Once again, with feeling...

I haven't posted on this blog in nearly a month.  In trying to link the blog to Facebook, it became corrupted, repeating ad infinitum all the posts.  It was like the man who learned how to  spell banana but didn't know when to stop.  The above piece, If the World were Square, no longer exists.  It wasn't working and was 'whited out'.

Stop your Grousing

Whenever I feel down about my abilities as an artist, I remember a quote from Willem de Kooning : "An artist is like a man at the circus, standing off by himself, trying to balance on one finger.  The point is, no one asked him to do it."    Amen!

Art is Everywhere

I haven't painted in weeks.  It's beginning to scare me.  When I was a writer, the occasional block would threaten.  (Muses are a cranky lot.) I followed a friend's advice and forced myself  to work at the computer everyday for several hours. If you can't write, rewrite.  If you can't paint, repaint?  I've tried it.  It's not especially gratifying.  Yesterday, I looked through my "Desperate Still lifes" file.  Today, I took inventory of my stretcher bars.  The above painting was done in Diane Tesler's 2003 workshop.  I heartily believe that art IS everywhere.  It's just eluding me at the moment.

Photo Luddite

I love photoshop as much as the next person, but in my heart of hearts, I miss the old photography, where what you saw was a record of what happened. Now, it is too easy to make the outlandish feasible.   Gullible minds (and the US seems to have an abundance of them) believe what they see.  Dennis McFarland in his novel, "School for the Blind" has a character say, "'things happen, and then you have to make sense of them.' That he explained is what a photograph is all about --'it stops things, freezes things so you can think about the implications, so you can contemplate the ramifications.'"  There is no doubt that computers have altered the landscape.  I'm not saying I don't like the new art form of photography, just that I miss the un-doctored certainty.  The above is the jacket photo of my father and two chimps for the book "Animal IQ" from 1950.  I was two at the time, but I assume the chimps were real.

Fountain of Gravy

At the Art League Staff  Yankee Swap Christmas party today, I received a Fountain of Gravy.  "As seen on TV." Modeled after the fountain of chocolate , Gravy would spout from the top, from a green frog's mouth, and then trickle down over three levels where one could, presumably, retrieve it with a ladle (though I imagine some would prefer to drink from the cascade).  The box promised smooth gravy with no lumps or skin.    Yummy.  A gallery member suggested that I use it on the refreshment table for my food show next year.  Not a bad idea.  However, it turned out, regrettably, to be a gag box.   The above painting, "Well-Marbled" may push a few 'ick' buttons as well, but it will be in the April show.

Throwback

Ribbon candy exists year round but I only remember seeing it at Christmas.  My mother bought a box every year and hid it (poorly) in the living room chest of drawers.  It seemed too delicate to handle, arriving as it did, already broken, in its protective wrapping. Shards of spun sugar, tasting of clove and spearmint.  The above is a small piece for the food show in April.

Offices of Tilted & Askew

One of my favorite pieces, "Offices of Tilted & Askew," got into the December Art League show.   I did it in 2007 while studying under Danni Dawson.  The original title was "Pandora has left the Building."