winter walk

A small sampling of what I saw yesterday while walking to work.


Snow Fairy
The coolest snow fairy you never made. Seen on Carpenter Street near 8th Street.


Snow fairy closeup. Note the colorful mixed media approach to defining the features.


Winter Path
We finally got a real snowfall for the first time this winter.


Crossing Washington
9th and Washington Avenue, nexus of the Italian Market-Philadelphia

(all photos ©tim mcfarlane)

good vibes break

Winter Blooms I


Winter Blooms II


Winter Blooms III

(all photos ©tim mcfarlane)

Some brightness to ease some of the gloom of winter. I don't know what the name of these flowers are, but they've been blooming in the employee lounge at work for a couple of weeks now.

Here's something else that's been making winter a little more bearable:

This is what you are - Mario Biondi & The High Five Quintet

white slope

White Slope

Chelsea 1.23.09

Terry Winters and Pipilotti Rist

Friday, I hopped on a bus for an 'art day' to be spent in Chelsea and at MoMA. My main reasons for going were the Terry Winters exhibit at Matthew Marks and the Pippolotti Rist piece, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), at MoMA. Both shows were very much worth the trip. 

The Winters exhibition contained beautiful paintings based on loose grid systems of overlapping 'knots' (the title of the show was Knotted Graphs) that floated in layers of translucent colors. They were a welcome departure from the seemingly impenetrable linear abstractions of recent years. They were two very different shows in concept and execution, but I felt a slight correlation between the Terry Winters paintings and the Rist video piece that has to do with the implied sense of objects and light floating in Winters' painting and the immersion of the viewer experiencing Pour Your Body Out. 

It's a very tenuous connection. I mean, the Pippilotti Rist piece was conceived with the idea of enveloping the audience in a sensuous visual and aural experience, while the Knotted Graphs of Terry Winters only hint at possible movement of light and objects across the painted plane. However, I still felt a sense of lightness fluidity that parallels some of the water scenes and slow-motion action that played out across the walls at MoMA in Pour Your Body Out. 

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Chelsea

In Chelsea, I didn't have much of an agenda besides seeing the Winters exhibit. Other than that, I wandered in and out of some of the galleries and was happy to find a few nice surprises and artists that were previously unknown to me. In no particular order: 

Shinichi Maruyama at Bruce Silverstein

Bruce Robbins at Marlborough-Chelsea

Teun Hocks at P•P•O•W

Two group shows that I also enjoyed: 

Drawing at Margaret Thatcher Projects and Off The Wall at Lennon Weinberg

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The real and virtual worlds collide

I happened by the Jim Dine exhibit, Hot Dreams (52 Books), and had started leafing through some of the books hanging from the gallery ceiling when I heard my name called. I looked up to find someone staring back whose face I didn't know. 

I don't know many people who live in New York so the chances of running into them randomly was pretty remote. It turns out the voice belonged to Martin B., aka,  Anaba online. He mentioned that he was familiar with my blog and recognized me from my profile photo. We chatted for a bit about the various shows we'd been seeing, our shared history of living in Philadelphia and going to school here before parting ways after an half-hour. 

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I did a lot of walking on Friday and learned a very important lesson: if it's cold, always make sure to wear the pair of socks without the thick thread that presses on the two smallest toes...

wall for art/ art on wall

Unintentional art on the walls of the studio. 

works on paper 1.14.09

Ph  11409.1, 2009, acrylic on paper, 20" x 20"

Ph 11409.2, 2009, acrylic on paper, 22" x 30"

playing hooky

Warm Tips

Keeping my hands warm at the studio on Thursday with a good, hot cup of tea.  

Today, I took a 'cold day' and stayed home. It's the same as a 'personal day' except it's because you don't want to deal with a cold studio. I had every intention of going up there; thought about what I wanted to get done, got up early, got dressed, had breakfast and so on. Sat down at the computer, saw how cold it was outside and thought, "You know, I could put up those bathroom shelves that have been sitting around for almost three weeks...". You know it must have been bad for me to not go out because I'm pretty hard-core about dealing with the cold weather on my bike and the cold in my studio.

