the experts

07:36 pm - because I don't have enough unfinished paintings at the moment
I got my home studio in order and what do I do, start a still life of orchids.
A student painted them twice during the residency, my mom sent a photo of dad with
orchids, my folks have them all over their house, and then there are actual
orchids in front of me in the grocery store. I bought one. Mom paints them too
I think.

I was wondering if I still knew how to do a still life
of a flower, it has been so long. This was today's start, it is +\- 24 x 20"
so slightly larger than life size.

I have all kinds of plans for how to develop this painting,
plus I want to finish up the tiger diptych
from the residency, and go back into the big yellow horizontal landscape
from the Zayed show. I already want to do another version that is much looser.

I enjoyed it. A day to sit and think and feel while I looked hard at an actual
potted orchid and tried to get the details right was a fine thing. Plus
I'm back home with my chair that adjusts for height and my easel that does
the same: I painted hard all day, but nothing hurts. Woo hoo proper
alignment.

12:23 pm - what's a favorite still life?
...and, when you spend time looking, what do you get from it?
Link me up! Contemporary or not, it's all good.

To answer my own questions, I have always found still lives to be a bit frightening.
The artificiality of the studio setup: dire warnings not to touch the objects
or light source once placed, not being able to work by natural light because
it shifts color and intensity and direction. The problem of cut flowers dropping
petals, eggs rotting.

Mom scooped up my shoes for a still life when I was a kid and
told me I'd ruin the painting if I wore then returned them.

My poor brain nearly broke. Was it really impossible to replace
the shoes in the exactly minutely correct fashion? It must
have been or else she would not have told me not to do it.

And what if I stumbled and bumped the table? What about vibrations,
would they also minutely shift the objects and ruin the painting?
What tolerance for entropy, for life was there in this thing called
a still life?

Throughout her still life period, I tiptoed past her studio like a sickroom.
I was so relieved when she refocused on painting models. I knew
they moved, and everything still came out ok.

Still lives read to me like
memento moris,
but I am not sure they are meant to be. Part of it is that many artists use
family treasures or objects they get from garage sales or antique stores, and formal
fabrics (not for daily life) for the background.

A memento mori is supposed to remind us that we will die, and that we ought not
to forget it. This perhaps means we ought not to transgress the rules of our religion,
or that we should make the most of the time we have left. As a painter looking
at a still life which I read (want to or not) as a memento mori, it makes me wonder
what rules of painting I am not supposed to transgress. What will the consequences
be for my painterly transgressions? What else I will be able to get
painted before I die?

Therefore I tend to like two general kinds of still lives.
The first would be works
that soak me the intensity of that artist's witnessing of life... when
I'm looking, I'm there with him dazzled and pushing and pushing that paint.

Van Gogh Irises

The second type I like would be still lives that deal with death directly
without sentimentality. It's a relief, for me, not to have the death aspect
sublimated.

Alice Neel, Thanksgiving

January 1st, 2010

05:18 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day nineteen-- last day!

photo Naz K. Shahrokh

This painting is getting close, maybe two more days of work.
Wish I had been able to finish it so ppl could see the outcome.
I will try to show it somewhere on campus next semester.

Here are some student works. (There is a great drawing out there that
the student said I could share and I will as soon as she emails me the image,
as I wasn't quick enough to photograph it myself.)

Shaima Alijunibe the first painting, acrylic on canvas

Shaima did the flowers and the background with zero hesitation.
When she was done I suggested she paint the canvas
edges and put acrylic gloss medium on the piece to get back the look
of the fresh paint, and she humored me.

birds by Hiba Buhazzaa, mixed media on canvas

OK, this one obviously has a lot of me in it: birds, texture,
layers, glazing, and polka dots. But I didn't touch it, just
talked through each stage with the student. I somehow did mention birds when
it seemed like a figurative element might help.

