Just amazed and thankful these days. There's a lovely plague of babies (one is my adorable, freshly born healthy niece and another is a very talented artist friend's first little girl) and the weather is mild and the bread machine is working fine and I have time to read and think and write and paint. Spent some time the other day sifting through the latest issue of Modern Painters which had some good words and pictures about the work and product of painting.

I keep thinking that the best work I do is when I trust my hands and turn off my head. I am not not thinking mind you but I am spilling and splashing and seeing if the blue is right and trying to push the greens back and float the red balloons foreward and see if I can create a rythym of marks and motions. I have been trying to write with the same attention to the craft of words and the course of story and well, the results aren't quite in yet. I don't really know what I am doing this for.

I'm just thankful for the doing. A painting I finished today (Salvage Theory, 30 inches tall by 22 inches wide, ink and watercolor on paper) is enclosed as are my hopes that you and yours are safe and warm, worried not and making much good trouble.

take care,

Rachael

Lyonel Feininger's asbtractions, his tall thin men, his ships and use of color and light have fascinated me for years. His comics make me laugh, delight, and I'm passing them on to kids all the time. With glee today I discovered some wonderful examples of his work online (see below). And for those big Feininger fans like myself, who just happen to be looking for a job in New York, are good and quick in the archives, know German (just think you should for this) and have good Art History creds, go get this job because I selfishly want the archive finished and open to the gen public asap...



in Minneapolis


a lovely Zirchov in  DC

and an old favorite of mine, a radical little painting to incite in NY, though I don't know if it has wall space in the big new MOMA
This book (which I dearily love) has floor space in my house, and Feininger truly has space in my imagination...



and so I'll march merrilly on...

take care,

Rachael

 

So I told my friend that I'd make a little painting for her. I'd paint an image of a snapshot she has of herself and her sweetie. And I thought, " Oh, it'll be a small little watercolor, it'll be easy"...


And then I tried it, and tried it, and tried it again. And then I took a walk, took a nap, tried tracing the photo, consider gridding it, tried a value study and then trashed it. And in the end, I remain unsatisfied (but certain that I've overworked them all... maybe trying a time limited version after a bath will work...) but reminded that making art to make others happy isn't easy, even if it has it's own set of rewards. When done right, an image like this can capture what she loves about him, what he loves about her, how tightly connected they are, and can trigger some of the memories of that camping trip. Or maybe my high expectations are what is damning the project? Who knows, who cares, it's an excuse to look, to draw, to work...


I'm in the middle, too, of the cleaning and sorting and unpacking process which sometimes results in pretty little piles like this one...


take care,
Rachael

I'm flubbergusted, amazed, amused, disturbed, and thrilled by these suits by Anna Maltz (which I first heard about at Carolyn's blog from which I went here ) which are art, social commentary, performative sculpture, and cold weather strategy all at once. Damn that is smart, but also sort of sad, silly, poignant but I was amazed by the cold hard meanness, spammyness, and scared-ness of the commenters here. How scary is a false, fake, furry naked family? How scary is a family? How original is a costume? Well, I say it's not merely the original idea but the power of it. And these suits are powerful enough to pose questions in my head. How do you dress your family in fake fur naked suits and what questions does that raise?

The Superman suits brought to mind a wonderful This American Life story (How To Win Friends and Influence People, 11/2/01, Episode 198).

I'd write more but it'd be dumb drivel since my heart ain't in it today, kids, I just want to draw...

bye,
Rachael

No time to draw that, but I wonder if I would have seen it if I wasn't taught a long time ago to be looking.

that's all.
take care,
Rachael