Joanie Gagnon San Chirico

Making Marks

2012-01-31T14:24:00.002-05:00

Continuing my studies of toxic algae. Click to see another detail image.

Still Working

2012-01-27T15:31:00.000-05:00

Not finished yet. Trying out new colors, I always seem to gravitate to orange and brown. Not sure about this yet, might be too pretty, too precious.

Continuing my studies of toxic algae, this painting will be 24" x 18".

I'm also now working on a triptych for a private client through my local gallery. The paintings will be based on my triptych Oil.Water.Blood which was one of my responses to the Gulf Oil Spill.

In Progress

2012-01-19T16:50:00.002-05:00

Lots more to go, but it's a start.

Golden Is the Word of the Day

2012-01-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

-winter golden hour

Took this photo yesterday after I left a Golden painting workshop with Roy Kinzer at his great! studio in Union City, NJ. Above is the stunning view from the parking lot, through a tall fence, overlooking the access roads to the Lincoln Tunnel. The sun was going down, it was freezing and I had to maneuver the fence to get this shot. Worth it.

Picked up some good tips, lots of free Golden samples and got to play all day. What could be better? Roy was very generous with advice and insight into his process.

Then I headed to Brooklyn for the inaugural opening at the new location of Theodore:Art. Never got any photos because of the wall-to-wall crowd, but you can see the exhibit on the link above. Great show as usual and Stephanie has an amazing eye for putting different artists' work together. Golden.

Back to Reality

2012-01-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

The holidays were a blur with the 3 c's - company, cooking and cleaning. Wishing you a great 2012.

I hope to get back to painting this week, but in the meantime, here's a detail shot of MAYDAY. You can see the entire painting on my website. I redid my front page recently and updated all the work. There's a cool zoom feature that really shows the texture in my work. Very soon, the work will fill your entire screen (I'm working on that).

My fingers are itching to paint! I do get to take a Golden paint workshop this weekend, looking forward to experimenting.

2011-12-20T19:35:00.002-05:00

Red Tide #9, #10, #11, #12

2011-12-18T16:38:00.002-05:00

Each 6 x 6 x 1.5

Acrylic, thread, graphite on canvas

These small paintings are still a continuation of my studies of harmful algae blooms.

Below is a NASA photo of a bloom in Lake Tai, China 2007. Click to see.

Latest Red Tide Paintings

2011-12-15T14:31:00.001-05:00

Red Tide #5, #6, #7, #8
Each 6 x 6 x 1.5
Acrylic, thread, graphite on canvas

These small paintings are a continuation of my studies of harmful algae blooms.

Here's one of my inspiration photos, perhaps "inspiration" is the wrong word.

Red Tide bloom in Xiamen, China in 2007. (chinadaily.com)
Click for more...

Wet Paint

2011-12-14T14:37:00.000-05:00

Here are 8 small paintings that I'm working on. They continue my studies of harmful algae. All 8 of these depict different aspects of Red Tide. Click to see the other four.

More Museum Visits

2011-12-02T13:47:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago I went to the MoMA PS1 Open House with friends. In addition to it being a great space (an old elementary school), the exhibits were thought-provoking, especially the "9/11" exhibit and a film by Rania Stephan titled "The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni". If you get a chance to see the 9/11 exhibit before it ends on January 2, go. The exhibit is powerful, but not morose. The Janet Cardiff sound recording "The Forty Part Motet" made me cry because it was just so beautiful.

Another sound installation that moved me enormously was Stephen Vitiello's "World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd". I've read that Vitiello's studio was in the WTC. How prophetic of him to record those sounds to preserve them.

I was also surprised to find this gold leafed ancient furnace in the creepy basement by Saul Melman. (sorry about the blurry photo, it was dark down there!) Here's Saul Melman's website with much better photos.

We sat through almost the entire 70 minute Rania Stephan film which portrayed the complicated representation of Arab women. Definitely worth sitting through if you can.

Next came a trip to Cape Cod to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. In all the years I've been going there, I had never gone to the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis which is a shame.

Exhibiting an eclectic mix of work, some of which we liked, but some not so much, my favorite is pictured below.

Here's just a small portion of Lorrie Fredette's installation The Great Silence.

Yesterday, a friend and I went to the Brooklyn Museum which is one of my favorite museums. So much to see: from Hide/Seek (which we happened to see on World Aids Day), Youth and Beauty, the amazing Sanford Bigger's Introspective which closes January 8, to the latest installations in the contemporary collection. We also revisited the Mummy Chamber and the Visible Storage Study Center which I love. I often go on First Saturday and this time really enjoyed not having to deal with the crowds.

My friend Brent also introduced me to FiveMyles, a gallery around the corner from the museum which was a surprisingly great space with interesting work and a charming gallery manager.

Just realized in the middle, I also went to the Noyes Museum of Art to pick up my painting Mayday which was in the Signature Artists' Exhibit. I've already written about the current exhibits at The Noyes in a previous post. Museums are a magnet!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T13:51:00.001-05:00

I do have so much to be thankful for. I have a great family and the best job in the world. I live close enough to NYC and Philadelphia in that I can hop in the car to go see exhibits, and yet I'm 5 minutes from the beach. I look out from my studio onto a beautiful wooded area. Not everyone is as lucky.

Try to do something nice for someone not as fortunate this holiday, I know I will.

Click on the newsletter image to enlarge. Since this is a screen shot, the links are listed below:

Above image: Mayday at
The Noyes Museum of Art
Oceanville, NJ
57" x 24" x 1.5"
Acrylic, stitching on organic canvas

-see my work at s.h.e. gallery, Boonton, NJ

-see my work at Soul Made Gallery, Point Pleasant, NJ

Read about and see my commissions here:
www.joaniesanchirico.com

New features on website:
-zoom
-for art consultants:
make presentation pages with printable images
-FTP portfolio/bio/statement
Art available for LEED Certified and Evidence Based Design applications
Studio: 732.506.6636
Cell: 732.610.4499
Email: joanie@joaniesanchirico.com

Other Projects:

Founder of pFAn
professional Fine Art network
www.professionalfineartnetwork.com

Polar Ice #1 and #2 Finished

2011-11-15T14:44:00.001-05:00

Polar Ice #1 and #2
12x12
Acrylic, stitching on canvas

Continuing my studies of harmful algae blooms in our oceans. Here's the link that I used for inspiration for these paintings.

In Progress - Polar Ice #2

2011-11-11T15:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the second of the polar ice algae studies. Still in progress. Finished size on both painting studies will be 12x12.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T10:48:00.001-05:00

Every year, at a funeral home in my town, Boy Scouts plant flags for every service person killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan. This year is different in that the flags overflowed into neighboring areas flowing into the adjoining bank and other parking areas in the the adjacent shopping center.

I've posted about this before around Veterans Day, but this year seems particularly poignant since yesterday a local 19 year old was buried, even as the news keeps repeating that these wars are coming to a close.

Here are some of my previous posts:

2010

2007

and another with Hawks

In Progress - Polar Ice

2011-11-10T10:41:00.001-05:00

I'm working on two of these studies (12x12). They continue my exploration of algae, this time under sea ice. Still have work to do on this one, and I haven't started drawing/stitching on the other one yet.

Two New Red Tide Paintings

2011-11-04T14:54:00.001-04:00

Red Tide #3
20 x20 x1.5
Acrylic, stitching on canvas

Red Tide #4

20 x20 x1.5

Acrylic, stitching on canvas

Fall Opening Reception - Noyes Museum of Art

2011-10-29T16:27:00.000-04:00

I've said it before, but the Noyes Museum of Art is one of the best kept secrets around. Nestled in the center of the huge Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, it has some of the best exhibits in New Jersey (and I'm not just saying that because I'm in one of them!). Last night was the reception for all four galleries.

As I've mentioned before, I'm one of the Noyes' juried Signature Artist Members and the museum hosts a group exhibit once a year. This year the show runs from September 9 through November 27.

Here's my painting, MayDay (in the center), hung vertically and which I really liked in that orientation. The lighting was perfect and really showed off the detail and texture.

Gallery 1 featured glass artist Paul Stankard, who creates flowers and ephemera encased globes and cubes.

While the flowers were incredibly pretty, I was drawn to this single ball of moss. Can't imagine how he made this, the moss was perfect and impossible to think that it was made of glass.

Gallery 2 exhibited works on paper from the museum's permanent collection.

Here are Night Star by Louise Nevelson and Untitled (1982) by F. Stiller.

This is actually a Wolf Khan landscape in an unusual color scheme, a lithograph from 1969.

Robert Lach created a nest colony in Gallery 3 which he constructed out of materials found near the museum and in the wildlife refuge, some combined with antique suitcases from his collection.

Colony: Plastic bottles, reeds, glue

Nests floated throughout the gallery

Drawer: Drawer, bullet casings, shredded wood, glue

Thanks Noyes Museum, you never disappoint.

October Gallery and Museum Visits - Part 1

2011-10-26T13:16:00.000-04:00

Here's the first of two posts about some of the exhibits that I've seen in the past few weeks.

Very often, when I go to Chelsea to visit galleries, I park around 17th Street, walk up the High Line to the end and then work my way back down. The High Line never disappoints, made even more beautiful this time with a billboard by artist Darren Almond, titled FullMoon@TheNorthSea.

I then headed for Jen Dalton's excellent and thought-provoking exhibit Cool Guys Like You at Winkleman Gallery where I discovered that I was only "ool"! I guess I didn't follow the directions very well to hold my hand flat. I was quite surprised to find that even such left-leaning tv shows such as Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert featured only anywhere between 17.5 - 34% women guests in 2010. Jen is an avid feminist and also often questions the biases in the so-called art world and this exhibit didn't disappoint.

At Gagosian, Richard Serra's gigantic metal swirls gave me wicked vertigo. It was as if I were walking sideways up a hill. I would have loved to watch how they installed the work since they were so huge and filled the space. As with all Serra's work, the patina was rich and begged to be touched.

Then there were Nick Cave's Soundsuits at Mary Boone Gallery. I need to get to a performance, while mind-blowing in their detail, seeing them in motion would be pretty amazing.

Melissa Meyer's intensely vivid semi-trasparent paintings at Leonard, Weinberg. Love. Want.

Other notable exhibits:

Martha Wilson's self portraits at PPOW. Wilson portrayed her body as it is now, comparing it videos and photos from the 1970's. The exhibit was titled "I have become my own worst fear". I know exactly how she feels, although I'm not as brave as she is.

