I bought, borrowed & read a hell of a lot more than that while doing the Thousand Sketches. But these are the ones I blogged. I loved them all.

Sometimes to get the the main book stuff you need to click “Read the rest of this item” that’s where I put images by other people.

From here on I am writing about the books I read on In this moment… and they are in a category called… Books. A vague new year resolution is to make more thorough reviews of each book. But who cares? The reviews on Amazon usually do all we need. Maybe I’ll just quote bits I like.

#0958 Lee Krasner
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I am attracted to Lee Krasner’s work. I think it is her struggle, and how she is in Pollock’s shadow. True, any drip painting by Pollock shines, but behind that light I see the Krasner shadow. Her statements about art are ok too. I have an earlier sketch of her from a self portrait, this one is from a photo in the Hobbs book.

More art talk & images follow.

Painting, for me, when it really happens is as miraculous as any other natural phenomenon as, say, a lettuce leaf….One could go on forever as to whether the paint should be thick or thin, whether to paint the woman or the square, hard-edge or soft, but after a while such questions become a bore….The painting I have in mind…transcends technique, transcends subject and moves into the realm of the inevitable, then you have the lettuce leaf.

This is quite a testament, not unlike Pollock’s “I am nature.”

She suggests that there is a nature within, that if we can get out of the way something wonderful will flow. What has to get out of the way of what? Fear out of the way of love?

I like to return to Psychodrama language. With the right warm-up there will be spontaneity.

My looking and reading is all part of the warm-up. It goes into the mix, and something will emerge when that mix is right. It is a bit stiff & tired right now. So here I am with talk!

Review of exhibit 2001

Some Krasner images from my Hobbs book.

#0957 The Heart Garden
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I am reading the book by Janine Burke, the Heart Garden about Sunday Reed. I have just got past the intro with the details about her upbringing, and now about to learn about a few Australian artists, including one of my favourite, Arthur Boyd.

#0730 Richard Diebenkorn
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A sketch from a photo in the book I am reading: The Art of Richard Diebenkorn. Great book. Reviews on Amazon say a lot, and say good things about this book.

I was struck by the Diebenkorn paintings in San Francisco – at the SFMoMA and at the De Young. I sneaked a picture. I will go on to say more about this artist & the Bay Area Figurative school. His work and a Matisse follow:

Reading about Richard Diebenkorn it is interesting how he struggled with form and content, one year he moves in one direction & a few years later in the other. Years! One thing about digital art is that it dries fast, the studio is ever present, and there is not much mess. (All this does not count printing of course, which is more earth bound.)

Another thing in the concept of being digital is: it is relatively easy to go through the stages of creativity (mental blocks aside). I am coming late to the easel, but with a lot of pictures behind me. I still feel like I am sketching towards something, and that something is not clear.

I am drawn to the Diebenkorn story because he straddled the figurative abstract line. For a while I could not wait to do huge gestural stuff – now this conscious and precise, yet intuitive work of the Ocean park work appeals. In the end what comes will be mine, but the recapitulation & exploration is vital for me.

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While on the subject of process.

Here is the Matisse View of Notre Dame 1914 that had an influence on Diebenkorn:

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This is an excellent summary of the Diebenkorn story I think.

Met with Eric Maisel here to talk over creativity coaching and such matters. I got some good tips for walks in New York. Art links:

Walter Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” – On Josh’s recommendation.

John Molyneux with a post on Tracey Emin. Following on from a discussion about the YBA.

Emily Prince And More from Emily. We stayed with Emily in Alta.

The Creativity Coaching Association. Eric Maisel pointed me in that direction.

Books:

Loved this artist at DeYoung

Josh’s recommendation.

Just looked like it explored well the life drawing I have been doing. And found an old edition hardcover one of this across the road in the Red Hill Bookshop.

Which I was recommended at the San Francisco drawing group, and browsed art Emily & Shawn’s.

Been sketching here too.

Step one: becoming my own coach!

You can buy and download it here from Eric’s page.

#513 The Journey
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11″ x 8.5″ image on 13″ x 19″ archival matte paper.

