Macy Gray, on a CBC radio interview yesterday with Jian Gomeshi, stated that she doesn’t pay attention to the numbers. She commented that as soon as producers focussed on marketing to teenagers, the music industry started to suffer. Gray, now in her forties, feels that there is plenty to say with her music to people who are a little older. In order to be true to her own voice, she “went back to basics” to produce her new record, “The Sellout”; the basics for her means making great music. This video is proof that she is onto something. Thank you, Macy Gray.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qX7ZsxD3Ik]Drawing in the dark
Last week I went with my husband to see Vancouver Opera‘s production of Madama Butterfly. I wanted to see if I could do some drawings of the production. Since you can’t see what you are doing while sitting in the dark, there is little opportunity to self-edit, and no choice but to be free to make marks, constantly obliterating the actions that have just been carried out, without preciousness. The resulting drawings are records of movement through space and time.
This way of working reminds me of something I read about Cy Twombly, who reportedly practiced drawing in the dark when he was drafted into the army and worked as a cryptographer in 1953. Having seen “primitive” mark-making in North Africa, he was intent on recovering the directness of the unschooled, unselfconscious artist. One can’t help but also think of the drypoints and drawings of Ann Kipling. This is the kind of drawing that I find very exciting to do, something that retains the essence of a state of mind in focussed absorption.
Films about Artists
David Hillman Curtis is a filmmaker, designer and author whose company hillmancurtis, inc. has designed sites for Yahoo, Adobe, Aquent, the American Institute of Graphic Design, Paramount and Fox Searchlight Pictures among others. His film work includes the popular documentary series “Artist Series”, as well as award winning short films. His commercial film work includes spots for Rolling Stone, Adobe, Sprint, Blackberry and BMW.
A fine example of his work is this film on designer Stefan Sagmeister, who had a gallery exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York in 2008. The film shows Sagmeister’s playful imagination at work.
http://www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/watch/sagmeister08/
Go and make stuff
John Baldessari and respecting one’s audience
The American artist John Baldessari, in a podcast from Tate Modern, states that he acknowledes his audience when making his artwork. His opinion on this developed through his need to communicate with his students; he needed to find ways to hold their attention. In his artist talk he says that he feels it is his job to provide enough “meat” for a more intellectual audience, but also to be able to connect with the average viewer; “I can’t control who will be looking at the work.”
Famous for sometimes poking fun at the artworld, here’s Baldessari in a version of I’m Making Art circa 1971.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA6Gp3QvKwI&feature=related]Conversation
Fred Astaire on making it work
According to Hollywood legend, a screen test report on Fred Astaire for RKO Pictures, now lost along with the test, is reported to have read: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.”
Whether or not the story is accurate, David O. Selznick, who had signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, stated in a memo “I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.”
Through hardwork and extreme dedication Astaire managed to make it all look easy. The rest, as we know, is history. Below is a brief moment from Fred’s stellar career.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTN-NPtNOHU&feature=related]Fred Astaire on making it work
According to Hollywood legend, a screen test report on Fred Astaire for RKO Pictures, now lost along with the test, is reported to have read: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.”
Whether or not the story is accurate, David O. Selznick, who had signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, stated in a memo “I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.”
Through hardwork and extreme dedication Astaire managed to make it all look easy. The rest, as we know, is history. Below is a brief moment from Fred’s stellar career.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTN-NPtNOHU&feature=related]Thanks
Many thanks to all my friends for sending their travel photos, especially to Chris Dorosz, Anya Laskin, and cyberfriend Andre Sergeev, whose pixels became paintings for my current exhibition, Voyage en Zigzag, which took place November 7-19, 2010, at Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto.
Also thanks to Katherine Surridge and Stefany Hemming at In Progress Video for making a nice little video glimpse of my process.
Click here to view the video.
Song for a tired businessman
