TEMPUS Magazine redefines time, giving you a glimpse into all things sophisticated, compelling, vibrant, with its pages reflecting the style, luxury and beauty of the world in which we live. A quarterly publication for private aviation enthusiasts.
Issue link: http://tempus-magazine.epubxp.com/i/156069
Windows in the Sky #71, 60" x 60", powdered pigments, golden acrylic products, gypsum, and graphite on canvas, 2013. PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM BARNWELL (LEFT) his movie collection (labeled and categorized: Westerns, Disneyesque, Organized Crime), to the "awesome mathematical design" of a dragonfy, butterfy, and moth wings; spiders; and wasps that he inspects under the microscope in his garage next to his as-bright-as-ayellow-jacket-in-July high-performance Honda S2000 "Artmobile." Disabuse yourself of the notion of the laissez-faire work space of an artist. Baumgardner's label maker is in high use, and his genius bolting of lids to the beam of an archway to which you then screw in the accompanying jar and its contents is on the right side of OCD. His hyperawareness of space and how to use it and how it is best used is directly refected in his work. The larger, more out-loud, fre- netic triptychs of his early days in New York City in the 1980s, with slashes of electric blues, greens, yellows, reds, and magentas, give way to the more muted, Cube #13, 12" x 12" x 12", powdered pigments, golden acrylic products, gypsum, and graphite on wood, 2013. (BELOW) Relentless Variation #2, 28" x 25", triptych powdered pigments, golden acrylic products, gypsum, and graphite on canvas, 2012. (ABOVE) softer suede shades of recent years on panels and cubes, with hieroglyphic-like traces that lend a surprise primal element to the concise, fne-tuned squares. Baumgardner is an observer of philosophy, of metaphysical teachers (Emmet Fox's book Around the Year with Emmet Fox is a favorite guide), of rock 'n' roll as much as Mozart and yes, Prince. Of silence and solitude, of humor and tragedy, of salt water and rural backwoods. Of nature (born in Columbus, Ohio) and nurture (twentytwo years in New York City), and the searing awareness of the ultimate truth: "My work is rooted in love," he says. It is within the depths and shades and all the sides—the ones seen and unseen— that this truth is ultimately revealed. Fall 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 21