09.08.06
Posted in Views at 6:52 am by quinacridone
My writing on my Iridescent Art News is good. I know it is better than most of the crap I read. Most of the non-confrontational coke commercial bullshit that passes as art writing. I don’t ever want to be an art reporter – I am sick to death of just reading about art. Never once did I make a painting in a happy state of mind – although the end products always made me happy. I always work in a state of anxiety and passion, and I want to write the same way. Iridescent Art News has flashes, and this blog has a few gushes of what I am talking about.
Most people don’t take the time or effort to read my works, and it is the same when people come to see my work in galleries. There is a rawness that is uncomfortable and unelegant. There is a thought process behind each work that is confused and chaotic – and that’s the way I like it. Decisions are tough and making a work of art deals with making decision. Visions and revisions which a minuet will reverse. To hell with clearly thought out theories on art. To hell with clear vision. To hell with nicely packaged pills that slide down your throat easier to make you forget the pain.
What pisses me off the most is that the floaters, the advertisers, the commercial makers of the art world, the ass kissing back scratchers, are the ones in the loop. They make the loop an exclusive place where one has to do a lot of fake flirting to get into. And here I sit as I always have. A little to passionate and aggressive for most people to deal with. But that doesn’t mean my work is not worth looking into. I know what you see in me, I look at myself through your eyes all the time, I calculate moves, moods, and attitudes. And I am always ripped off. Within weeks after I produce something new people are ripping me off and passing it on as their own ideas – it happens all the time and I am sick to death of it all. I am not part of the club – but that same club rips me off and profits from it in their circle of back patting. Not much is more aggravating.
So here I sit exercising demons. My demons are so fit from all the exercising I give them that they could win Olympic medals. I will see how long it takes for someone to try and rip that line off from me in some way or another – because it always happens. So I know I got the goods as far as talent, vision, and passion go – and I am getting closer to that “voice” everyone talks about. You rip-off artists, you circle jerking never-will-be’s, you shits; when you do finally realize the “voice” of my art you will be to weak to ever imitate. You better keep your eyes open so you can talk about it when it passes you by.
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08.20.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:09 pm by quinacridone
As much as I like writing my other blog I am quickly finding out that I can’t be as quick witted or hot tempered there. There is a certain amount of respectability I want to maintain with that particular blog, for the kids if nothing else, but this blog will be important for diaristic reasons. Mainly to vent about the sorry start of the art in my local area. The Pennlive blog is me trying to use some positive reinforcement and nickel words with a folksy delivery. This blog will I hope be a little more raw and – unapologetic. So I am going to continue to write here as well – because I do have many opinions but also a delivery system and sheer force of will that is uncontrollable in certain circumstances.
I guess what pisses me off most about this area is the total lack of respect for true thought, not the superficial musings of the remaining bullshit beatnicks who sit around spouting wannabe truisms and nodding in agreement if something said remotely resembles articulation.
Cool art is those works that are provoking and not dependant on shock value to shake perceptions. Cool art is that where technical intelligence matches underlying messages, either known or subliminally extracted by an artist sensitive enough for the task. Cool artists are ones wise enough to take in varied information from all walks of life and scrub that information through their own value systems to come to their own conclusions. That is called respect, that is lack of egotism, and egotism is the scourge of good ideas and cool art.
I hear some people saying – if you write a blog isn’t that a form of egotism? Well – this blog may be a rant/vent but it is also a platform for trying to talk about ideas with something resembling honest inquisition for personal development. In the respect of taste I will, for now, refrain from flaunting my own ego on the bathroom stalls of the internet until such a time as I have a sufficiently permanent marker. That day will come – through force of will.
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08.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:59 am by quinacridone
I have recently signed with PennLive.com to write a blog for thier entertainment section. It will be an art based Blog. This blog will be mostly dormant for the time being. Please check out the other Blog called Iridescent Art News at http://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/iridescentart/blog/
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07.19.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:43 pm by quinacridone
There are new pictures on my website www.johnfirestone.com
They are primarily of portraits and still life’s from my new 4’s series where I am painting the same subject 4 different times and displaying them together. Sometimes Velasquez is my subject and I jump around from portrait to portrait. It was fun – and I learned a lot. I would appreciate feedback. My wife Nadia will also be showing with me and she has a great new body of work to show off as well. I don’t know what I am supposed to be learning from these series and I don’t know why I have to paint them – but there is something there for me even if I cant describe it artistically just yet. These last two series are leading me in a better direction to my goal of one day being able to make great art.
