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Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

Bookshelf Porn

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged on January 17, 2012| 6 Comments »

Some might think a website called Bookshelf Porn is something other than what it really is.  But if you’re like me, you probably understood at once what the name implied.   It’s the thrill of a bookcase filled with multi-colored tomes, their spines tantalizing and promising unknown pleasures if you would only take them from the shelf.   The desire to reach out and run one’s fingers over the leatherbound cover of an old book.  To smell the dustiness of the  pages as the book opens.

It may not be sexual but it certainly is sensual.

From my earliest age I have been drawn to bookshelves, from the beautiful reading rooms of our old local library to bookstores of all shapes and sizes.  It was like a portal to an outer world or an altar of worship to knowledge. The silence of the places only punctuated this feeling of sacredness. 

When I was working at jobs where I was often in people’s homes, I would always first look to see if they displayed their books or even had books at all.  I was always disappointed at the number of places that had no evidence of books.   If there were bookshelves, they had videotapes and knick-knacks.   Perhaps they kept their books in a bedroom or in the basement.  Or maybe they just didn;t have books.  I don’t know. 

But when I would come into a home and there were filled shelves, I would be almost giddy.  I would scan the spines hungrily, taking in the titles, ascertaining in a moment what I thought might be the primary interest of the owners.  Sometimes they were filled with professional journals or textbooks from their college days.  Sometimes romance novels or the popular bestsellers of the day. 

But once in a while, they were jammed with an eclectic mix of literature and art books, poetry and philosophy.  They were book and knowledge  lovers. Those were always the most exciting visits and I usually had the best rapport with the owners of these shelves.  We could usually find something interesting to talk about while I did what I had to do and we often spoke in terms we both understood, the bookshelf providing a sort of common ground. 

So, if you’re drawn to the bookshelf as I am, if you are excited by the thought of libraries or bookstores,  take a moment and check out the Bookshelf Porn site.

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Tangled Up In Blue

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , on January 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

I’ve been pretty busy in the studio lately.  That’s not unusual at this point of the year because it is when I’m gearing up for upcoming exhibitions but  in past years  this is when I have often  felt a bit blocked and far removed from the point where I wanted my work to be .   But thus far this year, things have been flowing easily and I feel as though I am near that sometimes elusive groove where the act of painting becomes more  instinctual than cerebral.  When I feel myself in this groove, I start to trust these instincts, this pushing back of conscious decision making.  As a result, there’s no dwelling over decisions at the table or the easel.  I just make the mark and move on from there.

And each piece brings an inspiration and desire for the next painting with ideas gushing forward.  I often find myself making quick little sketches on scraps of paper, little rough stick drawings really.  Just enough of the thought to be able to rekindle the idea later.  Often, I don’t make the sketch and the idea floats away and is sometimes fortuitously recalled at a much later date or is gone forever.  I sometimes think my best thoughts have taken this fleeting route.

The piece shown here is from this recent burst, a smallish canvas, only 6″ by 18″ that I call Tangled Up In Blue.  The title is, of course, taken from the old Bob Dylan song.  This is a simple composition, very typical of much of my work, but it’s carried strongly forward by it’s colors and contrasts.  It has a dramatic edge to it.  I think the red of the mound really highlights this feeling of high emotion.  I try to envision it in other, more natural colors and the result is less potent, more understated.  This feels to me like the tangled trees are two lovers springing from the same red bleeding heart.  The intensity of the red mound and the trees is a sharp contrast to the cooler blues of the water and sky, even though they still have their own intensity.

But the piece is probably brought to completion by the break of pale yellow in the sky, the light that comes through creating chasms in the blue night wall.  This break sets off all the other color and creates a sense of moment in this small, simple piece.  The result is that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

Or at least I think so.

Here’s a little music.  I bet you thought it would be Tangled Up In Blue.  It was going to be but I came across this version of  a different Dylan song, Love Sick.  I really like this film and performance of a song that has been a favorite since it first came out in 1997 and decided to share it instead.  Enjoy.

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Tiffany’s Magnolias

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Technique/History, tagged , on January 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

 In a post from a few days ago and several times before, I have mentioned the stained glass windows that came from the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany in the early part of the 20th century.  They have been a large influence on my work over the years, from their use of complex color harmonies to the way they are composed using simplified forms and strong lines which divide and define the panels.  I never try to imitate any one piece or even have them in mind when working, but I often find myself comparing my work, after it is completed, to them as far as color and composition are concerned.  Often, the paintings that satisfy me the most have an opalescent quality in their color with each color having elements of several colors combining to create a depth of harrmony in the piece, if done well enough.

