You Don’t Have To Be A Rockefeller to Collect Art

Herb Vogel was a postal worker and his wife Dorothy was a librarian, yet they amassed one of the largest and most influential art collections ever assembled in the US. The PBS series, Independent Lens, is airing a documentary tonight titled, “Herb and Dorothy”. The film details how this extraordinary couple turned their fervent love for art into a passionate obsession. Most of their collection now resides in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The value of their collection is estimated to be in the millions and contains works by many of the leading artists of the latter 20th century.

Read the director’s account of her fascination with the Vogels and more about the film: Read Now

Click this link to read more about the program and find air times for your PBS station: “Herb and Dorothy”

Big (like really BIG) Puppets in Berlin

Remember when you were a kid and you saw a marionette performance? How, if the puppeteers were experienced at their craft, the puppets were transformed from wood into life – a very magical thing. Now imagine if the marionettes were several stories tall; giants moving through the streets of your city. Slightly scary maybe and amazingly cool.

A French street theatre troupe, Royal de Luxe, created a story celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall that features two gigantic marionettes controlled with cranes and steel cables instead of strings. The result is a surprisingly moving piece of performance art that includes the wow factor of “how did the hell did they do that.”

There is a great still photo pictorial of the event at Boston.com that describes the event as the giant marionettes make their way through the streets of Berlin.

To see a video of the event watch below. The narration is in German but the images speak for themselves.

Site Santa Fe features Video Art

F. Scott Fitzgerald once predicted that film would take the place of literature. Its certainly true that film now rivals the popularity of literature and its equally true in the art world that video has become a essential tool of many artists.

Site Santa Fe opens its’ new exhibition titled, “Talking Pictures” on October 10th. Featured artists include: Stephen Dean, Diller + Scofidio, James Drake, Kota Ezawa, Christian Marclay, Nic Nicosia, Bruce Nauman, Nadine Robinson, and Javier Téllez. Go to Site Santa Fe’s website to learn more.

Moleskine Art

Moleskine Notebooks have a cult following. Its no suprise since they are unquestionably the coolest notebooks in existence. The quality of the paper, the way they feel in your hand and their look have an intoxicating effect on their owners that’s hard to explain.

The first time I saw one was in Milan several years ago. Since then they have become available here in the states at some retail stores, mostly bookstores (Borders), specialty shops (art supply stores and pen stores) and online at the Moleskine site. They have a rather romantic history since of some of their devotees were Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Jean Paul Sartre, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, etc. .

Over the past few years artists have been posting images from their Moleskines online and there have also been exhibits in galleries and museums. One of the best online sites to check out Moleskine art is SkineArt.com. There you’ll find literally hundreds of examples of artist’s notebooks from across the globe done in every imaginable style.

It’s A Dog’s Life

Couldn’t resist posting this photo I took of a dog on the square in downtown Santa Fe. There’s a metaphor here somewhere.

Visit to Michael von Helms Studio

Michael von Helms at the Ore House, Santa Fe

Got a chance to share an amazing bowl of Green Chile Stew at the Ore House on the Plaza here in Santa Fe with Michael von Helms. After that we went to his studio in Tesuque.

It was great to see his latest work, he’s been working hard over the summer and produced some superb new paintings. Aside from viewing new work, one of the things I’ve always liked about artist studio visits is seeing the creative chaos of the artist’s space. Here’s a couple of photographs that sum up Michael’s process – exuberant, intuitive and full of color.

Click here to see Michael’s work on the DNG website.

Watch this video interview with Michael in his studio:

Terry Craig Interview

Terry Craig, September 2009

LM: When did you first become interested in art?

TC: I was very interested in art as a child. I remember in the first grade we sometimes got to finger paint. I must have seen some abstract art somewhere, maybe in an encyclopedia, and one day when we were painting, I just started making abstract shapes and filling up the piece of paper with these shapes. I can still remember this vividly. The teacher came over and said, “what is that?”. And I said, “abstract art” and she loved it. She took the piece and it was framed and she hung it up in the cafeteria.

I was interested in art in high school but I never really thought about doing it as a profession. But when I got out of school, I went to work in a stained glass studio where I discovered I could draw a bit. The head artist became a mentor for me and he encouraged me to pursue art in a more formal way – to go to school. And so I ended up going to the same school that he went to – The Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.

LM: At Ringling were you able to pursue the type of work that you wanted to do?

