Archive for February, 2007
The most memorable show during my NYC visit was Eve Aschheim’s drawings at Lori Bookstein gallery on 57th street. Even though they are small and sparse, they explode with movement and energy - I have never seen anyone do so much with so little. Not only do the marks seem to exist on different layers of a deep space, they seem to create magnifications and portals that shift and switch within the negative space. Compressing the tension of these complex situations is the illusion of marks that seem to be in the process of moving. If they were to move, even just a little, the whole space would collapse, and the pockets of form that are beginning to emerge would disappear.
Not only are these drawings wonderful, but I found Eve to be a very kind and generous person as well. She and her husband, John Yau, welcomed me for dinner at their house, along with two of my friends, Philip Van Keuren and Lorraine Tady. I had never met John before, but was impressed with his encyclopedic knowledge of anything that has ever happened in the artworld. Most recently, he wrote the essay for Bill Jensens latest show. He and Philip talked the most, discussing poetry as well as their first hand experiences of historical figures - I felt lucky to be sitting there, drinking wine, and hearing all of their wonderful stories.
Later in the night, I was able to show Eve and John some of my drawings and prints from the last year. I found the whole experience to be very inspiring.
Between the conference, visiting friends, and seeing shows, I have only been sleeping 4 hours a night. This made the whole experience feel a little dreamlike - but a dream I will remember.
I return to Dallas tomorrow (regretfully) and will be soon be posting about some of my other NY adventures.
February 17th, 2007
Being here is so overwhelming and energizing at the same time. I have spent more time walking the city than looking at art during this trip. Probably 5 hours a day just walking around - being confronted with information that has nothing to do with me. The buildings, neighborhoods, and schedules are so complex - hard for an artwork to live up to it. I have not seen many shows yet that have blown me away, but the piece displayed here was really powerful (not sure of artist or gallery, please help). After feeling the immensity of the city first hand, this sculpture snapped my perspective outward really fast.
Every little building was cut accurately, but it did not look machine made (not sure). It still had a rough, hand made look. And the presentation on top of a huge rock created a different type of “size.”
I have not had access to a computer for while, and so the posts have been building up. More to come on on these topics:
- reflections on NY art scene
- visiting with HiLow
- Eve Aschheim drawing show and my visit with her
- my friends (lots of pictures)
- CAA, which begins Thursday.
February 13th, 2007
I’m leaving for New York, and too busy for a real post. In addition to promoting
SlideRoom at the
CAA conference, I am looking forward to visiting with some of you bloggers. See you soon!
February 8th, 2007
I have been unbelievably busy this week preparing for my New York trip, running SlideRoom, teaching, fighting bad guys, and preparing the new Guildhall exhibition catalog. One of the pleasures of preparing a catalog is seeing beautiful pictures of all the students work. Above is a screenshot from an excellent “kicking” animation by Sargent Wagley (yes, a real Sargent). I love this transparent display mode because it reveals all of the construction mechanisms necessary for animation. Thinking of form in terms of movement, hmm… sounds familiar. Which brings me to the Matisse show at the DMA (below).
I took my students to see the show yesterday, which focuses on his sculpture and academic studies. However, I’m too busy to write any sort of reflection on the show, but Matisse doesn’t need me. In fact, not much time for any reflection at all these days - just doing and doing.
February 2nd, 2007
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