Sunday, February 26, 2017

Bill Paxton 1955-2017

Fuck this shit. Bill Paxton is gone, but Donald Trump still walks this earth. Unfair.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Windmill

Just got copies of this magazine Windmill that is published by Hofstra University that has a photo of mine and a crumpled house drawing printed very nicely inside. You can view the entire issue including my art which is on pgs. 145-146 at this link.



Altoon Sultan


http://mckenziefineart.com/exhib/sultan2017exhb.html





A passing note on the lovely exhibition by Altoon Sultan now on view.
Comprised of small works in various medias, the show is geared in nature (the artist lives in a rural community) and natural materials that also bring to mind the outdoors. There are small detailed paintings of closeups of machines used in agriculture that are rendered in delectable yellows. reds, greens and blues that bring to mind the precise paintings and drawings of Charles Sheeler. There is a return engagement of another grouping of her textile pieces also small but range free and easy along the walls. These are hand dyed, tactile and geometric that cry out to be touched and rubbed up against. Again her color is rich deep and beautiful. The final group of pieces are new for her and I can only wait with excitement as to where she is going to go with these Bas-Relief pieces made of porcelain and hand painted in delicious deep solid colors of red, blues and a golden yellow. When I say delicious I mean that because they are so smooth and inviting like softly melting ice cream, I tell you I nearly came close to licking them. All her materials bring to mind a farm there is egg tempera, calfskin parchment and hand dyed wools. As usual with this artist her work is impressive, moving and wonderful. The show is on through March 26th.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Notebook inside covers February 2017


Friday, February 17, 2017

Notebook drawing February 2017


Raymond Pettibon a pen of all work the new museum
















I had a really good time the other day at this jam packed over the top drawing show by Mr. Pettibon now on through April at the ill conceived uncomfortable New Museum. Filling the awkward spaces on three floors Pettibon's free wheeling and beautiful drawings cover all themes and topics including many scathing political drawings. There are also pop tart images of tarts and pops, noirish grisly images, some great stuff taking down religion and stuffy art and comic book inspired drawings and jots. There are like 800 pieces some in frames some just hung on the walls with tacks and lots of good stuff laying in those vitrines that museums love to use. The drawings are loose and beautifully done mainly in black dense inks with some color added here and there, but there are also blooming full color drawings large in scale like his surfing drawings that are Cinemascope in scale and are terrific in all their wavy blueness. There are drawings of war and soft core porn with penises galore along with drawings of famous and infamous personalities including many of presidents that can easily fit in either catagory. Murderers and movie stars all get the same treatment along with athletes and body builders. Many of the drawings have written texts and writings all over them and its not easy to stand there and read them but you can take a glance or two at the words and see if they fit your mood. The real pleasure here is the art, big and small loose and tight comical and scary, punk and underground and all by the way are wonderful. See this one. Now.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Jannis Kounellis 1936-2017








Tuesday, February 14, 2017

homecrest

Well at least something nice is in my life right now considering the nightmare that we are living every day with that monster in the white house. I started my long teaching gig (until June) at the homecrest benshonhurst senior center, which is right across the street from my old high school which is indeed strange. All of the seniors are Asian and are lovely, charming and talented. Also the staff is very helpful and also lovely translating when necessary but many speak fine English, much better than my Chinese. ha ha. I had 8 students and the space is small but everyone fitted in fine. For the first project I gave them the task of drawing me, to break the ice, and to make myself vulnerable, the results were really nice.







Sunday, February 12, 2017

UFT

I just finished my 5 week workshop at the UFT which stands for the United Federation of Teachers. I've been teaching there for about 15 years but they have pretty much cut me out of my classes because of "low enrollment" . Fine. I had about 5 loyal students and the work was quite nice. I asked them to do work with a narrative theme. Here are some of the results. Don't think I will be returning there any time soon.








Saturday, February 11, 2017

Inventing Downtown


Inventing Downtown. Artist Run Galleries in New York City 1952-1965
Grey Art Gallery NYU. through April 1, 2017

I saw this marvelous jam packed exhibition today and think anyone who loves art and new york city will jump up and down over this one. Documenting the unique artist run gallery scene that was visible and active mainly downtown during the early 50's and mid 60's it includes small pieces by many well known artists but also includes pieces by lesser known artists along with photos, announcements and other bits of documentation. The list of artists is long and I have to say that I was pretty much impressed and enticed by most of the work. I was just a babe when this scene was going on but later on when I arrived on the scene I was lucky to meet and greet many of the artists included and even got to know many of them sometimes up close and sometimes from a distance. As usual with the Grey Art Gallery it's a lovely well thought out show nicely installed, and be sure to pick up the free nice 20pg. large brochure with notes, photos and interviews and also grab the fold over which opens up to a nice poster of the great Red Grooms transporting artwork to the Reuben Gallery which is illustrated below.



https://greyartgallery.nyu.edu/exhibition/inventing-downtown-artist-run-galleries-in-new-york-city-1952-1965/sec/images/



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