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Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

New Religion/ Sheeler

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Opinion, Quote, tagged , on January 27, 2018| 3 Comments »

Every age manifests itself by some external evidence. In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers-it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression.

–Charles Sheeler
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In much of his photography and painting, Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) equated the sheer mass and space of modern industry with the grandeur of medieval cathedrals. He saw in both of these environments, spaces that bring awe to the common man. These places often make one feel small and insignificant and in the presence of a powerful entity, one that dwarfed one’s own strength and power.
I think his work accurately showed the transition of our spiritual adoration from the religious to the corporate structures. It seems to me that we have bestowed a new sense of reverence on corporations, believing that they are some sort of savior and protector that will always act in the best interest of the many. When we speak of policy now, we don’t speak about how we can help people in need, we speak about how we can help large businesses. The idea there is that if they do well the benevolence they show in their hiring and acquiring will naturally take care of all ills.
If you look at that from a historical perspective, that’s not much different than the place occupied by the church throughout the ages. I know that’s not a new observation but it seems more and more obvious in recent times as so many common people have come to view capitalism in almost religious terms, with corporations deserving our veneration and protection.
And it makes me wonder if Sheeler was right, that the factories and corporations have become our substitute for religious expression? What will future generations see as the external evidence of our age? Will our perceived legacy be little more than the spaces of large corporate campuses and huge distribution centers? Is that the extent of our reach now?
Just thinking a little this morning.  Anyway, here are some other Sheeler paintings.

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Another Modigliani

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged on January 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I was going through some older posts this morning and came across this one on artist Amedeo Modigliani. I don’t know if coincidences have any meaning beyond being interesting things to ponder but the coincidence of the date for this post and today’s date, along with the same date back in 1920 as mentioned in the post made me think I should rerun this post. I’ve added a video of Modigliani’s work if you would like to take a look– it’s very calming.

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You wouldn’t know it to look at the work of Amedeo Modigliani, but it was quite an influence on my painting. Modigliani’s work through his short, self-destructive life consisted primarily of stylized portraits and  nudes. The heads of his subjects were long and oval, often set at an angle atop an overly extended long neck. The eyes are almond shaped and the nose pinched. Hardly words to describe great beauty yet they maintain a graceful allure that is immediately recognizable as the work of Modigliani.

His instant recognizability of his style and subjects from across large galleries was striking and was the great message I took from seeing Modigliani in museums over the years. You couldn’t mistake it for the work of anyone else and as a painter early in my career, still seeking the direction of my work, this was an invaluable observation. With each Modigliani I came across, the idea that my work should be somehow unique and have a quality of instant recognition was reinforced in my mind.

Also, his limited subject matter made an imprint. The idiosyncratic nature of his portraits and nudes made the repetition of his forms seem like a moot point, making the viewer easily enter the picture plane and focus on the unique qualities of the piece in the colors and forms. It wasn’t the subject that mattered but the way in which it was painted. Another valuable lesson.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t learn the lessons of the other parts of Modigliani’s life. His drug and alcohol addictions, combined with tuberculosis, led to an early death at the age of 35. Even more tragic is the story of Jeanne Hebuterne, the model for the paintings shown here and the common-law wife of the artist.  She was the subject of at least 25 of Modigliani paintings. The day after the artist succumbed to death in Paris in January of 1920, a distraught and pregnant  Jeanne threw herself out the window, killing herself and her unborn child. She was 21 years old.

Coincidentally, her death came on this date, January 25. I didn’t realize that until I just looked it up.  Hmmm…



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Head and Heart

Posted in Favorite Things, Motivation, Quote, tagged , on January 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

― Marc Chagall

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So true…

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Blue Shadows in the Street

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Photography, tagged , on January 21, 2018| 2 Comments »

I came across this photo from the great Hungarian/French photographer Brassai and its impact hit me immediately. It’s a powerful image that is filled with emotional and narrative potentials.

Just a glimpse at it elicits some sort of response.

For me, it was like a scene from a bad dream. Running from some unseen menace through the dark in an unknown place. Hot and humid. Stumbling over cobblestones.

Maybe for you, it raises a different narrative. Maybe running heroically toward a dire situation.

Maybe not. Maybe it’s just a great photo with wonderful contrasts that is beautifully composed. Whatever the case, I like it and thoughts it raises in me.

