November 28, 2012
Aaron Parazette: IN PLAIN SIGHT
In the same week that my dear old friend Aaron Parazette was celebrated as the Artist of the Year in Houston, he had mounted a group show of Houston painters in his gallery there, McClain Gallery. Titled In Plain Sight, Aaron wrote about his intentions in his forward to the catalog, a snip:
The exhibition is non-thematic and multi-generational by design, with the work selected to represent a full range of painting being made in Houston. The show is also intentionally focused on conventional painting -- wall mounted supports upon which the primary actions invovle paint applied with a range of tools. I chose this parameter for a number of reasons. Beyond my own personal interest in painting, the most important reason is the sheer number of artists working in this way, in both Houston and beyond. While the means of contemporary art practice are amazingly plural, conventional painting continues to be one of the most dominant modes. Painting therefore seemed an obvious and interesting choice for a small survey that could be mounted in a conventional gallery. Further, in my view, something very particular often happens when an artist interacts with paint and his/her chosen tools. It would be foolish to attempt to define this particularity, as it is ultimately unique for each artist and each painting. Nonetheless, I believe that it does indeed exist. It is born of the quality that makes the act of crating a painting so alluring and powerful. As I write this, I feel Imight be making a quasi-religious proclamation. Perhaps I am.
Frances Colpitt wrote the essay for the catalog, titled: "Life After the Death of Painting".
Aaron Parazette: FLYAWAY
My old friend Aaron Parazette has been nominated as a Texas Artist of the Year for 2012 by the Art League Houston, you can read about him and the mural he painted for the occasion herea and here.
I shot his catalogue within the format of the animated GIF App provided by Loopcam:
Color Key #27
acrylic on linen
40 inches diameter
2011
private collection
November 27, 2012
Lest We Forget, Motherfuckin? Leibniz!
My earbuds have been screwed in tight with the recent Partially Examined Life Podcasts:
Episode 66: Quine on Linguistic Meaning and Science (a pleasant discovery)
Episode 65: The Federalist Papers (the lads feel that they could design a better constitution themselves)
Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism (very interesting)
Episode 63: Existentialist Heroes in Cormac McCarthy?s ?No Country for Old Men? (the lads seem to admire Anton Chigur)
Episode 62: Voltaire?s Novel ?Candide? (excellent, good to pair with Melvin Bragg's In Our Time)
And the next in this list podcast sent me back to Motherfuckin' Leibniz:
Episode 6: Leibniz?s Monadology: What Is There?
...which brought back Gary Geck too:
November 26, 2012
November 20, 2012
November 19, 2012
Jeffrey Collins in the House
Last week, painter/musician Jeffrey Collins generously stopped by my studio in Gowanus for a visit and to interview me on video for his upcoming project called Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, inspired by the famous film Painters Painting. You can see various fragments of his project at Duochrome Films.
I'm a big believer in documentary projects like this, and especially in characters like Jeffrey who are natural enthusiasts about art, self taught (autodidacts have the best education because it is tailored and not born of an off the shelf, generic curriculum) and self motivated from a genuine love for art and less so for the career aspect of the art industry. Watching Jeffrey set up his camera rig, with its modifications homemade from PVC and rubber bands, filled me with a strange confidence in what he was doing.
Feel free to contribute to his film project (you can find a mechanism for that here, the art world needs more of this kind of thing.
Open Studios: Columbia Univ. MFA Program
November 16, 2012
Simone Weil
Simone Weil was the topic this week on the BBC's In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil. Born in Paris in 1909 into a wealthy, agnostic Jewish family, Weil was a precocious child and attended the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, achieving the top marks in her class (Simone de Beauvoir came second)...(Listen Now)
Simone Weil in Wikipedia
Catharism in Wikipedia
WikiQuotes
A lecture delivered at Peninsula College by Wesley Cecil Ph.D. on the life and works of Simone Weil:
November 9, 2012
Nature's Mordant Cue
