tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56137014930660553332024-02-20T19:09:47.162-08:00quietStephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-59173869686977723962011-07-17T12:40:00.001-07:002011-07-21T20:03:43.317-07:00A Summer Tickle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXqJBDmQLcvRBUV36tmqnDIxpHoE6ePmczD730dBH5SIKypRIsGpTKPDplve2saD2XAbgkqzx03iJluyMCsZJNGFkjX18W9H1noxnhyphenhyphenIgOhZTQoJS5us-MkwEoLBXPZb6Bpy6enPu1As/s1600/tickle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSXqJBDmQLcvRBUV36tmqnDIxpHoE6ePmczD730dBH5SIKypRIsGpTKPDplve2saD2XAbgkqzx03iJluyMCsZJNGFkjX18W9H1noxnhyphenhyphenIgOhZTQoJS5us-MkwEoLBXPZb6Bpy6enPu1As/s400/tickle.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Summer Tickle</i> Exhibition Postcard</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Please drop by and see the <i>finished</i> version of my painting used above!</div>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-82692989414959459222011-06-13T22:54:00.000-07:002011-06-13T22:54:37.845-07:00To Paint Like Terrence Malick Directs<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="289" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WXRYA1dxP_0" width="500"></iframe><br />
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I am determined to not write a review of the new Terrence Malick film, <i><a href="http://www.twowaysthroughlife.com/">Tree of Life</a></i>. But throughout watching the movie I was awestruck at Malick's flawless and Impressionistic visual construction. A short way through I realized Malick was <i>painting</i> a movie.<br />
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Initially I was impressed with the consistent tempo and camera movement carried over to each shot. This movie is about slow things - touch, contemplation and texture, about living and breathing. But for all that it moves. The editing is quick. Each jump picks up on the previous camera's movement whether forward, backward or up. I suppose this could be like a Three-Dimensional implied line or direction. In this case, Malick seems to imply a forever forward or changing direction of living - one that both absorbs understanding and then creates nostalgia to linger on what just passed.<br />
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Malick also makes each of those cuts a contrast. Warm hues are always followed by cool ones. Darks by light, and so on. And the tempo of these changes is also changed. It all becomes reminiscent of the way a painter would construct form or space - articulating everything by making changes of different sizes, flatness or tone.<br />
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Everyone touches - and they touch everything, a lot. But the camera does to. It doesn't sit back, it sits on shoulders or pulls back. It crawls up stairs in a suspenseful way. The camera is just as inquisitive as the characters are in their own discoveries.<br />
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But for being such a long movie, it's impressive how economical he is. The film takes long meandering, surreal turns into the Creation, but returns back to the life of a Texas family. For all this terrain, repeated and lived in for decades by this movie's timeline, Malick still manages to make each shot a separate stroke. Each one an opportunity for something new. In this fashion we are also experiencing the changing lives of these characters - but like the way a painting would, describing something new, or a new understanding of the same thing, with each stroke.<br />
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But most of all it's Malick's four-decade preparation for the movie - and the arduous searching for accidental footage of butterflies landing on actor's hands, or birds falling out of nests (with blockbuster actors no less) - that makes <i>Tree of Life</i> so painterly. It's studied and demonstrates classical structure but allows in the most important part: the accidental. Which, executed by a master like Malick, appears as it should on the finished canvas: having the appearance of being flawless and anticipated, but only so because he has spent such a disciplined time examining those potentials until he was able to effectively harness and articulate with them.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-27979690026186960312011-05-24T18:52:00.000-07:002011-05-24T19:00:03.139-07:00"Painting is not dead, it's just hard."<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9B4zbMyalnJoSus05O9qQv3m9TXw7gjVZ83xYZsTfZZo8tmHNXIbKqvoTpIbMF3uwAlD_gk4g_Hm42POs9fAJnsvEiacyvGzKH0TsbMucYalXrcgvsm_lRFaz2CTYsdg5pXJEchZfN4/s1600/andalsotheycarried_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9B4zbMyalnJoSus05O9qQv3m9TXw7gjVZ83xYZsTfZZo8tmHNXIbKqvoTpIbMF3uwAlD_gk4g_Hm42POs9fAJnsvEiacyvGzKH0TsbMucYalXrcgvsm_lRFaz2CTYsdg5pXJEchZfN4/s400/andalsotheycarried_lg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Things They Carried</i> 2011 Sarah Awad (via <a href="http://www.sarahawad.com/">Sarahawad.com</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>Painting</i> is the latest release in the <a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/browse/browse.asp?btype=6&serid=159">Documents of Contemporary Art</a> series by MIT. <i>The</i> <i>Brooklyn Rail</i> has a loving review of it <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/05/art_books/painting-dead-and-loving-it">here</a>.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></i>The book defends and celebrates the medium - as anything on painting today does. I think it's clear painting didn't disappear and it won't. It's almost as if the original declaration of Painting is Dead was simply to generate good conversation around the complex merits of painting for it's own sake in today's world.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPI8XyXu9-MIJquc_UWsG6DhXDJhyphenhyphensHHYqa18QneVLX_TBcsXe4fpPyr3AxrQt2Y95V7iI-KjdzNo0FaZFHp3hXvEGwJcmHwrkKLKhawEiMPptYYoisXp8aUuVkq3F9YU8VN6isDYxTbA/s1600/ganz-web1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPI8XyXu9-MIJquc_UWsG6DhXDJhyphenhyphensHHYqa18QneVLX_TBcsXe4fpPyr3AxrQt2Y95V7iI-KjdzNo0FaZFHp3hXvEGwJcmHwrkKLKhawEiMPptYYoisXp8aUuVkq3F9YU8VN6isDYxTbA/s200/ganz-web1.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Painting</i> (via <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/05/art_books/painting-dead-and-loving-it">The Brooklyn Rail</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>An artist in a studio near my own once told me that "installation is where it is" and followed by something to the affect of, "painting is over."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don't buy it. I stick to painting simply because of it's tangibility - the tactility and almost humming quality of the act itself. And painting seems to involve depths I'll never exhaust.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But I do use other mediums - like photography - to paint. One included article in <i>Painting</i> is Jerry Saltz's <i><a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-03-02/art/the-richter-resolution/1/">The Richter Resolution</a>.</i> Saltz's article laments current painting's handicap on photographic reference. He misses what he calls paintings "weapons of mass destruction" or "drawing, color, surface, touch...."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of paintings greatest wonders is it's ability to distill information. The medium is inherently about choices. And a good painting directs you and makes you believe in those choices. Meaning also that what is absent is believable too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Photography does the same, but with different refinement. Painting as an act in itself, as in a repeated process of re-articulating something or re-imagining things, has taught me how to choose and to think. And it's sometimes painfully slow or nostalgically fast. But it carries layers and each painting ultimately has multiple moments of understanding of one thing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Adding to that notion, <i>The Rail's </i>review ends with the anonymous quip, "Painting is not dead, it's just hard."</div>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-80899676732478873822011-05-13T17:50:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:52:59.238-07:00Letting Go with Style: Ben Grasso<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3DeaJ0RN-NF5LLRBx3z8Hr5JVnKILha9Bqd7HvFjcOR9GgMMtz9tzNfKx8egCpuJzDGeh-jaaT_c97-zY1l5JD_YMrQfroKs8YyyRRZVghyR7SfAqpwrUocs6O6s4gVqOAEBrgdb6RE/s1600/ben-grasso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3DeaJ0RN-NF5LLRBx3z8Hr5JVnKILha9Bqd7HvFjcOR9GgMMtz9tzNfKx8egCpuJzDGeh-jaaT_c97-zY1l5JD_YMrQfroKs8YyyRRZVghyR7SfAqpwrUocs6O6s4gVqOAEBrgdb6RE/s400/ben-grasso.jpg" width="376" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Construction Proposal II</i> Ben Grasso 2009 (via <a href="http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/picture-galleries/2011/february/22/art-in-residence-the-james-new-york/?idx=4">Phaidon</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://bengrasso.com/">Ben Grasso's paintings</a> start as something whole - houses, sometimes tankers, cars or structured landscapes - and then let go into wood planks, shadows and shapes. Most often these things are being blown up or unhinged, as if someone were to introduce a tornado or disaster into the Americana landscape ideals of Winslow Homer.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVtgfXPqr5GNbsowW_wUF6sTNh747l8NYCfp5SPOjp1JkblyHh4qgndvwddOTf8Y_987bPXjKEfgd4-V4OeZ4LbFkUu2k-ROF-mYq2FmJ6os17P6CVMJ5Xz2hNe-nJ12MJ2bToeTBaOnk/s1600/tumblr_kow4fbRfUh1qzw5wjo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVtgfXPqr5GNbsowW_wUF6sTNh747l8NYCfp5SPOjp1JkblyHh4qgndvwddOTf8Y_987bPXjKEfgd4-V4OeZ4LbFkUu2k-ROF-mYq2FmJ6os17P6CVMJ5Xz2hNe-nJ12MJ2bToeTBaOnk/s320/tumblr_kow4fbRfUh1qzw5wjo1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled (House) </i>Ben Grasso 2006 (via<a href="http://www.iheartmyart.com/post/170567111/ben-grasso-untitled-house-2006-oil-on-canvas"> I Heart My Art</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
His images seem to straddle logic - or beg to be reconstructed with logic - but actually reveal pretty orderly painted relationships. For example even as unreal those houses pulling themselves apart into a cross sections may be in a literal sense, the pieces cast shadows, the walls and structures exist exactly in space.<br />
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It's where Ben Grasso decides with the paint that makes these images so interesting. Those planks of wood or explosive motions become strips of color - and the decisive choice colors making a form in space - become delicious. It doesn't matter after that <i>what</i> violent act surrounds those forms - although that just makes them even more interesting.<br />
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See also Ben Grasso's current exhibit at <a href="http://www.thierrygoldberg.com/exhibitions/adaptation.html">Thierry Goldberg Projects</a>. Or see also <a href="http://www.whitecube.com/artists/mehretu/">Julie Mehretu</a> who takes this into an entirely different abstract idea.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-64513200166794588482011-04-28T18:28:00.000-07:002011-04-29T12:49:37.590-07:00Inspirational Words: Work!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkRVWWwSOENkowlZ7BFjBSdriSNKwHXImG-wDHh6TTAlcjmRcKSjx-L6QuinBSmcIaFHIpUGPhyphenhyphencQYRF1BcUrVf776O2UJGRmv1arY7SkkSKKOcSfD_1hv8LT9xEA9xl6-hK5zx-5VN0/s1600/45467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkRVWWwSOENkowlZ7BFjBSdriSNKwHXImG-wDHh6TTAlcjmRcKSjx-L6QuinBSmcIaFHIpUGPhyphenhyphencQYRF1BcUrVf776O2UJGRmv1arY7SkkSKKOcSfD_1hv8LT9xEA9xl6-hK5zx-5VN0/s400/45467.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(via <a href="http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/t/Typewriter.htm">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When I need them most - inspirational words from<a href="http://nprfreshair.tumblr.com/post/4931415362/nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i"> Ira Glass</a> (via <a href="http://ackackack.com/">ackackack</a>):<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through.</span></blockquote>Also, since these are words from a decidedly word-based artist (a writer!), then Semi-Related: <i>The Atlantic</i>'s interesting re-occurring column called <i><a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/posts/media-diet/">What I Read</a>. </i><br />
<span class="blockquote long"></span>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-44533851731347238872011-04-26T18:06:00.000-07:002011-04-26T18:08:06.419-07:00Shaun Tan: An Alternate Path<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1djhK6RMm7MW9PaKDVjq3Q9J544KFXKB4DV2tZzAH8keE1ICxyYfXavDXpvcV5aG81WpaOVZ_D4_bHzUl9dAFtfFIT9-nZGBkXEoiXwKSjmL2fvC-lhBvrrgDnQHDLMQCNXi8JP0S67s/s1600/suburbia_alert_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1djhK6RMm7MW9PaKDVjq3Q9J544KFXKB4DV2tZzAH8keE1ICxyYfXavDXpvcV5aG81WpaOVZ_D4_bHzUl9dAFtfFIT9-nZGBkXEoiXwKSjmL2fvC-lhBvrrgDnQHDLMQCNXi8JP0S67s/s400/suburbia_alert_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>We only have to wash & wax our missile on the first Sunday of every month<br />
(</i>from <i>Tales From Outer Suburbia</i>) (via <a href="http://shauntan.net/">Shauntan.net</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Shaun Tan is exactly the kind of Illustrator my teachers would have me look at. Tan's images are technically rich, imaginative and steeped in narrative traditions captured from film, books, painting and just about everything. I don't know much about Tan, but a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magazine/mag-24Tan-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine">recent NYT Magazine article</a> revealed the kind of artist I might be if I had stuck with Illustration.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28tvTIdBRQaoqFFUEQ10uaz7lQ-5YxCV_z1fvX7VtDRf45Wc7y1hGXjQuGRmNt4vxSHR4iho8tigOqcA3sbR_vdIoeYg17O3JqjQjuA1843OQrfiYSYYqhbAmuObr4MY6ITtwqB5GRqM/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28tvTIdBRQaoqFFUEQ10uaz7lQ-5YxCV_z1fvX7VtDRf45Wc7y1hGXjQuGRmNt4vxSHR4iho8tigOqcA3sbR_vdIoeYg17O3JqjQjuA1843OQrfiYSYYqhbAmuObr4MY6ITtwqB5GRqM/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by James Edwards (via <a href="http://www1.umassd.edu/cvpa/faculty/james_edwards/faculty-bio.cfm">UMassd.edu</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I dropped my Illustration degree during my fourth year. Since I've always believe some of the best painters <i>are</i> Illustrators. I naively distanced myself from "commercial art" and painting brought me somewhere else. With years perspective, I'm not making those sorts of declarations anymore.<br />
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But what I admire about Shaun Tan are his sensibilities - all while pursuing a lifestyle incorporating the same craft as me, but pursuing it from a commercial angle. As Carlo Rotella in the article notes, painting is a private endeavor for Tan, more of "pure science, more about the act of painting" and Illustration pays the bills.<br />
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And making art in any form has still brought Tan to the same place as I am as a painter - that is, simply aware and hungry for things:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">You discover how confounding the world is when you try to draw it. You look at a car and you try to see it's car-ness, and you're like an immigrant to your own world. You don't have to travel to encounter weirdness. You wake up to it.</span></blockquote>As the article notes, Shaun Tan has recently won an Oscar for co-directing an animated short based on his own children's book, <i><a href="http://www.shauntan.net/film1.html">The Lost Thing</a></i>, and he has one problem I do not yet relate to: offers to make films and propel his career elsewhere:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I'm not dying to make a feature film which people around here can be surprised to hear. It's about money and therefore audience, and that's somewhat counterproductive for me. I kind of like not having to feel that the work's going to be successful. Money does buy you time, it's true, but I have time now.</span></blockquote>It's his implied pace of working which I truly relate to. Simply using time to develop. I remember one teacher of mine, James Edwards, taking on a daunting serial textbook Illustration job. Something about the way he described it seemed nostalgic for freedom to make independently. But he was still painting and it still made him into a great artist - that is, he had learned how to look.<br />
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I'm not sure if I would ever had been successful with Illustration, but I see with or without it I still made it to the same point.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-14836102144323222582011-04-13T18:42:00.000-07:002011-04-15T16:41:20.939-07:00Dubble-u. En. Wye. Cee.: Radio as Background<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjumz9kAW56a5rZK_EWtXmUEMBzxZcVOEOib11PNG-d4DmOGMISpW50hWjnyzLN6qxrvp-lkmruXXWSvk_RLv7y_oD6jjgzpNAuoXLE6ipq6uo1_TJ48zWK7xp2G8yyjU3pE8YlmGdZWQQ/s1600/WNYC_RADIOLAB_0095.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjumz9kAW56a5rZK_EWtXmUEMBzxZcVOEOib11PNG-d4DmOGMISpW50hWjnyzLN6qxrvp-lkmruXXWSvk_RLv7y_oD6jjgzpNAuoXLE6ipq6uo1_TJ48zWK7xp2G8yyjU3pE8YlmGdZWQQ/s320/WNYC_RADIOLAB_0095.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich (via <a href="http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/radiolab-effect">NYC Observer</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Having the radio on while painting is like reading a book by laying your head on it. Or, rather, what I'm trying to say is that sometimes you listen but most of the time it just fills the air with soothing, consistent rhetoric and voices. You can't ever quite be completely listening while painting. Or vice versa.<br />
<br />
But what <i>does</i> happen is that something sticks and rises to the surface of your memory later in the day. In that process of creating something, that sound sticks in your brain like a leaf falling into wet cement - or paint. And it's in that respect that I compare it to reading a book by osmosis.<br />
<br />
Here are two things gleaned from public radio today. The first, was actually <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/10/magazine/radiolab.html">something <i>read</i></a> about WNYC's <i><a href="http://www.radiolab.org/">RadioLab</a> </i>which reinforces how I think about constructing a painting.<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">"Normally a reporter goes out and learns something and writes it down and speaks from knowledge" Krulwich added. Jokes and glitches puncture the illusion of the all-knowing authority, who no longer commands much respect these days anyway. It's more honest to "let the audience hear and know that you are manufacturing a version of events"</span></blockquote>The second, is a poem read by Caroline Kennedy and Ira Flatow on <i><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/talk-of-the-nation/">Talk of the Nation</a>. </i>The poem is by Constantine P Cavafy, and was chosen by Kennedy for her new book, <i>She Walks Through Beauty</i>. I'll never read the book - but the poem (overheard in a strange moment of defeat and while eating a sandwich at the studio) speaks more to the entire pursuit of a craft:<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkc7uR2dUdWZMgRZA3awv9nCQH581dHQ2j3J7oqXo1vRRDKFxBrleubdzmGQqHfgyBBmAA_LPV4fC6AJ9-BDu5fOPxjMBvOT3BMFtdLvDGrgEW_IOrbtiVUY8uyAYsKDsUMv4XrTGsxps/s1600/constantine_p__cavafy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkc7uR2dUdWZMgRZA3awv9nCQH581dHQ2j3J7oqXo1vRRDKFxBrleubdzmGQqHfgyBBmAA_LPV4fC6AJ9-BDu5fOPxjMBvOT3BMFtdLvDGrgEW_IOrbtiVUY8uyAYsKDsUMv4XrTGsxps/s320/constantine_p__cavafy.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Constantine P. Cavafy (via <a href="http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/constantine_p__cavafy/photo">Famous Poets</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i>Ithaca</i> by Contantine P Cavafy<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">pray that the road is long,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">full of adventure, full of knowledge.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">the angry Poseidon - do not fear them:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">You will never find such as these on your path,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">emotion touches your spirit and your body.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">if you do not carry them within your soul,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">if your soul does not set them up before you.</span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Pray that the road is long.<br />
That the summer mornings are many, when,<br />
with such pleasure, with such joy,<br />
you will enter ports seen for the first time;<br />
stop at Phoenician markets,<br />
and purchase fine merchandise,<br />
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,<br />
and sensual perfumes of all kinds<br />
as many sensual as you can:<br />
visit many Egyptian cities;<br />
to learn and learn from scholars.</span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Always keep Ithaca in your mind.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">To arrive there is your ultimate goal.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">But do not hurry the voyage at all.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">It is better to let it last for many years;</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">and to ancho at the island when you are old,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">rich with all you have gained on the way,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches. </span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Without her you would never have set out on the road.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">She has nothing more to give you.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Wise as you have become, with so much experience,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">you must already have understood what Ithacas mean. </span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Wise as you have become, with so much experience,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.</span></blockquote>UPDATE: Listen to a <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/2011/mar/08/">recent <i>RadioLab</i> episode</a> on fighting yourself to be most creative. With a terrific story about Tom Waits told by Elizabeth Gilbert.<br />
<blockquote></blockquote>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-55721152507180906202011-04-12T20:47:00.000-07:002011-04-12T20:47:28.612-07:00Photos: Through a Fence<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zAWDmCXjjSUNZAGl9SaX4I7j5ibW7HtnmGSEViAXZxbim530A3KV58P92CpQ1D7_iV9DjZg11FOOKArG0oIoPceqOpnDuFWUBmcmuAsvX6k5F63WWFfBrnpBi7NK12aJQQ3QpwC43Ew/s1600/Through+Fence+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zAWDmCXjjSUNZAGl9SaX4I7j5ibW7HtnmGSEViAXZxbim530A3KV58P92CpQ1D7_iV9DjZg11FOOKArG0oIoPceqOpnDuFWUBmcmuAsvX6k5F63WWFfBrnpBi7NK12aJQQ3QpwC43Ew/s400/Through+Fence+13.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled (Through a Fence)</i> Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Stopped near a noisy machine shop to shoot some photos through their fence. The fence forced me to look close and got me thinking about shapes of light. I thought less about taking photographs and more about looking. The muffled and repetitive clanking nearby was sort of meditative.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJHuF8Evm4JZxiWf-Z_uwk51KmHq0rvsgHBfeu5BuwtVuRUDCLluxm3pMRcLoHrKuAsRY2l9hyt_ll5Jp9RzbSdubWc39wSJT4SOlrcTN5KUZOWTz2CDfB7bEI5vSOGq1gTnwSySGgR4/s1600/Through+Fence+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJHuF8Evm4JZxiWf-Z_uwk51KmHq0rvsgHBfeu5BuwtVuRUDCLluxm3pMRcLoHrKuAsRY2l9hyt_ll5Jp9RzbSdubWc39wSJT4SOlrcTN5KUZOWTz2CDfB7bEI5vSOGq1gTnwSySGgR4/s400/Through+Fence+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled (Through a Fence) </i>Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Many more at the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slenderwhitepine/">Flickr page</a>.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-3220808953226806352011-04-08T05:35:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:39:42.260-07:00Self-Actualization in the Studio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUE4_ld-29V8rpnNxAGrNs_3yrYbDx6gFgFzZVdqUA3CvMDPFIBiAEGko-S-Vl8DmNPWkY4NOQyMUs16FtIfY4oIhqgGmPMqVVFBewIfQCuuQOgBvop6JyNwXeATe8xZH9yzZZcrIlgc/s1600/Untitled%2528Tickled%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUE4_ld-29V8rpnNxAGrNs_3yrYbDx6gFgFzZVdqUA3CvMDPFIBiAEGko-S-Vl8DmNPWkY4NOQyMUs16FtIfY4oIhqgGmPMqVVFBewIfQCuuQOgBvop6JyNwXeATe8xZH9yzZZcrIlgc/s400/Untitled%2528Tickled%2529.jpg" width="332" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled</i> (Finished State) 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Recently I have stopped holding myself to results and starting admitting what doesn't work. I have tried to be patient and allow habitual accidents or tendencies to exist - or disappear. I am also trying to document the working pieces of my paintings - because they usually become swallowed up by something else. Those pieces end up existing for mostly my benefit and just adding to some sort of understanding later applied elsewhere.<br />
