By John A. Barry And Bill Carmel
E-mail John A. Barry And Bill Carmel
About this blog: John Barry is the creator of trAction Painting, a process/performance genre in which he applies paint to large surfaces with bicycles, roller skates, and other wheeled conveyances. With Bill Carmel and other associates, he has bro...
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About this blog: John Barry is the creator of trAction Painting, a process/performance genre in which he applies paint to large surfaces with bicycles, roller skates, and other wheeled conveyances. With Bill Carmel and other associates, he has brought trAction Painting events to local schools and summer camps. He also creates visual puns. His works are included in several private collections. John has authored/coauthored a dozen books, including Technobabble and Sunburst: The Ascent of Sun Microsystems. John can be contacted at jobarry33@comcast.net or 925-918-7882.
Bill Carmel has 35 years' experience as a professional artist. His fine art paintings, sculptures, and designs are included in private, corporate, and public art collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia. After teaching at Humboldt State University and Southern Illinois University, he returned to the Bay Area, where he remains active in the arts by serving as a co-curator for the Lamorinda Arts Council's Orinda Gallery and by exhibiting throughout the Bay Area. Bill reviews exhibits at SFMOMA, the De Young and Palace of Fine Arts museums, and other Bay Area exhibition venues. Bill can be contacted at billcarmel3@yahoo.com.
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The physical and intellectual pacing may have been more deliberate and deliberative, but the adults in their 60s and 70s were kids at heart as they rolled across a 5 x 8 canvas on August 16 in my garage-studio.
Fun is the operative word in these events, and all participants had a heaping helping of it, in spite of the 100-plus-degree temperatures. (Upside of the hellish weather: we occasionally dragged the work-in-progress onto the driveway, where the paint dried very quickly between layers.)
The group, known as the Extended Family, meets once a month for an activity or excursion. Past gatherings have included trips to the Rosie the Riveter Museum in Richmond and the Oakland Zoo. My wife, Eva, and I are members of the group and hosted the trAction Painting party, featuring an array of "brushes" from which to choose: skates, scooters, rollers constructed from old lawnmower wheels, Thomas the Tank Engine tricycle, bike, Razors, and a walker. The BMX bike proved to be most popular, and I'm happy to report that no one had to resort to the walker. I call the accompanying midsession photo, with Catherine perched on the Thomas trike, "Pas de trois." More layers went on subsequently, but as is customary with short-duration trAction events, there wasn't enough time to complete the painting?so some residual tweaking will be in order.

I'm now focused primarily on what I see as the educational potential of trAction Painting. To date, my colleagues and I have staged events with young artists and have attempted to incorporate the respective activities into studies of motion, math, science, and writing. But the lightbulb doesn't go on just for kids. One of the adult participants at my place made the following observations:
"Abstract art is challenging. We can never quite figure out the intent of the artist. Your trAction-art, however, was easy for me. If I were a 'GPS' looking down in a slow motion, I would see the humanity crisscrossing paths endlessly, randomly, and purposely in every which way?somewhat like the canvas we painted. Just think about it, in real life people are traveling here, there and everywhere, in cars, airplanes, ships, bicycles, on foot, on horsebacks or camels, etc. round the clock. The paths are different, yet if we can juxtapose the paths in one plan?like on your canvas?it manifests a complementary oneness of the infinitely diverse paths of human family. Perhaps that is why the end result of trAction-painting, chaotic as it may seem, looks beautiful."
As another participant noted about these observations: "I cannot say it any better."
Neither can I.