I also liked the slashed copper works from 1962 by Lucio Fontana at Andrea Rosen Gallery and the paintings on found paper by Maysey Craddock at Nancy Margolis Gallery.

Not on this trip, but the week before, and last but certainly not least, if you can, you must go. No photos are allowed at MoMA's de Kooning exhibit, but click the link for a great tour on the museum's website. As I walked around a corner, this painting, Parc Rosenberg, gave me chills (photo from the MoMA site).

More in a bit.

October Gallery and Museum Visits - Part 2

2011-10-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

I also visited Extra Gallery which is in a semi-private space in Chelsea. Open by appointment only, you can email the curator Brian Dupont for access to view the exhibit before November 1, 2011. Titled "While You Wait: Greg Allen, Laura Isaac, Laelia Mitchell, Christopher Moss, Maritza Ruiz-Kim and Jason Varone on the Art of the Lobby". The title is self explanatory, the art is installed in a space where you would normally wait for an appointment. Typical waiting room art is absent however, and in its place are works by the above artists engaging the viewer and transforming waiting time into an alternative narrative.

Christopher Moss rug "Untitled"

Greg Allen window piece "Untitled (Extra Street View)"

Jason Varone video "A View from my Window: Truro, MA"

Laelia Mitchell photographs "Unfinished #9, #11, #24, #44"

Laura Isaac magazines "Wait" on table, Laelia Mitchell photographs

Maritza Ruitz-Kim paintings "I am left", "Leave me with", "Neither here nor", "Is the place of", "Happening before I"

Brian Dupont, the curator. For more information, the exhibit website is extragallerynyc.wordpress.com .

Rant for Today

2011-10-21T12:10:00.000-04:00

I flew back from Orlando to Newark on Monday.

I realized Tuesday morning when I unpacked, that items had been stolen from my bag. Someone had actually gone inside and opened a small tote bag, which was buried under clothing, and then unzipped two separate compartments and removed two necklaces and a pair of earrings. In addition they stole a gift from my sister for my son's birthday, which was a new but empty wallet, in a small box and which was wrapped in newspaper.

I do realize that I should have carried the jewelry with me in my carry on, yet it’s so difficult these days with what you can carry and not carry and in my rush to catch an earlier flight because of weather, I put the tote in the suitcase instead. I trusted Continental to ensure that my belongings were safe while in their possession. My mistake.

While we were in Orlando, we were delayed at the gate before leaving while the baggage handlers moved luggage from one bay to the other because as the pilot announced, “they don’t have as much luggage as they thought they would have”?? In addition, when I retrieved my bag in Newark, I noticed that the front zipper compartment was open, although I had packed nothing in that part. On the other hand, it could have been TSA since they X-ray all luggage and the jewelry would have been seen at that point.

Missing are:

Necklace #1 – gold link chain with fleur-de-lis charm and round flat coin-like pendant with Aquarius symbol on one side, and an image of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man on the back. It's a little bigger than a quarter.

Necklace #2 – sterling silver twisted metal loops

Earrings – to match sterling silver necklace (they look like little twisted metal tornadoes)

Wallet – black plaid fabric, leather interior, in box, wrapped in ad from newspaper

I’ve had the gold necklace since I was a teenager and it cannot be replaced. I can get receipts for the other items and possibly get reimbursed.

So what have I done about this?

1. Well first of all, lesson learned, the only excuse was that I was in a rush to get to the airport but not good enough. Never pack valuable items.

2. I have filed reports with TSA, Orlando Airport Authority, Orlando Transit Police, Newark Airport, Newark Transit Police, Continental. I've even called several Cash for Gold stores in the Orlando area!

3. I've done everything I can possibly do, and need to move on.

I'm posting this as a warning to travelers and friends. Who knows, maybe someone will see my items at some Florida pawn shop.

Where Do Your Paintings Live?

2011-10-09T13:12:00.001-04:00

My paintings live all over my house when they're not in an exhibit. Here are two that I've recently finished: Bloom is on the high wall, and Fallen is on the right (and there's a peek at Cluster on the lower left). I have an constantly revolving show. They both are going places soon, so at least I get to see them for a bit. I do have other artists' work hanging too and at some point will run out of walls!

Working large makes it difficult to store and since my studio is only 18'x18', I have to find somewhere to put them. When we built my studio, it seemed so large and it's definitely not nearly large enough. But I'm lucky to have it, and you can't beat it being right here and also have a lovely wooded area to look out onto with lots of assorted wildlife. The deer are always coming right up to the fence to visit.

I can't imagine if all the work that I have out at the moment came back at the same time. Right now I have 14 paintings out at my galleries and one at the Noyes Museum of Art.

I'm working on two more paintings. Not large this time, they'll be around 18"x26". I'll fit them somewhere.

$9.1M to be spent to protect Barnegat Bay

2011-09-28T12:30:00.001-04:00

Here's an article in today's Asbury Park Press regarding the ongoing problem with Barnegat Bay (about 5 minutes away from where I live). It's a start.

The original story was the impetus for the Algae paintings which I've been working on.

Done!

2011-09-23T08:25:00.001-04:00

Bloom
70" x 56" x 1.5"
Acrylic, stitching on organic canvas

Another 9/11 Post

2011-09-11T13:59:00.001-04:00

Before

After

To see my previous 9/11 images, go to my Photo Gallery.

Detail Shots and the Inspiration

2011-09-08T13:35:00.001-04:00

Photo of a bloom of red tide in New Zealand.

While researching algae, I found this image on a conservation site that explores different algae called aptly, Harmful Algae. I've also read that scientists are experimenting with algae to explore whether it can be used as biofuel.

Here are some details of the newest painting and the marks that I've made so far. Much more to go. The title will be Bloom.

.... and More New Work

2011-09-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

After I finished the small Algae studies, I went on to a much larger painting. This one will be about 56 x 73. I have many layers of paint/washes/glazes on there so far, and I'm now making marks, aka hand stitching. This one is painted on organic canvas. I'll have to move my work table to get it on the wall for a full shot of it.

New Work - Algae Paintings

2011-09-02T11:49:00.000-04:00

Finally have everything restored on the new computer. If you don't regularly back up yours, do it! Because I use Time Machine, I was able to get all my files/apps/mail and other info from my back up disc. Since the old computer was totally dead, there was no way to transfer information.

I've been busy painting. I still have many paintings out at various galleries, and little inventory here, so the answer is of course to just make more. I do have lots of textile work here, but my consultants seem to want paintings lately so that's what I'm working on.

Here are some small studies that I did last month.

The first two are:
Algae #1
Algae #2
Each acrylic on canvas, stitching
12 x 12 x 1.5

Second two:
Red Tide #1
Red Tide #2

Each acrylic on canvas, stitching

12 x 12 x 1.5

The Algae Series paintings is my way of depicting the problems happening in Barnegat Bay and other waterways. The bay is dying partially caused by the prevalent misuse of fertilizers which raise nitrogen levels. Some of the runoff comes from as far as 20 miles away.

Sidetracked by Irene

2011-08-30T17:19:00.001-04:00

We were very lucky, unfortunately so many were not. Here are some shots of waves and flooding around town. For the last two nights there has been even more flooding.

Much of Toms River remains without power.

Giant waves.

Here's a Barnegat Bay playground on Sunday.

Stop?

Definitely stop or you'll be in the Toms River.

Here's that river.

Kayaking on the golf course.

MIA

2011-08-23T16:47:00.000-04:00

I've been MIA here, but for a good reason. My MacBook Pro died. The recalled graphics processor failed 3 times in a year and a half! Good news is that they ordered me a brand new replacement. Bad news is that I've been without a computer since before we went on our road trip on August 6 since it failed just before we left.

I'm working on a tiny pc notebook and my iPad. Can't access my images, or process new ones. I have lots of photos from our Lake Placid>Lake Champlain>Montreal>1000 Islands>Alexandria Bay>Cooperstown>down the Hudson trip. I also have some small new paintings to post.

I hope to be back in action by the end of the week. Amazing how much you take for granted.

Bayside Sunset

2011-08-02T17:52:00.000-04:00

Last night's sunset at the bay.

Sales and Commissions

2011-08-02T16:10:00.000-04:00

I mentioned last week that one of my galleries sold a triptych, now the details:

The gallery was Soul Made in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, and they sold Marshlands Triptych I, pictured above. The paintings will be hanging in a New York City corporate office. I hope to get installation photos soon. The paintings were originally studies for larger work. These were 20x20, acrylic, photography and stitching on linen.

In other news, here's an installation shot of my painting for the new AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center building in Hammonton, NJ. I'm pleased to say that this is my 18th piece for this hospital system (10 paintings, 7 photographs, 1 textile).

Hammonton is "The blueberry capital of the world". There are thousands of acres of blueberries in the area and I stopped at one of the wholesale/retail farms and bought a case. Good stuff.

...in progress

2011-07-29T16:51:00.000-04:00

MAYDAY Selected for Exhibit and Other Good News

2011-07-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

MAYDAY

24" x 57" x 1.5

Acrylic, stitching on organic canvas

Detail image

MAYDAY has been selected by the Noyes Museum of Art for their Signature Artists' Exhibit this fall.

In other good news, one of my galleries called to tell me that they sold a triptych to a New York corporate office. Details soon!

Day 9-10 Paris to London

2011-07-19T14:36:00.000-04:00

I mentioned that there were new tours using technology, one on the Eiffel Tower. Here's the website with info, you can bring your own iPad or rent one for 7€ per hour. The signs on the tower made it sound like augmented reality, but now that I look at the website, I wonder if it's more solely an electronic tour guide. Even so, good to see technology at work.

The video installation by Michal Rovner that I mentioned at The Louvre was quite interesting, it projected people walking toward the Pyramid Entrance around the outside of the building, but the imagery was that of historical figures. Here's some information about the video and more information on the Louvre website.

On our last morning in Paris, we went back to the market at the Boulevard Raspail around the corner from our apartment in St. Germain des Pres.

Some random Paris shots...

The largest gargoyle that I found

A beautiful flower-covered building

Time was up, so we traveled back to London on the Eurostar again. On the first few days in London, we stayed at The Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch, on the way back, The Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell. By the way, the restaurant there, Bistrot Bruno Loubet, is exceptional as were so many of the places we ate. Oh and the coffee at St. Ali across the street... so good that I brought some home.

