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 Friday, November 20, 2009
Make your drawings pop!
 This past month I've been working on budgets for 2010. It's not exactly creative work, but it must be done if we still want books and magazines in 2010. So I was very happy to spend my Saturday drawing. When I start to draw, I really don't know where my work will end up. This is probably a reaction to the fact that most of the time, I've got more than enough to do, and when I'm drawing, I just unplug and work in the moment. Sound familiar? I really cherish my drawing time because it gives me opportunity to turn inside and embrace my creativity. My process this week was very simple: Draw a figure using the same pose from different angles. It's an old artist's trick to get the most out of your model.  I drew very fast, taking about seven minutes per drawing. For me, the action doesn't stop once the pencil is down. After I blocked everything in, I needed to figure out how to take it to the next level. This week, I really wanted to maintain the simplicity and decided to focus on capturing the head in a square format. I used three colors, one neutral and two complements, yellow-green and red-orange (OK, so not exact complements, but close). These drawings are 7x7 but have a grand sense of scale, a little reminiscent of Pop Art. The bold colors and the layout of the images help make the compositions feel larger than they are. These aren't exactly portraits, more like advanced studies that work well together. Learn more:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | Random Thoughts
11/20/2009 10:10:05 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Art and nature
I want to build an earthbag dome.  I've been working like mad today trying to put the finishing touches on the upcoming book, Naturescapes: Innovative Painting Techniques Using Acrylics, Sponges, Natural Materials and More, in which Terrence Lun Tse uses leaves, twigs and found objects for painting acrylic landscapes and nature. Then I thought I'd take a little break to look for more examples of organic art. What I discovered was Earthen Hand Natural Building, a business started by artist Scott Howard. And now ... now I want to go to Africa and build an earthbag dome. It's a vacation, it's real, it's cool, it's art ... check it out. Have you found any out of the ordinary escapes? I'd love to hear about them! —Mona Michael
Managing editor, North Light Books
Learn more about Terrence Lun Tse:
News | North Light Books | Random Thoughts
11/17/2009 3:51:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 13, 2009 Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Friday, November 06, 2009
Drawing or painting?
 What defines a drawing versus a painting? How do you classify one from the other? Can we always distinguish between the two? People have been debating this question for years. Obviously, the two are interconnected, and both can be very expressive forms of art. Some artists love the process of drawing, others love the painting process, and there are parts of both that appeal to many artists. For me, drawing is a little more spontaneous and looser; painting takes more planning and decisionmaking. This past week, I found a happy medium using a process that mixes the two. I confess, not all of my drawings (or paintings) turn out to be exactly how I envision. When good drawings go bad, I find that stopping is a good solution. But sometimes an errant drawing can become the basis for taking a piece in a totally different direction. This drawing started out as a portrait of a woman’s face, but the features weren't as well-drawn as I wanted, so I decided to turn it into a mixed-media piece. On top of the drawing I randomly applied a thin layer of colored gesso. On top of the dry gesso, I redrew a new figure using conté crayon. I used oil pastels to accent the figure, and graphite and more conté to add darks to the composition. In some places, I blended the conté and oil pastel using a paper stump, and then etched into it with a metal palette knife. Working on a drawing that I already considered ruined allowed me to engage in a liberating, discover-as-I-go process. The drawing has taken on a more painterly feeling with a definite drawing edge, so for me it was win-win. Next time a drawing isn’t going the way you want, take a chance and mix it up by adding some other mediums. You might be pleased with the results. Recommended reading for the creative mind:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | Random Thoughts
11/6/2009 3:03:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, October 30, 2009
The Value of Value
One of the most beautiful aspects of using graphite is the range of values you can achieve within a single drawing. Dangerous darks, ethereal lights and every value in between—obtained just by varying the pressure on the pencil or graphite stick. This range of values has attracted artists for centuries and keeps pencils in the hands of modern artists. As wonderful as a traditional pencil is, sometimes I like to  use graphite that comes in a water-soluble version. This week's drawing was done using a water-soluble graphite pencil. The drawing of the figure has a loose, quick feel to it—and it should because I completed it in about 10 minutes. The process was pretty simple: draw, shade and brush water over the parts I wanted to have a looser feeling. The washes make the drawing more interesting and provide a contemporary approach to the medium. It has a feeling similar to watercolor, but the graphite washes provide a different sensibility and surface quality. I love how the graphite can become fluid; I was even able to pick up enough liquid graphite with the brush to splatter some across the paper to add texture and another value to the paper. The value ranges are subtle, which adds some moodiness to the drawing that compliments the relaxed pose of the figure. This is a great way to experiment with graphite and stretch your drawing muscles. Check out these great books to learn more about drawing:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | Random Thoughts
10/30/2009 9:39:25 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 23, 2009
What drawings can do that paintings can't
Last week, instead of spending time on my own drawing, I got to see the work of several talented artists while in Scottsdale, AZ. Among other things, I was there to attend the Scottsdale Gallery Association's monthly Art Walk. Art walks are a great way for the arts community and art lovers to come together by opening gallery doors for an evening, and I saw some amazing art. One of the highlights of my trip was the 1st Annual Scottsdale Drawing Event. So many collectors focus on paintings that drawings are often an overlooked art form. Many of the drawings were completed in conjunction with oil paintings. It was astounding to see the same image, one in black and white, the other in full color; each a complete work on its own with a different intensity. I found it fun to find the slight variations between the works as the composition was altered to best suit the artists' intention and medium. All the work was great, but sometimes I actually liked the drawings better. Drawing has a direct connection to the subject that's not always present in paintings. I think it's the mark-making that only dry media create—each line, hash-mark or smudge echoing the movement of the hand across the paper. You be the judge: Check out this gallery of drawings from the show. Improve your own drawing skills with these books:
By Jamie Markle | North Light Books | Random Thoughts
10/23/2009 10:52:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Art news bits and bobs
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
10/21/2009 2:33:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 12, 2009
Art show asks you to Think Before You Pink
It's October and that time of year when an onslaught of pink ribbons pop up here, there, and everywhere, from candy bars to shiny new cars. Now a San Francisco gallery, ArtHaus, has teamed up with Breast Cancer Action (BCA), a national watchdog organization, to present a show that invites viewers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.  Think Before You Pink (also the name of a BCA campaign) features 14 artists, including at least one breast cancer survivor, Torrie Groening. "I was fed up and saddened by the fact that I couldn't even buy my family groceries without being bombarded with reminders of cancer in the shape of pink ribbons," Groening says. Her photograph, This Elixir, It Won't Fix Her (right), features a volcano of consumer good erupting out of a tin can—teddy bears, lemon squeezers, and sunglasses. "When researching for this piece I only had to Google 'pink ribbon store' to discover this was a huge industry. Hundreds of online stores sell thousands of manufactured and pink ribbon objects—enough to fill many landfills." Groening says she is sick of pink and she's participating in the show, in part, because BCA holds companies accountable, including ones that manufacture carcinogenic products and then urge the public to buy its products to support cancer research. Among other things, BCA also encourages consumers to read the fine print—how much of the money really goes toward breast cancer? According to BCA, for example, Lean Cuisine once displayed pink ribbons on its boxes, but the purchase of the frozen delights did not result in any money going toward breast cancer research. Instead, the consumer was directed to a website to buy a pink Lean Cuisine lunch tote. Groening says everyone copes differently, but she prefers not to concentrate on cancer and keep a sense of humor and focus on her family and artwork. Think Before You Pink runs at ArtHaus through Oct. 31. —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | News | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
10/12/2009 9:27:36 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 02, 2009
Capture the Figure in a Single Line
Whenever I'm having a difficult time embracing the drawing mode, it's a good idea for me to go back to basics. Using a simple contour line to draw the figure is one of best exercises to snap the brain from the left side to the right. I can always count on this technique to make me stop and look. If I'm not drawing the way I want, I’m not seeing, and sometimes I just need to slow down and really look at what is in front of me. Since seeing is the key to drawing, this simple change of course improves my results.  When using contour line I always start with the most complicated part of the subject, in this case the face. Then I slowly work my way to the outer edges of the figure, looking for the basic lines that make up the composition. Once I get into this mode of drawing, I become more relaxed and am able to focus on the simple shapes, the twisting of the form and the direction of the limbs. I allow my lines to overlap, tracing the shapes until I get them just right. Aside from opening up my eyes, the thing I like most about contour drawing is the challenge it brings. Creating art is a lot like solving a puzzle. You have to figure out how to arrange the line, shape, form and values. How do you place the figure on page? How dark or how light, how thick or how thin to make the lines? Where is the focal point? And how do you fit it all in without removing the charcoal from the paper? It's a balancing act, that's for sure. We had a great model this session, and her amazing poses created some very interesting compositions. She also had this great, curly hair that bounced around her head. By keeping the face simple, I was able to balance the active lines of her hair and create the focal point for the drawing. The face almost always becomes the focal point anyway, so it's a good idea to plan your drawing with that in mind. The proportions are fairly accurate, which is just fine with me. The drawing is large (24x18), which let me to capture the smaller features like the hands more easily. After I completed the contour line, I punctuated the drawing with some strong darks. This really increased the contrast and gives the drawing some extra punch. Learn more:
Advice | By Jamie Markle | Random Thoughts
10/2/2009 9:19:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, September 25, 2009
Exercise your eye: Learn to draw
 Ahhh, autumn! For many people, that means back to school, and for me it's no different, even though I've been working for 20 years. As the publisher of The Artist’s Magazine and North Light Books, I know a lot about art. Actually, I've been painting for years, and I decided to exercise my eyes and hands by taking part in a local figure-drawing group. The first session was Sept. 12, and I’ve decided to share my thoughts about drawing and making art and some of the conversations that come up during the critiques in our blog. Although this was the first group session, I've been drawing with some of these people for years. We were lucky to have a veteran model with us, so I was able to quickly get into a strong rhythm. We drew for about an hour with quick, two- to five-minute poses, then another hour with 15-minute poses. I draw pretty fast, so this approach works well for me. It's always good to know your objectives before starting any work of art. I have some very simple goals for my drawings: 1. Exercise my eye-hand coordination.
2. Engage with the model to capture him on paper.
3. Practice my compositional skills.
4. Record what I see in a quick, simplistic manner.
I'm not too worried about accuracy; these are really just experiments and a chance to draw. Notice the figures in my finished drawing (top) are of the same pose from different perspectives. I like this approach because it challenges me to incorporate the figures without making them repetitive. By including two figures, the composition becomes more complex and establishes a dialogue between them. I went back into the drawing the next day to create the setting, which connects the figures and makes the drawing less of a study and more of a finished work. This drawing was created on paper taken from an old book doomed to the recycling bin. The printed words added texture to the paper and were a challenge to integrate into the work. I liked the way the text interacted with the figures and decided I didn’t want to use traditional shading or modeling to create forms. Instead I opted to leave the figures unshaded and focused on using color and value to create contrast within the piece. I think it was successful overall and a good start to the fall drawing season. The drawing sessions will be going on for three months, and I’ll be posting here every Friday. If you have questions or comments, post them below. You can also friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Advice | Random Thoughts | By Jamie Markle
9/25/2009 9:02:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Art lust: Squam Art Workshops
I'm fighting off a cold and can barely string together a sentence at the moment, but I had to share this: Squam Art Workshops, a four-day art retreat in the-middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire. The next one is next weekend. If only...
