Art Inquisition

Sometimes Making Art is Risky

2006-10-30T14:13:00.000-05:00

A couple of models discovered that posing underwater is a hazardous working condition when some sharks decided to investigate:

Underwater Nude Model Bitten by Shark on Photo Shoot; 'We Push the Envelope'

For some reason, I'm reminded of photographers who risk warfare to take photos of the action.

While the models where scantily clad, I wondered what the person taking the pictures were wearing. Todd Essick's site explains more about the project (NSFW - Note there are images on his site that may be Not Safe For Work.)

Flags Across America

2006-10-02T23:56:00.000-04:00

I was at a party this weekend in Chesapeake City, Maryland. After the party broke up, I was walking with some friends back to our cars. We walked past a large truck painted like a flag, with a pair of antlers attached to the front of the vehicle.

Chesapeake City is a nice little town, filled with restaurants and antique shops. It has a couple of interesting geographical features. One is the Delaware - Chesapeake Canal that runs through the middle of town, connecting the Delaware Bay with the Chesapeake Bay. The other is a very high bridge that casts a long shadow over the town.

The newspaper the next day explained a little more about the patriotic truck. It belongs to an artist who is attempting to paint a flag on at least one rooftop in every state in the United States. The artist is Scott LoBaido, and his web site, which describes some of his adventures so far, is CreativePatriot.org.

A tip of the hat to Scott LoBaido.

Postscript.

The artist who created the "Wake Up America Day" poster above was James Montgomery Flagg. He created more than forty patriotic posters, with one showing Uncle Sam probably the most well known.

ukiyo-e in Hawaii

2006-09-30T12:14:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I wrote about Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and the Japanese painting tradition of Ukiyo-e. I was surprised to discover that one of the most famous practitioners of that style was an Englishman, and a long time resident of Hawaii.

Charles William Bartlett was a well-known water color artist in Europe before he left on a five year tour of Asia. In Japan, he was exposed to Ukiyo-e production methods.

On his return to England, he stopped over in Hawaii. Intending to stay a few weeks, he instead stayed and became a resident of Hawaii.

I'm really enthralled by his work.

China Miéville's The Scar

2006-09-30T11:42:00.000-04:00

Review of The Scar
Written by British author, China Miéville,

Set in the same world as Perdido Street Station, The Scar is a merging of maritime legend, urban fantasy, and and exploration of utopian cities.

There isn't much overlap with Perido Street Station when it comes to plot, though the events in that first book caused one of the main characters in this book to set off on the voyage that this book starts with.

Again, there's a rich undertone of social criticism in this book, layered under a tale that's pretty compelling in its own right. It is the second of three novels which share the same unusual location, the world of Bas-Lag. I've read all three, and will be writing a review of the third sometime soon.

The Scar was published in 2002, and it is as rich in every way as the first book by the author set in this world.

The main character is a linguist on the run, fleeing the inquisitive eye of the militia and government of New Crobuzon. Relying on a bureacracy not to tie together a larger picture and identify her before she escapes, she signs on as interpreter for a government ship making a long journey to a criminal colony, where remade prisoners will be given a chance to start again, albeit in altered shape.

One of the interesting aspects of New Crubonzon is how they treat criminals. They remake them, by altering their physical makeup in odd ways, such as merging their body with machines, or animal forms. On the journey to this coloney, the voyage is diverted on a secret government mission, and then overtaken by pirates. They are taken to a new city, floating on the waters, which has a destiny to meet with a strange affliction forced upon the planet - a scar.

The title to the book is also a theme that runs through it, sometimes a little too bluntly, but it ties the tale together in interesting ways. Who amongst us doesn't have some scar, physical or emotional, that afflicts us or has healed over in some manner and shaped our path in some way.

I enjoyed this book as much, or more, than Perdido Street Station, and I'm looking forward to more tales set on the world of Bas-Lag. Fortunately, there was one more, which I'll write more about in a few days.

The prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

2006-09-26T22:25:00.000-04:00

The US Library of Congress has a great set of Japanese Prints from before 1915 in their Prints and Photographs Reading Room. One of the artist I found there whose woodblock prints I enjoyed were from Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

He was an artist of the Ukiyo-e tradition - perhaps the most well known of the artists in that style. One of his most popular series he called One Hundred Views of the Moon.

The picture at the top of this post is from that series, and is titled Cassia Tree Moon. My favorites from him (so far) are from a later series, New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts. Here's Kiyohime Changes from a Serpent from that series:

Poet Laureate Warns of the Evils of Highlighters

2006-09-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Nice advice from former poet laureate Billy Collins: Poet tells freshmen to scribble, not Hi-Lite

If you highlight something in a book, and return an hour later, or a day later, or a week later, are you going to be able to understand the significance of that signal you left upon that page? A note in a margin can impart more meaning, can make more sense upon return, and can force you to articulate the importance of a passage.

Liked this:

"Participate in your education," he said. "Speak up in class, write in the margins; the margins of the world await your notation."

Sounds like it could apply to blogs as well as books.

Movies as Art

2006-09-25T11:13:00.000-04:00

The Seattle Times asks of the movie Jackass the question Is it art? I haven't seen the movie, but the argument is afforded an extensive analysis in the article, and somehow they answer in the affirmative.

I watched the documentary, The Boys of Baraka this weekend, and in a style similar to that employed by 60 Minutes, we are introduced to children from the inner city of Baltimore, who spend a year in Kenya, given a chance for growth without the influences of troubled surroundings in Baltimore. Is it art?

In both cases, I'd say yes. Thinking about it, I'm probably going to add some movie reviews here as well as the book reviews I mentioned a couple of days ago. I tend to watch a lot of movies, and it would be nice to have an outlet to write about them a little.

I want to explore this theme of what makes a movie art. Right now, I'm not sure of the answer. I hope that thinking about style, structure, message, and more will help me find one.

New Deal Art 1

2006-09-22T16:02:00.000-04:00

Love many of the WPA posters over at the Library of Congress online Prints and Photographs catalog. Need some art here, so I may begin posting some of these on a regular basis.

Artifacts as Wedding Gifts

2006-09-22T15:51:00.000-04:00

Not such a good idea.

A friend was married in Poland last year. One of the wedding gifts from a family member was a painting from the early 1900s. On the way through the airport back to the US, the artwork was uncovered, and taken as a "cultural artifact." Decisions were made as to whether to charge the newly married couple with a crime.

Jeeze.

Review of Perdido Street Station

2006-09-22T15:49:00.000-04:00

Written by British author, China Miéville, this fictional tale set in a grand metropolis filled with mad scientists, exotic non-human races, and unusual creatures, is one of the more interesting pieces of social criticism I've read in quite a while. It's the first of three novels written in the same fantastic world by the author, and I've had the pleasure of reading all three recently.

I've been meaning to add book reviews to my blogging efforts, and this seems like a great choice to begin with.

Perdido Street Station was first published in the United States in 2001, and introduces readers to the urban landscape of New Crobuzon and the eccentric workings of an unusual scientist and his client, who would like to regain the power of flight.

I'm finding it interesting that the reviews at Amazon cover a wide range of opinions, from people who loved the book, to others who found it unreadable.
First warning - the characters that inhabit this world are flawed. They aren't paragons of virtue, and some of them aren't even nice folks. But, they are believable, even when they shouldn't be.

Second warning - the world in which they inhabit is filled with odd and unusual mysteries, and stretch our knowledge and limits of belief. But it's a rich and colorful world, and the political struggles and troubles painted with the author's pen often see echoes in the world that surrounds the reader.

Third warning - the author paints vivid pictures with his words, in static scenes. The parts with action don't flow as well, but I'm not sure that's really an impediment to enjoying the work.

