The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brunch, & Unbreak My Heart

Yesterday we drove into Brooklyn to visit the Art Museum and see the show at Pluto Gallery, Unbreak My Heart. UMH was great. You can see all kinds of images from the show at the curators blog, Heart as Arena.

We caught the last day of the Gilbert & George show at the Brooklyn Museum. I'm not a fan but I loved the surface of these big drawings. The feminist art show was great but they won't allow photos.

In between the museum and gallery we had brunch at Chavella's, a Mexican restaurant next door to Pluto. It was fantastic! We did all that and still made it home to Philadelphia before the Steeler's game started. (Matt's requirement.)

Parental Critique

"What is WRONG with you people?"

William Thompson

I wanted to share some great paintings from a friend of mine from Bowling Green, OH, William Thompson.

The Virus & the Hirshhorn

That proved to be a longer interruption than I had expected. I spent all day yesterday feeding a hungry child with a very strange stomach virus. I tried to explain that if she didn’t eat as much she wouldn’t have to spend as much time in the bathroom, but like I said, this is a strange virus. Soo, with 5 minute interruptions all day I was not able to finish what I had started.

The truth is my visit to the Hirshhorn needs very little commentary. We saw the “Strange Bodies” installation (they are calling it an exhibition, but as I wrote to my friend Charlie: If It's part of the permanent collection and it's going to be on the wall until an undetermined time in 2010 is it really an "Exhibition?" Isn't it really just "the Museum?") But more to the point it was an interesting grouping of paintings. I have to admit that I was somewhat distracted by my twelve year old’s discomfort with male nudity and the crowd and missed some works that I should have photographed.

John Currin’s painting almost converts me to his work. It is a great painting. Especially seen after one of Lucian Freud’s large male nudes and before Ron Mueck’s very large seated nude man--a little balance to that male gaze. I neglected to post my photo of Philip Guston’s painting. This is the work I spent the most time looking at. I always love his work at the same time that I don’t think I really understand any of it. The paintings often seem so sensitive and yet so blunt, so clear and yet so abstract, and both simple and complex.

Visiting the Hirshhorn

Bloggus Interuptus...text coming soon.

Strange Bodies at the Hirshhorn

John Currin

Alberto Giacometti

Magdalen Abakanowicz

Just outside Strange Bodies:

Juliao Sarmento

Tony Cragg


Elsewhere at the Hirshhorn:

a detail from Cecily Brown

and of course I would love this: Claes Oldenburg

Suet

My favorite activity this winter has been making suet. We never seem to move with our bird feeders and this time, what with the economic collapse and losing the house, we didn't move with a lot of things. So feeding the birds is not in the budget but I couldn’t help myself. I purchased a suet feeder, scanned the internet, and started making suet. The birds love it. It seems to last longer than the seed in the feeders do even with the squirrels working away at it. It’s also given me an excuse to make bacon. This particular delicious mixture contains the leftover cranberries from our popcorn and cranberry stringing and some birdseed. Next up, tackle getting fat from the butcher for free and stop eating the bacon.

These images are from back in December when we did our last trail challenge hike, my birthday actually. It was 70degrees! I can't remember it ever being so warm on my bday. This first tree is full of blue birds. I think if you click for the larger image you'll be able to see them.



It was warm and windy. You can see the wind blowing across the field.


Vulture in a tree.


And this guy. Whatever the heck he is. This is from the National Zoo during the lights festival.

Like a groundhog

I think this guy pretty much sums up anything I might have to say this morning.

The Grid Story

So that was the end of the train story. What about the end of the grid story? Well that’s still a work in progress. Matt tells me to think of the grid work as related to my art in the same way that lifting weights is related to a football player’s work. But I really think there’s more to it than that. I can’t see what it is yet and that kind of thing just can’t be rushed. Eventually I may come to understand how it all fits in but in the mean time I’ll just keep making them.

The new sewn canvas pieces are definitely incremental. It’s not illusionary in the same way that the grid based drawings and paintings are, but the incremental aspect is critical to the works. I suspect that might be where my methodical and gestural impulses will meet and generate the amazing stuff I’ve been dreaming of. In the mean time it’s a hell of a journey.

The Train Story

I have two compelling impulses. One is to do methodical, repetitious tasks; the other is to make wild grand gestures. These two aspects of myself are difficult to reconcile unless I allow them to take place at different times. That is, of course, generally how I work it. But as an artist I’d really like to see the two mechanisms work together. I envision great works of art will flow from this symbiosis. Much like the amazing paintings I’ve made in my dreams- the ones I cannot actually make because they don’t have enough specificity. Maybe that’s the real reason I like abstraction so much -it allows that vagueness to be a part of an image.

