If You See Something
Be Something
Luke Cavagnac

Hampden Pop-up Gallery in Bartlett Hall, Rm 156, Incubator Space
September 14 - November 30, 2022
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 14, 5-7 p.m
 

Artist Statement (and note to the viewer)
I would like you to look at these paintings and think whatever you want to think. There is nothing to “get.” They can mean anything you want them to.
 
If it looks like something your two-year-old made, fine. If it reminds you of the first time you found a constellation in the stars or drove a jeep,  great! Maybe you love it or maybe you hate it. Wonderful. Just give the picture a chance to show you something and be honest with yourself about what you see. It’s all about making a connection. Sometimes an ordinary thing can be beautiful. Sometimes a beautiful thing can be boring. Wouldn’t it be great if every time we opened our eyes we would see the best that this world has to offer, the amazing and mystifying qualities of things that usually seem so easily understood?
 
I’ve been painting more than ever in the last five years. It seems like the more I paint, the more ideas I get. I want them to keep coming. I call my gallery The Invisible Fountain. I hope you come by for a visit sometime.
 
This painting will be about connecting people with art and with each other. I think the reason my art is able to do this is that it means specific things to specific people and at the same time can be about nothing in particular. The subject matter and the meaning is already there before my brush hits the canvas. I'm just doing my best to make the canvas something worth looking at. But please don't ask me to explain it all because I'm just a painter, not a wordsmith.
 
Another way of putting it might be:
 
ghost planet paint can spaceship
smiley face bicycle pyramid briefcase frame
candle fried egg yolk brickwork
diamond thundercloud glasses
fish bandage gear cupcake skull
slide dog tattoo martini cheese boot pizza bird
baseball cross candy gravestone
thumbnail hammer star ice-cream cone
shamrock champagne graffiti loaf of bread
bear tree stump guitar
skateboard mountain mustache moneybag
 
Get it?
 
Luke Cavagnac Bio
Born in 1973 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Paints a lot and plays rock and roll. Opened The Invisible Fountain (Easthampton, Massachusetts) as a place to display art in 2003. More than 6,000 paintings and counting (that’s about one completed per day for the last 18 years). Went to college. Has a family. Favorite color: rainbow.