So I finally got around to photographing some drawings to put on my website. I'll be posting them pretty soon. Until then, here's a sneak peak.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Greatest Artist I Never Heard of
I just replaced the wallpaper on my desktop. It used to be an orangutan baby cuddling with a tiger cub. I thought it was incredibly saccharine and kind of made me laugh, but so many people at work were ACTUALLY struck by how adorable it was and kept stopping to tell me so. It made me uncomfortable and made me realize my irony wasn't being noticed and my appearance of manliness was at stake. This is what I changed it to-
It's an 18th Century French drawing by Michel-Francois Dandre-Bardon, titled An Allegory Comparing Music and Poetry. You really can't get the full effect of it here. So, I highly recommend you go see it. It's a recent aquisition at the Met in Prints and Drawings. Something about the swirling figures, the expressions on all their faces and the fact that, this guy could draw!! makes it one of my new favorite pieces. It's inspired me to drop my classes and start working on my own. Excited? Me too. Stay tuned, you're probaby gonna see some awesome popping up here. I might go so far as to say it'll be FING AWESOME... i mean fing genius. Hey, mom! You reading this blog yet? Leave a comment. I'm your son!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
FING GENIUS!!!!
Hey Kids!!
I know you've been waiting for it- my website!! It doesn't have any pictures on it quite yet and... to tell the truth the images are little more fuzzy than I would have liked, but it's still there and YOU can look at it.
It started as one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on and ended in a frustrating few days of screaming and kicking and yelling and cursing and... what ever. It's up. It will go through a series of upgrades until it's the greatest thing in the world. But, until then I give you the greatest website-in-the-world, beta.
www.fing-genius.com
I know you've been waiting for it- my website!! It doesn't have any pictures on it quite yet and... to tell the truth the images are little more fuzzy than I would have liked, but it's still there and YOU can look at it.
It started as one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on and ended in a frustrating few days of screaming and kicking and yelling and cursing and... what ever. It's up. It will go through a series of upgrades until it's the greatest thing in the world. But, until then I give you the greatest website-in-the-world, beta.
www.fing-genius.com
St. Patrick's Eve
On the verge of St. Patrick's day, something struck me; Are all holidays that are these nationalistic holidays based on drinking? I mean, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo or... Bastille Day? If I go to some other country do I get an America Day where I get blasted on Budweiser? Or would America Day just be a day filled with effigies of Dubya and the like? Anyway, I WILL wear green tomorrow, but only because I don't want people pinching me.
Is there an Italian day? Just curious. I could go for a glass of red.
Is there an Italian day? Just curious. I could go for a glass of red.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
More Sketchbook
These are drawings from a little book of Fabriano paper. They're last week's entries. Vote on your favorite. The winner gets to be on my website. Which would have been up today, except I'm not the web-genius I think I am. Do you know what a crushing blow that is? Huge. Not only that, but I'm broker than the Berlin Wall.
On the bright side, I have my favorite volunteer in today AND she made me lunch. Meatballs. Apparently I'm too skinny and she's worried. What? I thought skinny was the new black?
What's on for Tonight? The Shins at Madison Square Garden. I'd write up some sort of review but I'm sure it'd just be like, I love the Shins, Boy the Shins are swell and that kind of thing.
Oh, yea. Drawings-
On the bright side, I have my favorite volunteer in today AND she made me lunch. Meatballs. Apparently I'm too skinny and she's worried. What? I thought skinny was the new black?
What's on for Tonight? The Shins at Madison Square Garden. I'd write up some sort of review but I'm sure it'd just be like, I love the Shins, Boy the Shins are swell and that kind of thing.
Oh, yea. Drawings-
Friday, March 9, 2007
Sketchbook
I've gotten quite a few sketchbooks over the years. My friend Mike gave me a green one that I take pretty much everywhere and my friend Peyton gave me one (either that or I stole it clepto-style from somewhere) of really nice fabriano, colored paper. These are a couple drawings from the old green one. I've been filling the fabriano one up too. Unfortunately I don't have it on hand. So, for my viewing public, all two or possibly three of you, enjoy. 