I thought I’d try to find something that fit the image and came up with Blue Shadows in the Street from Dave Brubeck.I’m not sure this quite fits the bill but I like it. Hope you do as well. Have a great Sunday.

 

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Rockwell Kent & Reason

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Quote, Video, tagged , , , on January 20, 2018| 1 Comment »

Rockwell Kent- The Trapper

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Force against reason: reason, because it has the power

of enlisting force to fight for it, will win.

From the recognition of that truth has come democracy.

 

-Rockwell Kent

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There are a lot of things that could be said this morning, especially with a governmental shutdown taking effect overnight. This shutdown is the symbolic culmination of the political attitudes of the past twenty years that have led us away from compromise and reason as a means of governance.

I am not going to go into my own grievances here. I’ve done that enough. But I will say that for all the anxiety this government produces as it tries to force itself closer and closer to some form of autocratic authoritarianism, I am somewhat optimistic. And that may be because I agree with the premise of the quote above from one of my favorite artists, Rockwell Kent.

I do feel that we are in struggle right now between force and reason, that the direction in which we are being directed via deception and fear-mongering– the force here–goes against the ideals and virtues that we have long professed as the basis for our democracy– reason.  The idea that reason is enduring because it has the ability to enlist those who will fight for the truth of it is reassuring to me and seems to be backed by history.

What we are experiencing is reminiscent of the way other empires have ended, when the beliefs that grew these empires are set aside by rulers who see themselves as being above those ideals and virtues. But I believe we are still a nation with enough reasonable people to resist the forces of greed and nativism that have descended upon us.

And that gives me hope, even on these days that seem so dark. So, thanks for reminding me of that, Mr. Kent.

Here’s a video of some of Kent’s landscape work, primarily of the Adirondacks, Vermont and Greenland. The format of the video is a little cutesy for my taste but it shows a lot of great work from Kent and features the music of Edgar Meyer and Joshua Bell. Have a good day and stay reasonable.

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Damn Straight Lines!

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, tagged , on January 18, 2018| 3 Comments »

The straight line is godless and immoral. The straight line is not a creative line, it is a duplicating line, an imitating line.

—Friedensreich Hundertwasser
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I was originally drawn to the work of painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) by his use of color and the organic feel of his forms. Every line has a natural curl and arc and even those lines meant to replicate the straightness of a man-made object quiver and waver a bit. It all creates a world that feels natural and alive. Organic is the word that always jumps to mind although maybe spiritual is a better fit in that it seems to depict a world that is comprised not of the human body but of its soul and spirit.
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I maintain a similar relationship with straight lines, viewing them as something to be avoided at all cost. The man-made feeling that comes with a straight line is something that I do not want to see in my work with the possible exception of the horizon line as seen on a body of water. Consciously painting that straight line is a real task, an ordeal of concentration.
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As hard as it is to draw a straight line, it’s harder than you might think to not draw a straight line, especially after you have spent years drawing and painting, gaining a certain proficiency with pen and brush. I sometimes have to really focus on not painting a straight line or the stroke will unconsciously go straight and true. When that happens, it irks me to no end and I find my eye constantly going back to that straight line in the composition.
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I think there is something in our brain that makes our eye seek out straight lines as though we are always searching for signs of humans, perhaps as some sort of survival mechanism. And a very straight line is almost always a man-made thing.
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So, I am going to practice not painting some straight lines this morning with Hundertwasser’s words echoing in my ears. And eyes.

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Lee Krasner

Posted in Favorite Things, Motivation, tagged , , on January 17, 2018| 3 Comments »

Lee Krasner- Night Creatures

My own image of my work is that I no sooner settle into something than a break occurs. These breaks are always painful and depressing but despite them I see that there’s a consistency that holds out, but is hard to define.

—Lee Krasner

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I’ve been in a funk with my work lately, one that makes it hard to even want to pick up the brushes. It reminds me of the one I felt at this exact time ten years back. My Archaeology series emerged from the depths of that funk so even though there is general sense of blah, I am optimistic.

Part of my process in clawing out of a funk is looking at work– my own and others– and reading on the experiences of others. I came across the quote above from the late artist Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and it spoke to how I have been feeling as of late. I spent a little time looking at her work and chose several that sparked my interest immediately.

Now, I am not well schooled on Abstract Expressionism so I am able to speak with any authority on her work or on her place in art history. But I do like these and a number more by her, finding something in them that inspires me with their rhythm, forms and composition. Born into a Jewish family in what is now the Ukraine, many scholars find elements of Hebrew script in the forms of some of her works.

