I did two works this weekend – or studies – and I really don’t know what to say about either – are they done?  Maybe they don’t need to be finished any more than this:

Eugène Delacroix. Death of Sardanapalus. Oil on canvas. 12 ft 1 in x 16 ft 3 in. Louvre.

I did my own version of the Death of Sardanapalus and I was going to work some more on it today, but a friend who paints at the studio thought it was done and I decided to just leave it as is.   I got frustrated with it yesterday and went home, not photographing it -but decided to, today.

The second painting is larger and called “Explosion #42 begins with a “V”; I’ll let you decide what this painting is about:

I also went to an opening Friday night at Broadway Gallery, it was fun though I was hoping to hang out after the show with Melonie and her friends – that didn’t happen.  I liked the work and especially, the way works were hung, using Plexiglass – and the whole thing wasn’t expensive to frame at all, which is giving me ideas of doing something similar for work like those I’ve shown in this post.

Reception: Friday December 21, 2007 6 – 8pm

Broadway Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition – Through Her Eyes, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the artist Melanie Prapopoulos. The Show will feature paintings and drawings from several of the artist’s bodies of work. The series “Rooms of Thought,” portrays abstracted depictions of night shadows and reflected light, and symbolizes the search for forbidden knowledge. “Myth Translated” is a series of figurative charcoal and pastel drawings inspired by Afro-Cuban myths. “Shatterings of Light on Paper” are acrylic-on-paper paintings, representing the penetration of light – or hope – through darkness.

http://www.melanieprapopoulos.com

I did a piece today at my studio and called it “rejection“:

There’s a couple of things going on that bring up that theme.  For one thing, while the Paris Trip for LeWeb3 went very well, I missed out on some meetings and parties I’d have liked to have attended and I retold my entire Paris Trip in a post titled My Trip to Paris 12/9 to 12/13/2007 on www.my-metrics.com, a new blog I’m also posting to that I partially own.

I would not call the LeWeb3 experience, rejection, so much as just not being in the right influential circles – but I made my own luck and had a good time at impromptu events such as French Blogger Dinner – and at the last minute   and In Paris – a rainy day and a meetup at Maxim’s Art Nouveau Museum that wouldn’t have happened without Social Networks.

And then, a friendship has been rejected.

If that weren’t enough – I’m at the point where I might not be able to afford my studio any longer – I’ll decide in the next 10 days or so; I need to make more money and at the same time, I’m maxed out.  I’ve given myself over entirely to Web Analytics, Blogging and Art, and finding I have less bandwidth for the freelance work, and less of it too, that used to help make ends meet. 

I guess, rejection can come in a number of forms, perhaps even from exhaustion – pushing to the limit, as far as I could go.  I felt like that with LeWeb3- I got there – I presented myself, I injected myself as much as could in what was going on – but and the end of the day, most of the important meetings I wanted to be part of, I wasn’t able to be – and there wasn’t much I could do about it either.  Just have to accept that I did the best I could, given what I have to work with – and leave the rest up to fate.

Eugène Delacroix. Death of Sardanapalus. Oil on canvas. 12 ft 1 in x 16 ft 3 in. Louvre.

Finally, this week I was at the Louvre twice and spent the majority of my time in the room where many of the large French Paintings hang, including the Death of Sardanapalus by Delacroix, which was my favorite of the Delacroix’s shown.

“…Death of Sardanapalus (La Mort de Sardanapale) is a painting dated at 1827 by Eugène Delacroix. Its dominant feature is the bed on which a nude prostrates herself and beseeches the apathetic Sardanapalus, who watches as his worldly possessions are destroyed. Sardanapalus ordered his possessions destroyed and concubines murdered before he sets himself on fire, once he learns that he is faced with military defeat.

Death of Sardanapalus is based on a play, Sardanapalus, written by Lord Byron, and is a work of the era of Romanticism. This painting uses rich, vivid and warm colors, and broad brushstrokes.”

I know this painting was in Delacroix’s studio for several years before it was finally sold, and the artist looked at it often – and it’s also in the best shape of any of the large paintings – appearing to have suffered less graying out of many of the colors due to poor pigment quality and additives.  I struggle to imagine how much more vibrant the colors were on many of the paintings, but with this one, I don’t have to imagine as much, since the colors aren’t that far off, in my opinion.

Also, the woman’s torso in the foreground, is very satisfying to look at, feels as if it’s really felt, which of course it was, since Delacroix tended to make love with many of his female models, and used a few, over and over, especially, in this painting.   I know that since I read the Journal a few times – esp the early part, where some trysts are recounted and the model’s name given, along with her place in the painting.   However, he wasn’t writing to a Journal when Sardanapalus was painted – maybe he was too busy painting and enjoying Parisian life (one can suppose).

Sardanapalus is as much a story of Delacroix’s manhood as it is of a King’s death.

I suppose this is enough of a post for Saturday night in New York City.