SALAMANDRINA: The Book

Paintings of SADIE by Artist/Father Gary Chapman

A 75 page book illustrating the traveling exhibition SALAMANDRINA: The SADIE Paintings.

To order a copy: VENMO @Chapman-Creative $35 for the book and $10 for shipping and handling. Please message, email or confirm with Gary your mailing address, and thank you for your interest and support.

CONVERSATIONS: The Book

GARY CHAPMAN: CONVERSATIONS

VENMO @Chapman-Creative

PayPal Painter@uab.edu

HARDCOVER 113 pages * $35

CONVERSATIONS 9 large paintings

108 Black Paintings and The COTA Project,

2 paintings, 3 drawings, 108 small paintings

The HELMET Project 12 paintings,

12 photographs of installations

The Museum collections 11 paintings

Les Retables: L’Amour charnel 9 paintings

*(only the hardcover includes this series of 9 paintings, Warning: Explicit Images)

Bio page and headshot

2 Essays

1 Manifesto

7 Artist statements

Please add $10 for shipping and handling

CONVERSATIONS: The Book is ready for purchase. You can reserve your copy by paying for it through the VENMO @Chapman-Creative account or PayPal at painter@uab.edu. Please include an additional $10 for shipping and handling. Otherwise you can text/email me to arrange a local pick up or delivery. Thank you for your support.

NOIR: The Series 2021 - 2022

NOIR: The Series

Black has been a fundamental interest of artists throughout history; Juan Sanchez Cotan, Edouard Manet, Kazimir Malevich, Louise Nevelson, Anish Kapoor, all clear examples. Perhaps the most evident known precedent is the fashion industry’s undeniable, obsession with Black. Aldo Tambellini in his 1967 manifesto, Black Is the Awareness of a New Reality, wrote: “I see ‘Black’ very clearly as the beginning of all things … There was ‘Black’ before there was light in the whole universe. There is ‘Black’ inside the womb before the child is born. ‘Black’ is not the opposite of white; it is a state of being.”

With the NOIR series, I address Black frankly; Black as beautiful. Film Noir embraces the aspects of Black that interest me most. Black as dark, opaque, clever, sexy, powerful, poignant, dangerous, alluring.

Noir is the French masculine form of Black.

NOIR: The Series, oil and mixed media on aluminum panels. 8 are 27”h x 21”w x 3”d in hand built, shadow box frames, and 6 smaller paintings 21”h x 4 1/2”w.

NOIR: Orchid

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2022.

NOIR: Datura Metel

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2022.

NOIR: Lily of the Valley

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2022.

NOIR: Gerber Daisy

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Lilies

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2022.

NOIR: Lily

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Rose SOLD

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Spider Lily

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Venus Flytrap

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Wheat

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

NOIR: Wheat 2

oil on aluminum panel, 26 1/2”h x 20 1/2”w, 2021.

V NOIR: Beads

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

V NOIR: Beads 2

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

V NOIR: Gun

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

V NOIR: Lily

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

V NOIR: Rose SOLD

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

V NOIR: Shotgun

Oil and mixed media on aluminum, 21”h x 4 1/2”w x 3/4”d, 2021

CONVERSATIONS 2006 - PRESENT

Each painting in this series begins with an iconic image appropriated from art history or pop culture. As popular images, they are embedded with their own history and we bring to them our prejudices, interpretations, memories, and personal experiences. In this context, they are to be understood as a springboard to a larger conversation.

I am an artist, a maker of things. I draw, paint, print, sculpt, find and assemble my work. I am a realist, however, I am not interested in the simple reproduction of an image. Though I make images, I am not a camera. I am interested in a realism that goes beyond pictorial reality and recognizes a broader and deeper understanding of what real means. In this realism, feelings, ideas, and emotions are as tangible as an apple or a face. Though I make images, I am not a camera.

In my work, I attempt to dig deeper in the investigation as to what is real and what is truth. As an artist, I do not limit myself, or my subjects to a single moment in time or place. Nor do I limit my interpretation of them to just one medium, device, or style. It is through this expanded visual vocabulary and the cathartic process that I hope to reveal a more complete and genuine understanding of my subjects.