Somehow, I think that I could expand this list of warnings down the page for quite a while, and not tire of listing them, but I'd rather a reader do that for him or herself. The flaws in writing, in describing, and in world-building are fascinating in their own right, and inspite of them, and perhaps because of some of them, this series of books is one that I enjoyed tremendously.

The author is daring, taking chances, engaging reader's imaginations. This is much more dark and gritty a fantasy than many I've seen, and it caused me to pause and reflect upon my own world more than once. Parts of it are difficult, but ultimately rewarding.

Ok, my first book review. I may try to tackle this one again, after a hundred or so other reviews. The book is worth reading again.

National Postal Museum

2006-08-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

Art happens in places that we don't always think about too much.

I didn't know that there was a National Postal Museum. I'm going to have to add it to my list of places that I want to visit in Washington, DC.

My choice for best section of the site is the National Postal Museum's Photographic Archives, and the best photo, hand's down, is of a mail carrier with a child in his mail bag. Seems that right after parcel post was started, a couple of children were sent by mail, with stamps adorning their clothing. The post master general halted that practice, but this picture (which predates parcel post) is great.

Burka Band - Myth or Reality?

2006-08-22T17:18:00.000-04:00

I like the idea of a world in which a band of girls gets a chance to fulfill their dreams and play music without fear of death or reprisals.

When someone want to perform their art, at the risk fo their own lives, that's a scary situation. Journalist Michael Lund writes about the Burka Band, who are in just such a position.

What would you expect from a girls' group from Afghanistan? I didn't expect what I heard. I'd love to see them able to create a full length CD. A lyric from the song:

"You give me all your love, you give me all your kisses, and then you touch my burqa, and don't know who it is...,"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Papers

2006-08-22T01:05:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite poets is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It's exciting to hear of new works by an author, and a historical record that hasn't been shared with the public.

The British Library just purchased an archive of his papers from his family. I'm pretty excited to see some of the documents included in the archive.

Highlights include a previously unknown manuscript of two of Coleridge's poems, written in his own hand, and many reminiscences of the poet in the letters and diaries of other family members. There are also letters from eminent Victorians who were friends of the Coleridges, including the poet Matthew Arnold, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, the leading cleric Cardinal John Newman and architect Augustus Pugin.

This is some truly amazing stuff. The article notes that it may take a year to catalog these works. I wonder how long it might take to publish some of these letters and other documents. I can't wait.

The Art of Wine

2006-08-05T23:11:00.000-04:00

After a day in Sonoma Valley, California, I'm willing to concede that the growth and creation of wine is at least as much art as it is science.

I'm not much of a wine drinker, and yet I found myself getting excited over the chance to taste wines at three different wineries. One of my favorites was the Kunde Estate Wineries, as much for the chance to view different varieties of grapes on a trellis system, and to tour their Aging caves, as it was to taste their wines.

In these wineries, I found a reverence for the earth, a craftsmanship in their process, and a commitment to quality that does seem to make this an artistic process.

I'm looking forward to a return visit.

Geography and Irony

2006-08-04T00:06:00.000-04:00

It's been a long day so far, and it started a couple of days ago.

Rather than sleeping last night, I prepared for a trip to the other side of the continent, a few miles from the Pacific instead of a few miles from the Atlantic. I caught a red eye flight out of Baltimore into San Francisco, checked into a hotel, and did some sleepy-eyed investigation of this culturally rich town.

Out of the corner of one of those tired eyes, I noticed a museum hidden away between two storefronts on Sutter Street (great road, but the way, with lots of art galleries). The San Francisco Museum of Crafts and Design isn't a large space, but it makes up for it with a thoughtful and intelligent presentation.

The present exhibition in the museum focuses upon the works of Raymond Loewy, who was one of the most prominent designers of the 20th century. I was blown away by the items on display, from clock radios to desks to trains, and many commercial products.

I noticed that most of the items being show were on loan from the Hagley Museum. As fate would have it, I live only a few miles away from Hagley, and a friend's mother used to work there. Guess I should pay more attention to some of the local museums. Hagley is a good one.

