“My drawings and paintings reveal a reality that is almost familiar, as if you had seen it when you were a child.”
My cousin Hans Wendel just finished up a stint on an Argentinian farm. He was there helping out and painting. He created landscapes with oil.
“I went from being a gaucho on the rancho where there was no electricity and nine horses per person in a 80,000 acre expanse of thorns and sky, to the super urban, edgey, sexy city of Buenos Aires,” Hans says.
In Buenos Aires he’s an Artist in Residency at Proyecto’ac. He has some pretty cool work. While in that sexy city he’s changing modes, doing mixed media. His show opens May 12.
“I am making graphically minded prints and working with narrative via the repetition of specific imagery,” Hans says. “My art reflects where I am geographically, socially, and how hard I am clenching my teeth.”
It’s about combination – drawing, graphics and their technological and cultural associations Hans says. He wants to find a new narrative and idea of decorative art.
“Using photography and collage in conjunction with drawing and etching, I will create new notions of foreground, background, focus and an alternative approach to narrative.
Hans says he’s inspired by “experiences, sights, and sounds, ingrained in my mind when I was a kid.” I’m lucky enough to know what and where he’s talking about. Growing up our families spent a good amount of time together, specifically at Hans’ house on a 300-acre ranch. I can still smell the mixture of sage and juniper. The Eastern Oregon high desert landscape is my favorite.
Hans also finds inspiration in his surroundings and how he’s feeling. “Its all about the rancho you’re stuck on, or the city you’re in,” Hans says.
Not a bad way to spend your first year out of college, if you ask me. Hans gets to experience the world, the real world, away from all that is America. Yes, he’s in a city now but at least he got to experience some real life – hard work, no amenities and land. Who gets to do that anymore? Not only is his art cool to look at, it represents what Hans has done and where he (and his mind) has been and is. Too bad we can’t just hop a plane to see his art in Argentina.
