Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516)
Lets just say that I'm a sucker for fantasy. As a child I could not contain myself from the lore of Star Wars, Gremlins, and many other movies that fed my insatiable appetite for weird creatures and folk stories that pervaded on the screen. Needless to say my imagination began to take over my life and I became an artist. After copying and being inspired by many of the twentieth centuries greatest artist I transcribed everything that inspired me. But it wasn't until I stumbled upon a book of this artist in Amsterdamn of all places that I was blessed with seeing a timeless vision of the world. I immediatly purchased the book, which I probably over paid, but the quality of the reproductions of this book have been extremely inspiring for me. I saw my first Bosch in Vienna and was floored. I have never stared at a work of art for so long as i did his this work at the Kunsthistorisches museum. The crispness of the color and imagery struck me at my core and I did not want to leave this enormous panels presence. The memory of seeing this work is still very much alive in my heart. Now, I embark on a series of paintings dedicated to Bosch.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Age of Ignorance
Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937Perhaps, I need to not try so hard. It seems that life is moving. People getting careers and having kids. Life is moving, and it's moving fast. It's happening so fast that people become blinded by the corruption that occurs all around them. We live in the age of ignorance. As long as we all have our mini-trophies of success, like computers, cell phones, televisions, and other instruments of technological distraction we become anesthetized by the tremendous greed and pouncing of justice that happens all around us. There are two options, turn a blind eye, or do something about it.
I have already written about this dilemma, It seems that we live in a time where nothing can be done to change the system that is in place. We have glimmers of hope, with remarkable twentieth century figures of change. All Assassinated!!! We elect a president, with all the credentials and rhetoric for change, and get no real results on the change front. Business as usual for the wall street cronies. We might as well have elected a Republican, it makes little difference. It's hard to keep my head up, moving along with a society that is corroding. We seperate ourselves, through religion, politics, and race. These seperations were just a means for the corrupters to continue pilleging our society for the benefit of a few. I have the benefit of an education, and I aspire to teach the unprivelaged masses that the world that has been set up for them has been rigged against them. The masses have the benefit of numbers, yet they are torn up by these superficial divisions.
The most I can do is continue to do what I know in my heart is right. Make art, express myself, teach those in need, and spread my ideas any way that I can. Who will join me in this effort? The time has long been overdue to come together and work towards a better future.
"Together we stand, divided we fall"
I have already written about this dilemma, It seems that we live in a time where nothing can be done to change the system that is in place. We have glimmers of hope, with remarkable twentieth century figures of change. All Assassinated!!! We elect a president, with all the credentials and rhetoric for change, and get no real results on the change front. Business as usual for the wall street cronies. We might as well have elected a Republican, it makes little difference. It's hard to keep my head up, moving along with a society that is corroding. We seperate ourselves, through religion, politics, and race. These seperations were just a means for the corrupters to continue pilleging our society for the benefit of a few. I have the benefit of an education, and I aspire to teach the unprivelaged masses that the world that has been set up for them has been rigged against them. The masses have the benefit of numbers, yet they are torn up by these superficial divisions.
The most I can do is continue to do what I know in my heart is right. Make art, express myself, teach those in need, and spread my ideas any way that I can. Who will join me in this effort? The time has long been overdue to come together and work towards a better future.
"Together we stand, divided we fall"
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Bill Jensen and Van Gogh: Heir apparent
Artwork by Bill JensenThe paintings of Bill Jensen in his early career are remarkable works. They are mere abstract forms made up of coils, trumpets, almost eluding to prehistoric figures, or ancient bones. These images are also painted in a manner consistent with early American modernist painters. The work puts him in connection with a tradition of American painters working in a similar matter. But Jensen's work is unique and exhibits his command for painting. The texture, color, and composition of this work exhibit a sense of mastery over his medium. They also embody a great sense of dimensionality in the abstract. This is what makes these works interesting, compelling, and relevant. I find a lot of inspiration from these works, and their color which is incredibly dynamic but in a way that is less conscious than his later paintings. I read that he used to not clean his brushes giving him interesting tonal effects. These are paintings that make you not want to just go to the studio and paint, but work for days in and out painting.
They are painted in a matter that Van Gogh would be proud of. We should not underestimate the genius of Van Gogh. When one thinks of the amount of work he created in just a short span of life, it's no wonder that Van Gogh thought of himself as a resurrected Jesus Christ. Even dying at the same age of Christ, 36. Van Gogh is the Christ of painters. He's a symbolic tale of an artist, who's struggle can be read about in various movies, and novels. If you haven't read Irving Stones "Lust For Life," I suggest you pick up a copy for it procures the myth of this artist as a spiritual figure sent down from heaven on a mission to make us truly SEE.
Bill Jensen is such an artist. His work of the 1980's painted 100 years after Van Gogh conveys the same passion for paint and art. Just think of Van Gogh laboring in a studio in Williamsburg with no pot to piss in (literally, he pissed in a hole connected to a sewer line,) and you got Bill Jensen in the 80's. He labored hard on these works, almost 7 years on some, and what you get is a sublime representation of the true artist. What Van Gogh made us see in the world around us, Bill Jensen of the 1980's made us see of the world inside of us.
You want to look in Van Gogh's ear? Check out Bill Jensen.
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