I read that Piet Mondrian, best known for his stark abstracts also painted flowers. They were never shown together. It would look good to see a small selection of my sketches, unified in style, printed out and framed.

In Eric Maisel’s A Writer’s San Francisco here (p.117) he is talking about some writers who have too many ideas:

Each wanted to make a something like a tapestry, only not a tapestry, or something like a book, only not a book, or something like pure process, whatever that might mean, or something like a gallery show, or an eventor a performance or… I knew what they were saying, I have a soul, and it is bursting.” I had to tell them both “You must choose.”

I’ll choose a style & a real media to work in later this year, I am looking forward to it, it might be oils on large boards with pallet pallet knife. First I will get to the 1000 sketches, focus, complete a project that still seems highly worthwhile, a necessary preliminary.

Amid the chaos I have been choosing. One way to see something more unified is to look at categories. Try Dreams for instance. I have a small set that includes this Journey sketch. I am calling it InsideOut , they express inner energy, and they are mostly digital oil. What do you think?

InsideOut Slideshow

What do you chose? Which ones hang together in your gallery? I’d be interested to hear. To browse older sketches you can use the thumbnails.

#504 Meditation
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11″ x 8.5″ image on 13″ x 19″ archival matte paper.

I am reading Eric Maisel’s “A Writer’s San Francisco” Here is a quote from p 110

Isn’t writing sketching everyday the best sitting meditation?”

I am substituting sketching for writing is I read the book. I will be in San Francisco in a month or so, and reading Eric Maisel’s book is a great preparation.

See earlier post about this book.

#485 Kurt Vonnegut
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11″ x 8.5″ image on 13″ x 19″ archival matte paper.

I am reading Bluebeard – a novel and also a profound commentary on art. I will add art quotes here as I go.

The interesting thing is that Kurt Vonnegut is also a print producer, I say is, because new work is coming out posthumously through his screen printer collaborator.

Links:

www.vonnegut.com

Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84: New York Times

Wikipedia

#437 Bill
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Another in my series from the Kill Bill movie.

It seems fun to do images from movies, I was tempted to do some from “Taxi Driver” which I saw for the first time & quite enjoyed, but wanted to return to the Kill Bill series for sake of fullness & completion (loaded words I notice as I write this … as will be evident in a post still to come – see image #450)

As I post this, but days after I sketched this sketch, I am reading Matthew Collings “This is Modern Art”, an entry about Elizabeth Peyton. She paints images of “The Stars” she says:

I like people who are glamorous because they’re wilful & talented & they can make beautiful things. I think that is what gives them a very special beauty.”

In so far as I do “stars” both from the movies & artists (as does Elizabeth Peyton) there is some agreement with her, but for me it is more about “Truth” than beauty. By the time the image reaches Thousand Sketches it has been in the hands of all the people you see on the credits of the movie, it is a social collaboration, and then I take a picture, and then I select an image from the 100s I take, and then I sketch & delete & select again. I think this is a form of mythologising, of distilling, of searching for the archetypal.

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Technorati tags: art digital painting drawing sketch sketching sketchesdigital art tablet_pc tablet new+zealand sketchblog painter corel Kill_bill

Good stuff, but I still don’t relate.

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Early on in this blog a friend thought this project was ‘amodern’, I prefer that to remodern, post modern, stuckist…

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At the origin of Stuckism (in that it is a reaction to her art & calling her ex stuck) is Tracey Emin who is famous for stuff like the unmade bed. Ok, sounds like bullshit, but I can see it in the larger context of her art which takes autobiographical art, (“naked blogging” as I do here to a very mild degree) to the ultimate edge. She exhibits her life, her bed mates names, her underwear, her contraception coil. I think she has some guts, and she does follow through on a concept.

Images, links follow.

Earlier post I made about autobiography.

And link to a comment I made ages ago about biography on another blog.

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white cube

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On the couch with Tracey Emin

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Amazon

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I see this column as an open letter, to be read by many. I have always thought the role of an artist, especially one like me, is the role of communicator – to convey emotions, feelings and ideas. It’s not a private pastime. There is no point in being an artist if you do not have an audience.

From her column in the Independent – it is naked blogging!

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