All images copyright 2013 by John Vistaunet.
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| Live Canvas No. 24: Surface Department |
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| Live Canvas No. 23: At your Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 22: Plain Wrinkly |
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| Live Canvas No. 21: Eye of the Rose |
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| Live Canvas No. 20: Dragon Fire |
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| Live Canvas No. 19: String Theory |
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| Live Canvas No. 18: Primarily Southwest by Southwest |
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| Live Canvas No. 17: Discontinuity of Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 16: Plain Vanilla Surface Any Way You Lick at It |
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| Live Canvas No. 15: Surface Resumes at the Purple Onion (Don't Panic) |
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| Live Canvas No. 14: Easter Sunrise Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 13: When the Surface Comes to Town |
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| Live Canvas No. 12: Not Necessarily the Whole Elephant at Your Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 11: Emergency Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 9: Funeral Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 8: Pour Surface |
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| Live Canvas No. 7: Surface Ace |
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| Live Canvas No. 5: Surface Up! |
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| Live Canvas No. 4: Introductory Surface |
The "Live Canvas" paintings are each made from a single continuous canvas surface wrinkled/stretched/wrapped on a wood frame. In these works, the canvas abandons its traditional role as a passive flat surface for the application of pigment; it comes "alive" and boldly competes for status as a medium in its own right. The tension between order and chaos is paramount. Early pieces, ca. 1969-70, used dyed gray canvas. Pieces in the late 70's explored thinner profiles and both plain and striped canvas. In 1986, "Live Canvas No. 14" introduced painted shapes to the mix. In 2008, "Live Canvas No. 15" resumed this exploration of surface where No. 14 left off. While "Live Canvas No. 16" returns to an unpainted canvas surface, "Live Canvas No. 17" combines the artist's conceptual and abstract canvas with his illusionist figure paintings, creating a contrapuntal yet harmonic compositional interplay between the painted illusion of three dimensional space and actual three dimensional surface.
