Henri Art Magazine - "Business and Romanticism"

From Henri Art Magazine. I swear this was taken from my own thought spiral, fleshed out and edited for clarity:

"Most Postmodern artists like to take the view that the Romantics were a bunch of unbathed ne’er do wells out to rape and pillage innocents while self promoting the prowess of their genitalia. One has but to look at the press following the collapse of the (Media Romantic) 80s art stars to see this kind of anti-Romanticism at work. Even now, smug and content in our post-structural bubble, we still enjoy taking the occasional pot shot at Schnabel, the epitome of the POMO ROMO. When I was young Jules was a hero, and I still have a soft spot for his larger than life existence and hit-or-miss work – Palazzo Chupi or no. OK, I’ll concede that our widely held beliefs about Romantics bring up pictures of Jim Morrison, Prince or Joseph Beuys (go ahead insert your own wild eyed Modern Romantic.) But surely there has to be something redeeming about the idea of life that those personalities embody, something that we pedestrian Postmoderns might connect with?

Our fear (condecension?) for the Romantic brings to mind a scene in Mel Brooks’ movie Young Frankenstein, an OTT parody based on the very Romantic Mary Shelley’s classic tale of genius, morality and responsibility. At one point a local family hears that the Monster is running amok in the countryside once again. The resigned and frightened couple start to batten down the hatches. The husband, as he’s nailing a board across the window, says in a thick Germanic accent to his wife – “Ven monsters ist loose, boards must be tight!” And I think that line pretty much describes the art world at the moment. The whole fuckin’ place has been boarded up against rampaging Romantic Monsters in order to protect delicate POMO sensibilities from any threat of aesthetic carnage." .....continued here

Feedbag blog

Feedbag is a new blog posting artwork with brief descriptions and links. It is administered by a group of contributors who post an interesting blend of painting, video, illustration (some vintage), comic, and animation. I like many of the artists shown. Oh look, it's me. But seriously, wow, and wow.

Steven LaRose blog post

Steven LaRose, The Wise Men of Gotham, 2011
Oil on acrylic on wood, 6 x 7 inches

(click here for larger image)

Fish or Cut Bait: Repercussions: "Steven LaRose, The Wise Men of Gotham , 2011 Oil on acrylic on wood, 6 x 7 inches (click on image for a larger view) So there I am. It to..."

Creative Renewal Arts Fellows 2011 - Not One Painter

None.

"Sill Life" Chad Gallion at Editions Limited

Invention within convention. You have until 3:00 pm today to catch this show at Editions Limited (sorry, I meant to post much sooner). Chad Gallion's still life paintings have a lot of very intriguing spatial and tactile things going on.

He inverts the layering process, so that highlights are created from the earliest and thinnest painted areas. These thinly coated areas glow through, much like in a watercolor, and the unlit areas have a heavier, more opaque buildup. The visual impact is striking, and also a mindtrip. From a distance, one reads these from a conventional mindset, then as you approach, all those nearly bare areas that were saying "I'm real close to you", suddenly break away into abstract shapes that go way back in the painting.

The surface handling also reads differently from various distances. Upclose it reads as a dry, patchy, awkward surface, but then it melds quite beautifully into a lushly lit, cohesive vignette.

These also have bright blue outlines in various areas. Somehow, these charge the images without destroying the representation of a still life. I don't have the best interpretation for how/why these are working. They are still a bit of a mystery to me.

It's always exciting to view intellectually engaged work such as this.

Austin Dickson, Herron Senior Photography Show

Austin Dickson Photo BFA Retrospective 2007-2011

Sharper Image digital keychain

Austin Dickson's piece currently in the Herron Senior Photography Show, at the Indy Indy Artist Colony gallery.

Indy Indie Artist Colony Flower Show & Harrison Center

"Budding", 8" x 6", oil on wood, 2011

"Alms for Aunt Bea", 10" x 10", oil on wood, 2011

Two recent paintings of mine, each tweaked towards inclusion in the "Flower Show" at the Indy Indie Artist Colony. Opened tonight, April 1. The Herron Senior Photography show next door has some really good pieces.

The Harrison center has some recent work by Susan Hodgins in Gallery 2 which kickboxed butt. "Institutions" by Austin Dickson is in the main gallery. These photographs must be seen in person, they're paradoxically magical and urban-realismy and utopian. He also had a great piece in the Herron Photography show - his entire BFA portfolio on a ______? (some common electronic device with a 1 or 2 inch screen, the name of which escapes me now.....god, I'm so old). Kyle Ragsdale has amped up his imagery into an extreme levitating Rococo thing.....

Spring art has busted loose, at least in the Delaware-Penn corridor. I'll hit a couple more shows on Saturday.

*Update: Austin Dickson's piece, along with materials info (digital keychain....)