GEORGE SHAW MAKES HIS MARK

George Shaw’s paintings have the immediate feel of his lifetime of work as a carpenter — every marking utilizes a memory bank of all the houses, barns and structures he’s worked on — the end result is a life story shared.

“When you’re looking at a work at 3 a.m., you wonder what happened with the past six hours,” he explained. “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing in there in the studio. Sometimes I’m not conscious of what I’m doing.”

Like all good artists, in those dream- state hours, he must trust that his accumulated skills will lead to a desirable result. The brain is wired to react certain ways, and it’s only natural that Shaw would fall back on his years of bringing aging structures back to glory.

Brian Goslow