Seurat drawings at MoMA

Check out this slideshow of Seurat's drawings entitled "The Pointillist and the Terrorist: Seurat's quiet revolution."

...some really great drawings, with an interesting historical perspective.

"Modern Urban-Expressionism"

Recently we held an informal gathering here at our school to discuss graffiti art. Controversy continues to swirl about its status as a valid art form vs. an exercise in anti-social behavior. On the heels of such discussion and the suggestion that graffiti artists try painting on canvas rather than someone else's property, here's an artist named Marcus Antonius Jansen who paints in a style he calls "Modern Urban-Expressionism".

He's recently had an exhibit of his work at Gallery XIV in Boston. Here's an example of his work (titled "Subway Housing") as well as an exerpt of the show's review in the Boston Globe:

"The show features paintings by Marcus Antonius Jansen, whose art must be measured beside his bloated self-promotion; his publicity materials say that he has founded a movement called "Modern Urban-Expressionism."
Jansen is no progenitor of a radical new vision, just another purveyor of a trend that marries street art with painterly technique and collage. Still, he is a gifted painter. There's a little Rauschenberg in his work, and moments of Rothko, peppered with the graffiti sensibilities of Barry McGee.
He makes deft use of space in his large canvases, which appear sweeping while leading the eye to tiny, charismatic details. "Subway Housing" opens into a capacious subway car. The floor shimmers in a drippy flood of pearly beiges; the walls breathe with green. Jansen scrawls graffiti over it - a jagged dancing figure, a fawn.
Jansen's gritty, Expressionistic works situate innocence against a hallucinatory backdrop of loss and threat. He may not be a new master, but his work deserves a look." - Cate McQuaid (Boston Globe, Oct. 4, 2007)

You can check out a lot more of his work at www.marcusjansen.com .

What do you think?

I'm interested in hearing how, if at all, this relates to graffiti art and what you think of this work.

Sponaneity vs. Careful Planning & Sketchbooks

As a teacher, I encourage my students to use a sketchbook and work out ideas, either in the form of sketches/drawings or writing/journaling. The sketchbook/journal is a great tool for organizing ones thoughts and ideas. There's also something to be said for working spontaneously too.

The artist, Peter Voulkos worked in a very spontaneous and intuitive way... a very physical way as well. These plates are some of the many pieces Voulkos made with an abstract expressionist sort of sensibility with clay. Here's a quote from his January, 1999 talk at the Regis Master Series, Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota:

"When I don't know what the hell I'm doing - that's when I know I'm on the right track. People ask if I do a drawing of a big piece before I start it. I say 'If I had a drawing, I wouldn't do the piece'. Why do something if you know ahead of time what it's going to look like? I never know what the hell I'm going to do."

... Which leads to my question: how do you find yourself most effectively working in your creative process? Are you a meticulous planner? or are you someone who relies on intuition? or perhaps a combination of both?

Function and Art

This is an ancient drain covering, a huge disc, which a clever artist sculpted into the face of the sea god Oceanus. If any liar were brave enough to place their hand inside the gaping mouth of the god, the jaws were said to snap shut. It is found next to the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Italy.

Bocca Della Verita or Mouth of Truth

What are your thoughts on art and the functional? Do they coexist easily? When do function and expression seem at odds with one another?

Finding Artistic Inspiration in Poetry

Many painters have used poetry (sometimes their own, sometimes other's) as a vehicle to further their painterly pursuits (this goes back to the beginning of recorded history).

Sometimes the artists simply illustrate the narrative, while others try to get a little deeper and attempt to evoke a similar emotional reaction from the viewer that the poem elicits.

For your consideration:

The opening stanza in one of Robert Herrick's(1591-1674) more famous poems,

"To the Virgins, toMake Much of Time"

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

Here are two of John William Waterhouse's paintings based on Herrick's work.

Successful? Less Successful? How come?

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May 1908

John William Waterhouse

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May 1909

John William Waterhouse

Graffiti - Old News

My dad (who just turned 83) showed me this old clipping in regards to the graffiti that's been making the news of late, as well as this blog. It appears that he and his brother (my Uncle Al) and a friend got nabbed for graffiti back in the late 1930s. He guesses this Lewiston Evening Journal clipping is likely from 1938 or 39. I guess it's a universal urge for the adolescent to make his or her mark somewhere, somehow!

Richard Shaw - the animated still life

I received a package in the mail a couple of days ago from a ceramic artist friend named Richard Shaw. Richard's a very successful artist who lives and works in Fairfax, California. I met him many years ago through my friend and former Ceramics instructor, Josh Nadel. He's been a generous and supportive friend since then. He sent me an invitation to an exhibit and a new book that features his work and an interesting interview. He's been making amazingly detailed sculptures in clay of assemblages of various common found objects. His works are skillfully created from clay and are considered trompe l'oeil masterpieces. They often take the form of animated figures made of various seemingly random parts. He also painstakenly creates ceramic still lifes. They are sentimental in nature as the objects appear to be from another time.

