Replies: 35 Comments
on Tuesday, June 7th, Phil said
Walt,
The impending bumped blog is immanent! Maybe last comment? I wonder... you made the sculptures after you started painting those tower like shapes right? Could it be that since your primary focus is 2 dimensional painting, you rendered a house like shape and not a 3d pyramid? Think about it. The shape in the painting was thrust straight backwards making it house shaped. I interpreted the shape in the painting as 3d, a pyramid on top of a sqaure tower which is an obelisk. Maybe we are still on the same thing.
on Tuesday, June 7th, walt said
Phil, see you in meat space.
on Tuesday, June 7th, Phil said
Walt, looks like our time is up on this blog. It's going to get bumped soon. Hey, we're not onto the same thing after all. You put a lot of new stuff on your site since the last time I looked. I'm not big on looking at work on the net anyhow. But the sculptures you did of the paintings.... shows you doing house like buildings and not obelisks which have pyramids on top of square towers.
Yeah, you bet we set this dialogue thing up! It is a wildly incredible fascinating extroidinaire tool we are using that will no doubt propell us forward and rocket us both into the realms of super stardom, blue chip, mega-buck, every-body wants our work, history book sizzling, famous artists!
Runnin short on time...I'll email soon.
on Tuesday, June 7th, walt said
Phil,
sorry but I just cleared all my old e-mails. thought I saved yours but couldn't find it.I'd love to have you over. getme through my guest book here on wwar.
absolutearts.com/walterking
ps. you know everyone is goin to think we set this whole nemisis dialog up.
on Monday, June 6th, Phil said
So Walt, did you do ok in NY? How many paintings did you bring back? I'd like to see them. You said sometning about a hometown show, when? where? I can stop over to your studio if you want. I lost your email address...email me.
I wouldn't want to diminish your spotlight, but the piece I did with the obelesk tower, sitting in front of your painting with the obelisk in it, would be cool as hell!
on Sunday, June 5th, walt said
Phil,
in reference to the big box event...naw, I had a family event...you know...I'd been out of town for a few months.
on Thursday, May 26th, andrew said
Phil and Michael,
The key to revolution is to believe you can succeed. Talking about how hopeless it is, or wishing someone else would do something, is not what's going to make things happen. I agree with where you're coming from in saying that the image of an artist is more important than what they produce in marketing them, but haven't I seen you both flaunting your berrets? Artists, if that's what you want people to call you, and more importantly if that's what you want to call yourselves, are those who get things done even with the odds way against them. Walter, getting this discussion started was one step in the right direction.
on Wednesday, May 25th, Michael Fornadley said
You got to wonder, whatever happen to the term "master" when you talk about an artist who has been doing it for over 20 years. As Phil says, cannot understand the term emerging artists, what are they emerging from under a rock or something. The New York understanding doesn't sit well with me also, most of the better work and experimental stuff is being created outside of New York city, also appears to be a bit snobish.
Walter brough up a good point about the younger artists being more marketable, forget about talent, it really does not play in todays art marketing, it is how politically correct and attractive the artist presents themselves as. Guessing if a neo nazi who can paint like Picasso and draw like Ingres does subject matter that reflects their ideas, they will have a snow balls chance in hell to be shown by any commerical gallery, let alone one the elite galleries in any major city.
If you can get away from the con job most of us artists have taken in the art community and really look at the big picture, you will see how comical it really is. Never judge your work by the standards of success that is presented to you in the market place, it is your own standards that will be more truthful to judge if your work is worth merit or not. It is a shame that how well you play the puppet game counts more than the work itself. Isn't it time for a revolution or sorts, sure needs one the current art direction and community looking pretty bland.
on Wednesday, May 25th, Phil said
W,
I remember overhearing one say that anyone outside of NYC, regardless of age, is an emerging artist. I felt the comment was a tad too close to home because you teach and have all those spring chickens around you. It wasn't meant to be too close to you personally. I share your thoughts though!
One of my motto's...."it's better to be alive and unknown, than dead and famous".