TC: The particular course of study was very formal. There was a small Fine Arts department but we were outnumbered by designers four to one. The first year classes were all about draftsmanship. There was one professor who made us use a pencil with no eraser for the first six weeks of class. All we did was set up still lifes and draw them. We focused on composition, design, the figure. The first two years were like that, very formal. The third year you could specialize in either printmaking , sculpture or painting and I chose painting. I liked sculpture a lot but I didn’t feel it was my strong suit.

LM: It’s interesting that your work now has aspects of both sculpture and painting.

TC: I’ve always enjoyed heavily textural work but I like the picture plane. I like working within a square or a rectangle – its what I like best.

LM: The current work you are doing incorporates some very unusual materials. How did you find those materials?

TC: Like so many other artists, I was inspired by another artist. Antoni Tapies is one of my favorite artists, I discovered his work when I was in art school. I was always attracted to the heavily textured paintings he did. I had no idea how he was getting the effects he was getting. So I read as much about him as I could trying to understand some of the processes he used. There wasn’t much actual information about his methods though so I just began to experiment. It took a long time, maybe a couple of years, to develop the formulas and to get the materials to do what I wanted them to do.

LM: There seems to be an underlying reference to geometry in your work.

TC: I’ve always been attracted to the relationship between geometrical shapes and abstract shapes, the interplay between the two. There is a tension that gets set up when you use both of those elements in the same painting. I use both of those elements in a lot of different ways. Now, I use geometric shapes as a basis and because of the nature of the materials I work with I get all these “happy accidents”. Bits and pieces of the work fall off, and you can scape into it and you get all sort of these wonderful organic qualities. And that’s something that’s been in the work me from the very beginning.

LM: So your works have an interplay between their very organic surfaces and the geometric boundaries that also appear in the work?

TC: Yes, there’s something very psychologically appealing about that interplay to me. When I was in Florida, I would see the concrete squares that make up a sidewalk. But the rain and the sun would erode them and crack them into these just incredibly beautiful shapes. I would actually take paper and lay it down on the top of them an make rubbings and would get these gorgeous designs.
I don’t exactly what the appeal or the meaning of it is but there is something about those man made shapes that get run through the blender of nature and they get much more beautiful. In my work that’s a process I use quite a bit. I start with these hard edged shapes and then sort of deteriorate them.

LM: How do you get an idea for a painting?

TC: (Laughs) I don’t. Well, occasionally I have an idea – I’ll see something in nature or on a wall and I think that’s a nice shape or color or whatever. But usually when I have that idea it will change dramatically by the time I get to the end of the piece.

LM: So the process is very important to the final outcome of the work?

TC: I frequently just start with no ideas at all. I just start throwing some color around and see what happens. And those are some of the nicest pieces I’ve done. They just come from wherever they come from. I’d love to be able to tap into that all the time.

LM: Have you ever gotten in that place when you are working when you feel like you are not really painting, but instead something is painting through you? Like you are just holding the brush and the painting is painting itself?

TC: Absolutely. I love that feeling. I wish I got it every time. You know, I find I get that feeling a lot when I have an idea and I’m working on it and it will be failing miserably, it will not be going well at all. And then finally I have to get to the point where I just abandon that idea and say to hell with it and that’s when that “flow” experience begins happening. As soon as I give up the preconceived idea I had in my head then I can just allow the experience to take over and it guides me. When this occurs, after I’m finished, I look at the work and wonder, “how did I do that?”.  And I can never recreate it, it is never going to happen again.

LM: Is there a spiritual component to your work?

TC: The thing we were just talking about is a very spiritual experience to me. I feel that something is coming through me from a higher place and that is a wonderful feeling.

LM: Why do you think art is important? Why do you think it has the power it has had throughout human history?

TC: That’s a really hard question. I find that when I surround myself with beautiful things it makes me feel better, it makes me feel centered and happy. To have that in my life is very important. Its like when you are taking a hike in the mountains and you see all these beautiful things and it just makes you feel good. I don’t see visual art really changing the world though.

LM: How about revolutionary artists like Picasso who gave us alternative ways of imagining or looking at the world?

TC: I think that’s true. But, I think there are other disciplines, like science, that have changed the world in much more profound ways. I think literature also has the capacity to really change people. I think of the books I read as a child – they really changed my life. They changed my perspective, they opened up my eyes to whole new avenues of thought.
Yet visual art is what I am attracted to. Visual art goes to some area of the mind that I don’t think words can reach. It’s a very primal place. I like delving into that part of myself because I think that is where a lot of the imagery comes from when it is being created. People who respond to art are responding to the artist tapping into that source.