Then another museum visit of course! Off we went to The British Museum to see the exhibit Treasures of Heaven - saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe. If you can, do go, not only was it an impressive display of the riches of the medieval church, but it brought to question the reverence and veneration of these so-called relics and body parts, which of course were never substantiated as really belonging to the saints to which they were attributed. Here's the website, photos were not allowed, but there are many at this link. The fact that 150 of the reliquaries still exist is mind-boggling as is the collection which was borrowed from more than 40 sources. Here's a video describing the installation.

Last image: Telephone booth with an addition (hee hee)

The trip ended the next day, we had a great time. It's always great to travel with Erin on our adventures. Since she lives in Los Angeles, and I'm in New Jersey I don't get to see her as often as I'd like.

Day 8 Paris

2011-07-18T15:10:00.004-04:00

On our way to La Tour Eiffel, we stopped at Gerard Mulot and picked up lunch (2nd time that week, thanks to Française Maichic for her suggestion) and we went to eat in the Jardins du Luxembourg with its magnificent flowers.

Off to La Tour Eiffel. As I mentioned, the last time I was in Paris, we had family with us and didn't get to see everything we wanted to see. So, on the 4th of July, will thousands of other tourists, we finally got there, but not after waiting in the wrong line for a half hour and then discovering that we were in the "escaliers" line, the stairs only line! No way that was happening, so we started over in the other line.

First platform views

No way to go but up?

Crazy machinery. The tower retains the original Victorian feel of course, a combination of Steampunk and genius.

So what's the most touristy thing that you could possibly do after the Eiffel Tower? Ride one of the Bateaux Mouches of course! Enjoyed it so much the last time, we decided to do it again (especially with a refreshing beer in hand after waiting in line after line at the Tower.

Notre Dame from below

An iconic Paris photo

After yet another fabulous dinner, this was the view from our apartment terrace.

Next: Back to London for one more day

Day 7 Paris

2011-07-16T15:31:00.001-04:00

After we visited the amazing organic market on Boulevard Raspail, the plan was to head up to the Georges Pompidou Centre, and we once again just kept walking instead of catching the Metro. On our way we found that we were right across from Ste. Chapelle and the line wasn't too long, so we took a side trip. It was just as breathtaking when you get to the top of the winding stairs as the last time we were there. I took lots of photos last time, this time too, but here's just one.

It turns out that The Pompidou is free on First Sunday, which was great. The architect, Renzo Piano is also doing the new Whitney Museum building.

We started at the top and worked our way down.

First thing we saw was the largest El Anatsui I've seen so far, and I've seen quite a few of his works.

Disturbing and almost three-dimensional: Dado, Le Massacre des Innocents, 1958-1959

Zoltan Kemeny, Utilisation D'image Comme Agent de Dissolution de la Compréhension, 1962 (detail below)

A new acquisition by Georges Noel, Grand Pamplisest Jaune, 1960 (detail below)

These photos of Rauschenberg's Hoarfrost, 1974, with detail below, don't do the work justice. The piece was huge, perhaps about 18 feet, and consisted of many panels of printed sheer organza.

The late, great Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I, 1968

Christian Jaccard, Toile de Lin Calcinée Marron/Garrance Décolorée Vert/Jaune Numero 57819, 1975

Of course there were many paintings from the masters, Picasso, Monet, etc. but I liked seeing work from more of the artists with whom I wasn't as familiar (maybe should say with the exception of El Anatsui, Rauschenberg or Bourgeois!). Again, I'm noticing a pattern in color of the photos that I took, at the Tate, red, here more yellow/orange. I took many more, but will spare you!

Tomorrow: La Tour Eiffel (on the 4th of July)

Day 5-6 Paris

2011-07-15T16:40:00.001-04:00

After a surprisingly quick trip on the Eurostar, we arrived in Paris. Here's a view from the terrace of our apartment in our favorite neighborhood, St. Germain des Pres. It was on the 6th floor, which means 7th in European terms, thank goodness there was a tiny lift.

We stayed in the neighborhood on a previous trip, so we knew our way around.

On Saturday we headed to the Louvre. The last time I was in Paris, my parents were with us and we had been to Normandy to my father's ancestral home, so it was tough to visit everything we wanted to in Paris.

We had no idea that some of the 12th Century walls of the original Palais du Louvre still exist beneath the right wing of the museum.

Making it even better was the video installation by Michal Rovner which was projected on the walls, titled Fresco Louvre.

Of course there were also.....

...and one that we were probably the least excited about, given everything else there was to see, but the crowd didn't think so.

Next day: The Pompidou and more

Day 4 London

2011-07-14T17:11:00.001-04:00

On day 4 we stayed in Shoreditch, visiting galleries and staying close to our hotel. In the evening, I got to have drinks with Andrew Seto which was great, I met him a few weeks earlier at his opening at Theodore:Art in NYC.

Earlier in the day, we visited White Cube Gallery in Hoxton Square and then we were off to find Parasol Unit and Victoria Miro galleries. At Parasol Unit, Jakub Julian Ziolkowski's disturbing paintings evoked Hieronyomus Bosch. Alice Neel's Men Only portraits were installed upstairs at Victoria Miro with Yayoi Kusama sculptures downstairs. I had hoped Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity would be there since when we saw it in NY, the line was really long and they were limiting time spent, but it wasn't.

As usual, we decided to walk and the galleries weren't as close as we thought. Some days we walked 8-12 hours, which was great because that offset all the great food we ate. It was worth the walk, not only for the exhibits, but the building that Parasol and Miro are in is pretty amazing and a surprise in an industrial neighborhood.

The evening before, when we arrived back from Bath, we checked out St. Pancras Station so we'd know where to go to pick up the Eurostar for our trip to Paris on Friday. The beautifully restored station merges the old with new construction. There are huge Olympic Rings installed hanging in the new section to mark London as the site for the summer Olympic Games next year.

I love gargoyles. Took at ton of photos of them on my last Paris trip.

Next stop Paris.

Day 3 Bath

2011-07-12T15:07:00.003-04:00

Bath has been on my to-do list for years, and I was really excited to take the train from London to get there.

I could go on about the need for high speed rail in the US, but I won't (not today anyway!). Later on in the week, we took the Eurostar to Paris at 186mph.

Arriving on a beautiful cool day after a sweltering few days in London, off we went.

Here's my daughter, Erin Goodsell.

You can see in the above shot how close the Baths are to the Cathedral.

...And with faux pas on both our parts, Erin touched the water without seeing the sign not to do so.

While I came around the corner completely ignoring the sign and almost falling.

Next time, we'll read the signs! Damn tourists.

Here's what I thought was the most beautiful pool. Looks like a constellation, but the shimmers are coins thrown into the bath.

The Roman Baths museum, which was museum visit #2 of our trip, was well done with some interesting technology based programming (more on this when I get to both The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower) with walkways circling the layers of the excavation starting at the top and going deeper until you reach the bottom. Here's a link and if you can get to the area, it's well worth it. The train from St. Pancras took about an hour and a half.

Bath also has lots of shopping and restaurants. There are still existing baths at the spa too, next time.

Day 2 London

2011-07-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

Day 2 in London started out with a visit to the Tate Modern. Here are some highlights.

When Ai Weiwei was let out of detention a few days before, the Tate removed the word FREE in front of the artist's name.

Here's an installation of Mr. Ai's sunflower seeds, which had recently carpeted Turbine Hall.

From The Guerrilla Girls showing the inadequacies that still exist for women in the art world. Enlarge to read.

Working sculpture from José Carlos Martinat. It's a scale model of the Peruvian military headquarters and it spits out bits of paper which have the word brutalism in many languages printed on them.

Jenny Holzer
Blue Purple Tilt

Mitch Epstein
Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond West Virginia

Early-ish Richard Serra
Trip Hammer 1988

Alberto Burri
Sacking and Red 1954

Do Ho Suh
Staircase III 2010

Vito Acconci
Supply Room 1972

Donald Judd
Untitled (DJ 85-51) 1985

Abraham Cruzvellegas
Autoconstrucción

Taryn Simon speaking about her powerful installation series:
A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters

Beautiful installation of Gerhard Richter paintings

Last but not least, the late great Cy Twombly.

Seeing them all together, I realize that many of my highlights are red or red toned. Maybe after I deliver this blue commissioned painting on Wednesday, I need to work in red.

London/Paris Trip

2011-07-08T15:23:00.001-04:00

In between coats of varnish on my commission for AtlantiCare's Hammonton, NJ location (delivery Wednesday), now that I'm home and shaking my jet lag, I'll start posting photos from my trip. I'm surprised at how many people have been asking for updates, so I'll do my usual travelogue style doing somewhat of a day-by-day report.

We (my daughter, Erin Goodsell, and I) did lots of fun touristy things, museums, galleries and gastronomic adventures. Coffee, wine, food were all amazing.

London Day 1:

Erin has been there many times and insisted that we do the London Eye. I was totally freaked when I saw how tall it was in person, almost 450 feet. The last time I was in London was in about 1997 and it wasn't built yet.

Once on though, the views were spectacular.

...and of course

We then strolled (slowly, it was really hot that day) along the Queen's Walk where I found this interesting public art installation:

When we got closer, we found that each paper contained a poem which then turned into a paper airplane and "flew" away. The installation by Gitta Gschwendtner is an homage to the 1951 Lion and Unicorn Pavilion which used ceramic birds. Gitta's version used poetry written by "young people from refugee groups all over London.....releasing their words into the world".

We had some spectacular dinners, the first of which was at one of London's best tapas restaurants, Brindisa. Erin took photos of our food throughout the trip, I took pics of the wine because I never remember what I liked when I return home!

By the way, for anyone who has heard that the food or coffee aren't good in the UK, the rumors are totally wrong!

Day 2: The Tate Modern and more wandering coming soon.

Latest Commission in Progress

2011-06-20T14:30:00.000-04:00

Here's the commission that I've been working on. The roughly painted edges will be gallery wrapped on stretcher bars with the finished painting sized 24" x 36" on linen. It's interesting, I've been working so large, this seems pretty small comparatively. The top portion is just about done, but the bottom part still needs work.

Time is flying, last week was my son's high school graduation with lots of family visiting, this weekend I leave for a trip to London and Paris with my daughter. Installation of this one is July 13, but it will work out fine.

My solo exhibit at s.h.e. gallery ended yesterday and I really appreciate them holding on to my work until I get back from my trip. Since they now represent me, they will always have some work available in their "back room".