I had a gallery owner yell in my face once, "I wish you were dead, it would be easier to sell your work!" Needless to say, I quit showing with him!
on Wednesday, May 25th, walt said
Phil,
I was never called an emerging artist. The term wasn't being used when i would have been labeled as such. About 4 or 5 years out of grad school (89 or 90)i was included in a show in Indianapolos and called a mid--career artist. Hell I was maybe 34-35 at the time. I guess that one has stuck. And its a deadly monicker as no body shows mid-career artists unless they are extremely well known. It's much more fun (and cheaper) so show young emerging artists. Besides, they're better looking than us mid-careerists.
The ladder just keeps getting smaller as you climb. Of course the last designation is dead artist so i guess I'm happy in mid-career. Let's keep it going as long as possible.
on Tuesday, May 24th, Phil said
Yeah, a "big box" event that night didn't help. Is that where you were? Just amazing how the locals are ignored by that box. If you're not tied in, glued in, and on the payroll, forget it!
Don't you just love those 9+ hour drives? Dream for the day you have handlers for that!
I notice you skipped commenting on the emerging artist hype. Touches home a tad much doesn't it?
Good luck on sales! It's your turn to buy the beer!
on Tuesday, May 24th, walt said
Glad to hear you had some success Phil. I found out about it that night and had already made other plans. But I have the post card. I head back to New York tomorrow for a couple weeks. Then I'm done with the Big Apple for the year pretty much. I think I've got one sale, and hoping for a couple more before I load everything in the truck to bring it home. Sometimes I feel I'm on the rodeo circuit instead of exhibiting artwork. But mind you I'm not complaining.
on Monday, May 23rd, Phil said
Walt, turns out Friday night wasn't so bad after all. Darn, and I went and spoiled all the fun by lifting the anonymous veil to you. Oh well, there's fun being comrades also.
Speaking of age, don't you think all this emerging artist hype is ridiculous? I mean, how can you invest in someone you don't even know will be producing in 5 years?
One thing I have found is that when I talk about something, it dissipates the energy. Great for unloading what bothers you, but lousy for what you want to get done! Just do it!
on Monday, May 23rd, walt said
Thanks for the encouragement Hyacinthe. I don't know if I have what deKooning had artistically. But it is worth a serious effort. I may be a little old for this. But it seems to me I can be well known in Ohio and still remain anonymous. Better to make the effort and end up anonymous in New York for a few years.
on Monday, May 23rd, Seth said
"All of this is to say Walt and anyone else who dreams of being in the heart of the art biz: It matters not where the art is shown: it matters that people see it, relate to it, admire it, love it and desire to own it."
This has to be writing mistake or someone in fantasy land...excuse me...disneyland.
Where the art is shown determines how many love it, admire it, and own it! Walt, get the heck out of Dodge as soon as you can!
on Sunday, May 22nd, Hyacinthe Baron said
Walt:
As a New York artist I must address your blog. I was there in the late 50's, early 60's. I knew all the artists at the White Horse Tavern, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollack, Wilhelm DeKooning, on and on. I had a $30.00 a month cold water flat on Christopher Street and Sheridan Square in the heart of Greenwich Village near the Stonewall Inn. I had a parlor front studio above a Ukrainian bar on St. Marks Place.
I had a duplex penthouse in the 70's on Madison Avenue and was the first woman to have a gallery on Madison Avenue and 78th st.
I made a living selling my art. My lithographs are in the Smithsonian and other museums and are now being archived in my own museum.
All of this is to say Walt and anyone else who dreams of being in the heart of the art biz: It matters not where the art is shown: it matters that people see it, relate to it, admire it, love it and desire to own it.
The art must be valid. It must ring true. It must take on a life of its own.
Create out of the stuff of the universe channelled through you as an artist...just don't forget: you must release so it can take on a life of its own.
Let it happen. De Kooning went home one night from the bar, looked the well drawn and painted woman on the canvas he had been working on earlier...he picked up a brush...and in a wild swipe and unforgettable moment, wiped out, and put back in, and wiped out and recreated from the ghost image...and created an image that led to greatness.
Get my drift? Hyacinthe
on Sunday, May 22nd, Phil said
Walt,
Funny you should say "cat". The paradox I referenced with Scroedinger is called "Schroedingers cat". It deals with the tranference between dimensions. Very detailed, guess you have to have an interest in quantum physics to enjoy it well.
