Dennis Hollingsworth

Una Cocina en la Costa Brava

Back last February, I reported on our plans to build out a new kitchen, completing the eventual transformation of the former "Tito's Restaurant" into our home ("Can Hollingsworth"? -as in the local tradition of naming edifices- but I like the original name: Can Marcelino, mas suave, tio.) The dream began in 2004 and here we are with a dream come true.

Here are some pics I took in the first moments of encountering the finished space:

MANIFESTO: NYC

Andrew Hahn is presenting his movie "Manifesto", a 52 minute no-budget bio-pic on
The Unabomber, starring David Hughes as Ted
Kaczynski at RENTAL NY this weekend, here's a shout out to my friends and bog-readers in the big apple to stop in, watch it and collar Andrew with some feedback afterwards.

Codolar

I'm finally in Tossa and into the water after a late night over drinks at Kiko's place with Alberto (pictured), catching up into the wee hours.

The water is great, warm and colder below the thermal layer. I haven't seen any octopus yet and the schools of fish seem thinner than before. Reports from local fisherman indicate a smaller catch this year, continuing a downward trend and an ominous implication of overfishing in the Mediterranean.

Pics of the house will come soon and my head is swirling with the coming brace of paintings I'm about to grapple with this summer.

SUMMER SMOCKSHOP

Andrea Zittel will be using my studio space this summer to present her SUMMER SMOCKSHOP in Los Angeles' ChinaTown.

If you're in town, be sure to stop in and check out all the work and events they will have on display. It's at 936 Mei Ling Way, next door to Hop Louie and Grand Star bars, next to Welcome Hunters... it's the former location of Rental Gallery LA.

Something's Happening

I'm about to step off to make some paintings in Spain. I feel a fruitful summer coming on strong.

Please stay tuned, more to come...

(image source)

MESLER&HUG

This is the beginning of the install (Thursday nite) of Uri Aran and Ara Dymon's recent work at the inaugural show of MESLER&HUG Gallery at the former Daniel Hug Gallery space in the Bernard Street cul-de-sac of Los Angeles' ChinaTown.

...from the press release:

Uri Aran lives and works in New York City. This will be his first time showing in Los Angeles.

Ara Dymond was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was raised in New York City, where he still lives. This will be his first time showing in Los Angeles.

I met these guys, both super interesting each in their own way. Ara's sculpture is pretty damn good... the words "casually rigorous" come to mind. In sculpture, I see a divide between the juxtapose of assemblage and the kneaded hand-forming one might see in a Brancusi or Rodin or Michaelangelo's late period "Slaves" series. To my mind, Ara seems to split that difference.

I haven't seen Uri's work yet (He's installing five video monitors on the walls and a projector in the small room in back), but Iv'e heard that one of them involves weeping and caressing a huge dog in the lap. (!) I expect them to be intense.

See you there?

Ahora

Studio visit: Brad (& Antonio)

Notes:
-This, in the effort to capture the butterflies.

-Chop chop, tweak, tweak- a couple of hours (& a bit more), an answer to the question of how to re-present that afternoon with a harvest of twelve video segments of time.

-I've either forgotten to identify Bart Exposito in the video or I've assumed that the audience would know who he is.

A little of both, I suppose.

Hoy

Juniper Hills

Admin

I counted eight days of build out. A wall, a deck, a stair no- shelves stelves, and a place to rack a few bigger things. Yesterday was gobbled up with this and that (shipping the previous four paintings out to Tomio) and the beginnings of moving my stuff into the new construction.

Finally, the new studio is ready to rock, all kitted out properly... and in a week and a half, I will fly out to Tossa to paint a few paintings during the summer for my galleries in Europe. It is a bit strange to take such strenuous effort to prep a studio just to fly out a week later, but there is some comfort in knowing that when I return to LA, I have a great studio that's ready to rock.

Today, Andrew Hahn and I are driving out to George Page's studio in Juniper Hills to make a few lithographs. Andrew is going to squeeze a camera and pick George's brain. Maybe we'll have a few images for you when we get back. There's much to report to you via this blog and as always, too much falls through my fingers. However, a diary must always follow life and not instead lead it... and this means specifically for me: painting. There are a few correspondents to reply to and a few thoughts I've had about the difficulties and blessings of being an artist in our early 21st century... I have a follow-up visit to the studio of Monique van Genderen for you all and of course, Jacques deserves a considered response to his recent cri de c?ur.

Please stay tuned, much more to come.

Spring to Summer

Ahora

Garden: a large patch of tomatoes, onions, lettuce (to be eaten as infants), peppers, eggplant...

Here's the studio as I left last night:

Hands (Still) Not Free

Dreams have their price.

The chronicle of my curiosity, the record of my creative life, and the usual velvet punditry to resume shortly.

Wood Butcher

I'm getting a backlog of blogposts to pull together soon...

...but my hands are full at the moment.

Ahora

Painting