Stoop Day

Took a day out of the studio today to go draw with my friend and fellow artist Josh Cave. It was a gorgeous spring day--perfect for sitting around on stoops, watching the day go by.

Kimmy

Kimmy, charcoal on paper, 2010

I had been so focused on the complications of big paintings that I had totally forgotten about sketching from life as an end in itself. More importantly, I remembered how quickly that skill goes away and how crucial it is to creating lively work. We did short poses for nearly an hour (all bad) and when I finally settled into the longer pose (1 hour), I was ready for it.

Between the Bars

I just recently found out about this amazing project called LaBlogotheque that's been going on for a few years. This gorgeous video of Chris Garneau playing Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" looks and feels like a painting somehow (reminds me of Courbet). It got me thinking, again, about the possibilities of using video as a painting reference. What would happen if you tried to paint from a video? If you tried to paint from an infinite 2D loop? And how would this differ from painting from a photograph and painting from life?

Street Art - Chinatown

Walked through Soho down to Canal today and went by a wall of street art that I love on Wooster, right across from the Dietch Gallery. I don't love grafitti, per se, but I think there's something beautiful about the textures and unpredictable compositions that the layers make. Not sure how I'll use it yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion I will.

Buddha of Medicine

Maybe it's all the renovations or maybe it was my recent trip to the London museums, but the Met doesn't seem to be cutting it these days. Until I saw this. I'd never been to the third floor of the Asian Wing before and I have no excuse. I'll be back again soon because this may be one of the most amazing paintings I've ever seen.
Details from "The Pure Land of Bhaisajyaguru, i.e. the Buddha of Medicine, a painting with a water-based pigment over a foundation of clay mixed with straw, dated to mid Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) of China."

Liber Chronicarum

I've recently become obsessed with the amateurish woodcarvings and colorings from this 1493 incunabulum, one of the best documented early printed books. The wiki says that "approximately 400 Latin and 300 German copies survived into the twenty-first century," but apparently Taschen published a hardcover color reproduction in 2001. MUST GET MY HANDS ON IT but have yet to find it. For now though, I'm keeping busy with the full online one at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Just wish I read latin.

Hernan Bas at the Brooklyn Museum

Deep. Not really, but that's sort of the point. I think there is something magical in the intentional(?) naivety of Bas's works. There is something similar in Elizabeth Payton's work as well; it's almost as if their technical superficiality acts as a foil for something deeper, something closer to the subconscious. They whisper instead of yelling, and they don't vie for your attention because they don't need it. Their world persists long after you stop looking, and, today, that's a rare quality.