Hey, that looks like I can do it. WHY NOT TRY IT? From The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri: An art student must be a master from the beginning; that is, he must be master […]
Category: art
Form and spirit in art
Piero della Francesca And now for something completely different— I can’t just dump 50 pages of practice materials all at once. So here is a piece of art writing that has been very important to […]
Painting again
It looks like we’ll be seeing a small shift in emphasis, here, as I’ve set up a studio, and am painting again after about a ten year hiatus— plus another few years when I was […]
Milton Resnick
The painter Milton Resnick (1917-2004) was one of the first generation of New York Abstract-Expressionist painters— a contemporary of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, and the rest— and the longest-lived of […]
Very occasional quote of the day: perfection
I used to think about this quote a lot: “I never was interested in how to make a good painting. For many years I was not interested in making a good painting— as one might […]
Very occasional quote of the day: ideas
JOHNS: I was doing […] sculptures of small objects—flashlights and light bulbs. Then I heard a story about Willem de Kooning. He was annoyed with my dealer, Leo Castelli, for some reason, and said something […]
Melancholia
Sometimes it can be really hard to just do the the obvious unfinished work in front of you. A fairly unproductive week put me to mind of this famous engraving by the artist Albrecht Dürer, […]
My art… on pillows!
Here’s a random thing— my sister, Christy Bishop, an interior designer, is releasing a line of high-end printed pillows, and is including some of my old (c. 1997-2001) works on paper in her art. So […]
Value in art
$138 mil, actually. As I was pulling together that De Kooning post, I came across this factoid re: the sale of his painting Woman III for 100+ million dollars— a figure that happens to be […]
A few De Koonings
A little palette-cleanser today. Here are some comments on some nice Willem De Kooning paintings I’ve never seen reproduced anywhere before, and a little thumbnail sketch of his career— minus the well-known “high” phases. First, […]
VOQOTD: Joan Miró
In the beginning, it’s a direct thing. It’s the material that decides. I prepare the ground-by cleaning my brushes on the canvas, for example. Spilling a little turpentine can also work quite well. If it’s […]
Best books: some non-musical selections
Here are several books that have been valuable to me creatively over the years. The Adding Machine by William S. Burroughs Great essays about art, language, and the craft of writing. Along with Exterminator!, […]