I really thought you knew who I was a long time ago. It was fun razzin you anonymously. I would have kept it up had I not had such a bad Friday night. Kinda weird how someone with this IQ can be a such an idiot at times...ha ha!
later
on Sunday, May 22nd, walt said
Phil,
Actually the "Houses" or tower images have been an ongoing series for several years. I exhibited a number of them in Argentina last summer and the whole Queens show had about 17 images two of which were 3-D pieces. Never exhibited sculptue (if you can call them that) before. But only recently have the houses or towers been added in with other compositional elements.
I'm no math wizard and not as technical as you are. I think L.A. or even S.F. (even Seattle where Bill Gate$ i$ God) would be a good place for your work. But it's expensive out there as well. But again I say that there has to be a monied audience or nothing happens. I was born on the East Coast even tho raised in Oklahoma. I have a taste for that region...I just fit. Yeah, a small pension and some other investments that make all this seem fairly do-able at this juncture of my life. Especially if I can find a teaching position for about a year or two even if it isn't full time. Just to take the edge off for my wife. But finding a gallery in Chelsea (Soho is long gone) is really the main goal. Greenpoint,Williamsburg or Long Island City in Queens are not money centers. Just a chance to get some work up and see how it goes. Gotta break in somewhere.
Anyway, I do appreciate your concern for my well being and the potential of my art. And now that the cat is out of the bag (it took me a while to figure it out-- I began to suspect about the time I split for New York) you know I respect your work as well. I'm sure the audience is quite lost at this point. But I won't reveal anything more if you don't want me too.
on Sunday, May 22nd, Phil said
Walt, I gotta say, it was really strange when those obelisks started appearing in your paintings you were doing in NY. As I said, I built one prior to your paintings back when we were arguing. Weird!
I push you to go fulltime 'cause I really think your work can aspire to more greatness with the added time, but I'm not sure NY is the answer. I've seen so many people just get swallowed up there.
It's a much different world on the other side of the river where the big money is. In the 50's, 60's and even 80's, upstart artists were still in Manhattan. Now they seem to be isolated in areas such as Greenpoint. Sure there are plenty of opportunities to show over there, but the island seems to treat them as inferior. No matter where you are, the rents tend to take all the time away from the artists. That's why the edge is gone. Not many have time to devote to advancing their work.
Man are you right about Ohio! It's like this whole state is getting turned into a giant coal fired power plant. I don't know what to do! My affliction makes me scared to move.
I just don't want to see you get lost in the hustle! Will you get a pension if you retire from teaching? That could be your ace. At least then you wouldn't have to worry about rent as much.
A Chicago banker friend of mine is pushing Los Angeles on me. He says the year round climate would be excellent for sales. Of course you know my work now and see this might not apply to your work. I was showing in La Jolla 12-16 years ago and had a lot of opportunities in the works out there but didn't have the guts to move when I should have. Oh well.
Time travel is not like the science fiction propaganda everyone is led to believe. If you go back, and change anything, you create another time line, another dimension. Multiple universe theory or parallel world theory explains this. My first discovery of this phenomena came by way of an obscure book published by Princeton Press in the late 80's I think. The book was titled "Letters on Absolute Parallelism" and consisted of letters between Elie Cartan, a French mathematician and Albert Einstein in 1929 and were packed with equations. Carton had proofs of 10 then 20 dimensions. Einstein, at the end of the correspondance, freaked and insisted one world, one God, and cut off his replies to Cartan. So the paradox (see Scroedinger). We all would like to be famous in the world we came from, right?
Our struggles continue!
on Sunday, May 22nd, Walt said
Phil, if I had a time machine I'd go back to New York in the 50's, maybe late 50's early 60's. Ah but I don't have such a machine. Ain't nothing happening for me in Ohio. I have a sense that not much is happening for you either. I can paint anywhere. But getting the work out there takes a special audience. One that has and will spend the money to keep the lights on. Phil, I know you spend a certain amount of time looking for an audience. Someone who will both appreciate and help fund your next project. And I know you've spent some time in New York. So why hold me back?
Anyway, I am who I am. Just as you are who you are.
on Sunday, May 22nd, elaniii said
One of the things I've noticed about ny is, no one knows anything about it because everyone's got an ant's eye view of it. There's more things there than what the experts here say, and Walt, your experience of it and your willingness to write about it seem pretty objective...none of that, been there, done that stuff we hear from the self proclaimed.
on Saturday, May 21st, Philbert said
Oh man, Philbert was sold 20+ years ago!
