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Archive for the ‘Neat Stuff’ Category

The Devil and the Messenger

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , , on February 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This etching hangs on my studio wall, near my painting table.  It’s titled The Devil and the Messenger and it’s from  Grant Silverstein, an artist from rural northern Pennsylvania not far from where I live.  He is self-taught and has worked in intaglio etching, which is engraving the image on a copper plate with a sharp needle, for many years now. 

I’ve always liked the look and feel of etchings and have great admiration for those who can translate their vision through this medium.  I don’t know if I would have the patience. Grant has his own look and feel, often dealing in the allegorical.  Whenever I come across his work I have to stop and look with great pleasure.

My eye often drifts up to this piece and fills me with a lot of different questions and feelings, outside of the satisfaction of the viewing the composition itself.  I am curious as to what the messenger is carrying and to who is he taking it. Is the Devil is taking the message or replacing it as the messenger sleeps.  Is the messenger merely sleeping  normally or is it the result of the Devil’s work?

I see it as a reminder that one is always vulnerable in some way, that there is always the possibility of some Devil tinkering with you while you least suspect it.  A little vigilance is required.   I don’t mean that to sound paranoid.  What I mean to say is that it’s best to view strangers you encounter in a dark wood  a bit warily, particularlly if they are horned. 

And to be careful where you sleep.

To see more of the etchings of Grant Silverstein click here to go to his website.

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Rockin’ Billy

Posted in Early Paintings, Influences, Neat Stuff, tagged , , on February 6, 2010| 1 Comment »

I went to the Little Gems opening last night at the West End Gallery.  It was a really great crowd and I was able to see a lot of people I don’t get to see but a time or two a year.  A lot of good conversation.

One friend, guitarist Bill Groome, reminded me of a piece that I had given him back in 1999.  It was a little piece I had done years before that, before I ever thought of showing or selling my work.  It was done with crayons and was of a guitar player dancing to his own playing.  I called it Rockin’ Billy after rockabilly guitarist Billy Lee Riley, who distinctive, edge-of-wild studio playing rocked most of the early rockabilly recordings at Sun Records, including his own hits Red Hot ( …my gal is red hot, your gal ain’t doodley-squat…) and Flying Saucers Rock and Roll.   There was just something about the player in this little piece that felt liked he was moved by the spirit of that early music.

I didn’t have any images of the piece but when I got into the studio this morning, I found that Bill had emailed me a scan of Rockin’ Billy.   Thanks, Bill.  Even though it’s rough edged and maybe not a virtuoso piece in itself, I still really like this little guy a lot.  I can still hear Billy Lee’s guitar echoing in my memory…

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , on February 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

It’s Friday.  Time for a little respite from the week.

Here’s a great version of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps performed by ukelele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, a performer who has stretched the perception of what a uke can be.  Beautiful playing…

Enjoy your Friday and if you’re in the Corning area tonight, stop in at the opening for the Little Gems exhibit at the West End Gallery.  It’s always a lively crowd and there’s something for everyone in this show.

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Some Little Favorites

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , , on January 31, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve written recently about the upcoming Little Gems show at the West End Gallery in Corning, a show that has a lot of meaning for me as far as being the jumping off point for my career.  I also really enjoy this show,  just to see other artists’ work.  It’s always interesting to see how artists who more often work in larger formats  handle the challenge of working on a smaller scale.

Here’s a great example from Marty Poole.  It’s a beautiful little 6″ by 8″ painting, a wonderful  example of his great ability with color and light.  The face of this child just glows on the panel. Marty is well known nationally for his large landscapes with broad, evocative skies as well as for his figurative work.  His handling of paint is remarkable in any genre.  He very seldom works so small so this show presents a great opportunity for collectors to pick up more affordable pieces from an artist whose work is widely sought.

Another aspect of Little Gems is allowing artists who normally work in a smaller format to show their work on equal footing, as far as size, with artists who works’ normal sizes would dominate the gallery walls.  It allows their normal work to really shine.  Here’s a great example called Last Bell from Mark Reep, whose meticulous black and white small works are always filled with ponderous atmosphere that belies their size.  Just beautiful work.

