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 The Hide Gallery presents new works by Telopa on May 2nd, 6 - 12. "This show is pushing me a bit, and helps remind me that I'm still digging for new depth as an artist. In Santa Cruz, people know me best, and I'll be seeing people that have supported my work locally throughout the years. In a way this show needs to be the most honest, because I'm pushing new ideas for myself and them. Showing my work is the most gratifying. Painting for hours, refining old ideas, pushing new ones, and layering the subtlety, one hopes for the few encounters where a viewer experiences the minor changes you've made. What may be a huge change for me in my art, to the casual viewer, it is sometimes undetectable. When I show in Santa Cruz, people see the small things more.
 Recently I was talking to a rep in LA and he said "I haven't had much luck with Santa Cruz artists". I told him that I spent three of four years in the city [San Francisco], going gallery to gallery, and then I realized I didn't know anything. The well understood irony, of course, is that the more I learn and plunge into the deep depths of artistic intellect, the more I am lost. I feel like the progression of shows has helped me purge a false confidence, and realize a real one. Eight years ago I would be excited about a painting for a year. Four years ago a similar painting would excite me for a few months. Today a new painting, that I'm happy with, will excite me for a few minutes, then its time to push it further. Seeing that progression let me know that I had a chance.
Painting for me eventually leads to a mysterious "I relate to this, but I don't know why" quality. Rembrandt was a master of subtlety, pushing himself and recording life in a certain way that still can echo his personable sincerity before it."I'd give any thing to have that kind of presence in my work". A gallery owner in LA, from the east coast, was telling me that Californian artists are too comfortable. He said that we don't dig deep, and that reflects the mainstream mode. "I'm not living in the grunge, I can't dig deep" is what they think. Well I feel that in a way, I represent Santa Cruz, and I admire it. So I guess while they live suffering in the grunge of New York, getting tons of money for art, we're all comfortable here on the beach selling work cheap and stealing bread from Beckman's."
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Art & Shows