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So much of painting is more than results, it is the creating of a map of multiple understandings. I've realized I want the inaccuracies and mis-understandings to all exist in the result. I just haven't figured out how yet.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVd-mo2qMBwPPdLbm0inW5Bv31bfCUzAHmhQQezEIdKW5FVl5wlwcLBJY1ni31whDse3DX9sg3RV3vr7-t54_tkMYOQ7tyfrgs2xj3ffo4Cke1G51TA5m1JYN-24jufNXJQ58pRr51DM/s1600/Tickling_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVd-mo2qMBwPPdLbm0inW5Bv31bfCUzAHmhQQezEIdKW5FVl5wlwcLBJY1ni31whDse3DX9sg3RV3vr7-t54_tkMYOQ7tyfrgs2xj3ffo4Cke1G51TA5m1JYN-24jufNXJQ58pRr51DM/s400/Tickling_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unfinished (1st State) Detail 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This could be called some sort of search for creative-actualization. It's what painters, artists - people do. The unfinished painting here represents another search for ideas. It is always interesting to apply what you do, to something slightly different - the product tends to reveal your habits and strengths in stark contrast.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzeuI89WtO8XhGalsQKyf4gUYezG7JiVpTsKxvRmUiV8wM1GGRYXB0baidgRbTfAHRi7KjBa0yIsbiwEkBdBkx9y-QfoMjcSB1SKWvYWQdZ_mz_16EfKgq4LHWM7tc0H5-GOPV_PbhRA/s1600/Tickling_Unfinished_2nd+State+Detail+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzeuI89WtO8XhGalsQKyf4gUYezG7JiVpTsKxvRmUiV8wM1GGRYXB0baidgRbTfAHRi7KjBa0yIsbiwEkBdBkx9y-QfoMjcSB1SKWvYWQdZ_mz_16EfKgq4LHWM7tc0H5-GOPV_PbhRA/s320/Tickling_Unfinished_2nd+State+Detail+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unfinished (2nd State) Detail 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I'm deviating only slightly here and working from photographs found in books. This is not about finding different subject matter but instead trying to find ways of testing my process. If I work well from photographs, why? If I find that I don't actually shoot the reference material I want to use, can I find it elsewhere? Is it the photograph at all - or is a quality or feeling - perhaps invoked coincidentally by the photographs?<br />
<br />
Some of the details here reveal that I enjoy working from a photograph because it "stills" things. It affords me controllable working time. I like beginning with some sort of clear point and then re-working it over and over. The photograph makes it's own decisions though and I wonder if instead of subject matter, I am trying to emulate something else from the photographs entirely - or not.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KJxbMHsc1SY85np02C90N1dFFQSFeNKfG36C7BjmGLeKYOsoFQZc1fP1g0H75e5HKCmSAznMYjB3Ala8mRNkznSza8EwEzaFOGod529cn2qyGtNTEPUI_alDuu9W2OyHYE0tnAoTRJA/s1600/Tickled_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KJxbMHsc1SY85np02C90N1dFFQSFeNKfG36C7BjmGLeKYOsoFQZc1fP1g0H75e5HKCmSAznMYjB3Ala8mRNkznSza8EwEzaFOGod529cn2qyGtNTEPUI_alDuu9W2OyHYE0tnAoTRJA/s400/Tickled_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail+5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unfinished (1st State) Detail 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgygDBm1x0jfuehRSrEuqvJHbOhf2XWueXs-LIXpowZ84KaQoym4F7TKWXgzFqlxEkjrVXu06biQgge_ANHstQGnSnNb93yRG_sBL05ZVVNpD7tyQnm13bJx8kXJe1vr3fuAlOO6nzK-cQ/s1600/Tickled_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgygDBm1x0jfuehRSrEuqvJHbOhf2XWueXs-LIXpowZ84KaQoym4F7TKWXgzFqlxEkjrVXu06biQgge_ANHstQGnSnNb93yRG_sBL05ZVVNpD7tyQnm13bJx8kXJe1vr3fuAlOO6nzK-cQ/s320/Tickled_Unfinished_1st+State+Detail+4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unfinished (1st State) Detail 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Ideally I might be working from life. Just as I am <i>always</i> drawing from life. And I find I am active and vivid in an entirely different way when I am observing from life. Although drawing does factor a great deal into my paintings (and the way I paint)- why are the two practices different? Am I trying to trick myself into using the photograph in order to make my process work?<br />
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Layering quick, gestural articulations of the same thing over and over reoccurs in most of my work. But when drawing from life, that act seems to exist as the image itself - whereas when I'm working from a photograph I loose sight of my intentions and something concrete eventually surfaces.<br />
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Photography really has altered the way I construct an image - and I have embraced it's language with bad habits and good. But what I am realizing now is that I have a tendency to cover what appears like mistakes, that are actually my marks - my thoughts. But by documenting and allowing everything to exist or be destroyed without consequence, I am slowly allowing the accumulation of myself in each painting.<br />
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(This post was originally published on 4/6/11 and has been changed. The original post discussed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Riff-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine">Carina Chocano's reflection on self-perfection in the NYT Magazine</a>, pointing out: "Once we've reduced perfection to a kind of sharp-elbowed self-actualization, even impressive artistic and intellectual accomplishments...come to seem not admirable but hollow and desperate.")</div>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-88085745711596601372011-04-04T08:53:00.000-07:002011-04-04T08:57:22.097-07:00Sarah Awad MFA Thesis Exhibit<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sarahawad.com/images/painting/2010/habitation3_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="http://www.sarahawad.com/images/painting/2010/habitation3_lg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Habitation 3</i> 2010 Sarah Awad (via <a href="http://www.sarahawad.com/">Sarah Awad</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;">Catch this MFA Thesis exhibit if you live in the LA area:</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>April 14 - 22, 2011</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Opening Reception: Thursday, April 14 from 5p - 8p</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>New Wight Gallery, <a href="http://www.art.ucla.edu/">UCLA</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Artists Include, <a href="http://www.sarahawad.com/">Sarah Awad</a>, <a href="http://www.alexishudgins.com/">Alexis Hudgins</a> and <a href="http://www.gretawaller.com/">Greta Waller</a>.</b></div><br />
I have been interested in <a href="http://quietpdx.blogspot.com/search/label/sarah%20awad">Sarah Awad's paintings</a> since finding them on <a href="http://visualinventory.blogspot.com/">Visual Inventory</a> last year. I've lived them subsequently through bad reproductions tacked up, frozen on my studio wall. My interest in them has changed and since her work has grown.<br />
<br />
Figures and architecture pieces appear in Sarah's work, but the paintings become mostly about the shape relationships within those things. Her paintings are full of the qualities I hold back on: heavy strokes, electric color, decisive abstract color fields and messes. As the few versions of <i>Habitation</i> show, these are playful and investigative. She's being a student and that's something I often forget to be. Sarah's work shows me that there is still a lot of risk I can take with my own.<br />
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(This post was originally published on 2/7/11 and since been revised.)Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-25487324402646024812011-03-30T21:02:00.000-07:002011-04-02T08:59:42.968-07:00Photo Diary: Rainy day at the SF MoMA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNycn-bLjS2Svps7po40N66RsmZmKL_vL19fzMrB0WxPIzrgK6_qETrYgwolNhuAMkxM410NLUiD5o2lHjbEVl4852mqhyXUh0VhyphenhyphenWDGuDQ57pXjncizQv317WBxyhW0Mx_jqGEOxjF0Q/s1600/SFMOMA_Kelsey+%2526+Little+Miro+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNycn-bLjS2Svps7po40N66RsmZmKL_vL19fzMrB0WxPIzrgK6_qETrYgwolNhuAMkxM410NLUiD5o2lHjbEVl4852mqhyXUh0VhyphenhyphenWDGuDQ57pXjncizQv317WBxyhW0Mx_jqGEOxjF0Q/s400/SFMOMA_Kelsey+%2526+Little+Miro+2.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelsey beside a little Miro</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It was tremendously rainy in San Francisco. We ducked into the <a href="http://www.sfmoma.org/">MoMA</a>. Kelsey immediately pointed out the Museum's awesome thematic placement of works. The <a href="http://www.sfmoma.org/projects/artscope/index.html#r=64">collection highlights</a> don't ever look to be on display in mass. It was especially refreshing to see some large scale Abstract Expressionists, often only one work per artist like Rothko juxtaposed with a Rauschenberg.<br />
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The best thing about the museum seemed to be it's great use of space: smart placement of art at the top of stairways or around curved walls in such a way to highlight the pieces strengths.<br />
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I surprised even myself and took a big interest in a Matthew Barney site specific piece permanently on display from the <i><a href="http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/230">Drawing Restraint</a></i> show.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-66agoLwVGtWRrThOt4TWT9meomEvJi19Pg7dJOF17Mv7VGC9agqGR_5WUaH1wvAH98TA0SjsYbuLA-du0UY5RywT30Ib0plnmj_WmVtGZsj3UOBunouwGIxTzM6tZxYjjntEuAKSn-k/s1600/SFMOMA_What+a+Horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-66agoLwVGtWRrThOt4TWT9meomEvJi19Pg7dJOF17Mv7VGC9agqGR_5WUaH1wvAH98TA0SjsYbuLA-du0UY5RywT30Ib0plnmj_WmVtGZsj3UOBunouwGIxTzM6tZxYjjntEuAKSn-k/s400/SFMOMA_What+a+Horse.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extraordinary caption to a work I can't remember</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwWURYp5lvrTC2-jcKknmUmq3pc4gy5vSbS7m5x3FuiZ-bXmggY4LPJIm-cUgqPPnHOydejdQM0sEe5ekASXy4JTClF8vBryaSnVgSI8gvrsVASVyl8Q2rKFOPHyappFfBaQISYHjkvA/s1600/SFMOMA_Wayne+Thiebald.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwWURYp5lvrTC2-jcKknmUmq3pc4gy5vSbS7m5x3FuiZ-bXmggY4LPJIm-cUgqPPnHOydejdQM0sEe5ekASXy4JTClF8vBryaSnVgSI8gvrsVASVyl8Q2rKFOPHyappFfBaQISYHjkvA/s400/SFMOMA_Wayne+Thiebald.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of a Wayne Thiebaud Painting</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4-sVkZ_PD23U_UcdJ-IhM5VWwAs2Rn4cRNJCRUsFBEQFYcuHr_nFLPhUCQbTGeJvVF8hDcgDojAKj9VKGwTD5AHHWWtI4xFzEGzSKsuRuGmr1MORzO90dBSmkDEMkOngP653JlYNgCY/s1600/SFMOMA_P+Guston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4-sVkZ_PD23U_UcdJ-IhM5VWwAs2Rn4cRNJCRUsFBEQFYcuHr_nFLPhUCQbTGeJvVF8hDcgDojAKj9VKGwTD5AHHWWtI4xFzEGzSKsuRuGmr1MORzO90dBSmkDEMkOngP653JlYNgCY/s400/SFMOMA_P+Guston.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early, Abstract Philip Guston!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh217fyF5EETq82UPEc2Flo_YcNIojCY9N8ODG23Y-rDob7_Xu6djGRVQcOYZBdd7fUDDKxLvDlzPpgm18v2d6CdsaJ2gfulZm_AqzN-LgLBUG4g2T9tsAsBiyBlC6RKZl5Zu4bzUyJjY/s1600/SFMOMA_Realist+CA+portrait+close.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh217fyF5EETq82UPEc2Flo_YcNIojCY9N8ODG23Y-rDob7_Xu6djGRVQcOYZBdd7fUDDKxLvDlzPpgm18v2d6CdsaJ2gfulZm_AqzN-LgLBUG4g2T9tsAsBiyBlC6RKZl5Zu4bzUyJjY/s400/SFMOMA_Realist+CA+portrait+close.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of a Robert Betchle Painting</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-twtQNiLAH7hRdOp3vzUDLtuhp6qL2CiNmhrKZWaKY4waGpHHNCk2E9c240sDhezS6rbSTiMXNcOU7IMfckJZpbho6GSZ-iO5ug2kCWccdjQNVn-7hmwh9W00gzEMZ_Wd76x5EGFlw6g/s1600/SFMOMA_Morandi+Detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-twtQNiLAH7hRdOp3vzUDLtuhp6qL2CiNmhrKZWaKY4waGpHHNCk2E9c240sDhezS6rbSTiMXNcOU7IMfckJZpbho6GSZ-iO5ug2kCWccdjQNVn-7hmwh9W00gzEMZ_Wd76x5EGFlw6g/s400/SFMOMA_Morandi+Detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice lopsided detail of a Morandi Painting</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpzzGHOI3RSw6_yaaadbm8V7qpwcGCHylZDS7Ds851WWj9NASpYEvmFTZCuD0LBD582CQi0f3N7XHWkLlKrVyOKOj_1SAhyphenhyphen99ieNQnb1Dqu-6AzOX8FMxi0G3Mt4zqHTtyPoAgagJb3A/s1600/SFMOMA_Kelsey+%2526+Rothko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpzzGHOI3RSw6_yaaadbm8V7qpwcGCHylZDS7Ds851WWj9NASpYEvmFTZCuD0LBD582CQi0f3N7XHWkLlKrVyOKOj_1SAhyphenhyphen99ieNQnb1Dqu-6AzOX8FMxi0G3Mt4zqHTtyPoAgagJb3A/s400/SFMOMA_Kelsey+%2526+Rothko.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelsey with the Sole Rothko on Display</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-17406900907727957632011-03-11T10:06:00.000-08:002011-03-11T10:09:21.282-08:00Loosely Functional: The Volta Art Fair<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6uuOgtVL8XV84K7WnDTVBTYDBbtyefUkELKWWIxMJYQyk3AXocHvRruro49kjcGCiS4iQB0lOrFwrVF9sa6V6p4fJW7BkbMKEs-YIy95GnQ_r9AotaQt4sj88Q4_ldN3uv_iHK0WlzY/s1600/ZEVITASVOLTA3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6uuOgtVL8XV84K7WnDTVBTYDBbtyefUkELKWWIxMJYQyk3AXocHvRruro49kjcGCiS4iQB0lOrFwrVF9sa6V6p4fJW7BkbMKEs-YIy95GnQ_r9AotaQt4sj88Q4_ldN3uv_iHK0WlzY/s400/ZEVITASVOLTA3.jpg" width="343" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled</i> 2010 Peter Opheim (via <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Peter-Opheim.6707.0.html">VOLTA NY</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Sharon Butler on <i>Two Coats of Paint</i> has posted a <a href="http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/search?q=volta">great two-part round-up</a> of the VOLTA Art Fair in New York. I almost always nearly avoid the art fairs in the news but I'm glad I didn't miss this one. Butler describes the show as:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">...different from the other fairs because the international galleries, selected by a panel of curators, present solo installations by emerging artists. This year more than half of the 90+ artists were painters. Overall, the work tended toward garishly colorful near-representation. Images of impressionistic, seemingly unfinished figures, mid-century modernist architecture and images of vintage bookcovers displayed on shelves were also plentiful.