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Good Old Scratch II

10/16/2013 12:55:29 AM

I was wondering why this good old thing wasn't on my website. I painted it to fill the void in my heart created by the absence of Old Scratch I which was on loan somewhere or other. I dashed this other thing off in fluid acrylics one night and shortly afterwards sold it at the East Cambridge Open Studios. The original Old Scratch was eventually reclaimed by my friend Thomasin who put it, frame and all, in the back seat of her car where her neice promptly sat on it, breaking the glass but not, Thomasin claims, destroying the painting. I know she will send it back to me one of these days. 

Well, have I got some news for you! I'm putting three paintings in the Small Works Holiday Show at the New Mexico Art League. I'm sure I will sell them all, or you can buy them after the show on my website here. Or, buy them directly from me in some seedy part of town. I'll be wearing a huge overcoat which, when opened, will have the pieces hanging on the lining along with some suspicious watches and jewelry. First I will have to even find the seedy part of town as I'm new here.

The Small Works Holiday Show run from November 5th through December 23rd. 

The Fabulous Reception is November 15th, 5:30 to 7:30

I didn't Get Notes

10/4/2013 6:29:04 PM

I signed up for a watercolor class at the New Mexico Art League. It's a good class, although nothing will ever be as great as Janet Hobbs's Watercolor classes. If nothing else I am loyal to my former teacher in spite of the fact that she denies ever knowing me. Anyway, here I am in New Mexico, at this class. Everyone is to bring in what they are working on and here's my strange but enthusiastic effort of the week—remember, I've not done any art in two years. First bit of the class is show and tell, what theater people call 'notes'. Everyone got lots of notes, or feedback. I mean like a lot. I got none. Maybe people were too stunned and saddened by what they saw and couldn't verbalize their dismay. I even prompted for feedback: "What about the lack of background?", I asked. No, no one thought it needed a background. Everyone else and I mean everyone, got "Good start." I was told that my little painting was finished. Probably they just didn't want to ever see me pick up a brush again. 

I'm doing some drawings of Jonigold beets; trying to stick to subjects that fall somewhere within the range of normal. Not that I know where the edges are. Fruits and vegetables are probably okay. You get a weird vibe about yourself when shopping in Whole Foods, knowing that everyone else is buying 'food' and you're buying odd things that you are never going to eat, things whose names you don't even know, but stuff that looks like it might be groovy to paint. I tried to buy a whole fish, head and all, at the Whole Foods seafood counter but they simply looked hard at me. So I continued to wheel my cart, with the giant leaves coming out of the strange vegetables, around the store, searching for some other weird thing. Speaking of weird, I was on the checkout line at Walgreens the other day, acutely missing the Inman Square Pharmacy, when the guy in front of me pointed out that the racks along the checkout line probably had some version of anything you might want or need right there. I added, yeah, and somethings you really don't want. That guy in front of me was laughing hard when I started taking pictures of the Nice! Honey Bun. Here is the picture of something that you don't want at all costs. 

You are probably better off on heroin than on this stuff. Just imagine yourself coming home after a hard day of whatever and tearing savagely into, A

Nice! Jumbo Frosted Honey Bun

Naturally and artifically flavored

(tastes delicious warm...)

I have to go now cause my stomach is turning over...

                                                                                                                                                                Well, here are the Jonigold beets that I'm hoping to paint and get some notes on next Thursday in class. Not such a good photo because the actual drawing looks just like Da Vinci did it. "S'truth!" Glad to be back bloggin' on my art website again. Does that Nice! Honey Bun look like a face? Someone holding up a candy store with a stocking mask?

Gimme Notes, y'all!