A Few of My Favorite Things

After a nearly 12-hour day yesterday of working for money, I'm headed into the studio today to continue work on my new series. It's mixed media with encaustic and the encaustic is fused with a heated tool called a shoe (because it looks like a shoe or a boot). I'm excited about it and will be posting images soon.

Meanwhile, I wanted to update you on some of my favorite things.

The whole ball of wax via The Encaustic Conference blog

Where's Joanne?
In case you missed it, Joanne Mattera posted a new comment the other day on my Where's Joanne? post that related the latest event in the contretemps over Montserrat College of Art touting themselves as "the epicenter of encaustic." A local TV feature that Montserrat regarded as putting them in this position of prominence failed to even mention Joanne's name as the organizer and director of the encaustic conference, yet Montserrat linked to the TV piece and did not try to correct their egregious error. Here's Joanne's comment:

Everyone,
I thought you might like to know that as of today the the college removed the link to the offending video. A number of artists, myself included, had suggested that removal might be a good faith gesture. I'm pleased to see it gone. I think it means we can all move on--they on their own path, we on ours.AUGUST 24, 2010

Joanne is now organizing the next encaustic conference - Number Five - that will take place at a yet-undisclosed location that is not Montserrat. Stay tuned for the big announcement and, meanwhile, get the latest at Joanne Mattera's The Encaustic Conference blog, where ARTISTS CHANGE EVERYTHING.

Joan Mitchell, Ladybug, 1957, oil on canvas, 6'5" x 9'

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Abstract Expressionism Makes a Comeback
You know how I like reading about those guys (mainly guys) from the '50s and '60s, well this morning  I saw a link that Mira Schor posted on Facebook to an article from August 17th in Lindsay Pollock's Art Market Views about a show being curated by Ann Temkin at the Museum of Modern Art this fall. Called The Big Picture: Abstract Expressionist New York, the show will take over MoMA's fourth floor and include 300 works by 40 artists, some well known and some not, but all from MoMA's extensive collection. Check out the link that provides a list of artists and works. This looks like a gotta be there show.

Be Careful When You List the Twinkies
And while I was looking at Mira Schor's link, I found a comment from Adriane Herman that posted something from the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian. Who knew what stuff they have in there! This is Franz Kline's grocery list crica 1962.

Catherine Carter, work in progress

A painter's moods
Then I saw a post from Catherine Carter about how mood influences painting. Oh, yeah. I've been there: the ups, the downs, the doubt, the enthusiasm - all in a day's work.

Artist's conception of the new Sperone Westwater building

The actual New Museum of Contemporary Art - right down the street from Sperone Westwater

Are We Moving Again?
Ever notice how artists precede gentrification? We are the pioneers. Who else would put up with the cheap but crappy places to live and work? But then when the money moves in, the artists get the boot. O.K.Harris Works of Art on Facebook linked to the Bloomberg story about the 20,000-square-foot, Norman-Foster-designed, new building that Sperone Westwater Gallery is constructing on the Lower East Side near the New Museum.

An excerpt: what it is and what it will be:
Most Lower East Side dealers rent modest spaces at prices ranging from $50 a square foot on Delancey Street to $200 a square foot on Bowery.

Excluding Foster’s fee and the $8.5 million Sperone Westwater paid for its narrow lot in May 2008, the building cost about $580 a square foot, or $11.6 million, according to Vincent Vetrano, president of construction consulting firm Wolf & Co. Around the same time, a 27,000-square-foot building in Chelsea was listed for $20 million (it sold in March for $8 million).

The pendulum swings and the focus of history moves on.

A work by Leonardo Drew that I photographed in New York last February. Unfortunately I don't have the number/title.

Thinking About September
It means more than school starting and falling leaves to me. It's also the month when Leonardo Drew's Existed  exhibition opens at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts (September 18 - January 9). This will be the only venue in the northeast and Drew will be giving an artist talk at the museum on September 25th at 3:00 p.m. (And this week is the last week of the Chakaia Booker exhibition at DeCordova. It ends this Sunday, August 29th.)

