Yes, I Will Have Another Piece of Humble Pie Please

My Studio Problems is presenting some frustrating problems and these are dredging up some horrific elementary school memories I hoped to have suppressed. One issue is the number of class exercises that I cannot organize and pick off with any success, but it seems as if many others in the class are in the same boat of confusion as myself. 

                                             "C" level work.
                                            My hearts before I screw them up.

There is a critical element that confounds and proves unavoidable, the crappy construction paper and awful art materials that have to be used to create these treasures. The concepts behind these lessons are vital to create effective and cohesive art lesson plans but using these materials and rediscovering their woeful inadequacies reminds me of my earliest school projects. 

I remember hating art projects to the point where I would do them as quickly as possible, or find some alternate way to do the assignment. This would lead to praise from the teachers and getting my ass kicked at recess. I never took art after the sixth grade, drawing only for myself until I stumbled into an art class in college.

Intentions aside, there are alternatives to the materials presented in formative school years. My wife receives supplies from parent groups and uses a portion of her alotted budget for materials that can endure mistakes and efforts to correct them. It is necessary for the motivated instructor to reach out to groups, associations, the district office or whoever has the good stuff.

Meanwhile I return to my sad little efforts. Maybe I can iron them or lay some sizing on before using watercolor. Its more likely that I will use some substitution to regain some control.

Formal Jargon, Three Examples

Empire of Light, oil on panel.

                Frederic Stern Gallery has just received new paintings from local artist, James David Thomas. Mr. Thomas has crafted his views on the southland’s vistas for over two decades. He enjoys discussing modernism and its relevance and applications but the current paintings reveal a postmod approach to the familiar landscape.

                Cinematic references are common although the phrases do not reflect their use so much as the effect. High Gain depicts the Hollywood sign in the hazy gloam of the coming Los Angeles evening. The title suggests a brilliant level of detail that simply cannot be found in this slice of LA. The accurate emotional quotient that fills the canvas is captured with intimate accuracy. This is the onset of night in Tinseltown through the eyes of a local. High Gain is not an exercise in visual fidelity, it is an experiential scene, organized by the layers of glazes that simultaneously define and obscure. It has more to do with Impressionism than true modernism if it weren’t for that skilled application of paint.

High Gain #10, oil and gold leaf on canvas.

Perimeter also misleads the viewer that attempts to see the details from the outside looking in. The title is not so much a literal descriptor as it is an emotional stance, a moment of reflection- as in belly button gazing, not an exercise in light and interplay. This painting is a Formalist’s gold mine. The buildup of layers, diffused spatter and subtle wood grain bleeding through can be used to perpetuate the artist as craftsman of physical theatricality as painting but this little jewel is a soulful search for identity. The viewer is placed on the outside and the act of looking puts him in the position of a nonparticipant. This manipulation is done with a wink and a reference to “I know you know that I know…” Self-referential through and through this one is youngling.

Perimeter, oil on panel.

                    Empire of Light is not an homage to Magritte as it is a celebration of Los Angeles’ built in theatricality. LA is the capital of artifice; surrealism is reality on our cultural island. Individuals reinvent themselves here, royalty has nothing to do with inherited titles, rather it’s the size of the contract or number of copies sold that bestows title. Appearance over substance rules the basin and the aura emanating from all that adoration is displayed on a panel wider than WideScreen. The image within the painting goes beyond naturalism in the way it skews at an angle like an opening shot to a movie. But it is LA just the same. Our LA with its stage-like arrangement complete with opening night kliegs.

                    There are other images by Thomas at the gallery but I always hone in on the nocturnes and night views as they speak about an alternate existence within our area. The business of entertainment through the production of theatrical myths is an economical reality but the concept of fame and familiarity, real and unreal, stunts or special effects also has a powerful presence here. This artist conveys these concepts in his compositions. Calling them naturalistic or romantic is too superficial; these pieces illustrate a multifaceted image of Los Angeles. They describe the multi-faceted town of make believe we inhabit. 