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
9/9/2009 3:23:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, August 31, 2009
Mini-portraits for the masses
 The headline on a recent story on CNN.com read: Old–school Portraits See Resurgence Online. The article spotlighted Matt Held, a New York City artist who paints peoples' Facebook photos and gives them to his subjects. The story noted the art of portraiture, once reserved for the rich and the royal, has found a new mass appeal online. The report started me thinking about how many artists today create their own inspired Facebook images—mini self-portraits that not only establish their identity online but at the same time provide a sampling of their artistic talents and imaginations. Some offer up sophisticated and painterly oil self-portraits like Coloradan Daniel Sprick (below right).  Others like Alex Schaefer, from the Los Angeles area, have some fun with their postage-stamp-size digitals. Schaefer, an instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, took his first grade photo and added a beard in Photoshop (above right). "People think it's funny, which is entirely my intention," he says. "It still looks like me but also expresses a little about how I feel inside. I think in any artist there is a certain refusal to grow up." How does your Facebook/MySpace/Twitter image represent you as an artist? —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | Random Thoughts
8/31/2009 9:12:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 28, 2009 Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Experimenting with encaustic painting
 Last week I got to spend some time in our photo studio with artist Gina Adams as she filmed some promos for R&F Encaustics. R&F owner Jim Haskin helped introduce me to the whole  encaustic method, and I was absolutely captivated. Gina first did a demo on how to paint with oil sticks, and then got into the basics of painting with encaustics, pigmented wax blocks that you melt on a heated palette and apply with brushes. Totally cool. Gina had never been in front of a camera before, but by the end of the morning she was an old pro. I was afraid of making a mess on the palette, but apparently you're supposed to get  wax everywhere. There are untinted wax blocks that serve as a medium, so you can extend a color and increase transparency. Encaustic painting is thousands of years old, but a lot of modern artists are reinventing the medium. Like our November 2008 Artist of the Month, Sheary Clough Suiter, and Patricia Seggebruch, who wrote Encaustic Workshop, a great book I reviewed in The Artist's Magazine a while back. Looks like I've got yet another project on my to-do list...
By Grace Dobush | Projects | Random Thoughts
8/19/2009 9:21:22 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 07, 2009
Portland art report, part 2
 There are a lot of cool people in Portland, but not many as cool as Kate Bingaman-Burt, who I wrote about once upon a time (in the picture at right, she's on the right, I'm on the left). She puts up daily drawings of her purchases at Obsessive Consumption, and through the end of August, you can see a big show of her work at Reading Frenzy in downtown Portland! I was stoked to see it while I was in town, and I also got to experience the Portland Zine Symposium, where Kate had a table, as did her graphic design students from Portland State University. Pictures follow... If you're a fan of independent publishing, art and comics, Reading Frenzy is a must-see destination in Portland.  Kate is showing years of drawings of her purchases, and has a bunch of zines and buttons for sale, as well as larger prints!  The scene at the Portland Zine Symposium! 
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
8/7/2009 3:06:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Portland art report, part 1
Finally got around to uploading all my pics from my trip out to the Pacific Northwest, and there's just too much good stuff for one blog post! Check back Friday for part II. I spent what feels like half of my vacation waiting around in Chicago's O'Hare airport. Luckily, there was plenty of stuff to keep me occupied, like the neon light tunnel between terminals:
Once I finally got to Portland, I went to a lot of my favorite places, like the Alberta Arts District (but I'm utterly bummed about the demise of Office's bricks-and-mortar store), the Portland Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Saw this kooky shrine suspended from a light pole in Alberta:  Guardino Gallery had a show of works by Shalene Valenzuela and Kelly Neidig, who I've actually been a fan of for a while! I was really tempted to take home one of Neidig's expressionist landscapes:  I also went to the Oregon coast for a vacation-within-a-vacation. Being a land-locked yankee, I think the ocean is such an incredible thing. While in Yachats I ran into this strapping mural:  Enough said.
By Grace Dobush | Exhibits | Random Thoughts
8/5/2009 5:01:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Random awesomeness
 So much good stuff on the Internet lately, I tell ya. And by the way, here at The Artist's Magazine HQ we're getting onto the Twitter bandwagon (twandwagon?). Follow us: @artistsnetwork and @artistsmagazine.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Projects | Random Thoughts
7/30/2009 10:20:59 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Thank A Teacher
As we get The Artist’s Magazine’s October issue ready for the printer, our September issue is on its way to you. If you're not a subscriber (you should be!), look for it on the newsstands August 11th. In addition to over 300 workshop listings, the September issue has a marvelous article on a Dallas initiative that integrates the arts into the standard middle and upper school curriculum ("Kids Get Smart With Art," by Tucker Coombe). The premise is simple and incontestable: students learn best when they engage all aspects of their being: their bodies as well as their brains. Mathematical intervals make sense when you're dancing; optics, when you mix colors of paint or play with stage lights. Read about arts initiatives across the country in the Wallace Foundation's report, produced by the RAND Corporation, " Revitalizing Arts Education through Community-Wide Coordination". Reading Tucker Coombe’s article (and the tributes pouring in from former students of Frank McCourt) reminded me of the wonderful teachers who so influenced my life. In my letter from the editor in the September issue, I urged you drop a line to an art teacher you're grateful to. If you've lost touch, I invite you to post the letter here. Maybe it will find its way to her or him!
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
7/20/2009 10:01:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, July 17, 2009
Visiting the Portland Art Museum
Well, all, I'm off to the Pacific Northwest again next week! My one definite plan is to take in the Portland Art Museum. It's kinda ridiculous that I've been to Portland twice already and never made it there. The current exhibition list is really impressive:
Virtual Worlds: M.C. Escher and Paradox
Through Sept. 13: Printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher created visual puzzles in which logic and absurdity coexist. This exhibition traces the development of the artist’s work from his early stylized depictions of landscape and architecture to his later use of repeated geometric patterns.
Marking Portland: The Art of Tattoo
Through Sept 7: Experience the art of tattoo—through time and across cultures—with Museum-wide kiosks showcasing tattoo-related art from the permanent collections and interactive, multimedia presentations featuring Portland-area tattoos and their stories.
Sensitive Vision: The Prints of Beth Van Hoesen
Through Aug. 16: This retrospective of prints by San Francisco artist Beth Van Hoesen features approximately 70 prints drawn from the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum.
Can't wait! See y'all in 10 days!
By Grace Dobush | Exhibits | Random Thoughts
7/17/2009 11:14:17 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Tales from the psych ward
 Darryl Cunningham draws cartoons based on his time working in a psychiatric ward. I guess it's contradictory to call works of such serious subject matter "comics," but what can you do? The stories are absolutely fascinating, and he just found a publisher, so we'll soon be able to read more of them. Click here to read the Psychiatric Tales and see his other cartoons.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
7/8/2009 3:07:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Cloudy sky inspirations
 I took this picture on a road trip recently—the evening sky was just blowing me away. I fully intend to do something with this image (I've been dabbling in acrylics but don't dare show anyone yet). I've come across a lot of great cloud images recently. Like the Times Online's 10 best clouds, with great images. And the Telegraph, another British newspaper, put up a slideshow of extraordinary clouds—these formations are so amazing you'll hardly believe they're real. More books for cloud inspiration: And some demos and articles about painting clouds:
By Grace Dobush | Photography | Random Thoughts
7/1/2009 9:20:17 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Renegade Brooklyn craft show in pictures
I'm no stranger to the indie craft show circuit, but last weekend I made my first attempt at a monster show: Renegade Brooklyn. More than 300 crafters put up their tent stakes in Williamsburg's McCarren Park this year. I shared a booth with my friend Jessica, who crafts under the name of Miss Chief.
You don't even want to know how much time I spent crafting journals and notecards before this show. Let's just say, my living room is only now starting to look like a place to relax instead of a crafty sweatshop.
 Going around the park was a little overwhelming, but I saw some really cool stuff, such as these art prints by Virginia Kraljevic.
There was even a gypsy band!
 Selling at Renegade was a crazy experience, and honestly, I don't know if I'll attempt it again. (If nothing else, it was good to test out some of the advice I give in my own book.) But I highly suggest checking out all the artists who showed their work there! Click here for the whole list.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News | Random Thoughts
6/16/2009 4:24:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, June 15, 2009
This week: New York report
Hi, all! I'm finally recovered from my trip to New York. I've so much stuff to show you, I'll have to spread it out over the rest of the week. Including: - a report on the Renegade Craft Fair
- a great artist from Franklin Bowles Galleries
- and a general report on New York City
In the meantime, I wanted to share this: a killer sale at 20x200, which I wrote about last year! I wanted to go to the Jen Bekman gallery in person while I was in Soho, but it happened to be closed the day I was in that part of town. But when I got back to Cincinnati, I was overjoyed to see a big sale at 20x200: everything's 20 percent off all their editions of fine art and photo prints through tomorrow night! I snagged this beaut last week, and it arrived today. How gorgeous is this?  Secret Language 3 (9x12, mixed media and collage on wood) by Valerie Roybal
I can't wait to get it up on my wall!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
6/15/2009 12:25:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Inside the competition judging room
Did I mention we're in the middle of the second round of judging for our Annual Art Competition? If it wasn't already apparent by my lack of blogging, we are totally in the thick of it. To give you a little insight, here's how the competition works after you send in your art: - All the entries are processed by our competitions department (who have been working overtime once the deadline passed).
- We send the entries along to our screener judge, who does the first round of viewing.
- The screener judge's selections are sent back to the main office, where The Artist's Magazine's editors have the arduous task of cutting down the number of entries in each of the five categories from a few hundred to about 50, who are our finalists.
- Then we send them to the final round judges—this year the "celebrity" judges are Nelson Shanks,
Jane Jones,
Susan Shatter,
Jimmy Wright and
David N. Kitler. They select the winning images from the finalists and send their results back to us.
- Then we get working on the December issue, where we get to reveal the winners! (Here's last year's.)
I tell you, this is a grueling process. Right now we're still working on step 3. All of us have favorites out of the finalists, and I'm really excited to see if any of my personal picks make it to the top.
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
6/3/2009 9:48:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Art recommendations in New York?