</span></blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikW65LGE8-njZHr43Ue1PT5oHIDuEVcp-DQ5rDmLc89FYVtVhLreGSKxc9xR_MFeK4tIYBLZg-qtmCb-lfqgVVN55aofGyZq-fnJBa4a9g43KQ80G1vxbK64Cce3tS9K97Gi07V7wHCbU/s1600/DH_peepshow_view_01_large_69bc1a5d12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikW65LGE8-njZHr43Ue1PT5oHIDuEVcp-DQ5rDmLc89FYVtVhLreGSKxc9xR_MFeK4tIYBLZg-qtmCb-lfqgVVN55aofGyZq-fnJBa4a9g43KQ80G1vxbK64Cce3tS9K97Gi07V7wHCbU/s200/DH_peepshow_view_01_large_69bc1a5d12.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dil Hildebrand, Installation (via <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Dil-Hildebrand.6668.0.html">VOLTA NY</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The painter, <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Peter-Opheim.6707.0.html">Peter Opheim</a> is a good example of what Butler describes. Indeed, garish representations of PlayDoh like mounds. Representation simply to use paint. But not necessarily to represent something functional. Or as the artist's statement suggests:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">These are paintings that function as sculpture. I don't consider them to be pictures. The size of the canvas and the sculpted image the paintings reference are created together and I consider the painting to be the actual size....The way the paint is handled should be enough. I have made paintings with and without imagery....after throwing away everything that wasn't necessary, including methods, expectations and ideas, this is what was left.</span></blockquote>Another is <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Dil-Hildebrand.6668.0.html">Dil Hildebrand</a>, with an "apparent fidelity to photographic representation". Hildebrand's palette suggests the fringes of <a href="http://www.lensculture.com/leiter.html">Saul Leiter</a>'s early color photographs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjP1ZYIXWTLnoyfTBF09RdmhXKckPdvLMsXvrfSwzkXVie2aAuyi1SAL9lN-DeRsN34nd8mFtsLmx4a2hdITW99IM1oiBtQk4tJEOZ46o3d_mJoL30z2Lgq9MBo_xe3coXvJRco7RNtM/s1600/4MG_Brand2w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjP1ZYIXWTLnoyfTBF09RdmhXKckPdvLMsXvrfSwzkXVie2aAuyi1SAL9lN-DeRsN34nd8mFtsLmx4a2hdITW99IM1oiBtQk4tJEOZ46o3d_mJoL30z2Lgq9MBo_xe3coXvJRco7RNtM/s400/4MG_Brand2w.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Brand 2</i> 2010 Martin Gale (via <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Martin-Galle.6582.0.html">VOLTA NY</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The painter, <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Martin-Galle.6582.0.html">Martin Gale</a>, who trained with Neo Rauch, paints these busy, photorealistic images that remain ambiguous and strange. Claiming he is less concerned with the subject matter and more with a "certain distance to it's portrayal." Photorealism being another discussion entirely, but a "reality" that suggests another way of looking at things entirely - or another eye. And Gale uses that photorealist palette and sharpness along with painterly shapes, forms and sometimes even abstract, pink splotches.<br />
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A full list of participating artists is at <a href="http://ny.voltashow.com/Artists-2011.6578.0.html">VOLTA</a>.<br />
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Looking through the participants a common theme seems to be toying with representation. Whether it is done <i>using</i> representation or defying it, the VOLTA fair seems to present an almost meta-like awareness for each medium and history. And it's a theme I find interesting when it comes to paint.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-43849192869736999162011-03-07T19:32:00.000-08:002011-03-10T14:55:23.846-08:00Studio Update<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8nPrccpCE2Jk4rt51Ddqi1G7gnGxUtUg_CAv6NR3MwW1B6a8B64Lzv1VHqoxKHFrEGf28zfM6o9mRenHgevm9MZeHMT_xZLOVwdQwGQ6yLrxrehQTHs0PDUq5buIzSWdDO4byg34-_h8/s1600/Kelsey+Eating_Studio_Detail+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8nPrccpCE2Jk4rt51Ddqi1G7gnGxUtUg_CAv6NR3MwW1B6a8B64Lzv1VHqoxKHFrEGf28zfM6o9mRenHgevm9MZeHMT_xZLOVwdQwGQ6yLrxrehQTHs0PDUq5buIzSWdDO4byg34-_h8/s400/Kelsey+Eating_Studio_Detail+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled, Unfinished Painting 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHYp6Fn_oTZW4qkV-_TGHLaHhzWpUSMK2YwWo6b89KcK7bgEQJGfDNUvCqT044TMESak66KhFCKXd3bO-kDsiVpY2FsDAUWcgNWuzo_s5G6gCIyrElr3dFAECabVIS-r81QZP6O2dLZU/s1600/Kelsey+Eating_Studio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHYp6Fn_oTZW4qkV-_TGHLaHhzWpUSMK2YwWo6b89KcK7bgEQJGfDNUvCqT044TMESak66KhFCKXd3bO-kDsiVpY2FsDAUWcgNWuzo_s5G6gCIyrElr3dFAECabVIS-r81QZP6O2dLZU/s400/Kelsey+Eating_Studio.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled, Unfinished Painting 2011 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>What I am working on in the studio. This evolved from material a few years old. This isn't exactly what I am thinking about right now. But I realized sometimes I need to just get into the act of making to get anywhere else.<br />
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I haven't been holding myself to completing much - although painting all the same - so it's become important to document something.<br />
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SEMI-RELATED: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/books/review/Kois-t.html?_r=1&ref=review">Why do writers abandon novels?</a>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-29712721658015734302011-02-26T15:21:00.000-08:002011-03-29T20:34:33.470-07:00The Internet Does Not Know Everybody: Daniel O'Connor<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uV2HyISuGnv96tzMMiiE1Fhfftf_mx6oOTkjeA4N-x8mG9HyNA1gfIA02JGZFvEP2on8O3lOBI9ImvnkDkPh8qVeNEkyLwuQ5oPE2ALtmWcTeueItmNuWA3W6kA-VhyRDdC59JGhT38/s1600/Dan+OConner+1+600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uV2HyISuGnv96tzMMiiE1Fhfftf_mx6oOTkjeA4N-x8mG9HyNA1gfIA02JGZFvEP2on8O3lOBI9ImvnkDkPh8qVeNEkyLwuQ5oPE2ALtmWcTeueItmNuWA3W6kA-VhyRDdC59JGhT38/s400/Dan+OConner+1+600.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel O'Connor (via <a href="http://www.pafa.org/School/Overview/View-Annual-Student-Exhibition-Artwork/Master-of-Fine-Arts-Students/589/">Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Sometimes I feel overwhelmingly shut out from information on the internet. In those moments, it seems that <i>all</i> information exists there just waiting to be found but by not yet having found it, I am lost.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjIBX5TO8Lp5zpnevlDx0iYWTUXiO1SH_QU_EMVbpLXFM4Zqr2jE11NXEtMco1goeK0P_WjpAAWn7TN7dph2rd9f1kMuI9fCtSUWX-XJtgB0EVmA8sKYIyF2kgtU6ZFuowHmU_kI_yd8/s1600/Dan+OConner+3+600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjIBX5TO8Lp5zpnevlDx0iYWTUXiO1SH_QU_EMVbpLXFM4Zqr2jE11NXEtMco1goeK0P_WjpAAWn7TN7dph2rd9f1kMuI9fCtSUWX-XJtgB0EVmA8sKYIyF2kgtU6ZFuowHmU_kI_yd8/s200/Dan+OConner+3+600.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel O'Connor (via <a href="http://www.pafa.org/School/Overview/View-Annual-Student-Exhibition-Artwork/Master-of-Fine-Arts-Students/589/">Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Today, if artists are working hard at their careers one generally assumes to find them with the internet. That was the case when I discovered the painter Daniel O'Conner through <a href="http://francisvallejo.blogspot.com/2011/01/inspiration-drawing.html">Francis Vallejo's blog</a>. And although, yes, O'Connor's work is reproduced in some capacity starting on that blog and subsequently scattered throughout the internet (slated to exist forever in that digital format), he still was really hard to find.<br />
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The idea that there could be awesome, hardworking painters toiling quietly and hidden (mostly) from the eyes of the internet and a large part of the art industry, is a romantic one. But one I like.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj60T4a72Pt2kxZJNY8hhLrMj2nAevZVH3BNGILAEAunZAewhGS-OK1mBiin_vysEjStgno39kTwAYIjn1la-oDl1NhUvoGjmalsPoPTtrybSlzH6_5iawTHH-YFBpC62CYJ8b4H5Y1jo/s1600/Waste_oconnor_dan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj60T4a72Pt2kxZJNY8hhLrMj2nAevZVH3BNGILAEAunZAewhGS-OK1mBiin_vysEjStgno39kTwAYIjn1la-oDl1NhUvoGjmalsPoPTtrybSlzH6_5iawTHH-YFBpC62CYJ8b4H5Y1jo/s400/Waste_oconnor_dan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Waste</i> 2009 Daniel O'Connor (via <a href="http://www.aeqai.com/articles/022010a.htm">AEQAI</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Of course, the internet is just a larger community - and a painter's community starts first with local peers and other artists. But as far as I can glean, Daniel O'Connor is young. A <a href="http://www.pafa.org/School/Overview/View-Annual-Student-Exhibition-Artwork/Master-of-Fine-Arts-Students/589/">Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art's alum</a> and perhaps hailing from Cincinnati. For awhile he was teaching at Northern Kentucky University and <a href="http://www.manifestgallery.org/studio/instructors.html%20">Manifest</a>. He's had a few very serious, academic sounding shows, including another coming up this year at the <a href="http://www.westonartgallery.com/ex2.php?exDate=2011-03&xn=2">Weston Art Gallery</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOKpi8KBx7hfx590gPLg8Mcpzboq5VKDaxfOPXc3PubDIXt-ql1CCVSlBljbJpkRxm5ErbYenHibOorbDzbV4ccccmLofEHDaRSGeu11tfDu0ht2ogsrg2Omh_pEH2hdDUsAtugj20T0/s1600/Dan+Oconner+4+600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOKpi8KBx7hfx590gPLg8Mcpzboq5VKDaxfOPXc3PubDIXt-ql1CCVSlBljbJpkRxm5ErbYenHibOorbDzbV4ccccmLofEHDaRSGeu11tfDu0ht2ogsrg2Omh_pEH2hdDUsAtugj20T0/s320/Dan+Oconner+4+600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel O'Connor (via <a href="http://www.pafa.org/School/Overview/View-Annual-Student-Exhibition-Artwork/Master-of-Fine-Arts-Students/589/">Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Daniel O'Connor's paintings are steeped in a rich figurative tradition. In Francis Vallejo's original post, he drops O'Connor's work in with other hard-studied greats - reminding me of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelier_Method">Atelier tradition</a>.<br />
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But it is O'Connor's similarities to <a href="http://quietpdx.blogspot.com/search/label/antonio%20lopez%20garcia">Antonio Lopez Garcia</a> that make him stand out: his subject matter being modestly mundane, very real and yet very painterly. I like O'Connor's decisive and flat color planes. Sharp edges against softer ones.<br />
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It's because of O'Connor's paint handling we are able to look through such ordinary subject matter and enjoy the paint. <br />
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Having a difficult time investigating Daniel O'Connor's career just made me happier - as it shows great work exists even if others don't see it (and it reminds me that the internet is a community of communities, not an end in itself). Of course O'Connor's work <i>is</i> being seen, but not yet widely. And his work keeps in line with what great figurative images are all about sometimes even more than abstract ones: paint.<br />
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SEMI-RELATED: <a href="http://newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/body-body-body-in-the-studio-with-john-copeland/">Interview with John Copeland</a>, who talks a bit about paint "filling in the blanks".Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-28861878085764826182011-02-09T09:52:00.000-08:002011-02-27T15:07:58.130-08:00Abstract Narratives in Figurative Images<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.artlabgallery.com/files/gimgs/18_07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://www.artlabgallery.com/files/gimgs/18_07.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dogs</i> 2009 Nicola Samori (via <a href="http://www.artlabgallery.com/">Art Lab</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>My work remains representational. The paintings I look at reflect ideas that I haven't figured out how to articulate. I recently noticed these images are missing a common piece: traditional narrative. By that I mean they aren't about the figures or objects in them at all and instead are about relationships with painting and perhaps even more vague ideas. They are stripped of narrative.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.artlabgallery.com/files/gimgs/18_05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.artlabgallery.com/files/gimgs/18_05.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>J.V.</i> 2008 Nicola Samori (via <a href="http://www.artlabgallery.com/index.php?/artist/nicola-samori/">Art Lab</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Both <a href="http://www.artlabgallery.com/index.php?/artist/nicola-samori/">Nicola Samori</a> and <a href="http://www.somepaintings.net/Alex.html">Alex Kanevsky</a> paint the figure. The <i>way</i> each paints is louder than the figures themselves.<br />
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Nicola Samori suggests features of the face or the shape of a head using a rich, Rembrandt-gray palette. But in the same image, that language is twisted and manipulated, until perhaps those colors become other shapes entirely. This creates an unsettling reversal of abstract marks that first articulate something recognizable and secondly become marks themselves.<br />