The panel shown here is a good example.  It is a panel of magnolias that resides at the First Unitarian Congregational Church in Brooklyn, NY.  This is a little darker and contrasted than the image of this window that the church uses on an available  notecard but , for our purposes, this works well.  It shows distinctly the many colors that make up the distant sky– the multiple blues, yellows and pinks which combine masterfully.  In other hands, such a melange could come off as shrill and sharp.  Even cheesy.  But here it has a glowing harmony.

The beautiful silhouettes of the magnolias that cut the sky are graceful  and delicate yet powerful as they climb across the ocean of color behind.  The whites of the flowers are multi-colored with only hints of actual white.  The landscape that runs to the distanet has greens and blues and purples running through them as they provide a deep counterpoint that only enhances the depth of the sky.

Just beautiful.

So, when I mention the windows of Tiffany, you’ll hopefully have a better idea of what I mean.  We’re very lucky that Tiffany Studios was tremendously prolific and that many of these windows still are preserved for our viewing pleasure.  I am always enthralled when I come across one and never turn away feeling less than inspired.  It is that feeling that I hope most carries through in my own work.

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A Great Night For Film

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, tagged , , , on January 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scene From”Black Narcissus”

Last month I wrote here about color influences and focused on the film work of filmmaker Jack Cardiff, particularly in the the movies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.  Tonight, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is featuring an entire evening of the Cardiff-shot films of Powell and Pressburger as well as the documentary, Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff.  If you like films with a distinct look and a unique storyline, this is a great night to tune in.

 
The Cardiff documentary is very good and gives great insight to this innovative mind behind the movies.  For instance, it talks about the film Black Narcissus which is set in a convent in the Himalayas, with spectacular shots such as the one shown above.  The film is so wonderfully shot and lit that the viewer always feels that the film was shot on location in the high mountains.  Their is depth and naturalness in every view yet it was completely shot on a British studio lot with long views composed of papier-mache mountains and painted backdrops.   One of the people who worked on the film said that the sets were so brilliant that when you walked by a window with the mountains in the distance, you forgot for a moment where you were and believed you were  in the Himalyas.
 
The evening starts with The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp  , a movie I really hold in high esteem, and moves on to the Cardiff documentary.  That is followed by A Matter of Life and Death which was originally released as Stairway to Heaven .  It’s a great film with wonderful fantasy scenes shot in a reverse Technicolor monochrome that are quite striking.  The film, though not well known here, is considered by many film critics to be one of the greatest British films.
 
Then comes the incredible color and beauty of the ballet-based The Red Shoes.  I don’t know ballet but this is a spectacular film. The evening finishes up early in the morning with Black Narcissus. 
 
All are beautiful to see.  All have stories that are a bit unusual.  All have great impact.  I can’t speak for every taste here, knowing that many might see these and just not see what I see in them.  But for those who love great films, this is a great night to see some of the best.

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The Zombies Live On

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Television, Video, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2012| 8 Comments »

I have never seen the HBO series True Blood.  Maybe I’m reticent to get sucked into the current vortex of popularity created by the return of vampires and zombies in pop culture.  I don’t know, but I have never felt a strong desire to watch the show.  Maybe that will change.

One thing that might make me switch on True Blood is their use of music in the show.  Apparently, each episode is titled after a piece of music that is used in that show.  I came across one such piece of music created for an episode that really piqued my interest.  It’s a remake of the 1964 hit She’s Not There from the classic 60’s British Invasion band, The Zombies, performed by my favorite, Neko Case, and the provocative Nick Cave.  I immediately knew that this would not be your typical cover/remake.

Normally, I wouldn’t even want to hear a remake of a song like She’s Not There.  It has held up spectacularly well over the almost 50 years since it was released, as do several of The Zombies’ other songs.  Probably why they still perform and tour after a half decade.   But the idea of these two performers singing it expressly for a vampire series brought up some the possibility of something different than a straight cover.

And I was right.  It has a creepy Cajun bayou thump in its bass and with Nekos’s voice soaring over Cave’s growl, it makes a compelling cover.  Old yet new.  Like a vampire, I guess. 

So, here I am, despite my protests, endorsing a song made for vampires originally sung by zombies.  Here is the new cover with Neko and Nick (hey, that’s kind of catchy) and, if you’d like to compare, the original from The Zombies.

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Beauford Delaney’s Greenwich Village

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , on January 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I was looking through a book of American Expressionist paintings and came across this piece that completely pulled me in.  It was a scene of Greenwich Village in the 1940’s painted in spectacular fashion by Beauford Delaney, a name with which I wasn’t too familiar.  Looking at it, there was so much going on in this quiet street scene that it was like a luscious meal set before me and I simply hovered over it, savoring it  before I dug in.  I didn’t know where to start.

