Well… this is an art blog, after all.   Being a painter myself, it’s important.  If I just wrote about other art, other artists, I don’t think my blog writing would be as good.  All my work, including my work in Web Analytics, starts as Art.

 

 

I did a studio view (above) - feel like I’m lazy about this - not sure where to go next with my paintings.  Feel like I need to be more deliberate and maybe, more ambitious but I’m not sure I’m ready.

 

 

I came in to BAG halfway into the Saturday Nude Model Session but was able to spend the last hour of it doing the sketch above.

The new space is fantastic - it’s a lot more enjoyable to spend time in the new studio and I love the smell of oil paints.

Tomorrow I was planning to see the Brice Marden talk that I bought tickets too - I probably won’t be able to go, need to take care of my son.  I tried to buy another ticket but it was sold out.  I’m thinking I may try to bring him along anyway and see if there’s a way I can bring him in anyway.  We’ll see. 

If I can go to Brice Marden’s talk - I’ll write about it here.  I actually wanted to interview him personally for ArtNewYorkCity.com but Brice is not an easy guy to get a hold of.  Then again, I wanted to interview Peter Saul, but nothing happened there either.

I took a couple of pictures over the last two days - it’s been slow at the end of the year.

I’m pretty happy with the new space and I did a study for about an hour (see top view).   I reflected back on the work I did this year.

I’m also attending a Brice Marden Retrospective talk at Cuny Graduate Center - Proshansky Auditorium next Sunday at 4:00PM, exactly a week from now - figured I should go because I wrote a fairly descriptive review of Marden last month and sorta wished to have a personal interview with him.  Well, this is sorta like that - it’s not really an interview I can direct, but I can certainly extract out of it and get the level of interactivity I want out of it - and will.

Well, I think that’s about all for this year, 2006 - the year I started painting again.   But this year was more about just re-awaking energy - next year will be more about focusing it.

Strange - I am writing about my experience with Brice Marden at MOMA yesterday and I just checked his biography  to discover Brice Marden taught at School of Visual Arts - when I attended, in 1974 - that means I could have met him at that time (I don’t know if I was in one of his class or not - I can’t recall).  I guess I probably met Joe Coleman there in 1976 (but I can’t swear to it) and I certainly remember William Beckman - who I studied with back at Staten Island Community College in 1973-74. At that time I wanted to paint like Beckman - but I’m nothing like him … something he brought out to me at the time.  Beckman told me to read Herman Hesse’s work - Narcissus and Goldmund.  According to Wikipedia (whose “Death of Wikipidea I painted, BTW)

“Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a young man who wanders around aimlessly throughout Medieval Germany. The young man, Goldmund, has just left a Catholic monastery school in search of what could be described as “the meaning of life“, or rather, meaning for his life. He was brainwashed by his single father into thinking he wanted to become a monk and use his life exclusively to serve God. Narcissus, a young teacher at the cloister school who has the uncanny ability to look into people’s souls and determine their destinies, quickly makes friends with Goldmund (they are only a few years apart, and Goldmund is naturally bright) and instantly recognizes that Goldmund is not meant for the monastery life. This comes as a sickening shock to Goldmund, whose mind had been going against his nature in a series of youthful mental conflicts recently. After straying too far in the fields one day, on an errand gathering herbs, he comes across a beautiful woman and they kiss and she invites him to have sex later. This encounter pushes him over the edge and he knows he was not meant to be a monk. Goldmund is filled with the desire to experience everything, learn about life and nature in his own hands-on way. With Narcissus’ support, he leaves the monastery and wanders around the countryside.”

Beckman saw in me the persona of Goldman, while he, acted sorta as a ”Narcissus”.  At the time I had locked myself into a belief systems and limitations I still struggle with today, but Beckman had me pegged.  When I paint ….it feels like an “explosion” ….like I want to EXPLODE….. it just comes out - flashes …. it’s not at all what I was aiming for when I was younger - but it took me a long time to accept it.  I think I’ve come to terms with it now … my energy is not Cezanne’s (even though I love his work) it’s more like Van Gogh’s - if such a comparison can be made.

As I look back at my life I have crossed paths with many well known artists who have influenced me - I doubt I can say the reverse, but who knows?

My first real encounter with Brice Marden’s work came at an earlier MOMA show, more than 20 years ago (I don’t remember the exact date) and I am listening to a new podcast from WNYC FM Radio - an interview of Brice Marden that took place about 10 days ago. 

I did not understand Marden’s work at the time (20-30 years ago)- it seemed too simplistic.  Now I understand Marden’s work … at least I think I do.

I find the early paintings of Brice Marden very satisfying in a way.

These paintings seem to stop me - it’s as if I look at it and my mind goes blank - emptied out.  The variations of colors and textures were very subtle - so subtle it looked as if it’s just a flat plane - just one color - but it’s not - it’s one of Cezanne’s brushstrokes magnified 1000 times - that’s one way of thinking of it.

But as Marden says himself - he found himself trapped by his own style and in mid career abruptly changed it - just as he became known for what he was doing ….. and that’s what marks a real artist - the willingness to abandon what no longer works…. because the essence of art is intangible - and as soon as the process becomes totally definable - it becomes old.

In a way, that’s what I dislike about Andy Warhol - just the very reverse of what Brice Marden is … Warhol was all about process - there was no actual substance to Warhol’s work - you could put anything in his canvasses - he didn’t care - it was all about Warhol’s process which he repeated, over and over - sorta mass producing his work - without really changing it much.  On the other hand, Brice Marden realized he was stuck on these works of his - knew he learned what he needed by doing them in the first place, and decided to move on to something next.

This is a more recent work.

OK, here’s what I get out of Marden’s work …. heart.   That’s right - the energy hits me in the chest - right around the solar plexus.   The energy in Brice’s paintings are very concentrated.  The best art has an element of mystery - the moment someone can explain everything in a work of art ….. the art is gone.  Art is a mystery, just like life.  You can never entirely explain Art….. it just “is”.  You can explain style, detail experiences - but the essence of art, I believe, is mysterious.  The moment you can make what you do a formula - it’s time to stop and do something else ….and that’s what Marden did.  He did something much different - he changed his style. That’s not an easy thing to do - esp when your making money on the style everyone is used to.  But he did because he knew, inside, that to keep repeating what he already worked out …. would be untrue to himself, as an artist.

The change Brice Marden went though - shown in a very stark way in the show (though the podcast refers to a more gradual transition that is not really reflected in the choice of work in the retrospective) is working on multiple planes.  Brice went from working with a shallow flat space - that went into infinity (sorta) to a space that had more room and movement in it - it probably reflected changes in his life - more freedom - more money and more places to do his work.  

The Chinese influence is strong - my guess, a past life influence - something that gets pulled back in - a refined, controlled, nuanced way of working - again, over time … most of these works take years and there’s the freedom to only paint when he wants to - when he needs to  - and to work out problems - work out life.

I believe the best art is the synthesis of life and art - working out issues within the work that are also issues in your life - in perceptions and awareness.   These paintings are really … in essence - the working out of energy flow - getting energy moving - seeing it move -that’s why the work hits me in chest the way it does and why I’ll go back at least a few times to MOMA to see Brice Marden’s work while it’s up.  

Another thing - when I listened to the podcast of Brice’s WNYC interview - I got the feeling the man who looks at his work, in retrospective, is not exactly the same person who created it.  Brice does not remember what he did exactly - in many of these paintings …. and has not figured the show out - according to his interview ….. he’s looking at his work and has not really put it into a sentence, or paragraph, in his mind, that sums up what it means.  

Why?  The Beholder is not the same as the Doer.  That which does the work is another part - looking at it as a observer, walking through the gallery - walking through the museum is the same as seeing work through the memory of it …… it’s not the same as being in the moment of creation (though the memory of that “moment” remains).

Well, I think that’s enough for tonight.  I said what I needed to say.  Amy Crehore is right…painting does run in my blood.

Would be interesting to bump into Brice Marden while looking at his show at MOMA. THAT, would be intesting…. Well, one can always wish.