Back at it, the last coat of glaze should be dry.

New Painting

2011-06-17T15:57:00.000-04:00

MAYDAY
24"h x 57"w x 1.5"d
Acrylic and stitching on canvas

I've been working on this painting for awhile, finally put a coat of varnish on it today while waiting for the paint to dry on the commission that I'm working on. One more coat of varnish and it's good to go. Not sure where yet, but it will be ready!

Art News Magazine Article

2011-06-07T14:31:00.000-04:00

Check out the current issue of Art News. The article titled "The Social Revolution" by Barbara Pollack features @platea, the social media art collective that I participate in and for which I'm on the steering committee.

I also got credit for the photograph that I took of An Xiao and Hrag Vartanian of Hyperallergic at the performance of The Artist Is Kinda Present. Here's the link.

New Commission for AtlantiCare

2011-06-01T14:27:00.000-04:00

I'm working on a new commission. This one is for a new AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center building in Hammonton, NJ (The Blueberry Capital of the World!).

The new painting will be similar to the work pictured above which hangs in my daughter's home in L.A. The painting will be one of my hybrids - paint, photograph, stitching on linen with lots of paint texture. The original was also a hybrid, but painted on a soft cotton sateen and which used Golden's GAC 900 Fabric Painting Medium mixed with acrylic and which leaves the textile soft. It will be interesting to see how the two works differ with the change in substrate.

I've spoken before about how consultants use my existing work for inspiration:
"When consultants/arts administrators look at my website, they see what's been done before. Most often it's difficult for them to come up with an idea out of thin air, so they use those images and we work together to come up with a concept that will work for the space. Each painting becomes different with its own nuances in color and surface."

Obviously, I wouldn't want to do more than one or two of the same image over again, even with all these changes, but no two paintings are the same. This will be my 18th piece for this hospital system and I'm extremely grateful. Some of the work are triptychs and one is a diptych. The mediums range from photography on canvas (stretched), paintings and a large textile work.

Solo Exhibit Extended

2011-05-31T18:29:00.002-04:00

I'm pleased to announce that my solo exhibit at s.h.e. gallery has been extended to June 19. Please let me know if you can see it, and I'll try my best to be there!

Fallen

2011-05-19T13:43:00.000-04:00

Fallen
Acrylic, photo, stitching on organic canvas
42 x 57 x 1.5

You can see a detail of the texture from the stitches here.

Varnishing

2011-05-16T14:31:00.001-04:00

Last step, other than wire for hanging of course. Glad I have a really big table.

Update: Just realized that the difference in color between this photo and the one below is huge. Different light, time of day. Will have to use my photo lights to get the proper color when totally finished.

One down..

2011-05-13T16:19:00.001-04:00

I've been working on these two paintings for the past few weeks. Finally stretched one today, one to go. Stretchers were back-ordered and arrived with 7 in the box. Not much help unless it was going to be a triangular painting.

So, they're both almost finished. The orange/brown/purple one on the wall will be 24x57 and the one on the floor 42x57.

Titles? Not sure yet. The green one is the view to the woods behind my studio, abstracted. Lost a lot of cedar trees last year, may call it Fallen.

s.h.e. gallery Solo Exhibit

2011-05-02T09:43:00.004-04:00

Here are photos of my solo exhibit. It's really interesting that the curator, Kim Saunders chose both stretched and soft hanging work. Most of the time, curators want one or the other, but these all work together. The exhibit is a retrospective of sorts, with work ranging from the past 5 or so years.

Starting at back wall:

R-L Catacombs Paris, Vortex

Catacombs Paris, Vortex, Firestorm Triptych

Vortex, Firestorm Triptych, Catacombs After Klee

Remnants

Remnants, Cattus Island Sunset with Kim Saunders, curator

(not a staged shot, she really was straightening the painting!)

Other side of gallery, starting at back:

Ritual Cloth I, Mica Diptych (hanging vertically)

Red Rocks #6, Ritual Cloth III

Rainforests, Oil.Water.Blood

Another of the Rainforests on the welcome table

Front of gallery with work in window

(only up for the opening because of the sun factor which is unfortunate since the work looks good there)

Ritual Cloth II, Catacombs Verdigris, behind that one hangs Catacombs Casperia

Gallery owner Nancy Sulla greeting the first guests
Catacombs Casperia the in background at left

The exhibit runs through May 29, check the s.h.e. gallery website for hours and location. There is more of my work in the back room.

Two Days Until Opening

2011-04-28T13:19:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is hanging day of my latest solo exhibit. The exhibit is at s.h.e. gallery. I'll be posting lots of photos soon.

Please come to the reception if you can, Saturday April 30, from 6-8pm. The gallery is located at 819 Main Street, Boonton, NJ. From what they've told me, they get a huge crowd at openings. Looking forward to it!

Solo Exhibit Opens on Saturday

2011-04-25T14:13:00.001-04:00

Here's the front and part of the back of the great postcard that s.h.e. gallery did for my solo exhibit which opens on Saturday, April 30 with a reception from 6-8pm. The gallery is located at 819 Main Street, Boonton, NJ (the address is on part of the postcard that I didn't scan).

As I mentioned in my previous post, and from the back of the postcard: "s.h.e. (supporting human equality) is dedicated to supporting human equality by promoting art and artists that exemplify social justice and respect for all people of the world. s.h.e. donates 10% of all sales to organizations that promote human equality around the world."

I'm very honored to have an exhibit at a gallery that is so involved in a cause for which I care so deeply.

Another Earth Day, Has Anything Changed?

2011-04-22T11:28:00.002-04:00

Oil.Water.Blood

This is the third year that I do an Earth Day post. You can read my 2009 and 2010 posts here. Unfortunately, it seems that every year things get worse.

Not only are we still dealing with oil residue in the Gulf a year later, there's now the nuclear disaster in Japan which after more than a month still isn't resolved. The latest questionable practice is fracking to produce natural gas. Pennsylvania suspended all fracking yesterday after thousands of gallons of the salty water used in the the operation leaked into the neighboring streams. In Arkansas, more than 800 small earthquakes have been attributed to the practice.

The US lags way behind some countries in development of both solar and wind power. Hopefully the cost will come down, since solar panels are out of reach for most family budgets. Currently, solar power use is less than 1% of the entire world power supply.

If you think you can't change things, you really can. Write to your representatives to let them know how important it is to you, the regular citizen. Recycle, reuse. Every little bit helps.

Once More.... In Progress

2011-04-15T14:30:00.004-04:00

Still not finished but getting there. When the painting is stretched the green bands at top and bottom will be folded over for the gallery wrap and not show (obviously the white canvas parts too!). I've added a ton of color as you can see in the top photo, which also shows the 3d stitching. The previous brown color was too flat. I wonder if this may be one of those paintings that's difficult to capture color-wise. The next photos that I post of this painting will be when it's finished, so let's see what happens.

Bonus view of my messy work space!

Good News and Bad News

2011-04-11T12:05:00.002-04:00

First the good news:

I dropped off 29 stretched and textile paintings at s.h.e. gallery in Boonton, NJ on Saturday. I have a solo exhibit which opens on April 30. Not sure if all will get hung, but having extra work gives the curator a choice. The work dates from about 2004 to the present, so it will be an interesting progression and presentation especially since I just did an "online retrospective" on my tumblr.

Besides being great people, Nancy and Kim (and Dan the gallery manager) have big plans for the gallery in an up and coming artsy town. s.h.e. is an acronym for supporting human equality, and their mission statement reads "s.h.e. donates 10% of its revenue to organizations that exemplify social justice".

Currently, they are donating to three worthy women's organizations:

Care - which fights global poverty, and with an emphasis of working alongside poor women.

Women for Women International - supporting women in war-torn regions.

Through the Flower - founded by Judy Chicago and educates the public about the importance of art.

I'm honored to have been asked to show my work in a gallery with such a strong vision. The gallery website is shegallery.com.

Now the bad news:

China has detained artist Ai Weiwei for over a week now with no word to his family and friends about why. More of his associates are disappearing every day. I have two personal reasons for wanting his release (you know who you are), but the detention draws attention to the misconception that China is just another industrialized nation from which we import goods. Please sign the petition calling for Mr. Ai's release which was initiated by The Guggenheim and signed by many other museums and members of the arts community.

An update on the painting that I was working on:

I decided that the painting in my previous post was too brown so I added more greens; too much green it turns out and now I'm not happy with it at all. Not sure at this point what will become of it, but I'm still playing around, so stay tuned.

Spring?

2011-04-02T15:33:00.001-04:00

All week I've been painting and wondering why I'm leaning towards so much brown and green. This morning I looked out the window from my studio to the back yard and realized why! Funny.

I guess the trees don't realize that the temperatures don't really feel like Spring yet since there are buds on all of them.

The painting isn't finished yet, it needs more layering of color. There is a lot of 3 dimensional stitching on it too, but hard to see in this photo. Will post more soon along with details. I think it's going to be called something like Fallen Cedars, Ode to Fallen Cedars.. not sure yet. We lost 13 of my beloved trees last summer.

Spring Newsletter

2011-03-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a copy of my Spring Newsletter announcing that my new website is live.

If you would like to sign up for my mailing list, there's a link in the right hand column of this blog.

Website Redo

2011-03-21T11:18:00.002-04:00

UPDATE: It looks like it's already been transferred, minutes after I wrote this post.

If you try to visit my website, it's being transferred to my new domain provider/server. It should be working soon. If you would like a peek at the totally new site, you can see it by clicking here.

Please let me know if you find something that doesn't work.

Bay Moon

2011-03-21T10:56:00.000-04:00

Just had to head over to the bay on Saturday evening to watch the moonrise. It was interesting to see how many people had the same idea, the parking lot was full! It was definitely worth going.

Latest Commission Featured in The Washington Post

2011-03-11T08:55:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post did a story about Hill Country DC the other day, and the photo in the article features the stage backdrop I made for them. Here's a link to the story.

Image from The Washington Post

When I installed the piece, the restaurant was still a construction zone, it opens tomorrow. Here's a link to my post about the project. I used the architect's design and it's a take on the Texas flag.

Armory-Independent Day

2011-03-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Now I really do know better than to go to the Armory Show on Saturday, but it was the only day that I could go. It was incredibly hot, crowded and noisy; not the best way to look at art. The woman sitting in the middle epitomizes how I felt. I didn't realize it when I took this photo, but it looks like there's a hanging space man/ice skater guy at the top.

Off I went to The Independent, which was better set up, without the booth scenario. Saw some interesting work at both fairs, but didn't take many photos, there are so many of the same works on a ton of NYC blog/magazine sites, such as Hyperallergic, which I mentioned in my previous post. Really would have liked to have visited Moving Image, a new fair featuring video art in "The Tunnel Building", but just not enough time in the day.

I did like this Tara Donovan sculpture at Pace Gallery, but after looking at a detail shot, I almost like it better than the overall piece. Side note: I'm not a fan of the Pace website.

Next stop, Theodore:Art again for the latest opening and a quick visit, then to Gavin Brown to try to see/eat the food that Rirkrit Tiravanija was cooking, but it disappeared as soon as it was put out. Didn't stay long, final decision of the night was for us to go find another place for dinner!

More NGA and Necessary Evils

2011-03-03T13:34:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more of my favorite paintings from my quick visit to the National Gallery of Art from last week's visit. They represent some of my favorite ideas: repetition and a textile quality.

Jean Dubuffet
Building Facades
1946
Of course, this painting reminded me of my Catacombs series.

Manolo Millares
Cuardro 78
1954

Howard Hodgkin
Souvenirs
1980-1984

Working on proposals this week, I have 3 to get out and of course, each one wants different format jpgs, different lengths of resume pages etc. It's a necessary evil though.

I finished my online retrospective on my tumblr (I really wish blogger handled images the way tumblr does) and then decided to show some of the work that I've done in other media. Here's the link if you'd like to see the progression. The essay that I wrote is somewhat of a rant about artists not being defined by the materials they use, a subject I feel very strongly about.

On Saturday, I'll be headed to some of the NYC Art Fairs. Stay tuned. In the meantime, follow Hyperallergic for up-to-the-minute news.

Hill Country DC Installed

2011-02-28T14:05:00.001-05:00

Here's the architect's design.

Here's what I created and installed.

Obviously, this is not my usual style! But once in a while, I take on a project where I'm the fabricator using an architect's drawing. This is one of those times. Yes, those are recycled blue jeans (lots of them!) and bandannas. I can't even tell you how many needles I broke while working and it weighed about 35 pounds when finished. It hangs on aluminum armatures on three sides and is site-specific to the space.

I did a similar piece for the NYC location.

Washington, NYC, Lazy Sunday

2011-02-27T14:26:00.000-05:00

Thursday I headed down to DC to oversee installation of the stage backdrop for the new Hill Country DC restaurant. (photos soon) I had a little over an hour left on Wednesday to run over (literally, since it started raining) to the National Gallery of Art. I concentrated on the East Building and the lobby was pretty impressive. L-R: Robert Motherwell, Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt and Byron Kim. Over all of this, hung the largest Calder mobile that I have ever seen.

Another room held Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross series, powerful in their simplicity. I have a few more photos that I'll share during the week of other work that I loved.

So, back home Friday evening only to turn around to get into the Big City yesterday for #chatup at Theodore:Art. Needless to say, I don't feel like doing much today.

CAA Saturday, NJ Arts Council Tuesday, Work Everyday

2011-02-17T11:15:00.006-05:00

I attended all the Public Art panels on Saturday at the College Art Association in NYC. Titles included Agencies for Public Art, Public Art World vs. the Art World and Is Public Space Museum Space? .
Some of the most memorable quotes:

"Rather than censor work, you MUST finish the conversation." Porter Arneill - Kansas City Municipal Art Commission

"Public art+social media is makes social activity because of the interactivity possible." - Porter Arneill - Kansas City Municipal Art Commission

"More funding to the design phase of the work makes better public art." Jack Becker - Forecast Public Art and Public Art Review Magazine

"Few artists can navigate between both worlds, exhibiting and making public art." Jennifer McGregor - Wave Hill

"Even if the art Is out of date in 10-20 years, it's still a reflection of the time." - Ann Pasternak, Director of Creative Time

"Percent for art has no aesthetic mandate." - Sara Reisman, NYC Percent for Art

Also twice during the day, speakers mentions that publicity for public art is not regularly done because of fear of bad reactions by the public.

Following the panels, I had a great portfolio review with Sara Reisman of NYC Percent for Art. Finally I went to the first meeting of WRAP, a new project to promote Web Resources for Art in Public.

On Tuesday, I went to the NJ State Arts Council meeting. Much of the talk was about the NEA budget cuts. One speaker talked about health insurance saying, "Artists have health insurance about half as much half as much as other Americans".

So much talk at these meetings is about budget cuts, lack of funding, etc. Please write to your congressman asking for support for the NEA. In NJ alone, 77,000 people are employed with jobs that are arts related. Your state probably has similar numbers. Here's the link to Americans for the Arts, Art Action Fund with info.

In other news, after three weeks of posting images, yesterday I wrote an essay about why I had an online retrospective. You can see all the work and read my conclusions here.

Still working on the restaurant commission. Installation is next week in Washington, DC and I'm on schedule. It's so big that it has escaped from my studio and now taking over the living room and kitchen too. I'll post photos at the end of next week.

The Fabricator

2011-02-10T08:20:00.002-05:00

Some of you may remember that I did a project like this one a couple of years ago. Yes, these are cut up and ripped white jeans, and there are recycled blue jeans all over my studio too. Not my style in the least, but technically a challenge, which makes it interesting.

I'm acting as the fabricator on this one, meaning that it's not my design, but that of the architect. It's going to be the stage backdrop for a new restaurant in Washington DC. Here's a the link to a similar piece that I did for the NYC location on the Project Installation page on my website (toward the bottom of the page). When I did the New York project, I suggested that performing bands autograph the white parts, and although I haven't seen it lately, I've been told that it's accumulating a great patina. The work will be distressed with paint before it leaves the studio so it has even more of an old worn-in feel.

I'll be traveling to DC in a couple of weeks to oversee installation. Yes, it weighs a ton and it will be almost 16x8 feet when it's finished and it will have a permanent secure hanging system. The only way to manage a piece this large is to work on it in sections and join them at the end. It's not even as big as the previous backdrop, which started out at 22x11 feet and then was cut to fit the existing awkward space, which had protruding pipes and steps. Since this is new construction specifically built for the stage, I anticipate that the installation will go smoothly. Stay tuned!

Another week..

2011-02-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

I'm still constructing the stage backdrop for the new restaurant. Since it's quite large, it's very labor intensive, but getting there.

Just posted Day 13 of my online retrospective on my tumblr. I realized that I started my Environmental Series back in 1998, longer than I thought! You can see all 13 selections from my different series here.

If you're in the NYC area, I'll be at the College Art Association conference on Saturday, the 12th for the Public Art Panels (not speaking, attending). Contact me if you want to meet up.

Online Retrospective and Studio/World News of the Week

2011-01-29T15:23:00.014-05:00

I'm doing a retrospective of my work in textiles on my tumblr. I'll be doing this for a couple of weeks until I finish, posting samples in chronological order from some of my different series.
You can see the entire project here.

From what I saw at Art Miami and continuing at galleries in Chelsea last Saturday, alternative materials are a trend. My grandmother embroidered, my mother liked to sew clothing, I learned to sew at age 9. I started painting and taking photographs while in my 20’s, then put that aside for a few years while my concentration was in textiles. Looking back now I realize that I was still using those painting skills even though I wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time. Currently, I often combine all three mediums to achieve the result that I want.

Since I haven't been showing my textile work as much as I have in the past, I thought showcasing them online was a good idea. I'm only posting a small sampling from each series, starting with older and working up to the newer work within each of the series. No matter the medium, series or subject, my work is always about preserving what we have.

After the events of the past week in Egypt, I will have to create another of my Catacombs series in response to the looting and destruction of artifacts all over the country. You can read the statement about why I do this and see more selections from the series on this page of my website.

One of the statements that I picked up in my gallery travels in NYC last week states, “In our post-modern era, the oft-pronounced death of painting has given way to an acceptance of the multiplicity of perspectives that make up the genre.” (from Ann Shostrom’s exhibit at Elizabeth Harris Gallery). I found that fascinating and it really resonated with me, making me realize that I should be celebrating the work I've done in textiles, not rolling them up and storing them in closets. I've been neglecting the work in favor of all the commission work I've taken on in the past few years.

In other news, I just wrote an follow-up analysis to the @platea Tree-Blogging Project VIII. You can read the article here.

Currently in the studio, I'm still working on the stage backdrop for the Washington DC restaurant. It's pretty big, almost 17x8 feet and will be keeping me busy for the next couple of weeks. Tentative installation is the week of 2/21 and I may be headed down there to oversee the construction crew while they hang it.

Recycled Materials Commission

2011-01-24T16:05:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember me working on a gigantic recycled denim piece a couple of years ago as a stage backdrop for a NYC barbeque restaurant. I'm at it again, they're opening up a new location in Washington DC.

Once more, I'm using the architect's design and it's not art, unless of course you live in Texas! But it's an interesting commission and a huge challenge, which I love.

I'll be working non-stop to get it done by the deadline and it looks like I'll be overseeing installation which means a trip to DC next month. Pictures to follow.

Tree-Blogging @Platea's Project VIII Final Map

2011-01-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

You can see a great map with the final image of the tree on the @platea blog. The last day brought lots of "new growth"!

Third Contribution to @platea Project VIII Tree-Blogging

2011-01-14T13:46:00.004-05:00

Here's my latest contribution to the project. I used Jonny's image which was morphed by Laelia again, but now combined with both my pixellated screen(s) while returning to the tree images. Full circle.

You can see the entire project with the tree map on the platea blog.

Second Contribution to @platea Tree-blogging Project VIII

2011-01-12T16:03:00.001-05:00

Here's where my image has gone from here. This is only one of the permutations however, check the platea blog and follow the tree. Others have used my brain image too in different ways. You can still join us, the performance will continue all week.

Jonny Gray took my brain image and added sound and image files and posted them on the Abstract Comics site.

Laelia Mitchell then used Jonny's image to create this one on her tumblr.

Then I used Laelia's image to create the pixellated screens on these discarded tv's that I found at the dump, a statement about our disposable society.

My Initial Contribution to @platea's Project VIII Tree-Blogging

2011-01-10T15:42:00.000-05:00

You can read about Project VIII on the @platea blog.

