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Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

Where the Wild Things Are

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , , on October 15, 2009| 2 Comments »

Where the Wild Things AreThere’s a part of me that’s slightly embarrassed by my reaction to the ads running for the the release of the movie version of Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are.  I find myself smiling every time the ad concludes and a certain lightness, a  kid-like giddiness rises in me at the prospect of seeing something magically special.

I don’t know why.  I’m seemingly long past the age of  kid-like excitement.  I never read the book when I was a child  so it doesn’t rekindle warm and fuzzy memories.  I usually don’t even like the idea of trying to make movies from my favorite books, usually with good cause.

But there is something very engaging in the trailer for this film.  Maybe it’s from the direction of Spike Jonze who is responsible for Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, two of the most unique films of recent years.  His choice of costuming and the beautiful golden colors of his cinematography make it so that you can’t pull your eyes from the screen.

I can only hope it meets my now raised expectations.  It opens this Friday.

There was a somewhat animated version from 1973 that was done by Peter Schickele ( AKA PDQ Bach) in collaboration with Sendak.  It’s a short piece that definitely lacks the finish of more recent animations but is true to the story.  Take a look…

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Wipeout

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , on October 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The+Ventures+-+Surfing+-+1963Well, it’s Saturday and we could all use a break, maybe dream of catching a big breaker and hanging ten.  Okay, it’s all in my head.  But I do have fond memories of how much grab there was in those instrumental surf classics from the 60’s.  When it came on, you couldn’t help but listen.

We had a copy of the Surfaris’ single , Wipeout , that had the kitschy Surfer Joe on the flipside.  I must’ve heard both sides of that single a thousand times, if not more.  Every listen was like a sonic sugar rush and I still smile when I hear either song.

For this Saturday, I am showing a version of Wipeout from the seminal instrumental surf band, the Ventures.  It’s a really high quality version from a film when they toured Japan in the 60’s.

Enjoy and may all your waves be true…

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Good Soldiers

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Technique/History, tagged , on October 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

BrushesI was looking at the brush in my hand the other day and I realized how rough I am sometimes on my brushes.  It was a natural bristle brush that was new just a few weeks ago, when it looked like the brush to the far left in the photo.

Over those few weeks, I caressed paint on to canvas.  I also pushed paint into the canvas.  I ground the paint against the canvas, using a lot of force, to almost burnish the surface.  I stroked.  I poked.  And when I looked down the brush had turned into that poor guy shown second from the left.

I can be rough on my brushes.

For my normal wet technique I use a natural hair squirrel mop like the two shown on the right.  It’s a big, soft brush that holds a lot of paint and is a staple in my studio.  The brush on the left is new and the one on the right is obviously not.  This erosion of the bristles shown here represents about 6 or 7 months of use.

Hard use.

I like the way the bristles whittled themselves down to the angle my hand takes when I normally strike the painting surface.  Unfortunately, it has eroded to a point where its capacity to hold paint makes it a hindrance to my technique.  So he is put aside and maybe I will find a use for him at some point, so I keep him with my other spent brushes.  I could never throw such  loyal workers to the trash heap.

I have amassed quite a number of brushes, both well used and brand new, over the years.  I have tiny detail brushes that I go through quickly.  I have  some cheapy brushes that work perfectly well for certain techniques.  I have some of my favorite medium priced brushes that I have stockpiled because they’re no longer made.  I also have some pretty expensive brushes.  I have a set of beautiful Winsor & Newton Series 7  brushes that are handmade with soft, luxurious Kolinsky sable.  I’ve had them for about 13 years and have only used one or two of them for a few minutes.  They’re lovely in the hand but I never felt comfortable with them and just wouldn’t feel right grinding them roughly into the surface.

So they sit and wait for a day when I’m ready to put them in the game.

Maybe today?  Maybe… but probably not.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

William Kamkwamba 2009Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed a young man from Malawi in Africa by the name of William Kamkwamba, who has recently published a book.  The book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, tells his story of how as a 14 year old boy in famine devastated malawi, with more adversity than anyone should face at such an age, decided to build a windmill so that his family might have electricity to run lights and give then running water.

Kamkwamba had went to school for a while until the famine fully hit his family’s meager farm, at which point his parents could no longer afford the 80 dollar annual tuition.  Left with only a few textbooks and a small library funded by the US government, he set to work building the windmill after having seen a picture of one in a book.

With absolutely no resources, he scavenged bits of tractor parts, pieces of wood and metal and eventually built a working windmill.  He designed and built switches and circuit breakers for his system that , while crudely built from found common objects in a way that Jon Stewart equated as being MacGyver-like, were testaments to the power of desire and human creativity.

He has subsequently built other windmills for his village and  word of the young man’s drive and intelligence spread.  With financial assistance,  he is currently here in the US studying for his SATs and hopes to use his education to further help his countrymen.

How can you not be touched by a story like that?  It makes me realize how important desire and drive is in the creative process especially when the circumstances are dire.  I think many of us have lost that inventive, manically forward driving spirit and I have no idea how we can regain it.  But William Kamkwamba’s story gives me hope and let’s me know that the human spirit to overcome is definitely alive.