ZEPHYR: In Between

oil, charcoal, graphite, and found objects on aluminum panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2023.

The MONSTERS: HE

oil, charcoal, graphite and found objects on aluminum panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2019

The MONSTERS: SHE

oil, charcoal, graphite and found objects on aluminum panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2019

WO MAN

oil, mixed media and found objects on wooden panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2018.

FATHER

oil, mixed media and found objects on wooden panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2018.

RE ENGAGE

oil on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, mixed media and found objects, 84”h x 64”w, 2013.

AD VICE

oil, mixed media and found objects on wooden panels, 84”h x 64”w, 2013.

Studio Shot 2019 for context and scale of the CONVERSATIONS Series. All are 84"h x 64"w.

TO BE WITH YOU

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, mixed media and found objects, 84”h x 64”w, 2010.

RE CREATION

oil and gold leaf on canvas’, inserted into wooden panels, mixed media and found objects, 84”h x 64”w, 2008.

LIFE DURING WARTIME

oil and gold leaf on canvas inserted into wooden panels, mixed media, 84”h x 64”w, 2006.

Huntsville Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

The FIRMAMENT: Falling Floating Flying 2019 - 2020

“Nature, with its paradoxical twin firmaments of breathtaking beauty and extreme cruelty, never explains itself and cares even less for our admiration and acceptance.”

― Stewart Stafford

The FIRMAMENT: FFF I

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

The FIRMAMENT: FFF II

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

The FIRMAMENT: FFF III

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

The FIRMAMENT: FFF IV

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

The FIRMAMENT: FFF V

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

The FIRMAMENT: FFF VI

oil and wax on canvas, 40”h x 24”w, 2019

COMING OF AGE 2013

In 2012, Huntsville Museum of Art’s Curator, Peter Baldaia visited my studio and, as a result of that meeting, I was invited to be one of two artists for a 2013 CONNECTIONS Exhibition with the museum. CONNECTIONS is an ongoing curatorial project by Baldaia in which he pairs two seemingly different artists in order to reveal an underlying, deeper connection within their work. Carolyn Sherer, a Birmingham photographer, was the artist Baldaia paired with me in an exhibition centered on the theme COMING OF AGE. The exhibition was curated primarily with existing paintings and photographs; however, I chose to create three additional paintings with the theme in mind.

It was easy to see Baldaia’s vision of Coming Of Age because, with much of my figurative work, the subjects are often invested in the proverbial, if not cliché, search for meaning and truth. While coming of age is often thought of as a mid-teen rite of passage, I have always felt that coming of age is actually more of a mid-twenties phenomenon. A period of time, for many post-college, when there is a natural separation from family, when true adulthood identities form and become solidified, independent of pressures from school peers and family.

These paintings depict three stereotypical identities that are commonly known among high school age students – Grease Monkey, Bun Head, and Gym Rat – and the progression toward individual, authentic identity as they come of age.

Each painting begins with a circular element, identifying its stereotype: a weight, a tutu, and a wheel. From that center point, which is a hole or vacuum, the symbolic element radiates outward within the painting, causing ripples over the figure. The subject’s body is posed in a typical position, yet one hand seems to react differently and, in fact, has its own newly formed ripple pattern radiating from it. Like a sudden shock a transformation has occurred at that point. The primary and larger ripples continue outward until there is a final break, creating a gap between the lower painting, which focuses upon the figure’s physicality: the torso, and the upper panel, providing an extreme close-up of the subjects’ eyes: the windows into the soul. The ripples represent movement, travel, growth, and ultimately transformation. The break and sudden focus upon the eyes suggest a sudden moment of freedom, where superimposed identity is shed, and the self has chance to be redefined through knowledge, experience, and an open-minded approach to identification and choice.

A full color catalog was printed to document the exhibition, with generous support from patrons Lydia Cheney and Jim Sokol, The Alabama State Council on the Arts, Altherr Design, The Huntsville Times, and The Women’s Guild of the Huntsville Museum of Art.

