Untitled Movie

It is not to often I am excited to see a movie, but I think I am going to go out of my way to see The movie 'Untitled.' The subject is about contemporary art in New York. You have to see the trailer. A few other contemporary art genera films is John Waters' 1998 movie Pecker, and from the comic book pages of Daniel Clowes the 2006 movie Art School Confidential. I am sure there is more, I just can't remember any now.

Line Dancing

It is official. Line painting is the 'new art'. You have Jon Peters, Linda Day, Nick Gaetano, Ernie Gerzabek, Bridget Riley, Kasarian Dane, Kate Beck, Mel Prest, Linda Arts, and countless other artists are seeing what the strip across canvas or paper will reveal. Some of the lines reference digital processes, others throw back to minimalism and post-minimalist ideas. My wife and I looked at a very nice painting in Santa Fe that we almost got, but we were attracted by another small piece done in dots on wood. I find the strip works sublime in nature and there is a readable difference between proficient line paintings and those that are not hitting the mark. I think it has to do with the color choices and skill of application of paint, plus a good conceptual base. However, with such a limited form, I worry that the work stales over time. I like the shifts of color and the expanding to lines, but I don't know if I could sit and reflect on the work. Although, the more artists I encounter, the more I am interested to see these in person. I know it is very hard to get a good read from just an image on a computer. I have seen some of this type of work live, but maybe not enough to feel the impact that is intended.
I think works like Gaetano would keep my attention, because of the variation of lines with texture. The feeling of texture pushes over the top from boring to complex. I think a good level of transparency of paint could add to the feeling of complexity through layers. Then you have the master of line and color Jim Lambie. But he is not just creating one directional lines on canvas, but he is covering the floors of institutions. He doesn't need texture or transparency to give a viewer an aesthetic experience. I find myself mystified by his work.

TMBG

My family and I got to see They Might Be Giants kids show at the House of Blues in Dallas. My brother and his family joined us. TMBG played their kids songs and encouraged people to dress up. My son was too cool for school and refused to wear his outfit. We got to see TMBG also play two songs using puppets. My son took me by the hand and walked me all over the House of Blues, but he did watch some of the show. Lots of confetti was dropped on the crowed and my niece kept picking up the paper off the floor and giving it to me to re-throw in the air. TMBG were extremely funny with jokes and stage play. We ran into one old friend and my former art history teacher from UNT. The last time I saw TMBG was the day of my wedding, so I missed seeing them and I am glad I could share my geekness with my son.

Fort Worth Contemporary

I never got down to TCU (Texas Christian University) until tonight. Attached to TCU is the Fort Worth Contemporary. The gallery is having a show with my one of my professors, Matthew Bourbon and he is showing with Seth Alverson, Michael Bise, Vernon Fisher, Lawrence Lee, Margaret Meehan, Amy Revier, Ludwig Schwarz, Edward Setina, Kevin Todora, Terri Thornton, Jeff Zilm, Eric Zimmerman. The show theme was Anxiety and the Texas Artist . The show was one of the better curated shows I have seen. I was impresses how the video elements were given its own space away from the paintings and works on paper and still mange to be in the middle of the room. The vast majority of pieces were large and the each work seemed to fit the space. I feel that size of the works, content, and high quality of artists made for a well balanced show. Now, I didn't like all the work (I thought the video work was weak) in the show, but I saw how much of the work fit the theme of the show. I do see these artists as some of the more relevant living artists of Texas among about 50 others. Unfortunately, general art history books will only focus on one or two artists from Texas if we are lucky.

Some highlights: Michael Bise had a strange B&W drawing, Vernon Fisher - always good to see his work, Lawrence Lee had some nicely charged cartoony drawings in black and browns, Eric Zimmerman's work were these massive images and a little text in B&W. Zimmerman's images were stunningly powerful to view. I am excited to see more of Jeff Zilm and I have features Terri Thornton work in my blog. Matthew Bourbon's work was there but I didn't get to see him, I also don't comment on my professors work. I just go out of my way to see their art.

The Incredible Shrinking Market Place

When I first came to Dallas nearly 7 years ago, the gallery scene was quite small. DADA (Dallas Art Dealers Association) was the main gallery resource. DADA did (and still does) have the dealers, but also it included many of the non-profits art organizations and other galleries of art. As the art scene started to lightly boom here in Dallas, DADA continued to add galleries. Meanwhile, slowly there was a migration of galleries for uptown to the design district. That migration includes galleries like Craighead-Green, Pan America, Peters, among others. Along the way the contemporary galleries got together and broke off with DADA to form CADD. Mini Art fairs were hosted by CADD and CADD formed a year long run gallery. Dallas had its own Dallas Art Fair that invited local and national galleries to show and sell their work. I guess the first signs of a pop of the bubble was when Goss Gallery went non-profit. Then galleries like Peters and now Pan America have closed there Dallas branches. Also you have things like the And/Or gallery moving to NYC, CADD Lab closed, and there is talk about some art centers having trouble. There is rumor that some galleries are not even able to pay their artists. So, it is pretty scary out there for an artist these days.

Not to belabor the point I made earlier on this blog, but Dallas really needs to invest in its long term future as an art town and not just in these monstrous size projects that feed the interest of some locals. I don't know the numbers, but I can't image that many people will fly into Dallas just to see an Opera. People come to cities to shop, eat well, and then see a show. So far, all I see is people seeing a show. Where is the rest of the reasons to come to the art district? What about art museums? Yes, it is true we have some nice ones, but art museums would not exist without the commercial galleries that feed them.

There is something wrong about many of the art galleries in town being located in a design district. Design District implies that art is just another way to decorate. Art is not decoration people. Dallas needs to create an art gallery district that could attract world class galleries, local galleries, and art that people from around the world will come to collect. I call for the city of Dallas to have the vision to create an Art Gallery District that would rival anything that Santa Fe, New York, Berlin, or London has. A centrally located art scene would make it easy for people to get there and if it was close enough to the Art District, the Art Gallery District would make a great complement to the Art District. Art Galleries are small, so the city of Dallas could bring in architects from around the world to design each structure. Think of the tourist that would bring; to showcase that many architects in one district would make Dallas a true destination city.

Idea

I have noticed that I have a lot of half read books. Some are second time around half read, but still there are a bookmarks were I stopped reading books a second time or even the first time. Some are novels, art history books, and some are philosophy. So, this got me to think; what does the rest of the text say? Well, I am in grad school, so the likelihood that I am going to read these books any time soon is next to 0%. I already abstract text, what if I abstract text from parts of a books I have not read. It would be imagining the text. So, for example, I have made an outline of a book and then I have cut out that outline. The image is now the size of the book. I then count all the pages that I have read and compared that to the number of pages in the book. I then record the percentage of what I have read on the piece of paper. Then I start drawing what I think the text, I have not read, would look abstracted.

MFA Part #1

I hope everyone doesn't mind, but I am going to wait until my MFA show to release my images online. I have had a few up at the UNT Lightwell Gallery, but that is about as much exposure as I am willing to give. I am feverishly making work for the show, so I hope everyone doesn't mind to wait until February. Plus, I plan to shell out some cash to have my new work photographed. So far, I have not been completely happy with my photographed work in the past. My best photos were done just recently, but when I print out copies of the images or post them online; the images just are not getting the whiteness of the paper and the thin lines of the inked drawings. So, I have not had a great record in get into juries shows using my images. And I don't think the quality of the images have help me in trying to get the images published either. I know the drawings are hard to photograph, it just got to get someone that is experienced with the extremes of detail and colors against a white background. Just a reminder, my MFA show is at 500X Gallery near fair park and deep elum, downtown Dallas.

Another Question

Tracy asked, 'what are the similarities and differences between 'visual language' and natural (spoken, written) language?' Visual language that plays with the spoken and written language is my game, but many other art professions deal with the visual and written in tangent. Graphic Design or Communication Design tend to mix image with text to draw causal relationships. Movies and television use the spoken word with the visual to create a composition. It seems the visual language can never be completely divorced from the spoken or written word. Even paintings titled 'Untitled' are stuck with a relationship to the written. Spoken language comes from a source in the physical world and the written language was derived in visual symbols. This interrelationship is why visual language can not be separated from the spoken/written. However, each is a separate way of understanding the world. Someone literate in visual language would know composition, types of mark making, and the person would have a basic understanding of the signs and icons. Someone well read in the visual language would have seen a lot of visual art, theater, graphics, and other worldly goods from new to old. Someone literate in reading and writing would be able to understand syntax and sentence structure. Someone well read would have a lot of books on a wide range of subjects; Ancient literature to Green Egg and Ham. The more you see or read the better understanding of thing that are out there and the better your own writing or visual art will become.