Sunday, November 7, 2010

New York visit

Oops, what kind of blogger AM I? Just an occasional writer. I have always shied away from "working the system," perhaps because as a young person I felt that my family was not a part of any system. Yes I could write a lot about that, but will not. There is both strength and weakness in this stance. I believe I have mentioned this before. I'm not sure what integrity is anymore, because integrity in isolation is not the same as integrity while interacting with all levels of society, with all the temptations, cliques, back stabbing, support, jealousy, etc.

So much for my lack of daily blogging. Maybe I'll try it sometime, carve out a week or a month, and write daily about my art, art thoughts, business, goals, .... But not today.

We went to NYC a couple of weeks ago. What really stood out? The New York Abstract Expressionist show at MOMA. Everything I read - quotes by Pollack and Guston stick in my mind - reminded me of my early art training at Washington University. Actually it was the teaching of David Lund, who knew and hung out with those guys. (Yes, unfortunately they were almost all GUYS.) But Lund taught me how to just BE with a painting, to sense and see and feel the space, to feel the painting breathe. Pollack was the granddaddy of AE, and he let go of the idea of a focal point entirely.
whoopee! no WONDER I always want that kind of allover, sometimes in and out vibration that moves the eye here and there and sits nowhere. And hey - I always push my work until it feels like a living thing to me. Those Guston abstractions - that IS what they do. They breathe, have a life, feel like living beings.