Indiana University-Los Angeles: Photos from the BFA Fall Semester 2010!

Here's a cross post of mine on a blog set up by my old professor Chris Barnard with a ton of photos from my first official BFA painting show:

Indiana University-Los Angeles: Photos from the BFA Fall Semester 2010!: "HEY CHRIS! The show was awesome! Here is an absurdly large number of photos! Installation shots: Emi had an awesome idea to hang a ..."

Good photos of current work coming soon!

Jonathan Meese Interview

The BEST:

Crappy Photos of some New Finished Paintings

Excuse the real poor photos, this were primarily taken for my own uses, but I thought it would be good to show what I've started doing int the BFA since I have them:





They are both approximately 6' x 3' and in acrylic.

Isao Hashimoto - "1945-1998"

http://www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/

""This piece of work is a bird's eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world."

Reminder: Ross Bleckner is god.

INHERITANCE, 2003, OIL ON LINEN, 72" X 72"

IU BFA Blog

Please follow the IU BFA Crew blog, recently set up by my Ceramicist friend Ben Cirgin:
http://iubfacrew.blogspot.com/

This is a blog for all IU BFA's (currently mostly ones that got in last semester [aka my generation]) to make posts on whatever they happen to be working on/interested in. Along with certainly lots of fun stuff other stuff; I'm sure it will be a great place to get the most recent news for openings in Bloomington.

Currently Reading...

-Dub: Soundscapes & Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by Michael E. Veal
-Writings on Art by Mark Rothko
-Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti

Recently Finished: Flaubert's Madame Bovery and Whistler's Gentle Art of Making Enemies

Adolph Gottlieb

"Rolling", 1961

Whistler's "Gentle Art of Making Enemies"

Been reading "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies: As Pleasingly Exemplified in Many Instances, Wherein the Serious Ones of this Earth, Carefully Exasperated, Have Been Prettily Spurred on to Unseemliness and Indiscretion, While Overcome By an Undue Sense of Right" by the 19th century James Whistler American ex-pat painter living in Britain. Containing biting essays and correspondences between himself and his critics written in 19th century holier-than-thou prose, the book is both a thoroughly entertaining read as well as an interesting view into the art world and critical consensus of the time. Also, Whistler owns on fools that try to step to him:

"Critic's Analysis

In the "Symphony in White No. III", by Mr. Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on a white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh colour of the complexions.
-P.G. Hamerton, June 1867

The Critic's Mind Considered

How pleasing that such profound prattle should inevitably find its place in print! "Not precisely a symphony in white... for there is a yellowish dress... brown hair, etc.... another with reddish hair... and of course there is the flesh colour of the complexions."
Bon dieu! did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F, F, F.?...... Fool!
-Whistler"

A Suggestion...

Lying in the sun, face it with eyes closed.

Stare at the back of your eyelids as intensely as you would a delicate still life.

Focus, observe the pure color of abstract observation.

Experiment with using one hand to block sunlight from one eye, the other, or both. Different distances can block more or less light.

Squeeze your eyes closed tighter for an explosion of new color.

Open your eyes, just slightly slightly and observe the bright unfocused white patterns of light reflecting on your eye lashes set against the blue of the sky, with the hood of your eyelid weighing over it all.

Open your eyes completely and stare at a tree or some other object for a few minutes. Then return to your eyes closed facing the sun and observe the silhouetted fragments of pure color.

Do these things for at least an hour.

Today I got accepted into the BFA painting program...

BLAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

VICTORY IS MINE!

Ghost Cat Owns

Thomas Gainsborough, "Two Daughters with a Cat", c. 1759

Fra Angelico, Entombment of Christ

Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Directed by Godfrey Reggio and scored by Philip Glass, this movie that combines slow motion and time lapsed footage creates a dialogue between the sublimity of nature, but also of the technological age (and man's small, yet greatly effected position within it).:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras
(you'll have to excuse the intrusive youtube ads, but, hey, it's free!)

Hauntigly beautiful.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses!

Full list of paintings here (2 of them were super hard for me)

Jefferson Pinder

Excited for Jefferson Pinder's lecture tomorrow.

Lazarus from Jefferson Pinder on Vimeo.

He is a video, installation, and sculpture artist who works with themes of African American identity. I most appreciate his videos, which are often accompanied by extremely good music selections from hip-hop, African, Blues, and Latin sources. They effectively retain viewer interest while creating metaphors of struggle.

Photos of Louis Armstrong

It's hard not to smile looking at photos of Louis Armstrong:

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Just discovered Finnish late 19th, early 20th century painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela:


Boy and Crow, 1884, 80 cm x 70 cm

"The Defense of the Sampo", 1896, 125 cm x 122 cm, tempera

Kullervo's Curse, 102.5 cm x 184 cm, oil

The last two paintings are illustrations from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic poem.

Reggae Record Covers

Love the typography and imagery on these covers.

Pavel Pepperstein

Saw Pavel Pepperstein at the Venice Bienalle last summer and decided to blog about his humorous, deceptively simple depictions of future landscapes (click for full sizes, you have to read the captions):

Gerald Incandela

Gerald Incandela creates his images using "hand brushed silver gelatin print(s) on photographic paper":

"The Bench", 2009, 42"x42"


"Irregular Triangle", 2008, 42"x43"

I most appreciate the small splashes of low color tones, that are surprisingly difficult to notice immediately despite being in great contrast to the black and white images.

A Love Letter For You (Philadelphia Mural Project)

A Love Letter For You is a collaborative arts mural project based in Philadelphia featuring 40 local and international artists:

Click the link for many more images and more information.

Heavenly Toe Tappers of Rwanda