Loose Ends and Questions

I Write Like
I'm sure everyone is totally bored and over it by now but here's the guy who wrote the code for the I Write Like site explaining how and why he did it. (link via Art Fag City) It seems that writing is like spam.

There were only three women authors in the 40 or so who who were included in the database, so no wonder. (list of authors from Tea Berry-Blue)

No one asked about or ventured a guess as to who the unidentified author was of the text snipped I included so that will remain my secret.



The Questionnaire
It's often called "The Proust Questionnaire" because Marcel Proust published his answers to two versions of it during his life. You may be familiar with it from Vanity Fair magazine, which questions celebrities on its final page every month, or from The Actor's Studio TV program, where James Lipton asked his guests a modified version of it at the end of their interviews. I've decided to try getting artists to answer it and post their responses here. In many ways it's more revealing than standard biographical questions. I'm going to do it first myself to see how hard it is.



What is your favorite color?
This week, blue or aqua.


Image right: Pongo, acrylic on ricepaper,
24" x 24"






What is your favorite word?
Suppose


What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Honesty and depth


What turns you off?
Hypocrisy, lies or shallowness


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




What is your favorite book or movie?
Movie - For visuals - Raise the Red Lantern






Who is your favorite musician or musical group?
Can I substitute a style? - blues or r and b.


What do you most value in your friends?
Constancy and humor

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

Robert Rauschenberg, Lee Bontecou, Louise Nevelson

Unidentified work by Robert Rauschenberg, 

Lee Bontecou, untitled 1961

Louise Nevelson, Sky Cathedral , 1958

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

Judy Pfaff and Leonardo Drew

Image left: Leonardo Drew

Judy Pfaff, “Drawings.” Wiliam Traver Gallery. ”From Surface to Form.” 2003




What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Early morning in the studio.

Never Mind

You remember Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live? She was the Gilda Radner character who always got it wrong and ended her spiel with "Never Mind" after being corrected to something like violence on TV when she thought it was violins on TV. Well, just call me Emily because, son of a gun, I got the date wrong for my New York trip. It's next weekend that we're going. Duh! I sure feel Emilyish.

So, still time to make suggestions for shows that we might see. We have MoMA and the Met on the schedule and possibly the Whitney, but we are looking for gallery recommendations.

The Writing Analyzer Tool
I wrote about my results in last night's post and had reports today on Facebook from Joanne Mattera and Pam Farrell of weird responses they also got when they put writing samples into the analyzing tool that tells you who you - supposedly - write like. Joanne called it the Magic Eight Ball of letters and said she got David Foster Wallace, Dan Brown and Arthur C. Clark for her samples. Pam's combo was a good one: Arthur Conan Doyle and Stephen King. Wendy Wolfe Rodrigue got Stephen King and Raymond Chandler for her matches.

In all the reports that I heard about, the tool came up only with male writers, so I resolved to get it to come up with a woman. I tried getting some writing samples from Amazon, but the copyright laws prohibit that, so unfortunately, I had to find a few books around home and type some samples in. (A good thing that those secretarial courses in high school made me a fast typist.)

The tool correctly identified Margaret Mitchell and Jane Austen, but all the others were misidentified. Most of the ones I put in were male but there was one female and one male writing in the voice of a female (Arthur Golden from Memoirs of a Geisha). Anita Shreve was misidentified as Stephen King and Marcel Proust as Charles Dickens. I didn't have any romance novels around (I'm so literary) so I couldn't test them for femaleness by putting in Barbara Cartland or her ilk.

A Little Analyzing Contest of My Own
The tool is not so great and Joanne was right about it being the Magic Eight Ball with Stephen King, Dan Brown and David Foster Wallace being the most popular answers, but how about we play the game ourselves with one sample and see if you can identify this pretty famous contemporary writer.

The best I can do in the face of our history is remind myself that it has not always been the pragmatist, the voice of reason, or the force of compromise, that has created the conditions for liberty. The hard, cold facts remind me that it was unbending idealists like William Lloyd Garrison who first sounded the clarion call for justice; that it was slaves and former slaves, men like Denmark Vesey and Frederick Douglass and women like Harriet Tubman, who recognized power would concede nothing without a fight. It was the wild-eyed prophecies of John Brown, his willingness to spill blood and not just words on behalf of his visions, that helped force the issue of a nation half slave and half free. I’m reminded that deliberation and the constitutional order may sometimes be the luxury of the powerful, and that it has sometimes been the cranks, the zealots, the prophets, the agitators, and the unreasonable – in other words, the absolutists – that have fought for a new order. Knowing this, I can’t summarily dismiss those possessed of similar certainty today – the antiabortion activist who pickets my town hall meeting, or the animal rights activist who raids a laboratory – no matter how deeply I disagree with their views. I am robbed even of the certainty of uncertainty – for sometimes absolute truths may well be absolute.
The tool thought it was Stephen King.


