Waiting to Exist:

So now I'm moving on to becoming what I always wanted to be when I grew up -- a bona fide artist. What I didn't know was that "when I grew up" meant in my second life... after my life as a wife was over, after my life as a mother was shelved, after I found myself, after I moved into The Twilight Years. Instead of becoming an invisible old woman, a "distasteful, useless lump of flesh, scourge of relatives, and a burden to society," I will become an artist with all the irrational, eccentric, creative, extreme and brilliant adjectives that implies!

It's taking a lot more research and study to become this new person than I expected. To help with this undertaking, I've ordered the Sixth Edition of "How to Survive and Prosper As An Artist." It is the guide to "Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul," which I might add, is exactly what I've been doing wrong up to now.

This handbook is supposed to "put to rest the popular myth of the starving artist." It promises to help me make a good living by taking an active stand in promoting my career and to help me navigate the corridors of power that lead to success in the art world. It is filled with chapters of information: Overcoming Career Blocks, Launching or Relaunching Your Career, Entering the Marketplace, Presentation Tools and Packages, Art Marketing and the Internet, Pricing Your Work, Public Relations: Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In and Going Out, Exhibition and Sales Opportunities: Using Those That Exist and Creating Your Own, Dealing with Dealers and Psyching Them Out, The Mysterious World of Grants: Fact and Fiction, Generating Income: Alternatives to Driving a Cab, and "Rationalization, Paranoia, Competition, Rejection, and the Overwhelm Factor."

Waiting for the postman to deliver the handbook, I have my black and red pen ready, as well as my florescent yellow highlighter. I'll let you know if it is, in fact, the Holy Grail!

Blue Boy:
I had the happy opportunity to visit the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport this weekend. Along with their exquisite permanent collections, The Norton presented a special exhibition, "Fantasies and Fairytales: Maxfield Parrish and the Art of Print" (showing now through April 11, 2010.)

This exhibit included a comprehensive sampling of Parrish's illustrative work in a variety of printed media. Lithographs, calendars, posters, advertisements, books, magazine covers, and illustrations -- my head was reeling with the beauty of it all! Ya know, I have a special place in my heart for illustrators -- they too are true artists -- no matter what art snobs may say!

Parrish's oeuvre is housed at the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island -- along with the likes of Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, and the three Wyeth's, N.C., Andrew and Jamie -- so it was a special treat to view his work so close to home.

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was known mostly for his color prints designed for the mass market. His work graced the covers of Collier's and Life for many years. "The Garden of Allah," "Daybreak," "Dawn," and "The Sirens of Titan" were huge hits in America during his heyday, embraced by millions of households. He had a fine eye for detail, fantastical romance, and luminous color -- especially blue which became one of his trademarks, "Parrish blue." And he has been the inspiration for modern artists such as The Moody Blues, Dali's Car, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Enya, Kurt Vonnegut, Bloom County, and the producers of The Princess Bride.

One year before his death, Maxfield Parrish's 30' x 40' oil painting, "The Errant Pan" which was first published as the frontispiece for Scribner's Magazine in August of 1910, was procured by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His work long regarded as "kitsch" by some art critics, Parrish felt honored by The Met's purchase and finally validated as a true painter.

(Footnote: His second son, Maxfield Parrish Jr., helped develop the first self-developing camera with Dr. Edwin H. Land's Polaroid Corporation!)

The Irascibles -- Rebels With A Cause:

In May 1950, a group of New York artists -- all pioneers in the Abstract Expressionist movement -- joined together briefly to write a letter to the director and associate curator of American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the letter, Adolph Gottlieb, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and fourteen of their colleagues denounced the Metropolitan’s contempt for modern painting and declared their intention to boycott the museum’s planned juried exhibition, American Art Today.

The eighteen signatories of the protest letter came to be known as "The Irascibles."