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07.15.06
Posted in Views at 5:22 pm by quinacridone
Lee Rosenbaum is an awesome art voice. Her delivery and her methods have the sound of tremendous wisdom and wit. I wish I would have learned about her sooner and I suggest that anyone who has interest in art and the art world and even art gossip should read her blog. She’s good! http://culturegrrl.blogspot.com/
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07.11.06
Posted in Ideas at 8:56 pm by quinacridone
The success of One Red Paperclip is amazing. This experiment goes to show just how amazing the internet is for the transmition of ideas. One man with an idea and a little internet knowledge traded one red paperclip up and up for different items until they got a house and land. It is one of the most amazing experiments in a long time. People wanted to be apart of this phenomenon, they wanted to buy into the same concept of trade. There was no money transaction. Everything was for a trade. With some vigilance and some novelty one red paper clip can equal a whole lot more. The idea of bartering is not a new idea – but it has grown out of favor. No one else can easily do the same thing – even though it was not easy for the author to do this anybody trying to follow suit may find that it is a once and done thing – the novelty is worn out. Then again, if one can make the novelty new again, with a new twist or new idea, and spread that message out to a vast section of the information attached world – who knows what could happen. This man may have gone further but his concept was to trade up to a house – and he did. Congadulations on a fun ride, it was a vicarious journey for me.
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07.09.06
Posted in Artists at 5:13 pm by quinacridone
Looking at an Elizabeth Peyton painting is like eating candy with your eyes. It looks like she paints with melted “Jolly Ranchers.” I am in total lust with the surfaces of her paintings, and I think that she and many other are in lust with the subjects that she paints. Most things about her work are highly addictive. They are like the gourmet versions of hard candy and tabloid press put together. The first painting of hers I saw was of Liam from the English band Oasis. It did not look like any other painting I had seen. It was at the St. Louis Art Museum. The colors, for lack of a better word, seemed perfect. I was drawn into this little painting and it haunted me for a long time. It did not look like other paintings, and it was so small in comparison to the giant Anselm Kiefer I had just seen in the other room.
I have been on a Peyton kick for some time now. I search out her works, I read gallery guides and whenever I visit a new museum I try to find them. I want to devour each one, or just lick them once or twice to see how they taste. I am addicted to the sugar high my eyes receive after looking at each one. The subjects are normally as saccharine filled as the paint. Not that the Prince of England is totally saccharine filled, but Peyton’s treatment of the subject is. Even though they are so small they carry such weight and power on a wall. A painting hundreds of times bigger is normally dwarfed in power by a regular panel of hers. A good example is at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Each time I go into the contemporary room I look for her one little painting, some person’s backside walking away, and compare it to everything else in terms of strength. Her paintings are so drippy with sweets I almost don’t want to look at anything else.
It is hard to reconcile the work that she is doing with the work of many of her contemporaries and influences. She is very influenced by David Hockney, but she is a far superior painter in my opinion, mostly because Hockney uses paint as a tool for a goal and Peyton transforms paint into the goal. My lust for Peyton’s work has not faded yet. I am still wrapped up in the intenseness and fluidity of her work. I am also attracted to her assertions that she wants to be like the subjects she paints. She seems to me a dreamer who by force of will, intellect, and talent, is making herself apart of a world she so desperately wants to be in. She is there for an artist like me, and I am learning the lessons she may be teaching to me. Her work is right on target. It is smart, sweet, strong, and totally addictive. Make life imitate art. Or at least one section of life given so much importance (stardom), that is really nothing more than an addiction for our world.
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07.04.06
Posted in My Artwork at 3:22 am by quinacridone
Misinterpretation and narrow mindedness can scathe a mans soul. I have always suspected that the work I decide to produce ends up being a little challenging and disturbing. Today I was talking about art – I pushed the conversation in that direction because everyone else was talking about football and sports and I couldn’t really contribute to that. So I pushed things in my favor by saying “How they hell can you tell me you don’t know who Richard Serra is yet you seem to know all about (insert some footballers name I never heard off.)” Well – one thing lead to another and they wanted to know what installation art was, so I gave a description of changing the environment to become a work of art. The person listening got stuck on the word environment – I had to do some re-explaining. He wanted an example, I gave him mine, I made a work in college about being a foster child. The center piece was a baby crib made out of rusty barbwire spread over with a cottony diaper material. The walls of the room were burnt paneling with scratch marks going to the ceiling. I sprayed the room with beer so it smelled like old smoke and stale beer. I thought it was a pretty powerful piece – but it was an absolute flop in college. Barely anyone went to see it and those who did dint seem to care. But I used that as an example – the person jumped to a conclusion that I was advocating putting babies into cribs made of rusty barbwire.
