Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

Hundertwasser

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Uncategorized, tagged on August 27, 2009| 10 Comments »

hundertwasser-friedensreich-strassenkreuzung-2000-2631956I ran into the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser , a contemporary (1928-2000) Austrian artist,  several years ago at a gallery in Boston and was immediately drawn to his work.

It was probably not a surprise as his work focused primarily on color and organic forms with few straight lines and had a strong individualized vocabulary.  His work was his work and that spoke to me.  Creating something that was my own individual expression was always my highest priority.

I was also interested into his forays into architecture and urban environmentalism, both of which are often reflected in his work.  But it was primarily his colors and forms that drew me in.  Whenever I come across his work I have to stop and look for a few moments, taking in the whole image at first , letting it register as a single form. Then moving in closer to look at individual elements, seeing how each shape and color plays off the next.  It’s the way I hope people look at my own work.

hundertwasser_shop_fridge_magnet_setThe piece shown here is not one piece but a group of refrigerator magnets massed together but would make an interesting piece.  I was also attracted to his use of black in his edges and underneath his work, something that I have somewhat adapted for my own work.

There is a total commitment to vision in his work that I admire.  And while I don’t feel raw emotion in the work I do find it compelling.

And that is saying something…hundertwasser_fax

Read Full Post »

Poor Old Dirt Farmer

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Video, tagged , , , on August 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Let Us Now Praise...Strange confluences.

I was going through some old work and came across this piece just as a random track came up on my iPod.  It was a Levon Helm song, the sort of title track from his latest CD, Dirt Farmer.

It really went together beautifully and the rhythm of Levon’s music kind of captured how I saw this fellow looking at his land, the beauty and sorrow of it.

I may have displayed this piece before.  It’s called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men… and was part of my first solo exhibit some 13 years ago, a show called Exiles that was hung at a lovely art center, the Gmeiner, in Wellsboro, PA.  This piece has always resonated with me, having sorts of indicators that I only see.  Little cues that remind me of the time in which this piece was done, giving me a sense of how I felt at the time and how I was viewing the world.  Things that only make the piece special for me.

That’s a pretty common thing.  Cheri has a piece of mine in our home that I painter several years back.  A nice piece but not a great one.  But when I see it I remember all that went into this particular piece and the struggle to pull something from what appeared to be a mess at the time.  I see the effort and determination that recovered the painting from the scrap heap and made it work.  I see it as a turning point in my confidence in my own abilities.

But those are only for  my eyes, probably not evident to the outside world.  Kind of like the dirt farmer above.  Who knows what his eyes behold?

Here’s Poor Old Dirt Farmer from Levon Helm:

Read Full Post »

Durer’s Pentaflakes

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , on August 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Durer Self PORTRAITWhenever I stumble on anything from Albrecht Durer, the 16th century German artist, I am immediately humbled by the magnificence of his works.  His paintings are beautiful, combining delicacy and strength to create a naturalism that was unusual in its time.  This self-portrait is one of my favorite pieces of portraiture.  His engravings are masterpieces of the art, dense with detail and hidden meaning. Many are allegorical and some are just plain interesting such as this engraving of a rhinoceros, shown below, done only from the descriptions of others, without ever having seen such a creature himself.

Interesting stuff, indeed.

durer rhinoSo if being in awe of his artistic talents weren’t enough, I happened to come across a bit of information that Durer, among other mathematical recognitions,  was also the first to recognize the pentaflake, a mathematical construct that describes the formation of snowflakes.

It goes something like this:

pentaflake 1pentaflake 2pentaflake

Read Full Post »

Lightning Bolt

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , on August 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Usain Bolt I have never ran fast, never had real speed at my beck and call.  In fact, I am downright slow.  But I can really appreciate seeing the true magnificence and beauty of  pure and simple raw speed.

This past week, at the World Championships for track and field in Berlin, Usain Bolt of Jamaica ran faster than anyone ever has before, shattering his own records in the 100 and 200 meter sprints.