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Finally Fountain
So, I'm still getting used to blogging and working it into my day. Rather than giving you a full review of Fountain NY I'll just post my pictures. Hope you like them. It was a good time and a great show. I saw old friends and new work by artists I like. I even came across works by Heiko Muller. He's an artist I found while trolling the Internet and decided I needed to own one of his works. Now he's everywhere I look.
Anyways, pictures-
These are the boys from CaplaKesting Fine Art. I used to work for them and they helped put this wonderful show together. Dave Kesting on the Left and John Leo on the right.
Travis Lindquist, Colin Burns, David Hochbaum (larry to ricky) are always available to pose in front of their work and endorse soda. Aside from their solo work, they do collaborative work as the Goldmine Shithouse. This is an example of their work, I think. That's what they told me. Why would they lie?
Next we have Brian Leo and Colin Burns, again. I forgot the guy's name on the left, sorry about that.
And finally- My wonderful girlfriend and her friend Jeff, he likes to overshadow her.
I wish I could give you a full run-down of works and maybe even a brief review, but is that really what you go to openings for? No. They're parties with art. Next one I'm going to? Thursday the 8th at the Met. Gaudi to Dali. Come back. I'll regale with more good times. Then I'll tell you how much I love Gaudi and also Dali.
Anyways, pictures-
These are the boys from CaplaKesting Fine Art. I used to work for them and they helped put this wonderful show together. Dave Kesting on the Left and John Leo on the right.
Travis Lindquist, Colin Burns, David Hochbaum (larry to ricky) are always available to pose in front of their work and endorse soda. Aside from their solo work, they do collaborative work as the Goldmine Shithouse. This is an example of their work, I think. That's what they told me. Why would they lie?
Next we have Brian Leo and Colin Burns, again. I forgot the guy's name on the left, sorry about that.And finally- My wonderful girlfriend and her friend Jeff, he likes to overshadow her.
I wish I could give you a full run-down of works and maybe even a brief review, but is that really what you go to openings for? No. They're parties with art. Next one I'm going to? Thursday the 8th at the Met. Gaudi to Dali. Come back. I'll regale with more good times. Then I'll tell you how much I love Gaudi and also Dali.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Go-Go Guggenheim!
Sorry for the long hiatus. It's not right for a new blogger to take a week off, but life is busy for me and time tends to run away. I work an 8 hour day, study painting every day for 5 hours (give or take) at the Art Students League and then, I'm young. I want to go out and have a good time. As my father constantly points out to me, I'm burning my candle at both ends. Eh, burn away.
This week has been especially busy. I've been at a three day conference called, "Contemporary Photography: Digital Prints." We learned, discussed and had free coffee, bagels and muffins. It was nice to get away from my desk and learn a thing or twelve about printing processes both digital and analog. The conference culminated last night with a reception, gallery visit and panel discussion at the Guggenheim (fancy, I know).
The evening started with some delightful finger sandwiches, nuts, olives (no place to put my pits, thank you very little!!) and a some wine. We weren't allowed to view the show of Spanish paintings thats on view right now, but we were allowed to see two other exhbitions that were much more pertinent to our conference: The Hugo Boss Prize and Family Pictures.
I'm not going to talk about the Hugo Boss Prize. It was four pieces total and I was really only interested in one.
Family Pictures, on the other hand, was amazing. For people who like contemporary photography you are probably familiar with the names in the show. For people who don't like contemporary photography or just aren't familiar, go. If you've uttered the phrase, "Who cares?" or "I can take a picture!" GO!! And also- you may be able to push the shutter button on your Kodak EasyShare900T, but you can NOT make pictures like these.
One of my favorite pieces was Catherine Opie's self-portrait. In it she's nursing a child. She sits against a deep red, fabric background. Across her breasts are scars that read, "pervert." It has an overt look of a Madonna and Child mixed with a reformed criminal. It was also pointed out to me that the child looked a little old for breast feeding. It wasn't something that I thought of right away, I'm just putting it out there. There's another Catherine Opie in the Guggenheim's collection, another Self-Portrait, which is very different. I thought it made for interesting comparison.
