Violets

Must be spring... violets are trying to break loose of the snow and undergrowth. I love the patterns of the downed grasses and the bright purple color punctuations. Not to mention the first signs of green!

Reconstructing Imagery

Last Thursday I went to a meeting of the Open Shelf Book Club at the Museum of Contemporary Art | Denver. Jasper de Beijer was discussing books and media that have influenced his work, now on view in the museum's Paper Works Gallery. The book he selected for our discussion next time is Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine... he talked about the one-dimensional thinking it exposes and mentioned that it is a somewhat difficult read. He said it was like "staring into the abyss of the soul..."

Several of us went up to the gallery afterwards and saw the show. His work is amazing. It was great to be able to ask him questions about his process. He builds representations of something that interests him and that he has studied -- using digital imagery, modelling, and some collage techniques -- and then photographs the models. Some of his models are on display along with a lot of the photographs. I was most taken with a series of 3-dimensional heads that he had collaged imagery onto -- busts of men who had suffered shell shock in WWI. The patched-together, collaged, 3D heads are quite interesting themselves but the photographic treatment flattens the imagery and really conveys their wounds and emptiness. The photo at top left is a detail from one of the heads to show how the imagery is joined... he said he mostly uses spray adhesive. If you click here, you can see his body of work and the larger image this detail comes from.

He talked a lot about our dis-association with photographed images from history. "...de Beijer has been reconstructing imagery that has become autonomous in the course of history, using existing sources to create a new reality." So then, what is "real"?

Building Creative Businesses

I went to Denver's Building Creative Businesses Expo on Saturday, attending sessions that covered Alternative Marketing Approaches for Artists and Working with Others on Public Art Projects. The third session I had selected was a bust so I slipped into a session for mid-career artists who want to work with multiple galleries. I got a lot out of hearing that discussion, information to be stored for future reference.

I particularly liked hearing artists discuss their marketing experiences -- what worked for them and what didn't. I got an infusion of good new ideas. And some inspiration to boot.

Painterly Animation

It did snow yesterday (ugh)... so we went to see the "2007 Academy Award Nominated Animated Short Films." What a treat! My favorite was titled "My Love" by Alexander Petrov of Russia. The animation style is like a continuously-evolving impressionist painting. It was so unusual and strikingly beautiful... I had to find out how it was done.

The International Federation of Film Critics website has a review of the film by Nadezhda Marinchevska, who says, "My Love is a passionate and psychological film beautifully painted on glass. It delicately moves between reality, introspection and dreams without destroying the truthfulness of the story. Alexander Petrov's painting is derived from the impressionist styles and their bright colors interspersed here and there with dramatic red and black tones pouring out of the boy's nightmares. The talented animation gives new life to the countless tiny brush strokes which are in a state of permanent movement. Actually, Petrov makes his oil paintings with fingers on multiple glass planes. The world in the film is moving and dancing in a never-ending play of shadows and colors matching the unstable emotions of the young boy. The continuous blurs and sharps of the image are part of the poetic language of the film. This is a work of contrasts where the sunshine plays its own role over the characters' faces. The fluid changes of the image create a breathing world where harmony and drama blend in an organic way."

Part of the film is posted on YouTube so you can get a rough idea, however the subtleties and very fluid transitions when viewed on a big screen are completely different. If you get a chance to see it, the striking visuals will stay with you for a long time.