Antonio Bedolla

These paintings and  drawings
appear to closely follow a very strict regimen:

sharp, clean execution

delicacy of detail

strong sense of three dimensional volumes

pleasant, balanced  graphic design
the convincing presence of a subject

They also create a peaceful, charming facial expression,
perfectly articulating the eyes
when the face has been slightly turned.

... and most importantly for me ... 

they offer recognizable features of so many of people

 who have modeled at the Palette and Chisel 

 as well as some of the furniture and draperies found in the studio.

A hundred years ago Tony would have been too busy

making illustrations for glossy magazines

to still work at the CFD.

This one looks like it could fit right into a classical re-creation
by Alma-Tadema

Goofy hair and intelligent eyes.

Could be a cannabis entrepreneur.

looks like she was runner-up

for harvest queen.

that drapery in the background looks quite familiar

John Nasko

John Nasko has had the northwest second-floor studio 

at the Palette and Chisel for as long as I can remember. 

 ( thirty years ?)

He never comes to the model workshops ,

 he seldom  (never?) exhibits in the shows.

What the hell is he doing up there?

Finally, like the Puya Raimondii plant 

that flowers once-in-a-hundred-years, 

he has mounted a retrospective in our two galleries.

In some ways, John is like most of us here. 

He's fascinated by representational art

 and  has some talent for it.

  Actually, quite a bit.

These early pieces were  done many decades ago.

And like almost all of the early members of the Palette and Chisel,

 he was once employed in  commercial graphic art.

But while most of us have been obsessed

with representing the infinite beauty

 that we see in the world,

John has primarily been interested in himself.

The world is just that crazy place

where he's ended up living.

Though far from mainstream Palette and Chisel,

John does fit better within what has been mainstream 

in Chicago art for the past fifty years:

 the Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists.

The above "Note from the teacher to Parent: Worry" 

questions and mocks adult authority.

It's straight out of the Hairy Who playbook.

Jim Nutt, "Miss E. Knows"

But John does take a more cosmic view of some things.

It's not just human society that is screwed up...

the entire universe is a joke

and the joke's on us.

So unlike Chicago's famous painters,

John has felt no need to validate his rebellion

by making paintings that validate themselves

with apparent virtuosity and craftsmanship.

They're more like casual thoughts

that have passed through his mind

while waiting for everything to eventually
 come to an end.

It's quite a rational point of view,

which is why John is also an outsider

in the world of outsider art.

He just doesn't fit in anywhere -

except, of course,

in that tiny, cluttered studio

that overlooks our courtyard.

Ithaka

I get the feeling that John is thinking

that his voyage to Ithaka is almost over.

As Cavafy's  poem says,

there was never anything there worth visiting.

All that really matters is the voyage itself,

May all of ours be 

"full of adventure and full of instruction"