The colors are big and bold with a blue night sky that brought Van Gogh to mind and a moon that hangs in a crescent  that floats almost sweetly over the near empty street.  It is rough and expressionistic yet elegant and complex in the ways the colors play off one another.  It is quiet yet hardly timid.  It is what it is, a street scene, but its abstracted manner gives it other dimensions and depths.

Just about everything I want in a painting.

Like I said, I didn’t know much about Beauford Delaney, to my embarrassment.  He’s shown here in a 1940 portrait done by Georgia O’keefe, which I thought was pretty interesting as well.  Born in 1901 in Knoxville, Tennessee, he and his brother, Joseph, were both prominent artists and part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930’s.  Beauford never achieved the sort of recognition here that his work deserved and he struggled mightily until finally leaving the States in the early 1950’s, settling in Paris where he lived the rest of his life, dying in 1979.  There is an interesting short  bio, A Tale of Two Brothers by Jack Neely, online for those who seek to know a bit more about the man.

I know I will be looking for more of his work.

 

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Sleigh Ride

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , , on December 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

Okay, I promise this will be the last Christmassy thing you will hear from me for a long time but I came across this video of the old holiday chestnut, Sleigh Ride, with a dog sled team hurtling through a winter wonderland.  The song is performed by She and Him, the indy-folk duo comprised of the ever adorable Zooey Deschanel, the singer/actress of 500 Days of Summer and now New Girl fame, and  singer/songwriter M. Ward, whose distinct solo work I really admire.  There is something very charming in much of their music.

I just found myself sucked into watching this video, not being able to look away as I followed the dogs’ powerful gaits which made me think of our first dog, Maggie Blackwater, a husky-sherpherd mix who favored her husky side, if her love of snow and desire to run at full throttle for long distances are any sort of indicators.  She sometimes felt more wild than domestic but never in an aggressive way.  With an indomitable spirit, she simply burned through life like a wildfire, always racing forward in a most unpredictable fashion, and never slowed down until she died from a heart attack at age 12.   She would have been straining at her harness to get to joyfully run with these guys.

So, take a ride on this last Friday of the year.

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Early Snow

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , on December 28, 2011| 1 Comment »

We’re winding down the last few days of December and we have yet to have any real snow in this part of New York  where I live and work.  I’ve rhapsodized here before about my particular affection for snow so it should come as no surprise that I am bit depressed by the lack of the white stuff at this point in the year.  That being the case I went looking for some online and came across this image on one of my favorite sites, Luminous Lint, which features a spectacular array of fine art photos from all eras.

This particular one is an 1841 daguerrotype from Frenchman Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey that may be the eraliest known photographic image of snow.  Photography was in its infancy then and nature photography had yet to blossom.  The daguerrotype, named after the man, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, who created the process which created these images, was the main form pf photography at the time.  It was a very dangerous process that involved the heating of mercury which created extremely toxic vapors.

According to the site, there may be other images of snow that predate this but today I’m considering this the first.  Besides I like the was the plate shows its spectrum of color at its edges and the image sort of emerges from it.  It really feels like a moment from a time long ago has been ripped from the continuum and placed on a slide for us to examine. 

And besides, it may be the only snow I see for the rest of this year.

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Strength of Character

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Quote, tagged on December 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

—Mahatma Gandhi

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This is a painting from a few years back titled Strength of Character, a 26″ by 30″ image on paper.  It’s one of those rare paintings that has always garnered a lot of attention when shown but has never found a home which has always puzzled me because I consider it an iconic piece from my body of work. 

It uses the Red Tree as a central figure and uses spare detail and strong color to convey a very simple message, one that might well spring from the words of Gandhi quoted above.  The twisted trunk of the tree tells of the adversity the tree has faced, of the obstacles of the hard rock it has forced its way past to emerge to display its red foliage which it wears like a victor’s laurels.  This piece is all about perseverance and maintaining one’s will throughout.  Indomitable.

The color in the piece is really interesting to me.  It has several layers that create a great depth in it, giving the painting a level of complexity that belies its simple constuction.  The overall effect is one that I have struggled to recreate but have never been able to accomplish with anything near the  level of grace or fluidity that I find in this piece.  This color and the fact that the painting still stays with me makes this a very enigmatic piece.

Why it has yet to find a home is not a question I can answer.  I can never say why a painting leaves quickly or stays around for a while.  The pure subjectivity of art is often hard to follow or translate, even in my own work.  But the fact that it remains has never made me think for a moment that this was anything but a painting of my highest level.  It may just take a while for others to see that.

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Christmas Past

Posted in Favorite Things, tagged , on December 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home.

—Charles Dickens

Wishing a very Merry Christmas to everyone everywhere.  May the season find us all at peace.

—-GC Myers, 2011

 

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