Bolt is a marvel to see run.  He is very large, something in the range of 6′ 5″ tall, and when he unwinds those long, powerful legs, it is a thing of beauty.  It is all power and rhythm, channeled perfectly with little wasted effort to the track surface.  In fact, there is so little waste that he seems to move effortlessly, an incredible feat for someone running over 30 MPH.  His competitors seem to be expending twice as much energy yet are left far behind, 5 or 7 meters in his wake.

There is an artistic sense of perfection in his races.  Like looking at a painted masterpiece where there are no extraneous brushstrokes, each stroke having it’s necessary place.  Like watching a great film where there is no word of dialogue or movement that doesn’t move the story forward, doesn’t add something to the whole.  Like listening to a great piece of music, where one note more would destroy the entire structure of the composition.

It seems also that there is more to come from Bolt, that he still has more in reserve and that is, in itself, incredible.  I will be watching…

Here’s yesterday’s 200 meter race.  19.19 seconds…

Read Full Post »

The New Labyrinth

Posted in Favorite Things, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on August 20, 2009| 7 Comments »

The New LabyrinthThis is a piece from early last year, titled The New Labyrinth.  I do several pieces of this nature every year and always count them among my favorites to perform.  They are done in a very free-form fashion, usually starting in one corner and allowed to build into the picture frame on its own accord, until I get the sense that I should stop.  As each new building is painted it creates new parameters for the next, new prompts for my eye.  As a result, the piece has a very organic feel for me. as though there has been a natural growth in the painting.

I particularly like this painting for this feel but maybe more so because of the use of similar, muted colors in the buildings.  There is almost a monochromatic feel to the piece that I find appealing especially in the context of the subject.  It harkens back to the days when I first started painting and would do exercises where I would paint scenes using only one color, only varying the shades of it to create depth and texture.  It was probably one of the most important lessons I learned and one that I urge all novice painters to try at least a few times.  Knowing how to create harmony within the confines of a single color is necessary if you ever hope to control a larger palette.

There is also a really nice natural rhythm that runs through this piece, giving me a sense of my normal landscapes.  This probably occurs because of the way I described how the painting is allowed to grow in an organic way.

It’s a piece that has visual interest in every bit of it which is something I strive for in all my work.  I would like to think that you could take a random fragment of any of my paintings and find something that catches your eye in it.

I keep a photo of The New Labyrinth on a bulletin board I keep in my studio and I look at it quite often, thinking that I really should paint in that way again soon.

Maybe I will…

Read Full Post »

Love Power

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , , , on August 19, 2009| 5 Comments »

The Producers 1968There are different scenes in different movies that I’ve come to know when they fall in the film’s timeline, so much so that I will tune in at just the moment the scene I enjoy most appears.

One of my favorites is a scene from Mel Brooks’ The Producers, the 1968 original, not the newer and far inferior remake.  The original is a great piece of comedy with great performances from Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars (all shown in the photo above) as well as the rest of the cast.

dick shawn as LSDBut the scene I tune in for, even if I don’t have time to watch the whole film, is the one where they are auditioning actors for the cast of their ill-fated Springtime For Hitler and Dick Shawn appears onstage as Lorenzo St. DuBois – LSD.

In his audition he does a great song, a very period piece, called Love Power backed by a female band reminiscent of Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love.  Shawn’s delivery, costume and dance make me laugh every time I see it.

See if it does the same for you…

Read Full Post »

Goin’ Home

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , , on August 16, 2009| 1 Comment »

Alvin LeeSunday morning and I’m up late.  Tired.  Not much working upstairs yet.

Since it is the 40th anniversary weekend for Woodstock I’m going to simply cruise today and show yet another clip of one of my favorite performances from that weekend back in 1969.  There were so many performances that stand out in thecollective memory that it’s hard to choose.  But this was my favorite when I was ten and I still snap to when I hear it.  It’s Goin’ Home from Alvin Lee of Ten Years After fame.  They were famous for I’d Love to Change the World, a great song that I’m still surprised to not hear as a remake, but never had the huge fame of many of the other acts from that show.