Another work that really struck me was Gillian Wearing's "Self-Portrait at Three Years Old." At first it looks like a picture of a sad, doll faced little girl. She stares at you with an oddly penetrating, almost glaring stare. On closer inspection her eyes aren't a little girl's. It's a mask. It starts to feel like a huge copy of Linda Blair's first grade, class picture. All this in an electric orange frame. Love it.
The rest of the show is pretty great. With artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Loretta Lux, Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Struth to name a few, it's hard to go wrong.
After all that we had a panel discussion with the curator of Family Pictures, Jennifer Blessing and two artists; Vic Muniz and Collier Shore. ; I'm now a Vic Muniz fan. Seriously. He drew pictures with sugar and chocolate and string and wire, but not all at once. Great.
In conclusion, go see Family Pictures at the Guggenheim. Something I thought about during a conference on archival properties of prints is, although we put so much stock in our technological advancements and although these photos have the feel of a permanent record, they're far from it. They are far more fragile and ephemeral than, say, those dusty old paintings. A photo may be able to capture a specific moment, but they may not be able stay around a heck of lot longer than that. Also, don't ask me about printers, I know too much now and come back tomorrow. I've neglected to post a bunch of pictures from Fountain.
This week has been especially busy. I've been at a three day conference called, "Contemporary Photography: Digital Prints." We learned, discussed and had free coffee, bagels and muffins. It was nice to get away from my desk and learn a thing or twelve about printing processes both digital and analog. The conference culminated last night with a reception, gallery visit and panel discussion at the Guggenheim (fancy, I know).
The evening started with some delightful finger sandwiches, nuts, olives (no place to put my pits, thank you very little!!) and a some wine. We weren't allowed to view the show of Spanish paintings thats on view right now, but we were allowed to see two other exhbitions that were much more pertinent to our conference: The Hugo Boss Prize and Family Pictures.
I'm not going to talk about the Hugo Boss Prize. It was four pieces total and I was really only interested in one.
Family Pictures, on the other hand, was amazing. For people who like contemporary photography you are probably familiar with the names in the show. For people who don't like contemporary photography or just aren't familiar, go. If you've uttered the phrase, "Who cares?" or "I can take a picture!" GO!! And also- you may be able to push the shutter button on your Kodak EasyShare900T, but you can NOT make pictures like these.
One of my favorite pieces was Catherine Opie's self-portrait. In it she's nursing a child. She sits against a deep red, fabric background. Across her breasts are scars that read, "pervert." It has an overt look of a Madonna and Child mixed with a reformed criminal. It was also pointed out to me that the child looked a little old for breast feeding. It wasn't something that I thought of right away, I'm just putting it out there. There's another Catherine Opie in the Guggenheim's collection, another Self-Portrait, which is very different. I thought it made for interesting comparison.
Another work that really struck me was Gillian Wearing's "Self-Portrait at Three Years Old." At first it looks like a picture of a sad, doll faced little girl. She stares at you with an oddly penetrating, almost glaring stare. On closer inspection her eyes aren't a little girl's. It's a mask. It starts to feel like a huge copy of Linda Blair's first grade, class picture. All this in an electric orange frame. Love it.
The rest of the show is pretty great. With artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Loretta Lux, Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Struth to name a few, it's hard to go wrong.
After all that we had a panel discussion with the curator of Family Pictures, Jennifer Blessing and two artists; Vic Muniz and Collier Shore. ; I'm now a Vic Muniz fan. Seriously. He drew pictures with sugar and chocolate and string and wire, but not all at once. Great.
In conclusion, go see Family Pictures at the Guggenheim. Something I thought about during a conference on archival properties of prints is, although we put so much stock in our technological advancements and although these photos have the feel of a permanent record, they're far from it. They are far more fragile and ephemeral than, say, those dusty old paintings. A photo may be able to capture a specific moment, but they may not be able stay around a heck of lot longer than that. Also, don't ask me about printers, I know too much now and come back tomorrow. I've neglected to post a bunch of pictures from Fountain.
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