The Cure for the visual blues

Some funky, band posters really catch my eye visually...The works of Michael Michael Motorcycle, are fun and well done visually...there is a mood to the work, the way the figure and animals are drawn, the whimsy of the font and the color usage...hearkening back to the 60's and 70's psychedelic posters of bands like Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane...

The head of the figure (Robert Smith) is up from the direct center with the animal forms radiating from him...there are images behind the figure and behind the figure to increase the depth of field and increase interest in the picture plane...I also really like the edges of the image field...they break into the white border in a variety of ways, organic lines, spirals, dome shapes and with parts of the animals...color usage is also effective and spread throughout the picture plane, carrying the viewer's eye throughout the picture plane...the strong complimentary color scheme adds to the whimsy and intensity of the overall image...I am cured!

A Painting of Precious Fires

Large scale, intense paintings...the works of Enzo Cucchi are what pulled me into art making...I saw a piece entitled, "The Houses go Downhill" which changed the way I saw painting...it was a vast landscape on fire, turned slightly up, like a Cezanne table, with two precariously set long rectangular homes, teetering and looking to fall in a wedge shape...and behind it, a small wagon, lost in the pulsing landscape...as if their prosperity had vanished in a burst of flames...

The piece above has that same kind of painterly intensity...I can also appreciate the decorative quality of the fire plumes in a spiral...Cucchi is a painter and is not shy about the application of paint...the material is in harmony with the form it represents...flowing in the objects direction and describing accurately the sensation of the moment...this piece also visually has that heat, with a strong contrast between the black background going off into space infinitely and the whitest, hot flame of the plumes...the twin figure's role in the piece is uncertain...they seem to be part of the flames, but they could also be at war, battling and absorbing the precious fires...

Chained to this image

What is appealing about a personally frightening image? How can you look when it is difficult to accept something culturally? Mapplethorpe challenges those conventions and confronts viewers with technically skilled and perfectly photographed...he seduces the viewer with balanced values and sensual contrasts...

We are intrigued by these kinds of works, images that reflect the underbelly of society...those taboo elements occurring in our society...in the 80's these kinds of images were sexually charged and anti-establishment...the context of this image, a suburban living room, is in contrast to the dress of the couple and the possibility of what could be happening next...this conceptual divide leaves us wanting...searching for closure and reconciliation...an effective formal devise in creating interest in visual intensity...

In an visceral and emotional way, we are chained to these individuals...we want to look away, stare past the couple...but we are captured by the image...compelled to look...

Subversive? FUCK YEAH!

Let me start by saying, cursing is not my idea of intellectual dialogue...however, like all good things, it has it's place as both an emotional injection and as a devise to breakdown high-brow hoo haa...The title seems fitting as I watch all the governmental transgressions in Iran, I see that the Iotola has banned music lessons for all, and hypocritically, he was the recipient of lessons as a boy...So why keep others from learning to be creative, if it was good for him? I believe, he knows exactly why we must keep the arts away from the little people...it infects the common wo/man with complex and creative thought...it challenges all that it touches and at the same time it levels the playing field and communicates universally and emotionally...Hitler did something similar in Germany during World War II, so the Iotola is in good company...


Banksy is a graffiti artist in London, not only a skilled graphical artist, but a keen, conceptual bloke who knows how to create something beautiful in an otherwise, miserable context...One of my favorite pieces is the sculptural object above...it was placed in the British Museum next to other pivotal works in their Roman collection...he created signage that mimics the surrounding pieces and it says the following in summary: “early man venturing towards the out-of-town hunting grounds” in the “Post-Catatonic era...created by Banksymus Maximus." The work was there 8 days before it was removed...Ironically, it is now in the permanent collection.

So there are "established" artists and those outside the mainstream...those who are supported by the wealthy and elite and those who are shunned...Other artists have refused to participate in one form or another...Italian artist, Piero Manzoni, would can his excrement and air and sell it to excited patrons...Maybe it's our very nature to want to push the limits and reside outside what is acceptable...it is funny how those most subversive get absorbed back into the mechanism...So why so much fear by those in control?


I have also included another formalization of Banksy...watch it and you decide!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRai9x8aD3A&feature=player_embedded

Parrot hotel for sale

I was fortunate enough to see the new wing at the Art Institute of Chicago this past weekend. It became a quest to see where they put the Joseph Cornell boxes ...As I wound around the galleries looking at some familiar works and some new works, I found two groupings of his works...there is something simple and mystical about his work..the way the elements are put together and arranged...the basic, monochromatic color palette with the explosion of color in the parrot...the bird is the lead character in this opera...different visual components contained in the squares and rectangles that break the picture plane...

Paper elements on the far wall, like posters on the street...the world is aged and subject to time...the circular form of the birds eye, yellow ball and the center of the spring tie the composition together and move the viewer through the piece...each supporting character has it's own place and room in Cornell's boxes...and how could you not love the box form?!?! I guess I am bias on this point...Is the bird caged? And what could these other forms be alluding too? Toys to occupy the bird while in captivity? Found objects that bird collected, to make a home? Could this be a glimpse into the natural habitat? The bird forced to select from the scraps in an urban environment...creating a modern living structure, not out of choice but because of scarcity...