Corita Kent for Class

            Our Studio Problems class was commandeered last night to create hanging banners to accompany the upcoming show at the CSUN gallery, Passion for the Possible: The Work of Sister Corita. Despite my most earnest intentions to be glum I had a good time struggling to realize an image that reflected the spirit and intent of the artist while trying to complete it in two hours. I was fortunate to be teamed with Jahaira Duarte and Ashley Barriga, both of them Graphic Design majors who worked out the type and the general composition.

            I am so ever jaded to the experience of painting as an expressive medium for myself but it turned out to be revelatory and reassuring in the way the project illustrated the mechanical underpinnings of Corita Kent’s aphorisms as art imagery. That I was still able to lay paint following the sign painting experience from my early days of art ed provided some sense of comfort.

            The banners will be installed on the exterior of the gallery wall in the next couple days. I have a printmaking class at HOLA (http://heartofla.org/ ) this Saturday (10:30 – 12:30), after that I’ll be dashing up to Northridge for the opening and screen printing session.

Youth and Enthusiasm

            One of the forces driving our local art scene today is the energy of the artist youth population. Previous generations in LA followed the way of the lone wolf. As soon as wisdom was gained, the intrepid artist would seek his own path, establish a lair and attempt to find the ultimate answer, or at least a steady paycheck, through artistic production. Sometimes the artist would create a personal ashram and impart his hard won wisdom to followers attempting to set themselves up to seek their own path in the future. This was the American Way of Art. Developed after the examples laid down by Pollock and Newman (among others) and reflecting our nationalistic obsession with individuality, this mindset has served us well although it has done more for inflating the heroic image of an artist than it has for the art market as a concerted business segment. The present brave new art world is a diverse mix of styles, gallerists and consumers. The old maxim of big LA collectors not buying at home has not been disproved so new art purveyors sought out new customers- actors, movie bigwigs, new media mavens and the like. More galleries showing more art in LA than at any other time has created a climate of can do for young artists. The proliferation of underground and guerilla art (graffiti, wheat paste posters, stencils and decals) adds to the cultural atmosphere. Couple all this with the Southland’s long acceptance of new technology and media (such as hotrods and television as real profession) and you end up with all sorts of aspiring dabblers.

            A new twist on this new school is the broad-based camaraderie of these people. There is a level of communication among them that far outstrips the gaggle of elbow benders at the old Cedar Bar. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and similar venues connects them. Images get passed around without a slide projector anywhere in sight. Techniques have slipped from the grasp of the old masters and now are subverted by this irreverent gang. Art has become a communal endeavor.

Handmade book workshop at CS Fine Art:

Andy Stickar instructing.

Sublime at Artcore

            Tae Ho Kang has a show at LA Artcore in Little Tokyo through the end of this month. All the works are paintings on canvas varying in size from small to wallpaper. The paint surface is the great attraction of these pieces and they are very different from Kang’s paintings from years ago. Colors and textures swirl on the surface in granular patterns, inviting close inspection. These are abstractions with occasional linear elements that hint at objects playing on the surface or trying to pass between the textural layers. A few paintings with horizon lines reference a landscape but the surface activity breaks any direct connection to nature other than on a microscopic level. The swirl of color and shapes viewed at a distance break down to ever intricate combinations that reveal themselves fractally as one moves nearer. The push and pull of the colors and their emulsified patterns drive the compositions.

            These new paintings also differ from earlier efforts in their attention to non-objectivity. Eggs and orbs occupied previous paintings evoking connotations of mortality and human frailty. Those paintings, although heavily patterned, were very static in their compositions allowing the shapes and objects command the stage. The current paintings appear to be random wanderings through space and color but they actually allow for simultaneity of readings. The small paintings can be taken as a whole instantly but the use of a color serving as a border references a video screen and natural impulse cause the viewer to search the screen for extra movement and more detail. The largest paintings can be read as broadly patterned decorative wall coverings because any gestures are immediately subsumed by the overwhelming scale of the support in respect to the artist’s mark. The effect is similar to a tapestry or royal screen.