I love buggin people I like. Problem is, they usually and quickly, dislike me. Oops... guess I have that "excuse" to fall back on!
Anyways, Walt, ya know ya been a respondin to me comments fer awhile right? Well.. ya probably aint a gonna like this... that obelisk painting of yours? the one I think ya call Pesos von Peso or Beso de Peso or something? I built one of those packed full of electronics and it sits on an island like your background, about 3-5 weeks before ya started it! So what right? I see it. Don't matter if you do! Implanted subjective imaginative process! Gotta love it!
on Saturday, May 21st, Max said
Max is a 14 year old piece that hasn't sold yet.
Oh I know, what a loser am I to write on a seldom read blog on a Saturday night!
Two things:1. NYC sucks! It's Disneyland! Everyone is hustling. Either for exorbitant rents or each other to get ahead. Art is secondary....very secondary! Social politics baby, social politics is what it's all about. Oh... and money! Nothing new has come from NY since the early 80's when it still had an edge. Go ahead Walt, go get lost in the tsunami of mediocrity! Get those mickey mouse ears and go play their ludicrous back biting, self promoting, connections based, talent lacking games! Hmm, funny as that I even challenged you to stay there of which brought another focus to your writing.
2. Oh come on Walt, Yer an Ohio guy from the Okie's, NOO YOKE CEETI !!!! Yeah right! 50 to one says you retire from teaching, and sit on your pension, painting leisurely away drinking happy-go-lucky malt ale and smokin those funny looking terbaccy smokes! Screw that stupid ass rat invested losing race in NYC. Just Paint!
Do something different in your writing, Walt! Show somw edge or something! Leap out of bounds for a change! Rub some grit in your words! Show us you're alive! Come on baby! You're so stagnet! Get lose! Pretend your having *** with a student on a classroom desk as you write! Show us some imagination! Get crazy! Onomatopoeia yer brains out! Break that sterile teacher mold! I know ya got in ya! Do it!
on Saturday, May 21st, Sophie said
Sophie is the name of a piece of mine that was stolen 3+ years ago.
Due to last night's rough night, I walked down to the park on this gorgeous day. I sat next to a pond, a rubber bottomed pond. A shallow small pond maybe 50 by 25 yards. In this pond was observed a very large goldfish type fish about two and a half feet long. A reflection pond it became.
See the analogy Walt? Big fish in a small pond? New York is an ocean. Doesn't it bother you that contacts and politics win out over talent? But New York lost it's edge a long time ago! It's nothing but disneyland now. Have your mouse ears yet?
on Saturday, May 21st, walt said
Danielle,
Yep, she calls me. I'll be there next week to pick up my work and visit a few galleries one last time before digging in here in Columbus for another school year. But now I know about Craig's List and how to find sub-lets if I need them. I'm just looking for excuses to come back!
on Saturday, May 21st, Danielle Politi said
New York New York-- so nice they say it twice--- :) Sounds like New York is calling YoU! ...Answer her---She is a great friend indeed--powerful and beautiful and she will always open the door 4 U...We do this dance in NYC it's called the "hustle" --- I see you are learning the steps...the steps you dont know she will teach you---Living dreams is most important...besides when you answer her call she never lets you dance alone--- :)
on Saturday, May 21st, Brad Michael Moore said
This strings of replies mellows me. I feel our blog is maturing and it's nice to see ongoing strings finding resolution though patience and continuous efforts to understand one another as well as ourselves. This is the meaning of art... Best of luck to everyone in each their own unique struggles, and the expressions that arise from the effort.
on Saturday, May 21st, Sartonious said
Walt and Jose,
Sartonious is the name of a piece I sold many years ago.
I used to get very upset when people said I was using my affiction as an an excuse. I wish it was just an excuse! That seems to be a popular reply of the ill-informed, insensitive, general public. I'm used to it now.
Actually, as difficult as life is for me, I feel much luckier than Walt and most people. Never have I felt I had a shortcoming. Instead, I feel I have been given this gift, this tough journey, to benefit others.
In my past writings I tried to deny my affliction and tried to push the full time artist life as if it were my choice. It's never been my choice! I had a rough night last night and spilled the beans, Now you know.