We are using Jonny Gray's imagery, video and sound files to create a "tree", much like a family tree, which will follow the different contributions in their various permutations. The project will continue for this entire week. Please join us!

My first contribution came from Jonny's image of trees:

Even though I use trees so often in my work, all I saw were blood vessels as influenced by the horrific events in Tuscon this past weekend. I hope nature can help heal the trauma.

Thus, here is my response using the original imagery:

You can use this image to go on from here, but be sure to state where it came from so that the tree can be mapped at the end of the performance.

Portfolio 12/2010

2011-01-09T11:01:00.001-05:00

Portfolio of recent projects and new work

Portfolio 12/2010

View more presentations from Joanie Gagnon San Chirico.

#rank Postmortem Photos

2011-01-02T16:41:00.003-05:00

A #rank Postmortem was held at Winkleman Gallery on Thursday, December 30. Here are some photos.
**Added 1/11/11, Kianga Ellis posted video for the above event on her YouTube channel.

I've posted names on all that I know, please let me know your names if you want to be tagged.

Photos of the crowd

Loren Munk in foreground with hat

Ed Winkleman and Murat Orozobekov at left

Man Bartlett, Brian Dupont, Brian (The Painter), Nate Hill in corner

Surprise Delivery

Brian Dupont, Stephanie Theodore, Brian (The Painter)

William Powhida and Jen Dalton, the organizers and brains behind both #class and #rank

Twitter feed projection

Kianga Ellis and Laura Isaac

Man Bartlett

Snowpocalypse

2010-12-29T17:10:00.003-05:00

That black line is the seat of a bench outside my front door. The official count is 28 inches, but the drifts are much higher than that.

I hope everyone was warm and safe during this latest blizzard. Every time we dig out, the plow comes by and makes more piles. At least we have had plows, as bad a job that they did, they did however come down our street but two plow trucks had to be towed out. Many areas are still buried.

Tomorrow is the post-Miami #rank discussion at Winkleman Gallery and I'm going to brave the roads to get there. Hopefully by tomorrow, things will be cleaned up.

I just turned on the news, and heard once again about how much the US is spending in two wars. Can you imagine the infrastructure improvements we could make with an extra 1 billion dollars per week?

#rank: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

2010-12-15T16:07:00.007-05:00

At #rank, as I previously mentioned, I was part of a panel with Rebecca Taylor of Los Angeles, Laelia E. Mitchell of Boston and Nicole Cohen of Berlin and NYC on Gender, Age and Location Bias in the Art Market.

A week earlier, I read a fascinating and hilarious interview of Carmen Herrera by Hermione Hoby for the Guardian which you can read in its entirety here. I chose to present an excerpt to the group about how Carmen was discovered at age 89 after painting full-time for more than 60 years. Louise Bourgeois had a similar story. We didn't have time to talk about this subject, but galleries tend to exhibit younger emerging artists for a few reasons, one of which is that they are investing time and money so they expect longevity from the artist. Often however, that artist, once he/she is doing well, abandons that gallery to go on to perceived greener pastures instead of growing with the gallery anyway. Another issue is that some galleries don't think of anyone of a certain age capable of producing cutting edge/current work. Unfortunately, we only touched on a few topics that I would have liked to cover and could have continued for hours.

In my research, I also learned that major museum exhibits last year featured women only 30% of the time. Rebecca had compiled other statistics which supported the theory of marginalization of women artists in high-end galleries at a similar paltry percentage.

Once again, as I did at #class, I spoke about how if the system doesn't work for you, you need to create your own system. After much discussion (we had 90 minutes which incidentally, flew by). I realized with only 10 minutes to go that we hadn't even touched on location bias. The art scene is alive and well in Kansas City, as stated by Laura Isaac and also in San Francisco according Maritza Ruiz Kim. Yes, other cities may not compare to New York City, Los Angeles or London, but is that reason to give up? I don't believe it is, not to mention the internet has made the "art world" so much more accessible.

Joanne Mattera wrote about our panel yesterday on her blog and included some images in her roundup of the Seven fair.

I wanted to attend more of the activities at #rank, however with all the other art fairs, lectures and wanting to see my own work at Pulse (thanks again Theodore:Art!), it was difficult, if not impossible.

Here are some that I did attend or participated in:

@platea's video "Sorry I Couldn't Be There" now on Vimeo.

I attended Greg Allen's "The Gala as Art" which is now available for viewing online. Greg spoke about the excesses apparent in Museum Galas. His talk came complete with swag bags, most notably containing silvered wax lips, a play on the gilded golf leafed chocolate lips given as favors at the gala celebrating the end of the Marina Abramovic performance "The Artist is Present".

Here are two photos of my participation in Laura Isaac's "Where do YOU #rank?" Laura created 21 ranks and T-shirts for each rank. You can read about the project and see all 21 categories here.

Here I am, smirk and all, wearing my shirt in my studio with my ephemera wall behind me. Need to frame some of the work that I've acquired!

I chose Talent Scout because of my pet project professional Fine Art network, a networking group that I created for working artists, fabricators, public art administrators and art consultants. The front of the shirt reads "to find New Art Worlds".

The "Art Critics Roundtable" somewhat overlapped with part of Emily Auchincloss' "Post Traumatic Art Disorder" and that was a good thing since both subjects played well with each other, even though there was some healthy disagreement.

The pen that I got from Carol Saft's "What are you Worth?" claims that my signature is worth $100,000.00 and I'm angry that I lost my fortune from Garric Simonsen's "Fortune 500" before I could tweet what it said. Yes, I had a slice of pizza from MTAA's "Freeing Lunch" on one of the days that I can't pinpoint.

At the VUP opening of #rank, Man Bartlett was measuring people for his "Absurd Tailor" performance.

Photo by Man Bartlett

He had measured me earlier from finger to finger a la Vitruvian Man. I didn't realize he was still up to his tricks until he posted this image of me and proclaimed "Absurd Tailor measured @JoanieStudio and thinks, in fact, she is a good fit." I did also imbibe in a couple of beers from the tiny absolutely perfect ManDies bar.

I spoke about Paul Steen's "Art Assault" in a previous post. Brilliant!

I caught part of "A Legend in Your Own Mind" with Austin Thomas, but unfortunately not enough to comment on.

Events that I wish I could have attended:

Maritza Ruiz Kim's "The Interview, In Which I Ask Myself All The Questions You Didn't Know, You Didn't Care To Ask, Along With The Answers You Didn't Care About"- Fortunately, the entire script is on her blog, however seeing it performed live by Bill Powhida would have been even better. Martiza's concept of categorizing people, which we all do, perhaps unknowingly, is fascinating.

"Regionalism as Model" presented by Christopher Ho sounded interesting and it was on my list, but never made it.

...and especially Nic Rad's "Taking My Talents to South Beach: Good Night Cleveland, We Love You". Nic put the transcript on his site, but I hear that his performance provoked tear inducing laughter.

In addition:

While "Hug It Out" as it turns out, was somewhat controversial, I never associated the woman in the lobster costume (complete with claws) who attended our panel with that performance, since she didn't approach me for a hug. I'm not sure exactly how I would have reacted.

So now, after writing and thinking about the #rank projects, I realize that I participated in many more than I realized!

Yes, #rank may have been different (and yet the same) than #class was, but the conversation continued and needs to go on. I would love to see the reprisal of some of the panels/performances that were missed at hopefully, the next incarnation. Is this the end of my #rank posts? Not sure, will have to let it go for a few days and then decide. Despite how Jen and Bill may now feel about the project in retrospect, SOMETHING happened at #rank and the proof is that so many of us who were there are still writing and talking about it almost two weeks later.

The Destiny of #rank

2010-12-13T11:26:00.018-05:00

#rank was a "home base" for many of us. Even though logistics were crazy, it was good to know that I could always see a familiar face at #rank. Because of all the other fairs however, I was not able to attend as many events as I would have liked.

#rank also provided a reason for many of the participants to go to Miami. The entire discussion of what is wrong with the system as it is (especially the art fairs) is impossible to discuss if you've never experienced them in person. There is something especially hierarchical in Miami that is not as apparent at say, The Armory Show. It's that same pyramid we talked about at #class rearing its ugly head again. Perhaps it's because of the sheer amount of fairs or the private jets flying people in for the many VIP parties filled with anorexic-face-stretched women and their pony-tailed men? That "elite" crowd seemed to visit mainly Art Basel Miami which exhibits "la crème de la crème" and then some questionable (to me) work. By doing so, they missed much of the excellent work being shown at the remaining 20 or so satellite fairs.

In the past few days, I learned that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than appeared on the surface at #rank. Controversy, anxiety and disagreements that weren't apparent to me while visiting are being blogged about. You can read about how Jen Dalton and William Powhida, the artists/organizers now feel about the project on the hashtagclass blog.

Jen and Bill put a ton of time and effort into #rank and I do think it's extremely important to continue the conversation. I appreciate that they, along with Ed and Murat of Winkleman Gallery, gave us that platform, but because of the incredible amount of other distractions, #class was more successful in that respect. I do hope that this is not the end of the project however, much more needs to be said, not to mention that solutions have only been hinted at.

...still to come, my take on the panel that I participated in titled "Gender, Age and Location Bias in the Art Market" and thoughts and links to some of the other events that I attended or wish I did.

Art Fairs Miami 2010

2010-12-09T13:14:00.001-05:00

I've arranged my posts about my trip to the Miami art fairs in chronological order so they make more sense.

Still need to do a post about the panel I was on at #rank at Seven and my overall impression of #rank too. but at least now my reports read more cohesively.

Miami Art Fairs - Wednesday

2010-12-09T12:20:00.001-05:00

I'm suffering from Baselitis (as coined by Rebecca Taylor). Four days at the fairs are a blur and with 20+ shows to see, I crammed in as much as possible.

I decided to go a day early, on Tuesday evening instead of Wednesday, because of the dire weather reports. Happy that I did, I heard of 10 hour delays in the NY area airports that day. Unfortunately, I didn't escape delays on my way back due to a mechanical difficulty.

Going down early gave me an extra day which it turns out was needed. Fortunately Art Miami, Scope, Red Dot and Art Asia are all within walking distance. That was the plan for my first day, ending up at #rank at Seven.

One of the most unusual installations at Art Miami were bonnets from artist Angela Ellsworth at Lisa Sette Gallery. Those aren't pearls, but corsage pins with the pins facing the inside of the bonnets which speak to her heritage as an ex-Mormon.

