Saturday, August 25, 2018

Books I'm Reading: How to Paint

I imagine it's rare to finish a book feeling that you've retained nothing at all from reading it, but that's how artist Jerry Zeniuk's book How to Paint (Sieveking Verlag, 2017) left me. Having finished it recently, I'm struggling to recall anything useful in it.

I picked this book up while traveling in Germany, in June, at the museum store in Pinakothek der Moderne, in Munich. I admit that I was attracted to it in part because of its cloth cover and because of the promise of its title—however unrealistic: how nice it would be if you really could just read a how-to book and suddenly know how to paint better. I didn't expect that, but I suppose I was hoping to glean something useful from its pages. I suspect this is a book that needs to be mined during several readings. Happily, it's a short book of 37 chapters of only one or two pages each at most. Some of the chapters are less than a page long. I may come back to it some day. For the moment, judgment reserved. This is a bilingual German/English edition.

Miscellaneous: Another Funny License Plate

Best license plate I've seen in a while. Captured yesterday in Santa Rosa California. And then the little bumper sticker.....

Friday, August 24, 2018

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 203 (Santa Rosa) and Untitled Collage No. 202 (Santa Rosa)

A newer collage—one of several I've finished in the past three weeks in a spate of activity following a period of too many distractions (What I need is a year-long artist's residency that would allow me to do nothing but work, instead of having to work. All expenses paid, with a stipend, of course. Oh yes, and somewhere like Paris.)

This is Untitled Collage No. 203 (Santa Rosa), August 4, 2018. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. 11.3 x 11.4cm (4.5 x 4.5 inches). Matted to 11 x 14 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse. 

Having just posted the above, I notice that I never put up the piece that preceded this one. Below is Untitled Collage No. 202 (Santa Rosa). May 13, 2018. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. 15.9 x 12.2cm (6.3 x 4.8 inches). Matted to 14 x 11 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse. 

 Click on the image for a larger view. For more, see my collage (and photography) website at http://ctalcroft.wixsite.com/collage-site

Monday, August 20, 2018

Miscellaneous: Things We Need Words For

Things we need words for: The little raft of dead fruit flies that floats on top of the wine you've just poured from yesterday's bottle left uncorked overnight.
Related Posts with Thumbnails