When I chose to fill my life with artistic creation… I was only an adolescent. I remember the moment. well, I was 14 years old and felt suddenly consumed by a desire, a need to draw… Since when I have been using all the artistic mediums within my reach: drawing, painting, embroidery, collage. A part of me remains with that adolescent eagerness to discover and create in an artistic sense.
While having attained a certain age, the desire – to live in a world of color and make artistic discoveries – is undiminished. Actually, it is probably even stronger than in my younger years. Following any period of doubt and inactivity I have always returned to my brushes and palette of colors, having a near constant need to express myself without using words.
However, in 2012 everything changed after a phone call from a doctor who told me that I was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease… After getting over the shock I sat myself down (in a wheel chair!) and threw myself into my work, which, as well as coloring my imagination, has since served as a comforting presence and safety valve for my frustrations.
My universe is dominated by color. Whether painting or embroidering, color is always as important as the subject itself. But how to speak more of one’s work? To what genre do I belong?
It has always been difficult for me to answer such questions. I would say that above all I am a figurative artist. But also, no doubt, part of the “outsider” movement.
Nature too has always inspired me. In discovering the artistic potential of embroidery, some subjects have become recurrent: mothers, black Madonna’s, mermaids, Little Red Riding Hood, Frida K.
As an illustrator I also make collages, using torn up pieces from old books, old photos, various fabrics and embroidery, and paintings… All these mediums are thus mixed to bring new life to those lives and faces long since forgotten.
My universe, year on year, is constantly renewed in an exploration of the world of childhood, color, drawings, textiles, embroidery, and painting. I work in the silence of forgotten faces and feelings… repairing and trying to retrieve them, sewing them into re-existence, reclaiming and bringing them back… with delicacy, gently, soaking them in color
When the nose has dyslexia, the conventions of clean and dirty mutate amuck-
Nightmares of being dunked in vats of perfume become the norm-
Social status disintegrates and intimacy with a skunk brings joy-
The man burrows into remote dung heaps further and further away from the tyrannies of soap-
When the nose has dyslexia, predictable roles and behavior are scrambled anew-
Musk entrenched supermen get stampeded by berserk fawns in heat-
Germ-Phobics fondle dung beetles whom with freshly molested vigor, do hind leg roll ups of squeeky clean solid citizens-
A prudish school marm finds a hidden rabid snapping turtle in her soul after being bitten by rotten apples given jaws by the teacher’s pet gone astray-
When the nose has dyslexia, rampant desire surpasses grandiose expectation.
A wart on a baboon’s ass blossoms into a more fragrant-than-thou perfume garden berry infecting a bestial psychopath who then penetrates with valor the furious posteriors of mandrills shimmying with profane delight
Eager vines of algae growing up from centuries of neglected teeth, climb greedily towards the fortune of a fresh breath heiress-
Gooey-Pollyannas wash their mouths out with soap before reciting mantras of bland nicety to contrite career criminals gnawing on clean conscience bunions jutting from angel’s feet-
19 of ClubsTrio of Femme SirensAuf Die SchaukelPhosphorescent Clown SquigglesLucky LimulusBrunette March
When the nose has dyslexia, sacred values of societal dust are sculpted into new poisons by the playful rogue nostril metastasizing-
The Outhouse-Leper becomes a vengeful king, skinning the pillars of communities, turning the hides into outhouse doormats-
Blind Peeping Toms suddenly regain their sight munching on outhouse-doormat brittle–thus seeing and tasting time honored models of proper conduct-
Yeast Infected Vaginas curtsy with hypnotic finesse, flirting with clownish tumescent yam jam giraffes, spurting forth voyeurs turning into martyrs, turning into manic surgeons whittling skunky joy toys in a sleepless scalpel trance-
When the nose has dyslexia, the lightning of childhood memory strikes unlikely victims–oceans of crystallized feelings awaken from deep sleeps re-inventing the heart-
A hardened Loan Shark gets entangled, softened and diced up by the frail sadnesses evoked by the rubbery wet scent of his baby sister’s favorite dolly lost in a distant rainstorm-
A loud mouthed schoolyard bully becomes a mute wise old sage, transcending all utterance, ruminating inwardly, building shrines of cookie crumb folly from the remnants of desserts the bully once coerced from the trembling hands of weaklings entombed in the bowels of forgotten grammar school lunch rooms-
The cold stares of ultra strict baby sitters, soberly stretch a whiny little brat’s dirty diapers into an almighty circus tent tundra sheltering cleaner than clean orphans sired by soap bubbles popping-
Formative Foodchain
When the nose has dyslexia, embarrassment lurks in excess.