GREASE MONKEY

oil and mixed media on wooden panels, 51”h x 40”w, 2013

BUN HEAD

oil and mixed media on wooden panels, 51”h x 40”w, 2013

GYM RAT

oil and mixed media on wooden panels, 51”h x 40”w, 2013

CONNECTIONS, The Catalog

Catalog for the 2013 Huntsville Museum of Art Exhibition, CONNECTIONS. A two person exhibition with Carolyn Sherer and Gary Chapman.

CONSTRUCTIONS

The CONSTRUCTION Series stem from Chapman’s interest in linear perspective, structure, and architecture. The drawings which consist of two distinctly different panels, reveal his interest in contrasting two forms of structure found in nature, the grid which consists of uniformly parallel and perpendicular lines, and the other which appears more freeform or organic.

Chapman has taught Charcoal Drawing Workshops each summer at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, as well with museums and other art institutions all over the southeast region.

CONSTRUCTIONS #1

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panels, 44”h x 48”w, 2017.

SOLD Encompass Health Corporate Collection.

CONSTRUCTIONS #2

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panels, 56”h x 24”w, 2017.

SOLD Private Collection

CONSTRUCTIONS #3

Charcoal on wooden panel, and ink on yupo mounted to a wooden panel, 59”h x 36”w, 2017.

SOLD Hoar Construction, Corporate Collection President’s office

CONSTRUCTIONS #4

Charcoal on wooden panel, and ink on yupo mounted to a wooden panel, 48”h x 36”w, 2017. SOLD

CONSTRUCTIONS #5

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panel, ink on yupo on wooden panel, 32”h x 36”w, 2017.

CONSTRUCTIONS #6

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panel and ink on yupo mounted to wooden panel, 32”h x 36”w, 2017.

CONSTRUCTIONS #7

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panel and ink on yupo mounted to wooden panel, 32”h x 36”w, 2017.

CONSTRUCTIONS #8

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panel and ink on yupo mounted to wooden panel, 48”h x 36”w, 2017.

SOLD Private Collection

CONSTRUCTIONS #9

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden panel and ink on yupo mounted to a wooden panel, 35”h x 36”w, 2017.

CONSTRUCTIONS #10

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 30”h x 36”w, 2018.

SOLD Burns & Levinson; Boston, MA.

CONSTRUCTIONS #11

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 36”h x 24”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS #12

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 36”h x 24”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS #13

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 36”h x 48”w, 2018.

SOLD SVB Leerink Corporate Collection, Boston, MA.

CONSTRUCTIONS #14

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 48”x 36”w, 2018.

SOLD ABRY Partners, Boston, MA

CONSTRUCTIONS #15

Charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 48”h x 36”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS A

Charcoal and oil on wooden panel, ink on yup, 16 1/2”h x 14”w, 2017.

CONSTRUCTIONS B

charcoal on wooden panel and ink on yup, 24”h x 18”w, 2018. SOLD

CONSTRUCTIONS C

charcoal on wooden panel and ink on yupo, 24”h x 18”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS D

charcoal on wooden panel and ink on yupo, 24”h x 18”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS E

charcoal on wooden panel and ink on yupo, 24”h x 18”w, 2018.

CONSTRUCTIONS F

charcoal and acrylic on aluminum panel, 24”h x 18”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel

These altars were inspired by a trip to Spain and France, the art of Antoni Gaudi and the Art Nouveau movement. They were created with a reverence to physical love. They are ornate and frank; aesthetically beautiful; charged and fueled by sexuality.

When closed, the panels are intricate and complex, emphasizing the classic Art Nouveau whiplash line. Their messages are subtle, embellished and obscured. When opened, their revelations are visceral and complicated. They are perhaps shocking, funny, embarrassing, or even offensive.

It is not my intention to shock or humiliate anyone; rather it is my intention to make a firm statement about physical love and our carnal instincts; to create a series of altars elevating our understanding of sexuality. Physical sex should be an undeniably intrinsic, wonderful part of our lives, yet society is still uncomfortable with this fact.

During the long period of their conception through completion, I found myself thinking about the time in which we live, when:

· There is institutional, systematic raping of children by a sexually repressed, empowered group of adults.