Stayed home, drank lots of tea, tried to catch up on a million and one things online and finally got to the shelves late in the day. I'd done a good bit of work in the studio over the past two days, so it wasn't a loss. That, and E was happy to have the shelves up.

A couple of things stood out for me on the web today:

As you most likely know by now, Andrew Wyeth died. Here's the NYT obit by Michael Kimmelman. Wyeth was one of those artists whose works you either liked or didn't-there seemed to be no light between those walls. 

Does anyone have an extra grand to spare? 'Cause that's what it costs to purchase the new Taschen monograph about Christopher Wool. I like Wool's work but, seriously, a $1,000.00? You don't suppose Taschen will be willing to barter for an original painting from a relatively unknown painter from Philadelphia, do you? Nah, me neither. That's ok.  I'll just practice patience. When I get my hands on that kind of money (once some art buyers' wallets start opening again), that thousand dollars will buy me a lot of art supplies. Art supplies will always win out over an over-priced coffee table book any day. Besides, it won't take long for some copies of the book to appear at The Strand or on Amazon. I give it a year or so. 

 

R.I.P. R.B. Strauss

I just found out about the death of Philadelphia art critic, R.B. Strauss, via Romanblog II. He's described on Romanblog II as, "...one of Philadelphia's finest art critics..." and I could not agree more. He will be missed.

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Where's The Bailout for the Arts?

A must-read post from Joanne Mattera about the damage the economic meltdown has or could visit on the creative industries:

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Where's The Bailout for the Arts?

the studio in two views

There's no such thing as going into the studio for "just a minute" with me.

I went up to the studio after getting off from work Saturday to pick up my drill. I needed it to work on a couple of apartment projects. My plan was to pop into the studio , grab the drill and go home. With this weekend having been the first one after the holiday, I was feeling in need of doing something creative, even if it only meant a small drawing or something.

I get there, change clothes and get to working on a couple of things. I'm working along and in my own world and before I knew it, almost three hours had passed. I called Eva to let her know that I was coming home. I cleaned up and left...without the drill. My excitement about what I was working on completely trumped my original objective...
......
Over on Pam Farrell's blog, I've been included in the latest installment of her Interactive Studio Blog Posts, a project she began in November with this post. The idea is for artists to give a peek into their work spaces by sending in two photos: one showing the studio space and another with an image of artwork.

The project grew out of a studio visit Farrell had with Joanne Mattera and Janet Filomeno, of which she wrote, "In addition to seeing my work, my friends were seeing my mess, my jumbled process, my id, the stuff that gets kicked around before being perfected (or at least completed). Presentation-ready or not, meant for public consumption or not, it’s all me."

So, the ISBP is Farrell's challenge to other artists to give a glimpse into their heads, so to speak, through showing their spaces and work, ready or not.

I like the idea of this project because it makes you think about how you view your work space as a part of your identity as an artist and person, in general, as there's little separation of the two; the studio is just another conduit for aspects of our personalities to assert themselves.

When it comes to my space, I don't worry that much about cleaning up too much. I might pull out some things and hang them on the wall for better viewing and sweep, but that's about it. The paints stay out where they are usually and whatever else is out stays out. The biggest concession I'll really make is if I'm working on some new work that I'm really not sure about showing.

It depends on who is coming for the studio visit. If it's a client who is looking at particular works, then that's what I'll have out; anything experimental and considered 'not ready for prime time' is put away. If it's an artist who is visiting, then I'm more likely to have a variety of works out, to get some feedback on.

recent

Ph 121808, 2008, acrylic on paper, 22" x 30"

how did that happen?

Ph 121808(detail), 2008, acrylic on paper, 22" x 30"

You know that high dive we all take from time to time off the cliff of creative inspiration? You take a leap of faith with whatever it is you're doing and don't look down (or back, for that matter). You don't know where you'll land, but you're enjoying the view. You're working and realize upon reflection that at some point, you took that leap and now find yourself lost in a whole new world of your making.