Artist as explorer

2006-08-01T14:10:00.000-04:00

I like what Cory Trepanier is doing with his Into the Artic project. As a landscape artist, the idea of going on an expedition, and combining blogging, oil painting, and filmed documentary is a tremendous idea, as he and his family explore the north.

And, it looks like a lot of fun.

Hip Hop Culture Institutionalized

2006-07-31T21:23:00.000-04:00

The first hip hop song I remember hearing was from Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Hip hop has not only since entered the mainstream, but it's now the focus of a Smithsonian Exhibit, as the Baltimore Sun notes: Mixing it up with hip-hop exhibit

The article discusses the preparations for a year long exhibition of hip hop music and culture. Still at the fundraising stage, it sounds like it is going to be a great show.

New Link and New Artist

2006-07-30T23:26:00.000-04:00

I hadn't seen Dexigner before, and it looks like it's filled with some good stuff, like a link to the pages of Ruben Rude.

I'm really enjoying Ruben's works. One of the things he created was a toy for a company that merges art with toys - Strangeco.

Electronic Art Festival

2006-07-30T22:38:00.000-04:00

Next year, I'd like to attend the Fourteenth International Symposium of Electronic Art.

The Thirteenth International Symposium of Electronic Art and ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge is happening soon in San Jose, and it looks like it's going to be a great show.

The Survival Research Labs show brings together abandoned buildings, robots, and flamethrowers. Sounds like it has the potential for some fun.

Another part of the show is called supervision which covers some intriguing territory:

Super Vision explores the changing nature of our relationship to living in a post-private society where personal electronic information is constantly collected and distributed. These bodies, separate from our physical bodies, and infinitely more accessible, exist in a “data space” which because it is inherently more complex than the visual, remains mostly invisible.

The rest of the schedule looks pretty good, too.

The Intersection of Law and Art as Artistic Expression

2006-07-29T09:19:00.000-04:00

Take a series of legal documents, and bundle them together as a disclosure in public of secrets about yourself. Is it art?

(I seem to be asking if a lot of things are art lately, which may be a good theme for this fairly young blog.)

There's a discussion at Metafilter (though a short one at this point), about an article at WWW.Legal.com title Law As Art? which looks at "the law as an intrinsic element of the work itself."

It's a topic to consider, though I find myself more interested in art where elements of other works are snot-too-subtlely incorporated into the new piece, often referred to as Appropriation.

Safety and Inflatable Sculpture

2006-07-29T08:14:00.000-04:00

I haven't really looked at inflatable and interactive sculpture before, and it sadly took a tragedy to get me to start.

The Guardian reports on an accident involving this type of art in London that sadly cost a couple of people their lives, and injuring others: 'People fell out' as wind took blow-up sculpture

Investigators are still trying to piece together how the 2,500 square metre sculpture, titled Dreamspace, became detached from its moorings at Riverside Park in Chester-le-Street and flew up into the air yesterday.

ArtDaily has more: Inflatable Sculpture Dreamspace Kills Two and Injures 12, which includes a description of the work, and a picture from the inside.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those involved, and to the artists and crew who put the work together.

Can a Perfume be Art or is L’Oréal Going Too Far?

2006-07-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

Can a fragrance be granted copyright protection?

That's a battle that it seems L’Oréal is tryin to wage. See: What's that smell? It's art, says L’Oréal

According to L’Oréal, 23 of the 26 most important chemicals used to create Trésor were used in a Kecofa fragrance called Female Treasure. While Trésor retails at about £40, Female Treasure costs about £3.

Since the perfume is not an exact copy, patent law and trademark law may not apply. So it seems the company is making a copyright claim in their battle against the knockoff scent.

Nonsense. Total nonsense. Are smells and tastes going to see a rush of people claiming copyright protection?

Complete nonsense.

Except that the Dutch Supreme Court agreed with L’Oréal.