The above photograph was taken by Nina Leen, and appeared in Life magazine. This very famous photo, known as the photo of "The Irascibles " shows 15 of the 18 Abstract Expressionist painters: Jackson Pollock (1912-1956); Barnett Newman (1905-1970); Willem De Kooning (1904-1997); Clyfford Still ( 1904-1980); Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974); Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967); Robert Motherwell (1915-1991); Mark Rothko ( 1903-1970); William Baziotes (1912-1963); James Brooks (1906-1992); Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984); Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997); Bradley Walker Tomlin (1899-1953); and Richard Poussette-Dart (1916-1992).

The photograph caption read: "IRASCIBLE GROUP OF ADVANCED ARTISTS LED FIGHT AGAINST SHOW -- The solemn people above, along with three others, made up the group of “irascible” artists who raised the biggest fuss about the Metropolitan’s competition (following pages). All representatives of advanced art, they paint in styles which vary from the dribblings of Pollock (LIFE, Aug. 8, 1949) to the Cyclopean phantoms of Baziotes, and all have distrusted the museum since its director likened them to “flat-chested” pelicans “strutting upon the intellectual wastelands.” From left, rear, they are: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne; (next row) Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst (with bow tie), Jackson Pollock (in striped jacket), James Brooks, Clyfford Still (leaning on knee), Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; (in foreground) Theodoros Stamos (on bench), Barnett Newman (on stool), Mark Rothko (with glasses). Their revolt and subsequent boycott of the show was in keeping with an old tradition among avant-garde artists. French painters in 1874 rebelled against their official juries and held the first impressionist exhibition. U.S. artists in 1908 broke with the National Academy jury to launch the famous Ashcan School. The effect of the revolt of the “irascible” remains to be seen, but it did appear to have needled the Metropolitan’s juries into turning more than half the show into a free-for-all of modern art."

Someone told me that originally there were only men in the group, but the photographer insisted on having a woman as well, and Hedda Sterne (who throughout her career maintained a stubborn independence from styles and trends) was brought in for the photo shoot, even though she wasn't one of the signers of the letter to the Met.

(definition of irascible -- easily angered; irratible)

Enchanted April 2014:

I'm dreaming...

...of marble quarries, chestnut forests, terraced vineyards, olive groves, and the Mediterranean Sea.

...of Montorno, a restored centuries-old vintner's home nestled in a valley in the Apuane Alps on a mountainside above the village of Seravezza, Italy.

...of doing nothing for two weeks but painting, drawing, sculpting, and eating in Tuscany.

Guess I need to start saving my nickels and dimes!

Alas, Poor Andrew, I Knew Thee Well:

Twenty-three years ago, Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhola) died in New York City of complications from routine gallbladder surgery. Warhol's body was taken back to Pittsburgh by his brothers for burial. The coffin was a solid bronze casket with gold plated rails and white upholstery. Warhol was dressed in a black cashmere suit, a paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses. He was posed holding a small prayer book and a red rose. Although most never knew, Warhol was a deeply devout Catholic. The funeral was held at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church on Pittsburgh's North Side. The eulogy was given by Monsignor Peter Tay. The coffin was covered with white roses and asparagus ferns. After the liturgy, the coffin was driven to St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery. At the grave, the priest said a brief prayer and sprinkled holy water on the casket. Before the coffin was lowered, Paige Powell (his closest companion) dropped a copy of Interview magazine and a bottle of the Estee Lauder perfume "Beautiful" into the grave. Warhol was buried next to his mother and father. A few weeks later a memorial service was held in Manhattan for Warhol on April 1, 1987, at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Warhol was once quoted as saying, "I'm a deeply superficial person." For all his strangeness, I think he was really quite a normal person... with a great sense of humor.

The Verbal & Visual Master:
I was sick all last week (ugh!) and couldn't hold my head up to read, so I kept the TV on for company. In all my channel surfing between AMC, TCM, BBC, and IFC, I also watched the Sundance Channel. One day there was an "Iconoclast" Season 4 segment showing fashion designer Stella McCartney paired with artist Ed Ruscha. It knocked me out! It was so great listening to Ruscha talk about art and catching up on what he is doing now.

Edward Ruscha's body of work is uniquely American in both subject and sensibility. Long regarded as an American master, Ed Ruscha has redefined the way we see the urban landscape, and, for that matter, the American landscape as a whole. Ruscha's intimacy with the essence of America, its free-spiritedness, is best expressed in his own words, "I like to think of myself as an ambling rambling person who doesn't have to concern himself with time: that's what we all dream about isn't it?"

Ruscha's glamorous "bad boy" persona and his Los Angeles County Museum retrospective were subjects for a 1983 People magazine profile in its May issue. In the article Henry Geldzahler is quoted as saying, "Conceptual, pop, surrealist, dada, neo-dada, earth art-all these are arguable elements of his style. Ruscha can be pinned down partially by any of these labels and yet he escapes all of them."

"His vision has touched America's soul through the beauty and boldness of his art, transforming city planning maps into sublime landscapes. I call on Ed Ruscha to reach out to Americans of every belief and move this good-hearted nation toward a culture of life. Ed's wonderfully idiosyncratic nature reflects the hard working people of America. Ed is a man of faith and a believer to the end. Ed Ruscha warns us that Los Angeles might be a mirage and California a myth -- a façade about to crumble into the desert, a set about to liquefy into the sea. Most families don't look to Hollywood for a source of values. The heart and soul of America is found in places like Oklahoma, where Ed grew up," commented President George W. Bush in January 2005 upon the occasion of naming Ed Ruscha as Secretary of the United States Department of Art & Technology, to lead his ambitious agenda for cultural reform.

Whitney Museum Director Adam D. Weinberg describes Ruscha as having "a singular vision of America, he forces us to examine impassive iconography and the landscape of the ordinary, compelling us to look anew at the astonishing strangeness of the world."

He's Greek To Me:

I visited my daughter, her husband and Miss M last weekend. Everyone is doing better than expected and it was comforting to see them together in their own little love nest... to see the puzzle pieces back in their proper place.

It was such wicked weather that we stayed in most of the time -- snuggling by the fire watching movies. Miss M dictated that we watch "Sleeping Beauty"... a lot. I didn't mind though, "Sleeping Beauty" has always been my old Disney favorite. And as I watched, I marveled again at the art of Eyvind Earle (1916-2000).

Have you ever noticed how different "Sleeping Beauty" is compared to, say, "Snow White" and "Cinderella"? Eyvind Earle is why. "Walt Disney wanted to this film to look like a living illustration, inspired by medieval art, not the typical Disney style. He wanted it to stand out from its predecessors by choosing a different visual style. So, Disney artist Eyvind Earle was made the film's color stylist and chief background designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself. The elaborate paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint; by contrast, a typical animation background took only one workday to complete."

Eyvind Earle was an American artist, author and illustrator, noted for his contribution to the background illustration and styling of Disney animated films in the 1950s. His life is fascinating, too much to cover in this blog. But The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rahr West Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum have purchased Earle's works for their permanent collections. His works have also been shown in many one-man exhibitions throughout the world. (And if you happen to live in or near Albuquerque, New Mexico, an exhibition of his work begins today through March 4, at the Palette Contemporary Gallery.)

In Earle's words:

"I don't try to convey an idea or emotion, and I'm not at all interested in art that is supposed to reflect our times. Greek art, which is as excellent today as when it was created, certainly doesn't reflect Greece 2,500 years ago. It simply is beautiful, superior possibly to anything done since."
"There is a great force pulling us, and the more it manifests, the more creative we become. Art is an attempt to delve into this mystery, to pick one detail out of the infinitude of infinities and make it clear."

He continued to produce serigraphs until he died in 2000 --his "screen paintings"--earning financial and critical success in an age when loveliness has nearly become passe. While other artists strive to impress with anger or social relevance, or to beguile with nostalgia, a public weary of the present and doubtful of the future, Eyvind Earle pursued beauty. This quest predates the Greeks, but Earle's strength of vision and craftsmanship made it compellingly his own.

Sacred Doodling Space:

Have you ever heard of Laurel Lukaszewski? Laurel is an artist who creates installations and sculptures primarily from clay -- usually porcelain or stoneware. Most of Laurel's works are composed of extruded forms resembling 3-D line drawings or calligraphic brushstrokes. Her work is based on line, rhythm and form, playing with positive and negative space. Some of her pieces are just a few inches and some are as large as sixteen feet. They are created from her study of Japanese Buddhist mandalas... and the product of incessant doodling. Pretty amazing doodling I'd say!

