CONTENTS/INTRODUCTION/Vegetables

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Vegetables

    These images came together in a couple of bursts of ideas between Saturday and this morning. Saturday, I was here in the studio and had the urge to return to drawing over book pages, specifically this old House and Gardens New Complete Book of Gardens that was published in 1955. It's a used book that I bought from Mostly Books on Bainbridge Street for $5 years ago. I've been using images and pages from the book to make collages and other things. One project that I like a lot from around 2015 or so is called "Notes". "Notes" consists of several images from this book that I tore and then drew glyphs on. I had them up on my old studio wall for almost seven years when I moved out this past summer. 

    First, I drew on and collaged the pages and photographed them on the floor of the studio, with the book leaned up against the wall and the "Vegetable" page taped to the wall. I didn't want to use push pins in it. That was Saturday. This morning, I woke up too early, as usual and got the idea to incorporate some digital aspects into the photos and that's what you see above. I imported the photos into the PicsArt app to make the additions. 

    Anyway,I've been into drawing over book pages for a while now. In practice, it's been more sporadic than I'd like, but I feel like I'll be doing more with this idea now. I like drawing on these book pages because the printed images give me something to react against with my own mark making. It's another way of imposing one's mark on something that already exists, i.e., graffiti. There's also something about marking up older books like this that are very orderly and represent life from another era. The gardens and layouts presented in this book represent a certain type of suburban ideal that has levels of social complications, to say the least. 

     

    The immaculately manicured gardens and plans seen in this book brings to mind ideas about class and race from the jump. Only a certain class of people could afford many of the extravagant gardens pictured within and you definitely had to be of a certain racial background to be able to have anything like this in the '50s almost anywhere in the U.S. If you were Black and could afford it, most often, you would be pushed to consider something much less nice and in a Black enclave because the subtext is that suburbia was only for whites. I know there might have been exceptions to this, but those exceptions were probably few and far between. When I think of the suburbs, I automatically think "white", even when I know that's not the case in today's world. With the scars of segregation and Jim Crow laws from those times still here, being Black it's hard to look at anything from the '50s and feel good about it. Combine that with how much things haven't changed in our society regarding race and acceptance (witness these past couple of decades and especially the past eight years). 

    With that said, taking my marks and superimposing them over the book images feels good in a lot of ways. I even took a few pages from it to make a loose series of images I dubbed, The Great (Suburban) Outdoors. Being a fan of nature with hiking being one of my favorite activities, the sterility of a lot of suburbs with their subjugation of nature into "manageable" plots of land feels like an affront to nature (and it is) "But people have to live somewhere and not have plants, grass and trees grow wild..." *insert eye roll*

    It's complicated. This is only me getting some things off my chest. However, I like how these digital images came out and I already have more edits in mind. I'll probably make more soon. One thing that I have to balance is making sure that I don't get overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of editing options these days. If I didn't restrict my choices for what parts of the app to use and which to leave alone (for now) is unbelievable. For these, I had a couple of problems to solve. One was making sure that the image fit into the square format for Instagram because one of the original photos was horizontal. The other was using colors with each image that complimented the image in some way and didn't overwhelm the photo. i think this worked out pretty well, although I'm already thinking about how to possibly make this idea better next time. 

TM

Website update: Daily/Observations

Above: ©Tim McFarlane: Daily/Observations: StopStop

Today, I continued with updates to my website by adding a new section called Daily/Observations. This section contains selections from an on-going photographic series I started in 2018 that documents interesting visual stimuli that I see every day on my walks around Philly. The city is a living thing, helped along in its evolution by all who live here, in big ways and small. I'm continually looking for what I consider interesting, mostly anonymous and interlaced histories that make up part of our public visual life: discarded clothes, drips of paint and plant material combine with yesterday's lunch leftovers on a newly paved concrete sidewalk with it's own system of angled lines and markings.

There's so much that captivates me that I constantly feel compelled to document it.There's always some combination of random things thrown together in unintentionally artistic ways that's hard to resist. The happy accidents of human existence. A lot of the energy of things and scenes I take note of in the streets finds its way into my work. I'm not attempting to capture what I see; only the essence, the energy that causes me to stop and pay attention.

Untitled Still No. 4 (gold)

Untitled Still No. 4 (gold)

Photo collage

New edit of a photo that I took last winter as part of a self portrait project. 