LM: Maybe one of the things that is so profound about art is the mystery, that it is ultimately beyond our attempts to explain it.

TC: Definitely. You can’t really say what it is exactly but it hits you on a very deep level. That’s what makes it important.

VIEW TERRY’S WORK

Frank Morbillo Goes Hollywood

Morbillo sculpture in Gamer

Frank Morbillo’s sculpture is featured in the recent action film “Gamer” which was filmed here in New Mexico. One of his sculptures is shown in the film still above (sculpture appears in the upper right of the photo).

To check out the “Gamer” film trailer on You Tube click here.

If you want to see Frank himself in action check out this video:

To see a current selection of Frank’s work click here.

Does Art Really Matter?

In the midst of our collective concerns about the economy, terrorism, health care, and global warming does art really matter these days?

I know a lot of the standard defenses of art of course – it enriches our lives, it educates and entertains. True, but the same could be said of stamp collecting and crossword puzzles. Here’s the bigger question – what is the intrinsic value of art? In short, Does Art Really Matter?

It certainly matters to serious artists, who devote their lives to creating art. Some, like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and countless others, literally faced their own personal hells to convey an ultimate truth that is beyond all understanding and ultimately beyond the ability of human conveyance. Was it worth it?

Art seems to matter to all the scholars and teachers and curators who have devoted their careers to helping us understand and appreciate art sometimes in the face of a scornful and indifferent public. Why bother?

It seems to matter to the fund-raisers and the donors who give time and money to public institutions that preserve and exhibit art. Aren’t there more important causes?

Art seems to matter to collectors who purchase the product of artists’ talents. Aren’t there better ways to spend one’s money?

From my years as a gallerist I know art can have a strong emotional resonance with viewers. Once, while exhibiting a Matisse etching, I noticed a woman walk over to it and within moments begin sobbing out loud. I rushed to her thinking there was something terribly wrong. But, when I asked if I could help, she said she didn’t understand why but she just felt overwhelmed by the beauty of the piece.

Reflecting on the emotional power of art, I recalled one of the first things new totalitarian regimes do is round up artists and poets and decree that art must serve the state. So art must contain the ability to change minds and inspire freedom.

While some people consider art to be about things, it is only nominally about objects. It is about ideas and emotions expressed in paint or music or poetry. It is a conversation with oneself and others and aids our desire to come to terms with our humanness and ultimately, touch the infinite. Art can be as beautiful as a photograph of a shadow falling across a wall or as agonizingly painful as the tormented faces screaming in Picasso’s “Guernica”. [By the way, If you feel the connection between art and the infinite is too great a leap then read Joyce’s “Ulysses” or listen to Beethoven or stand before a Van Gogh - if you don't feel connected to something larger than yourself, maybe you should consider a soul implant.]

So, after some thought, here’s where I stand:

Art connects us with the deepest human longing for meaning and our desire to touch the infinite.

That seems pretty important.

If finally all our politics are of no consequence and we lose the battle against our own worst nature and unleash the ultimate catastrophe upon ourselves; then arguably there were bigger issues than art. But I can envision the final person on earth tracing the shape of a flower in the dust as her last act of trying to communicate and as a cry against the impenetrable nature of what it meant to be human.

Perhaps then, art matters a great deal after all.

Leslie Sandbulte Interview

Leslie Sandbulte paints lush figurative work that depicts scenes from the lives of women. Here she discusses her art and her life as an artist.

LM: When were you first aware that you had artistic talent and that you wanted to create art?

LS:  As a 4 year old, I stood up in my bed with a purple crayon, I remember the color, and scribbled on the wall.  I got a spanking for it!

LM: Did that discourage you?

LS:  Not in the slightest. In kindergarten I lived for the moment it was my turn to stand at the easel. So it’s been a passion my whole life.

LM: Who were some of the artists you admired?

LS: A diverse group. I lived near the Huntington Library when I was young so I would go see the Gainsborough paintings over and over as a junior and high school student. When I went into USC’s art program Richard Diebenkorn was a presence and Wayne Thiebaud was taking off. I was very influenced by those artists – the intense colors and the freedom of the work.

LM: You majored in art at USC, what was that experience like?

LS:  I loved it when I was there but there was a time when I would start something and there was no resolve. I started printmaking, but no resolve. Unfortunately, we were influenced to do extremely contemporary art before we had the covered the basics. In other words “to fly before we could walk”.  So I never really got to learn my three loves, drawing, painting, and printmaking. I never focused on one thing because we had to take this whole smattering.

