Bringing Color And Light Into A Bleak Midwinter

This is one of the paintings out of Brenda's new series she has been working on this winter. Available here. I really love these paintings for the subtle harmony of color along with the space she creates with in these tightly constructed compositions. To me they bring to mind the west coast painter Richard Diebenkorn in the way some of them have the suggestion of an airy landscape.

Brenda sold her first painting through Etsy just yesterday which is a feat to celebrate since it can be difficult to break through the incredible clutter in the cyber world of Etsy.com.  The paintings she has been working on so far are small, painted on 8x10 3/4 inch wood panels.  She has just begun to develop a group of 30x40 inch cradled wood panels along the same theme but in a larger scale. Stay tuned into her blog and Etsy shop so you can chart the progress of her winter painting adventure to bring light and color into a bleak Michigan winter.

Business Owners, It's Time To Adopt An Artist

Photo by Nicholas Learoyd

Brenda and I, along with our friends Eric and Leana Tank went out to see the new Rauschenberg show at GRAM last night for the members preview.  The show is stunning and a major Rauschenberg show coming to Grand Rapids at this time of our cultural development is just perfect. 

The spirit of relentless innovation and collaboration that Robert Rauschenberg has come to represent is the very thing that West Michigan's future depends on.  We are not living in a time where a business can sit back and say "We will do it this way because we have always done it this way".  Detroit hung on to the Hummer too long.  They were trying to ride a dead horse and it seemed like everyone could see it but them.  We are living in a time were those who are not quick on their feet will be lost like a mastodon stuck in a tar pit.

Business owners of West Michigan adopt an artist.  Let them help you wake up your innovative spirit. Let them help you become not only more beautiful but more winsome as well and watch your numbers begin to tick up. I promise.

A Book With A Record In The Middle

I discovered this little book with a record in the middle at a Breathe Owl Breathe show in Grand Rapids this past year and it has haunted me every since. I just ordered my own copy this morning, taking the plunge and spilling $33  out of my pay pal account. If I want to be supported as an artist it follows that I need to support other artists as well.

I love this book for the way it marries visual art with music in the context of children's literature.  As a parent who is still reading to his children every night, it is very important to find books that I can love as much as the children.  Last night we were in the magical world of the brothers Grimm Fairy tales.  I look forward to the arrival of The Listeners and the adventure that awaits us there.

It's Time To Kick The Door In

I have watched this particular clip countless times and every time I am reminded of the need for artists to be fearlessly direct.  Basquiat wanted to make his way into the art world and nothing was going stop him. I wonder how many times we have walked away from an important opportunity because we were not willing to take the risk.  Perhaps we need to stop knocking softly on the door and just kick the fucking thing in.

Start asking yourself who you are and what you really want to do.  Are you doing it?  Are you at least pointed in the right direction?  Who do you need to connect with in order to take the next step?  Remember they need you to.  Any Warhol's sagging career was greatly reenergized by his friendship with Basquiat and the collaborations that followed.  This isn't just about your survival, it is about the people you work with that are going to be kicked into gear at the same time. All right now, tuck your shirt in and go introduce yourself.

Please Hem Me In

(This drawing is by Grace Beerhorst 9 years old. It is her attempt at planning her day.)

Think of climbing roses with out a trellis. They would be all a jumble on the ground with half the amount of blossoms they could be making living in the constant threat of the lawn mower.  As much a wild man we like to think Picasso was, it is said that he kept to very tight daily routines, even making the same few walking paths through his disheveled mansions from one room to the other. The great Italian painter Morandi painted the same dozen or so bottles and vases over and over in different arrangements for fifty years. His daily adventures were circumscribed by a room ten feet by fourteen feet.

Creatives need structure.  We need boundaries to hem us in.  As much as we want to ignore them or jump over them, we know that deadlines and limited budgets are there to scrape us together into a more concentrated pile of pigment that has a more potent color.  If every tap is running in the house we are left with a very tepid and shallow bath to soak in.