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White Samori's figures are painted in an ambiguous space, Alex Kanevsky's figures interact in clearer rooms and bathtubs. But beyond those interiors, a traditional narrative seems absent. Of course, like Samori's, the figures are <i>doing</i> something. Kanevsky's might be washing their face or bent awkwardly in the tub. But there never is any direction here. Instead what comes alive is Kanevsky's sensational mark making, the bright colors and melted swatches. These are painted mostly on Durlar.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.somepaintings.net/AlexNow/images/CL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.somepaintings.net/AlexNow/images/CL.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>C.L.</i> 2004-5 Alex Kanvesky (via <a href="http://www.somepaintings.net/">Alex Kanvesky</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When I showed Kanevsky's work to a friend about two years ago, he didn't like them. He thought they were sterile. And in fact, he's right. The backgrounds or the furniture these figures interact with don't tell us any more about how we should be interpreting this image. They tell us how beautiful these pastel colors or a shadow under a nose are in their own right.<br />
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To further the point, I'll take a leap here and mention the popular show <i>Mad Men. </i>I am currently enjoying the second season. But I'm always left feeling something is missing - the same something that I oppositely found in a show like <i>The Wire</i>: better writing - or, another words, narration.<br />
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David Mendelsohn of the <i>New York Review of Books</i> <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/feb/24/mad-men-account/?pagination=false">gives the show a thrashing</a>. His critique, which first ruined the show for me, later helped me understand why I also enjoy it so much: it's painterly. It shares the same ideas I am exploring and looking at with respect to the mentioned artists: figurative paintings without narrative.<br />
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Mendelsohn says, "Most of the show's flaws can, in fact, be attributed to the way it waves certain flags in your face and leaves things at that, without serious thought about dramatic appropriateness or textured characterization". The same argument can be applied to the paintings mentioned. Cues are used, faces warped or figures with their back turned - but ultimately there isn't much to be solved there. Like <i>Mad Men</i> does, these paintings want us to recognize the whole image as a shape, as an object - as a point of narrative against <i>other</i> objects.<br />
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Like the critique of <i>Mad Men,</i> these paintings dance around the surface of traditional narration, presenting textures, colors and emotional playfulness that coalesce into something recognizable but result only in becoming a graphic of itself and how it's made, resulting in a narrative that is more abstract and ambiguous.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-4709370781083076382011-02-05T17:56:00.000-08:002011-02-27T15:08:38.966-08:00Riches of the City: Adolphe Braun<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wlW5BxRhqg/TGjbEMVWZvI/AAAAAAAAAjo/c6ZJrf_BAHU/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="327" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wlW5BxRhqg/TGjbEMVWZvI/AAAAAAAAAjo/c6ZJrf_BAHU/s400/10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled</i> c. 1853-55 Adolphe Braun (via <a href="http://toutceciestmagnifique.blogspot.com/2010/08/adolphe-brauns-floral-still-lifes.html">Tout Cici Est Magnifique</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i>Riches of the City: Portland Collects</i> is up now at the <a href="http://toutceciestmagnifique.blogspot.com/2010/08/adolphe-brauns-floral-still-lifes.html">Portland Art Museum</a> through May 22nd. The exhibit, taking it's title from the museum's founder and long time patron, C.E.S. Wood, is a terrific celebration of collecting in Portland.<i> </i>The show includes valuable works from Asian Art to Contemporary and demonstrates that there is a lot of great art tucked away in Portland.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wlW5BxRhqg/TGjaJf79FWI/AAAAAAAAAiw/fh1Z8IlbmxA/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wlW5BxRhqg/TGjaJf79FWI/AAAAAAAAAiw/fh1Z8IlbmxA/s320/3.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled</i> c.1853-55 Adolphe Braun (via <a href="http://toutceciestmagnifique.blogspot.com/2010/08/adolphe-brauns-floral-still-lifes.html">Tout Cici Est Magnifique</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>While <a href="http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2011/02/a-cincinnati-art-museum-exhibit-ad/">there are great examples </a>of why exhibits of this scope can be lousy, this exhibit is not one of them (<i>Things I love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch</i> at the <a href="http://www.mfaboston.com/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=519&sb_cache=1&printable=true">MFA, Boston</a> in 2005 was a good example of a collector's show turned "museum-owed-me-one" spectacle. It featured among a smattering of art: trophies, a large collection of Magnums and even larger wine vessels (already opened) and even two sailboats installed into the front lawn).<br />
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It is the stronger, lesser seen work hanging in <i>Riches</i> that made it enjoyable.Among those pieces was a great <a href="http://toutceciestmagnifique.blogspot.com/2010/08/adolphe-brauns-floral-still-lifes.html">Adolphe Braun</a> photograph lent by <a href="http://stulevyphoto.com/">Stu Levy</a>.<br />
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The untitled photograph(not featured here, but very similar)has an aged sepia glow that, along with it's mundane subject matter of a tabletop bouquet and date of around 1855, would be easily dismissed simply as an early photographic study.<br />
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Looking closer and minding the eerie, narrow focus and clumsiness of the image (never mind the unusual, truncated composition) it's apparent that the flowers are wilted, dying.<br />
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I learned later that Adolphe Braun was trained as a textile designer, taking up photography around 1853. The photograph lent by Levy, along with around 300 others done by Braun, was intended to be used for other students as examples or directly as templates for wallpaper.<br />
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Most early photographs reveal a different standard of craft from today, perhaps mostly because of technology and changing cultural influences or standards. But Braun's photograph was striking because his was meant as a stencil or record. Why are the flowers then less than perfect? Still lives are, well, still. So, why is there indication of movement?<br />
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Perhaps Braun was thinking beyond wallpaper stencils and was trying to imply time, some sort of experience or bring to mind ideas about life. Maybe Braun was trying to make a stale representation feel real, mortal. Keeping this in mind and early photography's use as a record keeping tool what does it mean to document something and how does it's value change as a result?<br />
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By virtue of making an image or articulating something about an experience or object, it becomes important. Braun purposefully chose to photograph flowers a few days or week old. Once noticed, those wilted petals take on a certain significance that also seem to bring honest authority to whatever mark, technical error or blur that exists in the photograph. It is that truth in good images that speaks louder than the subject matter itself.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-38624416014730010422011-02-01T13:18:00.000-08:002011-02-01T13:18:42.246-08:00It Is Absolutely True<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bwwsociety.org/images/vicari/andrewvicari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.bwwsociety.org/images/vicari/andrewvicari.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Vicari (photo via <a href="http://www.bwwsociety.org/">BWW Society</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The following <i>is</i> true, even it comes from someone making close to <i>Six Million</i> per painting:<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"The thing about being a painter," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/magazine/30Vicari-t.html?_r=1">Andrew Vicari</a>, who claims to being the most lavishly rewarded painter in the world, was saying, "is that every night you go to bed thinking the work you have done that day is fabulous. And then you wake up the next morning and look at your canvas and think it is worthless, a piece of junk, and you start again."</span></blockquote>That feeling repeats itself everyday. I am so practical though, that I always believe each evening I can will myself to believe in my work in the same fashion the next day. And although there are stints of time where I require no pacing, or extra trips to the cafe - another words, no screwing around, to get to work, I <i>still</i> come back and have the feeling Vicari admits. I'm sure any painter or other artist I've ever met would relate.<br />
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It is about how painting requires you to articulate honestly - which really means exactly what you're about, what ever is secretly repressed, what might be worrying you or even delighting you. That translates to being emotional, at least with paint. Emotions or states of mind change daily - hourly.<br />
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I was taught to be disciplined.You go to your studio to work even if you cannot. You paint until you can. That's not exactly emotional. But eventually emotion comes out of me. It's like I previously mentioned with <a href="http://quietpdx.blogspot.com/2011/01/howl-identifying-with-poet.html">Ginsberg's words</a>.That semi "meditative" process creates a place you can be focused and closer to your thoughts.<br />
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I think the best when I am drawing. I've come to identify my drawing as simply a tool in my process - but usually not to any greater clarity of <i>what</i> I will paint, but great understanding as to <i>how. </i>I draw people. They are ordering coffee or hunched over bundling up children to leave. But my sketchbook reveals variances in line weight, shading, masses of tangled line - a mass of thought - and maybe some bit of clarity with a nose or ear. But inside, I feel sorted and able.<br />
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And honestly, I'm not sure I've exactly replicated that experience in the studio yet. Painting for 6 hours in a row usually brings me close. However, like Vicari says, it's coming back into the studio only to feel like the previous day was a waste, is how you ever get back to work to fix it.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-14215425358784350822011-01-25T00:04:00.000-08:002011-01-25T00:10:34.654-08:00Howl: Identifying with a Poet<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.readthespirit.com/storage/01073%20Allen%20Ginsberg%20in%20the%20Howl%20era.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1294344617622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.readthespirit.com/storage/01073%20Allen%20Ginsberg%20in%20the%20Howl%20era.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1294344617622" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Allen Ginsberg (Image via <a href="http://www.readthespirit.com/">Read the Spirit</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>A teacher in college pushed Allen Ginsberg's <i><a href="http://timothyherrick.blogspot.com/2010/10/howl-poem-man-country-film.html">Howl</a></i> on me. I have got to admit I don't think I ever really understood it. Never took the time to understand it. But I devoured it, in a systematic fashion, and like the rest of the Beat stuff, I noted it's importance.<br />
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As it happens with poetry, art, or any sort of great cultural artifact of <i>Howl</i>'s caliber, the actual work has become regarded as so important and canonized that it requires no additional judgment or effort on a new reader's behalf in order to remain so (another great example is Dylan who even among non-listeners exists as a "great" perhaps without ever really being investigated).<br />
