Posts (page 2)
I've been suffering with a heat wave that hit SoCal very hard, putting the temp in the valley over 107 for two days in a row. Been hard to sleep.
I'm in Diana Zlotnick's newsletter three times in a row! She wrote the following:
I went to see the "two berlins" exhibition at LACMA yesterday the 29th. It was a great day.
I picked up Diane Y, my new friend, at her house in Play Del Ray. I love that area, it's so different than most areas in SoCal. She's great with directions, so I didn't need to resort to the GPS. We went to the museum using side streets, down Fairfax to Wilshire. I wore my new shoes to help with fatigue, which didn't work as good as I hoped.
Anyways we went to see the exhibit. It was uneven, I thought, in terms of quality, but it was nevertheless fascinating, and very, very dark. Until...
We turned a corner and smelled a sickly sweet chocolate smell. Turns out it was a work by Dieter Roth "Chocolate Lion Tower" - a "work that gradually transforms from something pleasant into something spoiled." Done in Hamburg from 1969 to 1993. Wood lions held chocolate centers.
Near the work was a painting by "Blinky Palermo" aka Peter Schwarze (later became Peter Heisterkamp after being adopted). This painting was on cotton backed with muslin from the Froehlich Collection in Stuttgart. The painting "Untitled" from 1967 consisted of two colors, a dark blue on top and a light blue on bottom.
Well, I guess the chocolate smell intrigued the little beasties (insects). Diane noticed it first! About two feet up from the bottom of the painting, toward the left in the dark blue part of the painting - about two dozen insect eggs!!!
Hmmm...DON'T THINK THE ARTIST WOULD BE TOO HAPPY ABOUT THAT!!!
We reported it to the guard, who said she already notified management. Guess that's what you get for putting food too close to fabric!!!
It would have been funner had the painting been about eggs...
We met a man from Germany there and talked about how the treaty of Versailles created the conditions that led to the possibility of a Hitler happening. We told him about the exhibition, he didn't realize it was going on when he actually had an opportunity to see it (thought it started in April). So I'm glad he'll have the opportunity to share this with his kids.
We then ate in an Ethopian restaurant that featured vegan food! It was incredible. Such a nice day!
We So Cal people LOVE LOVE LOVE the rain. It just doesn't happen often enough! And when it stops, the weather has that "Paris" feel this time of year (I've never been, sigh).
I've grown to accept all the synchronicity, which keeps happening. It's magic, and I love it. I started watching the Matrix last night, again. Wow. I remember working on the 7th floor (or something around there) and seeing them "flying around" on the lattices while making the film. The lattices were quite high and extensive. What an inventive film, so well thought through.
To be continued, I need to exercise and drink tea!
I went to downtown LA yesterday, visiting Rex Bruce at LACDA, Rebecca O'Leary at Pharmika, and Bert Green at Bert Greene Fine art. It was a great day - they all were able to spare time to talk to me - and it was another beautiful day. The quality of the light, and the return of vegetation after about three years of severe drought - has brought a seemingly endless stream of beautiful days to southern California.
I tried to ask Rex about himself but he kept on bringing it back to me, asking if I had new work. I sent him four images and directed him to my gallery page. He called my images "nice". I guess I can't really expect anything more than that!
Bert and I hit it off pretty good. I asked him who did the assemblage - he said George Herms. I replied "yes, I thought it was a Herms. I saw him speak recently at the catalogue annex of MOCA with Diana Zlotnick." "You know Diana Zlotnick?". Yes I said. "Have you seen here new retrospective of her collection at the college?" "I'm IN it!" I said. We started talking about a lot of things, including discussing Llyn Foulkes (who has a piece at the Hammer now), George, Diana, politics, the meaning of art and fame, how art should be done not for (fame) but for the sake of the love of art, etc. Bert is one cool dude.
And now a speaker fell off a shelf, spilling a bunch of art mags. Including "THE" magazine, edited by Peter Frank. I think I wrote that Diana mentioned how he liked my work at her reception. One of the mags had an article about Richard Prince, who I've been reading about in the LA Weekly. An article titled "Prince and the Beat-Popper - Richard Prince, Wallace Berman and their Women". It features a photo of Prince's with a woman with gi-normous breasts. I showed the pic to my acupuncture guy and he said "beautiful." I guess Christopher Miles feels so too, he called her breasts "awe-inspiring." I have to say as a straight woman, that they are back-breaking, and symetrically unattractive. But hey, I'm not an American Male!!! Needless to say... I really don't think "bigger is better."
Wallace Berman though...seeing his work in Diana's house and readng about how the LAPD shut down his exhibition in '57 was understandable. His work does have an erotic edge that Miles calls "can still make you blush." And Diana collected that stuff early on. Amazing...
Well I gotta go, fix a meal, get ready for a day with my EDS friend Dean. We're going to a show in a home. Info below, in case anyone reads this last minute and wants to go:
I am pleased to present Art on Ambrose. It’s a one day show, featuring 12 emerging artists, housed in a giant English Tudor Home, circa 1925. Everything is for sale, including the house. In fact if you buy the house, we’ll throw in some art!
