Self Image: Contemporary Self-Portraits

I am pleased to announce that I have three drawings included in an exhibit that opens this weekend:

Self Image

Contemporary Self Portraits

The Arts Guild of New Jersey

1670 Irving Street

Rahway, New Jersey

Opening Reception 1 - 4 PM

Sunday, January 17th

I had a bit of preview when I dropped off my drawings - there is some wonderful artwork in the show - please drop by!

My most recently completed large-scale drawing, Cottonmouth and Magnolia, will be on display as well as Soliloquy and Incise/Excise (No More Frown).

Self-portrait

This is the first in a triptych of self-portraits, which I have loosely titled "Conversations with Goya":

Graphite on paper, 18 x 17 inches

I will reserve the artist statement about the triptych until all three self-portraits are finished, and I am not sure that "Conversations with Goya" will be the final title, but it will work for now, and, in truth, Goya is my current muse.

Music Ephemera

Total ephemera for my music-loving friends: I wanted to share this in case you have not heard the One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Music From Kerouac's Big Sur soundtrack by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard.  I do not know a lot about the film, except that it relates to Kerouac's cabin and the writing of the novel Big Sur, and Patti Smith is involved (must be good).  It has been a while since I heard the details on WNYC's Soundcheck in October and only now have I gotten my little mits on the cd...

Lets just say that Gibbard provides the bennies for Farrar's downers (in Kerouac language...).   To tell the truth, I am not a fan of Kerouac - the writing is too brusque (I like lush and poetic), and I have never cared for self-destructive behavior (in writers or artists), but Farrar has integrated words straight from Kerouac text and molded them into songs...add some rhyming and an ethereal pedal steel and yes, I am in.

I cannot hear the song Willamine enough - strange, beautiful, elusive...I posted a live performance below (love the you tube!).  I really wish that I had seen these guys when they played together in NYC:

Symmetry and Storage

My eyes are crooked.  Seriously, my eyes are slightly misaligned - the right one is a millimeter higher than the left.   I have been aware of this since I was a teenager when it dawned on me that the reason why I could never get my eyeliner to look right was because one lid was shaped with a little more of a slope and the other eye was a little higher...so it goes, but it makes for some frustrating asymmetry when drawing.

The current work is a triptych of self-portraits...my internal monologues with Goya.  Each drawing is about 18 x 17 inches:  smaller, straightforward self-portraits with concentrated and candid observation.  I will post these drawings as I finish them.

At my husband's insistence (via repeated suggestion), I have rented a storage space for my finished and framed drawings.  I suspect that a commercial that we saw for the "Hoarders" show on A&E was the catalyst ("Hey - that looks just like my studio!") but, in truth, I cannot organize the studio supplies that I use because I can barely navigate the framed drawings I have stacked in my studio space.  I cannot even shift my chair to the left or right more than a couple of inches...it really is that bad.

Plus, there are little frustrations such as the day that I spent 45 minutes looking for the circle template (the second one that I have purchased this year) and as a last resort I ended up tracing glasses out of the kitchen (and not the exact circle size I needed) - a particularly exasperating instance when I knew that I owned something but I could not put my hands on it at the moment when it was desperately needed.

I suppose I could stop doing such large drawings that need to be framed...but since this drawing thing is a compulsion, that is not going to happen unless heavy medication is involved.

I remember asking one of my studio art professors what he was going to do with his stockpile of 15 x 20 foot paintings after his death...oh wait, digression:  I really am not that tacky or insensitive to ask an artist what they were going to do with the paintings that did not sell during his/her lifetime - this professor, both self-absorbed and eccentric, held one very open-forum class during each semester that was an "ask me any question about my experience as an artist, anything, no holds barred" so he encouraged this sort of dialogue.  My other question during one of these forums was whether or not women and men painted differently because of their actual physical differences (the innie-outie question), which, oddly, he shied away from answering, but the death question got him very excited...his answer was that since he owned the old high school gym in town (the only space large enough for his paintings) he had already made a stipulation in his will that the building would be sealed with his paintings left inside, protected, until anyone cared or bothered to get them out.

Alas, I do not think I will find a spare gymnasium anytime soon.  So, it is time for a good cleanout, a good system of organization, some fun trips to Ikea (oh Swedish storage paraphernalia, how I do love thee), and then I can at least move my chair around...perhaps I will even get one of those rolly-chairs since I will have some room for momentum when I wheel myself around the studio.

Strange Tales From My Little Black Book #7

Happy New Year!!!

The most recent Moleskine sketch...approximately 7 x 5 inches:

Venus Waning

On the agenda for the new year:  a few great group shows (more details to follow), many more Strange Tales, self-portraits (what a surprise) and the usual commentary, not to mention drawing, drawing, drawing.

...

Currently listening to:  Vic Chesnutt West of Rome

Rest in peace Vic...you were one amazing performer.