The Pistilli Roman:

Just discovered "Parliament - A Creative Company." Interesting and thought provoking place... lots of young guys and young ideas.

I love-love-love typeography so I was amused by the following quiz provided by Parliament. Please take a few minutes... it's fun! The pentagram “what type are you” quiz. (where it asks for a password use the word: character). I'm Pistilli Roman... spot on, I'd say!

The Fashion Stylist:
While I was rummaging around in my closet and finding the Cilla Black LP, I also found an old fashion magazine (a really, really old fashion magazine!) from The Sixties. The magazine pages seemed frozen in time, and yet, as modern as a copy of this month’s Vogue. It was full of “Swinging London.” Faces of women with names like Tania Mallet, Jean Shrimpton, Pattie Boyd, and Twiggy looked back at me. The fashions were created by people with names like Mary Quant, Pierre Balmain, Ungaro, and Yves Saint Laurent. And the black and white images were caught by the camera lenses of talented photographers with names like David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Patrick Lichfield, and -- my favorite -- John French.

John French was one of London’s top fashion photographers of the 1950s and 1960s, an era when those who wore and photographed clothing for a living could become famous overnight. The models he worked with included the most famous of the time, many were debutantes who went on to become well-known society figures. French was hugely influential, in particular for his use of natural light and bringing fashion photography into the mainstream mass media. He persuaded the art editors of the national press to use his flawlessly lit images of top models and his work appeared in virtually every newspaper and magazine.

After his death in 1966, the John French archive was presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the worlds greatest museum of decorative arts and design, and his work has been celebrated as part of a major exhibition “The Golden Age of Couture.” John French in one word: timeless.

California Dreamin':
My middle daughter has an art history assignment this weekend: to visit San Francisco's MOMA and view a current exhibit, "Matisse and Beyond: The Painting and Sculpture Collection." I am green with envy at her opportunity... and so disappointed that I can't experience it with her. I long to walk arm-in-arm with my sweet angel and be among the works of art produced by such amazing 20th-century masters as Henri Matise, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo ("I luff my monkeys."), Rene Magritte, Joan Mitchell, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.

Think of all the places this art has been ... and all the people who have seen it...

The Painter Of Light:

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the paintings of his ships at sea... most history books are filled with them. J.M.W. Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner) -- the son of a barber and wig maker, and mother, Mary Marshall, a housewife -- was born in 1775 at Covent Garden in London. Turner received almost no general education but at 14 was already a student at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1791 for the first time he exhibited two watercolours at the Royal Academy. He was a Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light." At the time of his death, Turner left some three hundred paintings and nineteen thousand watercolours to his credit.

The above painting, Mortlake Terrace (1827) is my favorite. A fashionable London suburb, Mortlake Terrace lies next to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, visible here on the distant bend of the River Thames. This is one of a pair of views commissioned by the owner of a town house, The Limes, named after the magnificent lime trees lining its terrace. Both scenes portray the blazing disk of the sun, flashing a reflection from the stone parapet. This painting looks west over the garden at sunset after the children have abandoned their toys. A black dog barks at the Lord Mayor’s flag-decked barge. This dark accent, which enhances the summer evening’s hazy paleness, was a last-minute addition. Just before the Royal Academy show opened in 1827, Turner cut the dog out of paper, stuck it onto the wet varnish, and touched it up with highlights and a collar... now that's modern!

With Chisel In Hand:

It's raining again -- lots of dark skies and blue days -- so I've been trying to concentrate on things that make me smile. Will Kautz' American Folk Art woodcarvings make me smile. I'm drawn to his artistic sense of humor. And his life story is truly inspirational.