Then there are artists who take this opportunity for small works to show a different side of their talent.  Such is the case with Wilson Ong who is perhaps best known for his sublime portraiture.  His small pieces are whimsical tiny (in the 2″ by 3″ range)  paintings of animals in unlikely situations. Here are two of my favorites:

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As I said, this is always  a great show to see really talented artists working on a small scales.  Stop in and see these gems.

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If I Can Dream

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , , , on January 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I can’t believe I failed to mention the birthday of Elvis Presley, who would have turned 75 a  few days back.  It’s not that I was the hugest of Elvis fans although I was an admirer of many of his songs and performances and recognized the attraction his talent had for many.  It’s just that in death he has become this cultural phenomenon, an icon that has taken on almost mythic and mystical qualities for his ardent fans.

That’s kind of what I saw when I painted this small piece a few years back.  It’s called Elvis in the Wilderness which recalls Moses‘ exile to the wilderness.  I may do a follow-up where Elvis leads the exodus from Eygpt.

Or maybe Elvis healing lepers.  Or perhaps traveling through time, battling various injustices throughout history.  Elvis in hand to hand combat with the tag team of Hitler and Mussolini.  Elvis at Valley Forge.

TCB, baby.  Just like the 3 letters on his huge belt buckle indicate.  Taking care of business.

It could be anything, anywhere.  That’s the beauty of Elvis as a mythic character, a superhero.  He fits easily into any time and setting with the powers imbued on him by his fans and as a result, never really dies.

Here’s a performance that I really love if only for the iconic stance in his white suit before the huge ELVIS sign.  Great visual.

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I Can Fly

Posted in Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , , , on January 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

I probably would never take any hints for doing anything from watching Wile E. Coyote cartoons but when I see films of people in wingsuits stepping off sheer cliffs and soaring like rockets at 150 MPH only several feet from the face of the mountain, all I can wonder is Where did they get this idea?

Were these guys sitting around, eating bowls of cereal at four in the afternoon,watching cartoons and when the image of Wile E. in his 1950’s wingsuit came on the screen, thought, “That is so cool!  Let’s try that!” ?

I kind of hope so.  That means there’s still a possibility for rocket-powered rollerskates out there.

The first time I saw any video of these fearless fliers, it was a guy buzzing by the Giant Jesus on Sugarloaf down in Rio.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The guy was a streak going nearly horizontal across the sky.  Amazing.

Currently, the flights generally last a little over a minute until the flier opens his chute and sails easily to the ground but there are many who trying to develop suits that would enable them to glide to the ground without a chute.  That would probably allow for longer flight times.  Zowie!

I can’t even imagine standing at the precipice of a cliff, looking over at a couple of thousand feet of a sheer granite wall, let alone wanting to step off it with only a nylon suit and a giant set of cajones to take me to the bottom.  I am enthralled by their daring and ability to overcome the primal fear that must be present when they raise that first foot before the leap.  I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced anything near that burst of adrenaline that must be throbbing through them at that point and as I watch them from the safety of  my chair, I am both excited by their adventurous spirit and disappointed by my own.

It make me wonder.  Are these guys crazy? Or are  many of us too bound to this earth by our own fears?  Could I ever take that step?

Take a look at this before you decide if you’re willing to take that step.  It’s from the film, The Sharp End, which documents this type of flying and other extreme rocksports such as free-climbing without ropes and which comes highly recommended by my nephew, Jeremy, who dabbles in rock climbing out West.



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Herb and Dorothy

Posted in Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , , on January 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

This is Herb and Dorothy Vogel.  Herb’s retired from his job at the post office and Dorothy from a job as a librarian.  They live in a small apartment in NYC.  The only connection I have with them is that Dorothy is from my hometown of Elmira.  That and the fascination I have for the passion that they possess for collecting art.

You see, the Vogels have compiled one of the greatest collections of modern art in the world over the past forty eight years or so.

I’ve written before that art does not have to be the sole province of the wealthy, that art is accessible to most every income level if the person really feels the desire to collect.  The Vogels are positive proof of that.

They married in the early 60’s and immediately began their obsession, living on Dorothy’s income as a librarian and using Herb’s paycheck to buy art. They sought out new and what they felt were important artists, meeting them and learning about them as they acquired early, important works from the artists before they were discovered by the greater art world.  Many artists became friends and gave them numerous pieces until their small apartment was bulging.  Artworks under the bed, artworks on the ceiling, artworks in every nook and cranny– art consumed their home.

