Showing posts with label visual arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visual arts. Show all posts
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Hello Again
Yes...its been a long time. I suffered a melt-down. I put a huge effort into self promotion and sales. I drowned in an ocean of others trying to do the same thing. It was so defeating. I felt so naive. But you have to start somewhere don't you? I have recovered. I realized I needed a new game plan. I'm taking from my recent experiences and moving forward with a video blog and podcast. I have a grand new IDEA for my work. I want to walk off the edge of the realism cliff. I want to get more at the heart of why I paint, see and paint some more. Do you know what I mean? I don't want to obey the rules. I want to create something more organic than what I see. I want to create something from what I feel. I'm not entirely casting aside tricks and techniques. I'll use them to accomplish my purposes. I'm taking the training wheels off. I think its a good idea for me to take all the years of figure drawing classes, art history classes, painting from photos I've taken and walk into uncharted territory. I love the impression of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface. Can I create it without representing objects and places? If I can, will it be something of value to the viewer? It would be valuable to me because its part of my evolution as an artist. Is it O.K. for me to make art for the pure love of it? Yes! I give myself permission.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
My easel scares me...
So when I undertook to work on ten paintings simultaneously I didn't realize I would be multiplying the fear factor by as much. Its like writer's block. Everything was going great and I was about done with all of them. Its a funny thing when something's about to be finished....I think that it could all go wrong and mess it up completely. All that work and material wasted. But that's never, ever happened in my entire experience. So....................here's one.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Look A Little Closer
Once upon a time when I was in fifth grade, we had a contest. We had to look at a painting by a famous artist who was not named and guess the title. I was looking at Picasso's "Old Guitar Player". I guessed the title correctly. I think it was fitting that I guessed right since it was a well known fact among my fellow classmates that I was an artist and in a completely different universe from every other human being.
As I grew up, I got the impression that Picasso was a jerk. He seemed to me to be a woman-hater. I chalked him up as just another typical man. I never cared for his work much but when I was taking one of my first art classes I learned that the reason why his cubist work looked weird was because he was trying to show all aspects of an object simultaniously. He was expressing the fact that even though you may not see the back of a chair it still exists. Interesting idea to have and want to express considering the attitudes about creating art at the time. Interesting anyway. That insight would have been nice a million years ago when I first started studying art. (So I wonder??? Why arent' these things taught? Who's in charge?)
So a few years ago I heard of an exhibit at a local university that I was interested in seeing. The collection of masterworks from Monet to Picasso was lectured on by the lending Cleveland Museum of Modern Art. This is how I learned that Picasso had a friend as a young man who was a fellow artist and was in love with a woman of ill repute. The friend's name was Carlos Casagenas. When Casagenas learned that he had been rejected, he held a dinner party that included the woman, Picasso and other friends. Casagenas stood to give a toast and then shot himself in front of everyone.
The impact this had on Picasso must have been enormous. He was a young man away from home for the first time and living an impoverished lifestyle. I'm sure he was strong enough to endure life's hardships but what a traumatic event!
So to make a long story short...I can see why he might have had a negative opinion of women.
The point of this story is that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to art and artists. Knowing these details about Picasso makes me want to look at his work again and look into his work. I still don't like his work but I appreciate it. I'm curious about it and I want to know more about it and the man behind it. Would it be wonderful if other people did too? Let's get off this starvation diet of looking at and appreciating art.
As I grew up, I got the impression that Picasso was a jerk. He seemed to me to be a woman-hater. I chalked him up as just another typical man. I never cared for his work much but when I was taking one of my first art classes I learned that the reason why his cubist work looked weird was because he was trying to show all aspects of an object simultaniously. He was expressing the fact that even though you may not see the back of a chair it still exists. Interesting idea to have and want to express considering the attitudes about creating art at the time. Interesting anyway. That insight would have been nice a million years ago when I first started studying art. (So I wonder??? Why arent' these things taught? Who's in charge?)
So a few years ago I heard of an exhibit at a local university that I was interested in seeing. The collection of masterworks from Monet to Picasso was lectured on by the lending Cleveland Museum of Modern Art. This is how I learned that Picasso had a friend as a young man who was a fellow artist and was in love with a woman of ill repute. The friend's name was Carlos Casagenas. When Casagenas learned that he had been rejected, he held a dinner party that included the woman, Picasso and other friends. Casagenas stood to give a toast and then shot himself in front of everyone.
The impact this had on Picasso must have been enormous. He was a young man away from home for the first time and living an impoverished lifestyle. I'm sure he was strong enough to endure life's hardships but what a traumatic event!
So to make a long story short...I can see why he might have had a negative opinion of women.
The point of this story is that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to art and artists. Knowing these details about Picasso makes me want to look at his work again and look into his work. I still don't like his work but I appreciate it. I'm curious about it and I want to know more about it and the man behind it. Would it be wonderful if other people did too? Let's get off this starvation diet of looking at and appreciating art.
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