The man narrowly escapes the lewd clutches of Germ-Phobics hiding in lairs of undigested corn kernels waiting to leap out and fondle him.
He burrows inexorably deeper into remote dung heaps further and further away from the tyrannies of soap, eventually reaching paradise, where fragrant nirvana is sweetest, and stench lost its voice to the carrion bird who sings dirty in reverse.
The man enters The-Nose-Has-Dyslexia restaurant, ordering a Skunky-Joy-Toy kiss smothered in freshly molested dung beetle sauce.
As frail diced up cubes of sensitive Loan Shark say grace, crowds of manic surgeons saddened by lost wet dollies, serve the meal in a sleepless scalpel trance-
The man tastes paradise, blessed by the voice of stench stolen by the carrion bird who sings dirty in reverse.
Suddenly The-Outhouse-Leper-Turned-Vengeful-King appears, interrupting the man eating, pedantically assailing him with correct table manner etiquette, forcing a squeeky clean knife and fork into his dungy hands…
Richard Gessner’s fiction has been published in Air Fish: an anthology of speculative work, Rampike, Ice River, Coe Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Happy, The Act, Sein und Werden, Skidrow Penthouse, The Pannus Index, Fiction International and many other magazines. A collection, Excerpts from the Diary of a Neanderthal Dilettante & The Man in the Couch was published by Bomb Shelter Props. Gessner’s drawings and paintings have appeared in Raw Vision, Courier News, Asbury Park Press, Rampike, Skidrow Penthouse, and exhibited at Pleiades Gallery, Hamilton Street Gallery, Cry Baby Gallery, The Court Gallery and the Donald B. Palmer Museum. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
“The Amazing Richard Gessner, Wizard of the word, and Alchemist of the image” -Vincent Czyz May 24, 2022
THIS WRITING IS AN AUTHORIZED DUPLICATION WITH PERMISSION AND EXPRESSED CONSENT
I had the desire to paint and draw very early on but I didn’t practice much because I didn’t have any confidence in myself. I was not attracted by academic drawing, I was self-taught and I did not know how to draw. It took me a long time to find my way, I had to hold on, experiment, let go and everything went better when I understood that I should no longer try to have control but welcome the unexpected and appropriate it. Then began a dialogue with the invisible
Then I use pencils, gouache or pastels to give shape to these presences that appear in the material. For the black and white drawings, they are made with charcoal and black chalk in automatic drawing.
I work with fluid materials to begin with, such as water, ink and watercolor, because these mediums are particularly conducive, as far as I am concerned, to revealing the beyond appearances, they help me to cross borders and to access parallel worlds.
Concerning the cyanotype technique, it is an old photographic printing or reproduction technique, I use it to make multiple prints in limited series of some of my drawings: it consists in putting on a sheet of paper a chemical product which is sensitive to light, one puts on the sheet a negative of the photo which one wishes to reproduce (for me a negative of my drawings which I prepare myself), it is necessary to put it then in the sun a few minutes then to pass the sheet under water and there always appears in blue a reproduction of the drawing drawn from the negative. I particularly appreciate the blue obtained with this technique which is close to the dreamlike world.
