where's my clone?

58/366: three of me

I managed to split myself into three today for this shot. You wouldn't believe how much I was able to get done in the studio.

Took a bunch of shots in the studio today, three of which were the inspiration for this image. It didn't start off like this, but after looking at the poses, I thought that they belonged together in one shot. I was excited about the prospect of multiple images but my 'shop skills are pretty minimal. So, when I got home, I immediately enlisted the superior photoshopping skills of my wife.

I also shot some video footage of me going from one pose to the other. I haven't done any video stuff in a long time. When I did, I was just starting to learn. I'm going to play around with it and see what I can come up with.

Flasher

Colormeasure


My new online obsession is Flasher.com. Flasher is a site that has video interviews with mostly younger artists, musicians, film makers, fashion designers, video artists, performers, etc...

I don't remember how I stumbled on it, but I'm glad I did. It's a good way to check out what's happening in the today's creative world and get a sense of who's doing what. Defintitely give it a shot and see what you think.

surface tension

Standing Stains

Pretty productive day. The panels I've been using recently are taking some getting used to, but I like them. The best thing is not having to spend much prep time on them. I buy them, seal the surface, wait for it to dry, put another layer of sealant on, wait for that to dry and I'm ready to go. I've taken to buying a couple of them each week so I have a collection ready to paint on.

I was in the Artist and Craftsman store today and discovered that they now have the deep cradled (1.5" wide) panels in addition to the standard ones. Of course I had to get two of the new panels.

I'm going to have to stretch some canvases sometime soon, I think. When I'm working on the panels, I miss the give and feel of canvas, and then I'll miss the take-a-lot-of-punishment surfaces of the panels It's good to have both to work on so both urges can be satisfied.

clashing needs

Wings and Wires

I have to run up to the studio to finish packing a piece to send out and then go to work. There's no time to work on anything else in the studio today. It's days like these when I resent having to rush off to my job when I have a full day of painting inside of me clawing to get out.

I'll have to be satisfied with dashing off a small drawing or something at lunch.

new works

Both: Untitled, 2008, acrylic on paper, 20" x 20"


Integrating old and new ideas and inspired by what I did with Light Veil:


My creative process is never a linear thing. Sometimes ideas might get set aside in favor of exploring new avenues. Frequently, after a certain amount of time has passed, I will have had time to rethink and reconsider older works. Then I'll see if there's some new approach that I can come up with for ideas that I thought had run their course.

It can be difficult letting that process happen because there's a tendency to not want to repeat the past. On the other hand, it's exciting because there's a new road created out of what were thought to be dead ends.

Linn Meyers

Found this time-lapse video of artist Linn Meyers making a wall drawing at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art for the exhibition The Space Between, on view until April 12, 2008 on Douglas Witmer's blog. The video shows Meyers working over the course of 5 days condensed into a few minutes.

Catching a glimpse of how an artwork is made, even if you already have an idea of how it came into being, still makes it intriguing to witness.

'Deep'

Philadelphia painter and videographer, Vincent Romaniello is having a solo exhibition of new works at the Philadelphia Art Alliance's Satellite Gallery, located in the Rittenhouse Hotel, 3rd Floor. The opening reception is this Thursday, Feb. 7th from 5:30-7:30pm.


Vincent Romaniello: DEEP
Solo exhibition
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Reception: Thursday, February 7, 5:30 -7:30
Satellite Gallery
The Rittenhouse Hotel
210 W. Rittenhouse Square, 3rd Floor
open during hotel hours including Sundays
valet parking available
February 7 - May 18, 2008

5 things

Over a month ago, I was 'tagged' by Kesha Bruce to post 5 things you don't know about me. I don't know why it took so long, but here we go...

5 Things You Don't Know About Me


10/366: other worlds

1. Comics were my gateway art drug...and they kept my imagination going since I was an only child. I've been reading them off and on since I was little. Last fall, I returned to reading again after a nearly six year break. A new comic book store opened up near my studio in Old City and I couldn't help help myself. I'd returned to the old neighborhood but didn't recognize the surroundings. Most of the characters I knew were still around, but in the comics world 5 years is like 20 life-times: a lot can happen. I wanted to reacquaint myself with the Marvel universe and started with the Civil War saga, one of those events that affected just about all of the Marvel characters.