Sometimes, there's no warning. You look around and suddenly realize that you're in unfamiliar territory, but things feel ok, there's no threat and you continue on, enjoying your journey for however long that leg lasts. Looking back on the past couple of weeks, that's where I've been; slightly different place and not quite sure when I took that first step.

Subconsciously, I think I knew I'd chosen something different, but the ease with which I found myself there was surprising somehow. No angels singing, no bands struck up, just a "Huh, well, that's interesting..." and you just keep going. At some point, the questions start creeping in, but for the moment, you just go with it.

Just chugging away

Some works on paper in progress. A couple might be done, but others will go through some changes.

Also, this Friday, December 12th, the opening reception will be taking place for the Gallery Artist Group Show at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. I have three new paintings in the show along with new and never-before-seen works by Neil Anderson, Allen Bentley, Mark Brosseau, Charles Burwell, Kate Davis Caldwell, Deirdre Murphy, Paul Oberst, Rebecca Rutstein and Clint Takeda.

Here's the info:

Gallery Artist Group Show

December 2-December 20, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, December 12, 2009
6-8:30pm

Bridgette Mayer Gallery
709 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.413.8893
bridgetteart@earthlink.net
www.bridgettemayergallery.com

Art in a poorer world

I saw this discussion on Jen Bradford's studio*blog and thought I'd share it here. A lot of good points are brought up, many of which artists and gallerists have probably already dealt with in one way or another over the years. For artist, weathering hard times is a given, no matter what.

There's little here that's really new; economy shrinks, artists keep working, some galleries close, others change marketing plans, big blockbuster museum shows get scaled down or axed altogether, etc.. However, considering the economic crap swirl we're in, its still good to have some kind of dialog about how the recession is affecting the art world today.

(*note* This video is just over an hour long. Below are some shortcuts to various topics brought up)

(From bloggingheads.tv)

Art in a Poorer World

The crazy illogic of the art market (07:15)
Should super-collectors usurp museums’ power? (07:26)
Are art fairs necessary? (05:19)
How envy created an art bubble (03:03)
Must art be intellectually hefty to be valuable? (10:49)
How the economic downturn may produce more artistic freedom (06:50)

Mel Davis interview

Brian Sherwin interviews Mel Davis on the MyArtSpace blog.

The interview is interspersed with images of Davis' paintings on found wood that are really striking to me. There are more images of them on her website, under the 'paintings (2008)' tab.

Also, Davis has a one person show at Larry Becker Contemporary Art that is closing soon.

Recycling, part 5

Stage 10: Working some yellow into the mix to lighten things up again.


Stage 11: Added some deep reds. The blue on both sides of the middle mass needed to go. After a couple of mis-fires, the warm gray I wound up keeping felt right.


Stage 12: Only small changes along the edges were made here and that's it. For better or worse, this painting is finished. I've reached a point where doing anything more would bring diminishing returns. I'll let it sit for a bit, but I don't anticipate doing anything else to it.

During the course of working on this painting, there were things that I thought I'd try, but there's a point where a painting guides you on where it wants to go and I usually choose to follow that path to either completion of the piece or I give up in frustration and move on. Thankfully, this now feels complete.

Recycling, part 4

Stage 8: Working up a new layer of brown tones. Standing back to study what I'd done, I realized that the image is beginning to take on the look of a tree trunk, not a subject I had in mind for this painting. Though it might not occur to others, once the thought was out there, I couldn't help but want to diminish the association as much as possible.


Stage 9: So, now I've chosen to work with another color option and some changes in brush work, but it's not quite where I want it yet.

Recycling, part 3

Stage 4: Wash of light blue over entire surface, part of which was wiped away to keep under lying yellowish field visible.


Stage 5: I went with a deep brown color for this next layer.


Stage 6: After a bit of consideration and getting tired of turning my head sideways, I turned the canvas to see how it looked as a horizontal. It seems to read better this way for me, so I'll most likely show it oriented this way.

Stage 7: Thin wash of orange over the brown. More brown and maybe a couple of layers to come. At this point, I feel like I'll have this one resolved soon.

Banjo 11.14.08

Didn't make it to the studio today, but I did spend some time taking photos.