What is the range of art?

2006-07-28T10:03:00.000-04:00

I remember getting into an argument with a girlfriend's father about sports, which is probably not a good thing to do, or at least to do frequently.

He didn't like sports much, and considered football players offensive louts, without grace nor skill, and lacking in any aspect of interest to him. The house was often filled with the strains of opera music, and I imagine the television dial was rarely switched from the public television channel to any other.

And I remember thinking during that argument that many arts are performance based, such as ballet, where grace and skill were an important aspect of the artform. Is there a thin dividing line between dance and sports? In some arenas, such as figure skating, it's difficult to draw that line. I'm not calling Terrell Owens a ballerina, but he's as graceful as most folks who walk around this globe.

In the wikipedia article on Artist, the following is from a list there on art and artist. For each of the following, the article also includes an artist name. I removed those, and just listed the "Art."

It's a broader list than I expected, and some of the arts or artist types enumerated are ones that I wouldn't expect. For instance, I'm not sure that I would have put a "Fashion model" on the list. Maybe I'm not being open minded. If in the future I describe a football game as an art performance, I'm storing up an argument.

Actress
Architect
Ballet
Calligraphy
Ceramicist
Choreographer
Collagist
Comics
Composer
Conceptual artist
Digital collage
Dancer
Designer
Entertainer
Fashion designer
Fashion model
Neo-Figurative Artist
Game designer
Graphic designer
Horticulture
Illusionist
Impressionist
Industrial designer
Jeweller
Movie director
Muralist
Musician
Novelist
Musical instrument maker
Orator
Outsider Art
Painter
Performance Art
Photographer
Pianist
Playwright
Poet
Potter
Printmaker
Sculptor
Typographer

(I had to look at one of the examples listed in the wikipedia of a neo-figurative artist to see what that was exactly - Fernando Botero)

So, if you do something with a flair that can't just be influenced by the utility of the moment, that makes you an artist? (Maybe I'm getting this wrong.)

Adding a Creative Commons License

2006-07-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

A couple of years back, I had just spent an hour or so on the phone with a reporter, who was asking some questions about technology and legal issues surrounding it. He was a freelance reporter, and worked for a number of different newspapers.

The topic of blogs came up, and I asked him if he would consider writing a blog. His response, "Write for Free, I would never do that." surprised me a little.

Maybe I don't have the feeling that everyone on the planet is only alloted a few choice words, that they should charge for everytime they feel like sharing them with the rest of the world.

I did sort of feel that the hour that I just spent on the phone, where I provided information for this guy, for free, may have just been wasted. Talk about my subject of expertise for free, to someone who couldn't be bothered to spend fifteen or twenty minutes a day cranking out a blog post, for free.

I didn't bring that point up, but I also didn't rush to answer any phone messages afterwards that he left me afterwards.

This blog is intended as a public diary of my exploration of art, and a way for me to learn and explore art's place in the world. I don't know how much value it will have for others, but if it might, I would like to share that. So, I've added a creative commons license to the blog to make it a little easier for others to share some of the words that I write here.

Study Shows Art Improves Critical Thinking Skills

2006-07-27T12:04:00.000-04:00

After my semi-rant late last night about The Value of Art in School, it's good to see some of my assertions validated on the pages of the newspaper of record.

The New York Times is describing a study by the Guggenheim Museum which suggests that children become much better students with the presence of art in their education - Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills.

The study found that students in the program performed better in six categories of literacy and critical thinking skills — including thorough description, hypothesizing and reasoning — than did students who were not in the program.

The No Child Left Behind policies of federal education spending are causing an emphasis on reading and writing and arithmatic to the detriment of art studies.

That may not a good thing. It's time for a change.

The Art Inquisitor Does Some Navel Gazing

2006-07-27T11:53:00.000-04:00

When I started this blog, it was with the intention of learning more about art, while paying more attention to art in my everyday life, and trying to pay more attention to art related stories and sites on the web.

When I used the word "Inquisition" in the title of the blog, I had no intention of harming any artists in the making of this blog. I will likely never make any fun of any artwork I see on the web, even if I may dislike it in anyway. I'm more interested in finding more of the stuff that I like, and exploring the creations that I don't quite understand.

One think I hadn't counted upon was the slowly increasing desire to start creating - to put paints on canvas or wood or walls, to shape clay in my hands, to web metal to metal, to make photo montages and collages and essays. I can feel a need to learn about perspective and shadow, colors and textures and other medium of expression.

And it feels pretty good.

I guess art doesn't just express, it also inspires.

Artists within Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales

2006-07-27T09:14:00.000-04:00

I am forty pages into China Mieville's book Perdido Street Station, and one of the main characters is an artist. She's not quite human, and not quite insect, but interesting enough to cut a compelling and empathetic figure.

I'll confess right now that I've read a lot of science fiction, from my early days when I snuck from the children's book section of the library to the adults area, and found an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, Princess of Mars, with a tremendous Frank Frazetta cover. I find it a little funny now that I'm as big a fan of the other illustrator of that work - Frank Schoonover.

The cover got me to pick up the book and start reading it. And Franzetta's illustrations led me to a number of other Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, such as Robert E. Howard's Conan, and Michael Moorcock's many fantasies.

But, I'm digressing some. I'm forty pages into this novel, and one of the main characters is an artist, and it struck me that I can't remember reading many books where an artist is the main character. At least not in the realms of Science Fiction or Fantasy.

I can't say that there aren't any, but rather than I haven't read any that I can remember. I'll be looking out for some now.

An Artist's Statement

2006-07-27T02:13:00.000-04:00

I was looking through some magazines this afternoon, and came across a popular culture magazine featuring the paintings of Chris Mars.

I promised myself that I would look him up sometime today, and I found his web site. The first page from his site that I visited was the Artistic Statement of Chris Mars. Here's a snippet:

In each piece, I am freeing my brother. I am creating a monument to him and those like him. I rescue Bill from the oppressive institutions of the 1960s, the stereotypes of society here today. Through my work, I challenge the cultural system that finds it easier to turn their heads, their hearts, away. I urge the viewer to consider the beauty, on a grand level, of that which may appear ugly at first.

His pictures are fascinating. The motivation behind them is profound. I'm glad I stopped to leaf through those magazines.

The Value of Art in School

2006-07-27T02:09:00.000-04:00

Thinking back to high school, the only class that I took that involved art were architectural drafting classes. It was a great class, and I wish I had the chance to take more like it.

I don't remember if art classes, other than music, were offered by the school, but I don't recall that there were. I pulled out my high school yearbook, and searched through the faculty members to find that we did have one art teacher. I remember her from middle school, but don't believe that I ever saw her in the High School.

I guess the value of art was something that we didn't really appreciate back then, but I remember art classes in elementary school. The drawings and paintings and clay modeling we did back then were memorable - they've stuck with me for years.

And I find that I'm often called upon to present something in a creative fashion, merging images with text for web pages and presentations and documents that I put together. I wish I had learned more than the rudiments of typography and some basic drawing skills in that drafting class.

Art is more than capturing images on paper, or making sounds, or constructing something with your hands. It's a method of communicating ideas and emotions, a means to reach out to someone with more than just words and gestures. In the act of creating an artwork, you are building something that can exist on its own, without you by its side to explain and discuss.

It's a way of sharing a vision of the world or an idea or a feeling or all of those things. Thinking about it now, after graduating from highschool, and adding a few more years of school on top of that, and some work experience, I truly wish that I had more time to learn to create. I'm seeing art as a subject that is just as important as learning reading or writing or arithmetic.

In creating art, we don't just think about the artifact, but also its framework, its place in the world, and its audience. We draw inspiration from inside of ourselves and from the world around us, to share a vision with others. Art is as important as any other subject in the curriculum of a school.