I also like a lot of non-hero characters and books from my older collection, like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, the Transmetropolitan series, Lucifer, and Preacher, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and others.

2. No love for mushrooms. Sorry to all the fungi lovers out there, but I can't deal with them much. I can handle the generic 'Button' mushroom that's been cut up, but that's about it. Just the thought of a huge Portobello sandwich makes me want to gag. There's something about the texture and taste that I just don't like.

3. I have a thing for browsing books and magazines about loft spaces. I don't know what it is, but the photos of those pristine, unrealistically neat and expensive open spaces appeal to me.

4. When my parents sent me to the store when I was a kid, I'd always run as fast as I could and pretend that I was The Flash.

5. I'm one of those cooks who will throw anything together to make a meal. I like to cook, but don't respect the boundaries of certain foods like my wife does. For example, she'd be very happy if I didn't combine Italian pastas with tofu, which she associates only with Asian cuisine. That's a mild example. A couple of days ago, I took some leftovers to the studio for my lunch-black beans and rice. The twist is that I added tuna, edamame beans and a few spices to the dish. I cannot describe the look she gave me.

Pressing on

30/366: Watching the World

Checking out the scene on the street below my studio window yesterday afternoon. I like to take breaks here and there to watch people walking by and observe the patterns and interactions of pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, trucks and buses.

I'm beginning to make some headway with new work and returning to a regular studio schedule. So far, It's been for what I call quick bursts of three-four hour sessions in the afternoons. It's good and has kept me from over-thinking what I'm doing too much. At this point, I just need to paint and not worry too much about the results. That's what works best for me when I come back from an extended break (late November through December). I try to not let that much time pass without doing much painting, but around the holidays it's really difficult to keep up my momentum. Unless I have something pressing coming up after the beginning of the new year, like a big show or I have to finish a piece for commission, then December is pretty much a wash-out, creatively.

The break was needed. With having had two big solo shows last year, it's been difficult to jump right back into things. I feel like I reached a point with the painitngs where a shift needed to occur, but how much of one and how to get there? I need to change things up, even if it's not necessarily a noticable one that others will pick up on right away. The thing is, the changes I make usually wind up being bigger than I imagine them to be as I move along with paintings and that's fine as long as I feel like I'm challenging myself and maintaining the integrity of the work I produce.

Anyway, yesterday went well. After getting a few works on panel going I came home, changed and headed out to see a small exhibition curated by a friend of mine, Rebecca Saylor Sack at the University of the Arts, called, Erratic, which features the work of Christopher Davison, Nick Lenker, and Caroline Santa. It's a concentrated show of works that all seem to deal with anxieties of identity and life at a point of intense change in the world and our country, in particular.

I'm trying to get out more often to see what's going on around the city. The art scene has changed a lot in Philly over the past few years and is moving on at full steam. The more challenging work is now being exhibited in spaces that are removed from the more established Old City galleries. It takes some planning these days if you really want to catch a show while it's up. New spaces are popping up in areas that are being gentrified, thus making it a little easier to open and maintain low-cost spaces. Of course, the issues associated with said gentrification (displacement of long-time residents, vastly increased housing costs, etc...) are ever present but an ongoing part of evolving urban life.

considerable

I'm pleased to announce that I'll have work included in a new group exhibition. Considerable is an exhibition of small works curated by Jeffrey Cortland Jones and will be at the University of Dayton from March 3-April 4th, 2008. The show then comes to Philadelphia in April.

Jones will also be in a two-person exhibition with Paige Williams at Green Line Projects| Powelton 3649 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA from February 8-March 28, 2008,

A Kiss for Mayor Nutter

The city's budget is due soon and it seems that newly minted Mayer Michael Nutter has yet to make good on promises that includes that re-opening of the Office of Arts and Culture. As a way of sending Mayor Nutter a message of love Roberta and Libby on artblog in collaboration with Kevin Derrick of Design Philadelphia are hosting an on-going "Kiss for Mayor Nutter" event on their blog.