Next was what looked like a mosaic by Sarah Frost. Upon closer inspection (see below). Frost also has a similar installation at the new boutique James Hotel in NYC.

The trend everywhere seemed to be multiples of items, buttons, tiles, ephemera. I also noticed lots of glitz and shiny surfaces and more textile type work than ever: crocheted, stitched, layered, fur.

At Red Dot I heard my name being called and found Erik Sanner who had work at Khaki Gallery. Erik was showing one of his new media paintings which combines video and painting. Didn't get a photo, but you can see his work on the link above.

After a delicious lunch at Michael's, I headed to Scope and Art Asia.

At Art Asia, more multiples from Nobuhiro Nakanishi (and not from the artist I thought, which was interesting).

After a quick run through of Scope, I taxi'd it over to the VUP (Very Unimportant People) party at #rank at Seven. Had plans to go back to Scope for another look, but it never happened. I had also planned on taking more photos, but that didn't happen either! When you're on art overload, it's really difficult to choose which work to photograph which I didn't expect.

Seven itself was impressive with lots of space, room for videos, and interesting work. I'll post some photos of that show later. The #rank party was great with both friends and more new friends. Beer was provided by the miniature Mandies' bar. Here's a post on Hyperallergic about Paul Steen's Art Assault, a brilliant contribution using art museums and artists in a war game.

I really wish I could have attended more #rank panels and performances, but logistically it was pretty impossible with so many other things to see.

...to be continued

Miami Art Fairs - Thursday

2010-12-08T16:30:00.003-05:00

Thursday started out with brunch at Morgan's with my co-panelists for a strategy planning session. From there we were off to Seven where #rank was being held. You can read all about the project here.

Gender, Age and Location Bias in the Art Market panel at #rank (A project by Jen Dalton and William Powhida and sponsored by Winkelman Gallery at Seven)
-Photo by Erik Sanner

Our panel consisted of Rebecca Taylor of The Getty and who also writes for Huffington Post Arts; and artists Nicole Cohen, who lives in Berlin and NYC; Laelia Mitchell who lives in Boston, and me. We had lively conversation with participants.

The discussion blended Gender and Age for most of the time allotted and at the very end, we talked about Location. If you were present at the panel, please add your thoughts in the comments here. I would love to hear your take. More on the panel in a later post.

Also premiering at #rank, our @platea video can now be seen online! Look for Project VII: Sorry I Couldn't Be There.

Next on the agenda was Pulse. Stephanie of Theodore:Art had two small paintings of mine in her booth in the section she called her "Hall of Smalls".

Here's a much better photo than my earlier cell phone one, now you can see Joy Garnett's work to the top right, two of Brian Dupont's paintings (the narrow ones) and a Man Bartlett points drawing on the left middle. Mine are the two at the top corner on the right panel (Yellow Study and Swamp from the Oil, Water, Blood series). The black and white one on the upper left was painted by Giovanni Garcia-Fenech.

I wish I had taken photos of the entire booth. Got to meet the charming Alasdair Duncan and the official Theodore:Art intern.

Then off to Aqua for Joanne Mattera's Art Blogger get-together. Joanne will be writing about her Miami experience soon, so check her blog.

After the meetup, I was pretty much done, had a quick bite, but never looked at the art there. I did go back on Thursday though, so more later!

Miami Art Fairs - Friday Part 1

2010-12-07T21:32:00.003-05:00

Friday started out with visiting Fountain when it first opened. If there was a non-art fair type fair, Fountain was it. With street art, performance, individual artist spaces and gallery booths, it was also the most diverse and also the most friendly. Highlights included Christina Ray's booth, and those below:

I loved Adam Taye's basketball figures at Francesca Arcilesi (and I am not a sports fan). This one is LeBron's Appeal. They appeared to me to be shrines sanctifying/deifying sports figures.

In addition I got to meet my "cousin" Steven Gagnon at his booth. No, he's not really my cousin, but we do share a last name, so somewhere back in time we were related. His work speaks to corporate greed and homelessness. The most powerful work to me however, was the clasped hands layered over lottery tickets and I could picture all the little grandmothers praying for a windfall to get out of debt.

I didn't catch the gallery name, but Marina Gonella's work nailed the urban sprawl of Miami for me with it's multi-layered maps, architectural blueprints and empty buildings.

Next, back to #rank at Seven for Greg Allen's presentation "Relational Aesthetics for the Rich, or a Brief History of the Gala As Art" brilliant and complete with swag bags for attendees. I also attended the Critics Panel at some point, but what day?

At that point, I finally had a chance to really look at the work at Seven.

Empire by Steve Mumford at Postmasters: Others have written about this painting, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it, as it is incredibly powerful. I'm not sure of the size, but it was huge, about 6' x 8'?

Another huge canvas, this one by Yoon Lee titled Evacuation II at Pierogi.

Douglas Florian at Bravin Lee Programs

A three dimensional microcosm by Patrick Jacobs called Fairy Ring Fungus #2 at Pierogi.

Nina Bovasso at Bravin Lee Programs. The next day when I went back, a different rug was on display. Hope this sold, it was spectacular.

Seven was in a great space with a ton of room for each gallery. I can't imagine how daunting it was to fill the walls for them, but they really succeeded and also added a large salon-hung wall with selections from all the participating galleries complete with a who's who map.

.....and yes, this was all before lunch!

Friday Part 2 coming in a bit.

Miami Art Fairs - Friday Part 2

2010-12-07T16:19:00.002-05:00

I then headed back to J. Riggs Fine Art which was right up the street from Seven. I had spoken to the wonderful friendly Kate there earlier in my travels and went back to eat at a pop-up type cafe nearby and to see the work again.

The gallery represents Geoff Hargadon who is responsible for the hilarious Cash for your Warhol signs on billboards and poles around Miami. This installation in the gallery was in actual Warhol colors.

While eating lunch, a "serendipitous" meeting with friends changed my plan for the rest of the day. I was going to head over to Art Basel, the main fair, but they were headed up to NADA which is all the way up on the North Beach side. I'm happy I went.

First another stop at #rank where we caught Austin Thomas' A Legend in Your Own Mind: A Salon Discussion on Fame.

NADA was set in the beautiful ("Mi-Mo" which stands for Miami Modern aka Mad Men-ish decor) Deauville Beach Resort, and it was really far from the other art fairs but worth going to. There was a different feel here, elegant and less rushed.

Josh Smith at Jonathan Viner Gallery. There were a few chemistry lab type installations that I noted in all the fairs (see right).

A quirky Nick Goss titled Roadside Picnic 2010 at Josh Lilley.

The space at NADA.

I had time before the party that I was going to back at Fountain, so I decided to hit Aqua to see the work this time.

Where the Deauville was elegant, the art-deco district Aqua Hotel was funky with the art in empty hotel rooms.

By then I had forgotten to take photos, as I mentioned in my earlier post! However, I did get to see work by Joanne Mattera at Conrad Wilde, red dots on Alexis Manheim's work at Chandler Fine Art (although she didn't know it yet), Bill Powhida's work at Seattle gallery Platform and I got to meet Stephanie of Walker Contemporary in Boston whom I had previously corresponded with online.

Even then the day wasn't over, I was headed to a crazy party at Fountain which involved dj's, burning art, performances and fun.

Miami Art Fairs - Saturday Part 1

2010-12-06T23:42:00.006-05:00

Saturday was my last day, or so I thought.

First stop #rank (I now realize I was there more than I thought) for the Critics Roundtable. I also got there in time for part of Healing from PTAD (Post-Traumatic Art Disorder) by Emily Auchincloss.

Headed out quickly after that for the mothership, Art Basel. I was meeting friends for one of the Art Salon Discussions on Engaged Art with moderator Andrew Perchuk of The Getty, and artists Andrea Bowers and Charles Gaines. It was the only panel I attended there, and if time allowed would have gone to many more.

My impressions of the show: lots of glitz, crowds, expensive coffee and sore feet. People watching though, was fabulous with performers and surprises.

All over Miami during art fairs, you'll see comical performers, just plain strange people, and then the scratch-your-head people like the woman in garbage bags dressed as the Statue of Liberty and screaming.

Right after I saw the twins above though, I came upon these two people on the astroturf resting area.

At that point I had caught up with Erik Sanner who proceeded to put a label titled "jet lag" on the sleeping couple. No, they were not performing! Immediately, people stopped to take photos. I was laughing so much that I was shaking and tears were rolling down my face. The best part is that they woke up while we were still there and LOVED the fact that they had been branded as art, offering free Yoga classes to Erik in exchange.

I realized I'd better start looking at the art before the price reduction at 4pm, and the inundation of even more crowds.

At first I thought this was an Alberto Burri from about 1956, as I had recently seen his retrospective at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, but no, it was a painting from 1996 by Conrad Marca-Relli titled Cityscape at Knoedler & Company.

This is the next best thing to seeing Ai Wei Wei's Sunflower Seeds at the Tate. I had seen them in jars previously, but seeing a big pile of them made me want to stick my hands in them. Two galleries had similar piles having received directions on how to make the pile perfect. The second gallery was letting people pick one up to feel and I was afraid the whole pile would disintegrate when I did. The gallery owner at Farchou where I took this photo, was gracious and thrilled to find out that she could read Ai's tweets in English and copied all the info down in her notebook. My friends and fellow @platea members An Xiao and Jennifer Wyng were instrumental in establishing the Birdsnest tumblr.

A display of multiple Nick Cave Sound Suits was a show stopper. Everyone seemed to pause while going around that corner to admire them (note more multiples, this time buttons).

Unfortunately, I didn't think this El Anatsui was a successful as some that I've seen in the past.

Again, this Rodrigo Andrade had a Burri feel.

My favorite Thomas Nozkowski of all the shows. Sorry for the reflection.

Saturday Part 2 in a few....

Miami Fairs - Saturday Part 2

2010-12-06T12:27:00.002-05:00

Continuing with Art Basel:

Mark Bradford, The Throat That Would Let Go. I love when text is used in a subtle way, these letters were buried under paint and it was a surprise when I got close to see the texture, and realized they were letters, perhaps cardboard stencils? Metal?

More great texture, this time from Leonardo Drew, Number 143.

Detail from a drawing that my notes say Tim Rollins and K.O.S. but now I'm not sure. Help anyone? NOTE* See comment for correction. Thanks Michael!