My inspiration can come from everyday things, I like to look at where appearances fall and see the magic in a realistic environment. I am for example very inspired by tomato slices, when I cut up tomatoes while preparing food I marvel at what I see inside each slice, I find the tomato particularly inhabited by a wonderful world, hence the origin of my Tomato Heart drawings.
I also made a series of drawings from photos of the surface of the river, these photos were for me like a freeze-frame of a story that the river tells or perhaps this river water is a bearer of memory, that of the countries and times it has crossed? So I drew from these photos to give shape to what I saw appearing.
Nature, women, animals or hybrid creatures, spirituality are the main sources of inspiration for my paintings, all set in a dreamlike universe. As in tales and fables, my drawings try to give us back the sense of wonder and to open doors to a magical world where everything is possible
The self is the unconscious and conscious that allows you to enter these imaginary worlds of creation, that is why it is important
Bueno el yo es el inconsciente y consiente que te permite entrar a estos mundos imaginarios de creación por eso es importante
I knew when I entered the experimental artist school and I liked all the artistic disciplines such as sculpture, engraving, drawing, forge, in short, I wanted to learn all the arts and be good at it with a lot of discipline and read the theoretical and aesthetic knowledge, and I realized that I could do it.
Bueno supe cuando entre a la escuela experimental artista y me gustaron todas las disciplinas artísticas como escultura grabado dibujo forja en fin todas las artes quería aprender y ser bueno en ello con mucha disciplina y leer el conocimiento estético lo teórico y me di cuenta que podía hacerlo
The environment has a strong influence on my paintings sketches sculptures from the observation and reflection of nature as something as small as a seed or as big as a tree and as infinite as a hill and from an insect to a bird in flight
El entorno tiene una fuerte influencia sobre mis pinturas bocetos esculturas desde la observación y la reflexión de la naturaleza como algo tan pequeño como una semilla o tan grande como árbol y tan infinito como un cerro y de un insecto a un pájaro en vuelo
It inspires me when I get up every morning and breathe the pure air of my mountains and feel that I am alive again to create with my hands and my eyes and feel the smells of my trees
Me inspira cuando me levanto todas las mañanas y respirar aire puro de mis montañas y sentirme que estoy viví otra ves para crear con mis manos y mis ojos y sentir los olores de mis árboles
Looking at nature influences my work and the action of carefully observing the plants and everything that surrounds me is part of my daily work.
En mi trabajo influye el mirar la naturaleza y tener la acción de observar detenidamente las plantas y todo lo que me rodea es parte de mi trabajo diario
I read many authors and artists bibliographies, as many as ancient and contemporary books on aesthetics, books on theorists and mathematicians, I like it a lot, and I am investigating fractal logarithms, why life was created that way, matter multiplies thousands of times and infinitely. that what I want in my work
Bueno leo muchos autores y bibliografías de artista tantos como antiguos y contemporánea libros de estéticas libros de los teóricos y matemáticos me gusta mucho y estoy investigando los logaritmos fractales por qué la vida se creo de esa manera se multiplica Miles de veces y infinitamente la materia y eso lo que quiero en mi obra
Rene has exhibited work in Chile and Argentina. He is involved in many cultural art programs that have related to hospitals, children and teaching art professionally.
René ha expuesto obra en Chile y Argentina. Está involucrado en muchos programas de arte cultural relacionados con hospitales, niños y la enseñanza del arte profesionalmente.
“My concern is the human figure as a feeling of primitive and irrational states, whose main point is the heads, universal thought of the creation of man and center of the universe. All this led to a mutation of the plastic and pictorial language”.
“Mi preocupación es la figura humana como sentimiento de estados primitivos e irracionales, cuyo punto principal son las cabezas, pensamiento universal de la creación del hombre y centro del universo. Todo esto llevado a un mutamiento del lenguaje plástico y pictórico”.
