is art supposed to be onesided?

hello again- sorry it took me so long to get to this,but it always seems that there are so many things to get to-you know? as for the somewhat strange title of this page, it came from someone asking me, after i described some assemblage pieces that i made for an e-class i'm taking,if i thought that by doing so many different types of art that i was diverting myself away from what i should really be spending my time on and by that i think she meant Painting with a capital p. this idea, that painting,oil painting to be specific, is the only really serious art form,and that people who engage in it, can be the only pretenders to the throne, the only "true artists"(take that picasso with your silly pieces of pottery ! ), is to my mind,not uncommon and also to my mind  quite untrue.we must ask the question -WHAT IS ART??, and we must or i must answer that it depends on who asks the question, and  what or why they are asking it for.i looked back in history at some of my favorite artists and also at some more contemporary ones and this is what i found:
"Matisse would focus on developing these means(the practice of returning to and reworking his own art)...working synchronically on many projects, testing ideas in and across various media and finding sometimes wildly divergent ways to pursue his objectives,.....The artist restlessly experimented with various media,borrowing tools and techniques from one for use in another[ he incised into paint for example ,like wax on an etching plate, and scraped it like plaster.He worked and reworked his paintings' surfaces with a near sculptural handling and pushed himself to new levels of physical exertion as he made paintings and sculpture that were monumental in both scale and invention...he identified two canvases, 'Bathers by a River' and 'The Moroccans, as among the most pivotal of his career." from Matisse Radical Invention 1913-1917 by Stephanie D'Allessandro and John Elderfield. Yale University Press.,The Art Institute of Chicago ,2010 .
 and about Picasso "It is of course true that-in his long life Picasso produced a formidable quantity of work,morethan perhaps any artist, and his creative curiousty(LIK E THAT) was boundless.He was active  in painting,sculpture,graphic art and craft,in fact every branch of the visual arts bar architecture.And he remained tirelessly active till the end of his life." Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 edited by Ingo F/Walthur Part 2 The Works,Taschen Press 2007.
 and about de Kooning."Although not so present in his oeuvre as painting and drawing, de Kooning's collages are some of his most assured works in both abstact and figural mode."Willem de Kooning " by Harry F Gaugh Abbeville Press New York,1983. and from de Kooning himself "The first man who began to speak,whoever he was, must have intended it.For surely it is talking that has put 'Art' into painting.Nothing is positive about art except that it is a word...  That's what fascinatesme-to make something I can never be sure of, and no one else can either.I will never know,and no one else will ever know." the first part of the quote is from "What Abstact Art Means to Me" published in The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art,1951. the second part of the quote comes from a piece by Harold Rosenberg 'Interview with Willem de Kooning', publisher and date unknown.
 and what of contemporary artists, "in a marked departure from his earlier approach to painting Michael Haas has turned  pigments on paper into 3D figures.(He)...densely applied pastel, ink and charcoal....onto paper which he then distressed,tore, twisted and layered to form silhouettes...as much sculpted as painted, these 30 recent artworks boldly claimed their space". by Mary Krienke Artnews Summer 2009.
and in another more recent exhibit, "This selection of 36 paintings,drawings, collages and reliefs dated from 1965-2007, provide an excellent overview of the work of 70 year otl Pierre Buraglio." His works range from mixed media paintings to collages,assemblage/sculptures that "All demonstrate the artist's relentless need to keep his practice fresh." from a review by Michael Duncan Art in America, May 2010.

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 so what have i accomplished in this long rambling blog entry. to ask some questions and answer others,always,always from my point of view at any particular point in time .i like de Kooning's definition of art-that it is a word.i like Picasso's creative curiousty, Matisse's explorations, our more contemporary experimentation.i believe that each artist's journey is a personal one, and for me all my exporations and experimentations and creative curiousties have strengthed rather than weakened my work. i look with real excitement and wonder towards what i will do next and what else i will experience on my journey and hope that i remain like Picasso tirelessly active till the ver end of my life.What do you think ? i'd love to know.

end of art camp, is summer far behind?

