my scrappy abstract art

First reactions.

lucien freud

I will miss sharing food with Lucian. We had some lovely breakfasts together at his place. I would say he was a good, plain cook – an idiosyncratic cook, perhaps, but a good one. He could take a hung woodcock and pop it in the oven and it would be a very good lunch. He was generally good on the subject of wine and on food. He was a stylish man and, although not a great eater, he did like to go out in the evenings. He would have day sitters and night sitters in his home and he would usually take them out afterwards as part of the payment. He liked the Wolseley in Piccadilly, in particular. I would say it was his current favourite and had been for a while. He called it "the best room in London", so I am not surprised they have honoured him with a black tablecloth and a candle on his regular table. He liked Clarke's in Kensington, too, and, in fact, both Sally Clarke and Jeremy King of the Wolseley sat for him. Lucian used to like the River Cafe too… I have lost count of the places we have gone out to together.
William Feaver

'twombly creating language' - 'thinking was mainly what he did'

Cy Twombly's art hit me with a lot of force this week as I read obituaries and listened to interviews. In particular, as introductions, there were Michael Wood's juxtapositions here and Jonathan Jones's reflection (now a few years old) here.

christine

Christine Seela

Ganzeer, an Egyptian visual artist based in Cairo, is drawing each of the martyrs who died over the course of Egypt's current revolution.

There's another memorial here.

fizzing engagement

Really like the fizzing engagement that comes across in this video. I found this through the constantly connecting, always informing Austin Kleon. His book of poems, which winged here last week, is moving, wise, and very funny.

word of god on a wall

Brooklyn, NYC

angels

Receiving these angels and a bus print from the absolutely lovely Si Smith made me very very very happy. Click the picture to see them more clearly.

'a state as much as a pursuit'

This drawing is a copy. An artist friend says copying is a legitimate way of learning. I certainly accept this for baking, exercise, friendship, conversation, writing - I mean that I copy people who do things well and from that starting point spring off into something that is my own. Maybe that's my blend of "realism and magic".

ordinary victories

I think this is the best book I have read so far this year.

A quick stream of conscious response: Some of my opinion formed out of the sheer surprise of Ordinary Victories (I did not know who Manu Larcenet was this time two weeks ago) but most of it comes from the fact that the story is just that good. It captures a person trying to heal himself - and learn what being forgiving might mean and understand what his art means - better than just about anything else I have ever read.There is a life and vividness to all of the characters that has stayed with me and wandered around with me as I go about my days since first finishing. (After a day's rest I decided to read it all again.) And it has helped me think a lot about art and relationships and energized my drawing all over again.

Wow.



"Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic... Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself."
Zadie Smith

Gormleys/Gormlies

Cheered every time I see the Gormleys here in the city.

grace and grayson

Grayson Perry came up a lot last week. (So did his wife, Philippa Perry, who has just written a graphic novel.) It used to feel more serendipitous when this would happen with different topics or people. I am less sure of that now that the internet allows all access all the time at the user's discretion. Hearing Mr. Perry speak, and then seeing his work, seeing him browse for books, I only became more interested in what he had to say.

His programme on Radio 4 about art and creativity, to be broadcast again this weekend, is particularly worth a listen.

in the neighbourhood

Drawing in the neighbourhood, on the hottest day of the year so far.

Next to the drawing, I wrote:
St. Rose of Lima, Roman Catholic Church, Brooklyn New York, Founded 1870. The best part of this drawing is that while working on it people stopped to take a look at what I was doing and even asked to see other drawings. A very sunny day - the first really hot one of the year, with people laughing and talking. The heat is fun, not yet oppressive. The perpetual whrrrrr of the air conditioners has not yet started. There is music. Their are voices. Many languages. Makes me feel like an artist.

joiners

I found the David Hockney image(s) I took this from here. I am sure that taking photographs by someone who usually draws and turning them back into drawings could lead to some complicated philosophy of art conclusion but for me there is just something very pleasing about the activity and life that these pieces, which Hockney calls 'joiners', communicate. Like seeing a conversation.

random

This is a bit of a random post, though there must be some thread of connection between the different ideas.