· Pornography is often how our children learn about sexuality and how to treat those to whom they are attracted.

· The ‘Me Too’ movement flourishes, revealing that we have not progressed as far as we had presumed.

These altars are an attempt to examine our carnal desires. The paintings inside the open altars are cropped images of humans engaged in sex, celebrating their humanity, desire and gender more so than their individuality. These images are appropriated from pornographic sources found on the web, commonly yet secretly viewed on our screens; televisions, laptops, and cell phones. They are masterfully reproduced as oil paintings and then embedded in the context of high art triptychs, elaborate, labor intensive, and holy.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME I closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME I Open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME FEMME II closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour, HOMME FEMME II open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour, FEMME HOMME III closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour, FEMME HOMME III open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME IV closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel. FEMME HOMME IV open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME V open

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME V open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME VI closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, FEMME HOMME VI open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME HOMME VII closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME HOMME VII open

oil on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME HOMME VIII closed

oil on wooden panels, 15”h x 10”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel #8 Open

oil on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 15”h x 21”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME FEMME IX closed

oil on wooden panels, 28”h x 24”w, 2018.

Les Retables: L'Amour charnel, HOMME FEMME IX open

oil on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 28”h x 48”w, 2018.

These 3 black altars are diptychs and do not open. FEMME HOMME (21 22)

oil and graphite on aluminum panels, 12”h x 16”w, 2018.

FEMME HOMME (23 24)

oil and graphite on aluminum panels, 12”h x 16”w, 2018.

FEMME HOMME (25 26)

oil and graphite on aluminum panels, 12”h x 16”w, 2018.

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS 1990 - Present

Of all of his professional accomplishments, Chapman is most proud of the museum acquisitions. To date, a total of 14 paintings have been purchased for the permanent collections of 10 museums in the southeast region.

MUTTER UND TOCHTER

oil on canvas’, 114”h x 42”w, 1993.

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Permanent Collection.

X + Y = Z

Oil and gold leaf on wooden panels and canvas, 31"h x 43"w, 2007.

Meridian Museum of Art Permanent Collection; Meridian, MS.

MAN WITH STICK

oil on canvas, inserted into wooden panel with gold leaf, 57”w x 46”w, 1998.

Wiregrass Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

LIFE DURING WAR TIME

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels with mixed media, 84”h x 64”w, 2006.

Huntsville Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection.

GIRL WITH STICK

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 34”h x 80”w, 2000.

Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection.

MAN WITH BLACK EYE, LISTENING

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 32”h x 39”w, 2003.

Mobile Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection.

EIN ANDERES GRABMAL

charcoal on paper over oil on canvas, 36”h x 89”w, 1996.

Birmingham Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

SELF PORTRAIT

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 32”h x 39”w, 2004.

University Museum, University of Mississippi, Permanent Collection.

PROBING THE WOUNDS

oil and gold leaf on linen canvas, 51”h x 39”w, 1993.

Mobile Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection.

INCIDENT ONE

oil on wooden panel, 29”h x 37”w, 1999.

Meridian Museum of Fine Art, Permanent Collection.

ANIMA REVEALED

oil on canvas’, 115”h x 70”w overall, 1997.

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Permanent Collection.

THE FIRST INCIDENT

oil on canvas, 28”h x 71”w, 1997.

Huntsville Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

108 Black Paintings and The COTA Project 2015 - 2016

108 Black Paintings and The COTA Project

An Installation/Exhibition by artist Gary Chapman

Gary and Bernadette’s daughter Sadie, was born in 1996 with a serious heart defect (hypo-plastic left heart syndrome.) This fact, and in particular their journey over the last year are the catalyst for the exhibition. Over her first 18 years Sadie had two open heart surgeries, one at 9 months and the second at 8 years old. In the Fall of 2014 she moved to New York where she was accepted into the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. After one complete term and into the second term in early 2015, Sadie’s heart began to fail.

It was soon determined she would need a heart transplant. After weeks of testing she entered Children’s Hospital in Birmingham and began her long wait for the ideal donor heart.