I'm going to New York City next weekend to sell at Renegade Brooklyn, one of the nation's biggest indie craft shows! But, of course, I want to see as much art in the city as I can while I'm there. My list is already getting horribly long: - Metropolitan Museum of Art
- MoMA (and the MoMA store!)
- Cooper-Hewitt
- New York Public Library (the building with the lions)
- Brooklyn Museum
Got any other suggestions? It can be exhibits, galleries, stores, whatever!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
5/29/2009 1:20:06 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Art in the recession
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
5/20/2009 10:12:06 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The art of Rust Belt cities
We're wrapping up the July/August issue here at The Artist's Mag HQ, and I'm especially proud of a story I wrote on how Rust Belt cities are redeveloping themselves as grassroots art hubs. Lo and behold, the Wall Street Journal wrote on the same topic just a few days ago. (It's hard not to curse the production gods when I get scooped!) WSJ mainly focuses on the art revitalization happening in Cleveland; my story examines equally projects in Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Here's a little taste: "There’s a challenge of rebounding from economic disaster and from people moving away after the collapse of the steel industry," says Curt Gettman of Pittsburgh's Sprout Fund. "But what was left was a really great infrastructure, a lot of assets, and a city that understands the value of art and that quality of life isn’t necessarily measured in dollars and cents."
Read the whole story in the July 2009 issue of The Artist's Magazine—on sale June 9 and shipping to subscribers around May 20.
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
4/22/2009 9:34:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, April 20, 2009
The fish, the polar bear and the Coke can
 One of the pleasures of my Monday mornings is sifting through the weekend email and discovering an utterly intriguing image.  Call it a good omen for the week. Reef Madness (above) is such a piece. Dawn Siebel, a painter based in Boulder, CO, sent along this bold, hyperreal painting as an example of a fresh direction in her work. The brilliant colors belie a subtle, provocative message. The eye travels around the lush fish and coral underworld until it finally rests on a discarded Coke can. Trash amid the beauty. "My new paintings are all rooted with an environmental commentary but it is oblique or even humorous," Siebel says. A few months ago Siebel sent an image of a polar bear ( Afloat, at right) as one of the very first examples of her new direction—an image that still haunts me. The animal appears to be in shock or hollering in a fashion reminiscent of Edvard Munch's The Scream. "Help. My home is melting," the bear cries. Siebel says that although her paintings are full of commentary, it is up to the viewer to interpret the meanings. What do you think about the fish, the polar bear and the Coke can paintings? And is it my imagination or are there more and more messages of concern for the environment popping up in artwork these days? —Bonnie Gangelhoff
Dispatches from the West | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
4/20/2009 10:55:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Crayon rings
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
3/25/2009 4:02:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Lusting after Coraline swag
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
3/18/2009 4:24:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009 Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Somebody's not following art auctions...
ARTINFO.com reports that robbers plundering a home in England stole about $14,000 of jewelry but passed on a Banksy work valued at $28,000. Shame, the state of art education these days!
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
2/11/2009 3:44:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009 Thursday, January 29, 2009
Cincinnati's snow day
The Artist's Magazine's offices were closed yesterday, as it was illegal to be on the roads in the city. We got probably 8 inches of snow over two days, with an interlude of ice rain, as you can see in the archaeological evidence from excavating my car:  Driving hazards aside, it's really beautiful out:
 I feel bad for the over-eager trees, though:
 Those little buds are goners, for sure. Anybody else get hit by the big storm?
By Grace Dobush | Photography | Random Thoughts
1/29/2009 2:22:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 09, 2009
The biggest book you will ever read
 Ironically, comics and art anthology Kramer's Ergot began as a mini-comic. Its seventh volume comes in at a whopping 21x16 inches and 96 pages. For the steep $125 sticker price, you get large-scale stories from 60 esteemed cartoonists, including (my faves) Gabrielle Bell, Ivan
Brunetti, Dan Clowes, Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Anders Nilsen, Seth, Adrian Tomine and Chris Ware. Book by its Cover wrote a review of KE7 that almost convinced me to shell out the cash for it— Amazon's got it for less than $80... Photo by wendypants
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
1/9/2009 4:19:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
Art created by focus groups
In last weekend's "This American Life" (a repeat from the late '90s), there was a hilarious segment on these two guys who hired a polling firm to determine what makes people like art. Using
the data, they painted what people want. It turned out to be a
landscape, with a mountain and a lake, and deer, and a family, and
George Washington.
As such:  They also created most liked and least liked paintings for each country, and the most wanted and least wanted songs. The most wanted song is bland and schmalzy, but the least wanted song is charming! It includes all the elements people said they hated in music: opera, rap, children's choirs, songs about holidays, songs about cowboys, accordions, bagpipes and tubas. Click here to listen to the whole podcast of "This American Life" for free.
By Grace Dobush | Free Stuff | Random Thoughts
1/8/2009 2:47:27 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
My favorite posts of the year
Where did 2008 go? It seriously feels like the year got played on fast forward. I look forward to seeing what 2009 brings, though. (I already know one good thing it'll bring—the release of my first book!) Because I was feeling nostalgic for 2008, I went through all of this year's blog posts picked out my favorite from each month. Enjoy!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/31/2008 3:10:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Billionaire's granddaughter is starving artist
Nicole Buffett is the granddaughter of Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world. (Her mother was married at one point to the billionaire's son.) Marie Claire reports that after Nicole appeared in a documentary about rich kids without giving her grandfather the heads up, he disowned her. Now she must get by on $40,000 a year; no more handouts from Pappy. The perceived sense of entitlement and Nicole's self-appointed role as
family spokesperson prompted Buffett to tell Peter that he'd renounce
her. A month later, the mega-billionaire mailed Nicole a letter in
which he cautioned her about the pitfalls of the Buffett name: "People
will react to you based on that 'fact' rather than who you are or what
you have accomplished." He punctuated the letter by declaring, "I have
not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the
rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin." Nicole was
devastated. "He signed the letter 'Warren,'" she says. "I have a card
from him just a year earlier that's signed 'Grandpa.'"
You can read the whole article here. What's your take on this "starving" artist?
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
12/30/2008 4:17:48 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, December 29, 2008
My very artful Christmas
Hi, everybody! I'm back in the office after a very restful week with my family and friends. It's amazing what a week off does for your overall well-being. My Christmas was very artistic. My favorite gift might be the two small Charley Harper prints—signed by Charley and his wife!—that my aunt gave me. This year, I attempted to make all my gifts or buy from local artists. I stuck to my resolution pretty well, as you can see below!
 
These ornately beaded refrigerator magnets are adorned with lotería images. The owner of St. Teresa Textile Trove here in Cincinnati made them herself. Absolutely gorgeous. My aunts loved them.
I found this mug for my mother at Nvision in Northside. It was thrown by a potter, Bethany Kramer, who lives in the neighborhood!
I made these cross-stitch samplers for my friends for Christmas. I had a bunch of embroidery fabric and then I bought the wooden frames at Goodwill and spray-painted them silver to make them fancy. I highly recommend the scavenging tactic—I spent less than $10 for 15 frames.
Did you make or receive anything particularly artsy for the holidays?
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/29/2008 4:40:13 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, December 18, 2008
From the archives: Will Wilson
The incredible Will Wilson is responsible for the stunning portrait on the cover of our January 2009 issue. While digging through some of our back issues I came across a photo of the artist as a young man, circa 1988:
(Wilson had been named an honorable mention in a still life competition The Artist's Magazine did.) I seriously love the Mork & Mindy suspenders. Comparing this picture to his self-portraits, this one is the closest match, hair-wise. He could give Lethal Weapon-era Mel Gibson a run for his money.
By Grace Dobush | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
12/18/2008 11:16:58 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, December 15, 2008
Art and mental illness
 The topic of artists and depression has been discussed on our forum for quite a while, but the New York Times's Well Blog recently had this to say: "Studies suggest that creative people often
share more personality traits with the mentally ill than “normal”
people in less creative pursuits. One Stanford University study
compared patients with bipolar disorder with a group of healthy people.
They found that graduate students in creative disciplines shared more
personality traits with the bipolar patients than with their healthy
but less creative peers ..."
The author points to the case of Mexican artist Martín Ramírez, called one of the greatest artists of
the 20th century. He created hundreds of drawings and collages while institutionalized at a state hospital in California, where he'd been
diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived most of his life. Watch a slideshow of his work here, and you can see more of his work at the American Folk Art Museum. It's really striking. Untitled (Galleon on Water) by Martín Ramírez (gouache, colored pencil and pencil, 33x24)
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/15/2008 1:55:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Recycling goes too far?
I'm all for recycling, but this contest might go to far: Mattresses are our friends.
For years, mattresses selflessly serve our sleeping
pleasure. We should all be grateful for our mattresses;
after all, most of us were conceived on one.
Why, then, are our mattresses being abandoned in dumps
and left to the seagulls? Every year in the U.S. 40 million
mattresses get thrown in the trash. Don’t our mattresses
deserve another chance?
Architecture for Humanity and Rubicon National Social Innovations
invite entrants to create innovative ways of converting used mattresses
into useful products.
The competition aims to encourage entrants to form groups capable of
creating a consumer product, instructions detailing how to make the
product, and a plan for production on a larger scale.
As somebody who's had a brush with bedbugs, I do not promote the reuse of trashed mattresses. I shudder to think of the consequences! Discarded Dreams Mattress CompetitionVia Craft Zine
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/10/2008 9:58:40 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Friday is Make Something Day!
The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday in the US—one of the biggest shopping days of the year, with stores opening at ungodly hours offering very limited sales that inspire hysteria in consumers. Adbusters a few years ago came up with a counteractivity called Buy Nothing Day, encouraging people to abstain from the consumerism for 24 hours.  I've got another idea: We shoulod make Nov. 28—the day after Thanksgiving— Make Something Day! Why spend hours circling the mall looking for a parking spot when you could be indulging your creative side and doing something productive? Get a start on your holiday presents! Finish that painting that's been gathering dust for months! Try out a new technique! Teach someone how to paint! Let your kids or grandkids show you how to paint their way! Let your imagination go wild, and take pictures of what you come up with! I'd love to see what you do, so post a link to your blog or your photos in the comments, and feel free to use the logo or this button for your own site: 
By Grace Dobush | Projects | Random Thoughts
11/26/2008 12:43:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 21, 2008
How to get your press release noticed
 We get hundreds of press releases and gallery opening notices every week at The Artist's Magazine, and most of them get recycled or deleted. A lot of them just aren't pertinent, or they're happening too soon in the future for us to do anything with them (see some tips that I mentioned earlier about creating great press releases). And sometimes, the press release doesn't look that great—like if it's just a black-and-white photocopy that doesn't include any images of the art. Or, even worse, if there are tiny black-and-white reproductions of the art that don't tell me anything.  But some mailings grab my attention fast—ones that include good color photos, that are simple and to-the-point or, my personal favorite, ones that have a handmade touch. Some of these mailings end up tacked to my wall long after the event has passed. Like the ones above from the Tilton Gallery in New York. I've never been to the Tilton Gallery, but I am totally collecting their gallery show promos (shown above). Each mailer is a simple, thick white card with a one- or two-color letterpress design. Another came just last week, a promo for the 1000 Journals Project at the San Francisco MOMA you can see at right. On the front is an image from one of the artists, along with a screenprinted logo and stitching along the bottom. It's so precious I couldn't bear to toss it! Below you can see a closeup of the back, which shows with a check which artist the image on the front side is by, and a closeup of the embossed SFMOMA logo. Awesome!  