The self is the unconscious and conscious that allows you to enter these imaginary worlds of creation, that is why it is important
Bueno el yo es el inconsciente y consiente que te permite entrar a estos mundos imaginarios de creación por eso es importante
I knew when I entered the experimental artist school and I liked all the artistic disciplines such as sculpture, engraving, drawing, forge, in short, I wanted to learn all the arts and be good at it with a lot of discipline and read the theoretical and aesthetic knowledge, and I realized that I could do it.
Bueno supe cuando entre a la escuela experimental artista y me gustaron todas las disciplinas artísticas como escultura grabado dibujo forja en fin todas las artes quería aprender y ser bueno en ello con mucha disciplina y leer el conocimiento estético lo teórico y me di cuenta que podía hacerlo
The environment has a strong influence on my paintings sketches sculptures from the observation and reflection of nature as something as small as a seed or as big as a tree and as infinite as a hill and from an insect to a bird in flight
El entorno tiene una fuerte influencia sobre mis pinturas bocetos esculturas desde la observación y la reflexión de la naturaleza como algo tan pequeño como una semilla o tan grande como árbol y tan infinito como un cerro y de un insecto a un pájaro en vuelo
It inspires me when I get up every morning and breathe the pure air of my mountains and feel that I am alive again to create with my hands and my eyes and feel the smells of my trees
Me inspira cuando me levanto todas las mañanas y respirar aire puro de mis montañas y sentirme que estoy viví otra ves para crear con mis manos y mis ojos y sentir los olores de mis árboles
Looking at nature influences my work and the action of carefully observing the plants and everything that surrounds me is part of my daily work.
En mi trabajo influye el mirar la naturaleza y tener la acción de observar detenidamente las plantas y todo lo que me rodea es parte de mi trabajo diario
I read many authors and artists bibliographies, as many as ancient and contemporary books on aesthetics, books on theorists and mathematicians, I like it a lot, and I am investigating fractal logarithms, why life was created that way, matter multiplies thousands of times and infinitely. that what I want in my work
Bueno leo muchos autores y bibliografías de artista tantos como antiguos y contemporánea libros de estéticas libros de los teóricos y matemáticos me gusta mucho y estoy investigando los logaritmos fractales por qué la vida se creo de esa manera se multiplica Miles de veces y infinitamente la materia y eso lo que quiero en mi obra
Rene has exhibited work in Chile and Argentina. He is involved in many cultural art programs that have related to hospitals, children and teaching art professionally.
René ha expuesto obra en Chile y Argentina. Está involucrado en muchos programas de arte cultural relacionados con hospitales, niños y la enseñanza del arte profesionalmente.
“My concern is the human figure as a feeling of primitive and irrational states, whose main point is the heads, universal thought of the creation of man and center of the universe. All this led to a mutation of the plastic and pictorial language”.
“Mi preocupación es la figura humana como sentimiento de estados primitivos e irracionales, cuyo punto principal son las cabezas, pensamiento universal de la creación del hombre y centro del universo. Todo esto llevado a un mutamiento del lenguaje plástico y pictórico”.
I’ve been making art my entire life, I actually remember my 1st studio was a closet in my bedroom, I probably was about 6 or 7 years old
Top Left: 2015 mixed media work The Rules of Science Top Center:It’s All I Can Do, 30inx22in, mixed media on paper, July, 2022 Top Right:The Giving, mixed media on canvas, 65inx50in June 2009 Bottom Center: Gather, acrylic on paper, 22inx30in, July 2022
There are many different kinds of artists in my family from lacrosse stick makers, stone carvers, beadwork artist, leather workers and of course painters
Jay Carrier studio scenes
I paint my life, my thoughts, the philosophies that I’ve studied, the culture and society that I was born into.
