ok. on the static front page i now have the following code
<?php
$temp = $wp_query; $wp_query= null;
$wp_query = new WP_Query(); $wp_query->query('category=-44,-401' . '&paged='.$paged);
while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post(); ?>
<?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
the posts are showing up but the show more link is not present.
Thank you again for your help with this!