Advice | By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts | Tips
11/21/2008 4:55:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, November 17, 2008
Studio tour with New Yorker cartoonist
Like one-liners and knick-knacks? In the video above, The New Yorker cartoonist Mick Stevens gives a tour of his home studio in Florida. You can read more about the magazine's cartoonists on its blog. And I'm reminded of that episode of Seinfeld where the gang tries to determine the meaning of a New Yorker cartoon.
Elaine: Come on, we're two intelligent people here. We can figure
this out. Now we got a dog and a cat in an office. Jerry: It looks like my accountant's office but there's no pets
working there. Elaine: The cat is saying, "I've enjoyed reading your e-mail." George: Maybe it's got something to do with that 42 in the corner. Elaine: It's a page number. George: Well, I can't crack this one. Elaine: Aahh! this has got to be a mistake.
The Washington Post did a story on the magazine's enigmatic cartoons in 2006; you can read it here.
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts | Videos
11/17/2008 1:09:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Remember to vote!
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
11/4/2008 10:34:17 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Genius theories
Pablo Picasso came onto the art scene with a bang when he was 20, with the masterpiece Evocation: The Burial of Casagemas. On the other hand, Paul Cézanne's later work is generally considered his greatest. Malcolm Gladwell (one of my favorite writers) asks in the New Yorker: Why do we associate genius with youth? Gladwell posits that it's not necessarily better to be a prodigy than a late bloomer. In fact, the way each approaches his or her craft is entirely different. It comes easier to a prodigy, perhaps, but the payoff for a late bloomer—someone who has to really work at it—can be just as great. In the article, he explores various fields, looking at the work styles of both a wunderkind and someone who paid his dues, sometimes for decades. It's really interesting reading. (And just for fun: in this episode of "This American Life", Gladwell tells a tall tale about his first job and a "perverse and often baffling" competition he and a coworker created.)
By Grace Dobush | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
10/22/2008 9:30:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 13, 2008
Are creative people more likely to get depressed?
Like members of the ArtistsNetwork Forum were talking about a few months back, CNN.com reports about the link between creativity and depression: There have been more than 20 studies that suggest an increased rate
of bipolar and depressive illnesses in highly creative people, says Kay
Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University
and author of the "An Unquiet Mind," a memoir of living with bipolar
disorder. Experts say mental illness does not necessarily cause
creativity, nor does creativity necessarily contribute to mental
illness, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to
both mental health issues and art.
Click here to read the whole article. What do you think?
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
10/13/2008 1:53:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Random Act of Kindness
With all the heartbreaking stories and images about Hurricane Ike and the Wall Street woes in the news, I think the short film "Historia de un Letrero" ("The Story of a Sign") is well worth the couple minutes it takes to view. The film, produced in Mexico and the United States by 24-year-old Alonso Alvarez
Barreda, won a Cannes Film Festival prize this year and was brought
to our staff's attention by one of our freelance writers. It brings to light the kindness of strangers and helps us focus on our blessings, as well as the beauty still abundant in the world around us. To view the movie, click here. To learn more about the movie and the contest, click here.
By Chris McHugh | Projects | Random Thoughts
9/17/2008 11:17:22 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 01, 2008 Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Tuesday, June 03, 2008
If Camus were a cat...
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts | Videos
6/3/2008 11:39:06 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, June 02, 2008
My weekend in DC
A story in pictures! I spent only 48 hours in our nation's capital, but boy, did I work in a lot of stuff. Most notably, a trip to the Newseum and a walk through the National Portrait Gallery.
My friends and I arrived at the Newseum, a 250,000-square-foot museum dedicated to the history of news, just as a downpour started. Even though the weather got better, we spent the entire afternoon exploring its six floors of displays. That's the First Amendment inscribed on the front of the museum:
In the first level was an amazing wall-mounted sculpture made of rescued type:
The section devoted to coverage of Sept. 11, 2001, was really impressive. What looks like a sculpture here is a chunk of the radio tower formerly atop the World Trade Center. In the background are an assortment of international front pages from Sept. 12:
It would have been easy to spend a few more days in the museum, especially because of this area, full of hundreds of front pages depicting historic events:
The next day, I spent some time at the National Portrait Gallery before my flight left. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited in many of the areas, so I don't have any pictures of amazing art to show you, but I do have a picture of this wonderful outlook:
And of the newly remodeled atrium:
I really enjoyed the current "Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture" exhibit, especially the work from Kehinde Wiley. What impressed me most about DC is how affordable it is. So many of the museums are free (though the Newseum's admission is $20), that my only real expenses were food and Metro passes! Plus, my friends and I stayed at a very swank hotel for cheap because they cater to business travelers, who head home on weekends.
Even though my list of places to visit is miles long, I know I'll head back to DC again before long to hit up all the museums I had to skip this time.
By Grace Dobush | Exhibits | Random Thoughts
6/2/2008 12:38:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The name game
As I take part in judging our Annual Competition, something that often snags my attention is the title of the artwork. This might be a good thing—such as a title that adds meaning to a piece—or a bad thing, such as a really awful pun. When I was in art classes in high school and college, coming up with titles was my favorite thing to do. I usually opted for intentionally vague, overly pretentious kinds of names. But another thing I loved to do was take a phrase and run it through the Internet Anagram Server. This great tool finds all the possible combinations for the words you enter. You can limit the output (such as limiting the results to only two words, or to words of at least three letters) by using the advanced search, which I highly recommend. For a letterpress class I took in college, we had an assignment to play with the letters of our names. I used the search to come up with some great anagrams of my name, including: • Brocade Hugs • Badgers, Ouch! • Bodega Crush • Obscured Hag I went with Bodega Crush for the assignment. To me, it invokes this feeling of being young and infatuated at a corner store in the Upper East Side, sipping a lime agua fresca. I think you could use the anagram search even to come up with prompts for painting or writing. For example, entering The Artist's Magazine into the search comes up with Amaranth Zeitgeist and
Metastasizing Earth. What great words! So, blog readers, I'm really curious—how do you title your works? Maybe you have certain rituals, or maybe you absolutely hate doing it! Post a comment and let me know.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
5/28/2008 10:16:51 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, May 22, 2008 Monday, May 19, 2008
Competition judging has begun...
I was going to say "It's that time of year again," but this is my first time working on The Artist's Magazine's Annual Competition! I'm in charge of getting the images from the competitions department to the initial screening judge, and then back to the editors, and finally to our esteemed category judges. So it goes without saying I'm a busy bee these days. Most afternoons this month, I'll be holed up with the other editors and the art director in a conference room, where we have a projector set up to view the artwork. In June or July we contact the winners, and you'll be able to see the fruits of our labor in the December issue. I'm excited to see how it turns out! Last year was a real bumper crop of art; you can check out the 2007 winners here. So, my apologies if the blog is updated less often this month—you have a pretty good idea of where I am. :)
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
5/19/2008 11:51:13 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Be our friend!
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | News | Random Thoughts
5/7/2008 2:49:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Art (maybe) good enough to eat
Art News Blog pointed us in the direction of Pizza Hut's art competition. Never thought I'd say those things in the same sentence. At the site, Pizzaboxidea.com, artists can upload their pizza box image, and each month one is picked to win $1,000. The winning designs won't necessarily be printed up, but there is already a Flickr group dedicated to the images. (The whole concept reminds me quite a bit of MyStarbucksIdea.com. Who needs consultants when the general public is more than willing to give you ideas for free?)
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
4/29/2008 2:20:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Should art museum admission be free?
This article in London's Sunday Times begs that question, making the argument that scrapping the ticket system lowers the museum's standards of quality. Apparently, free admission isn't enough to get the people in the doors—the Imperial War Museum has put Halle Berry's bikini from "Die Another Day" on display. The article reminded me of an infographic I saw recently in GOOD magazine. " Who Pays For Museum Tickets?" compares the cost of admission for the 20 biggest US museums with each museum's cost per visitor. It's very interesting to look at how the museums compare. The largest museum, the Getty, has free admission—and the cost to the museum per visitor is a whopping $177.92. Knowing that makes me consider donating! Click here to see the graphic.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
4/28/2008 2:28:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
A Charley Harper birthday
I am so excited—this just arrived at the office:  I'd been considering getting a Charley Harper print for months—and I finally sprung for one as a combination late birthday present/promotion present. (I got bumped up to associate editor from assistant editor last week!) This gorgeous artist's proof, Hare's Breadth (serigraph, 20x15), came from Gallery One in Mentor, Ohio. (In the sake of full disclosure, I should mention that my aunt works there.) I can't wait to get this beautiful thing home!
By Grace Dobush | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
4/24/2008 2:02:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
The cartoon guide to San Francisco
 San Francisco was just as gorgeous as I'd hoped. (The picture on the right is of Dolores Park in the Mission District, with a beautiful view of downtown.) The skies were blue (mostly), the weather was beautiful, and the view from the top of my friend’s apartment building couldn’t be beat.
I was in town for CraftCon but had a lot of time to explore the city with my bus pass. I spent time at a beach and marina area near the Golden Gate Bridge, got lost downtown, had tea in Golden Gate Park and exhausted the Haight and the Mission District.
My plans to see a lot of art museums while I was there got waylaid because it turns out most of them are closed on Mondays, but I did get to visit the Cartoon Art Museum.
 The Cartoon Art Museum (655 Mission St., 415/227-8666) has about 6,000 original pieces in its permanent collection, plus seven major exhibitions a year. Of the ones on display when I was there, I especially liked the Bay Area Spotlight on Creig Flessel. The 96-year-old's work encompasses every major turn in cartooning history, from early and Golden Age books to strips from the '60s to Playboy illustrations and recent commissions. There's an air of sophistication even in the drawings printed on pulp. "Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love" was hit-or-miss. The one-panel gags were often tired, seldomly truly funny. Frequent New Yorker contributor Roz Chast was a bright spot in the exhibit.San Francisco must have a lot of love for cartoons, I decided after seeing the storefront at 826 Valencia, a writing center for kids disguised as a pirate supply store. On my second trip to the pirate supply store, I was happily surprised to see the top of the building covered with a giant mural by Chris Ware, one of my favorite modern cartoonists.