I was happy to come across this article in the Baltimore Sun about a program put together bu a community center and a non profit organization aimed at teaching children art: Through art, students find a positive picture.

The program has taken 12 students, from ages 11 through 23, and enabled them to have five four hour long art classes a week while paying them a stipend of $50.00 a week. They also have the opportunity to sell what they create at an arts festival. While I think that this is a great idea, I wish that it involved more than a dozen students. I'd like to see more people given the skills to illustrate, decorate, and design, while building confidence and self esteem and the ability to communicate with others.

Art isn't drawing pictures or splashing paint on a canvas, but rather the transmission of ideas from one person to another. It's an introduction to personal style, to self expression, and to reaching out to others.

When I attended collage, classes in math, English, and science were required before I could graduate. I wish art classes were a necessary part of the courseload too. About the closest I got to art in my undergraduate studies was the creation of weather maps in a class on Meteorology, in which the "aesthetics" of the maps was as important as any other aspect of them.

So how do we get art to be a bigger part of the education that children receive in school?

Tips Needed for a Novice Art Collector

2006-07-25T18:02:00.000-04:00

The walls in my apartment are seeming bare lately. I took down a number of pictures and posters so that the walls could be painted, and a number of those walls haven't been redecorated.

This article, from the Guardian, seems just what I needed to see: How to spot a budding masterwork

The author, Flora Fairbairn, provides a number of tips at the end of the article that seem like they may be helpful. My favorite is probably this one:

Buy a piece of art because you love it, rather than just because you think it might come to be worth a lot of money.

Sounds like good advice to me.

Collaborative Modeling

2006-07-24T21:57:00.000-04:00

I like the spooky, otherworldly stories that Paula Rego's pictures portray.

I didn't realize that her approach to creating a work, as described in The Graphic Works of Paula Rego, involved having her friends for models, acting out stories.

The Drumcroon Gallery site it comes from is pretty nice, too. Good to see an arts resource for kids like this gallery.

Displaced Persons

2006-07-23T16:17:00.000-04:00

I hadn't seen the name Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) before, nor seen his paintings or prints.

I came across the image of his work, Displaced persons, at an Art Daily article on him about Jacques Hnizdovsky at the Ukrainian Museum. It appears that a number of his works will be shown at The Ukrainian Museum in New York City from June 11 to August 27, 2006.

Supplementing the collection of paintings and prints is a charming display of original Hnizdovsky ex libris designs, terra-cotta works, and books illustrated by the artist that include, among others, the poetry of John Keats and Stanley Kunitz.

I've got to look for more. Maybe I'll take a train up to New York to see the exhibitiion.

When Art Burns

2006-07-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

I came across a scary story about a fire in a warehouse that destroyed millions of dollars of artwork.

Fire Destroys Art Worth Millions

The fire was in a London warehouse, and burned intensely enough so that it swept through the building over the course of several hours. The company that was storing the pieces is Momart, which according to their web page "have handled the majority of all major exhibitions in the UK over the past twenty years."

The interesting aspect of this tale, at least to me, is the idea of handling and setting up these art pieces in exhibitions and galleries.

That sounds like a fun job. Their homepage also mentions that they have had very little turnover in staff, enabling them to build a wealth of experience.

When Art Galleries Invade

2006-07-10T10:46:00.000-04:00

I was working in a sleeply little town on the eastern seaboard last summer when I started noticing a creeping invasion of art galleries into the town.

The area had a long time history of craftsmanship through carved artwork, but wasn't really a cultural hotspot when it came to paints and sculptures. Yet, that seemed to be changing. First there was one gallery. Then a restaurant, with attached gallery opened. Then plans were set for a couple more galleries.

Probably a good place for art, the town has a history of art shows on its waterfront part for the last 30+ years. While quiet and sleepy during the week, tourists run amuck on weekends with boating and shopping in antique and collectibles shops. Adding art to the mix seems like a good idea.

