of Tibetan Thanka painting. Dante , the main subject of the painting, is treated like a minor buddhist god. With a paintbrush in one hand and a TV remote in the other, he weilds his power. The two fish, hooked to Dante's nipples by orange fishing line are thinking profound thoughts. The one on the left is thinking `Give Dante an Fish and that's a meal'. The one on the right is thinking `Teach Dante How to Fish and he feeds his ego.'

There are a few more examples of Dante's Thanka-esque paintings on his website.

Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form

2009-04-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of the key concepts of Zen Buddhism. Deceptively simple. Deceptively meaningless. Form and emptiness are the same thing. It is one of those freeing existential concepts, particularly apropos to painting where you use lines and color and empty space to give the illusion of something. I built these two paintings around my walking script calligraphy renditions of the characters form and emptiness.

2009-03-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

This is a hard painting to get a good picture of. You really need to see it in person to take in its majesty. It is a 14' tall, 4' wide hanging scroll. I showed it at Tyson Space Gallery a while back. It was inspired by hikes in the Pacific Northwest and, of course, Chinese landscape paintings. In September I have a show in the North Gallery at PCC Sylvania. The show will explore Chinese calligraphy, philosophy, and various painting genres. I might hang this painting, if it fits. I will try to make it very real. More real than my fingers on this computer keyboard.

Urban Garden

2009-03-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

A painting to celebrate our brave new world.

Ben, Pink and the Sentimental Sturgeon

2009-01-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

I finished this yesterday afternoon after attending a Second Friday opening at Launchpad gallery Friday night. Ben Pink, Launchpad's owner, put together a great evening, so I decided to dedicate this 16"x20" ink and watercolor on paper painting to him. I have been working on illustrations for the Dao De Jing, so I decided to put in one quote from Laozi's text in this painting. The quote is translated and explained at http://daodejingillustrated.blogspot.com/ . I was trying very hard to make every line I comitted to paper have some grace and power. As dependent as my paintings are on narrative content, it is really the brushstroke, in abstraction, that holds potential. For me, the line is the closest thing you will get to the human touch from a painting. Each brushstroke is me trying to express something that is hopefully worth expressing.

He Fell For Love

2008-12-21T07:29:00.001-08:00

I finished this a few days ago. I decided not to use color in this painting, just ink stroked onto the xuan paper with a wolf-hair brush. The power of the line can come through better without color stealing the show. The size of the painting, 12"x 30" is conducive to the cool drama of someone falling from the sky. Portland's Steel Bridge and iconic street lamps create space. The grasping hands add emotion. The oversized cat is silly. The bee and ambulance add danger. The falling gull enhance the out of control feeling. The happy girl is what it is all about.

NUTS!?!

2008-12-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

Nuts!?! was just completed this morning 12/6/08. It's one of those paintings I do which almost looks like an old-school Disney illustration. Of course, I want my creative output to be pithier and edgier than a commercial illustration, but the paintings take on a life of their own. I tend to anthropomorphize animals usually by giving them big, searching eyes. Don't we all want to see a bit of ourselves in any random rodent? In a painting course I took at Yale the teacher excoriated me for the illustrative quality of my work. I had just finished 3 years of studying Chinese painting and calligraphy in Taiwan and was a bit older than my Yale classmates. It was too late. I had plotted my artistic course and wouldn't be changed by some abstract expressionist.

Wet Cat = Unhappy Cat

2008-11-29T19:39:00.000-08:00

The fading intellectual has a hose that still squirts with some force.

Wet Cat = Unhappy Cat was completed this morning 11/29/08, ink and watercolor on xuan paper