Good Taste/Bad taste

I stumbled on an installation in process the other day. Turns out it was a sculpture by Tom Sachs. I didn't realize the full scope. Hello Kitty weeps tears into the pool it sits in. How poetic! How maudlin! How Hello Kitty!

From the Sublime? to the Ridiculous

This morning I was meditating on how life gets switched from track to track. While I struggle with my painting (yesterday I spent two hours trying to paint a pepper), photography runs along on its own parallel art train. Yet even this has a multitude of tracks.

Take these two images, one created with an arduous process of hand coating, life-size negatives, sun exposure and a physically demanding development, the other a digital snap, pixels transfered from camera to computer. One is a portrait, the other a self portrait.

At least it would make a great title for a memoir, Self Portrait with Rotisserie Chicken.

Ghandhi Takes a Taxi

Actually, last night we saw an incredible version of Glass' opera, Satyagraha.

Satya is the Sanskrit word for “truth”; agraha means "firmness". The two words combined may be rendered as "the firmness of truth.” It can also mean "truth force."

Satyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi deployed satyagraha during his early struggles in South Africa.

Julian Crouch a director of London’s provocative Improbable theater company used amazing improvisational puppetry. Tenor Richard Croft gave fantastic shadings to the chant-like music and the conducting was sublime.

This is why we love New York—ain't that the truth!

Venus of Houston Street

The Aphrodite of Milos also known as the Venus de Milo, is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. It is believed to depict Aphrodite (called Venus by the Romans), the Greek goddess of love and beauty. A marble sculpture whose arms have been lost. From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch. It is thought to be on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. I beg to differ, I saw it on Houston Street.

A Weekend in the Country

Amazing how some time in the country can refresh one. No cars, no TV, no internet and we didn't even notice the phone was out for a couple of days. Some of our companions—now appearing...

Walking the dog

Correct; that is not a dog. We must assume, however, that it is a pet. It has been suggested that people resemble their dogs but I'm beginning to think that it is less a matter of the comfort of the familiar than an exploration through self portraiture.




Here I'm exploring the thought that pets can be more than companion or accessory but rather an unconscious art form of self expression. A sort of "I don't know art but I know what I like".




and here's a late link we just discovered, Top 10 Celebrity Pets on Nerve. When you click through to Martha's dog, scroll all the way down--a doggie body bag tied with a ribbon bow.

All a buzz

I saw this line recently on the internet, "At the forefront of everyone's mind this week is the health of bees."

Honeybees are used throughout this country to pollinate hundreds of crops, from apples and almonds to soybeans and strawberries. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about $15 billion in crops are pollinated by honeybees.

I don't actually think about it all that much unless there's another scary article in the newspaper but it must be entering my consciousness. I'm working on a painting that has bees, their cells and a host of firing neurons.

Then I walked out my front door today. Here's the artfitti I saw. Buzz, buzz, buzz.