Spilling

I'm still worrying about the spill and its after effects. The long term prognosis is still so murky. Here are some recent images from Italian Vogue by Steven Meisel, an oily blue crab larvae from an article by Mary Tutwiler, the Lafayette Independent and my new film, Sibylline Fracture.








Support for this project provided by the Wexner Center
for Arts Program, The Ohio State University.

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Bingo Show!

A leftover but no less tasty from our trip to la belle Looouisiane. The divine Clint Maedgen singing. Check out Shoeshine Blues.

Au Natural Part 1

Being in Louisiana for a while has the effect of making one think about nature more than usual for a New Yorker. And when I spied this vine it made the usual connection to the work of Andy Goldsworthy.

I was also struck recently by a comment made by Cora Cohen when we were at the Joseph Beuys: Make the Secrets Productive exhibition currently at Pace Wildenstein. She reminded me of his idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk. Whether that interaction is societal or political can depend on one's point of view. So is interacting with nature politically or automatically green? In my case, I am only a natural bystander, photographing things as I find them without any alterations as seen here, always looking for spots where nature mimics the man-made. In Andy Goldsworthy's case he does an active intervention via natural materials collected from the site. We are probably both descended from Beuys view of interaction although somewhat far afield.







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Today's the Day!

Susan Shaw: Moving Violations opens at the ACA! I am really excited. Nothing like four years of work distilled into a single entity.

They've even given me some additional space. A presence in the lobby of some additional works that didn't make it into the show. They won't be up long since the walls of the lobby will soon change shape as they open parts of the amazing expansion that the ACA is doing.

I am riding on a cloud. Louisiana seems to provide the substance that is usually only dreams. In just one day, the ACA put up a building banner of my work, I went out on Lake Martin and I got to twirl a hankie and dance a second line with the guys in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Life doesn't get much better than this. See you at the opening. Remember it's 6-8pm tonight as part of Artwalk and it's free!

Day 5 Gone Fishing

I got up at dawn to watch the sunrise from my deck. Today is a day off!!! I went out on Lake Martin already, where I surprised a wood duck and it surprised me. We had an incident on the boat where an alligator bit someone's cellphone. "Can you hear me now?" I stopped for coffee and stumbled on a Cajun jam in Breaux Bridge, and after a few errands, like stopping by Tee Sues if the fresh baguette light is flashing, I'm gonna sit on thedeck and have a cold one. Laissez les bon temps rouler.

Day 3 Mixed Bag in the Best Way

Got a look at the space now that the prior show is gone. Wow!!!!! What a beautiful space. Not much to do since they are prepping walls so I went off to get my float camp into the basin. I spent some time on the deck and then went off with a friend to check her catfish lines. Fried catfish for dinner. Yum. I love Louisiana!!!

My heart and me in Cajun Country #1

Today I am at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana starting the process of hanging my show. I had to laugh, they are expanding and it's under construction. Those of you familiar with my work know my predilection for construction sites so it's entirely appropriate.

I am staying with some good Cajun friends. I hope to combine working on the show with some fishing, birding and dancing so be prepared...

You like who you like.

Another summer exhibition definitely worth seeing is "Trees" at DC Moore. Group shows are fun because it's like picking your favorite things from a menu. Studying the same subject repeated also gives one insight into the thought processes of making art. I find I am always drawn to the same artists, not surprisingly in this show what caught my eye were Whitfield Lovell, Fairfield Porter and Lois Dodd.

In my own practice, Cora Cohen has been after me to paint less and more abstractly. I don't think I've been able to internalize what she's been saying but I recognized it immediately in the Lois Dodd below. It's one of those paintings you wish you had painted yourself.

David Bates was the big surprise. His garish pop color landscape caught my eye because in spite of the limited colors and graphic rendering, it had a tremendous sense of place. I was sure I was looking at a swamp in or near Louisiana, not only from the cypress knees but the harshness of the light and the black of the water. Swamp water— tannin stained with the droppings from bald cypress and tupelo gum — calls me. When I inquired about the artist, the gallery said he loves to fish and hails from East Texas. I'm sure he's fished in the "Sportsman"s Paradise" of Louisiana.

Doing, Done and Undone

I was taken with these images as an unlikely pair. The left I shot at the Metropolitan Museum, an interesting example of an artist's methodology in painting. The right I shot in New Orleans after Katrina, carefully painted on a fence and then partially obliterated, perhaps not by the artist. They came together for me as a musing on portraiture. In one case an identity mandated by societal mores — community and the other an identity obliterated by societal mores — community. One old, one modern. Doing and Undone, what a pair.

Hurricane Board Up

If you have been in New Orleans in recent times, you will not be surprised by this sign. I was struck however by the stark abstract elegance of this shot.

B&W...sometimes nothing else will do.

Snaps from a recent trip to south western Louisiana. Sometimes it feels like time standing still.

Wall Art...Walmart?

As American As...

Still playing catch-up from various trips across the country. These snaps from the road struck me as peculiarly American. As a New Yorker, driving is still infrequent enough to be in the honeymoon phase for me. I love driving at twilight especially when natural and artificial light sources discover their equilibrium. And of course, to make these landscapes evocative of this American millenium, they have product placement.

The Tree is in the Leaves

One of the things that happened when I was in Louisiana, was that I took a "Cajun" French immersion class. I had a wonderful time learning forestry, crawfishing, cooking couche-couche and making bousillage--a hybrid mud mixture of mud, clay and Spanish moss used as a plaster to fill the spaces between structural framing. Seen in French architecture of Louisiana of the early 1700s. Wood bars (barreaux), set between the posts, helps to hold the mud mixture in place. The bousillage wall when dry was plastered and then painted. The bousillage also formed a very effective insulation especially against the heat.

The class ended up doing some original skits based on the adventures of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux--a classic Cajun duo akin to Laurel and Hardy. We also performed some traditional songs including "L'arbre est dans ses feuilles." I ended up sketching it for translation assistance. It is a list song, with lines like, "on the branch there is hole, nest in the hole, egg in the nest, bird in the egg, heart in the bird and so on ending with love. I loved drawing the birds I saw out on the swamps. C'est un bon souvenir, hein?

Same/Different

Two boats seen by us in western Louisiana. Same/Different, both lovely to look at. I particularly like the Barbie hood ornament on the car boat.

Visual Souvenirs

Here are some visual souvenirs from our recent trip to Louisiana. Just when you thought you'd missed the slide show...

The Snake Bird

This Anhinga a.k.a. the Snake Bird, snapped by Kurt, is fascinating to me. It is a water bird related to a Cormorant. The Anhinga's feathers are not waterproofed by oils, and so can get waterlogged, causing the bird to become barely buoyant. However, this allows it to dive easily and search for fish under the water. It can stay down for significant periods. It has to spread it's wings to dry in between fishing expeditions. When it's in the water with body submerged, the long neck and head looks like a water snake (I don't know what biological advantage there might be in looking like a snake rather than a bird.) It scoops up fish with it's beak and pouch kind of like a Pelican. A bird of southern swamps, the Anhinga is also known as the Water-Turkey. Tastes like chicken?

Comfort food

I'm having one of those days, weeks or whatever you want to call it. When I'm in that space I crave comfort food and the places that deliver that experience. Those places tend to remind me of childhood and it always makes me think of Robert Frank's "The Americans."

This image is of one of my all time favorite spots, John's Seafood in Lafayette, Louisiana. It's the one I think about when I'm down. Sadly it recently closed due to a fire and may not re-open. Sad day, bad week, place on fire—think there's a blues rag in this?

Flying Home!