Hiba really wanted to paint, had no experience painting,
and her first attempt turned the canvas to mud brown with great glops
and brush marks. If you paint and remember your first
color mixing attempts, you know what happened. It's like all roads
lead to glop. But she stayed with it and worked for three days to get it to here.

orchid #1, orchid #2 by Najla Khamees, mixed media

Najla has a lot of painting and drawing experience and brought in a photo of
orchids as source material. She did two paintings of the orchid--
on the right is how she usually works, and on the left
is a half-finished experiment of splitting up her drawing and painting into two layers
and then superimposing one on the other. The white bits all over
the canvas on the left are from the medium that did not have time to dry.
She let me take photos and share them anyway. :)

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10:44 am - "Dinner For One" New Year's tradition-- OBSERVED :)
When living in Berlin S. and I were exposed to the German tradition of watching
this film: you watch it, not quite eleven minutes, and then you know it's
really, officially a new year.

We watched it last night (it is already New Year's Day for me) and I laughed
all over again. I hope to laugh next year too.

So I share with you. It's a British film in english not well known
outside of Germany and Austria. I think it is ok to watch on New Year's Day,
pls correct me Gentle Reader if this is wrong.

About the tradition, I am sure there are better links to be found but this is an introduction. Scroll down past the
ads!

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December 31st, 2009

melsky

05:11 pm - Happy New Year

Imp and the Christmas Tree
Originally uploaded by Melsky

I'm going out to dinner and then to see a band with my husband. It's been such a stressful week at work and today was very hard. I had a lot of people who wanted to move into apartments but for whatever reason couldn't - either they didn't have the money, or social services didn't call me and give me the OK. It's so nice to have it over for a few days, I am not going to answer my phone!

This is the first time I have gone out and done anything for new years since 1990 I think.

December 30th, 2009

05:39 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day eighteen
Sigh. Oh my.

I wore my cope pretty thin by 1:30 and should have called it off then, but
I had a group of students painting and I was trying to finish these d%*m
peacocks.

A colleague took this while I was working. You cannot see my snarling face
or red eyes, which is maybe for the better.

This morning I taped some of my photographic source material to the wall. It was a
defiant gesture and casting off of shame and it felt really, really good.

When I was little I remember that some
artists gave my mom a hard time about using photographic reference material,
and it was therefore something you were supposed to do only on the sly.
Or maybe they didn't give her a hard time but she overheard some talking
smack about some other artist who worked from photos. Anyway, like most
messages we pick up as kids, this one has rattled around in my head
for a long time. (I am sure my mom got over it a long time ago.)

I sat for my mom a lot, and I liked posing; there is a painting somewhere
of me when I was two and she told me I was very good when I sat for it.
I sat for her until I was maybe sixteen, when she broke definitively
and forever from realism. However such things can be measured, she
had put in the years/yardage of canvas and earned the right to
paint from her head. I missed sitting for her though. I've always been
good at sitting still. Moving is more problematic.

The anti-photo thing--as if, when we want to paint peacocks,
we should tie the poor creatures down (or shoot and stuff them
per Audubon) so we can stare at them for hours and hours? Um, no.

But every so often I run into someone
who must of heard the same thing, that painting is not as valid
when you work from photos, and they give me the look.

Working from life is special in a certain way, fine. It mostly
has to do with the internal experience of the painter if you ask
me (and how that is romanticized). I have plenty of rich internal
experience without an actual screaming peacock in my face.
Life is nice but I prefer life backed up by REALLY HUGE JPGS.

So today I taped my source material to the wall. What happens
in the States when you show naive viewers your photographic source
material is (usually) this-- they consider the photo authoritative,
and look to see how faithfully you've reproduced the
photo. The extent to which you've copied the photo is the measure of
your success as a painter. End of discussion. I don't like my work to be examined
this way, but I had a hunch it might go down differently here and now.

Not surprisingly, the students could not have cared less about the photos.
They have grown up with digital media. Many of them check their
outfits and makeup with a digital camera/phone/iphone every single morning.
If it isn't appropriate for a student to shed her abaya to show a friend
today's outfit, she might show her friend the photo instead.
That I use photos to source details for my paintings is as noncontroversial
as breathing.

Phew.

Actually I'm old-fashioned as far as the students go
because I actually print out the photos. They just use their iphones
and zoom in when they want to see detail. A student came today and wanted to paint,
and she showed me a photo of potted orchids--on her phone. I said
it was so small?! and she went zoom on a single blossom
and showed it to me. She sat down and worked from her iphone for over four hours
today, zooming around the big jpg on her little tiny viewing screen.

[Edit: I get that some people choose not to use reference photos and
appreciate the structure, discipline, limitations and lifestyle involved in
working from life. In one of my imaginary alternate lives where I do
the things I can't do and still do what I am doing now, I am a nightime
urban pochade painter.
Well, maybe I will still try that one, it might work well in Abu Dhabi!]

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December 29th, 2009

08:05 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day seventeen
Long day! Got the brushes out maybe 9:15 this morning and
crawled home after six, with a short lunch.

Worked with some students, will ask tomorrow if I
can show off their work here. I have a group
of regulars and they are now past playing with the
art supplies to see what they can do; they are wondering
what I might ask them to do or help them to do,
if they let me. Which is awesome.
It's easy to teach someone who is feeling it to learn!

Worked on collage/working in layers with one student, charcoal sketching
from photographic source material with another,
and a third I tormented with everything from timed sketches to blind contour
drawings because she's a sport and because she had already built up a repetoire
of skills from drawing during all her classes for the past 10+ years.

None of them have art classes yet, which
is why they have the time to sit around and paint and draw. The advanced art
students like to discuss content and technique but they have projects due shortly;
if they are painting, it is for an assignment.

Today was more parrots, and turning the crows into house crows,
and researching UAE birds to identify the type of egret I see every day,
I want to fit it in this piece somewhere.

Guess I get to fix the wing attachment point on the top bird in the morning.
Added Arabic text into city skyline, painted in around buildings.

Tinkered with the sky in response to some feedback. Will see what it looks like
tomorrow but I think I will be tinkering more, it wants another layer.
Preferably when I am not grumbling at the painting I think you should
be done already. They take as long as they take, and I cannot grumble
and paint nicely at the same time.

December 28th, 2009

moontyger

07:45 am
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
Current Mood:

annoyed

04:24 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day sixteen
Started a new piece today, that is the black canvas in the middle. Did another
interview with a student, and had some nice conversations.

This blog has anonymous UAE readers! I have been told
about you! Fear not, you were not named by name. But I know
you exist because I found out about you today
in the faculty lunchroom. :))) Leave a comment or email me or something--
as you know, this (blogged) residency is kind of a new thing for the uni
(and me). If reading about it is working for you, it is nice to know.
If it is not working for you, I want to know that too.

Really aware I have
only three days left to paint-- I don't know what I can get done, rushing the
work won't help-- wanting to make the most of the time.

Students have been using the studio space even when I'm not there, which
is awesome-- I walked in to find another four canvases drying under the
stairs. The students however are messier than I am. At least the drips are
acrylic and dry fast, so I'm not tracking paint down the hall. :)

I figured out how to get this angled shot sitting on the stairs through the
banister bars.

I mostly painted parrots. I did not get a detail shot so no
parroty details for you.

I wanted to see if uni tired would photograph. It is a strange
tired, I've been hearing about it for years from people who teach.
Basically your brain quits working and your body says loudly how it wants a nap.
It threatens nonspecific but dire illnesses.

I'm not getting the full expression of university tired since my
interactions are all informal, no meetings or lectures, and I get to paint.
In my case it's about trying to be there for people/conversations because the
chance to have them won't necessarily come again, but having no brain.
Wishing to say something witty or kind or helpful or just-right but
there is only static where the words should be. Nodding and smiling
inanely. Feeling intense sympathy with tongue-tied students, but they
have the excuse that they are managing in a second language, and I am not
managing all that well in my first one.

