Ilana R. Simons at GirlsClub, Lower East Side, Manhattan
I attended Ilana Simons opening at GirlsClub last night (actually, Thursday night 9/27/07) briefly and enjoyed looking at her work; here’s the video.
By the way, I didn’t know Ilana Simons teaches Philosophy, and Plato in particular..thought I had to mention that.
I noticed the large variety of paintings Ilana had showing (you can see them in the video) and it occurred to me (and I mentioned it to her) to exploit the shape of the plates, particularly the smooth plates, with the protruding depth, much as Monet used the oval shape of the room in Paris where his Waterlily paintings are housed near the Louvre.
As a visual artist (that is, when I get around to painting) I’m very aware of the language of form and color; what makes painting interesting, as opposed to literature or other art forms, is the exploitation (if that’s the right word for it) of two dimensional design, texture, subtle properties of color, contour, drawing, etc. Â
Succeeding as a visual artist, to me, is finding a way to take your motif and translate into the language of form and color. Often, working sincerely, as Ilana does, I can feel the love that goes into the portraits – and sometimes, the color hues work for me more in some than others. But I would say that when you teach philosophy, write and paint, you have a trinity (at least that) and it’s intersting to see someone that does all three in a consistent way.  All the paintings have consistency, the writing has consistency and I bet, the philosophy classes are pretty good too.
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for this post. I have been thinking a lot about what you said–about exploiting the shape of a concave plate in the painting itself. I don’t quite know how I’d do it–but I get the idea: taking the shape of your surface into account. I spent yesterday at the DUMBO Arts festival, and saw that sort of thing all over: Flat canvas paintings are unpopular; the painters there want different interactions with the world outside the canvas.
Have you gone to DUMBO Arts yet? I’d like to hear your reactions.
And your own painting cards that you gave me at the show are fabulous. I’d like to know more about when you paint/how much.
about the big P: I only teach Plato in the context of my literature and writing courses, so tho I teach some philosophy, the classes are in the lit and writing dpts. I don’t want to claim a hat I don’t get to wear.
Speak soon,
Ilana
By Ilana on September 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm