Western Art Collector – August 2019

cowboy whose shirt matches the background,
which allows the figure to mostly disappear
into the scene, as if by camouflage. The
works call back to mid-century commercial
art. “In that world the commercial artist works
inventively and tirelessly to get your attention:
he enhances, exaggerates, simplifies and
whatever else he can to produce a compelling,
dramatic image,” he says. “By taking a page
from that playbook the images I work with
are put through the same process as that of
the commercial artist to glorify and glamorize.
I want to Hollywoodize the real, vintage
working cowboy. Once I’m satisfied with my
mockup I will then transfer it to my canvas or
panel and start the actual painting process.”
Meckel’s work shares in Kammerzell’s
contemporary views, but focuses on entirely
different subject matter, mostly trains and how
they interact with the Western landscape.
“This work, painted in the spring and summer
of 2019, invokes the serenity which may be
found amidst the lugubrious hulks of industry,”
Meckel says, adding that he enjoys painting
trains as they are, graffiti and all. “I have always
been attracted to the street scene: as a child
I remember drawing alley scenes with colorful
characters playing out the drama of city life—
punk rockers mostly. The background always
had lots of graffiti: territorial gang tags, symbols
of political ideology and primal expressions
of discontent. I really like how graffiti tells a
story.  Within the context of fine art I like how
it injects some of the chaos of abstraction into
the realm of hardcore realism.”
In works such as The Alpha and the Omega
and Monolithic, the New Mexico painter
allows the land and sky to visually isolate his
train cars. In Monolithic he invokes the black

monolith that appears frequently in Stanley

Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. “There is

a very lonely siding in southern New Mexico

often occupied by short sections of tank cars

(probably used for sulfuric acid). Nearby but

separate sits a very clean and well-maintained

hopper car. Imposing dark and clean: it begins

to take on an archetypal identity, very similar to

Kubrick’s monolith.”

The two-artist show will run through August

31, with a reception held on August 9 from 5

to 7 p.m.

http://www.westernartcollector.com

For a direct link to the

exhibiting gallery go to

Charlie Meckel, The Alpha and the Omega, oil on linen, 20 x 40"

David Kammerzell, Hombre de Oro, oil on panel, 24 x 24"