 Ware's style is schematic, but it's not cold. One panel often contains more emotional detail than you'd find in an entire issue of any superhero comic book. (I highly recommend " Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth," or, if you want to read something containing fewer than 380 pages, try " The ACME Novelty Library #16.") Here's a closeup of the mural:
 It's corny, but you know I had to say it: I definitely left my heart in San Francisco.
Advice | By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
4/17/2008 3:26:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Hello again!
Hello, blog readers! I've returned to my cube here at The Artist's Magazine. Thanks to Skybus, I ended up with an extra day on the West Coast, and I loved having more time in San Francisco. In the coming days I'll write about a hot art neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, and a few notable San Francisco sights.
(Above photo of me in the Pacific Ocean by Leslie Stroope.)
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
4/9/2008 2:03:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008
On Poets and Painters
"April is the cruelest month," and perhaps not incidentally, National Poetry Month. You can find the entire text of T.S. Eliot's Waste Land (whose opening lines describe April as "breeding/ lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/memory and desire...") at the marvelous site of the Academy of American Poets. Edna St. Vincent Millay's " Spring," actually addresses April: "To what purpose, April, do you appear again?" And, of course, it was in April that Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims, in a far more convivial spirit, convened for their pilgrimauge. Poets and painters are natural allies. I recently saw a beautiful show at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery of paintings by Jane Freilicher, who was a friend of the poets of the New York School (of the four most prominent—Frank O'Hara, James Schyler, Kenneth Koch, and John Ashbery, sadly only Ashbery is still alive). Freilicher often made appearances in Frank O'Hara's poems, as did other painters like Larry Rivers and Mike Goldberg. A lovely and jovial poem on the painter's and poet's art is " Why I am not a Painter." An art critic and curator as well as a poet, Frank O'Hara (1922-66) worked at the front desk of the Museum of Modern Art and famously wrote poems while walking around the city during his lunch hour. His tragic death in a freak accident on Fire Island has inspired several elegaic pictures. Jasper Johns has an homage to O'Hara currently on view ( Jasper Johns:Gray) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To read more about Frank O'Hara and the New York School of Poets, take a look at David Lehman's Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets (Anchor Books, 1999). Sign up to receive a poem a day during April in your inbox at www.poets.org./poemADay.php.
Still Life Before a Window (below, 2007. oil on linen, 32x40) by Jane Freilicher. Photo courtesy of Tibor de Nagy Gallery. . 
By Maureen Bloomfield | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
4/2/2008 11:06:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Sunday, March 30, 2008
On hiatus!
Hello from half-sunny, half-rainy Portland! I was just checking to see if there were any new comments on the blog (I can't stay away!) and realized I never wrote a see-you-in-two-weeks post! So, my esteemed colleagues have promised to post once in a while when I'm gone, but I will return, rested and rejuvenated, on April 8. See you then!
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
3/30/2008 9:29:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Art travel tips needed!
Dear blog readers, In just a little more than a week I will be leaving the Queen City behind for a week's vacation in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. I have a few favorite spots in Portland from my last visit, but this will be my first time in SFO. If you have any suggestions (for either city) of museums, galleries and other oddities that I must see, please post them in the comments! When I get back, you can bet there'll be boatloads of photos. xo Grace
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts | Tips
3/20/2008 4:41:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Want to win a calendar?
Just one more day to throw your hat in the ring to win one!
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
2/27/2008 1:22:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Friday, February 15, 2008
How I spent my Friday afternoon
Put my boxmaking and bookbinding skills to work for a crafty demonstration for the other magazine I work on. Great end to the week. I hope your long weekend is a creative one!
By Grace Dobush | Projects | Random Thoughts
2/15/2008 4:49:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, February 14, 2008 Friday, February 08, 2008
Hacking the SAM
A trio has created its own audio tour for Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The alternative guide includes the sound of crashing pottery in the ceramics room and describes a neon sculpture as an upright tanning bed. I would love to take this tour.
By Grace Dobush | News | Random Thoughts
2/8/2008 2:32:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Spray it, don't say it 2
In the January issue of The Artist's Magazine, The Artist's Life section included a roundup of graffiti books and a review of Graffiti TV. If you can't get enough of the stylized lettering and clandestine art, check out Catch Me If You Can, a glossy magazine packed to the brim with panoramic photos of bus-sized pieces—plus a pull-out poster! The magazine's editor, Kenneth D. Ashley, saw the "Spray it, don't say it" article in his wife's copy of The Artist's Magazine and sent me a copy because, he says, "I feel that many do not realize the beauty that can come from graffiti." There's a lot of beautiful, bizarre, edgy and intuitive work in here. [An aside—I wondered what kinds of businesses would advertise in a magazine about graffiti, a pastime that generally infuriates business owners. I now know the answer: places that sell markers and paint!]
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
2/5/2008 1:21:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 24, 2008 Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tips for bloggers
Maria Schneider, the editor of Writer's Digest has come up with 20 guidelines for good blogging. My favorite is No. 11: "Realize that blogging is an endurance sport." Too true. Y'all wouldn't believe how many power bars I go through in a week...
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
1/17/2008 1:28:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 14, 2008
Crappy art—this Sunday only!!
You've seen those ads. "Starving artists sale! Everything must go! Sofa-size paintings only $59! Paintings as cheap as $9! This Sunday only at the [airport-area hotel]!" I remember seeing them when I was growing up, thinking, "Wow, even I could afford that—but who wants to buy art at a half-rate hotel?"
This week the curiosity hit harder than usual. Who does buy art at an airport hotel? And how in the world are they producing this art so cheaply to begin with? I have to admit, I entertained some fantasies of how this would be groundbreaking investigative journalism and I would win a blogging Pulitzer for freeing the poor artists shackled to their sofa-size paintings.
What I found at the airport-area hotel was a room full of shoddy canvases propped up on tables and chairs. There were a lot of families and middle-aged couples picking through the selection. By "selection" I mean vaguely impressionist images of Parisian-like streets, Italian-esque villas, cozy disproportionate cottages and completely bizarre abstract art.
It was quickly no longer a mystery as to how they sold art so cheaply. Exhibit A:
Most of the paintings looked like prints that had been touched up with acrylic gel medium or some random daubs of paint to give them some texture. The plasticky canvas was harshly stapled to half-inch-thick frames, and the images usually carried well over the edges. I spotted a few pictures that were available in both the sofa size and a smaller size. I think one was of a roly-poly French chef on a unicycle. He may have been juggling baguettes, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part. Another popular style was Kinkade-esque:
I had kind of been hoping to find shady-looking men in overcoats with pencil mustaches. But I guess I found just what was advertised: cheap art for undiscerning audiences. There was no promise made of high-quality originals. Just art big enough to put over your couch.
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
1/14/2008 10:09:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 03, 2008
Art in your neighborhood
I've been thinking a lot lately about how much art surrounds us at all times. Sometimes we seek it out, like when we're visiting a gallery or museum, but other times we float by, completely oblivious.
The picture at right is from a cafe here in Cincinnati, The Coffee Shop on Madison, which has a stunning corner lined with Charley Harper prints.
Across town, there's an apartment building that must house a fairly busy artist: Every window of one first-floor unit is covered in portraits. They're not Renoirs, but who cares?
What about your town? Is it easy to stumble upon art in your neighborhood, or do you feel sometimes as if you're living in a creative desert? (If so, maybe it's time to go guerrilla...)
In the meantime, I have become totally fascinated with Harper's style and have become determined to have a print of his in my apartment by spring. (Luckily for me, a relative works at a gallery with a large Harper inventory and gets a 35 percent staff discount that I have absolutely no problem using.)
By Grace Dobush | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
1/3/2008 1:43:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, December 21, 2007
From us to you...
The staff of The Artist's Magazine wishes you all the best during the holidays and into the new year! It's been a pleasure writing for you all since I joined the magazine back in August, and I look forward to seeing what 2008 brings.
Postings will be irregular in the next week or so, but you can expect the blog to be back in full force in January. Take care!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/21/2007 10:11:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, December 06, 2007
I have a question
Hey, you blog readers! I've seen a few of you commenting, but even more of you are lurking around in the background somewhere. I've got a question for all of you.
What do you like?
It's simple and straightforward. What do you like reading here? What do you want to see more of? What do you not care for?
Let me know in the comments section. I'm really curious!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
12/6/2007 2:21:50 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 30, 2007
Thousands pledge to go handmade
Have you seen this?
Pledge Handmade:
I pledge to buy handmade this year, and request that others do the same for me.
More than 8,000 people have signed the petition of sorts on the Buy Handmade website, and I'm one of them! Visit the site for a good description of what's becoming known as craftivism—hacking mass consumer culture and taking industry back to the individual.
Do you think it'd be possible to make every gift you give this year? (Or buy gifts from people who are making them themselves?) I admit there are already some things that I've store-bought for people, but I generally make probably two-thirds of the gifts I give anyway.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
11/30/2007 10:55:53 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Out for a long weekend
Regular posting will resume on Tuesday, Nov. 13!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
11/7/2007 3:25:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, November 05, 2007 Friday, November 02, 2007 Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The cure for "one of those days"
Instant remedy for what ails you: a free, big ol' desktop picture of Bob Ross. Click here to get it.
(Via HOW)
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Downloads | Random Thoughts
10/30/2007 1:36:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 15, 2007
If da Vinci had been a ticket-taker...
More from the Department of Art Made from Unusual Objects:
Employees at a department store in Osaka used 320,000 black and white train tickets as "pixels" to depict the Mona Lisa for an in-store display. In addition to the da Vinci homage, reproductions of the Birth of Venus and Renoir's Dance at the Moulin de la Galette are on display.
Via Pink Tentacle.
By Grace Dobush | Cool Web sites | Random Thoughts
10/15/2007 11:11:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 12, 2007
Farewell
Today is my final day with The Artist's Magazine and I'll miss it tremendously—not only being surrounded by art each day which is truly a gift, but also the people here who care about the magazine and the quality of the work they do. It's been a long, winding journey that began with my start on a now-folded decorative painting magazine. The tally of magazine titles probably adds up to eight, including brief stints at Pastel Journal and Watercolor Magic. But it was on TAM that I finally felt at home.
Art's in my blood. When I was very young, I found a still life of that my dad had painted. It wasn't quite the caliber of art that we feature in the magazine, but it amazed me that he had painted it, and it seemed incredible that a person could capture something on canvas that they saw in their heart and mind. There's something really miraculous about that.
Without getting too much more sappy, I bid you goodbye and I wish you all the best.
Lisa Wurster, associate editor
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
10/12/2007 4:19:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
"Creative people must be stopped"
Arts writer Michael Fallon
makes a surprising and challenging argument on the mnartists.org website: the societal push for creativity creates boredom, discontent and lots of bad art.