            Mr. Kang’s paintings show an attention to detail while considering the overall picture as an interpretive statement. The vibrancy of the colors and the grainy structure of the patterns recall video images comprised of pixels. The difference is the viewer can access the magnification of detail within a physical experience. The structure of the pieces plays with issues of dualities. Objects and patterns or objects made of patterns are some of the readings. The occasional definite markings that appear in a few of the paintings bring up concerns of their relationship to the miasma they bisect or intrude upon. It always comes back to the structure of the materials laid on the canvas and this point is what separates Tae Ho Kang’s newest production from earlier studies. These paintings demonstrate more than a mastery of materials; the cohesive nature of the concepts contained within the compositions reveals a clinical inquiry into the ability to combine scaled narratives.

Beer Envy

There is a billboard over the Brewery Art Colony belonging to a beer maker. It kind of looks like this:

Irony abounds when this topic comes up. Microbreweries are found everywhere these days and one lost opportunity is placing one within the colony and claiming its history as a selling point. The Brewery lacks a decent restaurant and one with homemade suds could be a upbeat compliment to the dour San Antonio cafeteria down the street that tries to pass itself off as a fine eatery. The advertised beer makes some decent styles but they follow the tradition of brew culture in naming their varieties. It would be fun, not to mention culinarily elitist to call their varieties reviews. that way a mild brew could be called a 'good review', a bitter style 'negative', and a specific experimental recipe- "scathing'. The cornball applications go on and on.

The point is, for a city based on plastic image and temporal culture it is exceedingly staid in its domestic offerings. Kitsch is kitsch and class is class with little allowable overlap. I wish LA's denizens could revel in the artificiality without the need to compartmentalize.

Walking for Art on Thursday

The second Thursday of the month is the time when Angeleno art mavens venture forth in search of the elusive high art. I went to the Downtown Art Walk this evening, braving the huddled cheese mice seeking shelter from the frigid SoCal winter to join in on the search. My reason for art trekking in nearly 50 degree weather was to ease my guilt in not visiting any galleries in almost a month, make that several months for tonight's neighborhood. My plan was to hit every show space guerrilla style up one avenue and down the other. The crush of dawdlers and party people was too bothersome to deal with so after a quickie in Crewest (dull, as too many other shows were) I popped into the sadly entertaining community spaces on Main before trying to enter Pharmaka.

Pharmaka held the promise of a thoughtful installation based upon an interesting observation by the director of a new visual vocabulary that a current generation of artists share. Any hopes of weighing in on that thought were squashed in the throng of gray noggins rooted in the center of the gallery intent on relating the latest news on Lost and their pets. So on to next space... 

Bert Green was also infested but fortunately the good artist of the three displaying work was installed toward the front of the space. Doug Cox- handles paint nicely, dense but not heavy, dark but the figures are still demarked with a soft edge. It would have been nice to spend more than a few moments on these pieces.

A couple of odd spaces later I climbed up the stairs to the Spring Arts Collective Gallery. This space usually has a mishmash of artists of varying abilities and tonight proved no different. But... the Daniel Mercadante video wing was nicely arranged and fit the odd shaped vault room well. I usually avoid darkened rooms with video installations like Watchtower peddlers but this time it didn't hurt to take a peek. So far tonight this was the most authentic proposition of the night- almost worth a second visit during daylight hours. The rest of the show was uneven and the computer squeezins' being pawned off as original print unfortunately kill the good feelings.

Morono Kiang Gallery was my cultural redemption of the evening. The ink paintings of Xie Xiaoze (no, I cannot pronounce that for you) were witty comments on historical and cultural memories. Craftsmanship- 3 stars, content- 3 stars, political commentary- 3 stars, need I go on? Plus, the animated dedication of Karon Morono satisfied the cultural craving that propelled me on this evening's sojourn.