Finally: Some Images of Found Art (after all this blog is supposed to be about art)

Two shots above from the World Trade Center site where part of an 18th century ship was found during excavations. This area had not previously been excavated for the Twin Towers or other buildings. Archeologists think the ship was deliberately sunk into the Hudson River on purpose as part of a landfill operation. (See more images here.)

I Write Like Many Famous (Male) Authors

Every day I get an update from New York magazine's Daily Digest of the Devouring Culture Vulture. Well, I like to stay in touch with the latest gossip. So today they had a link that I found to be a lot of fun. You type a couple of paragraphs into the window of the statistical analysis tool, and your writing is analyzed for word choice and writing style and compared to those of "the famous writers." (This tool is not associated with the Famous Writers School, by the way.)

I took several examples from this blog and plugged them in and - whaddya know - my closest match is David Foster Wallace! - whose writing I find extremely hard to read because it rattles on forever and seems overly impressed with itself. Ooh, how embarrassing. I guess that's what I'm doing here. (blush)

David Foster Wallace, (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He was widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time included in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list (covering the period 1923–2006).

But on the other hand, one of my paragraphs was picked as a match for James Joyce! Wow!

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Along with Marcel Proust,Virginia Woolf, and others, Joyce was a key figure in the development of the modernist novel. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922).

Of course I also got Chuck Palahniuk (who?), Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) and William Gibson (another who? for me). None of my matches were women. So this either means that I really do write like a man (or men) or else the statistical tool is biased against women. Maybe their female writer data base is limited to Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, Elsa Beata Bunge and Maria Henrietta de la Cherois Crommelin (all real writers and famous in their day).

How I look when I write Art in the Studio

Oh, God. I just looked up Chuck Palahniuk and found out he was the author of The Fight Club and Choke & Rant. Yuck! And William Gibson is known in Wikipedia (my authority on all things authorial) as the "'noir prophet' of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction." I think I'm getting a message here.

A Week From Hell

It's been a long, hard week here between the extreme heat and humidity and exhausting computer problems. Ultimately the heat broke a little with a good soaking rain on Saturday morning and the computer(s) are fixed and improved beyond where they initially began after nearly 12 hours of work on them by a friend who is an IT wizard. I now have a brand-new operating system on my main computer and sparkling files that have been scrubbed of all the malicious viruses, worms, trojans, and evil-doers that were lurking in them. I won't detail what actually happened because I don't want to publicize the cretin who devised the knockout punch, but suffice it to say that it was a serious blow. Anyone who would inflict such a terrorist attack for no reason other than getting some kind of smug satisfaction at wreaking havoc on the world at large deserves to fry in computer hell.

Archangel. Michael slaying the devil. (Guido Reni's archangel Michael (in the Capuchin church of Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome, 1636) tramples Satan. A mosaic of the same painting decorates St. Michael's Altar within St. Peter's Basilica.)


No, I haven't gone and gotten religion over it all, but I am extremely grateful (in general) that there are kind and intelligent people around who understand the inscrutable world of computers and that one of these great souls came to our assistance. I'm sure that India is a wonderful country, but I would much rather have a knowledgeable guy from the next town be here in person. So I'm glad to put this bad experience behind me and focus on the improvements this has brought to my dear computer.

New York, New York
Looking ahead to this coming weekend, I am making the trek to Manhattan via dear friend Binnie's in Connecticut. The Binster and I hope to rendevous with other friends in NY and see some art in the flesh. One show I would really like to see is the new Matisse show at MoMA, “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917.”

Henri Matisse, Bathers By a River, 1909-1917

The Times today had an article about the research done on Bathers By a River, a painting which they say Matisse considered one of his five greatest works. The Times has an interactive feature about the painting showing the stages of its development over eight years. Here is the link to the slide/video/audio description of the process. On that site you will also find the link to MoMA's website which has a lot more about that painting and the show in general. Unfortunately, this show does not open until next Sunday, July 18th. Perhaps I'll get back to New York before it closes in October.

The Arting Trip List

Lee Bontecou, untitled sculpture, 1959.

1. Lee Bontecou
But in looking at the MoMA site, I see that they have now have a show on of work by Lee Bontecou, one of my very favorite artists. If my mind wasn't such a sieve, I might have remembered reading about it before, but I had completely forgotten it. This would be great to see because I only know her work from a couple of real pieces and mostly from reading about it. This is not a huge show, but I'm making it a must on the arting list.