Just create, says the world. Go ahead and line up for American Idol or America's Got Talent or whatever. You can do it! And while you're at it, why not fill the web with your poetry, videos, art, musings, and every little snippet of creative detritus you can muster. And don't let anyone say it's wrong!
I find myself wanting to agree with some of his points. Even though I believe anyone who wants to express themselves with art should do so, I guess a distinction that's made here is on motives. Are you doing it because you truly enjoy it or to financially benefit from it?
... we've become so inundated with creativity ... that actual audiences for honest-to-goodness good art and real creativity and cultural production are driven into hiding.
Take a gander at the article and let me know what you think.
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
10/11/2007 5:40:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
The medium is the message?
Talk about attention to detail. A college student used 2,000 Post-It notes to create this mosaic portrait of Ray Charles in Wenatchee, Washington. Creating the 10-feet-tall composition took three months.
Via Neatorama.
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
9/27/2007 5:09:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Artist's Magazine, Simpsonized
The moment you've all been waiting for... 
From left, art director Dan Pessell, managing editor Chris McHugh, editor Maureen Bloomfield, assistant editor Grace Dobush, and associate editor Lisa Wurster. The likenesses are seriously uncanny.
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
9/12/2007 9:16:12 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
For your next birthday...
Via the Craft Zine blog: The coolest cake I have ever seen. This might be perfect if you've got a friend or family member who is still trying to solve the Rubik's Cube they bought in 1981.
By Grace Dobush | Projects | Random Thoughts
9/11/2007 2:33:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, September 06, 2007
Beth Campbell's many futures
 Not knowing what to do with myself over the long Labor Day weekend, I made a trip to Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center for the first time on Monday.
An exhibit called "Open House: Cincinnati Collects" (running through October 14) takes up about two floors of the downtown museum at the moment. The CAC, which doesn't have a permanent collection, brought in pieces by more than 200 artists from more than 50 collectors.
A lot of contemporary art is hit-or-miss with me—I have an easier time understanding and appreciating traditional arts and crafts. But one piece—simply graphite on paper—had my undivided attention for close to a half hour.
My Future Based on Present Circumstances 4/01/04 by Beth Campbell is part of a series where she—as the title suggests—maps out the ways her life could go from one little decision she must make. I stood there tracing each branch up to read every possible outcome. (Yes, I was a fan of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books as a kid.)
In the 4/01/04 drawing, entrusted with the keys to a friend's apartment, Campbell might only pick up the mail and go, or she might start hanging out there regularly. Or she might get too comfortable and throw a party. And that might make the neighbors mad, or it might make her friend unknowingly the life of the building.
Campbell's quasi-calligraphy is beautiful to look at, and I can't help but feel the exercise could be adapted as a brainstorming too for people with a creative block. I think I'm going to try it later and see what my many futures might hold.
Image courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
9/6/2007 3:44:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Simpsonizing our contributors
One of our contributors, Michael Chesley Johnson just sent me this Simsponized version of himself which I find totally hilarious.  We plan to Simpsonize the entire TAM staff, but it will take a slow moment (rare around here) before we can do it. In the meantime, I imagine the world eventually becoming a cartoon version of themselves.   And now we bring you Deborah Secor Simpson...
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
8/23/2007 1:54:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 10, 2007
Who do you love?
Earlier this year I took a trip to Detroit to visit a friend who works at the Free Press. I was stoked to see her, of course, but I was secretly equally excited to finally visit Hollander's, an incredible bookbinding supply store where I've shopped online for years.
I'm not sure how I managed not to max out my credit card on that trip. I left Ann Arbor with a tube of beautiful Japanese chiyogami paper and a renewed will to create.
Do you buy your supplies online? I went with Hollanders sight unseen just because their prices are so good, but I have to admit there's no replacement for being able to feel the weight and texture of paper. Add a comment, and tell me where you get your art supply fix!
By Grace Dobush | Random Thoughts
8/10/2007 5:30:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, August 07, 2007
My debut
I have to admit that I've never put anything on my walls that I didn't make myself or that didn't come rolled up in a tube from Target.
Until now. Last week I bought a woodblock print from Paul Roden at La Vie Gallery in Pittsburgh. The Nashville native achieves incredible detail in a difficult medium (my own experimentation with woodcuts was not nearly as pretty).
I fell in love with this 27x32 beauty, History of the World IV:
And hello, by the way -- I'm Grace, The Artist's Magazine's new assistant editor. I've got a background in printmaking and bookbinding, and you'll be seeing a lot more of me!
Notable Artists | Random Thoughts | By Grace Dobush
8/7/2007 2:19:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, August 02, 2007
Fairy Tale Art
OK, call me a hopeless romantic. I cry every time I see the final scene in Casablanca. I indulge myself with novels that renew my faith that, despite the struggles and heartache in the world, we can emerge wiser and stronger individuals with hope for the future. And I'm always blown away by the beauty of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. The tenderness of the couple’s embrace. The beauty and wonder of the world they share together. Just can't help myself. (And I’ve been happily married for 33 years.)
I recently saw a reproduction of The Kiss (1907-1908) when I was paging through Gustav Klimt: A Painted Fairy Tale, one of the books in Prestel’s Adventures in Art series “for the young and young at heart.” The book gives a concise, easy-to-read explanation of Vienna around 1900, influences that shaped Klimt’s evolving style, and the Vienna Art Nouveau and Secessionist movements.
The book also says that Klimt was known to wear a long artist’s smock that he didn’t wash very often and that must have smelled pretty nasty. TMI—and not very romantic, Gustav! But that won’t prevent me from enjoying the lovers in gilded, flowing robes and the flower-strewn meadows you painted. –Chris Here's a link to the painting (though a computer screen just can't do it justice).
Here’s a link to the book.
Here are links to more information on Klimt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt
http://www.expo-klimt.com/2.cfm
By Chris McHugh | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
8/2/2007 3:11:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Saul Steinberg
On Sunday a friend and I stopped in at the Cincinnati Art Museum for the exhibit, Saul Steinberg: Illuminations. For those who are unfamiliar with the name, you may recall Steinberg's charactersitic line on the cover of numerous New Yorker magazines.
Steinberg may be best known for his humorous cover A View of the World From 9th Avenue. All told, the Romanian-born artist did 85 covers and 642 drawings for the publication. On view in the show were 60 years worth of drawings, paintings, collages and even sculptures. One drawing ran 33 feet (although, for some reason, not fully shown under glass).
One thing I found so refreshing about the exhibit was that one could see the pencil lines in many of the drawings, gouaches and watercolors. Some of the drawings didn't completely make their way to the cover—they were edited. In one drawing that played on the use of acronyms (Steinberg considered himself a writer who happened to paint), the letters "LSD" ended up on the cutting room floor.
Anyhow, it's nice to see, not really the mistakes an artist makes, but the progress. To know that even the hand of a genius wanders.
Lisa
By Lisa Wurster | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
7/31/2007 3:33:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Simpsonize Me
I've joined the masses and jumped on the Simpsons Movie extravaganza bandwagon by "Simpsonizing" myself. The website I used for this transformation is sponsored by Burger King and is so popular you have to check back often to try again, as the page gets overloaded with users. But it's truly worth it to see yourself as a Matt Groening-styled cartoon.
Here's me... 
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
7/26/2007 10:51:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 19, 2007
Podcast on Hopper Painting
After editing Sheila Hollihan-Elliot’s article “Edward Hopper: Composing for Impact” for our July/August issue, I was intrigued about some things I’d learned about Hopper’s private life, about the role his wife Jo played in his painting—and he, in hers. So I ordered Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin (Rizzoli International Publications, 2007). I thought I could find some compelling anecdotes to blog about—for example, what was going on when Hopper was working on such-and-such a painting. A week later the book arrived—a 2½-inch-thick, 777-page tome left balancing precariously on top of the huge stack of proofs in my in-box. Maybe I was intimidated by its heft, fearful of blogging about a book I might never finish; perhaps locating those tantalizing bits of their lives seemed more difficult than I’d originally thought; or, after spending 10-hours a day working on the magazine and related duties, it could be that I was more attracted to lighter, “summer” reading, gardening and walks in the park. At any rate, it’s three months later and you’ve seen nothing from me on this Hopper biography—rather, I should say, you’ve seen nothing from me at all. Yet I remain interested in Hopper's work and his life, and, if I ever get to it, the book promises to be a fascinating read. But for now I thought I'd share this Metropolitan Museum of Art Special Exhibition Podcast that sheds some light (no pun intended) on Hopper’s A Lighthouse and Two Lights. I hope you enjoy it. - -Chris McHugh
Learn more about the book here.
View the painting here. Listen to the podcast here. | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
7/19/2007 3:49:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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A Bridge That Sings
Imagine a man with mallets striking the suspension ropes, the metal plates, the rails and grates on a bridge. Imagine the attendant sounds as cars whoosh across the bridge and rain pelts the steel cables. Joseph Bertolozzi is at work as I write this. He is recording the sounds he can derive from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Bridge so he can replay them and create a 45-60-minute suite called "Bridge Music," which will have its inaugural performance next year. An orchestra of percussionists will, in effect, play the bridge. I love this image and I love that it's not imaginary. An esteemed composer and Grammy winner, Bertolozzi makes his living as an organist. "I only play big instruments," he says. His initial idea, actually his wife's, was to play the Eiffel Tower. The civic leaders of Poughskeepie, at first skeptical—they in fact "wondered whether he had his head screwed on straight"—are now besotted, won over by a performance of a preliminary compostion called "Bridge Funk." (This piece is available through http.//www.josephbertolozzi.com)."Bridge Music" in performance will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's trip down the river Walt Whitman called "the lordly Hudson."--Maureen
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
7/19/2007 9:57:36 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Summer Sun
It's mid-summer and you'd think the sun would be shining to correspond with the 90 degree weather (and 90 percent humidity) we've been having. It's always sunny in my workspace though as I have art by Patti Brady hanging around. How is it that some images just brighten your day immediately?
Visit her website and you'll see what I mean, or take a look at one of her works on paper, Belly Button, below. I can't think of a more adorable name for a painting. Even the title makes me smile.  We feature Patti's work in the July/August issue, one of my favorite issues we've done. On the cover is a Hopper painting of a couple (alone-together, in true Hopper form) on a sun-drenched porch. Also in the issue is work by Bryce Cameron Liston. He and I spoke on the phone a while back about the state of Romantic art. Some people may find the style old-fashioned or sappy. I agree with Liston who said that romanticism is simply a filter—similar to Impressionism—another angle from which to view the world. I can deal with a rosy-tinged filter now and again. I hope you enjoy our summer issue as much as I do. --Lisa
By Lisa Wurster | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
7/18/2007 1:55:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
Where's Artist's Sketchbook?