December 18, 2012 Painting. Jay Carrier
Left: mixed media on wood, 52inx 52in August 2018 Center:Mother and Child, 44inx 30.5in, mixed media on paper, 2014 October 2019 Right: mixed media on paper, 30in x 22in
I was born on the six nations rez near Brantford Ontario, moved to Niagara Falls NY when I was 4
Left: December 1, 2021 Painting Right:Monuments, oil on canvas, 60inx 57in July 2020
Adapted painting April 2020
Skull ship, acrylic on paper, 22inx30in, July 2022
The things that influence me were not necessarily art movements. The people of the six nations used what we call traditional art in contemporary society are made for different reasons. There was no term for art in our societies
Night painting, acrylic on canvas, 14inx 11in, July 2022
I paint intuitively so spirit can travel unimpeded
written by Jay Carrier
Left:Night Sky, mostly oil on wood 36inx 41in 3-4in, June 2022 Center: Couple, oil on wood, 36inx 48in, June 2022 Right: mixed media on canvas, December 2021
“The places that we dwell and live, the relationships that we form with the natural environment, the people that we surround ourselves with, and the many things that influence our thoughts are reflected in the paintings chosen for this show. I was born and briefly grew up on the Six Nations Reservation but predominately was raised in the Southend downtown Niagara Falls. I was constantly amazed by the city’s surroundings, the river, and, the Niagara gorge. Many memories were made that have a direct reference in these paintings; there were exciting times, there were hard times, there were happy times, and tragic times. These experiences in some regard formed the thoughts and ideas reflected in these paintings.”
Left: oil, spay paint, oil stick on canvas, 66inx72in. April 2017 Right: multi media painting on canvas August 2019
“There is a poetically tragic, glamorous, and beautiful reality about Niagara Falls. The beauty and seduction of the water as it travels, the brutal stark reality of living in a repressed small city, the fallen industry, the curio identity that was what the world would see…. these are the catalysts for exploring my art in relationship to the city.” -Jay Carrier
Jay Carrier at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, New York on September 18, 2021 photo by Dawn Carrier
JAY CARRIER 2115 Lockport Road Niagara Falls, New York 14304 Phone: (716) 534-0489 Studio: 20, NACC, 1201 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York 14301 e-mail: carrierj@roadrunner.com carrierjay@yahoo.com
EDUCATION 1993-94 The University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, attended 1 year Masters Program 1993-95 The University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Bachelors of Fine Arts 1986-87, 92 The College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, attended, Major, Fine Arts: Painting, Sculpture 1984 Buffalo State College, Attended 1984 Niagara County Community College, Associates in Fine Arts
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Free To Roam Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo New York 2020 We Took Things With Us, Buffalo Arts Studio Gallery, Buffalo New York 2019 Places of Transformation/ City Indian, the NACC Gallery Niagara Falls New York 2016 The City is Clean, Recent works, Gallery Eleneneleven, Buffalo, New York 2016 Recent work by: Jay Carrier, Garden Gallery Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, Niagara Falls, New York 2014 Recent Drawings, The Garden Gallery, Niagara Arts and Cultural Center Niagara Falls New York 2006 Risen from the Ashes of 2 Fires, American Indian Community House Gallery, New York New York 2004 Chautauqua Center for Visual Arts, Chautauqua Institution Gallery, Chautauqua New York 2002 Polar Visions, Niagara Art and Cultural Center, Niagara Falls, New York 1995 Nothing is Sacred, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe New Mexico 1993 The Blind Pig Gallery, Champaign, Illinois 1993 The Union Gallery, The University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana 1993 The South Garage Gallery, The University of Illinois at Champaign/Urban
