Your Diebenkorn Studies Homework for the week

Read Tyler Green's articles on two of Diebenkorn's Ocean Park paintings. Here is the one on #38 and Here is the one on Diebenkorn's untitled 1971 Ocean Park drawing. And then we will discuss them on Thursday here.

Rice Field Art

Check this out.

Very cool.

New Direction in My Painting

Vegas is great! Inspired by the place, my art has taken on a new direction:

Another great thing from England

Go check out this video:

Cutting Up My Friends, which sounds awful, but really is about editing video of the author's friends (various creative experimenters in the Bristol area) improvising in various setttings. It is quite brilliant.

This fellow also has a computer that plays music, which is equally brilliant.

Upcoming Lecture: John Ruskin, The German Nazarenes and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Next week, on Thursday May 10, I will be lecturing on John Ruskin, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the German Nazarene painters. The fun starts at 7:30 at St. Margaret Mary's in Oakland. There is no admission fee, but the St. Anthony of Padua Institute will suggest that you subscribe (for more information on the institute and what subscription is all about go here.

The lecture will be approx. 45-50 minutes, with a question and feeble attempts at answer session afterwards. We will try, as usual, to keep it all fun and informative.

There is a betting pool as to whether or not I will have time to get a proper haircut for the event, or whether I will do it myself, or will talk Melanie into cutting it, or whether I will simply not get around to it. The smart money goes for A, but the others are distinct possibilities as well. All I know is that I am mightily shaggy right now.

If you are coming from out of town, get in touch, so we can plan on at least a coffee or drink afterwards.

Cathedral Rising

I drove by the skeleton of the new Oakland Cathedral this morning. It is looking pretty much like what I am expecting, although it is still in its very early stages. While I don't think the building is remotely suitable for liturgy, they could probably sell it to the Chabot Space and Science Center, who could turn it into a fantastic annex for the display of aircraft. Then the diocese could use the money to build a real cathedral.

I do like how the structure is rising out of the site. I am skeptical that it will still look so cool when it is finished.

I will say that I would rather have this thing than some Duncan Stroik pastiche.

Harry Partch on being seduced by carpentry...

Harry Partch once notably remarked that he was a "composer seduced into carpentry," refering to his need to invent and build the instruments he needed to realize his musical vision. It is rare in music to find composers of note who also built their instruments (although there is a good Elipsis Arts CD on the subject). In the twentieth century the advent of electronics increased the amount of people who were working this way.

The interesting thing is that in visual arts, it has been the opposite: until the mid-19th century, artists often had to make many of their own materials. Today I know very few people who grind their own paint. I have been thinking about this, because I have become the artist seduced into chemistry.

As I mentioned earlier, I am using a beeswax and synthetic resin medium, and I am finding it hard to resist the temptation to fiddle with the formula, working to increase this or that aspect of the stuff.

I was talking to a friend about what I was doing and he mentioned the problems that honeybees are having. Perhaps I had best go hoard some beeswax. Then again, if it turns out to be a temporary thing, I will then have to take up encaustic, which looks like a lot of trouble (although it looks like the sort of "a lot of trouble" that could be quite fun).

The Artist and the Taxman

If a collector were to donate a painting to a museum, he could deduct the fair market value of that painting on his taxes. If the artist donated the same painting, he could only deduct the cost basis of the work: essentially his materials. This is not how it has always been. In 1969 this law went into effect with disastrous results for museums, especially the Library of Congress. Now, there is a bipartisan movement to go back to the pre-1969 law.

You can read about it here.

Fine Art Friday postponed in these parts.

Due to this silly cold, and having to take care of Amalia all day yesterday, and editing tasks this morning, I have not finished the painting I had hoped to post today. Hopefully tomorrow. We'll see.

Speaking of Art...

It is an odd numbered year.

Going to Venice this summer/fall?