Will's father, William Charles Kautz was a fine artist in New York and creativity was an important part of Will's home environment. He remembers sculpting marble beside his dad when he was still a boy. But as a young man, Will was often torn between a drive to be creative and a desire to do something for the vulnerable in society. In 1980, he entered seminary and earned a M.A. in theology and ethics and was later appointed as a Research Fellow at Yale University. In 1985 he began full-time law school with a young family and no money. At this time, Will began to carve. Initially, he hoped merely to pay a few tuition bills with whatever he could earn from his art, but within a few weeks, his designs began to sell a quickly as he could produce them. The first year law student would study by day and carve by night. Three years later, Will completed law school and passed the Vermont bar exam. For the next ten years, Will maintained a volunteer law practice for victims of domestic violence while supporting his family with his art. Through the years, Will has sold his work to numerous galleries and collectors around the world. His art has been displayed at the Museum of American Folk Art, the Shelburne Museum and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He has been chosen by Early American Homes magazine for its annual Director of America's Best Traditional Craftsmen, and is a juried member of traditionalfolkart.com.

Whistle While You Work:

"With her backpack as her favorite tool, Mimi travels throughout

the United States discovering new motifs to paint en plein air."

Sounds romantic, doesn't it? While I do love working with natural light, I don't love painting outside. As a matter of fact, I can't think of anything more painful... the bugs, the sweat, the squinting, the lugging, the inconvenience of it all. I say throw out the pochade box! Give me an over-stuffed cushion on a cozy couch, a great big tabletop, an electrix halogen lamp, layers of shelving stacked with art supplies, immediate access to files and art board, the loo and a sink right around the corner, music at my fingertips, AC or heat as needed, and I'm a happy camper!

(Pictured above is Henri Matisse at work in his bed!!!)

I Just Count The Wings:

Every time I see anything by Charley Harper I smile... I can't help it. His work is filled with nature and science. It is optimistic and full of promise. It is beautiful and whimsical.

When asked to describe his unique visual style, a style he called "minimal realism," Mr. Harper responded, "When I look at a subject -- wildlife or nature -- I don't see the feathers in the wings. I don't count the feathers, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting, in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

For Christmas this year, I want Santa to bring me a copy of "The Giant Golden Book of Biology: An Introduction to the Science of Life," (c1961) by Gerald Ames and Rose Wyler; Illustrated by Charley Harper (1922-2007). That would make me smile a lot!

A Survivor:

Albert Alcalay survived a concentration camp during the Holocaust, then became a jazz-influenced abstract painter and ultimately a Harvard professor. "His early European work was expressionist in nature, but with his move to the urban landscapes of the U.S. in the 1950s, and death of a dear friend, Alcalay was forced to find a new visual language, one that was fluid and often informed by the events of his life, including the loss of his eyesight late in life." Alcalay was an amazing man and an amazing painter.

And Another Thing:
Because her father was an Air Force officer, famous photographer Annie Leibovitz traveled the nation via automobile (see yesterday's blog). Her view of the world was often through the prism of a car window -- a framing device that formed much of her work.

John and Yoko On what would be the last day of his life, John Lennon posed for photographs with Yoko Ono in a session with photographer Annie Liebovitz. One of the pictures, a naked Lennon curled around and kissing a clothed Ono, became the cover for Rolling Stone magazine’s tribute to him. That iconic image published a month after his December 1980 death has been ranked the top magazine cover of the last 40 years by a panel of magazine editors, artists and designers.

The Talented Mr. Derain:

This is my favorite image of Henri Matisse, painted by one of his close friends, Andre Derain. Derain was a painter, sculptor, illustrator, stage designer and collector. He was a leading exponent/founding father of Fauvism. His range was truly amazing. What a talent!

Hartley:

I recently re-discovered Alice Neel. If you aren't familiar with her and her work, you should be, shame on you! She's as fresh today as she ever was. I don't hold against her all the things I am at odds with because she had a hard, hard life and was one amazing painter.

My Obsession:

I recently visited The Conduit Gallery in Dallas to view an exhibit of Rex Ray's work. What can I say about Rex Ray? To actually see his work up-close was a dream. I'm obsessed!

"Rex Ray's work both in graphics and in the fine arts completely captures the times we live in. His pieces look both backward and forward; they're decorative yet have a self-conscious conceptual framework; they're alike yet different" –Michael Paglia, Westword.