Untitled Still no. 4

Untitled Still no. 4

New photography

Untitled Still no. 3

On a new photography kick lately. I'm trying out some ideas and concepts that have been brewing for a while. It's been a while since I've used my regular digital camera extensively (as opposed to my phone camera), but the things that I've learned from earlier self-portrait projects are still there and making it easier to jump into this new adventure. A few more shots are below...

Untitled Still no. 1

GC (back)

GC (grasp)

Random color coincidence

Had to share this. This afternoon, I ran into my best friend from childhood, Tet (left), a graphic designer, in center city Philadelphia. He was on his way to taking a lunch break from work when we saw each other. Needless to say, we had a laugh about our coincidental color coordination...

Scenes from "Abstraction Today" panel discussion...

Neil Anderson and Nathan Pankratz

My works in the show

Neil and Nathan with Neil's wife, Connie

Rebecca Rutstein in front of "In White"

Neil Anderson's paintings

Nathan Pankratz's "Registration Painting I"

Crowd arriving for the panel discussion

Outside

Scenes from Tuesday's "Abstraction Today" panel discussion and reception at Bucknell University's Downtown Gallery in Lewisburg, PA. I was there with Neil Anderson, Nathan Pankratz and Rebecca Rutstein to discuss our work and take questions. 

The event was very well-attended and there were some great questions from the audience. It was also nice to learn some things about my panel mate's work and processes that I had not been aware of previously. Between the panel discussion and car ride there and back, I think I talked more about art with other people than I have in the past year, since my time in the studio is spent talking to myself and at the work in an effort to figure out what the hell is going on with it. It's nice to have real-time confirmation once in a while that I'm really not the only crazy one out there with the same thoughts, hahaha!

"Show Up"

"Show Up"

2014

digital

Out There

"Out There"

2001

"2001"

Photo shoot and interview with Tony Ward...

Last week, I participated in a photo shoot with well-known photographer Tony Ward at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. We took a few shots in front of my wall installation, We Dance To Pray and a couple of them are used here along with an interview that we conducted via email...

Upcoming shows from others...

I've been neck-deep into my own work this summer preparing for my upcoming show, but of course, I'm not the only one keeping busy. Here is a partial list of new shows and one new website by some fellow artist friends...

Current

Renowned photographer Tony Ward has unveiled his new website, featuring new works.

Steven Baris at Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE, through November 3rd

Upcoming

Lisa Pressman at Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Joanne Mattera at Arden Gallery, Boston, MA

Rebecca Saylor Sack at J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY

Deirdre Murphy at the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA

Timothy Gierschick II at the University City Arts League, Philadelphia, PA

Evening clouds

Spectacular, evening sun-lit cloud formation as seen from my studio window yesterday (Thurs. 7.11.13)

Wedge

"Wedge"

J's studio I & II

J's Studio I

J's Studio II

Blue Into Green

"Blue Into Green"

©TimMcFarlane2013

The Ultimate Art + Photo Tumblr List

I can personally attest to the fact that Tumblr has become one of the best places to find out about new art and photography. The problem is weeding the chaff from the grain because images and content is often "reblogged" by some people who have no regard for crediting sources or creators. So, you might come across an image of something that you are intrigued by and the photo link only leads to someone's "themed" Tumblr, with no link(s) to the source, where you might get more info about said image.

This list of some of the better art and photography blogs on the site put together by one of the editors of BOOOOOOOM! focuses on those Tumblr blogs that retain creator credits and source links...

The Ultimate Art + Photo Tumblr List!

Required reading

One of my goals for this year has been to read more often than I have in the recent past. Not only to read new (or new to me) books, but to also FINISH books that I've started to read in past years, but for whatever reason(s), never completed. When it comes to books that I want to read, I get that kind of "Oh, shiiiinnnny..." feeling. I'll hear about something through an interview with an author or will be browsing in a bookstore or check into what people are reading online and want to read almost all of it. Of course, I don't have the time to read everything that I want to at the pace that I want to, or I simply lose interest. A couple of other things figure into my reading issues, as well: 

1) I read more when I had to commute on the subway and buses more often. I'd read while waiting and on the vehicle, ensuring that I covered most of a chapter each way. 