2. The Modern Myth: Drawing Mythologies in Modern Times

From the MoMa website: This exhibition addresses the artistic traces of these motifs in modern art, as well as the practice of modern myth-making, through a nonlinear, thematic representation of works, following a rough chronology from 1797 to 2008. Among the artists represented are Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, Paul Cézanne, Enrique Chagoya, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, Juan Downey, Max Ernst, Adolph Gottlieb, Arshile Gorky, Wifredo Lam, Matta, Ana Mendieta, Wangechi Mutu, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Jackson Pollock, Odilon Redon, Mark Rothko, Jim Shaw, and Andy Warhol. I'd say worth a look.

Mark Rothko, Archaic Idol. 1945. Ink and gouache on paper, 21 7/8 x 30"

3. Several other shows at MoMA
Such as Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions, 1940s to Now, Contemporary Art from the Collection, and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.

4. Chelsea Galleries

Including: Jack Shainman Gallery - Leslie Wayne "One Big Love" with Jonathan Seliger "Spoils", Cheim & Read, "Le Tableau," French abstraction, and many others that I will have to look up or we can just walk by and look in the window. 

Leslie Wayne "One Big Love"

Installation shot from "Le Tableau"

The last time that I visited Binnie for an arting trip, it was February and, wouldn't you know it, that Saturday was the day that there were 17" of snow in Central Park. I just hope that this time the temperature is not over 100 degrees as it was last week. I've been hot enough for a while.

P.S. Any recommendations? If you have any suggestions on shows to see this weekend, July 16 and 17, feel free to make your recommendations in comments.

Dimensional Extension

I couldn't quite call it a dimensional explosion (in honor of the 4th), but I have broken through into the third dimension with these little pieces. The "extensions" were made in Miles Conrad's 3D class at the encaustic conference and I worked the little paintings this weekend.

Two views of  No. 1 = Encaustic and collage with plastic, 8"x5"x1.75"

Two views of No. 2  =  Encaustic, collage, oilstick, pebbles with cardboard, 5"x8"x1.75"

Two views of No. 3 = Encaustic, fiber, paper, 5"x8"x1.75"

Of course I had to spend some time in the studio this weekend even though I was trying to take it easy because of the heat. With my two fans going, it wasn't too bad, but I had to leave by the afternoon when the sun came over the top of the building and moved toward my side.

I enjoyed sitting in my easy chair at the studio with my feet up early this morning as I sipped my coffee and read Daniella Woolf's Encaustic With a Textile Sensibility. What a wonderful collection of artists she has included in this book! I found it really inspiring.

Another Nest

Here's another whopper that Bonnie found in a birdbox. It's a house sparrow's nest that contained four eggs.

It filled absolutely every part of the box's interior. You can see how hard they must have worked to find all the great feathers, including a few cardinal feathers for color.

This shot is looking into the interior of the nest where the eggs were laid. It is lined with the kind of crinkly plastic that covers cigarette packs. Pretty clever and certainly three dimensional.

Wonders of the Natural World

Tomorrow: the studio. Today: the backyard.

A 10-lb nest in a 5-lb box

The nest was built by house sparrows this spring. (The box was cleared out over the winter.) Two groups of hatchlings were reared in the box one right after the other, but the Bird Master, Bonnie, decided that enough was enough since house sparrows have been over-populating and crowding out songbirds. House sparrows can raise up to five broods in a season with good weather, food and a desirable nesting site such as this blue box.

Here's a closeup of the nest that contained all kinds of things from grass to dog hair to plastic to cigarette filters. It was lined with moss and lichen.

This photo compares a wren house and nest on the left with the sparrow nest and house on the right.

Closeup of the wren nest

Wren nests are mainly built of small sticks or pine needles with a few feathers. The sticks almost completely fill the available interior space and stick out the front and sides of the box.

The wrens have raised one brood in this house so far this spring and we like having them because they have a very joyful song. However, they like to have their nest boxes cleaned out between broods. Bonnie checked on this to see if she should clean it out, and as soon as she rehung the cleaned-out box, the male wren was back to claim it and start nest building. (As with sparrows, the males find the nesting sites and begin building the nests.)

This bird box does not hold a nest or a bird.

It appears to be empty

But it's home to a tree frog who stays in it most days, apparently venturing out at night to sing.

And just in case you thought this was only about birds and bird boxes, here are some other wonders of nature:

It's the fabled hairy mushroom

There were several of these weird-looking things in the yard that started out looking like regular mushrooms and then overnight sprouted this soft white stuff.

Read About Art Here

From Mira Schor's blog: Otto Dix - Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber, 1925. Oil and tempera on plywood, 47 3/8 x 25 1/2 inches, Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart.


