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Friday, July 29th
Is Painting Dead?
 Here I am in my study, sitting in front of the easel on which my latest picture hangs, immobile. "Is painting dead?", I wonder. At the age of 77, it is certainly not the first time that I have asked myself this question. In the past, other people have asked me the same thing. And many other times I’ve read, on the pages of some newspaper or other, a statement with words to this effect.
Alberto Sughi on 07.29.05 @ 08:23 AM EST [more..]
Wednesday, July 27th
Who Needs Art?
It's really a thrill to love what many consider a frill. Art. Do I actually need it to live? No, but I'm glad I don't have to live without it.
It seems to be a primal calling. Not just for me, but also for societies that go way back. Sketchings found on ancient, unearthed walls. Carvings on old trees and rocks. The trump card argument for art is that the human urge to create and express pre-date reason and criticism. Artists were at work before anyone had a clue ... or cared.
Michael Corbin on 07.27.05 @ 08:36 AM EST [more..]
Wednesday, July 20th
The Midwest’s Great Art Museums- Toledo, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago
 I’ve been fantasizing this circuit for some time, but this was the first possible year, since the Lake Express opened last year, when the Walker Art Center was still closed for renovation. Sandy Eichert, my travel companion, discovered the brand new Arab American National Museum by chance, on-line! Completing this tour in 4 days and 4 nights required us to leave Cincinnati Tuesday night and return Saturday night!
Sue Spaid on 07.20.05 @ 08:35 AM EST [more..]
Monday, July 18th
Searching for a way out
 10 July: I have been painting on two canvases that I had already started, making substantial alterations. One, showing a woman sleeping in an interior with a bunch of flowers, has become a young woman in front of a bar window. The other, representing a man watching, through a window, a woman absorbed in her own thoughts at a cafe table, has been radically simplified to gain expressive complexity. I removed the figure of the woman in order to leave the man observing as a central and mysterious image. In this way I have managed to depict something disturbing, no longer related to any particular event.
Alberto Sughi on 07.18.05 @ 08:29 AM EST [more..]
Friday, July 15th
Who is an Artist?
If I wrote this text few years ago, I would have phrased the question differently - something like: “Are You an Artist?”. However, I am much wiser now. So, the milder version is: “Who is an Artist?”. Artist needs to experience and understand life. Right? Even tree hugging being naive and the like is life experience as well (thank you to people sending comments to my blogs). Whatever it is, to hear about it is not enough. To do it yourself is more reliable. Should artists make their life philosophy to mix in all areas and activities of human life? The more removed this activity is from the matters of the art world, the better: the more genuine the experience would become?
Ausra Larbey on 07.15.05 @ 08:20 AM EST [more..]
Wednesday, July 13th
Creativity
 What is creativity? Is it the "language of the body"? I hope to start an active discussion because so many claims are made. In many discussions with my mentor Marcel Duchamp I set forth the following:
I suppose creativity is the mechanism that protects us from danger. You need to feel creatively to escape a life threatening episode. You will not necessarily think and usually not with words. You will manifest an image in your mind as a direct response. Chemistry and neural synapses are the mediums. Ah, the basis of visual art has been determined.
But wait! How to communicate with the part of yourself that is not verbal?
Something seems to be blocking any dialogue. You experience a sense of loss as if there is a part of you, familiar, but unreachable. Internal Images created by the functions of the autonomous physiognomy are unavailable to you. You cannot draw them out.
Hyacinthe Baron on 07.13.05 @ 02:42 PM EST [more..]
Monday, July 11th
The Art of Eastern Europe
 This trip starts like many I’ve made, loading up the VW bus, and heading off to parts unknown. Returning on a ferry from Greece, we drove up the East coast of Italy and crossed into Slovenia at Gorizia. Rather than use highways, as my motor’s getting tired, we took back roads, two lane blacktops winding through towns and countryside. The main focus here was to see where the line is between what’s heavily influenced by our own culture, and what remains untouched by us. The first thing you notice once you cross the border into Slovenia are the crucifixes. They’re everywhere. At nearly every intersection, in the midst of corn fields, on people’s lawns, and I don’t mean little ones. Huge ones, life size, towering at fourteen feet cross included, and many painted to look real.
Andrew Wielawski on 07.11.05 @ 10:18 AM EST [more..]
Friday, July 8th
Does SIZE Matter?
There's no denying that we live in a society that is obsessed with
appearances. Tall, short, thin, fat, black, white. It doesn't seem to end.
Fortunately, for many of the artists I know, my obsession with all things
"art" has a tendency to give their wallets a bit of a jolt. It's all based
on what I see when I look at their work. Appearances.
Michael Corbin on 07.08.05 @ 08:27 AM EST [more..]
Monday, July 4th
Improvising with Traditions
Once again this year, the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife offers fascinating insights about the living nature of artistic tradition. In this brief review, I will highlight a couple examples in the visual and musical arts that I found especially interesting because of my own background in world art traditions.
William Swetcharnik on 07.04.05 @ 08:45 AM EST [more..]
Friday, July 1st
The Use of Technology in Painting
 Technology according to Webster's dictionary is "The study of mechanical arts and applied sciences". Technique is "method of performing or doing something". So to study technology is to learn how to use mechanisms to create art, and the technique is the way it is done. This is interesting, it would create the basis for an argument that to use the latest technologically advanced tools is to use the most advanced techniques available. Is this true? When one uses his own eyes and hands to create something is it not a better result than when one uses advanced computer technology to create the same thing? Is it even the same thing?
Matthew Bates on 07.01.05 @ 08:14 AM EST [more..]
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