We've been posting many obits lately, and it seems to me things might be getting a bit morbid. So, one last (belated) obit—for a time. Artist's Sketchbook magazine was full of creativity and had a zest for life, yet met with its untimely demise in June 2006. Sketchbook was the beloved step-child of The Artist's Magazine and she leaves behind several editors (and art directors) who worked on her pages and who still inhabit these halls. We do miss her and want to get the word out that she is no more--no, you cannot subscribe. However, you can order old issues by doing a "quick search" here, on our back issues page. R.I.P. Artist's Sketchbook
 --Lisa
Random Thoughts | By Lisa Wurster
7/12/2007 3:11:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 09, 2007
Philip Booth (1925-2007)
Philip Booth, who studied with Robert Frost and taught at Wellesley and Syracuse University, died July 2nd. Identified with the New England landscape, especially the coast of Maine, he wrote of everyday occurrences, and while his poems are modest in intent, they are vast in their effect. To read some of Philip Booth's poems, go to http://www.poemhunter.com/philip-booth/. ("Parting" and "First Lesson," which recounts a father's teaching his daughter to float, are particularly beautiful.) I read of Booth's death today after a weekend in which my children, husband, and I serially re-read Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in anticipation of the release of the newest movie and final book. Our own little Phoenix, the starling, last week flew from my daughter Margaret's hand toward the mystery of the sky.--Maureen
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
7/9/2007 9:21:45 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
El Anatsui in Venice and Los Angeles
In this week's Art Talk (aired on KCRW 89.9 FM in Los Angeles and also delivered as an e-mail newsletter) Edward Goldman examines the resplendent work of African artist El Anatsui, who flattens cast-off screw tops and sews them together with copper wire to fashion metallic tapestries that resemble luminous waves and command entire walls. To take a look at El Anatsui's work that drew rave reviews at the Venice Biennale visit his Web site at http://www.elanatsui.comand don't miss Edward Goldman's always engaging commentary at http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/atAnd on the domestic front, the little bird Phoenix is still alive.
Maureen | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
6/27/2007 12:45:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, June 25, 2007
Midsummer Day's Sweet Dove
 Yesterday, June 24, was Midsummer, the day the English celebrate by burning ceremonial fires. I was carrying a box of photo albums to the attic, when I heard an odd noise. At first I thought our black cat Athena was playing with a squeaky toy, and then I realized that she had a tiny bird that must have escaped from the nest on the other side of a room air conditioner. I picked up the cat and locked her in the basement and called my daughters who discovered the baby bird in a corner. She survived the night (we're feeding her dry dog food mashed with water). She doesn't look like the sparrows in the ash tree outside the window; she's a lot younger and she is dark with a yellow mouth, like a starling. I'm thinking of Midsummer Night's Dream and of Barbara Pym's wonderful The Sweet Dove Died, which recalls, of course, John Keats's sonnet that begins "I had a dove and the sweet dove died," and I am hoping our little bird that we call Phoenix grows up enough to fly.--Maureen If you'd like to read some poems on Midsummer, go to www.poets.org, the fabulous site of the Academy of American Poets, and type in "Midsummer" in the search box.
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
6/25/2007 4:19:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Munchs on the Mend
You no doubt remember the theft in 2004 from the Munch Museum in Oslo, where a gun-wielding, masked man carried off Edvard Munch's Scream and Madonna, as astonished museum-goers and guards looked on. When the paintings were finally recovered in August of 2006, they showed evidence of damage from from rough treatment and exposure to humidity. Today The New York Times reported that a Japanese company operating in Norway, Idemitsu Petroleum of Japan, has pledged $670,000 toward their restoration.The museum plans to publish a book documenting analyses of the damage and the stages in the process of restoration, which may require the services of an eye surgeon to remove splinters of glass shattered from the frames. Should the paintings be shown "as they are" before they undergo treatment? To read conflicting opinions, visit http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1445071.ece.--Maureen Bloomfield
Random Thoughts | By Maureen Bloomfield
6/21/2007 3:39:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Women in Art
A friend forwarded this video—the female as she morphs through 500 years of Western art. Whether they appear direct and stoic, firtatious and alluring or simply dreaming of some better day, these women change to the tune of solo violin. Simply lovely.
Enjoy!
Lisa
| Random Thoughts | Videos
6/19/2007 3:39:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, June 15, 2007
Major Gift to the Clark
The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute in Williamston, Massachusetts, today announced a major gift whose estimated worth is between $80 and $90 million. The Manton Foundation, whose founder, Sir Edwin Manton, made his fortune at American International Group (AIG) Insurance, has bequeathed a collection of oil sketches, watercolors, and other works on paper by J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough, as well as a gift of $50 million to endow the Clark's highly respected Research and Academic Program on grounds shared by the renowned Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. The Manton gift includes 3 paintings and 17 watercolors by Turner; 6 paintings, 17 oil studies, 8 watercolors, and 19 drawings by Constable, and 3 oil paintings and 15 drawings by Gainsborough, whom, I confess, I underestimated until I saw several of his splendid landscape drawings on display in "Four Centuries of European Master Drawings" at the Morgan Library and several more that were part of the permanent collection at the Yale Center for British Art last year. Maureen Bloomfield By Maureen Bloomfield | News | Random Thoughts
6/15/2007 11:00:21 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wrecking Your Art
Following author Keri Smith's advice in her book Wreck This Journal, art director Daniel Pessell and I took the book out for some creative damaging. Without totally destroying the book, we set one of the pages alight in a grill provided by the park. You can see some of our handiwork, below. We plan to take the book on a couple more creative jaunts until we feel we've sufficiently been inspired (or until there's nothing left of the book). In our September issue of The Artist's Magazine (on newsstands August 14), contributing writer Michelle Taute interviews Smith, who reveals why she created a book that encourages others to incinerate it. Have a creative weekend! Lisa  
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
6/7/2007 11:47:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, June 02, 2007
The face of first-round judging
As we three editors and art director sat in a little room, holed up for the last couple of weeks judging competition entries, one of us mentioned how smoothly the judging process was going. Well, that was before we got to the Portrait/Figure category! That's when tempers flared as we each stood firmly behind the paintings we could not bear to see slip away.
A painting of a face makes quite a connection with an individual. That's the power of the portrait. Not that the other categories are any less meaningful; they just seem easier to judge, perhaps because there's no human factor to connect so strongly with.
Dear readers, I intended to post a pic of our viewing room, complete with the large, black plastic sheet (which mischievously kept falling down, until we perfected a system for keeping it firmly on the wall) that we had hung over the windows to block out the light for the purpose of projecting. Our art director even suffered a nail-in-hand incident when trying to hang the darn thing back up. Alas, the judging room was dismantled before I could get in there with my camera (sometimes we're too efficient). So to make up for it, I'm posting a pic of the disaster area that has become my desk.
Enjoy!
Lisa 
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
6/2/2007 9:54:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, June 01, 2007
Kenney Mencher's Glass Half Full
 In the June 2007 issue of The Artist's Magazine, we showcase the theatrical, engaging paintings of Kenney Mencher, who is an associate professor of art and art history at Ohlone College in Fremont, California. "Variations on a Theme," written by Kenney himself, describes how he took a humble glass of water, arranged characters/models who were often his friends around the glass, and then painted a series of scenes that were outlandishly ordinary and wildly funny. Kenney is the subject of a recent blog by Steve-O, who has a site called "The Caravan of Dreams," named after a performing arts center in Fort Worth. Steve's interview with Kenney is entertaining and informed. Click on http://www.thecaravanofdreams.blogspot.com/2007/05/interview-with-kenney-mencher.html. And Kenney has his own wonderful Web site, where he posts pictures of works in progress at http://www.kenney-mencher.com.--Maureen Bloomfield
By Maureen Bloomfield | News | Notable Artists | Random Thoughts
6/1/2007 3:28:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, May 31, 2007
Anselm Kiefer in Paris
I've always been deeply affected by Anselm Kiefer's vast, overwrought paintings that meditate on modern (and mythic) German history; thus I was pleased to see Alan Riding's article on Kiefer's newest installation in today's New York Times. Born in Germany during World War II, Kiefer now lives in Paris; "Falling Stars" opens today in the recently restored Grand Palais. With this and subsequent exhibitions, the French government hopes to incite greater interest in contemporary art. Alan Riding notes how Kiefer looks to literature for reference and for imagery: "...Mr. Kiefer fills the space with the visual and intellectual force of his art, much of it inspired by literature, notably the poetry of the Romanian Paul Celan and the Austrian Ingeborg Bachmann, the Bible and cabalistic writings. Mr. Kiefer himself has often noted that in his youth he wavered between becoming a writer and a painter." The installation is made up of "houses" that encompass paintings in oil and sculptures composed variously of terra cotta, concrete, pieces of cloth, palm fronds, and sheets of lead. Kiefer says of "Falling Stars: "What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don't construct ruins, but I feel ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again." To see and read more about Kiefer's work, visit http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kiefer/ or http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=234--Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
5/31/2007 10:00:50 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
An English Folly
Yesterday my family, several friends, and I went canoeing along the Miami Whitewater River. It was an overcast day; the river was low, so we avoided any mishaps in navigating the rapids. Along the banks we caught sight of a great blue heron, a pair of night herons, several gaggles of geese and goslings, and river turtles sunning themselves on overhanging branches.
Midway on our trip, we beached the canoes on the slope leading to a replica of a 10th century castle, a folly that a retired publisher, Harry Andrews, built entirely by hand. The materials were river stones and concrete (which he used as mortar and also poured into milk cartons in order to fashion bricks). The castle itself is eccentric in an English manner; the terraced gardens, however, are Italianate in design, but with an abundance of flowers beloved in English gardens: alium, red hot pokers, and roses of all sorts.
Harry Andrews’s intention was to build a playground for the boys he taught in Sunday school; today adult members of The Knights of the Golden Trail volunteer their time to keep the castle and grounds in repair. Crenellated battlements, romantic towers; narrow passageways; vitrines displaying crossbows and daggers; medieval suits of armor and velvet blue robes; blurred photographs of ghosts––children and adults alike were enchanted.
To read about Harry Andrews and to see pictures of the Historic Loveland Castle, visit http://www.lovelandcastle.com/his.html. To read a short history of English gardens, go to http://www.britainexpress.com/History/english-gardens.htm.
Maureen
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
5/29/2007 10:34:26 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
Competition and copyright
I've had the privilege of screening the online entries to this year's Annual Art Competition, and 2007 marks the first year we've accepted the format (along with slides) in the competition. There were about 6,000 digital entries to screen and at last--I'm done! (Somebody hug me). This is my third--perhaps fourth year--participating in the first-round judging, and each year we see some of the same types of issues. (On a side note, one funny thing I've noticed is that, generally speaking, cows seem to be a favorite subject of landscape and animal artists. Holy bovines, Batman.)
Anyhow, it never fails to surprise me when I catch a copyright violation, and one entry was a clear example of it--a rip-off of a photograph by Brian Griffin, whose work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London. You can view his photos in that collection by clicking here.