The idea is for artists in the Philadelphia area to send in a photo of themselves somewhere in the city to send a visual statement to Mr. Nutter about what the 'arts community' looks like in Philly.

From artblog:

Here's the deal. We will create a series of photo posts on the blog called A Kiss for Mayor Nutter that will include images of artists and art lovers throughout the city. These images make the face of the "arts" constituency somehow more real than it seems when people talk about artists and the arts.

So, send us jpeg images of yourselves in the city, one per artist -- at Love Park, at a gallery, at the museums, the zoo, on Broad St....somewhere in Philly--you know you have these photos and we want em! Send medium resolution images (281 height x 375 width is the artblog standard size) with your name and the location of the picture. We will run these images in a stream under the heading "A Kiss for Mayor Nutter" in a continuing series of posts starting today.

Act now and send us your images (one per person, please). Email: libbyandroberta@gmail.com

moving forward

22/366: new resident

Not art-related, but big news, anyway.

Yesterday, my wife, Eva, became a resident of the U.S.

Yesterday morning we went to our interview at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) office. It had to be the most intense 40 minutes we've ever had together. Intense as in scary; our future in the near term was in the hands of this one person. If there was one thing he didn't like or thought was questionable about the validity of our relationship and marriage, she might have had to leave for a time. Luckily, our paperwork was in order and our answers to his questions consistent.

When the words, "As of today, you are a resident of the United States" came out of his mouth, referring to Eva, a weight the size of the Titanic was lifted from our shoulders. We walked away hysterically numb but elated.

back in it

18/366: back to work

Yesterday was something of a 'shaking off the cobwebs' kind of day. The distractions of the holidays and jury duty are over, so I'm in a much better position to get the ball rolling on a consistent basis again. I only spent about three and-a-half hours working, but it was enough to get the juices flowing.

......





I started re-working a panel piece I began a couple of months ago by sanding down the thick paint and mostly acrylic gel surface. As I went along, I noticed a bit of the white clayboarad surface had apppeared along one edge. I stopped sanding to inspect the surface and noticed that the paint was peeling away from the panel's surface. I picked at it for a moment and soon had most of the surface peeled from the panel (see photos above). Luckily, this wasn't a piece that I really liked and I'm glad that it hadn't left the studio yet.

Before using the panel, I think I sanded it a little bit and that seems to have loosened the clay surface to an extent that the acrylic gel and paint couldn't adhere. There was too much dust so the gel and paint dried without forming a bond with the surface. Not a good result for archival purposes. I have other clayboard panels that I've used which are fine, but those also didn't have the same amount of gel medium that i used on this one. I"m wondering if the heat from the sander also contributed to the peeling. If I hadn't disturbed it, the painting *might* have lasted a good while, but there's no way of really knowing.

Ryan Widger

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Ryan Widger talks about his process and works in his upcoming show at Kelly and Weber Fine Art (201 Gallery) this April in the Crane Arts Building.

Water in the city

Olafur Eliasson plans to erect giant waterfalls in New York this summer.

duty

8/366: my turn

I"ve been inside most of the week, but not in the studio. As you might guess from the photo above, I've been on jury duty this week and have to return on Monday. This is the first time that I've actually been chosen to be on a jury. So far, it's been an interesting experience. I can't say much about the case yet except that it's a criminal matter. I'm actually an alternate and not one of the twelve that will make the decision of guilt or innocence.

No time

5/365: no time

It's just about 2:30am and I didn't have much time for anything tonight. I'm on a deadline to complete a grant application for the Pew Fellowships. It's due late tomorrow afternoon. I've posted work samples and I have my statement written. I only have to go through it again later in the morning, once I've gotten some much-needed sleep.

This is the first year that they are doing completely online applications for painters. I don't know how it's going to work out, but I'm happy about doing everything digitally...no more slides to contend with. I also like the space limitations when it comes to the resumé and statement-it helps with keeping information concise.

If you're wondering about the title of the photo above, I'm participating in a '365 Project' over on Flickr. The idea is simple: a self portrait for 365 days. It's been interesting so far and I'm sure it will challenge my creativity and discipline.