Sadie and her family waited 108 days.

Sadie’s transplant took place on July 8, 2015. The family is forever grateful to a 29-year-old man, who sadly lost his life but had the forward, selfless and compassionate vision to save another through organ donation.

It has been an indescribable and tumultuous year for the family, each finding their own way to cope. While this exhibition might well be seen as the product of a cathartic process, it is also a celebration.

In late March, Sadie returned to New York where she is again studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute.

GOD SPEED SADIE CHAPMAN

The COTA Project and The Heart Drawings

During the wait for the heart transplant, our family met many other pediatric heart patients, from babies to early teenagers. Many would come and go week after week for important but less serious cardiac procedures. However, there was a core group of patients and their families that never left. They were all in wait. Simply waiting. Waiting and hoping to escape death. Waiting to reach the top of the list. Waiting for the ideal heart to be offered to them, as opposed to others in wait — hundreds of others throughout the south and across the country in wait of a heart.

It is this core group, that contributed to the Heart Drawings.

COTA is Children’s Organ Transplant Association

108 Black Paintings

While much of the work in the exhibition is in fact about my daughter, 108 Black Paintings, represents specifically my 108 Days. 108 days while everything in my fabricated life stopped. 108 days when I no longer was a professor. 108 days when I no longer was a productive artist. 108 days as a father who could do nothing for his daughter but also just wait.

JUST WAIT.

108 Black Paintings was produced months after my daughter’s heart transplant, a period when I had plenty of time in the studio but could not bring myself to the easel. I had experienced a type of trauma. Anima refused to visit and I was left with process and materiality. 108 Black Paintings was my attempt to make something, anything; to create and find meaning in the nothingness.

108 Black Paintings and The COTA Project

Installation 2018 ArtFields, Lake City, South Carolina.

TWO

oil and silver leaf on canvas, 51”h x 40”w, 2016.

THREE

oil and silver leaf on canvas, 51”h x 40”w, 2016.

The First Collaborative, Cathartic Heart Drawing

ink on paper, 26”h x 32”w, 2015.

The Second Collaborative, Cathartic Heart Drawing

ink on paper, 26”h x 32”w, 2015.

Third Collaborative, Cathartic Heart Drawing

ink on paper, 26”h x 32”w, 2015.

108 BLACK PAINTINGS

acrylic on glass, 9”h x 7”w each, 2016.

2 OF 108 BLACK PAINTINGS

first is matte with satin frame, second is satin with matte frame, all 108 alternate this format and are 9”h x 7”w, 2016.

108 BLACK PAINTINGS CRATED

3 crates designed to hold and transport 108 Black Paintings on Glass, 7”h x 10”w x 32”l, 2016.

108 BLACK PAINTINGS AND THE COTA PROJECT

The first exhibition of the project, Walnut Gallery, Gadsden, AL.

The SADIE Paintings

SALAMANDRINA

Why the Salamander became an important symbol, in many of the SADIE paintings.

1 The salamander is the most complicated form of life which can regenerate its own organs. Scientist are researching salamanders today in order to better understand this phenomenon. It is believed that many animals had this remarkable ability, lost now through the evolutionary process. Of course, the most ideal solution for patients needing a transplant would be to regenerate/grow their own organs, thus alleviating any issues of rejection.

2 The salamander is also an ancient Christian symbol for bravery despite affliction. Salamanders were often seen scurrying around in the flames of burning wooden structures. It was believed then, that salamanders could live in the fire. Christians, like the moth driven to the light, only find themselves consumed by the very energy source they are attracted to. Oh to be the salamander who can survive and live by the fire.

3 SALAMANDRINA: A song by the German industrial band Einsturzende Neu Bauten

Salamandrina Salamandrina

Not muses, fairies, elves, sylphs,

nymphs or mermaids

For you the moths I wish to understand

You they just cannot withstand

For you I am a mere phoenix,

my history well-known

Only once again, never, never

nothing new learned

Salamandrina Salamandrina

First I stake my hand in the fire

and by it haul myself inside

Then themselves do flames consume

and I will become one too

Salamandrina Salamandrina Salamandrina

IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE

ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI

At night we wander around in circles

and are consumed by fire

Salamandrina Salamandrina Salamandrina,

You'll never be consumed by fire

Salamandrina Salamandrina Salamandrina,

You'll never be consumed by fire

SALAMANDRINA

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 59” x 46”w, 2001. Collection of the artist.