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That sort of shallow relationship is how I identified with Ginsberg until seeing the <a href="http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59266/s.f.-directors-bring-allen-ginsbergs-howl-to-life/">Rob Epstein movie, <i>Howl</i></a>. I'm still undecided about the movie itself (James Franco does a well done Ginsberg). But what I enjoyed the most were <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/article/in_their_own_words_rob_epstein_and_jeffrey_friedman_share_an_exclusive_scen/#">reconstructed interviews from an apparently lost <i>TIME</i> Magazine interview</a> and other extracts from his lifetime.<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Sometimes I feel in command when I'm writing. When I'm in the heat of some truthful tears, yes. Other times, most of the time, not. Just diddling around, woodcarving, finding a pretty shape, like most of my poetry. There have only been a few times I have reached complete control.</span></blockquote>It's in these scenes, which are meant to shine some narrative arc and interpretation to Ginsberg's life leading up to <i>Howl</i> that I learned to identify with Ginsberg. These snippets reveal an artist just around 30 struggling to figure out <i>how</i> to say something and <i>why. </i>I immediately understood his feeling not in control of what he was writing - or in my case painting. I often wonder how things add up and sometimes realize weeks worth of work just circles onto itself. Then later on his gripe with literature (which could easily apply to painting):<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">There are many writers [or painters] who have pre-conceived ideas about what literature is supposed to be. But their ideas seem to preclude everything that makes the most interesting in casual conversation. Their faggishness, their solitude, their neurosis, their goofiness, their campiness or even their masculinity at times. Because they think they're going to write something that sounds like something else that they've read before...instead of sounds like them or comes from their own life. So the question is what happens when you make a distinction between what you tell your friends and what you tell your muse. The trick is to break down that distinction. To approach your muse, frankly, as you would talk to yourself or your friends. It's the ability to commit to writing [painting, photography]...to write the same way you are.</span></blockquote>If the movie does one thing right, it illuminates Ginsberg's trials as a completely normal, then repressed somebody who figured out how to be himself. He figured out how to make things the same way he was. Naturally. That's something that any young artist is trying to find. Sometimes the pieces are all there but they don't connect. And finally, later in the movie he reveals why an awful day in the studio (or out on the street shooting photographs of walls), feeling unaccomplished with nothing but false starts can be an important day:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">The act of writing becomes like a meditation exercise. If you walk down the street, in New York, for a few blocks you get this gargantuan feeling of buildings and if you walk all day you'll be on the verge of tears. But you have to walk all day to get that sensation. What I mean is, if you write all day you'll get into it, into your body, into your feelings, into your consciousness.....</span></blockquote>...And, completely humanizing himself and where I identify with him the most, he then admits:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">....I don't write enough that way.</span></blockquote>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-47582641945082645832011-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:002011-01-04T21:59:33.599-08:00Victim of My Own Discipline<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzuy7zvqkhtTpZR_ItgYt_KiDlwJ5r3Mg0fif6gJcXI85VkYPTgmYHGRxI5-xpahIB35vuQAR7JI_SJIeT7XabCsLtbjLDQ5C4PRyQz_IP0pD3Jyf6aboUIo4fhHlwQLCb7JGLiaRikg/s1600/4C01363.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzuy7zvqkhtTpZR_ItgYt_KiDlwJ5r3Mg0fif6gJcXI85VkYPTgmYHGRxI5-xpahIB35vuQAR7JI_SJIeT7XabCsLtbjLDQ5C4PRyQz_IP0pD3Jyf6aboUIo4fhHlwQLCb7JGLiaRikg/s400/4C01363.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nu couché et homme jouant de la guitare</i> 1970 Picasso (via <a href="http://picasso-paris.videomuseum.fr/Navigart/index.php?db=picasso&qs=1">National Picasso Museum</a>)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>With the Holidays comes plenty of spare time. Everything seems to slow down yet become harried. <a href="http://www.fimoculous.com/year-review-2010.cfm">There are too many lists.</a><br />
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I never make anything of that luxurious free time and end up dispirited. The studio feels far away. I built a few canvases and swept the floor. I criticize myself for not using the time wisely and then forget to enjoy myself all the while. I am a victim of my own discipline.<br />
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But each year I vow to embrace the Holidays. To be unaccomplished in style. Ultimately I find I've saved something up and when I return to the studio, it's better. Until then, here are some links that become strangely revealing of my current mood:<br />
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- Finally saw the <a href="http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=18788">Picasso Exhibit</a> at SAM. There are a vast amount of prints and lesser known work that seem only to tell a chronological story. Despite realizing that <a href="http://picasso-paris.videomuseum.fr/Navigart/index.php?db=picasso&qs=1">there are many other more interesting lesser known works</a> out there, I did fall in love with the last painting (above) and ultimately Picasso.<br />
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- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/arts/design/02moma.html?_r=1">MoMa leading (or standing alone)</a> in the change of museums.And maybe more related than you think: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/arts/music/02simplicity.html?ref=music">Writing a pop hit</a>.<br />
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- Before the New Year, NY Times featured their <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/19/magazine/ideas2010.html?ref=magazine">10th Annual Year in Ideas issue</a>. And also from the same issue: <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Industry-t.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=magazine">In Pursuit of the Perfect Brainstorm</a>.</i><br />
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<i>- </i>What <a href="http://c-monster.net/blog1/2011/01/02/what-im-reading-11/">C-Monster is currently reading</a>.<br />
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- And a great piece about Northwest artist, <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/carlin/index.ssf/2011/01/artist_jay_cunningham_portrait_of_the_artist_as_a_victim_of_his_own_perfectionism.html">Jay Cunningham</a>. "A victim of his own perfectionism".Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-63256382409943470702010-12-13T19:58:00.000-08:002010-12-13T19:58:33.632-08:00Go Where? Trying to be Good<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ivde.net/images/Artists-works/Jeffar_Khaldi/2009/Web-images/Jeffar-Khaldi,2009-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.ivde.net/images/Artists-works/Jeffar_Khaldi/2009/Web-images/Jeffar-Khaldi,2009-6.jpg" width="367" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Go Where?</i> 2009 Jeffar Khaldi (via <a href="http://www.ivde.net/artists/Jeffar_Khaldi_works.html">Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>One of the best ways a work of art can be <i>good</i> is when your experience with it reflects, in stages, exactly how it must have felt to make. I tend to respond to paintings that reveal the fun in their construction, the intensity, some heartbreak, labor, risk, confusion and ultimately, some sort of satisfying discovery.<br />
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I like to see a painting that shows off how effortlessly it was constructed but yet humbles itself in areas that could have been painstaking. Another words: triumphant and full of ego, but deserving of that confidence.<br />
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An artist a friend works for claims to have spent a good decade hiding and making bad work. And the kind of painting I am talking about is as a result of that hard work. It appears so unabashedly effortless because that fluidity has probably taken a short lifetime.<br />
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Seeing <a href="http://www.booooooom.com/2010/12/03/artist-painter-jeffar-khaldi/">Jeffar Khaldi's paintings</a> made me think of that. They also immediately remind me of <a href="http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/12/selected_works_1.htm">Neo Rauch</a> for the same reasons. Khaldi's subject matter is serious but not stodgy (unlike the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/books/review/10-best-books-of-2010.html?ref=review">NYT Book Review's Top Ten of 2010</a> which was a complete disappointment). I admire paintings like this because they don't take themselves seriously and that's an important point for me to learn with my own work.<br />
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Semi-Related: <a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201012/jonathan-franzen-profile-chuck-klosterman-freedom?currentPage=1">Chuck Klosterman interviews Jonathan Franzen</a> who makes a good point about authenticity, "Inauthentic people are obsessed with authenticity".<br />
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And Klosterman is on a roll lately, with a great totally unrelated <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/arts/television/05zombies.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=klosterman&st=cse">article about zombie onslaughts</a>.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-56353878779031423802010-12-09T19:16:00.000-08:002010-12-12T13:08:48.759-08:00Grant Hottle: So Domestic<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/5145628157_f23c3b326c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/5145628157_f23c3b326c.jpg" width="329" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>So Majestic</i> 2010 Grant Hottle (via <a href="http://halfdozengallery.com/exhibitions/2010-11/overview">Half/Dozen Gallery</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When seeing the Grant Hottle exhibit, <i>So Domestic</i> at <a href="http://halfdozengallery.com/exhibitions/2010-11/overview">Half/Dozen</a>, my first thought is how well his paintings manage a large scale, especially knowing the <a href="http://www.openwidepdx.com/?p=3088">artist works in a cramped space</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/5145628633_88b39cef33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/5145628633_88b39cef33.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cramped Apartment</i> 2010 Grant Hottle (via <a href="http://halfdozengallery.com/exhibitions/2010-11/artwork">Half/Dozen</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Even in <i>Cramped Apartment,</i> that <a href="http://halfdozengallery.com/blog/grant-hottle">Hottle admits</a>, "is the kind of space I find myself in most of the time. My home is full of art, books, tables - stuff. It's lived in...I wanted it to feel closed in and cluttered like my studio", it's painted in a way that uses it's size - a painting of stacked objects in a tight space but painted so that it reads from 10 feet away.<br />
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Looking closer you'll find that most of his paintings are deeply layered and reveal strokes perhaps not bigger than an inch. And perhaps this is what attracts me most to Hottle's work: the ability to articulate tangible, modern compositions relying on traditional color, shapes and elements.<br />
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Yes there is the strokey, and the electric color palette - but everything holds together as that first believable idea. Hottle's paintings are a lot about realness:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">The term 'real' is so subjective. I've been thinking about this specifically in the relation to the home because in moving from place to place, the space I think of as my home bleeds from one structure to the next. So where is my real home? Is it where I am now or where I am from? Isn't it a construction of both?...the greenhouse in So Domestic only exists in the context of this painting. It was never a direct observation or photograph of a place you could walk into. It is a construction, but is no less real for being so.</span></blockquote>For complete images and discussions with the artist, visit the <a href="http://halfdozengallery.com/exhibitions/2010-11/overview">Half/Dozen Gallery website</a>.Or visit <a href="http://www.kboo.fm/node/25209">KBOO's Art Focus</a> for discussion with Half/Dozen's Timothy Mahan and artist, Grant Hottle.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-10343059672934400102010-12-07T13:28:00.000-08:002010-12-07T13:37:56.031-08:00Finding Patience: The Trees Through the Forest<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUW4PX0MscP39Pz0TL4TNZCnh7P2vLKuwotcbIaZq8R4BP7yo1EMEntrtU6MiMQ17W1-Rrc31yG_iGUDgZIWHlozEKW4Ef_pt77myL5hooMTZS6MaXlE-YN30zWRtW-TX71qgDSanxMuY/s1600/Untitled+%2528Red+Dresses%25292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUW4PX0MscP39Pz0TL4TNZCnh7P2vLKuwotcbIaZq8R4BP7yo1EMEntrtU6MiMQ17W1-Rrc31yG_iGUDgZIWHlozEKW4Ef_pt77myL5hooMTZS6MaXlE-YN30zWRtW-TX71qgDSanxMuY/s400/Untitled+%2528Red+Dresses%25292.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Untitled (Red Dresses)</i> 2010 Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBPwaEB1cAs9xzRKvhUviAro5YgV7YcuV2xothlOSUyAqsyp0SWAWwv7UJLspu_1kxO4bEP1bp887TlHKhwmrFS1nfuuIe0pORAXmvxwt69ys2-qKgZmPSyH50AyAe8bMuUbyGTrep0s/s1600/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_Detail+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBPwaEB1cAs9xzRKvhUviAro5YgV7YcuV2xothlOSUyAqsyp0SWAWwv7UJLspu_1kxO4bEP1bp887TlHKhwmrFS1nfuuIe0pORAXmvxwt69ys2-qKgZmPSyH50AyAe8bMuUbyGTrep0s/s320/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_Detail+4.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from <i>Untitled (Red Dresses)</i> 2010 <br />