But on that August night they played this they really lit up the night…

Read Full Post »

America’s Rome- Artists in the Eternal City 1800-1900

Posted in Favorite Things, tagged , , , on August 14, 2009| 4 Comments »

John Gadsby Chapman- Excavations on a Roman CampagnaI mentioned in a my post yesterday about my friend, Paul D’Ambrosio, and his new blog.  I spoke of his curatorship at the Fenimore Art Museum but failed to mention a new exhibit that he has put together, America’s Rome: Artists in the Eternal City 1800-1900.

The New York Times didn’t fail to mention it however, having a fine review in yesterday’s edition.

Many congratulations to Paul on his successful exhibit which will hang until the end of the year.  If you’re ever in the beautiful Cooperstown area, stop in and see a lovely town and a wonderful exhibit.

Read Full Post »

Russell’s Relics

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , , on August 13, 2009| 2 Comments »

Russell Schermer 55 MercedesI wrote in an earlier post about how I might proceed if I lost my ability to see which is the primary sense I use in my work.  I felt I would somehow move on in some form creatively.  I saw this fellow’s work yesterday and knew that  my assertions could be correct.

Above is a 1955 Mercedes made by Russell Schermer out in California.  Russell has been blind since birth and has been a fan of cars since he was a youth.  He has a collection of model cars that he replicates by feeling each detail then transferring it to clay.  The result is recognizable but it’s the wavering from exactitude that I find appealing.  It’s like seeing the car in a parallel universe, where lines and shapes are just not quite right but close enough to allow your mind to translate them fully.

RussellSchermerThere is an interesting sense of rightness in his work.  I get the feeling that I could be a claymation figure and could jump in any of these cars and go down the road as the dimensions of the car and everything around it were constantly shifting just a little bit.  

I think the imperfections in them are perfect expressions.  My hat is off to Russell for his work and for jumping over his obstacles.  Good work.  To see his website, Russell’s Relics, click on any of the cars shown here.  

Russell scherrmer 64 impalaI don’t know if Russell’s work qualifies as folk art but I have a longtime friend, Paul D’Ambrosio, that would know.  Paul has started a new blog, American Folk Art @ CGP, as a vehicle for discussion of folk art.  Paul is vice-president and curator of the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA), heading the Fenimore House Museum in Cooperstown.  He also teaches at the Cooperstown Graduate Program for museum studies.  So he knows a little bit about his field which is American folk art.  Anyway, if you’re interested in folk art please check out his blog.  I think you’ll find lots of info.

Russell Schermer

Read Full Post »

Charles Burchfield

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged on August 10, 2009| 12 Comments »

charles_burchfield glory of springAy my opening, a friend who is also a painter and I were talking and the name of Charles Burchfield came up.  My friend asked if liked his work and when I said that I did very much admire Burchfield’s work, my friend shook his head and said that I’d have to explain it to him because he just didn’t get it.  Thought it was crap.

I told him that I always immediately engaged with Burchfield’s paintings, that I felt that I understood in a small way how his mind conceived his imagery and how he translated that to paper.  His work just made sense in my mind.  It was more about getting across something more than a scene or mere image and that clicked for me.

Charles Burchfield_sun_emerging Charles Burchfield is a real presence in the art world of western New York state, having created most of his work while living in the  Buffalo area in the early and middle part of the past century.  There is a well known art center and museum bearing his name at the University of Buffalo and his work is in the collections of many major museums. 

For me, his work is more about the spiritual elements of the everyday world.  Things that are seen all the time and simply overlooked take on a meaning and a life of their own.  This excites me because I consider that an important element of what I try to do.  I always pull inspiration from his work and hope that someday someone will feel the same thing from mine.Charles_Burchfield_September_Wind and Raincharles burchfield Rainy Night

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »