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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Teaching Day. February 2, 2012

 
Criteria for Demonstration:  


Held at Butterfly Beach along Channel Drive across from the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel, the lecture began with a thumbnail sketch, then articulating the process and importance of designing the composition; like creating a road map for the sub conscious.

Using a warm and cool of each primary color and white,  advancing the colorist theory achieving vibration through the juxtaposition of warm and cool colors.  Creating the entire painting on the palette first, then laying then blending masses together on palette for the purpose of achieving color harmony. 
 

Along the way, editing patterns; simplifying, then weaving the masses together like tapestries and holding to the principle of using one brush stroke instead of 50.  I'm thinking, "poetry, not prose," and applying the paint as briskly as possible in order to capture the light before it changes.  

One must paint as if their house is burning down.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Searching for Sponge Bob: L.A. Art Expo February 1, 2012

What can you do with a bunch of Green Boas? Hang'em from the ceiling, and have giant plastic jello molds, each with fans inside blowing their lids making the boas shimmer and undulate...  Wow, this concept was most certainly anti C L A M actic!!
It did provide comfort for those suffering from aqua phobia...no need for anyone to ever swim, scuba dive or snorkel again; they can experience the magic of the undersea world right on dry land!  


I looked for Sponge Bob, but I guess he'd run away with Patrick.  Someone had last seen them chasing Damian Hirst's static butterfly decorations.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Pearls of Wisdom from a Monkey's Uncle January 31, 2012:

As if the Second Thursday Art Event in Los Angeles wasn't edgy enough, I attended the L.A. Art Expo a few days later. 

At the Expo my first introduction to 21st Century Conceptual Art was this particular installation; designed to evoke some kind of  primal instinct in the viewer; it was about multi-dimension, time collapsing on itself, all roads lead to Rome in this moment of NOW, esoteric kinda thinking.


It reminded me of the Ape(s) coming across the big black bar in  Stanley Kubrick's "2001 A Space Odyssey", (root word ODD). However, in this case the primate comes face to face with the  conceptual Pearl of Wisdom axiom. Here, the monkey is frozen in time with a funny look on his face; are we to assume this died of fright? Or maybe it died at the instant revelation of ecstatic enlightenment, or maybe of after merely witnessing the enormous size of the pearl! (I might have died if I discovered a pearl this size). Maybe it's about witnessing a moment of transformation? Who knows. The artist wasn't there to answer any questions.

Whatever,   in any case, it's nice to know taxidermy is still available for stuffing family pets; or, to put it in a politically correct manner, "Preserving" them for art installations.




Alas, Shakespeare had it right:  there  is "nothing new under the sun", and at least from my perspective, at the 2012 L.A. Art Expo, this held true, and I don't care to doddle around this Monkey Business any longer.



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