Areas of some larger cities have also seen an invasion of art galleries. I was reading about one, known as the Black Dragon Society - named for the Martial Arts School that was at the location before the gallery took over, in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles.

I came across an article that shows a picture of the shop, and the sign above the door from the chinese fighting school that previously inhabitated the building - Urban Cultural Playground: Art, Hollywood, and the Gentrification of Los Angeles Chinatown. Good article, too.

The gallery is one of a number that have found their way into Chinatown in LA. Interesting perspective in the article, of the invasion of Chinatown.

Art in the Packaging - 1000 Years of Popular Music

2006-07-07T19:33:00.000-04:00

I picked up a DVD for a concert that I had heard about, and hoped would be released on DVD. It's Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music.

The inspiration for the concert came from Thompson being asked for a list of the 10 greatest songs from the last millenium, for a magazine article or sidebar. Instead of considering the topic narrowly, he actually listed songs spread around from the last millenium, including a selection from the 15th century.

For some reason, maybe lack of a sense of humor, maybe magazine editors taking themselves a little too seriously, or who knows, the list wasn't published. But the creation of the list inspired a tour where songs from those thousand years were performed. I didn't get a chance to see one of the shows, but had heard of some of the songs selected, including a version of "Oops!...I Did It Again."

So, I heard that this DVD was being released, and have been keeping an eye open for it. I saw it in my local neighborhood music store today, and was awestruck at the wrapping. It's in a booklet shape, with some great typography, and a picture on the front cover from Bruce McCall.

It's a great picture, capturing the essense of 1000 Years of Popular Music, as focused through the lense of Richard Thompson. I haven't taken the shrinkwrap of the package yet, but at some point this weekend I'll tear it open and watch the concert. I'm just enjoying the care that went into making the package something special.

Artist as an Outsider

2006-07-06T19:17:00.000-04:00

Seems like there are a lot of misunderstood folks who become artists. Or maybe there are a lot of artists who become misunderstood.

The Arts Journal points today to a Chicago Tribune article titled Exploring artists' image as loners and bohemians. Ok, the article does a little of that, but it's a newspaper story about an exhibit opening, rather than a deep exploration of the subject.

It's a great topic though. Are artists predisposed to be loners and bohemians? Or do there just happen to be artists, as well as many other folks, who are loners?

Seems like a theme that I might want to explore here further as I blog more. (Nice - found a good theme on the first day of blogging about Art.

American Art in the Third Millenium?

2006-07-06T19:02:00.000-04:00

Can't say that I've ever been up to Annadale-on-Hudson, in New York, but I like the look of the exhibition they are showing at Bard College - Uncertain States of America: American Art in the 3rd Millennium.

A note to myself here on when this will be displayed:

The exhibition is on view from Saturday, June 24, through Sunday, September 10.
The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The opening reception is on Saturday, June 24, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Both the
reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Looks like the folks at the Center for Curatorial Studies spent over two years finding all of the works being exhibited, from a wide range of American Artists. After it closes here, the exhibit will travel to Iceland, and then Paris.

Looks like a nice weekend roadtrip.

Introduction to Art Inquisition

2006-07-06T18:23:00.000-04:00

I've always been a lover of art, but I've never made time for it in my life.

This blog is an attempt to try to make up for lost time, and to help me explore some of the artistic works on the web, and off line in galleries, and museums. I've been looking at a number of gallery sites, and I'm pretty impressed with some of the work that I've been seeing. There's some wild stuff out there, and some unique views of the world in the creation of something new and tangible, and in some cases, intangible and fleeting.

I'm open to suggestions from folks on artists to look at, and explore, and places to see. I'm going to put some artist profiles in galleries up on my sidebar that impress me in some manner.

The artworld is a kind of crazy place, too. I've been looking at a lot of folk art, and outsider art, without realizing that some of today's contemporary artists are doing some pretty intriquing stuff.

If you happened upon this site, and read this far, thanks. We'll see how this develops, and if my inquistion into art yields any positive growth.

Cheers