Here are excerpts from the interview:
"I think taking the still life and making it into a person is like breathing life into it. But there's nothing wrong with the still life because it still has the presence of somebody who arranged that stuff. "

"The phrase 'nature mort' - dead nature, is that it? That's how they refer to the still life. Well, I'm trying to do the opposite, make it alive, not dead."

check out more of Richard's work at: http://www.bquayartgallery.com/archive/shaw2007.html

Painting Kitty Kats

"Marla, the elephants, and perhaps even your own brilliant progeny may be terrific painters—but they're not artists. This is because art is not just about making things or slapping pigment on canvas; it's also a way of thinking and seeing. Marla and the elephants are primitives, not prodigies. With no understanding of the issues at stake, there's little chance that their work will push art in any meaningful new direction."

Check out this article on Slate about child "prodigies", painting cats and elephants & assorted silliness that seems to dominate mainstream art reporting. I swear, I've yet to see an article or feature outside of newspapers that dealt with painting outside of the classic, "I can't believe that unlikely creature could make art! Gorsh!"

new student work

As promised: a sampling of new student work fresh from the kiln. We'll be trying to post images of student work from time to time so that you can marvel at their accomplishment. This Ceramics project involved a surface treatment called sgrafitto. Sgrafitto is very much like scratchboard whereby a layer of underglaze or englobe is painted onto the surface of an unfired pot and incised or carved into to create the surface design.

Public Sculpture

You should check out the link to the slideshow essay below- the title seems to be a little more sensationalistic than the content- it's definitely worth checking out.

So do it!

Right now!

Monumental Failures

A dog made of flowers. A giant, mirrored bean. What's the point of public sculpture?

By Dushko Petrovich
http://www.slate.com/id/2174615/slideshow/2174752/entry/2174762/

...then think about the public sculptures you've seen around this town (or others)- do they live up?

Inspirational Art Quote of the Day

"Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail."

Theodore Dreiser

(Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (1871-1945) was an American author of the naturalist school, known for dealing with the gritty reality of life.)

This quote might be a tad bit heavy, but I dig it.

It speaks of the ineffable differences between student and more mature work...

Lucian Freud

Reflection (self portrait)

1985Oil on canvas

56.2 x 51.2 cm

Private collection

art students at work

Here are some illustrious art students hard at work. These pictures were taken during Advanced Ceramics this past Monday. I'll be sure to post pics of the finished pieces at a later date. There is a lot of good work being done in each section of Ceramics, Ceramics II as well as Advanced. Keep up the good work, folks!

It occurs to me that I've used the word "work" several times in this post, including the title. It's true that real accomplishment comes only with work. Work is a good word... and a necessary ingredient for growth.

Art Supplies

Working artists often run into the issue of affording art supplies- I swear, these kids don't know how good they have it...
Here is an interesting article about how Van Gogh dealt with the very same issue.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2157890,00.html
I'm surprised that these paintings have held up as well as they have... (here's one of them)



Vincent Van Gogh
The Large Plane Trees
1890

thought for the day

"It is the poet and the artist who are concerned with the function of original man who are trying to arrive at his creative state. Man's first speech was poetic before it was utilitarian... Man's hand traced the stick through the mud to make a line before he learned to throw the stick as a javelin."
-Barnett Newman

duende

Flamenco music has its roots in the wayfaring life of the Andalusian gypsies of Spain - a life full of violence, sorrow, beauty and passion. There is a concept amongst these musicians called "duende", that quality that comes undeniably and forcefully from instinct. Andalusians speak constantly of duende, and for them there is no greater truth. It is said that the greatest guitarist is not merely an interpreter of compositions, but is instead a spontaneous composer. His [her] material comes from within. If he [she] does not possess an inventive genius and a sense of spontenaity, combined with a deep sense of compas (rhythem), he [she] will never reach great heights in music. The poet Federico Garcia Lorca describes duende as "a power, not a method; a struggle, not a thought... For every artist, every step he climbs in the tower of perfection costs him a struggle - not with the angel, or with the muse, but with duende."

I think I saw a bit of duende happening with some of my Advanced Ceramics students today. The struggle, duende, that is.

Anyone? Anyone?

I think one of the best things about this blog so far is the conversations happening in the comments section. Some of our former art monkeys have been heard to weigh in on various topics, as well as local artists. Hopefully, this will continue to grow...

So- I am going to suggest that anyone out there in the ether who has any topic/question/observation that would serve as a fertile discussion topic either post it in the comments section of this post, or, if'n you're feeling particularly bashful, you can email me at nathaniel.meyer *at* yahoo.com.

Thanks.

N.C. Wyeth

War bonds poster, W.W.I

ah, N.C. Wyeth- one of my personal favorites, a tremendous illustrator from the golden age (more on N.C. at a later date).

A powerful piece of propaganda...

Finally, some students work...

Lest you all think that all we do down in the studios is pontificate...
Pictured is Andrea Dibello working on a still life in oil in Advanced Painting. Check back to see the finished product. (the pressure's on now!)


I forgot to mention that Adrea stayed after class to continue working- THAT"S why the classroom is empty...

Art & political or social commentary

Art has many purposes. It celebrates truth and beauty and enriches our lives in many ways. One important role art can play in our lives is to make us think, to stir us up and generate discussion and debate, promote and introduce ideas by way of social or political commentary. In that sense art plays a very important role in the free and democratic life we enjoy in our country. It can help us examine, define and refine our core values, making us better citizens as a result. What do YOU think? Here's an example:

Robert Arneson American, b. Benecia, CA, 1930-1992

GENERAL NUKE, September, 1984 glazed ceramic and bronze on granite base 78"x 30"x 37"

Inspired by the ceramic sculptures of Joan Miro and Peter Voulkos, Robert Arneson turned to that medium in the late 1950s. He quickly developed a humorous style of portraiture, especially self-portraits, in punning, ironic or mocking modes. Yet, after confronting a diagnosis of cancer, the artist redirected his art in the early 1980s to address nuclear holocaust at a time of escalating armament by the two superpowers. Conceived when the United States and the Soviet Union temporarily abandoned negotiations on arms control, GENERAL NUKE presents a caustic, denigrating stereotype of a military leader. With bloody fangs and a phallic MX "peacekeeper" missile for a nose, the snarling head wears the helmet of a three-star general, which is covered with a global military map incised with abbreviations for the available nuclear weapons: ICBM, IRBM, ACLM, SLBM. Some inscriptions ridicule those who, in Arneson's view, foster war, while other markings provide facts about the impact of a one-megaton bomb ("Fallout: lethal 600 sq. mi., death risk 2000 sq. mi."). Even the pedestal is part of the message, for the head stands on a bronze pedestal depicting hundreds of charred, stacked corpses, resting on a base of granite - a material traditionally used for memorials.

Text adapted from "Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 150 Works of Art" (1996), entry by Valerie J. Fletcher

Great Piece of Art Criticism

This article- by art critic Robert Hughes is one of the best send ups of the post modern art scene that I've come across. It is a review of the 1993 Whitney Biennial, but still rings true 14 years later.
Check it out...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978001,00.html

Missing student work?

Some of you might be wondering why there are no images of student work on this blog yet.

Well, fortunately, we live in an age of unprecented access to information. Unfortunately, we also live in an age of fear and paranoia.

So, in an effort to protect our students, we require them to bring home a media release form that gives us permission to post student work online. We should be getting them back very soon.

...stay tuned.


Alphonse Mucha
Dance
1898
Decorative panel
14 7/8 x 23 5/8 in. (38 x 60 cm)

Alphonse Mucha was primarity an illustrator and jewelry designer whose work helped define the Art Noveau movement (although he did not consider himself an Art Noveau artist).
His compostions are just incredible...
He used photo references for his figures, but since they were meant to flatten out anyway, it totally worked.

QUESTION: Is graffiti art real art?

Here's an excerpt from this morning's Lewiston Sun Journal newspaper regarding graffiti art and the designation of a "legal" graffiti wall in our city. This has become a point of debate and contention in our community.

LEWISTON - An anti-graffiti plan supported by Mayor Larry Gilbert was in trouble Thursday after one of the founding taggers was arrested Wednesday night and owners of the city's graffiti wall were considering evicting the painters permanently.

To read the whole story go here and weigh in on this blog with your thoughts on the issue. Is graffiti art a valid art form or mere vandalism? Let's see if we can generate some meaningful dialogue!

(photo is of Brian Serfes working on the graffiti wall in Lewiston - credit: Jose Leiva/Sun Journal)

First Friday in Portland

So tonight is First Friday in Portland. On the first Friday of every month, most of the art studios and galleries in the city open their new art exhibitions, or have open studios. The downtown area of Portland has many small art galleries and alternative arts venues, as well as buildings that house many floors of artist's studios. The openings go from 5 to 8 and the Portland Museum of Art is free from 5 to 9- all in all, it makes for a pretty happenin', inexpensive night on the town. (f.m.i.- http://www.firstfridayartwalk.com/ )


And now because I can't make a post without an image:

(Homer really captures the spirit of the Maine coast (talk about strong, assured brushwork!)
Winslow Homer
West Point, Prout's Neck, Maine
1900
Oil on canvas
30 1/4 x 48 1/4 in (76.8 x 122.6 cm)
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

...I tried to find a picture of "Weatherbeaten" which is owned by the P.M.A., but I could not find any quality images. It strikes me as a little odd that "public" institutions like museums would so jealously guard their reproductions- I can't imagine that they make that much off postcards.
Anyway the Portland Museum of Art has a very fine Homer landscape that is worth seeing in person. One can get a sense of a work from an image, but the experience pales in comparison to seeing it in real life. One gets more of a sense of the process of the work, which, as we all know, is muy importante. When a work is viewed as a reproduction, it lends the work a false smoothness- really, the only thing one can gather from a repro is composition, and if great care is taken w/the photography, some of the color relationships (although all you have to do is type in a famous painting into a search engine and see how different the images appear to see that you can't rely on any kind of accuracy)

Native American (pre-Colonial) pot

This is a very old Native American clay pot found in Auburn, Maine and restored by the Maine Historical Society. I'm posting this as proof to my students that people have really been creating with clay in our area for thousands of years. Ceramics is something that connects us to our oldest ancestors. Here's proof!

Inpirational Art Quote and Thought for the Day

I just opened Robert Henri's The Art Spirit and the first thing I saw was a paragraph on originality:

"Don't worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick to you and show you up for better or for worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do."

I think this is especially true for beginning students- the desire to for ones work to be instantly recognizable is a strong one. What many students of art don't realize is that contrived stylization of what they are observing has been done the same way by countless students looking for a shortcut to a "style". It is very understandable, as most famous artists (especially those artists who are famous in mainstream culture) have an easily recognizable style.
The thing that makes one person's work different from another's is that there is a different brain attached to more or less the same eyeballs (that is what makes visual art 'work'- everybody's sense of vision is essentially the same). Even if a class of students are all drawing a relatively dry still life- there are infinite ways to render that still life in a way that it becomes more than the sum of its parts & communicates something of the human experience (and, the experience of the artist).

...of course, there are just as many ways to execute a still life in a deeply flawed manner.


Lawren Harris
Beaver Swamp, Algoma
1920 Oil on canvas
120.7 x 141 cm (47 1/2 x 55 1/2 in.)
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

...and just because images are more important than words, here is a painting by Lawren Harris, one of the Group of Seven- a group of Canadian painters that were active in the early part of the twentieth century. The drawing/compostion in this piece is quite strong, and the brushwork is simply amazing- plus the imagery is not unlike what we find here in Maine. In my opinion, their use of color was far superior to the vast majority of Modernist painters.

Inspirational Art Quote of the Day:

"The subject itself is of no account; what matters is the way it is presented."
Raoul Dufy 1877-1953

(or, as Mr.Meyer says, "Its not what you paint, its how you paint it.")


Raoul Dufy "Composition"
circa 1910

Inspirational Art Quote of the Day:

"Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired." Gustav Courbet




Gustav Courbet
The Cellist, Self-Portrait
1847
Oil on canvas
46 1/8 x 35 1/2 in (117 x 90 cm)
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Inspirational Art Quote of the Day

...from Robert Henri's The Art Spirit (1923)

"Art, when really understood, is the province of every human being.

It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work my be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows that there are still more pages possible.

The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him; for he is interesting to himself and he is interesting to others. He does not have to be a painter or a sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it.

Museums of art will not make an art country. But where there is the art spirit there will be precious works to fill museums. Better still, there will be the happiness that is in the making. Art tends toward balance, order, judgement of relative values, the laws of growth, the economy of living- very good things for anyone to be interested in."


*Back in the day, the use of 'he' was considered proper grammar if the writer wasn't referring to a specific gender-N. Meyer

One of the things I admire most about Henri's work is its immediacy- his paintings look like they were done in one session with an economy of mark making that gives the work great strength.

In fact, in The Art Spirit, he states, "Do it in one sitting if you can. In one minute if you can. There is no virtue in delaying."

Robert Henri
Cumulus Clouds, East River
1901-02
Oil on canvas
63.5 x 80.6 cm (25 x 31 3/4 in.)
Private collection

The first post...

Welcome to Lewiston High School Visual Art Department's blog!

We have envisioned this space as a way for people both within the Lewiston High School community and elsewhere to connect with the Arts in a general/theoretical way as well as seeing what specifically is going on in the Art Department.