Since it's Friday, and a gloomy gray one here in Philly, I thought I'd lighten the mood a little with some portraits of our cat, Banjo, that I took this morning. Enjoy!

Maya Lin video

Maya Lin discusses her latest earthwork, Wave Field
(via C-Monster)

Recycling, part 2

Stages 2 and 3.

I needed to deal with the intense green and the remnants of the original painting, so I went with a thin layer of a light gray. Once that layer was dry, or close to it, I jumped into the beginnings of an image. I didn't have a ton of time before heading into work, so this is as far as I could go.

While waiting for that gray to dry, I turned my attention to a couple of new drawings and finishing up some prep work on a couple of small wood panels.

One thing I learned today is that I don't want to use heavy duty bristol (2 ply) for images that I use a lot of water with. When it dries, the edges curl up way too much. I turned the pieces over and wet the reverse sides which worked a bit, but I don't want to have to deal with that on a continuing basis, so I'll stick with watercolor paper or heavy printmaking paper.

recycling, part 1

Above is Blue Rush (2006), a piece that never quite reached its potential. I thought it was finished at one point, but a nagging feeling kept tugging at me, pushing me to keep working on it, but I couldn't for some reason. I even talked with a couple of people about it, but still couldn't find a solution. I was stuck, so the best thing I could do at the time was to just put it away for a bit.

Well, it's been sitting for almost a year and-a-half with no changes made to it and I'm still not happy with it so I'm moving on. It's time to put this canvas to use for a greater good and recycle it for use with more current artistic concerns. With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to document the changes the work will go through. I don't know how many stages I'll actually photograph because it's often difficult to stop and take a photo when you're in the 'zone' and pulling a piece together. No matter what happens, it'll happen naturally, so there might be 6 stages or there could be 20 or more, who knows what will happen.

With that said, below is the first stage of the change. I went up to the studio after work to prep a couple of wood panels and get started on this, as well. I flipped it horizontally and randomly chose this bright green just as a new ground to start from.

Yes we did!

I've never been so happy and really proud to be an American than in this moment. It's a beginning, but what a moment it is! There's a ton of challenges ahead, but at least there's a sense of real hope for all of us.

NOPE

Palin has inspired some street art lately. I know, I know...it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but what fun!!

P.O.S.T wrap up

The open studio event went off without a hitch this weekend. This was the best event I've had in terms of visitor count since 2003, the first year I participated in P.O.S.T. Over the two days, 77 people showed up, and about 90% of those were not friends or acquaintances. I'm sure the great weather helped as did the increased visibility of P.O.S.T. in the media, most notably in the Philadelphia City Paper and through related exhibitions and events.

I met quite a few people and had some good conversations along the way. Of course, this being Philly, I wound up meeting a couple of people officially for the first time after years of seeing them around at art openings and on the street, nodding in acknowledgment but never actually knowing their names.

The only downside was that I was fighting off a cold during the entire two days. That was due mainly to the build up of stress beforehand. I didn't pick up my promotional materials until almost a week before and barely managed to get an email announcement out on Thursday. Thankfully, the cold never really caught on and I'm feeling a lot better after collapsing into bed last night.

Now, back to work...

minimal politics?

Original link


...and then there's this from the Palin perspective which doesn't seem to get the point of Minimalism, or perhaps that's the point, after all...

Open Studios this weekend

This weekend, I'll once again be participating in P.O.S.T. (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours)

When: Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12, 2008
Time: 12pm-6pm
Studio: 16-A North 3rd Street, 4th Floor
Philladelphia, Pa 19106
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Its been a while, but I'm back online and in the studio. The move went pretty well and we're settling in, slowly getting rid of boxes.

In the studio, I've begun taking up where I left off in August and moving ahead with some new works. I'll be hunkering down in the studio this winter in preparation for a show of works on paper at Philadelphia International Airport beginning in March '09 and my next solo exhibition at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery in April '09.

Passing Through

Passing Through

That's kind of how life is at the moment. Haven't had time to be in the studio lately because of our impending move, but still taking photos. Hopefully, things will settle down in the coming couple of weeks and I can be back to something of a regular studio schedule.