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020-2021 Native American and First Nations Contemporary Art, K Art Gallery, Buffalo New York 2018 At This Time, Burchfield Art Center, Buffalo New York 2017 Beyond the Barrel, Annual Exhibition Niagara Arts and Cultural Center Niagara Falls New York 2016 Amid/In WNY – Part 6, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, New York 2016 Featured Artist, 24 Below Gallery, Niagara Falls, New York, 2015-2016 2015 Stick, Stone & Steel, Niagara Art and Cultural Center, Niagara Falls, New York 2015 Diversity Works: Selections from the Gerald Mead Collection, El Museo, Buffalo, New York 2011 4 from 6: Four Artists from Six Nations curated by Shelley Niro, Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 2011 Haudenosaunee: Elements: Works by Artists from the Six Nations of the Iroquois, Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York 2008 Burgeoning: Artists Invite Artists, You Me Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 2006 First Nations Art 2006, Woodland Cultural Center, Brantford, Ontario, Canada 2005 From Deep in the Forest: An Exhibition of Fine Woodworking, Niagara Falls, New York 2004 First Nations Art 2004, Woodland Cultural Center, Brantford, Ontario, Canada 2004 Collects Buffalo State, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York 2003 First Nations Art 2003, Woodland Culture Center, Brantford, Ontario, Canada 2002 1st Annual Exhibition, Niagara Art and Cultural Center Niagara Falls, New York, 2002 The Pan American Exposition Centennial: Images of the American Indian, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York 1997 Where We Stand, Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, New York 1995 Expressions of the Spirit, The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1994 In the Shadow of the Eagle, The Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, New York 1993 The Second Floor Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 1988 The Galleries, Buffalo, New York 1988 American Indian Institute, Iroquois Art, Connecticut, Washington
Biennials
2012 The Other New York 2012 XL Projects Syracuse NY
2007 Beyond/ In WNY Biennial, Castellani Museum, Niagara Falls NY
FELLOWSHIPS/RESIDENCIES
Art Matters Inc., New York, New York, 1994-1995 Artist In Residence, Native American Center for the Living Arts, “The Turtle”, Niagara Falls, NY 1987
our birthright is to know our brain and to become aware of the impact of meteorites on our language.
but first
guard the self that believes in you. the best hallucination is a healthy belief. a belief in self without vanity is sincere and free magic. magic without title, property or theft.
which older you are we anyway?
everything about the overactive amygdala is the source of insular cortex phantoms, wrathful deities averting ourselves from sapience. it keeps us from enjoying our temporal lobes, ruled by self-rejection in the temple of the body.
autoscopy, is the real spirituality with particles and waves. this tide will lead to a more balanced clonal pluralization of selves. to be one with everything, one is everything.
Limulus, is my favorite arthropod, it’s the oldest species on the planet.
I’m thinking about sex 24/7. Raging hormonal beach Paradises stretch on infinitely into horny horizons. The sight of beautiful fertility Goddesses is always more pleasant to behold than old men covered with craters of acne scars, or Syphlytic doomsday warthogs with copper sulfate tusks!!
Naked ladies have a storied history in the history of art. From Boucher, Bouguereau, Anders Zorn, Mel Ramos, Eric Fischl, pin up art of Elvgren and Driben….Like Brooke Burke and 10 thousand other Brunettes. Hans Bellmer is a favorite. Independent from art, the naked lady in public viewed by the salivating Voyeur since time immemorial is inspirational.
Hans Bellmer appeals to me because it’s Life itself. What beauties can be viewed spontaneously in the street. It is bizarre and an otherworldly ethereal quality that I like.
written by Richard Gessner
Richard GessneratStudio Montclair, Leach Gallery 641 Bloomfield Avenue Montclair, NJ
Artist and Short Story Writer Richard Gessner
more art and info on Richard Gessner can be found at
P.D. Newman is an independent researcher located in the southern US, specializing in the history of the use of entheogenic substances in religious rituals and initiatory rites. He is the author of the books, Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry, Angels in Vermilion: The Philosophers’ Stone from Dee to DMT, and the forthcoming title, Day Trips and Night Flights: Anabasis, Katabasis, and Entheogenic Ekstasis in Myth and Rite. The Secret Teachings of All Ages (TV Series documentary) 2023
the psychic robot, how our animal selves passed through the portions of different brain territories. the snakes, the monkey scribe, and now the circuit board advisory city-state. clay tablets as a big golem, ideas as ghosts informing the brain
Mitchell Pluto 