2) I'm a slower reader than I used to be. Probably because I fell out of the habit of reading a lot once I had access to the internet. Now, my challenge is to not only read more, but to make sure that my reading comprehension keeps pace. 

I went through a period over the past couple of years where I was doing a ton of crossword puzzles and doing very little reading of novels or non-fiction. Before that, I was reading books a lot. I suppose that this is something of a cycle with me. What's interesting is that I just looked over at a bookshelf with a pile of half-read books, browsed the titles and my initial feeling is that I'm not as interested those books now as when I first purchased them. However, that is a mental block that I need to get past by just picking up one of them, reading and deciding if I want to finish it. If not, then I'll move on. 

Anyway, all of this is leading to what's below. There are two art-related books that I have been engaged in reading recently. Both are artist biographies separated in time by four centuries. The first review of sorts is about Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting by Dietmar Elger and the second one I am currently reading is Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon. What's interesting is that I really like the work of both of these artists, and yet, prior to reading these books, I knew very little about, aside from their work and bits of information that I've picked up about them. I know that this might sound odd coming from a painter, but there are a lot of artists whose work I like, but I haven't done a ton of reading about. I think that is what this year is about for me-filling in some of the gaps in my art-historical knowledge. 

The photos accompanying this post are part of a series that I'm calling "After Lunch", where I take photos of the books and other things that I might read or do after I've had my lunch at my job. 

"After Lunch (with Gerhard Richter)"

A while ago, I posted about reading Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting. I finished it almost a month ago and liked it. Of particular interest to me was how he came to develop his signature photographic paintings as well as his later abstractions and reading Gerhard Richter answered a lot of my questions and more. I've followed his work for a number of years, but knew very little about his early life and how his life as a child in WWII Germany and as a student during the Cold War impacted his art making and ambitions. 

In fact, the meatier part of Gerhard Richter is in pulling together the story of his early days. The latter part of the book that focuses on his work in the 70's on seemed to fall a bit flat to me and then suddenly stops. I suppose that's what happens when you read about someone who is still alive and still very active with his work. Another thing that bothered me were the many references to works that were not illustrated in the book, like the many 'Atlas' works that were referenced. Of course, you can easily  search the artist's site for images of those non-illustrated works, but it was still annoying because so many of them were mentioned. With that said, I still recommend Gerhard Richter because it gives a fuller picture of the life and development of a masterful contemporary artist.

"After Lunch (with Caravaggio)"

I'm currently reading Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, by Andrew Graham-Dixon. I'm about half way through it and, so far, I'm enjoying Graham-Dixon's carefully researched depiction of the life and work of Caravaggio in the 15th and 16th century. AG-D makes use of old and new research about the life of Caravaggio in an effort to fill in the blanks of the turbulent life of this post-Renaissance master. To his credit, the author goes to great lengths to stick with factual information and avoids much of the hearsay that surrounds the short, turbulent, and somewhat mysterious life of Caravaggio. 

The author's ten years of research definitely shows, but he relates this information in a manner that isn't just a dry recitation of facts, but rather moves the reader along into the gritty world that Caravaggio inhabited in a way akin to how Caravaggio sought to bring a stark realism to the religious subjects he painted. AG-D writes in a way that allows the reader to know a great deal about the artist's life and details about his major works. As a result, there are points where you do have to slow down a bit to take it in but, overall, the book moves along without skimping on important details. 

Caravaggio offers not only a vivid depiction of what life was like for artists and others in Counter-Reformation Rome, but it also discusses the painter's major works in detail, particularly the symbolism of almost every object and figure in the paintings discussed in the book. One point that I really like so far, is the author's deliberate avoidance of sensationalism when it comes to the lives of Caravaggio and the people around him. The one problem that I have with this book so far, is the size of the reproductions. Because of the limits in scale and book size, a lot of the details are lost in the darker areas of the reproductions. 

Even though I still have half of the book to read, I highly recommend Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane. It's a very good artist biography that sheds a lot of light on a creative life shrouded in mystery and whose works continue to inspire and influence others across four centuries. 

Trestle & Wire

Trestle & Wire

Berries in my boot

Those, my friends, are blueberries. Those are blueberries that fell into my boot. The boot is one of a pair that I wear throughout the winter months in the studio. Those are the blueberries that I did not eat...