A Few Studio Shots

The view from my desk

A few new tools that were a gift from my dad.  They don't do a good job at their intended purposes -- in fact they're pretty useless-- but fantastic shapes for looking at and painting from.

Love the windows and shape of our space

My fantastic new palette table.  It's so wonderfully enormous.  An old ikea table found on craigslist.

Women and Biography at Woodmere Art Museum

I'm happy to share this announcement for Women and Biography opening at Woodmere Art Museum on February 8th.  I have a piece in this show which was bought by a woman who promised her collection to Woodmere.  So that's how that happened.

The show focuses on women who paint from their own life as a subject matter.  I am more than honored to be showing alongside these women, many of whose paintings have been the source of contemplative looking for me.  That first name though, Mary Cassatt, holds something particularly special for me.

Beginning in fifth grade, Mary Cassatt was to me what Michael Jordan was to many of my male counterparts.  She was my Justin Bieber to girls of that age currently.  If you couldn't already tell, I wasn't the coolest kid, but I was passionate.

Around that time, I already knew I loved art and knew quite a few artists -- Georgia O'Keeffe, Dali, da Vinci, Gauguin, Degas, Monet -- they were on my radar, but none held my intrigue like Mary Cassatt.  I had read all of their 30 page biographies in the library and decided Mary was who I needed to emulate.  Number 1 -- she spent time in Philadelphia and was a woman painter.  Check, I could do that.  Number 2 -- somewhat magically and simply (at least in the bio) she ended up in France alongside some of the best painters and thinkers of her generation.  That would work for me.

So when I found out that our final graduating project was the 'famous person project' I naturally knew who would be my subject.  For this project students in the entire grade had to create a written report and foam core poster and it would culminate in a one day event where we dressed as that person and presented them to the class.  

I worked so hard on that report.  The cover was a hand cut-out brown paper palette with collaged rainbow colored-blobs of paint.  The kicker was the binding -- I hole punched the side in two places and used a paintbrush to hold the rubber bands that secured it in place.  I was very shy at that time and I have to say normally pretty modest, but on that day I distinctly remember carrying the report in, casually facing outwards.  Not too aggressive but just in case someone caught a glimpse they would note that I was not only depicting a great artist, but also one with her own artistic merit.  HAHA! 

My love has spread a bit since then, to other painters and realities for myself.  But I definitely still have love for her.  This painting at the PMA is always a favorite of mine.  I love the way the darks fuse into one large abstract shape and what that suggests of the relationship of the father and son, form becomes content: 

Portrait of Alexander J. Cassatt and His Son, Robert Kelso Cassatt, 1884, Oil on Canvas

So my fifth grade self can't help but smile deeply at the reality of this Woodmere show and the proximity of our names on the publication.  Of course I am in no way equating the two of us but it is quite an affirming feeling to look back close to 20 years and know that this thing of making art which seized me then still possesses me.  And that I am lucky enough to be living a life in which I paint on most days I think would make that 10 year old version of myself pretty proud.

A Few Notes

My second computer just died.  So I'm on a bit of a blog-less streak which coincides with this week marking a year since I began ' Sunday picks'.  As much as I've enjoyed posting some favorite painters I feel like the backlog of artists I want to share is much smaller and I have an idea for a new sort of project for this year.  So for now I'm thinking of being a bit more sporadic.

Due to the computer situation, images are quite the ordeal to load unless taken directly from my phone camera.  So I apologize but I did see two good shows over the last week that I recommend. (check out the links for a visual)

First one was Reprefantasion at Fleisher-Ollman.  The other was William H Johnson at Arthur Ross Gallery which is on UPenn's campus.  Both were the kind of shows that require slow looking and reward with continual discovery of the painter's thoughts and process.  The best kind of painting.

Penn's campus is where I took the above pictures of an amazing tree and a salivating gargoyle. 

In the Studio: Keith Haring

Keith Haring, Painting Myself Into a Corner, still from film.  As vibrant as his work with color was, I think the black and white is so timeless.  Hard to believe this is over 30 years old, from 1979.

Sunday Pick: William Crozier

Here is the work of William Crozier (1930-2011) a Scottish painter who spent years in London and was apparently particularly inspired by what was going on in Paris and the work of Matisse.

I read somewhere that Crozier estimated he made around 12,000 paintings, each in a single session.  The color combinations indicate a lot of investigation and looking.  

I like this quote from him, "I cannot invent anything – I've got to see it; and it can be for a quarter of a second. Suddenly it's there, and I know there's a picture there. It's got to be seen in nature. I could never be an abstract painter."  The paintings feel like a great blend of experience in looking and personal liberties taken to express what he saw and felt from the landscape.

Sunday Pick: Becky Suss

Living Room (Yogi 2), 72 x 96 inches, oil on linen, 2013

76 Meadow Woods Road, oil on linen, 72 x 120 inches, 2012

Navajo Rug, 14 x 14 inches, oil on linen, 2013

Pillow #1, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 inches, 2012

Wish You Were Here, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2011

Diamond Street, Sumi ink on paper, 22 x 30 inches, 2011

It brings me great joy to look at and share the work of Philadelphia painter Becky Suss.  I first came across her work when my studio mate Katie Pomerantz put together a beautiful show, Wish You Were There a few years ago.  I recently stumbled back on her website and found some really interesting new work.

I love the way the images are composed and how they feel like continuations of each other from one painting to the next.  The drawings are really intriguing too, there are quite a few depicting murals here around Philly (see last image).  They blend many visual and conceptual thoughts: nature with architecture (which by itself has felt quite overdone as subject matter in my opinion)  but also the faux nature depicted in the murals up against real trees and grass and then also the doubling of making drawings of paintings -- so there are all of these strange layers going on in the work that are really subtle and thoughtful and visually exciting.

Suss is currently in a show, Reprefantasion,with some other strong Philadelphia painters at Fleisher Ollman, on through February 1, I am so looking forward to seeing some of these in person.