The drawings are both from my reading of the current NYRB, which seems to be where I get a lot of my ideas at the moment. It has the good balance between academic and popular appeal for me. Often, I am stunned by how moved I am by the reviews and essays. And by how much sense they make.

The 'embodiment' at the top of that page is something I have found myself animatedly chattering about with increasing frequency. I think it started last year when David Dark quoted Dylan on Johnny Cash and the 10,000 years of history that fell from him. Johnny Cash came to embody something that ran through his story and the songs but also goes beyond both. This reminds me of John Coletrane who, after giving his all in a performance was overheard saying, 'Nunc Dimittis', as he was coming off the stage. I am not really up to expanding on my thoughts on the page at the moment but will happily bend the ear of anyone who cares to listen. Particularly on why the time is right for Jeff Bridges to play the John Wayne part in the Coen's 'True Grit'.

And I think this quote best sums up how I feel about the muddying of religion and nationalism. I found it at Inhabito Dei, here.

I believe God made the St. Lawrence River, and the Rio Grande River, and the China Sea and the English Channel, but I don’t believe God made America, or Canada, or Mexico, or England, or China. Man did that. . . . It is doubtful that there has ever been a nation established for bad reasons. Nations are always established to escape tyranny, to combat evil, to find freedom, to reach heaven. Man has always been able to desire to build a heaven. But it seems he has never been able to admit that he didn’t pull it off. So he keeps insisting that he did pull it off. And that is really what patriotism is all about. It is the insistence that what we have done is sacred. It is that transference of allegiance from what God did in creating the whole wide world to what we have done with (or to) a little sliver of it. Patriotism is immoral. Flying a national flag—any national flag—in a church house is a symbol of idolatry. Singing ‘God Bless America’ in a Christian service is blasphemy. Patriotism is immoral because it is a violation of the First Commandment.

Will D. Campbell, “I Love My Country: Christ Have Mercy,” Motive (December, 1969)

yorkston festival

I received several James Yorkston albums in the post and they are all I have listened to for the past 2 weeks. Something about his music and his approach to his art that makes me very very happy. In the midst of my not finding a job its good to have the music to go to. Art communicates grace.

More videos here.

spike and mark

More skateboarding. I have never owned a skateboard and have not been on one in a decade but I love seeing these guys out on the streets.



Skating New York. The nearest I get to this is the run from here to the park.



I found out about Mark Gonzales on Spike Jonze's We Love You So blog, which is a fantastic feast of fun. Great creativity love and tangential movie promotion.

I tried drawing Mr. Jonze again.

the art of falling and getting up again

Grandmaster of 108 from Dorottya Mathe on Vimeo.

artists making art

I love this, on skateboarding legend Andy Kessler:
This is who he was and how he’ll be remembered, as a man who understood the abiding and cathartic power of resilience. You don’t give in. You take every run — on the ramp, with recovery, at City Hall. It has everything and nothing to do with skateboarding which, at its essence, is the act of focusing so intensely on the body that you feel liberated from your physical form. Think not of swimming in a pool, but of becoming the ocean itself. Think not of flying, but of floating in a place where the ground or gravity has never existed — a place where, at long last, there is no irony, no pain or struggle, where there’s no such thing as falling.

And I love the quote, with the drawing, on Cezanne (as well as the bonus quote from Mr. Fukuoka).



Because of these and because, to paraphrase Mike Yaconelli, doing something is better than not doing something, I am encouraged.

refractions

Spent some time this afternoon reading a couple of posts on the artist Makoto Fujimara's blog. I particularly liked his reflections on collaborating with Susie Ibarra and on the value of art. Here are some of the things that struck me.

Greenbelt Art

Greenbelt: Visual Arts 08 from Nathan Jones on Vimeo.

It is many years since I went to Greenbelt (the reasons for my absence are all geographical - and financial I suppose - absence makes my heart grow fonder of all those I already love). I dearly miss it. In many ways it continues to be a touchstone. Time spent there and recent virtual reconnection inform what I read and listen to. How I think.
Over the past several years I have been able to listen to more and more of the talks and more recently some videos have been appearing. I like this one a lot.

Jonny Baker linked to the video at his blog. Is this what they call a hat tip?