Anabasis: Journey to the Interior: Diary 2/20/12

Neo-color pastel and pencil on paper

"On our block there were pieces of coal lying all over the street."

Text inspired by writer Patricia Ann McNair's daily journal prompt #39.

Me and Audrey Niffenegger ...

... are featured in an article in this magazine, Fictionary, produced by the talented student faculty of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. They interviewed me and Audrey about our artist's books--and I didn't know Audrey was going to be the co-featured artist, so I am flattered to be on the same page as she. I think they didn't exactly choose the best picture of me from the reel that they shot (I look stoned or half asleep, and I can assure you I was neither). But that aside, it's a good article (click on the image to enlarge it to a readable size):

Four Minutes With Ellsworth Kelly

From Hyperallergic, the world's greatest New York-based art blog, comes a link to an interview with Ellsworth Kelly - still alive and still talking absorbingly about his art:

Four Minutes With Ellsworth Kelly:

'via Blog this'

Anabasis: Journey to the Interior: Diary 2/11/2012

Neo-color pastels on handmade paper

"Here's how it all started". Text taken from writer Patricia Ann McNair's daily journal prompt #32.

"The Chicago Project" at The Co-Prosperity Sphere

The Co-Prosperity Sphere is a community-based organization and exhibition space on Chicago's south side. For a few weeks, until February 16th, it's showing work by painter and printmaker Watie White.

It was a little difficult to find information about what I was looking at while I was at the opening last week, but from what I can gather, the work on display consists of giant banners made from the artist's woodcuts, which are part of a proposed or actual mural. Each print is a portrait of a real person, with a phrase from that person printed in white letters over their face:

I actually met Watie at the Vermont Studio Center in 2000, and we both used the presses at the Chicago Printmaker's Collaborative for a time in the early 2000's, too, so I know his work pretty well. He has developed this very strong, direct style of woodcut, producing prints which are always interesting to look at for their high degree of technical skill and the stylistic trait of cutting lots of snaking lines into the faces. It's great to see such a venerable and beautiful medium being put to the service of public art, too.

Also on display was a room of smaller text and image pieces. The images are taken from the covers of pulp fiction magazines, so there's lots of strong-jawed men and swooning women caught in moments of drama. Over each image Watie painted sentences from his own personal journals, some of them going back to his teens:

The jarring juxtaposition between the image and the words produces a feeling of pathos which only heightens the toughness of some of the memories. Again, as someone who is involved in projects based on personal narrative, I appreciate the level of honesty about the self-revelation in these pictures.

If you live in Chicago, there's still time to see the show, at 3219 South Morgan Street, Chicago.

Meditation on Martin Creed

This is Meditation number 95 - closing in on 100 now. It's about the work of British artist Martin Creed, who is the artist in residence at Chicago's MCA during 2012 (see my post on Hyperallergic for more about that.)

Anabasis: The Wall

In my studio yesterday, I put up a selection of works on paper that I completed in the last six weeks, related to the theme of "Anabasis: Journey to the Interior."

The Big, The Bold, The Beautiful

That's the title of a show that Patty and I went to see last Friday night, at a gallery a few blocks from our Chicago apartment. The venue is the Avram Eisen Gallery, owned and run by a friend of ours. We all met back in 2003, I think, when Avram attended one of Patty's aerobics classes.

(Yes, Patty used to teach aerobics. No, that is not why I married her.)

Anyway, Avram is a sterling chap, and we've been meaning to go to an opening at his gallery for a while. The occasion last Friday was the launch of a book called "Lather, Rinse, Repeat", by David Tabak, illustrated by Andy Finkle, who is one of Avram's artists. A lot of people crowded into the gallery to here Tabak read (click on any photo to display larger image):

Avram has kept his gallery and framing business going through the worst recession in 70 years. For that, and for his commitment to showing good quality art, he deserves every commendation.

I was particularly taken by the work of the other artist on display, Jimmy Wilnewic. The first notable fact is that the artist turned out to be taller even than Avram, in other words, somewhere north of 6 feet 5 inches. The paintings were these small  but dense collections of tiny shapes and forms, which reminded me of something like a cross between Surrealist art and cartoon imagery:

The show runs until the end of February, at 5204 North Damen Avenue, Chicago. If you're in the neighbourhood, it's worth stopping in to look.