general

Meighan O’Toole from the My Love for You blog came to my studio and we had a great visit. She took lots of photos of my work in progress, which is the 38+ painting/installation that will probably grow to double in size. I thought originally  that it would be done this summer, but that’s not going to happen — this fall, if I’m lucky. The post also got on the Juxtapoze Magazine blog as well. Nice!

Yep, that’s me — I haven’t posted anything since February. Been preoccupied with life, work, and painting. Soon I will post some images of my big beast painting/installation. In the meantime, I saw two good films on art and thought I’d share… “Serafina” is about a French washer woman/painter who was self-taught. She was discoverd in ~1914 by the German collector William Uhde, and eventually she became quite famous in the 1930s, until she ended up in a mental institution late in her life. Her paintings were quite something; ethereal and beautiful, and large! I also enjoyed watching “Dorothy & Herb,” this is about a diminuative couple, the Vogels, who live in NYC and started collecting art with their meager (government job) salaries in the early 1960s. They ammased an enormous, I mean really enormous, collection that they gave to the National Gallery in D.C. Both films are worth watching. Enjoy!

Thought I’d post this article from Art:21’s blog about Mannerism in art today….

“The arts in the period between 1880 and 1920 reached heights of achievement unseen since the Renaissance. The avant-garde in its prime was all greatness, all glory. With the best will in the world, and however much we find to admire and to hope for, our time is mannerist in comparison.” Read full article.

Roberta Smith, art critic for the New York Times, writes a challenging and to the point article about museum shows and painting today.

….”What’s missing is art that seems made by one person out of intense personal necessity, often by hand. A lot but not all of this kind of work is painting, which seems to be becoming the art medium that dare not speak its name where museums are concerned.” …..”They have a responsibility to their public and to history to be more ecumenical, to do things that seem to come from left field. They owe it to the public to present a balanced menu that involves painting as well as video and photography and sculpture. They need to think outside the hive-mind, both distancing themselves from their personal feelings to consider what’s being wrongly omitted and tapping into their own subjectivity to show us what they really love.

These things should be understood by now: The present is diverse beyond knowing, history is never completely on anyone’s side, and what we ignore today will be excavated later and held against us the way we hold previous oversights against past generations.

Message to curators: Whatever you’re doing right now, do something else next.” Read the entire article

First Friday in Boston was so crowded in February, that I couldn’t get a good look at the work. As well as the DeCordova Biennial opening, which was packed. But as soon as I get a chance to go back to these and other exhibits, I’ll take some photos and post some local artwork. Meantime, my friend Shelley pointed me to Valerie Hegarty’s work which is pretty nifty. I’m not keen on all of the pieces, but a lot of them are beautiful in their destruction and worth a second peek. I especially like Unearthed 2008, Niagara Falls 2007, and Bierstadt with Holes 2007, all three shown below.

Unearthed 2008

Niagara Falls 2007

Bierstadt with Holes 2007

Another favorite artist of mine is Walton Ford. Snatched from Greg Cook’s blog is a review of WF’s latest work and recent exhibit in NY….. “Walton Ford of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary artists active in New England. He paints monumental watercolors that speak of the meeting of people and animals and how this interaction sets off chain-reactions of disaster. The vividly realistic paintings, with traces of faux aging, resemble 19th century natural history specimen sketches – particularly the work of John James Audubon – but they overturn that era’s sense of the superiority of man to animals, to nature….”  read more

Here are a few photos of WF’s beautiful beasts.

Nila

Madagascar

Thanh Hoang

I’ve been a huge fan of Mandy Greer’s for some time now, and I’m not sure why she isn’t more famous — I suppose it’s just a matter of time. I don’t know how she gets so much work done so quickly, although from her blog I can see that she has many people helping out, but still, the amount of intricate work she produces is amazing! Below are a few photos of some of her installations. I love the installations, but I’m less intrigued with her art as woman’s dress, which is the direction she seems to be going in now….

Installation from 2006

Installation from 2006

Installation from 2008

One of Mandy's dresses