Cut Velvet...

The last of the true lofts ...sad to say this ode to manufacturing is becoming a rare sighting.

Soon no one will even remember the jokes:

A man and his partner are having a very bad year with their garment business. They are in a loft building with many floors of small manufacturers like themselves, some much more successful than others. In despair the man jumps out the window. As he's falling, he calls out to his partner,"Cut velvet..."

Different Mediums, Singular Point of View

I fell in love with the work of Manolo Valdez, when I first saw his show at Marlborough in Chelsea. His large (approx. 80" x 100") oils on pieced together burlap knocked my socks off. I then discovered his sculptures and recently at Marlborough's summer show, a piece using cut paper. Looking at all of these together you can see his singular vision unfettered. Makes you want to cry.




And for us the struggling artists, I discovered, Eva V, Huile Sur Toile
by Manolo Valdez. A high quality art print on canvas approx. 16"x20"—it might keep us warm at night—with no tears.

Lessons in driving on Astroturf

I recently discovered Jane Dickson's work, through it's resonance with my own. She paints similar subject matter (to mine) on unusual surfaces such as Astroturf, sandpaper, vinyl, or carpet to exploiting the textural qualities of these materials.
She is vastly better known than myself having shown at The Whitney Museum, Creative Time, and The Metropolitan Museum.

Most recently she has completed a mosaic for MTA in the 42nd street station. The figures are weary revelers after New Year's Eve in Times Square. I'm sure she will continue to be an inspiration and aspiration for me.

AP Has No Right to Obama ‘Hope’ Image

Excerpted from Bloomberg, more on the Shepard Fairey Debacle:

AP Has No Right to Obama ‘Hope’ Image, Photographer Tells Judge
By Erik Larson

The Associated Press, which sued artist Shepard Fairey for using an AP photograph as inspiration for a Barack Obama campaign poster, wrongfully copyrighted the image it seeks to protect, the photographer told a judge. Mannie Garcia, the freelance photographer who took the disputed photograph while on assignment for AP, said the news company’s copyright for the image should be invalidated. “The AP is aware, and was aware at the time of filing its copyright application for the Garcia photo that it was not the true owner of the rights to that photo,” the photographer’s lawyer, George Carpinello, said in the filing.

Garcia is challenging both the AP and Fairey by trying to join the pending lawsuit between them. The news company sued Fairey in March, accusing him and his Los Angeles-based company, Obey Giant Art Inc., of copyright infringement for using Garcia’s 2006 photograph of Obama at a National Press Club panel discussion about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Garcia also claims Fairey wrongfully copied the photograph.

The AP “remains confident in AP’s ownership of the copyright, because Mr. Garcia was an employee of AP when he took the photo in 2006,” said Paul Colford, an AP spokesman. Garcia, who works out of Kensington, Maryland, said in his court filing "that he can’t be considered an AP employee, because he was on assignment for five weeks and wasn’t eligable to join a union or receive health, vacation or unemployment benefits."

Whew...If we watched Obama, followed the lawsuit, obeyed Shepard Fairey and have an opinion, does that mean we can join the lawsuit too?

Here's the case info if you want to follow it on Lexus Nexus...
The case is Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

I saw my dream studio...

...on the way to IKEA.

Highline #2

The inaugural artwork on the High Line, The River Flows Both Ways, by Spencer Finch is one of the additional pleasures of the Highline. The title of this work comes from the original Native American word for the Hudson River, Muhheakantuck. This work is located on the High Line between 15th and 16th Streets, where the High Line passes through the Chelsea Market building.

Finch transformed the existing windows with 700 individually crafted panes of colored glass representing the water conditions on the Hudson River over a single day. Finch photographed the Hudson River 700 times from the deck of a boat and selected an individual pixelfrom each image and matched each pixel color to a pane of glass.

This installation is presented in partnership with Creative Time, and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, and is made possible by a generous grant from The Rockefeller Foundation's New York City Cultural Innovation Fund. This project was made possible, in part, through the generous support of Chelsea Market and in-kind support from Jaroff Design and Mison Concepts.

Art School Confidential

Doesn't it look like these four are having some kind of serious conversation? And what about the clone convention below? Are they discoursing the merits of the open shaft or praising their original model? I love art school and that's not confidential!