hi all-tomorrow is the last day of my art class at the art lab. traditionally each session ends with a critique of what everyone's been doing all summer. someone from outside the program looks at everyone's work and discusses it ,offering advice, praise, suggestions etc. it's fun and a little nerve wracking but for the most part the reviewers are kind and positive, and manage to find something good to say about everone's work. so i am tired, having attempted to complete four or five paintings that get started in class but never finished. most of my work is unfinished but i'm going to show it anyway, because that's what we do in art camp. i'm sorry that it's ending, but i'm a little relieved too-now i can relax a little in the last few weeks of summer before school starts again. i can't believe how quicly this summer is going! even tho i still have 3 weeks off i feel as if it's over. and i am having too good a time to go back to work.i promise to write more when this class is behind me. many thanks to mary c. who had us all down to her little mansion in seagirt for a wonderful day. i love getting together with this group of girls-we have such a good time.be for now,brigid

Goya, El Greco,Velazquez,Matisse and my new toy

greetings! i can't believe how fast time is going-i honestly mean to post a few times a week but it seems that once is what i'm doing. i promise to try harder- i know everyone is hanging onto every word! tee-hee. first my new toy-metal rubbings from ten second studio. i hope you can see it in the photo-i purchased several molds and some incredible tools and voila -metal rubbings for my journals, blog etc.so many possibilities!
the other thing i wanted to write about today is a field trip i took with my art lab class into Manhattan to two very different museums. our first stop was at  the Hispanic society of America on Broadway between 155th &156th streets which is a jewel of a museum founded in 1904 by archer Milton Huntington, an American scholar and philanthropist, which contains " the most extensive collection of Hispanic art outside of Spain and Latin America"(from the society's brochure). in addition to paintings and sculpture from such artists as Goya,ElGreco and Velazquez among others, there is an extensive selection of"decorative art" such as ceramics,glassware, furniture, ironwork, textiles and jewelry; and a library which contains more than 600,000  books and other documents  from the 10th century to the present.the museum also has a vast collection of prints and photographs, and is a very cool and beautiful set of buildings, separated by an enormous courtyard full of incredible sculptures. i'd like to show you some examples of the fab paintings and other treasures, but i don't know about what the copy write rules are about things like that. while we were there we were treated to the viewing of a restoration  in progress of one of Velazquez paintings, and the restorer(sorry i don't know the correct title of a painting restorer) showed us how she works and just what she does to restore a painting- an in credibly intricate operation that went right over my head. it was absolutely awe inspiring.
 after our time at the Hispanic society was finished we headed downtown to the museum of modern art(Moma) to see a show about Matisse  called "radical invention 1913-1917" a show which explored what the catalogue of the show calls"one of the artist's most significant periods of production....unlike any other in his career". the exhibition contains over 125 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints  which according  to the beautiful catalogue  which describes the show is subtitled the "methods of modern construction  " in which Matisse  searched for a new way of working which involved among other things reworked paint layers,scraping and incising.i don't do the show justice-in fact i have not yet had time to digest it. go and see the show if you can, read the catalogue. they are both heartbreakingly beautiful.enough...until we meet again, brigid.                                                    

a day to be thankful

hello-this is going to be a short post-i just wanted to write about how grateful i am to be me, to have the family and friends that i have, for having the opportunity to work on my art everyday, for having the means to buy all the art supplies i need, for having a supportive and selfless husband who allows me the luxury to make art, to take classes and buy supplies and who gives me the time i need everyday to work on all my projects, who supports and encourages me on every step along the way,who bolsters my ego when my spirit is down in the dumps, who patiently looks at all my work and offers praise, advice and suggestions on how i can make it better, who believes in me when i don't believe in myself who makes me laugh and teaches me how to not take myself so seriously. i am thankful to to my children who love me even if i don't cook dinner every night, who love me as i am and not how i sometimes wish i could be- a more conventional mother who keeps the house spotlessly clean, who cooks bakes and sews and all the other things i think a mother is supposed to do, and to the friends and family who love me, who get me who appreciate my art sometimes more than i do and encourage me to continue to do what i love to do  each and every day. so thank you all of you, all 6 people who read this blog and give me so much along the way...with love,brigid