Stephan P. Ferreira</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When I finish a painting I often have a hard time seeing the whole. I'm stuck on details or the overall language of the painting.<br />
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I've labored so much over <i>how</i> I've articulated the imagery that trying to decipher any meaning is the same experience as trying to figure out what a word means after it has been repeated over and over: the word looses it's context, it looks foreign and suddenly you can't even remember if those letters are arranged correctly.<br />
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Having been so wrapped up in the painting I can only see the trees in the forest, as it were. It takes stepping away to eventually see the bigger picture. But before then, it's usually these small areas in my paintings that teach me and prompt me to do something else.<br />
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A recently completed painting based on a Depression era photograph got me thinking about what changes need to be made in my own process and what the successes in my work tell me about my focus and patience.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqN0ezhG-KBFav6HkflSLtlINg9OsnfLfNTsHNJp6vn8rQTUU10_NjkaKXqAHRzMlrsWrC7i-ggwRAU6M8wrSCNE7rac-HeR90ijIMX6Kr2imZBuvladYXwf_OsvF0EV7_5mAqav0hTAo/s1600/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_detail+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqN0ezhG-KBFav6HkflSLtlINg9OsnfLfNTsHNJp6vn8rQTUU10_NjkaKXqAHRzMlrsWrC7i-ggwRAU6M8wrSCNE7rac-HeR90ijIMX6Kr2imZBuvladYXwf_OsvF0EV7_5mAqav0hTAo/s400/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_detail+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><i>Red Dresses</i> was painted as a gift in just a couple of days. It became less about the subject matter (like most of my work) and more about figuring out my process.<br />
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Since seeing Antonio Lopez Garcia's work a few years back, I have been consciously trying to figure out how to maintain emotional, abstract marks while articulating something very exact. Garcia's work manages to accomplish this, like in <i>New Refrigerator</i>, shapes for color are drawn on the canvas, and the color marks themselves seem to take precedence over the object they define (it should be noted that some of his paintings take a few years).<br />
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This investigation sounds obvious - but I habitually work off-the-cuff, which means often I muddy things up. Using a very primary palette, I mix only a few local colors. Then I paint and repaint forms quickly, scraping down and rebuilding. Another words I usually figure out forms or space directly on the painting - my entire understanding or misunderstanding of it exists there.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/uploadedImages/articles/712_Lopez-Garcia992811.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/uploadedImages/articles/712_Lopez-Garcia992811.jpg" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>New Refrigerator</i> 1991-94<br />
Antonio Lopez Garcia<br />
(via <a href="http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/">Berkshire Fine Arts</a>)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.portifex.com/DailyBlague/archives/DaughtersEDB.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://www.portifex.com/DailyBlague/archives/DaughtersEDB.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of <i>Daughters of Edward D. Boit</i><br />
John Singer Sargent (via <a href="http://www.dailyblague.com/">Daily Blague</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Most artists seem to accomplish the same idea with other studies beforehand or during the painting. The best example I have of this can be seen in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jenny-Saville-Gagosian-Gallery/dp/0847827577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291753852&sr=8-1">2005 <i>Jenny Saville</i> monograph</a>.<br />
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The book has always been one of my favorite monographs because the layout shows her paintings and then via various super-close ups and studio shots shows all the other material and investigating that goes into a single painting.<br />
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What successfully articulated spots there were in <i>Red Dresses</i> were a result of early gridding and laying out decisions. One example is the woman holding the child in a blue dress downwards to the young girl facing the same direction. I gridded the image and then laid out simple dark and lights. The spare marks remaining reveal an underpainting for something else entirely. I'm reminded of the young girls doll painted with just a handful of decisive strokes in John Singer Sargent's <a href="http://jssgallery.org/paintings/Daughters_of_Edward_Darley_Boit.htm"><i>Daughters of Edward D. Boit</i></a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqmeXYzTCyKYS3-U5Mb199b0bPP1Ki6l7SZSSdqcdw5PQ03iYa6EeX1go9lOGIvjvTGKt2qxxkigKJ5_fyOm48vQcyEAUQOno8HbK-Xnwbfb4ekW3Vka8Ms0Z20yDgkKsLQSuvpFki6M/s1600/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_detail+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqmeXYzTCyKYS3-U5Mb199b0bPP1Ki6l7SZSSdqcdw5PQ03iYa6EeX1go9lOGIvjvTGKt2qxxkigKJ5_fyOm48vQcyEAUQOno8HbK-Xnwbfb4ekW3Vka8Ms0Z20yDgkKsLQSuvpFki6M/s400/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529_detail+8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOUaThutgSGA5u_sbQ5-iBnJbbkY0Z6RQv3R4n20osFkyJWPBZq350H4RFt91rlpoRbUwGdImgCApXoV2-_ThbSj_nEOx7S5M3Y1kuzknIVfagyNT9-dNsBoKyPJ9YxzN7IwWHLLnzDE/s1600/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529detail+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOUaThutgSGA5u_sbQ5-iBnJbbkY0Z6RQv3R4n20osFkyJWPBZq350H4RFt91rlpoRbUwGdImgCApXoV2-_ThbSj_nEOx7S5M3Y1kuzknIVfagyNT9-dNsBoKyPJ9YxzN7IwWHLLnzDE/s320/Untitled%2528red+dresses%2529detail+6.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Another example is of the space between the girl's arm who wears a pink dress. The scratchy and thick colors were decisive but simple enough to articulate the change in light.<br />
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But while there are lots of quick successes in <i>Red Dresses</i>, what those really convinced me of was that I should be working with more studies, more time and more focus.<br />
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The highlighted details of the painting show me that I'm sometimes unable to see the forest through the trees and that when I am able to steady myself and be decisive about my choices, my quick habits could articulate even more.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-14222795044167733792010-11-30T11:35:00.000-08:002010-12-05T08:45:39.599-08:00MFA Boston in Two Hours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDm9VfcUSiiiY9JBDoc0OJ_kSJ-xjDvcZ_OsQeRRcRwhH1GztnUsJIJAKwxJgLeF1NCifMDLCsNVQFw88GTuomOwQS7WaC3kQPRBaHa9JaGGoEk_pZfzoj8lEUGwnBBrMV2TDXswTux7I/s1600/MFAB_Detail+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDm9VfcUSiiiY9JBDoc0OJ_kSJ-xjDvcZ_OsQeRRcRwhH1GztnUsJIJAKwxJgLeF1NCifMDLCsNVQFw88GTuomOwQS7WaC3kQPRBaHa9JaGGoEk_pZfzoj8lEUGwnBBrMV2TDXswTux7I/s400/MFAB_Detail+2.JPG" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Over Thanksgiving weekend, Kelsey and I had <i>only</i> two short hours to spend touring the <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/11/10/with_new_website_devices_mfa_seeks_visitors_touch/">new American Art wing</a> at the <a href="http://www.mfa.org/">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston</a>. This wasn't much time for the art - or the camera - but the space is fantastic, and the Museum's highlights look better than ever.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZWdtwJLp92tMHm7cBAwgwYZwtw-kZy3dlDIb6aMynrZJS3tiWOGdKItb6OniIe6xyzp1A2IWKnEEzuLVM4NuZ0bQBOQK-miJBI2GsQ_fHCoGlm-qpKfHQE3HCY9ZX5vIUFjU59FO1Rc/s1600/zzzz14-of-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZWdtwJLp92tMHm7cBAwgwYZwtw-kZy3dlDIb6aMynrZJS3tiWOGdKItb6OniIe6xyzp1A2IWKnEEzuLVM4NuZ0bQBOQK-miJBI2GsQ_fHCoGlm-qpKfHQE3HCY9ZX5vIUFjU59FO1Rc/s400/zzzz14-of-14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Photo via <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/specials/mfa/gallery/wing_in_making/#/15">Boston Globe</a>)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-fss9LgfwSbep4cgUtR-MA3Bt3PelJMEaDq1iaQQdvDucOWGwqxCTRCcfoqjpo0S87IwAyt2Q4ix_6xkVnxi2iE4uIkn14tsz3K9WMXhyphenhyphenqjMm12Pp8ulJFiNbyLkptSioWQk0bVDjG8/s1600/MFAB_Courtyard.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-fss9LgfwSbep4cgUtR-MA3Bt3PelJMEaDq1iaQQdvDucOWGwqxCTRCcfoqjpo0S87IwAyt2Q4ix_6xkVnxi2iE4uIkn14tsz3K9WMXhyphenhyphenqjMm12Pp8ulJFiNbyLkptSioWQk0bVDjG8/s320/MFAB_Courtyard.JPG" width="320" /></a>I worked at the MFA about 5 years ago. The museum has always been big, but back then only had about 17% of it's American Art collection on display. A Museum Guard informed us the MFA now displays more like 30-40%. As <a href="http://www.mfa.org/americas-wing/architecture_numbers.html">their site boasts</a>, 5,000 works of art are on display in over 53 new galleries!<br />
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The museum was raising money for the expansion as I left. I was doubtful of the sterile glass buildings they planned to add. <a href="http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Practice/Default.aspx">Norman Foster & Partners</a> were chosen for the project.<br />
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<div style="text-align: right;"></div> But I was wrong. The addition was perfect to heighten the original architecture. I had also been doubtful of filling in one of their outdoor courtyards. Instead now that space is active and alive. And like the entire addition, it <a href="http://www.dexigner.com/news/21884">unifies the museum's disparate additions</a>, making the space both exciting, not too overpowering and re-introducing the building back into it's surroundings. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1VMslRLpuawVu3niyCLZk7iuwgzvVRca4OCzcjxXiIj9elAadp3MzXe1sNBR-nyDooimvwf6toftdPke9m1x4GPP3_-wATwZxEw-5wj3vdeXG-iGWC4RlkFQad2m8Yl9WRfIb3Rvdmg/s1600/MFAB_Courtyard-Kelsey.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1VMslRLpuawVu3niyCLZk7iuwgzvVRca4OCzcjxXiIj9elAadp3MzXe1sNBR-nyDooimvwf6toftdPke9m1x4GPP3_-wATwZxEw-5wj3vdeXG-iGWC4RlkFQad2m8Yl9WRfIb3Rvdmg/s400/MFAB_Courtyard-Kelsey.JPG" width="500" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPc2YtFOY7KC-La8kOJK35P3FCj40D2CFZCQK8rtvvT_F99azsPjXzmf_EBZu_r01uGqPqvq0pip40y5TyK_uDjeErhChVzV8RNG_NjmFyxmP3g0hFzRi_an4gDrkr-qiC2GJXJ7ZfQYc/s1600/MFAB_Daughters.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPc2YtFOY7KC-La8kOJK35P3FCj40D2CFZCQK8rtvvT_F99azsPjXzmf_EBZu_r01uGqPqvq0pip40y5TyK_uDjeErhChVzV8RNG_NjmFyxmP3g0hFzRi_an4gDrkr-qiC2GJXJ7ZfQYc/s400/MFAB_Daughters.JPG" width="500" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUPD-ZUhxQrWvjRKFQunaDbVqGALJ3YigLs6XzzFwfOZo8UH6T4mMo9RkKsExEXNrbwM0AyinoiYCrYrabQY7Ap1vOK7gRs0EHyE4fnsrSdTKYKvlxpHgc2u8ZRM5sXtNfFnAi-EK_q4/s1600/MFAB_Kelsey+%2526+Wyeth.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUPD-ZUhxQrWvjRKFQunaDbVqGALJ3YigLs6XzzFwfOZo8UH6T4mMo9RkKsExEXNrbwM0AyinoiYCrYrabQY7Ap1vOK7gRs0EHyE4fnsrSdTKYKvlxpHgc2u8ZRM5sXtNfFnAi-EK_q4/s200/MFAB_Kelsey+%2526+Wyeth.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwqqzXn5-BfWcWGeu1gnBa1SeIapW-476SuWjgwcwvSNQUADyofSJVRTjqFRhpuybehOZQwILVxnkJeG-Jr6amJLJ5na1Jo5aNIrmt5WQ2wniQP_GCz6zDAfMejS0l40irmxiPmSFcgU/s1600/MFAB_Detail.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwqqzXn5-BfWcWGeu1gnBa1SeIapW-476SuWjgwcwvSNQUADyofSJVRTjqFRhpuybehOZQwILVxnkJeG-Jr6amJLJ5na1Jo5aNIrmt5WQ2wniQP_GCz6zDAfMejS0l40irmxiPmSFcgU/s320/MFAB_Detail.JPG" width="212" /></a>It was great also to see the entire wing built and curated with it's own collection in mind. Something I'm sure happens quite a bit with all the recent Museum expansions, but sorely needed at the MFA. Paintings that once felt crowded or underwhelming in their surroundings now felt grand. The Sargent painting (above), <i>The Daughters of Edward D. Boit</i> is a good example. It seems entire galleries were created around the experience of certain pieces of art - for example the Pre-Columbian Period room, or the salon-style Colonial room.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">And despite the fact that there really is an incredible amount of work on display, it's never really too much too look at. It is all hung at a tempo both exciting and digestible. Even the decorative arts, once set off to the sides of main galleries and usually avoided, were now broken up and placed more closely matched with the paintings or sculptures from their era.<br />