By then the crowds were insane, since the reduced rate had kicked in at 4pm. Decided I had enough. I thought it interesting that I had been approached by several galleries with a hard sell. Did I seem worthy?

After I left Art Basel, I hit Design Miami which was right across the street.

The entrance to Design Miami. I didn't take any photos inside, interesting furniture though, but by that point I was on overload.

I had some time to kill before meeting friends for dinner, so I walked around a bit and found that at almost every corner I turned, I bumped into people I knew which was great. Then it was time for Shake Shack, off to drinks at The Raleigh, and then a fun concert on the beach by Martin Creed who was risqué, funny and just brilliant.

I was leaving early in the morning and arrived at the airport before 8am, unfortunately because of mechanical difficulties, and after trying to get stand-by on two other flights, I finally took off around 7pm. A long day to end my week, but it was worth it!

Art Fair Overload

2010-12-03T08:29:00.005-05:00

Here's a not so great photo of my two small paintings in Theodore:Art's "Hall of Smalls" as Stephanie calls this corner space in her booth. My two paintings are at the top right: Yellow Study and a brand new one called Swamp which is part of the Oil, Water, Blood series. If you're here in Miami, they're at Booth C-100 at Pulse. Two of the other artists work pictured are a Man Bartlett drawing on the left, and two Brian Dupont paintings on metal, those are the narrow long ones. I have a much better photo on my camera, but forgot my card reader!

I've been here for two days and still haven't been to all the fairs, not for lack of trying, it's pretty overwhelming with 20+ of them. Our panel at #rank yesterday went well, with some good feedback.

When I get back and can process photos and thoughts, I'll be writing more about my experiences.

It's been great meeting so many people in person that I've talked to online only. Such an interesting phenomenon, you feel that you know them even though you've never met.

Off I go, blisters and all!

Miami Bound!

2010-11-30T09:04:00.004-05:00

I'm headed down to the Art Fairs later today.

As I mentioned before, I'll be participating in a panel discussion at Seven for #rank by Jen Dalton and William Powhida with Winkleman Gallery on December 2 at 1pm..

You can read all about the project and the other panels and performances here. The subject is "Gender, Age and Location Bias in the Art Market" and my co-panelists are artists laelia e. mitchell of Boston, Nicole Cohen of Berlin and NYC and Getty communications expert Rebecca Taylor of Los Angeles.

@platea, the art collective that I belong to, will also be presenting a video at #rank.

In addition, I have two small paintings at Theodore:Art at Pulse. If you're down there, stop by to say hello to Stephanie in Booth C-100.

I'll definitely be posting photos!

Beautiful Decay

2010-11-22T14:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went on a photo shoot looking for more images for my Abandoned Series. I found a derelict shopping center and wondered why the windows in one shop had so much condensation. Turns out there were holes in the roof and the entire store was filled with damp and mold, probably a toxic soup. Hard to believe a store just next door was open. Scary stuff.

I just don't understand why new shopping centers keep being built while so many are just left empty by the side of the road.

Anyway, I shot this one in color instead of b&w like the rest of the series, the image was hauntingly beautiful to me, and so sad.

AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Site-Specific Commission

2010-11-19T17:22:00.002-05:00

Installed this morning, the latest in the Catacombs series. This is number 23. The colors of the arches compliment the colors in the stained glass. The piece is 4x8 feet and in person resembles an old wall. This one is textile and I love transforming soft into something hard looking and ancient. It fit well into the meditation room and my hospital liaisons loved it.

This makes 17 pieces for the same hospital system in their various campuses. I'm so pleased that they like my work and they're great to work with. My work for them varies from paintings to stretched photographs to this textile piece in the Atlantic City campus.

There is a detail photograph in a previous post. The work is about religious tolerance and equality and each symbol of the nine major religions is represented in embroidery on the work.

Installation Tomorrow

2010-11-18T20:41:00.004-05:00

I'm installing the site-specific commission for AtlantiCare tomorrow morning. Will post images later in the day. I know I've been quiet, but I've been super busy trying to get this finished.

Now I can concentrate on Miami! In addition to being on a panel at #rank which is at Seven, I'll also have two small paintings at Theodore:Art at Pulse, booth C100.

Throw Thanksgiving into the mix and it's going to be a quick two weeks before I leave.

November 11, 2010

2010-11-11T11:08:00.002-05:00

Image from the Asbury Park Press

The organizers insist this is not a political statement, but how can such a visual message not be? Every year, Boy Scouts plant flags in front of a local funeral home in memory of those killed in Iraq. This year the number count is 4900. In addition, I read last night that the toll in Afghanistan is now up to 1306.

To what end?

I can’t say this however, without thanking those who gave their lives, and feel for the families who are suffering.

Update on Projects

2010-10-29T11:22:00.007-04:00

I've been working like crazy on my site-specific commission for AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's Atlantic City Campus meditation space/chapel. Textile this time, yes it's been awhile with all the painting I've been doing. The piece will be 4x8 feet, and it's essentially about religious freedom and tolerance. Symbols from the nine major religions are being incorporated into the imagery, along with the arches that I often use in my work.

I decided to hand stitch the symbols because I thought they blended in too much with the machine stitched arches. The result will still be subtle, but interesting, because now it will be easy to differentiate the symbols from the background. It's very labor intensive however, not to mention my hands are aching, but it will be worth it. The image above shows a detail still in a work-in-progress stage. It's a honey color background with arches in hues similar to a stained glass window across the room. The good part about doing work within the state, is that I can go and take installation photos myself.

In other news, I'll be speaking at a panel discussion at Seven for #rank with Winkleman Gallery at the Miami Art Fairs in early December. I posted here last winter about the Jen Dalton and William Powhida project at Winkleman titled #class. #rank will be a continuation or a finale, it remains to be seen. In any case, I expect lively discussions, disagreements and insanity.

You can read all about the project and the other panels and performances here. The title of the panel that I'm on is "Gender, Age and Location Bias in the Art Market" and I'm proud to say that my co-panelists are artists laelia e. mitchell, Nicole Cohen and Getty communications expert and friend Rebecca Taylor.

@platea, the art collective that I belong to, will also be presenting a video at #rank.

1400 Acres

2010-10-11T10:01:00.002-04:00

Cluster
20h x 30w x 1.5d
Acrylic, photo, hand stitching on canvas

I've posted this painting in previous posts, you can read it here and see a detail photo here. Cluster can be interpreted any way you want, because it works as either Cancer Cluster or Cluster *$%#.

The backstory is that from 1952 to closing in 1996, the Ciba Geigy plant in Toms River, NJ, continuously dumped waste from their operations into the soil. Eventually the contamination reached the water supply.

30 years after the site was put on the EPA's Superfund list, it was reported last week that the soil remediation project is finally finished. Over 9.5 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater has also been treated according to the EPA.

So the question is, what do you do with 1400 acres of land? I certainly wouldn't want to live there. If the town decides to make it open space/parkland, would you want to visit?

My solution would be to construct a wind or solar farm, but I doubt that would happen.

A New Project and Friends&Family

2010-09-29T13:24:00.002-04:00

My latest project is a site-specific textile piece for the chapel/meditation room of a large NJ hospital. Details and images coming soon. It's very labor intensive, but I think the result will be worth it.

In the meantime, I'll share some photos of friends and my daughter from my L.A. trip. It was great to see everyone! Looking at these makes me miss you all.

Here's artist/photographer/social media star An Xiao Mina on the roof of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena at dusk. I'm learning to use my new Lumix, and didn't want to use a flash and spoil the incredible backdrop. An recently left NY to go back to school, and I'm pretty envious of the space and environment at the Art Center.

Here's video artist and curator Christi Nielsen, Rebecca Taylor who is the senior communications manager at the Getty, and moi at lunch at the fabulous Bottega Louie downtown.

Here's my daughter, Erin Goodsell and I at lunch too. Proud Mom, I have to brag. Erin just won an Emmy and countless other awards for producing the Old Spice - I'm on a Horse commercial and is already on to even bigger things.

Another NY Day

2010-09-22T14:01:00.002-04:00

There are many architectural gems in NYC. (Just wish they hadn't destroyed the original Penn Station). Here's a shot of Grand Central Station with a peek its magnificent constellation ceiling.

I also got to see some great exhibits, especially the Louise Bourgeios/Tracy Emin show at Carolina Nitsch. This was Louise's last project before she died. Also of note, Lori Field at Claire Oliver.

There was another exhibit that I loved and can't remember which gallery it was in and it's making me crazy. I guess that's what happens when you don't write it down, it was an artist unknown to me, and I tried to hit as many galleries as I could in the time I was there. If I figure it out, I'll post it here.

Addendum: It was Michael Mazur at Mary Ryan Gallery. Thanks @aodt!

I finished up the day with a visit to Mario Batali's Eataly which certainly lived up to the hype.

Late Summer Newsletter

2010-09-20T13:39:00.002-04:00

Somehow I still can't say that it's Autumn, so here's the Late Summer Newsletter. There's an opt-in form for future (somewhat quarterly) mailings in the column at right.

Friday's Reception

2010-09-20T11:06:00.000-04:00

Here's a view of my work at Soul Made Gallery in Point Pleasant, NJ. Friday's opening was quite nice, the gallery owners really put a lot of work into it. It was also really great that 5 of my friends surprised me by coming, and that they got along so well that we went to dinner afterwards. I took this photo just before visitors arrived and we had a nice crowd.

NJ Gallery Reception Tomorrow Evening

2010-09-16T13:58:00.001-04:00

Here's that tree again, so surprised it hasn't sold. Three galleries have chosen it for their postcards now. If you're at the NJ Shore tomorrow evening, please join me. The gallery just opened a few weeks ago and is on Arnold Avenue, Point Pleasant, NJ.

Note: The exhibit will be open until mid-October. Call the gallery at 732-892-0900 for hours.

Leaving L.A.

2010-09-13T20:50:00.001-04:00

Top: Franz Kline at MOCA

Bottom: Mark Rothko at MOCA

Building shadows while walking down Grand Street

View of L.A. from The Getty

Headed home from L.A. tomorrow. Have been to the Getty, MOCA, Santa Monica Museum of Art, multiple galleries and lots of good restaurants, the Rose Bowl flea market, saw friends and enjoyed visiting my daughter. But all good things must come to an end.

Today is Not a Day for Violence

2010-09-11T11:14:00.001-04:00

Taken at sunset from the Jersey City side on film, developed in the darkroom.

Never forget.