Check out his book and story at his blog by clicking on the book cover above.

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My Old Library

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , on October 5, 2009| 2 Comments »

Old Steele Memorial LibraryI love books.  I like the feel of books, the smell, the whole tactile sensation of holding a book.  To me, there is always a feeling of holding a talisman of some sort.  As though there is magic within the the two covers, just waiting to be activated by someone opening it.

I think this partly came from my first experiences with a shrine to books, our local library, the old Steele Memorial Library in Elmira.  It was an older Carnegie-built library from the 1890’s, a beautiful building that oozed charm and opulence. Old Steele Library Interior It had real character, with stacks behind the front desk that you accessed via cast iron stairs and had translucent glass floors that allowed a little light into the dark nooks.  There was a real sense of intimacy in this building, a feeling which seeped into the region between the reader and the books.   I remember sitting in the comfortable wooden chairs at the long, cool wooden tables and reading entire books while there.  Many, many hours were spent there in other worlds.

I have very specific memories of that place. I remember that my sister first introduced me to the child’s section there and that I devoured those books there and how excited I was to finally move out into the adult sections of the library, where new horizons of adventure loomed. I remember how excited I was to find the Paddington Bear books and how I carried an armful of them through the streets to my grandparents’ home on the East Side of town. I remember that they were both there outside the house and that my grandmother’s face was very pleased to see the books I carried. I was no more than eight years old and felt like the world was in my hands.

The old library was moved in the late 1970’s or 80’s- I can’t really remember- to a new and shiny building. Oh, it’s a nice facility with better lighting and spacious aisles with room for computers and other activities. Better parking and all the modern conveniences. Everything one could want.    Except for personality.  That sense that makes you feel as though you were entering a private and sacred place, a place of stored wisdom just waiting for you.

Just for you…

There was a real sense of intimacy in this building, a feeling which seeped into the region between the reader and the books.  I remember sitting at the long wooden tables and reading entire books while there.
I have very specific memories of that place.  I remember that my sister first introduced me to the child’s section there and that I devoured those books there and how excited I was to finally move out into the adult sections of the library, where new horizons of adventure loomed.  I remember how excited I was to find the Paddington Bear books and how I carried an armful of them through the streets to my grandparents’ home on the East Side of town.  I remember that they were both  there outside the house and that my grandmother’s face was very pleased to see the books I carried. I was no more than eight years old and felt like the world was in my hands.
The old library was moved in the late 1970’s or 80’s- I can’t really remember- to a new and shiny building.  Oh, it’s a nice facility with better lighting and spacious aisles with room for computers and other activities.  Better parking and all the modern conveniences. Everything one could want.   Except for personality, one that makes you feel as though you were entering a private and sacred place, a place of stored wisdom just waiting for you.

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Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Video, tagged , , , , , on October 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

guitarSunday morning and we deserve a break from painting, at least in this blog.  I was thinking of a song I first heard back in 1975 when Willie Nelson released his classic Red Headed Stranger album, which was a concept album composed of sparse compositions that told the story of a fugitive on the run.  Just a beautiful group of disparate songs that come together to chronicle a tale.

When I heard Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, I was hooked on the poetry and simplicity of the song, especially as performed in Nelson’s spartan manner.  So simple but so filled with emotion and feeling.  I think of this song often when I’m painting, trying to think how I can match that feeling of simple grace and depth of feeling in my own work.

I didn’t know much about the song then, always thinking that it was Nelson’s song.  But it had a long history, written in 1945 by the legendary Fred Rose for Roy Acuff.  Hank Williams recorded it in 1951 and a number of others have as well over the years.  It is considered to be the last song that Elvis recorded at Graceland, the day before he died.  But for me, there’s only one version that really stands alone.

Here’s the lovely Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain…

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Just Dropped In

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Television, Video, tagged , , , , , on September 27, 2009| 2 Comments »

big lebowski multiI was looking for a video on YouTube and came across some old Smothers Brothers things from their 1960’s show.  Time has kind of faded the notoriety they had at that time in America.  Most people, especially those under 40, think of the Smothers Brothers and think of a couple of older, very straight looking guys in tuxes performing skits with the Boston Pops or Tommy Smothers doing his YoYo Man act.  Hardly anything controversial there.

But in the late 60’s their Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a huge hit on CBS, bringing political irreverence  and protest along with the best music of  that era’s youth to a wide audience.  They were cancelled at the peak of their popularity in 1969 in a dispute with CBS over censorship, an action that they later filed suit and won against CBS.

I loved the show when I was a kid.  It was funny and smart and said the things that the news coverage of the time refused to say, particularly about the war in Viet Nam.  You have to realize how much narrower the options were at that time for hearing something out of the mainstream.

I especially liked the music.  Pete Townsend of the Who claims to have lost his hearing in one ear when Keith Moon exploded his drum set  during a performance on the show.  Pete Seeger had a famous appearance singing Waist Deep In the Big Muddy as a protest against the war.  So much great stuff.

