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On the floor, Mark Manders

One thing that I like about the works of Mark Manders are the platforms on which he places the them. These chairs and tables, made by the artist, function as pedestals for the sculptures, and are parts of the pieces as well. They integrate the works into their environments more than protecting or separating them from the audience. This goes to my interest in the trend of museum furniture and display cases where butt jointed plywood structures and untapered legs rule over polished, painted, mitered seamless structures. While his works do not reside on such structures, a portion of them utilize handmade versions of fine furniture. That, along with the works that seem as if the artist has stepped away to finish them at some point in the future, signal an ongoing process and not an end. This is exemplified in Ramble-room Chair from 2010 (pictured above) where the bronze is painted to appear as wet clay.

The Last Two Weeks

Mark Manders, Balancing Act, 1993-2009.

I’ve been productive in studio—no proof of this as of yet—but my upcoming exhibition is coming together.

Last week I went to San Francisco twice; once to speak to a graduate class at SFAI on my work on Tuesday and then again on Thursday to hear a lecture by Jan Verwoert at CCA, where he talked about Inspiration and its Pitfalls. Both were interesting and educational.

The following day I drove to Los Angeles to attend a catalog release party for Steven Criqui’s memorial exhibition that was held at UCI. While I was there, I was able to see Eva Hesse’s and Mark Manders’ exhibition at the Hammer Museum. Laura Owens, who I ran into at the curators walk-through, will be doing her own gallery talk/walk-through on the 24th of October for Hesse and Elliott Hundley on October 7th for Manders.

It is almost unnecessary to say the Hesse paintings (all from 1960 and her first year out of Yale) were quite nice. The “old” opinion was that these paintings weren’t any good. Which I think is the minority opinion now. *Note that the gallery walls are a light pink. Enough to activate the color in the paintings without over powering the work.

I am going to write about my experience with the Manders exhibition later, but will say now it is worth a trip west (still east of the 405 by a few blocks). the sculpture above is in the show, but most of the work was created on the occasion of the exhibition (that will later travel to the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN).

Portrait — update

Slowly developing some color, which I might ultimately remove. That is Cobalt Violet Light on the forehead.

SF Bay Bridge

I took the ferry from Jack London Square to the Ferry Building the other day.

Claude Chabrol (1930-2010)

from Les Bonnes Femmes 1960

Part of the French New Wave, director Claude Chabrol died Sunday in Paris. He was 80 years old.

New York Times Obituary

Night Driving

Above is a working image shot in the studio tonight. When I first tried to paint the 76 balls without the number on them, they didn’t really work as a dimensional object. To me, the most successful of those paintings was the one that was not illuminated from within. In my sketchbooks, most of sketches were more like this—a simple form render more like a solid sphere instead of a glowing object in the sky. The mirroring of white sphere in the image above is approximately where the 76 balls were in the various compositions.

I didn’t expect to make such long explanation of the images herein. I got on the computer to write this.

I use to drive around a lot at night to take pictures for my paintings. This is less true and has been for the last few years as my work has increasingly been based off studio still lifes/setups of one form or other. To keep this a short story, I think I miss it. I think I am going to go for a drive before the sun comes up.

Paper Model

Video Title Page

I’ve been sick the last few days, but well enough to draw.

I’ve been experimenting with different title image/text intros for my most recent videos. I had been thinking about having something static to go with the videos in the gallery, and something to give to those who helped me with the videos.

So, I made some drawings for the different segments. The Title Page—above—is color pencil on black paper. The title, Essence da la vie, translates from French to Gasoline of Life as well as what essence means in English.

Best Mirrors in Painting

Diego Velasquez’s La Meninas (1656)

(detail)

Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882)

Diego Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus (1647-51)

Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding (1434)

(detail)

painting in progress

number 3

number 4

a few more short steps in the painting process.