LIFE DURING WARTIME, oil, mixed media and found objects on wooden panels, 84"h x 64"w, Huntsville Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

GIRL WITH STICK, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 34"h x 80"w, 2001. Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, oil on canvas, oil and gold leaf on wooden panels, 43"h x 49"w, 2000.

THE AFFIRMATION, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46"h x 59"w, 2001.

X + Y = Z, oil and gold leaf on canvas inserted into wooden panels, 31"h x 43"w, 2007. Meridian Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

AMBUSH AT TENDERFOOT ACRES, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 62"h x 80"w, 2001.

THE SWIMMER, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46"h x 59"w,2002.

SADIE, oil and gold leaf on canvas, ?

TO BE WITH YOU, oil and gold leaf on canvas inserted into wooden panels with mixed media, 84"h x 64"w, 2010.

ANIMA REVEALED, oil on canvas', 115"h x 70"w, 1997. Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Permanent Collection.

SADIE AS ELECTRA, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 56"h x 44"w, 2003. Alabama Power Corporate Collection.

D A D A

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46”h x 59”w, Private Collection, New Orleans.

THP - S11, oil on canvas, 30"h x 22"w, 2011.

108 BLACK PAINTINGS AND THE COTA PROJECT Installation,

TWO, oil and silver leaf on canvas, 51" x 40"w, 2016.

THREE, oil and silver leaf on canvas, 51" x 40"w, 2016.

THE MONSTERS: HE, oil, charcoal and graphite with found objects on aluminum panels, 84"h x 64"w, 2019.

THE MONSTERS: SHE, oil, charcoal and graphite with found objects on aluminum panels, 84"h x 64"w, 2019.

ZEPHYR: In Between, oil, charcoal, graphite and found objects on aluminum panels, 84"h x 64"w, 2023.

The HELMET Series

The complete HELMET Series consists of 15 paintings. Only 12 are used in the installation/photographs of The HELMET Project.

The HELMET Project

At 8am on September 11, 2001, it was easy to perceive our lives as serene; we were safe. Even while Bernie Madoff’s crimes were being exposed, most saw our economy, our country, as prosperous; we led the world.

And while the scientific community embraces a vision of quantum mechanics and string theory, shattering our basic understanding of the observable universe, we are left behind only capable of viewing Newton’s world; we are blind.

We are a visually biased society, living in a time in which we can no longer believe in what we see.

THP - G3

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - T1

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - AC2

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - D4

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - C5

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - P6

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - A7

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - M8

THP-C9

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP-C10

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - S11

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - C12

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

THP - J13

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

SOLD Private Collection

THP - L14

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2011.

SOLD, Private Collection

THP- M15

oil on canvas, 30”h x 22”w, 2013.

SOLD, Private Collection

THP - B16

oil on canvas, 48”h x 36”w, 2013.

The HELMET Project

Chapman collaborated with photographers from Birmingham and Montgomery, temporarily installing 12 of The HELMET Paintings in unique locations for photo-documentation. 100’s of images were created in nearly 50 different locations. The twelve shown here were included in the catalog, The HELMET Project. Produced with support from the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

The HELMET Project, Artist Statement

At 8am on September 11, 2001, it was easy to perceive our lives as serene; we were safe. Even while Bernie Madoff’s crimes were being exposed, most saw our economy, our country, as prosperous; we led the world.

And while the scientific community embraces a vision of quantum mechanics and string theory, shattering our basic understanding of the observable universe, we are left behind only capable of viewing Newton’s world; we are blind.

We are a visually biased society, living in a time in which we can no longer believe in what we see.