Well – it is a valid interpretation I guess, but one that is so far off the mark I didn’t think that anyone could be that simple minded. The person really jumped to that conclusion – I tried to explain that that’s not what it was about and that he should go to my website to see other examples of my work and then judge for himself. He said no, he didn’t have to, that that’s why we have the fourth of July. A jab at me telling me he already had my number, that I was a child abuser and all my work was about that, and he didn’t have to see it because he was a real American that wouldn’t stand for that type of work, me, or my website.
I don’t know how it got that far. I am not sure what I am supposed to learn from this event. I don’t know if I should not talk about art to save misinterpretations and totally wrong ideas, or if I should learn to stay away from peoples feelings. I don’t think I will do either – I think I am going to keep making what I feel needs to be made – and let narrow minded thinkers wallow in the shallow pool of stagnation. I mean – the man could have asked why right? He could have asked to see more information right? I am having a tough time dealing with that harsh of a conclusion based on little evidence and even lesser thought. I am having a real tough time with people jumping to conclusions on little thought. I hope I don’t do the same things. But maybe I did with football at the beginning of the conversation. Maybe I started it and then asked for it. I wonder if I bring this type of reaction on myself – I wonder if I really do want it sometimes.
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07.03.06
Posted in Sam Gilliam at 12:04 am by quinacridone
About 6 years or so ago I was a youngish student at Murray State University. Sam Gilliam was a visiting artist giving a lecture about his work. I don’t know how Murray state got him but it was well worth it. Before his lecture I was talking with another professors who confessed to hating Gilliam’s work, since I looked up to this professor I made up my mind not to like him either. Sam is a tall man with a very easy and hypnotic voice, he is also very smart – which promptly made me fall asleep near the front row during one of his lectures.
I was awoken to the sound of a man saying “It moves.” Sam was talking about one of his paintings. “It moves.” A painting moves! When I woke up and heard that I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, if I did fall asleep or if I was just not thinking in his direction until that point. That one saying changed my life. Ever since that time I have not been able to stop thinking about him and his work. Moving paintings? I always thought paintings were supposed to sit in a box on the wall and look like a photograph.
I didn’t realize how wrong I was. This guy opened so many doors for me that my own thick headedness kept shut. I have been looking at his work ever since, trying to copy everything I can, learning from every work that I see. Recently I went to the Corcoran to see the Sam Gilliam retrospective. I was quite blown away by it and also very surprised at all the new things I learned by seeing his paintings in person. There are some of his works I don’t really care for like the black paintings although I have already learned a tremendous amount from them – but they don’t really mesh with me. But the draped paintings, the poured paintings, the Slat paintings (!) especially those Slats. If you have never seen one in person you just won’t get it. I am planning on writing every so often on a few different artists. Sam is going to be one of them. This is just my short little introduction. Sam Gilliam has a silly sort of profundity that I need to explore more. And those Slat paintings have haunted me for months now!
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07.02.06
Posted in My Artwork at 8:44 pm by quinacridone
My slat paintings are now up in the second floor gallery. I have been working on this series for the last year of my life. I am so excited about it because it encompasses everything that I have been thinking in the last year or so. It deals with Matrices, Sam Gilliams artwork, the stories about Bryce Canyon out west, living cells – plant cells. They deal with control and freedom, hard and soft edges. Organic shapes in inorganic containers. They deal with issues of race and color, power and subtility. My goodness, they deal with so much at the same time.
They deal with so much for me – at least. I don’t think that anyone else is going to find any of these same issues when they look at these paintings. I think they are going to scratch their heads and ask why. I doubt anyone will take the time to think about any of this. I feel like I have just worked my butt off and lost sleep and wasted hours and hours of cutting, sanding, priming, painting, drying, repainting, drying, repainting, hanging, composing, assembling, figuring out how to make it travel safe, figuring out how to make it photogenic. I have thought of everything – but I have not prepared myself for this total let down. This total dismissal. My god I should be paining flowers and barns and creeks instead of anything that takes people out of their comfort zones. I have not figured out how to deal with this type of un-acceptance. All of us artist search for some type of acceptance – that’s why we makes stuff, to be seen, if we didn’t want to be seen ever we would never make anything. These works are expressions and I feel mine show more than a penchant for making neat looking things. I am really making social comments on everything from racism to Hitler, from communities to individuals, from hot to cold and everything in between. I thought everything was plain as day, I thought each image was universal. I thought that I had boiled down all my thoughts into readily acceptable, interesting, and easily digestible for the masses. Even the art people seeing my stuff barely make a comment. I don’t know what the hell anyone thinks about this work – if it is relevant or not. I don’t even get negative comments. Not even negative things like “I don’t like it because . . .” I get shrugged shoulders and dismissals.