Griffin has a cool website, where you can see the work in question. It originally appeared on the album cover of A Broken Frame by the band Depeche Mode. If I hadn't been such a fan of the band back in high school, I might not have noticed. When I got home, I grabbed my copy of 100 Best Album Covers and opened right to the page, confirming both the album photo and photographer. So just a reminder to entrants: Photographers are artists, too, and without their permission, you CANNOT borrow their images to paint from. Best to paint from life--or use your own photos. On a more pleasant note, screening entries was a great experience and not much compares to whiling away the hours looking at art. Best of luck to all who entered the competition! --Lisa | Random Thoughts
5/24/2007 7:56:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Writers with Pizzazz
Edward Goldman is an wryly irreverent, highly informed, wide-ranging critic and arts consultant; he has a lively weekly radio show called Art Talk that airs on KCRW, an FM station in Los Angeles. His commentary is always engaging. His latest essay, on Don Flavin and Richard Tuttle, is called "The Amazing Art of Nothing." To read it or to hear the podcast, go to http://www.arttalk.kcrw.org. Another critic I enjoy reading is Peter Schjeldahl, who reviews the Edward Hopper retrospective on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ( www.mfa.org/hopper) in the current New Yorker ( http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/05/21/07052/craw-artworld-schjeldahl. )(In our July-August issue, Sheila Hollihan-Elliot takes a look at the many drawings that led to Hopper's signature Office at Night.)Other writers I look forward to reading: the radiant Stephen Holden, of The New York Times, who covers all the arts and is always rewarding; the iconoclastic Herbert Muschamp, also of The Times, who writes about architecture and culture and is sometimes disgruntled but always dazzling: brilliant, erudite, and funny; what more can you ask for? Who are some of your favorite writers on the arts?--Maureen Bloomfield
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
5/23/2007 8:56:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Improving the View
Recently some acquaintances of mine were involved in doing a mural in one of Cincinnati's less prosperous neighborhoods, Over-the-Rhine. I must say that Urban Sites, who commissioned the mural, was wise to do so. It makes the street brighter and it looks as though someone CARES in this somewhat forlorn neighborhood. Plus the project gives a group of artists the chance to work together on a common goal, which doesn't happen very often. Here's the mural—done in a staggeringly quick two days, a joint effort by Craig Dransfield, Ali Calis, Jessie Cundiff, Jen Edwards, C.T. King, Mark Gingery and Greg Mills. --Lisa 
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
5/22/2007 11:50:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, May 21, 2007
Screening Images for Our Contest
Last week we started looking at slides and digital images entered in The Artist's Magazine's annual contest. At this time of year, we always look forward to sequestering ourselves in a dark room, where we project images that are often startlingly beautiful and sometimes utterly surprising. We have more than 12,000 entries! Senior Art Director Daniel Pessell, Associate Editor Lisa Wurster, Managing Editor Chris McHugh and I all agree that the quality of submissions this year is extremely high. Artists seem to be taking more chances; there is more expressive, edgy work; there's a greater sense of fun, and also of passion.
I've juried some shows where the protocol demands utter silence; we, on the other hand, talk incessantly and often vehemently. We spend as much time as it takes to discuss a painting, and then we vote. Luckily, we've worked together for awhile and we trust each other's taste, though I confess I'm more forceful, sometimes, than my colleagues in rendering judgment. By the end of June we'll have chosen finalists in each category; we will then send those slides and digital entries to our five judges, who will make the final decisions.--Maureen
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5/21/2007 4:02:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Artist Father and Filmmaker Son: Auguste and Jean
“In nature, nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed.” Jean Renoir A few days ago someone asked me what my favorite movie of all time was. I had an answer immediately, but realized, with a pang, that I hardly ever see movies anymore——and when I do, they star Johnny Depp or Lindsay Lohan (both of whom I have to say I'm fond of) and are rated PG. When my husband and I were first married, however, we’d often start watching movies at 10:00 in the morning—traipsing from one film class to the next, checking to see what Andrew Sarris had to say in The Village Voice or American Cinema, and then dashing by night to catch yet another movie, often a double bill in the Illinois Room at the University of Iowa. My favorite movie remains La Regle du jeu (called, in English, Rules of the Game) by Jean Renoir, who was the son of the painter, Pierre-Auguste. Auguste and Aline Renoir had three sons, Pierre, Jean, and Claude ("Coco"), all of whom worked in theatre and cinema. Jean actually filmed a short movie of his father painting and talking with the art dealer Ambroise Vollard; the reel was recently recovered from an unmarked vault. (An edited clip is part of Vollard exhibit now in Chicago.) To read the fascinating story behind the film, click on www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/07.19/07-renoir.html.Of course, Renoir pere’s most famous work—treacly portraits of women and children—is easily derided, but take a look at his early portraits and the rigorously beautiful landscapes and still lifes he created throughout his life ( www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/renoir_pierre-auguste.html and www.abcgallery.com/R/renoir/renoir.html) tell me if you think he’s better than you thought. Do you have an artist you'd like to nominate for a re-appraisal? And, by the way, what is your favorite movie of all time? --Maureen Bloomfield
By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts
5/16/2007 11:19:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, May 14, 2007
Dreaming of Prague
I fell in love with Prague the first time I saw a photograph of the looming statues in the mists enveloping Charles Bridge. My brother Kevin, whose business requires that he travel all around the world, has often told me how beautiful Prague is. Thus, when Nan Sinton, who is the mastermind behind the ever-popular Horticulture Magazine tours, suggested Prague as the destination for The Artist’s Magazine’s first-ever art tour, I was thrilled. Prague has everything: Gothic cathedrals, Baroque palaces, stately gardens perfect to sketch and paint in, an Old Town and a New Town, and— not incidentally—fabulous public and private collections of art ranging from Etruscan to Renaissance, Mannerism to Modernism, Art Nouveau, and Expressionism.
Prague was home to Kafka, Schiele, and Smetana; Mozart conducted the first performance of Don Giovanni there (and we’ve got tickets for a performance in the same opera house, where Milos Forman actually filmed Amadeus). I can’t wait to go! Up until now my favorite cities have been Paris, New York, Florence, Venice, London, and Nice; I have a feeling I’ll have to revise the list come October.
Please consider joining Nan Sinton and me on our 9-day tour (October 3-11 2007) of Prague; we’d love to have your company! To learn more about the tour, call toll-free 800/422-2550 or e-mail arttours@fwpubs.com. And please tell me your favorite places in Prague or any other traveler’s tips by writing a comment below.
—Maureen By Maureen Bloomfield | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
5/14/2007 9:23:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Poetry and the Visual Arts
 Last night I went to a wonderful poetry reading at the Elliston Poetry Room at the University of Cincinnati. David St. John, a Pulitzer-prize winning poet and this year’s Elliston Poet in Residence, read to a packed house. David’s poems are lyrical but cerebral with elegant and devious shifts in tone. Next week he’ll give a lecture on Larry Levis, a poet of great gifts who died of a heart attack when he was forty-nine. One of David's books, Prism: White Light (Sausalito, CA: Arctos Press), was a collaboration with photographer Lance Patigian. Responding to Lance's photos, David wrote poems about individual colors; the poem he read last night was an intricate meditation on saffron .I love going to the Elliston Room, not only because of its fabulous collection of modern and contemporary poetry, but also because of its gorgeous collection of paintings by Cincinnati artists. Too few institutions support regional artists! James Cummins, curator of the Elliston Collection, is to be commended for filling the room’s walls with the best works of some of the best artists living in Cincinnati. (It's just a shame that there are more deserving artists than space.) The Artist’s Magazine featured one of those artists, Cole Carothers, in the November 2007 issue. Cole is having an opening this Friday that I can’t wait to go to. Cole and David Miretsky, equally interesting as an artist, are showing new work at the Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery. (Above left is Cole's Cat's Away (pencil, acrylic, wax, and oil, 67x84) that's part of the Elliston Collection.)
George Elliston was a Cincinnati journalist at a time when few women braved the misogyny of the newsroom. She lived like a miser and wrote poems by candelight. By the time of her death, she had amassed quite a lot of money; she gave it all to the university specifically for the advancement and study of poetry. Maureen | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
5/9/2007 11:06:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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MySpace and copyright
Recently, one of our ArtistsNetwork forum users asked about the benefits of using MySpace. Some artists don't have their own websites, and for those artists, I think MySpace can be a wonderfully helpful tool. But many artists are fearful that their images will be used without their permission. This is a valid concern--no one wants their ideas stolen. According to their terms, Myspace can use images that you post, but they only get limited rights to your work. You are, afterall, using the site as a service to promote yourself and your artwork. You can rest assured that you retain the copyright to your work. Unless you sign away the copyright, that image belongs to you. If you're still worried about people using the images that you might post on your profile, you can simply create a link to your own website from your MySpace account. That way, the gazillions of people who might find you on there can still be directed to your art. Lisa | Random Thoughts
5/9/2007 10:28:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, May 04, 2007
We're on Myspace...Oh yeah.
Not that we want to sound like hipsters, but EVERYONE is on there now, and so are we! Visit our new Myspace profile, create your own unique profile and send us an add request. We promise to be your friend.
By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts
5/4/2007 4:10:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Edward Hopper and Mark Rothko
At the Art Institute, when I came upon the place where Edward Hopper's Nighthawks usually resides, I saw instead a small photo and a sign announcing Nighthawks was travelling to Boston, where it would be part of a comprehensive show of Hopper's work at the Museum of Fine Arts from 6 May to 19 August. Holland Cotter today in the New York Times takes issue with the show's being billed as a retrospective, since it lacks many drawings, some signature works, and any examples of Hopper's work as an illustrator. Indeed, it's odd that the show has neither title nor theme and is simply called Edward Hopper. We at The Artist's Magazine have been thinking a lot about Hopper, since his Second Story Sunlight will be on the cover of our July-August issue. Managing Editor Chris McHugh deftly negotiated with the Whitney Museum of American Art to secure permission; curators were justifiably worried that we'd jeopardize the picture's integrity with cover lines, but when Senior Art Director Daniel Pessell submitted his elegant, austere design to the Whitney for approval, the curators said Yes.
In a fascinating article upcoming in the July-August issue (on sale on newsstands June 12th) Sheila Hollihan Elliot breaks down Hopper's creative process by focussing on three signature works. Hopper transmuted what he saw, playing with elements of composition until he'd discovered the precise ratio of radiance and shadow. Today, in the Times, too, I saw Sotheby's announcement that one of Mark Rothko's most gorgeous works (fields of rose, yellow, red with bands of black and also of white) was for sale. Rothko's soul was tortured; whenever I see a photo of him, I wince, but even in front of his most painful, darkest works, I feel a quiet elation.
Maureen | Random Thoughts | Shows and Events
5/4/2007 1:59:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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