If we could live anywhere, it would be in a place like Idyllwild. That's where we spent Memorial weekend, in a little wood cabin-just the sound of rustled leaves and woodpeckers to break the tranquility, or hiking through nature trails beneath the brow of Mount Tahquitz.
Naturally, I love towns that are like a frozen pocket of time- little mom 'n pop shops cluttered with old books and antiquity, dirt roads lined with rusty old trucks.
So I was surprised then, that it also has a good deal of gallery's, betraying the usual hobbyist fare with some really strong contemporary work *
The food was naturally wonderful because I had the best chef in the world-Lani, concocting the most mouth watering deliciousness-hearty fuel for those long steep walks, food for the very soul.
In an ideal world, a world shrunk to the size of small town, a world small enough to make sense of, I would enliven days spent in seclusion of an airy studio there, in an enclave overlooking the mist covered peaks.
It would be perfect.
It would be enough.
*paintings Carol Mills
A reminder that the New Brow IV show is occurring at the Alternative Cafe this evening. Unfortunately, the costly logistics of getting up there, mean I shalln't be in attendance , but in my absence, I've sent three of my pieces to keep you company.
And finally, my daughter-Emma- just got her first write up for a recent showcase in a local Liverpool inkie called Object of Dreams on page 6 of the Like it / Love it section.
This is wonderful news and I am so proud of her for all her hard work paying off.
Well done Emma.x
You can see the full magazine through the link here:
http://issuu.com/objectofdreams/docs/issue5
Yes, I know I said I wouldn't be painting any more skulls, but with the end of the world looming on May 21st, it seems as good a time as any to trot out some good old fashioned Gothic fire and brimstone.
Actually, I wish I could take complete credit for realizing this piece, except I must come clean and tell you that it was painted verbatim from a photo of a marble sculpture I've been storing on my hard drive for a while. I'm presuming the sculpture is medieval, possibly by some unknown artist since a general search has garnered little, but if somebody out there has the knowledge, I'd be only too happy to revise the piece with the obligatory post 'after...'
Whoever the artist was, I think the original work is beautiful and is typical of the kind of artifact that you see in European churches and mausoleums everywhere, conveying how adept even the most anonymous taskmaster was at one time.
As an exercise in aesthetics there is none better.
Like doomsday, the Alternative Cafe show is pending, and it was lovely to see this photo on Facebook this morning, of preparations for the show. That's Osmosis sharing wall space with a Chris Mars I believe.
Talk about a party like its 1999.
I really like this small study I produced today-it could be the ethereal fragment from a half recalled dream, a didactic comment on Bin Laden's final resting place, a reconciliation of memories of my hometown or the illustrated cover from a proposed 1970's sci-fi novel, as yet unwritten-possibly by Heinlein.
It's ambiguous enough to say that it has no meaning other than the potential for every meaning, which is entirely what art should be I suppose- open to endless interpretation.
For shits and giggles I comped another cover, this time in the style of those pulp stalwarts-Pan books. Oh how I'd have loved to have been an artist in that lost Golden age before Photoshop and Getty images. Perhaps some budding Heinlein or Asimov out there feels thus inspired to write prose for the imagined jacket?
Packaged and shipped the three pieces for the New Brow IV show in Monterrey this week, which knocked me back over a hundred nicker.
It'll be worth it though, with such luminaries as Chris Mars, Eric Joyner, Buddy Nestor et al, my work shall be in amongst some stellar company.
No fear of this one being publicized then, I even saw my name taking equal space on an ad in Juxtapoz.
Sadly, the logistics of making the nine hour trek there this time around, mean we are unable to attend.
Sorry we are bummed about it too.
Still, anyone in the vicinity that night will still be in for an evening of grand guignol.
Let the work speak for itself.
Show opens May 13th, 6pm to 12pm at The Alternative Cafe gallery.
1230 Fremont Blvd, Seaside, CA 93955
"...Made crazy and sick by this,
Made violent,
Made inhuman,
By this.
The heart is blackened..."
"Dinosauria, We" Charles Bukowski
Where have I been?
I've been unplugged from the relentless 'Fuck Yeah-America' and 'Obama still blows' since the news about Bin Laden broke on Sunday night.
As homesick as I'm feeling, it's no bad thing.
I wonder what old Hank Bukowski would have made of all the hoo haw.
Possibly he'd have procured some acerbic sleight or laconic bon mot about cowboy ideology, or perhaps he'd have just sacked off the whole sorry shit and gotten wasted at some seedy dive bar.
He'd have not taken to Twitter or Facebook however-most certainly not.
Anyway, I resurrected his incredible visage, that face that looks ravaged by shrapnel, that jawline that could blot out the sun, those eyes that narrow like razor slashes, and painted it in a few spare hours yesterday.
So I was surprised then, that it also has a good deal of gallery's, betraying the usual hobbyist fare with some really strong contemporary work *
