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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