Filmmaker and islander Alan Rudolph debuts at Gallery Fraga.
A rainy back lot. An audition. A lonely wait in front of a too-bright movie theater marquee.
For Alan Rudolph, these images offer familiar reference points. After all, he’s endured 40-odd years in the film industry with 20 pictures to his directorial credit.
And now, the accomplished movie-maker and island resident has folded these iconic images into a form of expression that’s a little different… sort of.
“I’m addicted to the creative process, to the window/mirror playground,” he said in an email interview. “In that regard, painting and filmmaking overlap.”
Visually, the collection of paintings that Rudolph will debut at Gallery Fraga this weekend strongly reflects his cinematic sensibility.
Films like “Welcome to L.A.” (1976), “Choose Me” (1984) and “Trouble in Mind” (1985) bring together, often in ensembles, lost, often damaged characters. The settings, like Rudolph’s paintings, are filmed to maximize atmosphere.
This Rudolph will allow, pointing out in his artist statement that it’s “all ink from the same well.”
“But the actual experiences couldn’t be more different,” he said. “Painting is solitude, as with writing or dreaming. Filmmaking is dreaming out loud, and very public.
“The process of making a film involves several years and hundreds of people. It’s a life experience from which you know you’re going to be altered. A painting is a moment. But a moment with an entire meaning.”
Rudolph is a self-taught filmmaker, and began painting recently, as an experiment.
“One afternoon about two years ago, Joyce and I joined island friends, John and Stephanie Williams for a paint-athon. Stephanie is a talented artist, but the rest of us basically started from scratch. For me, it led to harder stuff.”
Thus, having hit upon two radically different processes for self-expression – the public exposure of movie-making and the naked, personal revelations brought out through painting – Rudolph initially had no interest in showing his work.
“In fact, I enjoyed the private spotlight,” he said. “But when the Fragas dangled a show that would also include Josie Gray and Michael Pontieri, two friends, I felt it was a good excuse to drink wine and enjoy new works by these gifted artists.”
Although Rudolph’s motivation for showing has less to do with a grand painting debut and more to do with revealing a new artistic angle among friends, Rudolph has made his peace with critics and understands their role in the larger game of taking art public.
He references his 1988 film “The Moderns,” a love story set against the backdrop of the hyper-creative, hyper-social, dynamic-but-semi-soulless Paris of the 1920s, the one belonging to the iconic Lost Generation of artists, writers and musicians.
“It was rewarding to show critics labeling authentic paintings as forgeries, and vice versa. As a filmmaker, you can only truly understand what you’ve created when there’s another ass in the room besides your own.
“But professional critics are just that, it’s their job. Sometimes that brings in a whole set of priorities that has little to do with what they’re judging. On the other hand, an audience’s response, any size or familiarity, is collective and involuntary. You can feel it. Sometimes it affects changes, sometimes not, depending on whether you agree. Painting is easier when it comes to that. If Joyce, my official muse, likes something, that’s all I need.”
The Rudolphs moved to Bainbridge nearly two decades ago, a fact that the general public perhaps remains unaware of since he does an excellent job of keeping a low profile.
Which makes Bainbridge a good place to be: the proverbial haven for artists of all stripes, moods and expressions.
“Plus,” he said, “we like the new city council.”
*******************
Life in stills
Alan Rudolph’s paintings will debut at Gallery Fraga on April 4 along with new work by Michael Pontieri and Josie Gray, with a First Friday artists’ reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Contact the gallery at 842-1150 or www.galleryfraga.com.