Moleskine project online

For this past Christmas, E and I decided to go hand-made with our gifts. We bought a bunch of small Moleskine notebooks and decortated them. We each did about sevem and collaborated on two. We used various papers like Japanese origami, decorative stationary paper, and magazine cut-outs. We also wrote and painted some of the covers and did the insides, as well. The last step was to cover the books in a sticky, transparent plastic to protect them. E wrapped them all, as can be seen in the second shot: plain wrapping paper, thin hemp rope, and small bells that were originally from a bell wreath that we purchased at Target for about $2.99. We just cut them apart and had instant gift-wrap accesories.

We didn't finish them in time to give away at Christmas, but did so at a friend's New Year's party this week. They were very well-recieved and I'm sure we'll do it again this year. I'm hoping that we can get started on them earlier so we can have more to give out and possibly make them a little more elaborate inside. We did a few with collages on the inside covers and I spent some time decorating a couple with images on the edges of interior pages.

Last night, I encouraged E to post the photos above on the Moleskinerie group on Flickr. Almost as soon as she did, one of the groups administrators invited her to post about the project on Moleskinerie.com and it was up this morning. Check it out here.

Martin Puryear at MoMA

Caught the Martin Puryear show at MoMA the day after our opera night (see previous post). This show covers Puryear's development from the late 70's to the present and features around fourty-five pieces. The bulk of the work is on the sixth floor special exhibition spaces, but a few of his larger works are placed in the second floor atrium area, where my photos were taken. No photos were allowed in the sixth floor section, of course.

I first became aware of Martin Puryear in the mid-late 80's when I saw a great exhibition of his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Quite a few of the works I saw then were in this show and it was like seeing old friends again after a long separation. Right alongside the older works were newer ones, a non-chronological arrangement that was a great asset to the show since you could see Puryear's ideas going back and forth between works completed years apart. At the same time, there wasn't a sense that he was repeating himself. That's something that I think contributes to the sense of timelessness his sculpture has.

The allusive quality of his work is really strong but you can never quite put your finger on what it might be that he is refering to. I can look at one of his pieces and be on the brink of recognition, just about to have an 'a-ha!' moment, but then something happens-a shift in materials or surface treatment-that makes me re-evaluate my original assumption; is that a wooden facsimile of a sawblade or one side of an unfinished flight of stairs? Puryear takes fairly recognizable forms like ladders, wheels, tools, etc..., and places then in unusual formal relationships that creates things that are tantalizingly close to what we know in our world but just different enough to exist on another plane altogether.

Night at the Opera

Metropolitan Starbursts

Those are the chandeliers that hang in the atrium/lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan. E and I had just seen the amazing Placido Domingo sing and were still in a daze from the performance, which was amazing! I went into this whole thing not having ever been to an opera before and didn't really know what to expect. I mean, of course I knew about operas but only in the most cursory way; operas were basically plays whose stories were sung. I wasn't prepared for how good and interesting a well-produced opera could be. For the price of a movie and snacks ($15), we were able to see and hear a living legend perform.

I was fully open to the experience but I have to admit that beforehand, I thought that I'd wind up being bored at some point. That wasn't the case at all. It's impossible to be bored when you're sitting three or four stories up and back from the stage and these ntaural, unamplified voices come soaring up at you and you can hear them as clear as day. Something like that puts most contemporary pop singers to shame, honestly. I nearly forgot that the orchestra was actually there-that's how seamless things went.

It took me a while to get used to glancing at the subtitles on the small screen on the back of the seat in front of me (the opera, Iphigénie en Tauride, was sung in French) and keeping up with the action on the stage during the first half. After intermision I was able to keep up with everything fairly easily. Being at the Met reminded me how great live performances can be.

The source material for Iphigénie en Tauride was based on a tragedy by Euripides titled, Iphigenia at Tauris which reminded me of the source material for three large paintings I did in college as a final project in an independent study painting class in the mid '90's. I don't know why I was interested in it, but I wound up reading the Three Theban plays by Sophocles. I did the paintings in response to the intense emotional drama I found in the plays. The human drama depicted in ancient works like Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus resonates through the years because human nature never changes, no matter how modern and civilized we think we are.