ArtSpeaks & All That Jazz

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I PAINTED MYSELF POEMS

    PAINT POEMS   I took up the paintbrush when words would not come and painted myself poems    In my 89th year, the words have returned.  I am deep into completing a novel.   And I am compiling a book of poems which originated as paintings.      Seems I am a serious late… read more

Ultimate Truth in ART Making.

How Does Artistic Truth Emerge?  By searching for it, or letting it happen?         SELF-PORTRAIT AS THERAPY   For  want of a model or subject, I sometimes turn to Self Portrait, but for sure, not out of vanity! More like it, I do a real number on myself!         “THE SCREAM”… read more

THE ARTISTRY OF JELLYFISH

ORGANIC LIVING SCULPTURES Call  them what you may–– jellyfish, jellies, jellies, sea jellies, Medusa,   MAN OF WAR–– to my mind, they are the oldest  body artists on this planet. They have roamed the seas for 500 million years. Shaping themselves from some magic substance, wrapping themselves around air in miracles of design. Transparent. Fragile. Ephemeral,… read more

WOULD YOU BUY THE MONA LISA?

   WOULD YOU BUY THE MONA LISA?  EVEN IF YOU REALLY DON’T DIG IT?  Lots of people wouldn’t buy the Mona Lisa if it were painted yesterday by some unknown artist. If they could level with you ––without being hooted down–– they would tell you they really don’t  dig it.  Does that mean they shouldn’t… read more

The Lioness in Winter/The Model in Her Springtime

        THE LIONESS IN WINTER  1.   HOW SHOULD THE OLDER WOMAN BE PAINTED? I love the challenge of painting the woman, or man, of a certain age.   I don’t go for   typecasting the elderly subject as saint, venerable old sod, or ancient harridan, not  being such an admirer of fixed… read more

“Character” Portrait of an Old Woman

                                                            The Wisdom of Her Years   (Oil on Canvas)   MODELS WEARING HATS. THE  GENERAL HOKIENESS OF  COSTUME DRAMA, ETC. Working in an art club group, sharing the studio,  one has to go along with the consensus of how to pose the model. So that’s what I do. But I can’t buy into the… read more

WHAT EXACTLY IS A PORTRAIT?

    ROBIN, STUDY IN BLUE     For the past year I have been painting one-sitting renderings of the live model in which the head  certainly takes central focus. Nevertheless each of these paintings is not  what I think of as being a “portrait” in the traditional sense. I gravitate to the human landscape,… read more

JAPANESE ART, TSUNAMIS, EARTHQUAKES, REVOLUTIONS, & What does Art have to do with the real world?

IS ART EVEN IMPORTANT ANYMORE?        WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE “REAL” WORLD? Here we are, stuck in a twenty-first century version of Charles Dickens’ “best of times and worst of times”.  Limitless technological innovation keeps adding to our comforts while enlarging our needs.  Still, we have been rudely reminded… read more

THE ART IS THE MESSAGE

   THE ART IS ALWAYS THE MESSAGE The art  is the message ––to paraphrase Marshal McLuhan’s  “the medium is the message”.   The old saw about literary art went: ‘if you want to send a message, phone Western Union and send a telegram.’  Well, Western Union and the singing telegram have all but gone the… read more

PICASSO’S M.O.

 PICASSO’S MODUS OPERANDI   Picasso’s Modus Operandi boiled down to not having a specific way of operating. He never pinned himself down. He tried everything.     As an expressionist painter who works in many different ways, I am so very indebted to Picasso–– and I humbly acknowledge him not only as my teacher but also… read more

WHY I AM AN EXPRESSIONIST PAINTER: From Buying Green Bananas Back to 5 Years Old

THE FIVE YEAR OLD’S MASTERPIECE?   As a woman of a “certain age” I do buy green bananas. And I intend to “spunk” it  forward to  the end of all things as an artist of whatever. Which somehow entails traveling backwards in time.    I  still keep hoping to experience that ultimate kick of creating… read more

ARTSPEAK & ALL THAT JAZZ

WHAT IS ART, ANYWAY? The late great Louis Armstrong said: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know”. Does that apply to visual art––That you either know the real article in your bones, or you don’t? THAT IT SPEAKS TO YOU OR IT DOESN’T?  What I find so exhilarating and life enhancing… read more

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