Carolyn Gable - Expect A Miracle walking path
Park Avenue Wine Bar and Merchant
TT Patton – For the Art of Fine Writing!
Barrington Courier-Review, July 8, 2010
Skateboard display – Artist Alex Brubacher, of Barrington, talks to Jessica Borbely and Megan Filczer of Lake Zurich, about his hand painted skateboards during Saturday’s Art in the Park at Citizens Park in Barrington.
Barrington Courier-Review, October 22, 2009 By: J.T. Morand
Barrington Surrealist to reveal thoughts behind his paintings – An owl looks at a skull though a magnifying glass with a red fish above him and a blue fish below him, while a figure peers out from behind a curtain with an organic design on it. A mummy with a square hole through might or might not be part of that curtain. It’s hard to tell what the grouping of unrelated images in Alex Brubacher’s surrealistic painting, one of four in a series called “Angelic Equinox,” is supposed to mean, but the Barrington artist will tell you this: “A lot was going on in my head.”Surrealism is an early 20th century cultural movement when the arts tried to interpret the workings of the unconscious. Most visual art of the movement appears to be just non-sequitors placed on a canvas. But, Brubacher is here to tell you otherwise.Brubacher’s surrealist paintings are on exhibit in a show called “Quests” at the Barrington Area Library and represent the artistic quest he’s been on for the last three years, trying to figure out which direction to go since graduating from Northern Michigan University, where he majored in fine arts.During an artist’s demonstration Nov. 8, he will give a talk on what the symbolism in his paintings mean as well as discuss the process of turning sketches into large wall murals.The images in Brubacher’s paintings aren’t random. They all represent something.For example, he said, the skull in “Angelic Equinox” represents desperation, cultures, death and new beginnings. The owl is both Shakespearean and scientific.”I really like the owl because he has a wiseness about him, but he’s also scary,” he said. “All these images are supposed to represent life and death and the search for meaning.”But, not every image is so deep. Brubacher likes painting octopuses just because they’re fun to paint.”They’re just a really cool thing to paint,” he said. “The tentacles are fun to paint.”Brubacher said the music he listens to — primarily down tempo electronic, hip hop and house music — is influential. He’s been able to harness that influence to create posters for music festivals, such as the one he did for Wakarusa Music Festival last summer which shows a woman’s figure behind a frog with a melted candle on its head and a leg on a half-eaten apple.His work also appears at Niketown in Chicago, Afhair Salon and Spa in Naperville and other places. It grabbed the attention of a woman in New York City, who commissioned him to do a painting of Central Park called “Flash of Yellow,” which is on display at the Barrington library.Like so many artists, Brubacher had trouble pinpointing a time when he became interested in art and surrealism specifically. It’s just always been a part of him, he said, crediting friends and family for their encouragement.”It’s a culmination of interests and the encouragement of a lot of people and college,” he said. “It’s a style that shows me.”‘Quests’By artist Alex Brubacher on display during library hours through Nov. 14, 2009 at the Barrington Area Library, 505 N. Northwest Highway, Barrington.
Barrington Quintessentail – Park Avenue Wine Bar + McGonnigal’s Irish Pub.
Picture of mural on the lower right page.
Barrington Quintessential – TT Patton, Write with us!
