Category Archives: Inspiration

Sufjan Spree

I’m not too easily stirred to acquisitiveness, but since I first heard Sufjan Stevens’ Casimir Pulaski Day on Radio David Byrne, I’ve become increasingly obsessed with this man’s gentle, quirky poetics. After weeks of making do with what I could find on Youtube, I knew I needed to buy some CDs. My local record store had only Michigan and The Avalanche (extras and outtakes from Illinoise.) I bought and am more than pleased with both, but was still a little frustrated that I couldn’t find Illinoise.

 

Imagine my delight when I found it on sale at Amazon for only 5 bucks. It’s the best 5 bucks I’ve spent in a very long time. 22 tracks, including the haunting “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”, featured in Claire Carre’s Youtube video above. What a deal!

Work in Progress

Well, a small section of a work in progress- the bit that can be caught on the scanner bed. 

I’m working on this painting for a politically-themed show. Originally sparked by Mark Twain’s brilliant short work The War Prayer, I found myself looking through a box of my grandfather’s World War I stuff for inspiration. Among a bleak report from the division sanitary inspector ( the unwrapped French bread was loved by American soldiers but always getting unloaded on the muddy ground) , a brief history of the operations of the 1st division, and a June 19, 1918 memo on the exorbitant price of French foodstuffs, I found a poem. 52 type-written lines organized in 3 stanzas are written about “The Other Bird,” the guy on the supply side who wishes he was fighting. The last half of the last stanza:

 

I crave to take these burning youths

By their soft and tender hands

And lead ’em to the scene of hell 

That’s bound by moral hands.

But it’s too late now and they’re going back

These boys from the S.O.S.

They’ll be our heroes from “Over there,”

And we’ll stay till we rot, I guess.

Sufjan Stevens

“The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!'”

 

Happy Independence Day.

Gee’s Bend

The Denver Art Museum recently hosted an exhibition of some of these remarkable quilts. I had to come back and see the show twice. Living in poverty and isolation and using a visual language all their own, these women made bed coverings that rival the best examples of abstract painting. They are my heroes.

Arte y Pico Award

My thanks to the wonderful writer and fellow lefse aficionado Writing Grandma’s Book for giving me the Arte y Pico Blog Award. I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve it as I can’t even get the Phil Bender video from my last post to work right, but I appreciate it anyway. The rules of the award follow, swiped from WGB’s blog.

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributing to the blogger community, no matter in what language.

2. Each award should have the name of the author (or their site) with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.

4. Please include a link to the “Arte Y Pico” blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

There are many likable blogs out there. It’s hard to choose just five. But here are five blogs in no particular order that give me aesthetic pleasure, and make me want to return for more.

Nicole Hyde’s Finders! Keepers? Art Project (Random Acts of Art in a Big Big World) documents her journey as she creates small paintings and leaves them in random locations to fend for themselves.

Claudio Parentella’s The Extra Finger features interviews with artists from all over the place as well as his own art. I like his taste, and look forward to each new entry.

Matthew Rose’s Store Front Windows is beautiful and thought provoking.

Poet Sarah Jane’s The Rain in My Purse is everything a good blog should be. Smart, funny, and habit forming to view.

Finally, Xupacabras is a blog of delicious photographic treatments of the human form. I don’t know who is responsible for this Portugese blog or if they are still around- it hasn’t been updated in quite some time- but it is so lovely that I had to include it. May not be safe for work.

Joellyn Duesberry

Nice little video (apparently an excerpt from a longer movie) of this Denver artist working on site. I find it fascinating to watch plein air painters. The process is so immediate and so different from mine. Check out Joellyn’s palette. I’ve never seen paint piled so high nor squished together so closely.

Let’s Paint

The Creative Process. Multi-tasking. I’m speechless.

Worth Quitting For

I need to stop smoking again. For good. It’s such a trial. But a little levity about it helps.

 I almost choked on my coffee when I found this PSA by Nate Starkey.

 

CHAC Gallery

Cinco de Mayo is being celebrated this weekend in Denver. CHAC gallery is one my favorite places to stop into when I’m on Santa Fe Drive. Here’s a video they put on YouTube in honor of the holiday.

Django

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