Abstract painter Peter Herley makes comeback a reality

NOT QUITE two decades ago, Eugene artist and photographer Peter Herley was an up-and-coming young painter in New York City. A 1980 art graduate of Rutgers University, Herley - like many of his contemporaries - cashed in enthusiastically on the wild art boom of the 1980s. Times have changed. This month, we found Herley sitting alone with 11 of his new abstract paintings - big, colorful acrylics on paper, no frames, just paintings tacked up on the walls - at Temporarily Maude, a spartan downtown Eugene exhibition space run by Maude Kerns Art Center and staffed, primarily, by the exhibiting artist. Tall, angular and garrulous, Herley talked about the ups and downs of an artistic career and the joy of showing works in any venue.

Q: How many people came to your opening here?

A: I'd say between 40 and 50 people throughout the evening, wandering in. There wasn't any heavy crowd at any one time. Maybe eight or 10 people. But throughout the evening I'd say, 40 or 50.

Q: And have you sold any works?

A: Well, I have a friend who wants to buy one. But it's going to end up being a trade. He doesn't - I don't want to say he doesn't have the money, but I know the truth of these matters. I've been through this before.

Q: You've had quite a career in art before and have opened in galleries rather different from this one. What's the biggest gallery show you've had?

A: New York in 1983. The Barbara Klein Gallery, which is now defunct. It was the biggest show I had. That was a great show. You know, it had over 200 to 300 people at the opening. Cocktails. The whole nine yards. It was great. You name it, it was there.

Q: A solo show?

A: Yeah. And it sold.

Q: How much work did you sell at the show?

A: Out of 20 pieces, I think 15 pieces. And the rest (Klein) bought.

Q: What kind of prices?

A: $3,000 to $15,000.

Q: How much are you selling these paintings for?

A: $750.

Q: So this is quite a change. Temporarily Maude.

A: You know, your career can run amok. It really can. There are so many people who had thriving careers in the '70s or '80s. I haven't heard about them or where they're at or where they're not at. Especially like graffito artists. Some of them are making a comeback in the graphic industry or in the clothing industry. You know, their stuff is being made into clothing designs. One artist that I knew, the last I saw of him he was a messenger. Doing messenger delivery. And then (Eugene artist) Kelly Newcomer told me he's back, making a sensational career in the clothing industry.

Q: What happened to you?

A: Some of it was my fault, when I ran amok. I had personal problems. Psychological. Drug and alcohol.

Q: It seems like you're back from all that.

A: I'm back. I've been healthy for the last 11 years. I'm grateful for that. And I'm trying to get my career back on the ground. I have been sending out slides. It's real difficult. There's hits and misses. There's waiting time. You know, some of these galleries I've been waiting on for three to six months already. There's a lot of us out there.

Q: You seem very happy about this show.

A: I am very happy. It's exciting to do a show. People come in. They see the work. A young guy was just in here before. He was expressing how he liked this one right here. He was telling me why this one made him moody. He was asking why there wasn't a title (on that one painting out of the 11). I said, after six months of painting, I didn't realize I had done 11 paintings. I tell a lot of young artists, when they ask me, `Don't you get discouraged?' If you get discouraged in the arts, maybe you shouldn't be there. Just don't tackle it. I know plenty of painters who never have shows. They just give them away. Or have shows at their homes. But I enjoy showing. I preferably would like to make my living this way if I could. It would be really nice. To devote yourself to what you really want to do. And not have a day job.

Q: How has your work changed since those days in New York?

A: It's more abstract. I was abstract then, but I was in a new genre of abstraction. At that point in the 1980s, there was an area called neo-geo: the new expressionism. And then they did an article, "The New Abstractionists." Abstractionism was sort of dead because political work came in. From the Lower East Side. Painting changed again. It got figurative, it got graffitoed. It went through a big change, especially in New York. There was a lot of German influence. By (Anselm) Kiefer and several others. (Georg) Baselitz. Several other painters from Germany.

The work I was doing at the time was more figures. Drawing, stick figures and stuff. I was also using mixed media. I was using straw. I did a whole series called "Theme for the American Indians on the Streets." That was really interesting. My big show for that was at the Thompson Square Public Library. It got a good little bit of press. I was already let go from the gallery system by that time, by 1987, 1988. From there I sort of slowly dropped out.

Q: What did you do?

A: I stopped painting for a while, for about six months. I was pretty severely depressed after that. I couldn't get it together. And then I started up again, I started doing small paintings. I started doing my own shows with groups of people. I started doing alternative spaces. Nightclubs, midnight shows. We lived in more populated areas, where you could put a sign up in a window. "Show tonight at midnight. Cinema. Jazz band. Visual work. Come." And there would be a lot of people.

Q: What is the most exciting thing happening locally in the visual arts?

A: The (student) shows that are once a week at the university at the Laverne Krause Gallery. They are real exciting. I give those kids a lot of credit to set up a show like they do. The energy they put into it for one week! And they don't even get - they get very little press. Only their friends come to it.

Oct. 29, 2000