In case you really wanted to read about art, I recommend the link that I found on Brenda Goodman's blog to an essay by Mira Schor titled Reality Show: Otto Dix. This is the premiere post on her new blog, A Year of Positive Thinking. In this post she brilliantly connects Work of Art, the Bravo TV reality show on art, with  two current New York exhibitions: Otto Dix at the Neue Galerie and Greater New York 2010 at MoMA P.S.1. This is real analytic and critical writing the way it should be and well worth reading the rather long post.

Playing Catch Up

It's no wonder I never go anywhere because it takes me so long to get back in the groove that it's hardly worth it (well, the conference is an exception). Anyway, here are some things that I wanted to mention before the conference and have just remembered as my brain sinks into its normal state of atrophy:

Stephanie Clayton's Salute to Aqua
Through my friend Pam Farrell, I heard about the online exhibition of works in or of the color aqua that Stephanie was assembling on her blog. You will recognize many of the artists' names in this grouping, including mine, in the several posts that Stephanie has made about aqua.

Could've sent this one - "Blue Skies", 12"x12", encaustic and mixed mediums

Or this one - "Island Dreams 4", 6"x6", encaustic and beads

Or even this one - half of "Thinking Sideways", each panel 16"x16", encaustic and mixed mediums.

Where does "aqua" start and "blue" end?

This exhibition follows that of Little Red Squares by Pam and Spring Greens by Joanne M. Wouldn't it be great if all these works could be seen in person in their respective shows? Where, oh, where are the gallerists who should be breaking down the doors?

What is "art" and how do you do it?
"Intriguing concept but doomed to failure" was my instant assessment from the moment I heard about Bravo TV's "Work of Art" that intends to be the Project Runway of the art world. Well, it's no Project Runway (which I love), that's for sure. Seeing as my wonderful local cable TV monopoly, Charter, fails to include Bravo in my station lineup even though I pay about a million dollars a month for the crap that's on all the miserable channels they do provide, I have to watch online. Here's the link to the show if you're interested.

Book cover design by contestant John Parot, winner of third show contest.

Yes, it's nice to think that someone (apparently Sarah Jessica Parker) cared to include artists in the line-up of garment designers, chefs, freaks, bachelors, survivors, etc., etc. that compete in these foolish reality shows (some of which I watch and like). HOWEVER, you know it's going to be crap because how can artists work by the clock? (And without solitude and privacy, I might add.) It's as hokey as I thought it would be and I only watched the first episode because I have a desk computer and can't lounge on the couch while watching as I normally would in front of the TV.

But, it is interesting to hear (read) what some people have to say about it because they comment on what art is about and how it's made off TV, that is, in the real reality as opposed to the fake reality. So here are some links if you want to contemplate:

Ross Bleckner, artist   (this link from Tim McFarlane's blog)

Ed Winkleman, gallerist

Paddy Johnson, Art Fag City, art blogger

P.S. Bravo is very protective of their images from the show. All I wanted was to show Jerry Salz, who is one of the show's judges and whose writing I really like, but nooooooo.

Speaking of TV
Last week was the series premiere of one of my favorite shows that provides the opportunity to laugh at people who fall in mud, get squirted with various substances, get punched in the face, trip, slip, get made dizzy, etc.- all without harm to them and with their doing all these amusing (to us) things for the possibility of winning $50,000 if they can get to the end of a fabulously ingenious obstacle course. Yes, it's Wipe Out, one of my faves and only on for the summer, I guess. Tuesday nights on ABC or online here.

Half of the Big Balls obstacle. There are four of these BBs that contestants have to run across to get to the other side. I can count on one hand the number of people that I have seen accomplish this feat. I love the Big Balls!

Speaking of Reality
It's finally happened. We've seen billboards that light up, move holographically, emit sounds, and so on. Now we have a billboard with a smell.

Clipped from my local paper:
Mooresville, NC (AP) - It's not just the picture of beef on a new billboard in North Carolina that tries to catch drivers' attention, it's the aroma coming from the sign.
     The billboard on N.C. 150 in central North Carolina emits the smell of black pepper and charcoal to promote a new line of beef available at the Bloom grocery chain. Bloom is part of the Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion chain.
     The billboard shows a fork piercing a piece of meat.
     A Bloom spokeswoman says the billboard will emit scents from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day until June 18.
     A high-powered fan at the bottom of the billboard spreads the aroma by blowing air over cartridges loaded with fragrance oil.

Why haven't we seen this on the front page of the Times? This is the kind of news I would much rather read about than the horrible BP disaster. Let's get those vegetarian protesters organized! We need carrots or broccoli next! Wait, hold the broccoli.