Dennis Hollingsworth

Doug Henders

A few years ago, Kevin O'Sullivan (friend, screenwriter in LA) visited my studio in ChinaTown Los Angeles wherein he introduced Doug Henders (artist, New York). Great visit, nice guy, Doug. As they left, I wondered lightly if we would ever meet again one day, our art world is soooo big nowadays.

It was a nice surprise to meet up in the comments section of this blog! As you might surmise, I love a studio visits (I think it is the purest and most privileged art experience to have) and until I get to New York someday soon, these jpegs will have to substitute.

Pencils. That's what comes to mind. And colors associated with pencils: Ticonderoga yellow, Pink Pearl red (ok, you might not see this... just let me fly!). Erasures, adjustments. To paint this way, you have to watch the edges where one color meets another... hard work that requires attention and consistency, precision with the last touch of the brush. And camouflage that dissolves the figure. An arrow towards abstraction. A datum in the world and a lean into the mind.

I should stop right there. Three jpegs provoking more than 70 words is pure temerity.

Doug had his opening in K?ln a month ago, a city we both enjoy for the community of artists there:

The show just opened the 10th of December
through January. One of the artists that shows in the gallery, his brother
owns Dos Equis!

Dos Equis is the bar that Mark and Frances took me to over the holidays. A little squeeze bar in the front, a nondescript side door led us down two meandering hallways into a big internal room open to the outside only by skylights, crowded with tables packed with artists. According to my kind guides, K?ln is the kind of town where artists from all art worlds mix (my favorite phrase: "There are many art worlds."). This is wonderful... because back where I come from, there's no mixing going on. Artists keep to small circles, for what I once thought was due to the organization of the city: people only socialize with as many people they can bar-b-que for in their back yards or chat with in their cars as they speed down a freeway. But I'll bet that the reasons for the amiability of the community in K?ln are deeper than that.

If you mention the community you may want to add A-11 which is cocktail bar and Bar Tobac, which is a french restaurant. These are 2 venerable artworld hangouts (owned by a collector-friend).