I have multiple lines of work. Some of those lines are art for arts sake, as Walter's is. Other lines can change this planet. The breakthroughs have already been made, Jose! These breakthroughs are so far reaching I stuggle constantly to find another to comprehend just a miniscule fragment of it. Someday an understanding of the work will not be necessary, just as most do not understand how an automobile or computer works.
Unfortunately, the world is not that much of a congenial place right now. The world's turmoil is prohibiting advancement. I fear for my safety if I expose 15 years of work!
So, more beans spilled. The good part is that my writing has changed.
Good luck to you all.
on Saturday, May 21st, walt said
Kyle,
Yes, Kyle, we will paint no matter where we are. Good to hear from you. Where are you? What are you doing?
And thanks Jose. You always bring a little peace and understanding. And thanks Sartonius. My father was diagnosed as borderline bi-polar when I was in high school. Back then they still considered manic depression as a form of schizophrenia. They've come a long way since then. And until that diagnosis I thought it was me who had the problem. It's harder to be bi-polar than to live with someone who is bi-polar--as hard as that is when you are just a kid and don't understand how it affects the whole family and how to respond. Thanks for explaining. I get it now. You can be as pissed as you like. I'm the lucky one.
on Saturday, May 21st, jose said
When I read your title “I Carry the Scars of Those Who Ran” and the story behind how it came about through your meeting in a bar I felt almost compelled to retract my comments to Michael Corbin’s blog and state simply that I am lazy. You’ve got some great titles there, worthy of the pieces you’ve given us a glimpse of [even if we can’t assess the real thing on a screen]. From where I’m posting you this I can only confirm your friend Nelson’s statement that slavery is more rampant now than at any other time in history but let’s not get into that.
As always your detailed description of your wanderings through NYC and how, through perseverance, you eventually come across connections and events that help you move forward is a great contribution to this forum and I believe the information you share with us and the manner in which you do so is useful not only in NYC but wherever we may be working.
Ah! As I was posting this I came upon Sartonius (perhaps previously John? the jargon and the qualms seem identical). It realy is unfair to all who contribute to this forum that you should hide behind the excuse of such a terrible disease to burden us with your depression and provide excuses for your shortcoming in the only profession available to you while at the same time implying that others simply peddle lesser work. Perhaps you might be kind enough to let us know your name. In that way I would be able to judge whether I had been wrong in chastising you now, and apologize when someday in the hopefully not too distant future you indeed manage a breaktrough and your genius is made known to the world.
on Friday, May 20th, Sartonious said
Y'all just don't know how dificult it is....
Gifted with an IQ over 176....
Cursed with manic depression (the genius disease).....causing disability.
Unemployable...can't hold a job.
Thrown out of art schools....
No one understands you.....
Art work so far off the mainstream...
An inventory of over 4 thousand pieces....
A faltering economy....
No galleries will show the work.
No way to make money except to sell art.
Happy-go-lucky Walt just pee's me off!
on Friday, May 20th, mothergirth@aol.com">kyle said
Walter,
I remember you fondly from ccad. who needs nyc? let's just paint.
best regards,
kyle valentini
on Friday, May 20th, walt said
Paul and Olga,
Thanks. Old John challenged me to come to New York and do it right. Little did he know that it has been a goal of mine for many years. I couldn't do it the way he does it. I had children. Wasn't about to do the Gauguin thing and dump the family to follow my art. But now that they are pretty much grown and we are a little bit better financially (as long as I do as much as I can myself) I think we might be able to pull it off for a few years at least.
By the way, there was supposed to be a photo of Brian Novatny instead of one of the two Altemira images.
on Friday, May 20th, Paul said
Walt,you know the artists on here and anywhere have so much in common,that sometimes it seems we arent individuals atall,but rather parts of a same conciousness,just in different places,with different appearences,your brick laying to keep the water out,is exactly the problem I have in my studio,when it rains,as it does although extremeley rareley in this tropical climate,it races down my driveway like niagra falls,straight into my studio,and often I have to run pell mell into the studio to pick up everything from the floor!So we bought a pump,dug a hole in the concrete like earth,and fixed it up,its not so bad now,it still comes down but its halted by the pump.Yeah,it would be good if you could get to the big apple,and its nice to hear those experiences,typicall artists ones,hanging about in bars,and as you say chatting,and getting it out there,you never know like you say who you gonna meet,most times no one ,but sometimes someone,and it only takes one.Thats a curious thing you said about 'having enough money til you die',then again I spose we are all in that situation,terrible really,eeking out the pennies for the years.When I was in New York I was pleasantly suprised about how cheap things were,although it may be and probably is different to living there,but there is a hustle in the air,and one has just got to have money.That reference Walt to Moses finding his followers dancing round the golden calf,well I think we are all still doing that,for the most part.
