Depression sets in (Less is More)
What does it mean to be an artist? and then what does it mean to be an artist in the 21st century in the US? I've written here before how Duchamp determined what an artist was through a leap of complete conviction and belief and that concept continues to operate for...
Florals
The works assembled here represent many of the floral pieces that I did over the years, both on paper and on canvas. Flowers were, and are, one of the loves of my life. They are inspirational in their ability to fight out into the open under the most awful of...
Afflatus:
A strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration.
Had you ever heard of this word? I certainly hadn't until recently when I read it in a blog interview with Claude Emile Furones on the website The Art Point. It's an amazing interview with the most articulate of artists. Unfortunately, the interview is no longer...
What Michelangelo, Raphael and Manet have in common.
As I'm finalizing all the pieces for my new work, Le Dejeuner sous la Pluie, I have been spending a great deal of time with the Manet work, Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe, something I commented on in earlier posts. During this time I found that Michelangelo was the likely...
Jeff Koons, Peter Paul Rubens and the kitsch of the Neo-Baroque
There is a wonderful series on Public Television called "ART:21" that I recently started watching (ah, the wonders of Hulu!). This particular series seeks an in-depth investigation into the why and wherefores of contemporary art of all kinds. A portion of a recent...
Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe
What would a reinterpretation of this very famous painting be like? How would one handle it in a post Duchampian world? This is the question I am puzzling over at this very moment. It's both marvelously frivolous and frankly serious being such an event and...
On R.Mutt, the Duchamp Urinal and my new installation, “Picnic in the Rain.”
A month after the now infamous urinal by R. Mutt (Marcel Duchamp) was rejected by the exhibition he had submitted it to, a little magazine called The Blind Man, which was co-edited by Duchamp, defended Mr Mutt's Fountain: "Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the...
Drawings, Monotypes, Lithographs
This is a series of works on paper ranging from the days of realist landscape through two years ago. The works here range from paint on paper to monotypes, lithographs, collage and watercolor. They represent various stages of ideas as they are being worked out. stuff...
First, Rilke, then the ‘museumification’ of everything
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. Rainer Maria Rilke I continue to struggle with the idea of production as an artist. My...
Paco de Lucia and the beauty of cross polination in the arts
Last night I saw, for the first time, Paco de Lucia live in concert and I can tell you this was an amazing thing. First, his pure, raw energy is more amazing than just about any other music out there. Certainly this is one of the hall marks of flamenco, powerful,...