Lucinda sang like a bird (maybe one with a broken wing or two, healed up mostly and more resilient for the breaks) and we were charmed by the space of the old armory.

I left my sketchbook at work which was dumb and meant I couldn't sketch the gathering crowd or Charlie Louvins up on the stage with his suspenders and cowboy hat. I don't know that I would have been able to draw but I certainly enjoyed seeing everyone dance their own personal sexy dance, from the biker guy playing air guitar to the young dancer moving to the music (and the moment they collided).

I'm not a professional music critic, but Jeff Spevak is and his report matches my memory about right.

goodnight then,
Rachael



some proof is in this video from my friend Amy's brother, Mark, close to the stage when she sang
unchain my heart

Well, it gets even better. Since it may rain tomorrow night, Lucinda Williams will be playing a free show in the concert venue right around the corner from where I work. She'll be in the Main Street Armory and this show will be great.

see ya there, rochesterians.

Rachael

I know Rochester, NY is not an art mecca like New York City or San Francisco or Chicago or LA but I also firmly believe that it is not only possible but advisable to make art wherever one may be geographically located. There's a bunch of creative and interesting things happening in the small city where I live.


For example:

in my small city, a young couple of non-profiters can buy a good solid house at a very reasonable price (our monthly mortage on a two bedroom, hardwood filled, 1917 house with all sorts of charm is equal to what we paid in rent for a small one bedroom apartment in metro Atlanta)

we drive simple calm 10 minute commutes to work.

it is harder for an art market in a smaller city to be driven by galleries. With artists increasingly showing in non-profit spaces, in open-studios in their own spaces, and in coffeeshops and whatnot the public truly will reward artists who are making work that matters to people who may not have big pockets of disposable income.

the artworld as I see it and experience it is one of community more than competition and with limited resources available for artists to sell work, get commissions, find teaching positions and all that, more artists are connecting and combining efforts than beating each other up

In the next couple of weeks in Rochester and nearby, there are a bunch of things I'm looking forward to:

there's a show of drawings at the Rochester Contemporary which will include opportunities to pry open sketchbooks, see drawing process, and draw along

a barbeque (rather an art-a-que) organized by artists for artists in a few days

There are some books published by the vibrant poetry press here, BOA editions, that I want to read and

my city is bringing Lucinda Williams to town to sing for the people in a free concert in a beautiful downtown location on July 19th. While we are expecting all of the area to come out for this, it simply rocks that she'll be singing for us...

There's more but that's all I am remembering right now. Forgive me for my city boosterism, use the resources if you are nearby, and remember that art and communty are everywhere.

I'll step off of my soapbox right about now and get to sleep but thanks for listening,
Rachael

Hunting down images of offices in the 1920s and 30s, I found this photo of posters in an office by Russell Lee (Russell Lee. (American, 1903-1986). Bulletin Board in Post Office Showing a Large Collection of "Wanted Men" Signs, Ames, Iowa. 1936. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 x 9 1/8" (19 x 23.1 cm)) and this image of postal workers from Stamford Connecticut, 1926.



We're all anonymous after we are gone, the hunted and the deliverers and I simply wanted to share these rich images of anonymous men.

take care and record your world,
Rachael

Do over, over and over again and you might get something right.
I have been drawing pretty non-stop since I was a kid and lately I've been drawing and drawing and drawing again from a postcard of this painting I saw when in Atlanta. I'd seen it a million times reproduced, reproduced, and reproduced so it was a bit of a shock to stand in front of the big thing and think only about the sandals. It was a hot day, I was thinking about feet, we had only about an hour in the museum and when I turned to see this, I saw only the feet.




As I draw it, I am seeing hands and more hands. Poussin always seemed cold and bland but more than hands and feet are pulling and kicking me back to the process of drawing and hopefully seeing this painting. The little color card looks much different (scale, size, color, detail and texture are all warped) and from the postcard I can only really learn more about what interests me, how often can I draw the same sandals, the same pointed fingers, the same bends and turns.
It's nice to know that other artists have learned, and certainly grown from drawing Poussin.

Kossoff obtained permission to enter the Royal Academy galleries at 6:30 each morning, before public admission, bringing with him a drawing board, paper and materials. "It was physically quite demanding," he said. He stood for hours drawing from Poussin's pictures of mythological scenes, like The Triumph of Pan, or religious subjects, such as the Holy Family on the Steps.
After two months he decided, "I'm not really getting closer to the paintings. I wonder if I could be more direct." So he began to draw with an etching needle directly onto the waxed copper and zinc plates. Explaining this decision, he says, "You've got no chance to change your mind with etching, while drawing is endlessly restating. Plus, with etching, you can't really see what you are doing very clearly, it's all intuition."
from this Hunter Drohojowska-Philp review of Leon Kossoff's Poussin drawings and paintings on artnet



I'm back to looking, drawing and thinking.
Take care,
Rachael