trip to the seashore

hello-i can't believe it's been nearly a week since i last posted-this summer is going frighteningly quickly,and i'm enjoying every minute.this week my daughter and i took a girl's day at the beach.we drove to point pleasant, new jersey where we flopped on the beach, frolicked in the surf, ate french fries(the best french fries in the world are for sale on the pt. pleasant boardwalk),played skee ball, took photobooth pictures, ate kohr's frozen custard ,and bought postcards and mailed them to each other from n.j. on the way home we stopped at ocean grove, an incredibly picturesque little town not far from p.p.(see photos)we took lots of pictures and i bought some amazing leather bracelets and a pair of super cool flip flops that have snaps on them so you can change the look just by snapping on a new button (sold separately).these ingenuous flips are put out by lindsay-phillips.com, and were sold in "The Emporium" a fantastic shop in ocean grove full of all kinds of beautiful goodies(i bought the leather bracelets there too-unfortunately i didn't get the name of the bracelet maker/ designer but the store is online @www.EMPORIUM-OG.COM, and i'm sure they would be happy to tell you.) i can't wait to go back and do some more shopping ! any way we had a fabulous time and i can't wait to go back to the seashore. next time i'm going to bring some paints along with my camera, because the light at the shore is so beautiful and different from new york.my dream for when i'm rich and famous is to have an apartment(read loft) in Manhattan and a house at the jersey shore-of course i'll keep my house on staten island too because i love it. when i was a little girl i used to walk past the house i live in now(i grew up around the corner), and say to myself, "i'm going to live in that house when i grow up" and sure enough i did.any way more tomorrow about all the fabulous stuff i bought today at michael"s. i'm not a shopaholic no matter what my husband tells you....until we meet again, brigid.

believe in yourself

hi there- this post is about believing in yourself and i got it from a page i created in one of my journals-hence the picture.the next page says "and others will too", but i couldn't scan it because the text was too dark and didn't show up well.it's all that we have really-this believing in ourselves -it's the first step we take on this journey of self discovery, the thing that makes us paint and draw and write and allows us to let others see it, and its scary and also exhilarating to say to the world,well here i am and this is what i do and i hope you like it, but i'm going to do it anyway whether you like it or not, because i have to.and that's what any artist will tell you-there's no real choice involved in this .we do it because we have to and to not do it becomes like a physical pain,certainly a mental anguish that makes life very uncomfortable, if not downright unbearable,at least for me-how about you? i'd love to hear from you about the need, the drive to create that motivates you to work on and on and on, even when the work isn't selling and/or nobody seems to get it (or you) but you wouldn't dream of giving up,even if it means nobody ever hears of you, or you never get published or shown. so you go on believing in yourself, day after day step after step because to do otherwise is unthinkable...hey i'll tell you what-if you believe in yourself, i'll believe in you too, and if you want to believe in me that would be nice but it won't stop or start me because i already believe in myself.so let's raise our glasses to ourselves and get on with the work we really need to do. until next time...

real artists

hello-am righteously tired-ispent the day at art camp(as my husband has dubbed the art program I'm attending at the art lab), trying to capture the thinnest man in the world on paper-honestly i prefer my models to have lots of flesh oozing everywhere and this model through no fault of his own is as thin as a fashion model- very difficult to draw.after lunch we had a lecture on Cezanne and the meaning of the picture plane and various other topics. at one point the lecturer made a comment on "creative types" who draw and press flowers and pour glitter on them, akind of disparaging comment on crafters,who i gather are not considered "real artists" by those in the know.really.aren't we all a little too sophisticated,educated grown up,and just a little bit tired of this kind of snobbery ? i've seen more beautiful art in the pages of magazines such as"cloth.paper.scissors",and " Somerset Studio" and tt's sister publication" Art journaling", than i've seen in serious art magazines like "artNews", and "Art in America" or "art forum",or even in the art galleries and art museums of new york city. not all of it of course,on either side of the fence. there is alot of "kitsch" every where both in and out of magazines and galleries and yes even museums.but the point of art and of artists is surely the act of creation of making something that the maker of that"art" considers beautiful or meaningful, while taking into consideration all the "art" that has been made by "artists" since the beginning of time, whether it be sprinkling glitter on dried flowers or making monumental sculptures or painting the Sistine chapel .it seems to me to be all part of the same honest effort, the desire to transcend the ordinary mind numbing terrifying grind of everyday life, a toast to the human spirit that carries on and attempts to make something out of this life.