Mornings are pretty good though.

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December 27th, 2009

02:35 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day fifteen
I stumbled in after a lovely, slothful Xmas weekend all pumped up on
coffee and discovered 1) my 000 brush missing ("walked off" is the euphemism),
and that I forgot to bring more 2) Liquin, 3) acrylic medium, and 4) the adapter
with which to charge the camera batteries. Plus a Zayed field trip
to the Emirates Palace to see the Guggenheim show was scheduled, which
was a great excuse to bow out of the studio early if I even needed one.

So I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out the destiny of
this two-panel painting, and did some drawing and erasing
and plotting. Here is the worst ever photoshop job of the two
panels with some notes in vine charcoal. My camera was about out
of power and I had to beg it to take even these bad photos and then I
couldn't bother to merge them correctly. Post Xmas sloth is tough.

Believe it or not I feel like I know what is to happen with this one
now, so painting it might even go smoothly from here. Or not.

I also draped fabric over a new canvas, but couldn't do any gluing without
forgotten medium so there is nothing yet to show you.

Anyway, off to the Emirates Palace. I've seen the Guggenheim show either
three or four times now. This time around I got interested in
Asger Jorn's Green Ballet.
I can't find an image online of the piece, but here are a few detail shots
that show off some of the paint.

(angled)

I got to talk about Dubuffet
with some students. Specifically, we reverse-engineered one of his superchunky
paintings done on masonite. That was fun. Geeking out on technique with art students
is fun.

Can't find the Dubuffet we looked at online either, but it was from
this same series.

surlygrrrly

02:46 am - It is after 2am and I cannot sleep...
Nothing new, really. Only, I usually have no problem falling asleep.

As soon as I settled into bed and turned out the light, my mind started racing, as did my heart (which has been beating way too fast lately) and I had to get up. I started thinking about all kinds of shit, mostly work.

I decided to get up and work on my syllabus for my intro class. I need to have it to the campus printer by Monday to make sure I can get the copies in time for the first day of school.

Now I am at an impasse. I have altered my syllabus as much as possible without doing some serious thinking. I still need to figure out what assignments I am going to give this quarter. This is always so hard because there is so much I want them to do, yet I have to grade all those things which just about killed me last term.

So, do I go try some thinking or do I plop my ass in front of the TV?

I think I opt for the plop.

December 25th, 2009

moontyger

06:29 pm
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
Current Mood:

excited

Tags: jbbs, recommendations, yuletide

December 24th, 2009

03:03 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day fourteen
After yesterday's Day Of Horrid Painting Pain, today was easy and brisk and
awesome, the kind of day that makes me happy to be a painter. Brain works,
hand does what eye wants on very first try, materials behaving.

Yesterday I wore glasses and today, contacts. I think there is a huge difference
in eyestrain-- while contacts are superficially irritating, there is not the
reflection/glare/struggle to see past frames that I have with my glasses.

Students came and painted with me today, I worked on an abstract/experimental
canvas showing them various layering techniques with acrylic, but conveniently
forgot to take a picture. Just kidding, I actually did forget.

It seems hard (to me) to learn to mix color
in acrylic-- the color you mix is not what you get when it dries
because the binder is white when wet. Then they dry matte and dark,
so if your painting was looking just how you actually want it when you set it aside
to dry? Better take a picture. I know how to deal with the matte
problem (gloss medium) but anybody have any ideas how to help
students mix color better?

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December 23rd, 2009

05:28 pm - Zayed University artist residency-- day thirteen
I had a late start and a gruesome day painting, vexatious brushes
all thumbs and and paint that was too sticky or not sticky enough.

I stuck it out because
I could not believe how rough it was going and was sure any minute
I'd hit a patch of flow. Never happened.

But I pronounce this done for now and that
almost consoles my achy feet.