These works were supposed to do more than be ignored. They were at least supposed to raise questions or provide some type of WOW effect since the surfaces have been worked for months and all the paintings are so large. I at least thought someone would comment on the sheer impossibility of making these things – I followed no template, no guidebook. My only inspiration visually was Sam Gilliam. I wonder how large the audience really is. I am feeling more and more like a wanna be Richard Tuttle and I don’t get all of his work myself.
This rant is for me. I drank to much coffee to try and feel more energetic about just hanging a new show. But the area doesn’t seem to respond well to most of my work. My Nocturnes do great, I am almost sold out. But the things that really took some genuine thought seem to never even whisper. Maybe it is the area or maybe I really haven’t found my way of working. Whatever it is making art has always been more about frustration, heartache, and letdown then anything else. I have yet to find acceptance.
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06.25.06
Posted in Anselm Kiefer at 2:49 am by quinacridone
Anselm Kiefer makes artwork that shakes me to the core. Standing in front of just one work puts me in a state of awe for more than a few minuets. Going to see the Anselm Kiefer show at the Hirshhorn today was almost unbearable. I have been reading books and taking classes on how to make art, how to depict what I am looking at. Seeing his works changes my perspective on everything. I don’t think I have the courage to go home and throw molten lead over my canvases, but maybe that’s why my works lack the raw emotion and power that his seem to emit naturally. A giant painting by Kiefer my have caked on – something – could be paint or clay, along with shellac and emulsion, which I know are there for multilayered reasons, he may have rusted metal, splashed lead, torched out sections or some of the biggest sunflowers I have ever seen, root and all, attached down the middle.
I don’t know how he gets his paintings made. It seems like they are total chaos and haphazardly composed but when I stand in front of one, I wouldn’t dream of changing a thing. I don’t know how he can control or allow materials to be themselves, and be perfect in what they do. It has been my experience that a paint need worked on the canvas, and his constructions seem effortless, but full of meaning and feeling. There is deep thought – but also palpable feeling, and to get to that level of emotion in art is not a universal talent.
I haven’t fully digested Kiefer. I have read the critics, I know he studies religions and illustrates various stories and combines levels of meaning. But just because I understand want they write doesn’t mean I understand everything about one of his paintings. There is the whole brush stoke phenomenon through layers so think I can measure them with a ruler – sometimes I saw finger holes, I would say prints but the alarms beeped to annoyingly for me to get that close. But sometimes I saw finger holes like holes in a bowling ball, only these were in the painted surfaces. The emotion of his paint strokes and compositions read more fully to me than the placards on the sides of the paintings. There is the lead splashes, the books made from old burnt paintings that deal with healing, and cauterizing. My goodness what an awesome statement that is full of pain, doubt, self-renewal, and self assurance after the lesson have been learned.
They can’t be archival. They have to deteriorate before to long. Paintings that thick have to deal with gravity somewhere. But the guts it takes to make those images – the courage to make those marks and decisions is heroic. To let the learning take over and let itself manifest through the intestines of intuition. I learn about myself and the world every time I see some of his work. I feel myself evolving when I see a lead sky, or a giant wood grain charcoal drawing on fire. I can’t digest these works because sometimes I am sure he uses bile in place of oil and it makes me sick to think of the ash and fat and rust and decay that fill entire wall, which become worlds in and of themselves. They can’t be archival because they will end up eating themselves. And if I try and digest them they may eat me as well.
I have to go see this show again – I went through twice today. I will go back. But its tough for me to decide if I want to keep my guard up so I don’t get consumed from the inside, or if I let everything in and try to deal with the pain, the doubt, the hopeful self renewal to gain some type of self assurance I can only get after the lessons are learned.