San Francisco in 1900 - see it live via the link below

A Glimpse of Another World
What was San Francisco like in 1905? Take a 7-minute ride on a trolley car and get a sense of it all.



And now, back to the studio...

The Questionnaire: Catherine Carter

The Questionnaire is meant to be a lighter version of a bio, a little more revealing in some respects and personal without all the facts bogging it down. I supply the questions and the respondents supply the answers. Either one or both of us supply the images.

         C a t h e r i n e  C a r t e r        

What is your favorite color?

I love them all. Green is such a healing, welcoming color that I’ve always been drawn to it, but I don’t really paint with it much. 

"Pool 2," acrylic on canvas, 40"H x 28"W, 2010

What is your favorite word?

Love. It’s not an original sentiment, but I truly believe that it’s all you need. 

Catherine Carter

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Both the human-made – great books, movies, music, foods, conversations, ballet, etc. – and the natural – forests, sand and surf, sunlight, all creatures, etc. 

What turns you off?

People who judge others. People with a negative outlook. People who gossip. 

Work in progress in Catherine's studio

What profession other than artist would you most like to be?

I would be a biographer – interviewing people, doing research, then writing books. I’d start by writing a biography on the late, great actor Patrick McGoohan (I don’t think anyone has yet). 

Patrick McGoohan in "The Prisoner"

What is your favorite book or movie?

My favorite book is “Once A Dancer,” the autobiography of the ballerina Allegra Kent. She is a woman who has truly lived, and her perceptions are unique and revealing. My favorite movie is “To Sir With Love.” Everything you need to know about life is in there, especially the idea that you are responsible for your own behavior, and you owe others your forgiveness and kindness. 

Who is your favorite musician, musical group or style of music?

My idol is Pete Townshend, with or without the Who. Listening to his music, I realized that it’s important to find your true self and then be true to that self. No one puts more heart and soul into his music than this man, as well as the other members of the band (two of whom have sadly died).

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend  (born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than forty years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the rock era, and, according to Eddie Vedder, "possibly the greatest live band ever."

Townshend is the primary songwriter for The Who, having written well over one hundred songs for the band's eleven studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples like Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations like Odds & Sods. He has also written over one hundred songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he is also an accomplished singer, keyboardist, and also plays other instruments, such as banjo,accordion, synthesiser, piano, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to a wide array of other artist's recordings. Peter Townshend has never had formal lessons in any of the instruments he plays. (from Wikipedia)

What do you most value in your friends?

It is important to me that my friends are not judgmental. I also want my friends to be kind and gentle to themselves, and to others. 

Name three artists whose work has influenced your own or whose work you most relate to.

The artists my style is compared to are Brice Marden and Jackson Pollock, and while I admire them both tremendously, they are not really my favorites. I have many many favorites, but if I HAD to name three, they would be Gustav Caillebotte, Joseph Cornell and Wayne Thiebaud.

Gustav Caillebotte, "The Floor Scrapers"

Joseph Cornell, "Setting for a Fairytale"

Wayne Thiebaud, "Lemon Meringue Pie"

Name an artist whose work you admire but which may be unlike yours.

None of the artists I most admire paint like me (see above)! 

Catherine Carter: "Ripple 3," acrylic on canvas, 40"H x 28"W, 2009

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Headphones playing great music, all the paints and art supplies I need, and no need to be anywhere or do anything but PAINT in my studio. I also have a fantasy of being able to eat macaroni and cheese, and chocolate cake, without ever gaining a pound, but I don’t think that’s possible on Earth. 

WORKS BY CATHERINE CARTER

(See more at www.CatherineCarterArt.com)

"Alizarin Lines," acrylic on canvas, 30" square, 2010

"Desert 3," acrylic on canvas, 44"H x 30" W, 2010

"Thicket 1," acrylic on canvas, 40" square, 2009

"Deep Sea 1," acrylic on canvas, 29"H x 20.75"W, 2010