Pysanky

My very first attempt at Pysanky using one color.
My dear friend Julia and her lovely daughters gave me the Pysanky kit last year
as a gift and I hadn't tried it yet. Using the the kystka to draw is tricky!
But i will continue to practice and make a few more before Easter.

Spoon Oil

I gave my spoons some much needed love and affection
with Stephanie's wonderful spoon oil recipe.
Just sitting there early in the morning polishing wooden spoons
was incredibly relaxing and almost therapeutic, I highly recommend it :)

Allan Kaprow on installation and performance

Now, I think those two words, installation and performance, mark accurately the shift in attitude toward a rejection or sense of abandonment of an experimental, modernist, position which had prevailed up to about, lets be generous, up to about 1968-1969, and began gradually becoming less and less energized. So, I think what you’re getting there is the flavor of modernist exhaustion and incidently a return to earlier prototypes, or models, of what constitutes art. And it’s no accident that the majority of most performance nowadays, there’s not much installation anymore, by the way, the majority of those performances tend to be of an entertainment, show biz, song and dance, in which the focus is on the individual as skilled presenter of something that tends to have a kind of self-aggrandizing, or at least self-focusing, purpose. It is artist as performer, much like somebody is an entertainer in a nightclub. And they’re interesting. Some of them are very good. I think Laurie Anderson is very good. She’s got all the skills that are needed in theater, which is what this is. Many others who jump on the bandwagon, coming from the visual arts, have no theatrical skills, and know zilch about the timing, about the voic about positioning, about transitions, about juxtapositions, those moment by moment occurrences in theater that would make it work. But it’s another animal, whether good or bad, from what we were doing, and I think, in general, even the good ones are a conservatizing movement.

- Allan Kaprow, 1988 (full interview is here)

Noche en la Casa Azul

A little tour at night from the outside peeking in :)
*The bird on the glass back-splash of my stove is a waterslide decal
I printed on my inkjet printer. The brand I used is Lazertran.

TIME RUNS OUT

The artist Pavel Korin centered his life around one grand ambition: to paint a masterpiece about the impact of the Russian Revolution.


Preliminary study for "Farewell to Rus"

 Korin worked for 42 years in preparation for his painting, developing sub-themes, experimenting with  various compositions and painting detailed sketches.  He researched the science of art conservation to make sure his masterpiece would last for centuries without restoration.  He ordered an immense canvas specially made and installed it on custom built stretchers.  Then he died before he could apply his first brush stroke.

Korin's blank canvas, with preliminary studies

A tough break, but at least fate was more generous to Korin than it was to poor Masaccio, one of the most promising painters of the Renaissance. Vasari described Masaccio as "the best painter of his generation," but after he began work on his famed frescoes at the Branacci Chapel, Massaccio took a side trip to Rome and died unexpectedly at age 26.  He never had a chance to finish his work, and the laurels went to Michelangelo and Raphael instead. 

Many an artist has fallen short of his or her potential by miscalculating how much time they have left to complete their "best" work.  So you have to admire the audacity of artists who gamble on creating one epic work, rather than a lifetime of smaller pieces.  They leave themselves no margin of error; it's all or nothing.

Of course, even if an artist calculates his or her allotted time accurately, they still get no guarantees.  Alexander Ivanov was another artist who built his career around one major painting (The Appearance of Christ Before The People).  Ivanov was called "the master of one work."  He succeeded in completing his painting after twenty years,  but unfortunately the painting turned out to be second rate.  And who could forget artist Bill Pappas who worked methodically for ten years, from 1993 to 2003, on a single pencil drawing of Marilyn Monroe?  Pappas drew every pore on her face in excruciating detail, using 20x magnification lenses.  When he finished his picture on schedule, Pappas had demonstrated a great talent for precision, but little else.

The muse, it turns out, is not always flattered by good time management skills.

Many an artist produces lesser work in order to pay the rent, secretly planning to redeem themselves later.  This requires them to gamble on notoriously fickle actuarial tables. Still, it is impossible to have children and remain insensitive to some of the excellent reasons for compromise.

As philosopher Walter Kaufmann suggested,

One lives better when one expects to die, say, at forty, when one says to oneself long before one is twenty: whatever I may be able to accomplish I should be able to do by then; and what I have not done by then I am unlikely to do ever.  One cannot count on living until one is forty-- or thirty-- but it makes for a better life if one has a rendezvous with death. 

April Desktop Image

For you :) Click here for the full size downloadable image. Enjoy!

Big Bird

Largest one I've painted yet. Watercolor on 640 grs. Aquarelle Arches paper.
22" x 32" One of the most luxurious papers I've ever used. Largest one I've painted yet. Watercolor on 640 grs. Aquarelle Arches paper. 22" x 32" One of the most luxurious papers I've ever used. The company has been around for over 500 years!
I can't believe I had never used it before.

Horsies

My best friend Mariana hired me to make this set as a present for her little niece's birthday. Today's her party, hope she likes them :)

2011 74th Sanibel Shell Show Part 1 Artistic Division - Sailor's Valentines

In my effort to show you the beauty and diversity of talent in the world of shell art, I'm going to break up my official post of 2011 Sanibel Shell Show into several parts, which will include all divisions of artistic and scientific exhibits as well as other interesting sights from the show. Enjoy part 1 of the 2011 Sanibel Shell Show...

BEST IN SHOW PROFESSIONAL CLASS

Sailor's Valentine by DAVID RHYNE

- Detail-

BEST IN SHOW Sailor's Valentine by DAVID RHYNE

Best Single Sailor's Valentine by SUZANNE MARIE DIETSCH

Best Double Sailor's Valentine by DAVID RHYNE

- Detail-

Best Double Sailor's Valentine by DAVID RHYNE

- Detail -

Best Double Sailor's Valentine by DAVID RHYNE

Best Medium Sailor's Valentine by WENDY MARSHALL

Sailor's Valentine by JOY HENDERSON

-Detail-
Sailor's Valentine by JOY HENDERSON

- above photos (2)-

Sailor's Valentine by JUDY DINNICK

-Detail-

Sailor's Valentine by JUDY DINNICK

-Detail-

Sailor's Valentine by JUDY DINNICK

Sailor's Valentine by ADELAIDE COY

Sailor's Valentine by SANDI BLANDA

-Above photos (2) -
Sailor's Valentines by shell artist and author
CONSTANCE MARSHALL MILLER

BEST IN SHOW Hobbyist Class Sailor's Valentine
by JAMES COWPERTHWAIT

-Detail-
BEST IN SHOW Hobbyist Class Sailor's Valentine
by JAMES COWPERTHWAIT

Sailor's Valentine by LOIS KESSLER

Sailor's Valentine by JANE SANTINI

And another fantastic Sailor's Valentine by JANE SANTINI

Sailor's Valentine by BRANDY LLEWELLYN

Sailor's Valentine by PAT COHEN

Sailor's Valentine by HANS PETER HOPPENBROUWERS

Sailor's Valentine by SHARLENE TESSLER

Sailor's Valentine by SUSAN SAUNDERS

Sailor's Valentine by KARINE MIRZAKHANYAN

Sailor's Valentine by TERRY BUTLER

Crafting for Courage

Margie and a small group of friends organized Crafting for Courage so I made these little ornaments to join this effort to raise money for Save the Children and their work with the littlest ones in the devastated areas of northeastern Japan.
They will be available for purchase at my Big Cartel shop tomorrow morning.
100% of the proceeds will be donated to Save the Children.
Find out other ways to help with this effort at this link.