SLOSS UNDERPASS

Liesa Cole, Omni Studio

EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

JEFFERSON HOME FURNITURE

Jennifer Spears

UAB PARKING DECK

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

LUTHERAN CHURCH

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

BSC POOL

Pamela Venz

THE ROUNDHOUSE

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

SMOKER

Liesa Cole, Omni Studio

MONTGOMERY MUSEUM OF FINE ART

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

OAK HILL CEMETERY

Kim Riegal

COKE FURNACE

Jon Cook, High 5 Productions

SEARCHING: Adults With Borrowed Body Parts

With good intentions, my subjects are passionately searching. They are engaged in the proverbial, if not cliché, pursuit of meaning, knowledge, experience, or truth. They are on the quest of ‘finding themselves,’ looking externally and through the eyes and experiences of others. The children in these paintings, are still pure in this search, determined and armed with a clear vision; naïve. The adults however, begin their search for the elusive, already encumbered by all that they bring to the search; that which they know, have experienced and have come to believe. While still pure in their intentions, they have lost their innocence.

Woman With New Voice

oil and gold leaf on wooden panel, 31”h x 39”w, 2001.

Man With Black Eye, Listening.

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 31”h x 39”w, 2003.

Mobile Museum of Art permanent collection.

Woman With New Voice

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 31”h x 39”w, 2001.

Man With New Voice

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 31”h x 39”w, 2002.

Man With Black Eyes

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 31”h x 39”w, 2002.

SOLD, Private Collection.

Man With New Voice, Listening.

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 31”h x 39”w, 2003.

Self Portrait

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 32”h x 39”w, 2004.

University Museum, University of Mississippi, Permanent Collection.

D A D A

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46”h x 59”w, 2004.

SOLD, Private Collection.

Woman With Right Arm

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 59”h x 46”w, 2002.

Woman With Right Arm

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46”h x 59”w, 2003.

SEARCHING: The Children 2001 - 2009

SEARCHING: The Children

With good intentions, my subjects are passionately searching. They are engaged in the proverbial, if not cliché, pursuit of meaning, knowledge, experience, or truth. They are on the quest of ‘finding themselves,’ looking externally and through the eyes and experiences of others. The children in these paintings, are still pure in this search, determined and armed with a clear vision; naïve. The adults however, begin their search for the elusive, already encumbered by all that they bring to the search; that which they know, have experienced and have come to believe. While still pure in their intentions, they have lost their innocence.

THE SWIMMER

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46”h x 59”w, 2002.

FLY BOY

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 31”h x 43”w, 2009.

SOLD, Private Collection.

X +Y = Z

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 31”h x 43”w, 2007.

Meridian Museum of Art, permanent collection.

BOY AND A TRUCK

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 28”h x 70”w, 2001.

SOLD, Private Collection

SALAMANDRINA

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 59”h x 46”w, 2001.

Collection of the Artist.

GIRL WITH STICK

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 34”h x 80”w, 2001.

SOLD, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Permanent Collection.

SARAH A LA MUCHA

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 43”h x 28”w, 2008.

THE AFFIRMATION

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 46”h x 59”w, 2001.

GIRL WITH PUFFIN

oil and gold leaf on canvas, inserted into wooden panels, 43”h x 34”w, 2007.

SOLD, Children’s Hospital Corporate Collection.

AMBUSH AT TENDERFOOT ACRES

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 62”h x 80”w, 2001.

SADIE

oil and gold leaf on canvas, 24”h x 32”w, .

INCIDENTS: The Drawings 1999

In this series of paintings and drawings, I chose to focus upon a single moment in time for my subject. So much of painting in the late twentieth century, including my own, had concentrated on shattering time and addressing simultaneously past, present, and future as an influence and attempt to compete with, our multi-media world. With the Incident Series I concentrated on the opposite. By returning to real time, real space, focusing on a split second of time; a significant moment for the individual. It is indeterminate what exactly this moment is about, but it is clearly an important one. These figures are experiencing a moment in time which is potentially life altering; it is possibly erotic, a spiritual enlightenment, an epiphany, or even the moment of death. It might be the experience of a disconnection of body and spirit; or the opposite, a beautiful and complete fusion of the two, a profound and momentary oneness with self.