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Agnes Martin, Falling Blue, 1963, oil and graphite on canvas, 71 7/8 in. x 72 in.
“When people go to the ocean, they like to see it all day. . . . There’s nobody living who couldn’t stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall. It’s a simple experience, you become lighter and lighter in weight, and you wouldn’t want anything else. Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting. Nature is like a curtain; you go into it. I want to draw a certain response like this. . . . Not a specific response but that quality of response from people when they leave themselves behind, often experienced in nature––an experience of simple joy. . . the simple, direct going into a field of vision as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.â€
— Agnes Martin, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1992.
Jul 29, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture | 1 Comment »
From Mark Wyse's "Surfers" 2000
“Sentimental†is a word I don’t feel comfortable acknowledging. I prefer “naïve,†“absorbed,†“impressionistic,†anything except “sentimental.†I tend to defend against it by intellectualizing my desires. When making a mix-tape for someone you don’t have to deal with your conscience beating down on you. What better gift is there than what two lovers might share—the ability to be vulnerable without needing a reason.
—Mark Wyse’s 500 Words for artforum.com.
Jul 28, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, Surfing | Comments Off on Mark Wyse, Surfers
Fort Makers was founded by good friends Naomi Clark, Nana Spears and Noah James Spencer. “Our name is about making forts, as kids do, and also as adults do. For instance, small colonial American forts are an inspiration as well,” says Spears of the creative collaboration. “Any small group of people (tribes, forts, etc.) are inspiring to us because the people are reliant on each other and they have to work together in order to survive.” Working from their own cool fort near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, they used blankets purchased at thrift stores, flea markets and eBay to create the textile art you see above (The Triangle Project). This summer they’ve been busy making a stage set-up for PS1’s Warm Up concert series using recycled denim and tee-shirts for the hanging triangles. They also make furniture and clothing.
Jul 27, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, New York City | Comments Off on Blanket Statement
Tim DeChristopher, who was convicted by a federal jury in Salt Lake City on March 3, 2011, will be sentenced today. The Utah environmental activist who disrupted a federal auction when he bought almost $1.8 million of oil and gas leases (with no intent to pay) in 2008, was found guilty of disrupting a government auction and now faces up to 10 years in prison. According to the New York Times, DeChristopher disrupted the auction as an act of civil disobedience motivated by concerns over climate change and the despoiling of public lands by industry. His sentencing was postponed in June and takes place today in Utah.
UPDATE: DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in prison.
Jul 26, 2011 | Categories: Nature, Sustainability | Comments Off on Tim DeChristopher Sentencing
Mary Heilmann, Surfing on Acid, 2005. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches.
“I came to New York expecting to align myself with the sculptors, like Smithson. . . . I thought I would be part of that gang. Of course, that doesn’t happen so easily. I wasn’t invited into the Smithson/Serra gang. So I switched my practice rather vocally to painting, because they all hated painting.â€
—Mary Heilmann in Artforum, November 2007
Jul 25, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, New York City, Surfing | Comments Off on Mary Heilmann, Surfing on Acid
Brooklyn-based artist Alex Downs makes bowls out of rummaged scrap wood that he glues together then carves with a chainsaw on a giant spinning wheel. It’s a high-octane version of pottery “throwing.” When he works, bits of wood fly through the room and sometimes even lodge themselves into the walls. The end results are beautiful and raw, and the fact that they’re made from recycled material certainly doesn’t hurt. His pieces can be found at Karkula Gallery in New York.
Jul 20, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, New York City, Sustainability | Comments Off on The Reclaimed-Wood Bowls of Alex Downs
Raymond Pettibon. No Title (Some things…), 2010, gouache on paper, 41 3/8 x 36 1/4 inches
“I don’t think I’ve ever done an image that was meant to be reoccurring in the beginning. What happens is that after drawing one you can’t leave them. They have more to say to you. In a way it can take on a life of its own. I guess people probably think that these are images that only an excessive relationship leads one to doing, like fifty Gumby or Manson drawings. But it’s not like that. I do actually like baseball and surfing and Gumby. Manson, I’m not a big fan of some things about him, but there are some other things that are interesting.”
—Raymond Pettibon in The Believer (December 2004/January 2005)
Jul 11, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, Random, Surfing | Comments Off on Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Some things…)
For more than a decade, Jim Denevan, artist, chef and surfer has staged amazing outdoor dinners with his roving culinary adventure, Outstanding in the Field.
Click to open slideshow. Photos by Jeremy Fenske, reprinted with permission from Outstanding in the Field.
Spectacular settings are a hallmark of Jim Denevan’s Outstanding in the Field dinners. As an accomplished artist who creates elaborate multi-mile drawings in sand, earth and ice, Denevan has an eye for landscapes. Over the years he has set up tables in exotic locations all over North America: a sea cave near Half-Moon Bay in California, an isthmus near Seattle and the top of the highest hill in Brenham, Texas where the table curved around the peak providing 360-degree views. “Like my artwork, the dinners are a celebration of a moment in time,†he says. “I’m composing a work in the field.â€
(more…)
Jul 10, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, Sustainability | Comments Off on Feasts in the Fields