By this time, their collection was recognized throughout the art world as one of the largest and most comprehensive collections held by a private collector.  In the 90’s, the National Gallery of Art took stewardship of their collection, allowing the Vogel’s collection to live on long after they are gone.  It also allowed the Vogel’s the room, as the collection was taken by the National Gallery, to continue collecting with the same passion for the modern art they so loved.  It’s said that their collection is probably worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars today but that was never the reason behind their manic collecting.  It was about their love of, and connection to, the art.  It proves that wealth or income is not the primary factor in collecting.

Only a passion and desire.

The story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel is a great story and was the subject of an award-winning documentary this past year called, of course, Herb and Dorothy.  There is also a ton of written articles and broadcast stories out there about the Vogels, so please look them up.  You may not like a lot of the work they collect but their passion is worth watching.

Here’s a trailer for the documentary:

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Mummers!

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Television, Video, tagged , , on January 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday was the annual appearance of the Mummer’s Parade from Philadelphia, which has been going on for a couple of hundred years there although the first “official” parade was held in 1901.  It’s usually held on or around New Year’s Day and fills Broad Street in Philly with incredibly costumed bands playing out pretty ornate choreographed pieces.  The amazing thing is how much effort is put in by the social clubs of that city throughout the year, practicing and making the stunning costumes, for the five minutes or so they get in the spotlight.

The idea of the Mummer’s Parade is derived from the Mummer’s Plays of medieval Europe where groups of costumed performers went door to door, acting out their simple plays which had many regional variations but normally involved a Hero being killed by some sort of evil opponent then being revived by a Doctor of sorts, usually on the day after Christmas.  It has survived in many parts of the world and is still often practiced during the holiday season with revelers going from home to home, singing and accepting drinks and such from their hosts.

They show part of the parade annually on WGN , the nationally broadcast superstation out of Chicago, and we always watch at least part of it.  It’s a great scene and you have to admire the dedication these groups have for the tradition of this parade.  Cheri has often said that it would be a great setting for a movie from Christopher Guest and company, of Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and Waiting For Guffman fame.  These movies usually have self-contained environments and casts of really interesting characters.  Perfect fit for this parade. Maybe Murder at the Mummers?

Here’s an example of one of the string bands, one of the different competing divisions:

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Kid Stuff

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged on December 29, 2009| 5 Comments »

My sister asked me to frame this for  my nephew, Jeremy,  for Christmas.  It’s a self-portrait done by his longtime friend and now fiancee, Eliza, when she was 9 years old, which means it was done two years ago.  Just kidding.  It was a couple of decades back.

I just love this piece.  There is just something there, like a lot of kid’s art that I’ve been fortunate to see, that has a real sense of rightness.  There is an innocence in its expression and feeling with an innate and natural sophistication that goes beyond the nine years of experience Eliza had at the time.  By that, I mean that she is expressing things with this little painting in a natural way that older, much more experienced painters struggle to find in their own work, even with all their years of acquired knowledge and technical sophistication.

I think therein lies the beauty of folk art and kid’s art’s place in it: True self expression with what you know and how you view things without trying to represent the work or yourself as more sophisticated than you really are.  When the feeling behind the work is genuine, the level of sophistication becomes secondary.  I think we’ve all seen paintings done by highly skilled artists that are skillfully rendered but raise no feeling within us, seemingly devoid of emotion.  It’s like they are so concerned with technique that they lose the emotion of what they’re trying to portray, whereas kid’s art often is so much about being able to freely express themselves that the feeling is carried through the process and actually enhanced with each unsteady stroke of paint.

I’m sure many of you out there see a steady stream of kid’s work and brush off a lot of it.  Take an extra moment and look a little deeper and you’ll see some wonderful things from these little beings.  Fresh eyes…

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Must Be Santa

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Video, tagged , on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Just a few days before Christmas and I can’t get a particular Christmas song out of my head.  Infectious.

It’s Must Be Santa and it’s from Bob Dylan.

Yep, Bob Dylan.

He has a new CD of Christmas songs, all done in his own way.  Some are old chestnuts that work better than others but the one that shines for me is Must be Santa.  It’s a fast polka with a klezmer feel complete with accordions.  Lots of fun.

My new favorite Christmas song.

And Bob dances in the video.

What more can one ask for Christmas?

Enjoy!

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