Painting titled "Reunion" by Charles Riley, Original Artwork, Oil

Reunion (2018) Painting by Charles Riley

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Original Artwork Painting, Oil on Paper

Artworks classification

Original Artwork

Original Artwork refers to any work that is considered authentic and not a copy or imitation of the original works of an artist. Original artwork can be any type of painting, sculpture, performance, or other media. There are many types of original media. Mixed media includes oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings. For workshop paintings that bear evidence of master craftsmanship, this attribution must be further qualified. While they may be less valuable for different reasons, reproductions and copies have had a tremendous impact on our experience. They reach a greater audience than originals and act as a tonic against commodification. Original Artwork could also refer to the first work, which is always preceding all others. It could also refer to a prototype or a model from which other works can be made. Each work bears great similarities to the original.
Dimensions Height 20in, Width 16in
Framing This artwork is not framed
Categories Paintings under $20,000 Expressionism

Painting of son's high school graduation picture. Medium is oil on Arches Oil Paper. A friend sent me pictures of a reunion he had. It led me to thinking about reunions and the relationships of immediate experience open to what is revealed of the creative spirit of the universe and the reflections on past and future penetrating what lies behind the reality and makes it real. I wrote some thoughts on this and fashioned it into what I refer to as a word arrangement. I then thought a painting of my son's high school graduation picture would expand on this in ways that can't be expressed in words. The word arrangement follows:

A High School picture is proof of the improbability of existence as we picture it.
It is proof of the connectivity with the before and after as now come to pass.
This now is irretrievably gone as that but still referenced behind enemy lines as a compass.
The view over the edge of now leans us into the vertigo of the microcosm’s expanse.
The macrocosm of the room and beyond balances us on a shifting ledge of tense.
By all rights, the macrocosm should possess no hold on our experience of existence.
Yet we are held together seemingly solid when not as particles pass through unhindered.
Immense energy is released as warning of our cessation if we tinker with the smallest part.
The experience of the improbability of existence is referred to by some as mindfulness.
Taoists and Buddhists refer to this awareness as “turning the light around.”
In the West, we may refer to love of God with whole heart, mind, spirit, and strength.
Those, who prefer something other than a religious or spiritual reference,
may refer to this as the studied and verified acceptance that the past exists in coexistence.
The past waits in ossuary vaults for a high school reunion of the hoped for continuation.
The improbable union of past exists in the faith of the existents to experience existence.

Charles Riley

United States

At an early age I learned about art from an aunt who was an established artist. My father taught me a love of literature. My B.A. was in English Lit. My graduate degrees from Columbia University were in studio art and teaching of college studio art. I had exhibitions in New York City during and after my grad work at Columbia. These included: The Macy Gallery at Columbia; Hudson Valley '85 National Exhibition Juried by Barbara Haskell, Curator of the Whitney Museum; Ariel Gallery in NYC; The Emerging Collector in NYC; Eighth Annual Exhibition of Emerging Artists at the Bronx Museum of the Arts; and In Search of the American Experience by The Museum of the National Arts Foundation. There were also reviews in The New York Times, ArtSpeak (a Gallery Review), and the Bronx News.

More recently, I show my work online at charlesrileyart, exhibit in shows at the Fredericksburg Center for Creative Arts in Fredericksburg, VA. From 2012 through 2013 I displayed my artwork at Art First in Fredericksburg VA. Fredericksburg and Art First are very magical places if you ever get a chance to visit.

My artwork includes painting, mixed media, photography, and computer art, as well as a synthesis of the media. The work is expressionistic and it reflects what it is to be human. My writing, which I combine with the artwork, also reflects the human condition. The artwork is also a means to balance mundane conditioning that distracts us from the unconditioned creativity of the universe. My artwork is fed by relationships and other pursuits and studies such as Tai Chi, Taoism, Literature, Music, Media, and Art.

I studied Tai Chi with Master Da Liu in the 80's at Columbia University and I've been practicing and teaching since. I'm now teaching at two community centers in the Fredericksburg, VA area.