I happened across this segment featuring Kenny Rogers and the First Edition doing their hit Just Dropped In ( To See What Condition My Condition Was In), a song that most young people will no doubt associate with its part in The Big Lebowski‘s dream sequence with The Dude, as shown above.  This video with Kenny Rogers in his pre-Gambler days has pretty much the same feel, in that 1960’s goofy TV psychedelic effect way.  Take a look…

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A Face In The Crowd

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Television, Video, tagged , , , , , , on September 25, 2009| 2 Comments »

A Face In the CrowdIt’s funny sometimes how the truth behind a satire from another time seems to come to bear in the present.

This past weekend, I watched part of  A Face In The Crowd, the classic film that I’ve seen many times from 1957 starring Andy Griffith as slimy Lonesome Rhodes, a drunken Southern drifter who by virtue of circumstance becomes a media darling and mouthpiece for conservative populism a la Glenn Beck of today. It’s a great film, one that always provokes a strong reaction and always seems, even in its dated setting, to have something that we can see in our own circumstances today.  It was a tour de force performance from Griffith and a far cry from the gentle, wise Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry.  Lonesome Rhodes was the type of character that would have had Barney Fife pretty nervous.

Lonesome Rhodes knows how to manipulate the people, spark them into a fiery force, yet has nothing but contempt for them.   He has a natural ability, like many cons, of being able to read people, sense their drives and triggers while ingratiating himself at the same time.   He is all charisma.  But beneath this patina of charm and folksy wisdom lies a core of anger, sex and violence- a dangerous timebomb who strives to shape the public opinion into his vision.

It’s a great depiction of how the public reacts to a man of the people, even when he may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  There is always talk of remaking this film and I always cringe at the thought.  Like most remakes of great films, it would probably lose that intangible spark that makes the original blaze, be it a stellar performance and natural charm like  that of Andy Griffith, a great supporting cast featuring Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, or the sharp, angular storytelling from director Elia Kazan, a controversial figure himself.  I really hope that they choose to leave this one alone.

Anyway, if you like social satire check out this film.  Good stuff.  Here’s the original trailer-

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Gassed

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , on September 24, 2009| 2 Comments »

Gassed John Singer SargentI’ve always loved the work of the great John Singer Sargent, best known for his exquisite portraiture.  Several years ago I saw a large retrospective of his work at the National Gallery in DC and was overwhelmed by the quality of his work in the show.  It was not in a style in which I work nor was the subject matter always my cup of tea but the beauty of his brushstrokes was gorgeous.  There was something beautiful in  how a nose on a portrait that appeared so perfectly modeled from a distance when inspected up close was a slash of paint, singular and perfect.

But for me the star of the show was his epic painting, Gassed, shown above.  It is a massive atmospheric  painting, nearly 8 feet by 20 feet, and depicts soldiers in World War I who have been the victims of a gas attack.  Blinded, they struggle ahead, linked  together, seeking help.  A departure from Sargent’s  trademark portraiture, it’s a powerful image and really captures the horror of  the first truly modern war that was hitting the entire world at that time.  The War to End All Wars –if only that were true.

I am reminded by this painting of a poem written in that same time, decrying the horrors that had been unleashed and the feeling of chaos that seemed pervasive.  It’s The Second Coming from William Butler Yeats.  The first verse is particularly powerful and the last two lines of it are often quoted and could apply to just about any time of turmoil, such as the present.

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Both the painting and poem are interesting spotlights on the time.  I don’t know why either sprang to mind this particular day.  Maybe it’s all the doom and gloom, end of the world, here comes Jesus and he’s carrying a really big hammer stuff that is bombarding us around the clock.  Maybe the chaos and consuming din has caused us to not be able to hear our own falconer, our own guiding voice.

Or maybe I simply like the works of Sargent and Yeats.  It’s a mystery…


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A Year Later

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff on September 23, 2009| 8 Comments »

Archaeology: Rising From Blue / GC MyersI just realized that it has been a year since I started writing this blog last September.  Quite honestly, I didn’t think I would keep up with this endeavor and had grave doubts as to whether it was a mistake in the first place, not really sure that I had anything to offer.  Still not sure on that account.

But it’s become a part of my routine after this last year and I come  into the studio early every morning thinking of what I might have to offer for that day.   Sometimes I come up with a blank but for the most part I can find something to write about.  I think it has went pretty well thus far judging by the number of views and the feedback I receive from folks.  But I hope to do better.

There were a couple of things this past year I enjoyed and will consider doing again, such as the Name This Painting contest.  I’d like to interview a few artists or gallery people.  I’d like to do some more personal mythology pieces.  I want to show more works-in-progress.  And more.

But today I’m just going to reflect back on the past year.  If there is anything anyone out there wants to see, let me know.  I’m always open to new ideas or questions.

Many thanks to those of you taking the time from your busy days to read.   I really appreciate it.

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