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06.24.06
Posted in My Artwork at 5:25 am by quinacridone
That younger brother of mine. Every bit of nineteen and still raging for more partying. I don’t think he has eaten for a few days, I haven’t talked to him enough through his life or been a close enough big brother, I am not trying to patch up his life and make it all better but . . . I am trying to keep an eye on him. The other day I bought him and his friends some food, took him to get a job application, bought him a paper to look for apartments. The kid hasn’t listened to me since he was 12. Even though I know this I am trying to give him some tips for life, I am trying to figure out the angles where some tiny bit of wisdom may sneak in. I have to think like an MP3 player; warm, fuzzy and easily digestible. I say “if you are going to be a trash man then be the best damn trash man you can be.” He ponders this and says it makes sense – then I tell him that I am not the person to first say that – that it was said by a great human being – he asks who – I say “It’s a surprise, you will find out soon if you keep your eyes and ears open, just think about that the next time you are looking for a job, or an apartment, or a car, or in your case a bike; do the best you can each time.” I hope this gets in a little, and leaves enough interest for the real answer.
The more and more I think about it he has been the greatest work of art I have been lucky enough to work on. I feel almost like a parent – yet since my wife and I have no children yet I’m not. So I don’t feel like I own him – I feel like he is his own canvas hanging out where ever he can but some of the paint I flung at him may stick, and help to give him a life of his own, a face that other people see, I hope that my work ends up being a little more than superficial, I hope I can bring some life to this out of work, out of a car, out of food skinny 19 year old, still has a few pimples and that scraggly little goatee I used to think was so cool and now find ridiculous and disgusting. I love to watch him evolve with whatever things I can bring to his life. I am always reminded how much art is like life and life is like art – every time I open my eyes I am amazed.
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06.20.06
Posted in Artists at 5:11 am by quinacridone
6/16/06 Blog is such an ugly word although a Web Log is what I am attempting to do here. I don’t get much traffic at this particular site. I use it as a business card so I can tell people I have a website. About half of the messages that come to me through this site are spammers and con-artists from other areas of the world trying to scam me out of some money by playing on my artistic strings. What really matters to me is the art, and a website has been a poor choice of audience for someone like me. Until now.
My eyes have been opened to something I have really missed out on in the art world. I have recently bought two paintings. One is painting number 739 from an artist named Sala. He and his wife are the authors of Onethousandpaintings.com This is the most exciting thing to happen to the art world for quite some time. This guy actually uses HTML to make art, I have checked out my own website with it after buying my 739 painting. Critically I know that this is conceptual art, not concerned with only the surface of his works. But there is such an excitement and buzz from this type of work. It makes so much sense on so many levels and (at least for me) it was dirt cheap to buy into the whole thing. I am so happy and excited about the internet and art made using it as inspiration. It is a sign of our times. It is a wave I am glad to ride. I wish him the best and I will post the painting of mine when I get it (sometime in August I suspect – fine by me.) I found out about this whole thing from reading blogs – some great information out there – and from that reading I found other paths as yet untrod by my ignorant eyes.
The next is Anthony White – he is the guy painting his own money, currency based work, making one painting after the previous one sells. Another web based idea since he sells some of them on Ebay and markets quite a few through his site – where I bought mine from. He has been written about quite a bit in the art blogs, along with Sala. I bought his painting for $60. I bought into some actually fun, interesting, exciting and highly conceptual work that is all about today’s day and age. I encourage anyone who gets a chance to see what they have to offer, to talk about it with them, me, or anyone else, to enjoy exciting art. Anthony talks about the resale of his work, and how it is making much more money on the secondary market.
I like to think of this work as a text book I am buying, before the semester starts, on the subject of art, internet, money, and interest. On second thought, text books are normally more expensive, usually dull, and past tense. I am not just buying artwork, art lessons, and a story for my wall; I am buying a piece of my time and my age ~ now how much is that going to be worth in the secondary market of my life.
I have been working so hard on my own innovations that I missed out on a lot simpler and potentially more enjoyable aspects of the art world. That generated buzz – the novelty of the new and exciting – for around $200 I learned more about a side of the art biz I have always wanted to be apart of. And I have two stories on my wall (soon) that will constantly remind me of COOL art, not just how excited I get from it, but how exciting it can be for the whole world, how there is a community out there in love and lust with the power of thought and ideas. These works won’t change the world or the way I paint, but they can change my biases. These are the lessons I have been looking for. The quality of the paintings will always be paramount – my next step is to learn how to make it as exciting as I always feel they should be.
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06.19.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:14 pm by quinacridone
06/19/06 I have been wanting to wake up to another world for awhile now. This is the first day – I will give this a shot.
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