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And back to the outdoor courtyard - the Norman Foster addition now includes those outdoor elements and sculpture as transitions between regular galleries. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhMYNsMkn7MSC6tW2xu8N0R26aF2ROmqe43qQKIkarggNb88vkzQUj1IFKOsU0fK5JsJPsRKjYTUdk2xeZ7fW-jCUAIg2F5IYX6n87_6iROtnVmvEiCBnvwpAKf0ljRX9oNAAJxtLqfg/s1600/MFAB_Kelsey+%2526+Work.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhMYNsMkn7MSC6tW2xu8N0R26aF2ROmqe43qQKIkarggNb88vkzQUj1IFKOsU0fK5JsJPsRKjYTUdk2xeZ7fW-jCUAIg2F5IYX6n87_6iROtnVmvEiCBnvwpAKf0ljRX9oNAAJxtLqfg/s400/MFAB_Kelsey+%2526+Work.JPG" width="500" /></a></div>In my experience with the museum, I've noticed them to cover their weak spots (a lacking contemporary art collection) with stellar small, spotlight exhibitions (Cecily Brown, Antonio Lopez Garcia, etc) in the Foster Gallery and yet (just one of) their prize collections was hung cramped nearby. With the expanded wing, I really had a glimpse into the Museum's strengths and it was exciting.</div>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-7294377932866516132010-11-19T16:01:00.000-08:002011-02-19T11:13:03.578-08:00Finding Gerard Byrne<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/images/gerardbyrne2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/images/gerardbyrne2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Case Study: Loch Ness</i> <i>(Some Possibilities and Problems)</i><br />
2001-2010 (ongoing) Gerard Byrne (via <a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gerardbyrne.asp">Auckland Triennial</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border: medium none;">Since 2008, I have been searching for documentation of Gerard Byrne's <a href="http://www.icaboston.org/about/pressreleases/gerard-byrne/">Boston ICA</a> installation of <i>Case Study: Loch Ness (Some Possibilities and Problems). </i>I have really just been stuck trying to find his name, remember when I was there - and almost in bizarre irony to what the exhibit was about - <i>what I had seen - </i>which was originally what haunted me.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gallery/gerardbyrne3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gallery/gerardbyrne3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">Installation View: <i>Case Study: Loch Ness</i> <i>(Some Possibilities and Problems)</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;">2001-2010 (ongoing) Gerard Byrne (via <a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gerardbyrne.asp">Auckland Triennial</a>)</div></td></tr>
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<i>Case Study</i> has been one of the only installations I've seen that completely swallowed me up then piece by piece revealed it's intentions. It didn't have a clever aftertaste. And unlike how I feel about a lot of installation art, it used all of it's components (photography, found sculpture, multimedia elements) convincingly - that is to say, it couldn't have been executed any other way. The piece has been building since 2001. <a href="http://aesthetic.gregcookland.com/2009/01/gerard-byrne.html">Greg Cook</a>, of the Boston Phoenix described it as:</div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">...a playful conceptual-art riff on the Loch Ness Monster mystery. The installation comprises a slide-show, a grainy silent film, audio of a guy reading what seem to be accounts of sightings of Nessie, text summaries of "sightings" pasted to a wall, and a tree stump. But mostly it's black-and-white photos depicting a strange ripple on the lake, driftwood, a swimmer's arm breaking through the water - all things that might be mistaken for a monster if you were so inclined</span>. </blockquote>The Loch Ness legend is well known. There has never been any true evidence of the monster's existence. But Byrne is not so much interested in presenting the legend to us, so much as he's trying to provoke us with questions that Cook suggests: "How do we see? How do we trick ourselves into seeing things that might not be there?". Or as Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator at the ICA, describes, "he plays with our sense of period and context, fashioning his work so that we can never be exactly sure of what we are seeing."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.icaboston.org/photo-album/byrne/pa_photos/6053057/6053068/large/Byrne_ss_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://www.icaboston.org/photo-album/byrne/pa_photos/6053057/6053068/large/Byrne_ss_6.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Case Study: Loch Ness</i> <i>(Some Possibilities and Problems)</i><br />
<i></i>2001-20010 (ongoing) Gerard Byrne (via <a href="http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/byrne/">ICA</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Byrne's <i>Case Study</i> and his installations expose the inconsistencies with the devices we use to communicate what we know - or think we know - to each other. His art exposes the "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/19/gerard-byrne-video-installation-art">treachery of language</a>".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gallery/gerardbyrne2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gallery/gerardbyrne2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installation View: <i>Case Study: Loch Ness</i> <i> </i><br />
<i>(Some Possibilities and Problems)</i> 2001-2010<br />
(ongoing) Gerard Byrne (via <a href="http://www.aucklandtriennial.com/artists/gerardbyrne.asp">Auckland Triennial</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I think what made <i>Case Study</i> so disarming for me was the use of common mediums telling a familiar story. With very little color appearing in a few photographs, the overall presentation is black-and-white, clinical or secretive. There were some framed typed stories. In the center, was a 16-millimeter camera aimed at the side of a pedestal. The film zeros in on scenes around the lake and unintelligible conversations. There are headphones where you can hear some of these stories being mixed and retold. Off to the side was a dry large stump with much of its roots. I can't recall if the stump had geographic significance, but it adds a tactile, scientific reality to the display. Overall you begin to feel how real or tangible this story is - and how real the <i>idea</i> of it is. But all the while you still haven't seen the monster.<br />
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My favorite part of the installation, or perhaps what was the kicker for me, were the lumped 15 black-and-white framed photographs arranged in a sideways pyramid. Images of blurry close-ups and unintelligible long shots of the lake juxtaposed with clear depictions of the shore, a stump or objects in the water. The arrangement caused me to question what I was looking at even though it was directly in front of me.<br />
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Byrne's <i>Loch Ness</i> playfully builds up a legend and then leaves you standing in the middle of an assortment of hand-me-down evidence but unable to trust any of it. And this questioning has haunted me ever since.<br />
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UPDATE: An interview with Byrne <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR7gxA0-PFQ&feature=player_embedded">here</a> about this work, posted on occasion of his <a href="http://www.mkgallery.org/media/installation_images_gerard_byrne/">Milton Keynes installation</a>.Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5613701493066055333.post-5418310474868409132010-11-06T13:46:00.000-07:002010-11-13T15:53:24.109-08:00Keeping Friends Outside the Art World<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d14j21k36u347g.cloudfront.net/wordpress_core/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dan-cameron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://d14j21k36u347g.cloudfront.net/wordpress_core/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dan-cameron.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dan Cameron (Photo via <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/">Art Fag City</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I have been following Paddy Johnson's interview series, <i>Survival in New York</i>, on <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/">Art Fag City</a>. The series includes interviews of young and established artists and curators including to-date: <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/11/01/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-marcin-ramocki/%20">Marcin Ramocki</a>, <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/11/04/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-lauren-cornell/">Lauren Cornell</a>, <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/25/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-dan-cameron/">Dan Cameron</a>, <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/14/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-triple-candie/">Triple Candie</a> and <a href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/10/18/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-william-powhida/">William Powhida</a>. They will be compiled and reflected upon later this month in an issue of <a href="http://www.mapmagazine.co.uk/">MAP Magazine</a>.<br />
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New York is a far cry from Portland (or maybe not) but the artist survival woes are the same. How does an artist develop a career of making things while making a living?<br />
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The interviewee's are genuinely down-to-earth about their practice. Maybe confidence like that is exuded after establishing yourself or eliminating doubt. Confidence is a common trait among young artists, but being down-to-earth is certainly not.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>I identify myself as having worked through, and used up, my post-undergraduate doubts and ideals and now am thinking pragmatically. How do I make this possible, even if what I am making is not making it possible? <i>And</i>, beyond the act of creating for myself, what purpose does it serve more broadly?<br />
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There's no surprise that all artists "think about the economics and how people get paid". Maybe there are some artists that don't worry about this! But being realistic should have a more humbling purpose too: measuring yourself. There's nothing worse than a bad artist taking themselves too seriously. The Art World, like any other industry can be insular and warped. Artists should exist as much in the Art World as they do in the <i>real</i> world. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.artfagcity.com/2010/11/04/survival-in-new-york-an-interview-with-lauren-cornell/">Lauren Cornell</a> mentions:<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A lot of my friends are not in the art world, they are in other fields and I think that's a really great part of living in New York [or Portland], that you do have access to so many kinds of people...I am definitely hanging out with a broad cross of people. And many of them look at me cross-eyed when they don't understand how I make ends meet in the arts. I think that art is a hard thing to do. It takes a lot of risks to be an artist and so it's nice to be surrounded by other people who are making art. But I also think that the art world can be insular and it can be important to be outside of it, too.</span></blockquote>And where are the young artists, totally absorbed in the Art World coming from? Art Schools. Robert Storr, the Dean of the Yale School of Art, <a href="http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2010/11/robert_storr.html">recently interviewed on PORT</a>, alludes also to the idea of measuring yourself against others, not taking yourself too seriously and using those "reality checks" to understand how great (or bad) you are and to grow:<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My concern is with what goes on in schools and so long as students understand that they are there to learn and to question and to make things for which there is not a priori necessity, and that their choosing to be an artist does not mean that the world owes them a career or that they are entitled to special status with respect to others whose lives are devoted to different activities, then art schools are as good a place as any, and better than most for a person to come into their own and form an unalienated working relation to their own faculties and capacities. All my life I have worked too hard at various jobs to pay for the freedom to paint and draw. Painting and drawing have never paid for themselves. I have no complaints and do not feel badly done to.</span> </blockquote>Stephan P Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01604492576349820254noreply@blogger.com0