Most of you, if you know her name at all, recognize her as the wife of Jackson Pollock.  It’s unfortunate that she is mainly known in this way because her own work has had an enduring power that has been sometimes overshadowed by Pollock’s notoriety. She is an interesting figure in modern art. Take a look sometime. Here is short video with much of her work.

Lee Krasner- Untitled (Little Image)

Lee Krasner- Noon

Lee Krasner- Composition 1949

Lee Krasner- Promenade

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Hokusai’s Dot

Posted in Favorite Things, Motivation, Quote, tagged , on January 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

At seventy-three I learned a little about the real structure of animals, plants, birds, fishes and insects. Consequently when I am eighty I’ll have made more progress. At ninety I’ll have penetrated the mystery of things. At a hundred I shall have reached something marvelous, but when I am a hundred and ten everything I do, the smallest dot, will be alive.

–Katsushika Hokusai

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I really like the bit of wisdom above from the great Hokusai, both for his optimism on aging as well as the idea that as he continues to progress his work will reach a point where everything he paints– even something as simple as a dot– has a life force within it.

Attaining that life force, where the painting transcends what you have put into it, in any one piece is a rare and difficult thing for any artist to achieve. But that idea that you might one day reach a point where your work has moved from a product of thought and craft to a transcendent expression of the spirit is something that seems beyond our reach or even our aim.

But perhaps we should keep it as an aim in our mind, along with the idea that we will continue to progress as we age, even if it is stored in rarely visited corner.  If we hold on to it perhaps we will subconsciously find our way to that goal. And when we are a hundred and ten, the dots we paint will have that same life force as those created by Hokusai.

It’s something to hope for…

I’ve included a few of Hokusai’s paintings beyond his famed wave and landscapes. I love his fish pieces and the raven is wonderful. Enjoy!

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Can’t Find My Way Home

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, tagged , , , , , on January 7, 2018| 6 Comments »

I opened the YouTube site this morning in hopes of finding a suitable song for this Sunday morning’s musical interlude and it was right there, waiting for me in the recommended section. I began to listen to the song and opened my files to find an image that jibed with the song, at least as I was hearing it in the moment. I opened a file of images from several years back and the first one I looked at felt instantly like a match.

Sometimes things fall into place.

And I appreciate that because there are so many other times when everything is a struggle, when every decision seems clouded with doubt and every action feels out of rhythm. Slog is a word that comes to mind. Just the sound of the word brings to mind the effort required on those difficult days.

But these effortless days wash away all remnants of that word and feeling. I remember that the painting I chose, Only Now, shown at the top being done on such a day in the early days of 2012. It seemed to fall on to the canvas without much assistance or direction on my part. It needed to exist in that moment, needed to find its way into this world.

Needed to find its way home.

Interestingly, this painting has never found a permanent home in this world. It has been at the gallery that represents my work in California for several years now and the ease and freedom in it that makes it a personal favorite for me has never spoken loudly enough to someone who might give it a permanent home. which is not that unusual as some of the paintings that speak to me most personally are often the last to make their way to a new home. Maybe the void in these pieces that need to be filled by the viewer in order to complete them can only be filled by me.

We’ll see.

So this week’s song is fittingly titled Can’t Find My Way Home from Blind Faith back in 1969. Blind Faith, for you youngsters out there, was considered one of the first rock supergroups. The group was comprised of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech, all stars in big-name, established bands. They didn’t last long– one album and one tour– but they left a mark, including this song.

Give a listen and have yourself a good day.

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Warming It Up

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged on January 5, 2018| 2 Comments »

I like winter. The cold and the snow don’t bother me as a rule. But in these extended periods of cold, when the temps hover around zero and below with the winds making those temps feel even more perilous, I long for warmer weather. 30 degrees sounds like a balmy heaven at this point. Light jacket weather.

But you live with the weather you have. When life gives you frozen lemons, you make frozen lemonade. Lemon squishies?

So, it’s a cold and quiet landscape outside my studio windows and I’ll revel in the hard beauty that is there while I feel a little warmth from this morning musical selection. When it comes to warmth, Ella Fitzgerald singing Gershwin’s immortal Summertime from Porgy and Bess fills the bill for me. When the livin’ is easy…

Enjoy this performance, think warm and have a great day.

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