MOVING!

Hello everybody--I just fell in love with Wordpress.

It has been almost exactly a year since I started Visual Influence, and I have learned a lot about blogs since then. Wordpress just fits my needs better and so I am headed over there now.

I've imported this blog onto the new one, so all of the archived posts will still be available. I also will not be deleting this blog, but it will not be updated anymore, so please click here for new posts.

If you have me bookmarked at www.visualinfluenceblog.com it will still work.

Please update your RSS feeds and bookmarks if needed!

Thank you so much and I look forward to bringing you an even better blog on Wordpress.

The De-definition of Art

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept, Waiting, 1960



I'm reading The De-definition of Art by Rosenberg. Highly recommended.

"Fontana...called himself a "spatialist," his gouging holes in his canvases had always seemed to me a Dadaist nose-thumbing at the formalist dogma of "preserving the integrity of the picture plane." With his punctures Fontana transformed his paintings into a species of relief (they are sometimes referred to as sculptures)."

More on Fontana

International Fiber Collective

I just talked to Jennifer Marsh on the phone--so exciting! She runs the International Fiber Collective, you may have heard of her gas station wrapping project which she got a lot of press for, including a feature in FiberArts Magazine. Jennifer's current project is Interdependence. Participants will create a full-sized tree for display in April 2009 in Huntsville, Alabama. The concept is, "much like a live tree is interdependent on its leaves and roots for survival, societies are interdependent on the greater whole, family units, communities, and countries."

Participants from around the world are invited to create leaves to contribute to the creation of the tree. In total, up to 30,000 leaves may be used. For more information on how to participate, click here. This is open to all age groups and levels of artistic ability.

Jennifer's next, highly ambitious project after the tree is wrapping a NASA rocket! But she needs help raising the money to rent the expensive crane required to install the artwork. Click here to see how you can help and become involved. She needs your help!

Jennifer will be representing Alabama and Community-based medium for my 50 Artists, 50 States, 50 Medium exhibition at The Eclipse Gallery in October 2009. I am still accepting submissions from artists, crafters, and designers. Click here for more info.

I am also working with her to plan a solo show for her amazing sculpture.

25 Disegni

I love Blu--artist behind the famous MUTO animation. The image below are his drawings that were included in 25 Disegni, a publication of artists drawings. Each soft-cover, 48-page flip book features two artists, one going in either direction. Alas, the one seen here, featuring the work of Blu and Eric Ailcane, is sold out...but there are other interesting books to buy here.

Eric Ailcane (great website--check out his exhibition installations)

Did he just say vagina on the Travel Channel?

Sunday mornings for me are all about settling down with a cup of coffee and chilling out for a second...this morning I happened to turn on the Travel channel, which is one of the few TV stations I actually watch once in a while.

There was a guy talking about art! I watched it for awhile, thinking this was just a little blurb as usual, and soon they would be on to a different attraction--but no--he was discussing art and only art. It took me a couple episodes to believe this was true.

See, I've said for years that there should be a show about fine art on mainstream television. If anything, simply to expose more people to art. Bring art to the masses. The show is Art Attack with Lee Sandstead, an energetic art historian.

Not saying that the show is perfect--I would quibble with some of his remarks. And he buys into "rumors" a bit too much. But for what the show is trying to do---bring art to a wider audience--overall I was really happy to see it.

Lawrence Fane

I just came across Lawrence Fane and completely fell in love with his work, more of which you can see here at his website.

His current show is Studio Alchemy at the Zabriskie Gallery in NYC.

You can also buy a book about his sculpture: Machines of the Mind

In the Mailbox

My mailbox has been a little lonely lately...
Thanks Stan for this great postcard, it made my day!

Koons Tenets

I'm reading Art on the Edge and Over by Weintraub right now--I find Koons to be one of the most interesting artists in this book, as he explains that his work, "is about embracing guilt and shame and moving forward instead of letting this negative society always thwart us--always a more negative society, always more negative."

Koons' artwork is based on the following Tenets:

Tenet 1: Sex is not embarrassing, private, illicit, or sinful

Tenet 2: Egoism and exhibitionism are prerequisites of fame

"I was there with two pigs--a big one and a little one--so it was like breeding banality. I wanted to debase myself and call myself a pig before the viewer had a chance to, so they could only think more of me."

Tenet 3: Fine art is a commercial enterprise. (Koons is not a hypocrite)

Tenet 4: Kitsch is captivating.

"I try not to use it in any cynical manner. I use it to penetrate mass consciousness--to communicate to people."

Tenet 5: Price determines desire and merit.

"What I'm saying is that the seriousness with which a work of art is taken is interrelated to the value that it has. The market is the greatest critic."

Tenet 6: Art is a luxury item.

"I'm...trying to capture the individual's desire in the object, and to fix his aspirations in the surface in a condition of immortality."

I rather enjoy egotistical artists, probably because I am one myself. You have to be at least a bit narcissistic to be a great artist, I think.

Diem Chau

Hand / Porcelain cup, silk, thread




Women / Porcelain cup, silk, thread






Hair / Porcelain plate, silk, thread


Isn't her work gorgeous? See more here.

Peter Plagens: A Painting as it's Painted

Untitled
mixed media on canvas, 96 x 144 in.
2007

Peter Plagens is a painter and critic in New York.
What is unique about his website compared to other artist websites is the slideshow of the above work in progress, "A Painting as it's Painted."
You can also read his essays and see examples of his other work. And make sure to read his artist statement while you are there--since he is a writer it's quite good.

I came across Peter Plagens because he reviewed the book, Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton in the current Art in America. The review was so good I had to see who this guy was. I do think his work is really interesting.

As far as said book, here is a quotation: "In [an art] world that has jettisoned craftsmanship as the dominant criterion by which to judge art, a higher premium is put on the character of the artist. If artists are seen to be creating art simply to cater to the market, it compromises their integrity and the market loses confidence in their work."

More on Seven Days in the Art World
More on Peter Plagens