Critical reviews

A little girl came into my studio yesterday and headed right for "sink,sank,sunk" which was leaning against the wall. She pushed her hands into the canvas trying to turn the faucets. Her mother shrieked, grabbed the little girl's arm and dragged her, in full wail, from the studio.
One of my better reviews, I think....

Sisyphus Revisted

Probably bad karma on my part to refer to the annual scraping of porch trim as Sisyphean.  The painting itself then took on the same properties: continual 'editing'.  Here, however, is the final version of "The Summer Porch."  (I hope)  No more scraping.  Would that I could say the same for the actual porch.

Bok Bok Revisited

  A character in a novel (whose title I cannot remember) said that cooking a raw chicken put her in mind of the squeamish parts of sex.  Especially when she had to slide her hand between the skin and the flesh when seasoning the bird.
  I thought painting a raw chicken would make me squeamish but it turned out to be a delightful experience. 

Dead Flies

  This is Damien Hirst's Armaggedon.  It is composed of dead flies and glue.
 Scott Burdick's  gave a speech "The Banishment of Beauty" that is available on Youtube.  His thesis is that modern art is driven by critics and investors to the detriment of classical beauty.  He contends museums and galleries actively avoid art considered realistic or beautiful.  (He notes that a museum had a workshop with prominent plein-air painters, to raise money that would enable the museum to buy more modern/ugly art.)  Some people are labeling his argument simplistic or sour grapes. 
  I went college in the late sixties when abstract art was all the rage.  One professor told me my work looked like smudge by numbers.  I stopped painting for 30 years.

 I took a few abstract art classes recently.  Clearly, they didn't take.
 I admire a good deal of modern art.   Shaun Richards has a show at the Target Gallery that is thrilling in its layers of commentary and visual impact.  My art doesn't have a subtext or global meaning. And for a while now, I've felt bad about that.  Inadequate, actually.   Scott Burdick's speech makes it easier not to wince when someone calls my work "pretty."

Bok Bok

   I am painting for a food show in April 2011.  I've come to realize a lot of food is brownish, which isn't much fun.  I think I've got fruit, seafood and vegetables covered.  Meat could be problematic.  Cooked, it's brown; raw, it's prettier, but there's a certain ick factor.

Dumb, dumb, dumb...