With Smooth ‘n Purdy, Mush, and Sotheby’s, we offer an afternoon of wine, cheese, and live music.
It’ll be a great show, please join us.
We look forward to seeing you.
5111 Ambrose Avenue
Los Feliz, CA 90027
February 28th, from 2pm-7pm
-Greg Cohen (who wrote very nice things about my jazz pieces).
Life has been really good lately. A lot happening in the art world, personal life, weather soooo beautiful. I keep wondering if Los Angeles has been transported to Paris. It seems like it, though since I've never traveled anywhere I'll never know...but it's my secret time-travel belief.
First, I am in Diana Zlotnick's retrospective over at LAVCC (Los Angeles Valley Community College) show, it lasts until March 26. I'm also in a new show over at Bakery Art Exhibitions. My good friend Joel has been helping me print my pieces to my vision, which is next to impossible because I have a horrible and old monitor. To get a good one would be much more expensive than I could afford, unless I started selling big-time (how many have said they would buy and then I never hear from them? Or try to scam me and have me "wire" money into their banks? The number is staggering...)
I have had a lot of good memories with Diana recently. We visited George Herms speaking at the 100 year anniversary of the Futurist movement, and then I saw her speak at her exhibition Intuitive Eye: The Diana Zlotnick Collection...
The George Herms event was fantastic. He's quite the character. He described movements of art and politics, starting with futurists and beatniks and moving through hippies, McCarthyism, etc. He then started launching plates (that he was supposed to sell to bring MOCA much needed funds) into the air. He wore a Statue of Liberty hat and took off his shirt, putting on his high school jacket. He is an excellent speaker and very humorous. I met some new artist friends there. It was a blast.
Then the retrospective reception for Diana, last Wednesday. I received the most endearing (back-handed) compliment I've ever received. She said she didn't know what to make of my work at first, because of being done on a computer. Then she said "so I showed it to Michael Ned Holte. And he liked it. Then I showed it to Peter Frank, and he liked it. Then I showed it to Howard Fox and he liked it. Then I showed it to (name I didn't know) and he liked it."
She then smiled at me and said "so I guess it's OK that I like it too!"
This speaks to the theme, doesn't it, of a natural thing a lot of people do. Groupthink! A woman bitterly complained that Diana liked her work, then didn't after reading a bad review. Then she read a good review and decided she liked it afterall. I don't think this is something unusual, I believe we all participate in groupthink to some degree. It's hard to completely believe in your judgement, especially with something so subjective as art. But Diana, to her credit, believes in her vision a LOT more than most. Which is why she's been so good at picking people who (about 90% of the time) go on to become well established and respected.
The weather lately in southern california - for the past month or so - has been pristine and wonderful beyond belief. The Santa Ana conditions recently have caused air that I might imagine would be comparable to the legendary skies of Paris, with deep multi-colored crisp shadows and air so clean and clear you can see the details of mountains and bluffs for miles. It has truly been breathtaking and spectacular. I've been meaning to write about it but been too caught up in my busy, busy day-to-day.
Yesterday, I had planned to go to an opening over at the Jazz Bakery where I support my friend Joseph who curates the art program there. DZ called and asked me to take her to the Getty in Pacific Palisades. Never having been there, and wanting to see the Jim Dine exhibition (she has an early work of his) I agreed. It was supposed to rain yesterday but didn't. The skies however were amazing. The clouds looked painted, not real, with the chiaroscuro of a masterpiece. Diana, who was born in Los Angeles in 1927, and I having been here my whole life, have never seen anything quite like it. Driving up the 405 to go home, looking at the other Getty and the far-off mountains and hills, was an amazing experience.
We spoke a lot about personal trajedy and how we each have to adapt to our own and go on living, not to be swallowed by fear and anger. Jim Dine and other male artists Diana has she has soured to. She told me once she gets to know the artists their approaches, attitudes, and demeanor affect her opinion of their work. She wants, toward the end of her life, to be surrounded by peacefulness and beauty, by aesthetic, not dark angry images. Interesting, as one of her artists she picked early on to be very successful is, and she has one of his darkest paintings displayed prominently in her large room. I pointed this out. She saw the piece differently, but I suppose she has a better context to evaluate it than I do. Having said that though, all art is political in nature - even if the politics are intensly personal.
I went to the Broad at LACMA for the first time today. It was truly amazing. Seeing Warhol (whom until fairly recently I disliked....), Baldessari, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, and Richard Serra - I didn't see all of those, but since I have a museum membership now I plan on it.
What an amazing last few days. Yesterday I went to deliver some pieces from Jazz in L..A. to Diana Zlotnick. Before I left we put them up in her main living room display area. My work hung next to an Warhol Marilyn, an Rusha, and a Herms. Llyn Foulkes, Richard Pettibone, on and on share space in that room. It was quite the emotional experience for me. And today, seeing large Warhol's at LACMA and reading about him, I wondered how I could ever NOT like the guy. I wonder if I'll ever change my mind about Murakami. Somehow I doubt it.
Here are the images at Diana's (they look so much better in person):