on Friday, May 20th, Olga Dmytrenko said
Walter, wow! how interesting! Thank you so much for your
New York stories! Looks like you've had a lot of fun there and,
at the same time, very productive period. We also try to find jobs
in close proximity or in New York. It's a center of culture, it's always something interesting happens overthere... Of course, one needs big money to feel comfortable in New York.
Thanks again!
Olga
I went New York, specifically Greenpoint in Brooklyn, 3 and a half months ago as a sabbatical project. I had a semester off from teaching and academic duties to explore and research the galleries and museums of New York and to paint. I often find myself falling in love with the places I visit and the people I meet there. But this time I was specifically looking into the possibility of exhibiting and possibly living in New York for an extended period of time somewhere down the road. When my wife came to visit for a week we looked at the prices of apartments and even the buying price of apartment buildings so we would have an idea of what it might cost to come to New York for a few years. So this is no tourists daydream. There is a good possibility we will come back for a few years.
“I “Carry the Scars of Those Who Ran” is the piece that may have sold already. I thought of the figures on the back of this torso as scars or tattoos marking some memory, although I didn’t have a specific idea in mind. It is one of those images that just comes to me from time to time. Often I have specific ideas as to what an image is getting at from the moment I begin. But sometimes I just get these vague ideas and hope the meaning will reveal itself. I invited a friend from the Bar named Nelson over to see what I’d been up to. He was very taken by this piece and immediately began telling me what he saw in it. I always love it when viewers do this instead of asking me what the work means. It is a sign that they are willing to take the risk necessary to find something for themselves. He saw the figures on the back of the torso as scarification like that suffered by runaway slaves. Nelson reminded me that slavery is more rampant now than at any other time in history and that we tend to turn a blind eye because it happens in countries that we don’t know anything about or to people in our own country that do not matter to the majority of us. I titled the piece for Nelson’s intuition and insight. Thanks Nelson. As St. Paul said, sometimes one has a prophecy and another gives the interpretation.
I did e-mail Tyler. Again, about a week goes by and nothing. Then I get this e-mail saying he was in Brazil. That I needed to talk to Nick. “Call him” said Tyler. So I did. Left a message. Didn’t hear 
I promised to show the progress of “Besos Por Pesos” . Here is the final version. Only minor revisions were made since my last blog. --mostly subtle color modifications. There are usually the final adjustments to any piece. Subtle changes in value, chromatic intensity or hue (warm and cool) to bring out the most in the image. In some cases there might be adjustments to the surface itself, which will be impossible to see in such a small stamp like image. This piece is currently up at the Mark Bar. It has to do with more than prostitution as I mentioned before. Even commenting on the act of professional painting as well as other acts of selling oneself in this age of pure commercialism. However I do not hold the prostitute as guilty as the powers that be. It is one thing to make a living. It is another to control all aspects of the economy so that only a limited few can make a majority of the profits. So while the image, almost romantic, is a recognition of the situation, the promesas represent a plea for healing. You could call this piece a prayer for the economy of the world so that the common person has a chance at something besides indentured slavery. This one is the largest piece done in Brooklyn. In fact it is the largest piece I’ve done in a few years. It is 50” high and 80” wide done on two canvases 40” x 50” each.
“Beige Runner” is an odd piece for me. It carries minor references to the former Pope John Paul from Poland. The propeller on the Popes beanie has been replaced with a jet fighter The piece is more about our basic denial of real world events taking place all around us and a play on the trophies we treasure instead of justice. I honestly believe John Paul wanted to choose the right response to those events. But I also think he was too entrenched in church politics to be able condemn those events with the vehemence required. I think he could have said and done much more during his tenure than he did. I believe the position of the Pope is too divided between standing for justice and righteousness and defending the status quo of the church. So I portrayed him as a running man trying to keep up with his own morality. It is not a derisive point of view as I think we all run this same race with morality and mortality.