There’s a problem of being forced to be an adult before you go through adolescence.  I think people that are not allowed to go through adolescence are adolescents the rest of their lives. And that’s the danger of a “general” education. I can tell when an artist has had a complete arts education.  You see art history references in their work. I am very grateful for the USC experience. I am not critical of that period, but it was not enough.

LM: Did you always do figurative work?

LS: Yes, as a child I would take the Butterfield sewing pattern books and draw the women.  Sometimes I drew horses but mostly the human figure.

LM: You feel that each figure in your work is distinct? Do you feel that you are painting a specific person?

LS:  What I am not doing is portrait work.  I am not interested in differentiating ages, ethnicities, any of those things. My emphasis is on forms – are they angular, curvilinear, soft etc. . With the paintbrush I can feel what the essence of the form is. And that is much more of what I am interested in.

LM: So its it fair to say that your interested in form, almost as an abstract painter would be?

LS: Yes, that is accurate.

LM: Many people comment on how wonderful it is to see your brushwork. It’s apparent that you really love that aspect of creating the work.

LS: Yes, it lifts my spirits to see buttery brushstrokes . And the pleasure a painter gets out of it is …
Next year I might explore the stages of a working drawing and how it evolves into a painting.  For example, I start with pencil, a loose pencil.  I am interested in letting that show somewhat.  Some of the art work that I buy comes from the artists studios and they are done quickly and that allows you to see the process.  When I look at a painting I get right up to it to see the brushwork and the ground is underneath and then all of the other layers.

LM: Your work gives viewers a sense of  movement, even if the figures are in repose.

LS:  That is an interesting comment because my paintings start from two polarities.  The design of the work is based on Japanese woodcuts, which depict warriors, women dressing, the floating worlds, and these works have a lot of action and movement in them.  I also pay a lot of attention to the negative space as well as positive space. The forms create the action.

LM: Many artists have an affinity for Japanese art. Why do you think Japanese art has had such an influence on European and American artists?

LS:  The Japanese are known for design. They are geniuses of design.  The Japanese also brought in genre scenes, not always depicting aristocracy or royalty but scenes of everyday life.  Figures were painted very intimately, close up. And sometimes, the figures just go off the canvas – forms are moving before you but going off the page.  That was entirely different from the traditional European approach to figurative painting.

LM: You are a successful artist. What is your advice for other artists?

LS: At one point, I stopped doing art to raise my children and I was teaching art but I was not creating it myself.  So my advice is if you have the passion, no matter how busy your life is, dedicate one night a week to taking a course or a workshop.  You have to keep the juices going or you will evolve at a slower pace.

I rediscovered by passion for art when I walked into an art class by the impressionist Ron Lucas. I pivoted my whole life towards painting again.  I completed the dream that started early in my life.

I told my husband I was going to start painting and that I would be buying paints and he asked how I was going to pay for that and I replied “Ask me in 10 years!”.  In the 10th year I was, by the grace of God, discovered in an art show.

So back to the advice – separate yourself from money, acclaim from others, and don’t  look beyond the next painting.  Stay disciplined, go to your studio at the same time everyday, cut other things out of your life.  Do the work. Just keep painting and growing in those areas that you didn’t fulfill earlier, or the areas you want to fulfill.

To see Leslie’s work click here.

Art In The Digital Age

There’s a great article by Virginia Heffernan in today’s New York Times magazine. Ms Heffernan writes an ongoing feature titled “The Medium” and this week she takes a look at some applications of digital technology to art.

Want a high resolution image of Monet’s Water Lilies on your mobile phone? The article talks about the Boston Museum of Fine Arts project to photograph high resolution photographs of its’ entire collection of 350,000 works. You can visit their site at mfamobile.mfa.org and download some masterpieces directly to your phone’s home screen. Monet-To-Go anyone?

Ms. Heffernan also writes about an incredibly detailed photograph of Davinci’s “Last Supper”. The photograph is made up of 16 billion pixels. It shows such amazing details that as you zoom in you can see individual flecks of paint. If you don’t want to stand in line in Milan, you can see this icon of Western art by visiting The Last Supper.
To read all of Ms Heffernan’s article go to The Medium Blogs.

Comments Are On

Thanks for all your positive reponses to the blog. Kelley from Austin sent me an e-mail and said “why not allow comments”? So now, on most of the posts, comments will be open. Of course they will be moderated so anything thats offensive or irrelevant will be deleted.

If you want to comment, just click on the “comments” link that appears below each post (if no one has commented yet it will read “No Comments”), fill out the form and then send it along.