Tom Brady completely redefines the conventional ideas of traditional realism and expressionism. Brady offers us a convincing vision that knows what it wants, contrary to what the viewer might expect. A sense of a truly new realism emerges. This is a realism based on more than just the photo quality or the observational aspects; it is an experience of the artist’s vision, from the eye, to the hand, to the canvas. The physical quality of the paint becomes almost sculptural.
The realism of the painting is Brady’s internal vision, seen through the artist’s own human eye, as the observer. We see the image in flux as it transposes from the eye to the hand. We see it in the form of paint, which in the hands of Brady seems like a sinuous organism. Trapped somewhere in between the real and the surreal, there is a human being, an emotional motion, and not the mundane general observation of nature… far from a typical representation.
Approaching each work with an almost scientific process from conception to birth, Brady begins with an expressive color pastel drawing from life produced in a matter of minutes. Later he selects the rare few drawings that capture that perfectly natural interaction between the figures and their environments, which unmistakably illustrates real life. From that initial sketch Brady creates dozens of pencil drawings defining and redefining every initial mark. Through these repetitions the marks become second nature. So, when he is prepared to approach the canvas, the marks are no longer contemplated or questioned; his work has become a performance. An artist, an athlete, the drawings, the training, the paintings, the big game- Tom Brady becomes entirely immersed in that moment of creation!
Ultimately we are presented with an uninhibited, exaggerated perspective of reality. Brady’s sense of deep pain is accompanied by a true optimism about the paintings final visual reality, which has been transformed through the intense process. The confidence, the commitment, the charity become Brady’s generous gift to us all who still must learn to understand.
- Jeffrey Frederick & Chuck Connelly 4/07
Jeffrey Frederick is a visual artist and curator. He received his BFA, in glassblowing, from Tyler School of Art in 2004. He is currently the Managing Director of the Knapp Gallery.
Chuck Connelly has maintained a career as a painter for over twenty-five years. He currently resides in East Oak Lane, Philadelphia where he continues to work as a fine artist.
Artist's Statement
“Art always makes a political statement. Half of the art is what you choose to paint, the other half how you paint it. I choose to paint workers, people on the streets, landscapes inhabited by family farmers invisible to the corporate life. I grew up the only son of a truck driver when unions equaled freedom and workers were crusaders in the cause.
On a chilly morning, I stand off to the side, color pastels and sketchbook in hand; people are huddled, waiting and watching; cabbies sip coffee; black suits rush by. The bus pulls up; the old guy stands, cane leading; he moves in line to board. The bus, the line, the man and the cane create the moment, and my frantic drawing begins.
In the studio with fifty colors and just as many brushes, music blaring, I attack the painting. All at once, creation in a moment, cover all the canvas, mark against mark, movement and counter movement, yellow always yellow, gobs of white, cans of turpentine, piles of rags. Paint over paint, colors upon colors make new colors, sensuous and gestural. What are the essentials, what is real, what is important, what is true?
Two processes are intricately related, the initial inspiration of the street pastel and the physical transformation of the image into paint. These are seemingly simple processes, as long as you are willing to throw out forty of the fifty initial pastels and from the few that really are inspirational, willing to make fifty new preparatory drawings. Then you paint for thirty years, hope, and pray; and with a little luck, the culmination of the processes has magically taken on a life of its own!”
— Tom Brady