When I started making grid based works I was drawn to the methodical nature of the process as well as the attention to detail. These works still lack that grand gesture but I have to admit I am very attracted to them. Instead, the grid works, seem homely and revelatory. They often seem to have an embarrassing sincerity, as if they are trying their very hardest and revealing all. “All” is really pretty ordinary, hence the sense of embarrassment.

The first time I entered a grid based painting into a show I was reminded of the train story. The train story, for those who don’t know, takes place in 1978ish, in third grade at Mary Queen of Heaven grade school. Our assignment was to write down something that we wanted more than anything else in the whole world. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted. I wanted an electric train. So…

I completed my written assignment, marched into class, sat down in the circle to announce said desire when my turn came AND…

Patiently listened as the first, and then second, and then third student announced that they would like “to see the face of Jesus.” Oh SHIT. Cause I really wanted that train. Plus I had already written it down and did I mention that I really wanted that train? But I can see already that my desire is so, hmm, base and everyone else’s desires are so much…higher reaching (you get the idea right?) But I am NOT willing to jeopardize the train just for the face of Jesus, especially when I’m pretty sure I’ll get to see it anyway after I’ve died, after many years of PLAYING WITH MY ELECTRIC TRAIN!!!

This was quite a struggle. And finally when my turn came I resolved it by saying “I’d like an electric train ANDTOSEETHEFACEOFJESUS.”

Epilogue:
I got the train.

PLANS

My sister asked me yesterday if I had any New Years Resolutions. I don’t, I told her, but I have PLANS, lots and lots of plans. I make plans all the time. When I’m knitting I make plans about what else I’m going to knit. When I’m making art I make plans about what I’m going to make next. Most of my plans for 2009 are not specific enough to warrant the title “resolution.” Or perhaps I recognize the necessity of keeping plans open.

I discovered a while ago that acknowledging that I want to do something is enough. At the same time I discovered that it’s important to actually acknowledge when you want something. Not that I’ll necessarily get what I want but then I guess it’s equally important to acknowledge sorrow and loss when you experience it. At any rate I’ve acknowledged the desire for a number of things and allowed these desires to take the form of PLANS.

Happy New Year!

Party on.

Warm Winter

December in the Studio

This piece is roughly 7 feet in diameter. It's double sided (as are all of the sewn pieces I've been making) but I think this is the "front." It would be great to hang them on a transparent surface but in the mean time I've turned it around for a view of the other side:




This is on the machine with "I tried to stop" and "All that's left of my heart" hanging on the wall in the background.

This is "I tried to stop" almost finished. I sewed an edge at the top but haven't rephotographed it since. Each individual shingle in this piece is a 4" square with text on it.

Reflections

Ha. I couldn't resist that title for this post. I've been having fun with mirrors and other reflective surfaces. This one is from Longwood Gardens.

Maximalist Christmas

Olivia is going through her "anti-minimalist" phase. The cookie cutter that made this bird used to be a reindeer. You probably know the one...it's the cookie cutter with the narrow pieces that ALWAYS break, sometimes before baking, sometimes after baking, and sometimes even after decorating. But even if they don't break off that leg, or antler, is always overdone. So I reshaped it into a bird shape. We've been bird watching all year so it seems appropriate to add a bird to our cutter supply. The narrow santa cutter is on next years hit list.

My favorite part of the holidays is making things. It's probably the reason Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. In fact if I review my life I find a lot of the things I get excited about involve making stuff. The best part of planning for my wedding was making the dresses. This year I actually finished all of my gifts on time, unlike the wedding dress which I was still sewing 10 min before the wedding.

Dream big, work hard and have a Happy Holiday!

Dona Nelson

I've decided to end my artists "advent calendar" with my all time favorite painter, Dona Nelson. She doesn't have a website but it does appear that she has work up at her gallery right now. This is her piece, Walnut Way, taken from jameswagner.com

Hadassah Emmerich - Chitra Ganesh - Dona Nelson - Haeri Yoo

Thomas Erben Gallery
Chelsea

526 West 26th Street, 4th Floor, 212-645-8701
December 16, 2008 - February 1, 2009
Opening: Tuesday, December 16, 6 - 8:30PM

Alyssa Pheobus

Amy Jean Porter

Amy Jean Porter's work from her website All Species, All the Time.

Lauren Kalman

Only 3 more advent calendar days left. That makes choosing an artist site to post more difficult. So many great options. I was introduced to Lauren Kalman's work through an artist in Knoxville. Definitely worth checking out.

Linda Ganjian

Linda Ganjian's sculptures are influenced by Middle Eastern carpet designs and they look like so much fun!

Mireille Vautier

Mireille Vautier's work includes stitching on plastic bags (my personal favorite) among other things.

Mille Guldbeck

Visit Mille Guldbeck's website to see her haunting and beautiful works. If you get a chance to see them in person take it. You're missing a lot of the subtleties of the works online.

Rowena Dring

Rowena Dring's work is stitched fabric.

Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan at Ace Gallery.